Several days passed since Silas’ birthday. Ann’s plan was a success and she somehow gained more fans in the orphanage. Even Silas seemed to be warming up more to her. Ann was a bit nervous whenever she noticed Silas sometimes brought up about his childhood friend and her similarities to Ann.
The heck, I didn’t expect this kind of development, okay?!
The heroine of the game was a blank slate heroine, so anyone could self-insert it. In other words, Ann had no clue on how the personality of the heroine in this world would be. But if it was similar to hers, then… would it be a good thing, or a bad thing?
Ann became curious about the heroine, but for her—the villainess—to meet the heroine, it won’t be a good thing, right?
She is in a big, big dilemma!!
Anyway, the warming up she got in the orphanage just increased her will to live and also her radiance. Even the maids in the Schwartzen house could feel that their mistress seemed to be friendlier, happier, and they couldn’t really feel afraid by the ‘happy’ aura she constantly emitted. In short, she was very attractive.
Even Allen couldn’t help but feel that something was different in his wife-in-name.
He got curious and kept asking his subordinates for report, but he couldn’t find out why exactly. Based on their report…
“Arlea-sama planned a celebration in the orphanage a few days ago and everyone enjoyed it. It seemed like everyone in the orphanage warmed up more to her after the celebration idea of hers. Perhaps she is happy because of this success.”
Allen nodded and in turn, he became curious about this ‘Arlea’ that was unknown to him—the kind of Arlea who could play with children happily, be liked by them, and be welcomed by people.
The Arlea that he knew so far was Arlea who… was shunned, was feared. Even after she changed, the people in this residence were still wary of her to some degree.
Luckily for him, his curiosity grew right on time!
“Allen-sama, we heard that the Heart’s Wings’ Children’s Home often held a show in downtown. Incidentally, they’re going to hold the show tomorrow in the afternoon,” the subordinate reported.
Allen’s ears twitched and he knocked his finger on his desk with rhymes.
*tap… tap… tap…*
“We’re going to observe her from the distance as usual. Should we add more people just in case?” The subordinate asked.
The moment he asked that, Allen quickly signaled with his hand—to order him to stop talking.
“I’ll come,” Allen said.
“Pardon?” The subordinate felt like he misheard what his boss was talking about. After all, Allen-sama had a schedule tomorrow afternoon…
“I’ll personally come to downtown to see them tomorrow,” Allen clarified.
“But… Allen-sama, pardon me for asking. Don’t you have a schedule already tomorrow afternoon?” His subordinate asked.
“Postpone it,” Allen said without any hesitation.
“…,” The subordinate had his mouth open—quite wide. Maybe a fly could enter his mouth with ease if the fly wanted to!
It couldn’t be helped that the subordinate was this surprised. Allen could be considered as a workaholic—nothing could get in the way of his work. He was always grumpy and tried to postpone working on other things or handling the matter of the residence after his work was done. Unless it was something urgent that required his presence, such as Arlea-sama went berserk… Even that would leave Allen very grumpy and sullen, showing his unwillingness.
Never had he even dare to imagine that the very same master of his would want to postpone his work just to see his wife in downtown secretly?!!
Luckily, not many people knew about the reason why Allen decided to postpone his schedule tomorrow. Others were only informed that Allen had a sudden urgent business to tend to. They all thought that a sudden business came up… not a personal matter… definitely…
Even so, nobody told Ann about how Allen was planning to observe her personally the next day. After all, Allen was going to spy… ah no, he was going to observe his wife stealthily!
For the first time in forever, Allen didn’t leave the ‘wife observation’ to his subordinate.
***
The next day, Ann woke up in high spirit because today was another big day! She and the people of the orphanage were going to hold a fun show in downtown!
Not just her, Faye was also excited for the show. She was told by the other children of the orphanage that the show was something really, really fun! Something that all of them were looking forward to. Besides, she thought she had seen their show several times when she was wandering in downtown all alone. It seemed fun, but she was so afraid of joining them…
The show was routinely held to attract more volunteers and also adopters, aside from letting the children go and have fun outside.
In the morning, Allen ‘went to work as usual’ so that he won’t alert Ann.
In the afternoon, Ann and Faye went to the orphanage as usual. They didn’t spend the time to study as usual. They went directly to prepare for the show and off they went.
The town hall was crowded as usual, but there was always a space they could use. Moreover, the people there already knew that the Heart’s Wings’ Children’s Home people would be holding a show from time to time, so they quickly knew what was going on and cooperated.
The children prepared some portable musical tools and started playing them. Meanwhile, the other street performers actually chimed in and helped the children. They would change the music they were playing to match with the children’s childish play of songs, making the songs becoming really good and attractive.
Meanwhile, the other children would start dancing happily. The other street performers and the passerby who were attracted and wanted to dance would dance together with the children.
As someone who loved things like this, Ann joined with the crowd directly. She danced with the children, the teenagers, the adults that joined… She was really happy, smiling very widely as she danced with them all.
A carriage was parked from a distance, its passengers observing the crowd that was bustling in the town hall. As Allen gazed outside, he was met with a woman’s radiant smile, the aura around her was so attractive that he couldn’t take his gaze off her. Wherever she went, his eyes would automatically follow. Like how a sunflower would bend to follow the sun.
As he was focused on seeing the woman’s attractive smile and her lovely gesture, he didn’t even notice that the corner of his mouth was forming a smile—his eyes turning gentle. His heart was warm.
Luckily or unluckily, nobody saw that rare expression Allen had on his face. Everyone who knew him would be very surprised and shocked if they were to see this expression on Allen’s face.
But his smile froze and his tender eyes turned tense the moment a man was suddenly pushed by the children to dance with the woman. More importantly, the man seemed to be at the same age as her…
He saw how Arlea looked surprised for a moment before she greeted the man with a smile and danced with him. The children all cheered happily for the two of them.
…They looked like a good couple, to be honest. And the people’s stare at the pair of man and woman that caused Allen’s eyes to sore… they seemed to be cheering for them and looking at the ‘couple’ happily!
A sour feeling rose up in Allen’s heart. He didn’t know why.
With a low voice, Allen said to the subordinate who was accompanying him inside the carriage, “Investigate the man beside her.”
The subordinate managed to hear Allen even though Allen’s back was facing him. His sharp eyes quickly observed the man that was dancing with Ann and noted it.
“Based on what I know so far, that man is the orphanage owner’s little brother, Silas Spencer. He’s at the same age as Arlea-sama.”
“Investigate how he gets along with Arlea.”
“Noted.”
Thus, Allen’s face turned sour whenever Ann was interacting with Silas. But whenever they weren’t interacting, his heart and face would be warmed.
In the end, his trip today wasn’t wasted at all. Even so, he couldn’t help but be bothered with the presence of Silas… But why is that?
He still couldn’t figure it out. It was the first time he felt something like this.
And Ann, completely unaware that her husband-in-name was actually watching her, really had fun and went home with big smiles. That smile of hers didn’t disappear even until she slept. Today was really fun~!
