How to Tame That Gentle Male Lead - Chapter 3.6
Merry Christmas to all my readers! To celebrate, I’m treating you to extra chapter updates. Please enjoy this special release of four bonus chapters! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 1/4 🎉)
♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before Christmas: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*
“Sis, it’s nice to see you smiling so well. I’m really glad to see that you’ve changed for the better.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I wish you could always smile like this. Before, you would frown no matter what I said… and every time you opened your mouth, you only talked about His Highness the Crown Prince…”
“…I see. I didn’t realize. They say people only know their past selves after they’ve changed. That’s me, I guess.”
Renard also smiled happily along with her.
“I hope more and more things make you happy and feel good. I wish this situation would last for a long time.”
“Yes…”
Resena felt a lump in her throat at her kind younger brother’s words. Being so considerate of her, he would have said he’d definitely get her out even if she was imprisoned.
That made her want to be even kinder to Renard.
“Um…”
But before she could speak, the carriage stopped. Soon the door opened, and the employee bowed politely.
“I apologize, but from here on is an area where the carriage cannot enter, so we’ll have to walk a bit. I’ll leave my horse here and walk with you as well.”
“I see. Alright. Let’s get out, Renard.”
“Okay.”
Holding Renard’s hand, she slowly began walking up the slope.
The houses were visibly dilapidated, making it clear this was a poor neighborhood. Some places even had doors hanging loose. It was a typical slum, and Resena tensed up.
In a place like this, even if someone died from a knife fight, it seemed no one would come out to look. Fortunately, Renard was by her side, but she couldn’t understand how the employee had the courage to come and go here alone.
‘If he had talked about Vernas’s sculptures in the bar, robbers might have broken into the house…’
As she looked back with anxious eyes, Renard gave her a reassuring smile.
Her younger brother’s kindness somewhat dissolved Resena’s anxiety. The Sword Master by her side would prioritize her safety above all else, so she could do what she wanted in any situation.
However.
“Ah…”
“…Sis. Come behind me.”
Resena quickly hid behind Renard. Thugs who looked like ruffians were surrounding the child’s family in a circle. A three-year-old baby was tightly hidden in the mother’s arms, and a six-year-old child and a girl who looked about ten years old were clinging to their mother’s side, seemingly afraid.
And the children’s stepfather was being held by the collar by a thug.
“If you’ve paid off your bar tab, you should pay off this debt too!”
“No. Really, I lost everything at the gambling den. I don’t have any money, how can I pay…!”
‘How pathetic.’
Resena shot a contemptuous glance from behind Renard. But the stepfather just kept explaining his situation, spitting as he spoke.
“Then sell your body or something. Forced labor would be perfect, wouldn’t it?”
“Eek…!!”
The stepfather’s eyes darted wildly before looking back at his wife who was kneeling behind him.
“T-t-take that woman instead. She’s skinny but sturdy. I can’t do labor for long because I drink a lot. Besides, I’m big and bulky, so I’d just be wasting bread eating twice as much as others!”
“…How could you, honey…”
“Shut up!”
He growled even while being held by the collar.
“How dare a head of the household! I’m being held by the collar, how dare you talk back. Talking back, really. When I say take her, you should just agree and go along with it to maintain the authority of the head of the household. That’s how you make living together worthwhile.”
“Honey…”
Tears streamed down his wife’s face. But the thugs just shook his collar with bored expressions.
“That skinny woman looks weaker than you, so we’ll have to take you. She looks like we’d have to hold a funeral if we took her.”
“Hiiieek!”
“Your voice sounds just like a pig squealing, but you’re still making noise. Hey! Tie up this pig!”
As the thugs began tying him up tightly with ropes, Renard and Resena stepped aside. The employee, knowing that Vernas’s sculptures were in the box he was holding, could only stare at the thugs, unable to do anything for fear they might take it.
‘Give it later. Later.’
When Resena pulled on the employee’s sleeve and whispered, he nodded with a pale face. But that action caught the thugs’ attention.
“Who are you guys?”
Then, a thug next to him grabbed his sleeve.
“He has a sword. Let’s not mess with knights.”
The famous sword Olivia that Renard wore at his waist looked extraordinary at a glance. The diamond-studded scabbard and the elegantly shaped hilt seemed to prove that its owner was a high-ranking noble.
“If you have nothing to do, just pass by. We only have business with these people. Let’s not clash if we can avoid it, okay?”
The thug spoke in a rough tone but was wary of Renard. His action of looking Resena’s younger brother up and down was like a kind of demonstration asking for tacit approval of what was happening here. The two just watched as the child’s stepfather was dragged away by the debt-collecting thugs.
“With this, our debt is settled. Let’s not see each other again.”
The three remained silent until the thugs disappeared. When the wife, who had been crying silently, staggered and sat down, Resena approached her.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes… Yes… I’m fine.”
The wife wiped her tears with her palms. As her sobbing wouldn’t stop, Resena carefully embraced her. Then she began to cry loudly.
‘It must be a big shock… That husband of hers, claiming to be the head of the household, told them to take her instead… And the thugs scared her with talk of forced labor and such…’
“It’s okay. There won’t be any more scary things. They said the debt is settled, so don’t worry.”
Resena comforted the wife and patted her back. Renard and the employee quietly watched this scene. Renard was keenly watching the back of the alley in case those thugs might return. But what came to him was a ten-year-old kid.
“Big brother. Is that sword… real?”
Renard knelt on one knee with a faint smile. As he gently met the child’s eyes, the child blushed and put her hands behind her back shyly.
Come to think of it, Renard was quite handsome too.
Resena smiled inwardly. If her younger brother’s good looks had given hope to a young girl, that wasn’t so bad. Rather than bad memories, it would be better to remain as a memory of a rarely seen handsome man.
“Thank you. And I’m sorry. We’ve been so rude when we’ve just met…”
“No, it’s fine. And we have some business with this child.”
At those words, the wife’s eyes narrowed slightly. Before that wariness could deepen, Resena gently spoke up.
“You probably know that the toy that the child was playing with is actually a sculpture by Vernas. We actually came to return it.”
“Ah…!”
“We couldn’t intervene earlier so we had to just watch… But since you, as his wife, wouldn’t try to take away the child’s toy, I thought it would be okay to return the sculpture.”
She gestured towards the employee, who had been hesitating, worried that the thugs might return. He carefully walked over. As he took out the sculptures delicately wrapped in paper, the child noticed and reached out.
After tearing off the paper and confirming they were his toys, the child’s expression brightened. Seeing this, Resena felt a warmth in one corner of her heart.
“And there’s one more thing I’d like to ask, ma’am. Do you happen to know where the child met Vernas?”
“Well…”
The woman thought for a moment and then slowly answered.
“The last time he was playing near the canal, the child got along with someone wearing an elegant hood. What happened was… I was working there, and the three children were sitting on a bench, surrounding and marveling at a person who was sculpting. Our child stayed with that person until they left the bench, and that’s when they gave him the sculpture.”
“I see…”
“We only found out later that person was Vernas. By sheer coincidence, our child was wandering around this area with the toy and dropped it, and an auction house manager picked up the sculpture. Vernas carves his signature and crest at the very bottom of his sculptures, and that’s how the manager knew it was Vernas’s work.”
“I see. So does Vernas still visit the canal dock?”
The woman nodded.
