Shoot! The village children to the south are bullying me for being old and weak, running like the wind without even breaking a sweat.
Grin adjusted his breathing and looked up at the little fatty who had called him an animal castrator.
After a thought, he fished out a few more biscuits from his pocket.
"Whoever brings that chubby kid over to me, I'll give them five biscuits!"
Luca stepped forward. "Haha, Big Bro can't outrun us, so he's starting to use schemes!"
"We would never betray a friend for just five biscuits."
"That's right, Mildo is much more important than biscuits!"
The children stood with their hands on their hips, looking like a band of loyal brothers.
Grin gave a mischievous smirk and continued to tempt them. "Have you ever heard of tree cake?"
"When you cut it open, you can see alternating rings of light and dark like tree rings. Inside, it's filled with layers of pale golden honey and rich fresh cream..."
"One bite is soft and delicate, like falling into a honey pot."
*Slurp, slurp~*
The little ones' eyes sparkled, and even the little fatty who started it all couldn't stop swallowing his saliva.
Their tone wasn't as firm as before.
"Even... even if it's the cake you're talking about... um... how many can you give?"
"Yeah, even if it's cake... Wait, Luca, what did you just say?"
Seeing this, Grin felt delighted, almost unable to hold back a laugh. He gave Luca an instigating wink.
"I can let you eat until you're full."
As soon as those words came out, the little fatty Mildo panicked a bit and started shuffling backward, trying to slip away.
"Catch Mildo!"
"Leave it to me! You two block him."
"No! Aren't we friends?"
"You're thick-skinned, you'll be fine."
A moment later, Mildo was carried in front of Grin. Seeing that resistance was futile, he accepted his fate.
"You little fatty, you're so chubby, and yet you dare to make fun of me? Take this!"
Grin used both hands to poke at Mildo's ticklish spots.
Mildo immediately became like a propped-up fat loach, twisting and laughing hysterically in mid-air.
"Hahaha, I was wrong! I was wrong, Big Brother! Hahaha, you traitors! Hahaha..."
Grin didn't stop until the boy was laughing so hard tears came out, and only then did the children let Mildo down.
The little fatty was exhausted and sat directly on the ground.
Just as Grin was worried he might have made him cry, he suddenly hugged Grin's leg.
"Big Brother, is there a share of that cake for me?"
Grin tapped his forehead. "Everyone gets a share. I'll go to the Royal Capital to buy it for you in a couple of days."
"It's actually a dessert from the Royal Capital?"
"Will it be very expensive? Big Brother, just one piece for each of us... No, no, we can just share one piece."
"It might even be food for the nobles!"
Grin couldn't take the noise anymore and quickly raised his hand to stop the group of children.
"Alright, alright, quiet down. I said I'd let you eat your fill, and I won't go back on my word."
Petra walked over and asked softly, "We still don't know Big Brother's name. Hello, I... my name is Petra, and I'm twelve years old."
"Oh right, I'm Luca. We're friends from now on!"
"I am Cain! This is my younger brother, Dyne."
"Mei..."
"And finally, me, Mildo!"
Grin leaned down and patted the dust off Mildo's clothes.
"My name is Grin. I'm a Guard for your Lord's family."
After saying that, Grin distributed the last of the biscuits to everyone.
Petra took out a rough-looking pink cake from her robe and held it out to Grin.
"Brother Grin, please have some cherry blossom cake."
Grin took the cake. "If I eat too much of this, my hair won't turn pink, will it?"
Petra blinked her large eyes in confusion. "Of course not. I've already eaten five today. We picked the cherry blossoms ourselves; it took a lot of effort."
Seeing how cute Petra was, Grin couldn't help but reach out and stroke her head.
Petra quickly dodged. "Stop it, Brother Grin! I won't grow tall if you do that."
Mildo wolfed down the biscuits in his hand in just two or three bites.
The little fatty, still hungry, hugged Grin again and started searching his pockets.
"Brother Grin, is there anything else to eat? Your biscuits are too small; they slip right down as soon as they're in my mouth."
"Hey... you little rascal!"
After some rummaging, Mildo felt a square, hard object. He pulled it out and saw it was a pitch-black book.
"I guess this isn't edible."
Mildo sniffed it; it definitely smelled like a book.
He opened it and saw words he didn't recognize, but he could understand the pictures. It was a beautiful woman wearing a crown.
"Wow! What a beautiful auntie."
Hearing this, everyone crowded around, forming a circle with the book in the middle to look at it together.
"So pretty! She's wearing a silver-white crown; she must be a queen!"
"When Petra grows up, she'll definitely be even prettier than this queen!"
"Look, the Little Girl on this page looks even more like a grown-up Petra. It's a pity there's no color."
Grin facepalmed. He really couldn't handle this group of overly familiar kids.
"Hey, hey, hey, give that back to me."
Hearing Grin's voice, the most sensible one, Petra, stepped out from the crowd holding the dark fairy tale book.
"Brother Grin, who is this Little Girl? Why doesn't she have any color?"
Petra pointed at the image on the page and looked at Grin expectantly.
It was a young girl wearing a hooded cotton robe, her delicate face hidden beneath the hood.
Her hair was tied into two small braids hanging over her shoulders, a scarf was wrapped around her neck, and her eyes were as bright as a deer in the forest.
In a trance, she really did look like a grown-up version of Petra.
Grin took the book and realized, "Oh, this is Little Red Riding Hood, a brave Little Girl who dared to fight a wicked wolf. She'll probably have color the next time we meet."
Of course, if Grin could unlock this entry in the meantime, colors would naturally appear on the portrait.
Stars lit up in Petra's eyes. "That's amazing! Wolves are very scary. There are wolves in the forest; we hear them howling sometimes. If it weren't for the Barrier, the village's livestock would have been stolen long ago."
Grin found a rock to sit on and looked at Petra gently. "Then would you like to hear the heroic story of Little Red Riding Hood, Petra?"
"Yes!"
Petra nodded earnestly and sat down happily next to Grin.
"Alright! We get to hear a story!"
"I want to hear it too!"
The other children quickly brought over rocks or wooden stumps to use as stools and sat around Grin.
Grin took a deep breath, holding the fairy tale book, and his expression relaxed.
"Legend has it that in a certain forest lived a Little Girl who always wore a red hood. Her name was Margaret."
Grin stopped abruptly halfway through, his brow furrowing deeply.
He found the content in the book to be quite strange—it was too bloody and bizarre, not suitable for children.
After thinking quickly, Grin chose to switch to the widely known common version.
This place was different from the Royal Capital; if he scared the children, their angry parents would surely arrive faster than the Guards.
Unbeknownst to Grin, a figure in a white cloak was hiding behind a cherry blossom tree not far away, quietly eavesdropping on them.