This Three-Year-Old Is A Villainess - Chapter 122
The clerk discreetly led us to the back door, saying,
“You must come before sunset. I also have to leave work, don’t I? You won’t stay forever like last time, will you?”
“Got it.”
Han Ji-hyuk and I exited the bakery through the back door.
Coming out the back, we turned into an alley.
“So, where is the male lead in this shopping district?”
He asked, and I shook my head in response.
“Dunno. Gotta wook fow ‘im.” (Don’t know. We’ve got to look for him.)
“In this vast place? This is the empire’s biggest shopping town.”
Han Ji-hyuk gave me a look of disbelief.
Even I knew that searching here was a stretch.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
‘But I have a way.’
I unzipped the bag I was carrying on my side.
Then, I flashed the <Silence> blessing stone I had taken from my room’s basement.
Upon infusing it with magic,
Beeeeeeeep─!!
A piercing noise instantly filled the alley.
“Hey, what are you─!”
“Wun!” (Run!)
I grabbed Han Ji-hyuk’s hand and hurriedly wobbled out of the alley.
Then, I activated the blessing to check the comment section.
The comments hadn’t changed.
And the next alley.
The next alley.
The next alley.
And another alley.
By the 11th alley, we used a blessing stone to make noise again.
‘Right here!’
“We shood wook awunn hewe.” (We should look around here.)
“What?”
Han Ji-hyuk knew about my hidden blessing.
After I whispered why I did what I did, he opened his mouth wide in shock.
“Are you… a genius?”
“Wes wook queely. We dun hab mush toiyme.” (Let’s look quickly. We don’t have much time.)
“Fortunately, there aren’t many buildings here. But what does the male protagonist look like?”
“He pwolly hidin’ his weal featuwes. He cannuh wet Impewial Consuh Offewia catch ‘im.” (He’s probably hiding his real features. He can’t let Imperial Consort Othellia catch him.)
“Then how do we find him?”
I confidently held up my thumb and said,
“He’s ve~ewy hansum.” (He’s ve~ery handsome.)
“…What?”
“Supuh, dupuh hansum.” (Super duper handsome.)
Usually, the male lead is incredibly handsome.
There might be princes who don’t become emperors, but there are no male leads who aren’t handsome.
The dignity of a hidden beauty will seep through, unable to be concealed.
Han Ji-hyuk, though reluctant and slightly sour-faced, eventually nodded.
We scoured every corner of the alley for the male lead.
We went into every store that looked like one, searching for a child. But it was strange.
‘None.’
We scoured the area, but not a single hair of a child was found.
“Was it really written in the comments that they heard the noise?”
“Yep.”
“We’ve checked all the nearby buildings. And the alleys.”
Han Ji-hyuk and I crossed our arms and hmm, pondered.
“Maybe we should head back for today? If we don’t return by sunset, the people of the castle will start to panic.”
He had a point, so I groaned in frustration.
Why can’t we find him?
Could the male lead have already been caught by Madam Gonalon?
‘Either soared to the sky or sunk to the ground.’
“Owkay, wes head back.”
* * *
The child was hunched over tightly.
He had lost track of time.
Just like any other day, he went out for work.
There were men on the street making peculiar sounds.
The sound of heartbeats and consistent footsteps.
From past experience, the child knew what these sounds meant.
They were those who wielded swords.
‘Hunters.’
A man stopped him as he walked down the street, clutching a flyer and wearing his cap low.
“Hey, you. Take off that hat.”
James, who had raised him, always instructed him.
“If hunters appear, run without looking back.”
“……”
“You must never get caught.”
The child always wondered about James.
Always drinking, calling him a burden when drunk, why keep him around?
Why occasionally kneel beside him pretending to be asleep in his room?
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry……”
It was only 3 months ago that he understood the meaning behind James’s actions.
When the ‘hunters’ James spoke of appeared in the child’s life.
James, running desperately with the child, was hit by an arrow and fell.
He never opened his eyes again, leaving only a few words before dying.
“The… palace… Return to the imperial palace… Your Highness…”
“……”
“I, from that woman— I, I took money from Imperial Consort Othellia… and robbed you of all the glory… that was supposed to be yours… and gave it to someone else.”
“……”
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
