Damn it.
The brats from this village really thought he was old and weak.
They ran like mad and did not even seem out of breath.
Grin steadied his breathing and looked up at the chubby little menace who had called him an animal castrator.
After a moment of thought, he pulled a few more cookies from his pocket.
"Whoever brings that little fatty over here gets five cookies."
Luca stepped forward at once.
"Haha, big brother can't outrun us, so now he's resorting to tricks!"
"We'd never sell out a friend for five cookies."
"That's right! Mildo matters way more than cookies!"
The children planted their hands on their hips, looking united like sworn brothers.
Grin broke into a sly smile and lowered his voice conspiratorially.
"Have you ever heard of tree cake?"
"When you cut it open, you can see layer after layer inside, with rings of soft golden sponge, honey, and creamy filling."
"One bite and it's so soft and sweet it feels like your whole face is sinking into a honey jar."
"Slurp…"
The children's eyes all lit up.
Even the chubby culprit, Mildo himself, swallowed hard.
The conviction in the group immediately weakened.
"E-Even if it's really that kind of cake… how much could you make?"
"Yeah, even if it's cake—wait, Luca, what are you saying?"
Seeing their defense crumble, Grin had to work hard not to laugh.
He gave Luca an approving look.
"I can feed all of you until you can't eat another bite."
The moment those words landed, Mildo panicked and began edging backward with tiny, urgent steps.
"Grab Mildo!"
"Leave it to me! You two block him!"
"No, wait, aren't we friends?!"
"You're sturdy. You'll be fine!"
A moment later, the chubby boy had been delivered straight into Grin's hands.
Seeing resistance was useless, Mildo sagged in defeat.
"Oh? So you dared talk nonsense about me? Then here's your punishment."
Grin attacked the boy's ticklish spots with both hands.
Mildo immediately became a wildly squirming fat loach, laughing so hard his whole body twisted in midair.
"Hahaha—I was wrong! I was wrong, big brother! Hahaha—you traitors! Hahaha—"
Only when tears were streaming down his face from laughing did Grin finally stop, and the other children set Mildo back down on the ground.
The boy dropped there in total exhaustion.
Just as Grin worried he might actually start crying, Mildo suddenly hugged his leg.
"Big brother, is there cake for me too?"
Grin tapped him on the forehead.
"Everyone gets some. I'll go buy it for you in the capital in a couple of days."
"The capital's desserts?"
"Wouldn't that be expensive? Big brother, maybe we can each just have one… no, we can all share one."
"That sounds like noble food!"
The noise instantly became unbearable.
Grin had no choice but to raise a hand for silence.
"Alright, quiet down. I said I'll let you eat your fill, and I'm not taking it back."
Petra then stepped forward softly.
"We still don't know your name, big brother. My name is Petra… and I'm twelve."
"Right! I'm Luca. We're friends now!"
"I'm Cain! And that's my brother Dain!"
"M-Me…"
"And last is me, Mildo!"
Grin bent down and brushed the dust off Mildo's clothes.
"My name is Grin. I'm a guard at your lord's mansion."
After that, he shared out the last of his cookies among them.
Petra then reached into her pocket and offered him a rather rough-looking pink cake.
"Brother Grin, please have some cherry blossom cake."
Grin accepted it and looked it over.
"If I eat too many of these, my hair won't turn pink too, right?"
Petra blinked in confusion.
"Of course not. I already ate five today. We picked the cherry blossoms ourselves, and it took a lot of work."
Faced with that earnest little face, Grin could not help reaching out to pat her on the head.
Petra swiftly ducked away.
"Oh no, Brother Grin, if you pat my head, I won't grow taller."
Mildo, meanwhile, had already swallowed all his cookies and was still unsatisfied.
He latched onto Grin again and began searching his pockets.
"Brother Grin, is there anything else to eat? Your cookies are too small. They just slip right through my mouth."
"Hey… you little brat!"
After a bit of rummaging, Mildo pulled out a hard, square object.
It was a pitch-black book.
"I don't think this one can be eaten."
He sniffed it.
Definitely a book.
When he opened it, he found pages full of writing he could not understand—but there was one thing he immediately recognized.
A picture of a beautiful woman wearing a crown.
"Wow! What a pretty lady!"
The moment he said that, all the children crowded in and formed a circle around the book, putting it in the center so they could all look together.
"She's so pretty! That silver-white crown means she must be a queen!"
"When Petra grows up, Petra will definitely be even prettier than this queen!"
"No, look at this little girl on the next page—she looks even more like Petra when she grows up. It's just a shame there's no color."
Grin let out a sigh.
These overly familiar little monsters really had no sense of personal space.
"Hey, hey, hey. Give that back."
At the sound of his voice, the most sensible one—Petra—stepped out of the crowd carrying the dark fairy-tale book carefully in both hands.
"Brother Grin, who is this little girl? Why doesn't she have any color?"
Petra pointed at the illustration and looked up at him with bright, expectant eyes.
The picture showed a young girl in a hooded cloak.
Her delicate face was half-hidden beneath the hood, two small braids hanging over her shoulders, and a scarf wrapped around her neck.
Her eyes shone like those of a little deer in the forest.
For a moment, she really did look like an older version of Petra.
Grin took the book and smiled.
"Oh, this is Little Red Riding Hood—a brave little girl who dares to fight wolves. Maybe next time we meet, she'll have a bit more color."
Of course, what he meant was that if he unlocked the illustration during this period, the image would naturally fill in.
Petra's eyes lit up at once.
"Wow, that's amazing. Wolves are scary. There are wolves in the forest, and sometimes you can hear them howling. If the barrier wasn't there, the village livestock would probably have all been stolen already."
Grin found a nearby rock and sat down, then looked at Petra gently.
"Would you like to hear the heroic story of Little Red Riding Hood, Petra?"
"Yes!"
Petra nodded with complete seriousness, then happily sat down beside him.
"Alright then. Story time."
"I want to hear too!"
"Me too!"
The other children hurried to drag over stones and wooden blocks for seats, then gathered around Grin in a loose circle.
He took a slow breath, held the fairy-tale book in his hands, and let his expression soften.
"Legend says that in a certain forest there lived a little girl who always wore a red hood. Her name was Margaret—"
Then he stopped.
His brows drew together.
Something about the text in the book felt wrong.
Too grotesque.
Too bloody.
Definitely not something he could read aloud to children.
After a brief moment of thought, Grin decided to switch to a more familiar and gentle version of the story.
This was not the capital.
If he frightened the village children, their angry parents would arrive faster than the city guards.
And without Grin noticing, a figure in a white cloak stood hidden behind a nearby cherry blossom tree, silently listening to everything.