"What?!"
Standing with Emily in his arms, Sian looked at the woman in front of him with wide eyes of surprise.
The woman was a few centimeters taller than Sian. Her black hair was tied up in a bun on top of her head. Although she was not thin, she couldn't be called fat.
She was wearing a cheap-looking long-sleeved white blouse and a long, simple black skirt that gave her an air of elegance.
Like Sian, the woman was also incredulous at what she had just heard.
***
From what Tina told, it all started when she went with the children to the orphanage to attend class. When the teacher entered the room, she was surprised by Tina's presence and unconsciously called her Fran.
Because of the time she spent with Sian, Tina knew that she looked the same as her mother when she was a child. Assessing that situation, she thought that like Sian, there was a possibility that that woman had also known her mother as a child. Thus, she spoke a little about her mother to the teacher.
Due to the circumstance, at the end of the class, the teacher asked Tina to guide her to Fran. When they arrived at the hotel, since the teacher had not scheduled a visiting time, the female guards accompanying the girls prevented her from entering the floors beyond the first floor.
However, since it was the girls who brought the teacher, one of the guards guided her into the reception hall. Meanwhile, the others went upstairs with Tina and Emily to tell Fran about the unannounced visit that had arrived.
As Emily was eager for Sian to meet her teacher, the moment she stepped out of the elevator, she grabbed Tina's hand and ran to look for him. Accepting her request, Sian went downstairs, but when he got there, Fran was crying while hugging the supposed teacher.
Due to the presence of Sian who was carrying Emily in his arms, the teacher ceased the emotional embrace she was having.
"So," the teacher stared at Sian for a brief moment, "are you the nobleman who adopted Emily? You look quite different from the portrait I saw."
Although reddened due to the circumstances, the teacher's eyes were quite sharp. Even though she and Sian had not met before, she seemed to have a dislike for him.
Without giving an immediate response, Sian looked her up and down with disdain.
"I must assume that you are the damn teacher who is always putting wrong ideas about me into the children's heads."
"If you weren't a scum, I wouldn't need to speak the truth." Staring at Sian without flinching, she emphasized the last part.
Although aware of Sian's reputation, the teacher did not seem afraid while maintaining a fearless posture.
Before Sian could say anything, Fran, who still had tears flowing of her eyes, put herself between the two, stopping them from continuing.
"You haven't changed a bit from when we were kids," she held the teacher's hand. "That's why you were the one who got beaten the most by the director."
Confused by Fran's words, Sian looked at her inquisitively.
With a smile on her face, she grabbed Sian's wrist with her free hand.
"She's Maria."
Taking a step back, she made the two of them get closer.
"Although different, that's our little Sian."
""What?!""
Stupefied by what they had just heard, the two cried out in surprise.
"Now that you have found each other after so long, no fighting."
Even with tears streaming down her cheeks, Fran had a lively expression as she brought their hands together.
Despite a small moment of initial discomfort, Sian and the teacher, or rather, Sian and Maria put their little friction aside with Fran's help.
Trying to show hospitality to a friend he hadn't seen in years, Sian invited her upstairs and prepared some snacks to eat while they shared their stories.
"After you stayed behind, we followed the road while hiding in the forest. Luckily, we found a caravan of merchants who helped us." Looking around the luxurious room, Maria murmured. "That looks even more luxurious than Lady Charlotte's house..."
According to Maria, the caravan brought them to an orphanage run by the Marquis Rotherham. Although apprehensive at first, they soon realized that the place was completely different from the old orphanage. There they were educated and most of them ended up getting a job under the marquis' wing.
"What happened to the others?"
Sian was curious about the others, after all, they were inseparable as children.
With a triumphant expression, Maria raised her left hand and showed her wedding ring.
"I married Tod."
After showing talent, Tod got a prominent position in the marquis' army. Currently, he was leading a small excursion to exterminate monsters. Unfortunately, due to his duties, they did not see each other as often as she would have liked.
If she were in the capital of the marquisate, she could spend a little more time around him, however, if she did that, the children in the Solaris orphanage would not be able to receive an education at all.
Since the security of this city was always questionable due to the wars, people educated enough to be teachers wouldn't come. Nevertheless, she decided to come because she wanted the children of this town to have an opportunity like she had.
"As for Bazo, he's a lost cause," Maria said with blatant contempt. "That piece of shit never grows up."
While he wondered if Maria qualified as a teacher because of her personality, Sian tried to dig deeper. According to her, the libidinous personality of Bazo, who managed to be hated by all the girls in the orphanage, only got worse over time.
To make matters worse, he was very sloppy and irresponsible, if it weren't for Tod taking him as one of his soldiers, he would have already become a slave due to his excessive borrowings. All he could think about was sleeping with women. But what made Maria furious was the fact that he was always trying to take Tod to brothels with him.
Knowing that he would have to meet him sooner or later, Sian added a mental note to watch out for Bazo's lust as he changed the subject.
"I know I'm not exactly a role model, but could you please stop using me as an example of a bad nobleman to children?"
The moment she heard the question, Emily who was eagerly tasting the appetizers quickly hid under the coffee table. Being the person who snitched on the teacher, she probably thought that the blame would fall on her.
Looking at Tina sitting on the couch between Sian and Fran, Maria astutely changed the direction of the conversation.
"I only realized it now, but you guys got married! I guess it was expected since you two always lived glued to each other. Look at that, you even have a beautiful daughter."
"I'm not his daughter!" Tina strongly denied.
Putting her hand around Tina's shoulder, Fran explained her situation and about how she had also only met Sian recently.
"Is the beautiful woman who tells stories to the children every day one of your women?" Maria asked.
"No."
Before Sian could open his mouth, Illianna, who had just arrived in the room, answered.
After greeting Maria properly, she turned to Sian, "I know you are having a nice conversation, but the employees have arrived. They are waiting in the courtyard, it is good if you go in person to receive them."
After Sian excused himself and was about to leave, he stopped and pulled a small black box with a flashing red light from his magic bag. This small cube, although different from the normal communication tools, was also a communicator. But unlike the others, it allowed simultaneous communication.
As Sian was not a very sociable person, the people who had synchronized their contact were few. Even without answering, Sian guessed that it was probably Charlotte.
Ever since her mother forced her to return home, she would often call to talk about random things and ask for love advice, even though Sian was not the best person for it.
The moment Sian accepted the call, an energetic voice came out of the small metal cube. "Yo-hoo! I have good news!"
As expected, it was Charlotte, but the news she reported was totally unexpected. The king of Hosnein had sent a messenger to the king of Poutis. From that moment onwards, Sian had become Hosnein's ambassador and his hotel would be treated as an embassy.
Putting away the communicator, Sian grumbled, "Damn senile king. He could have at least warned me first."
"If he warned, you would refuse for sure," Illianna said.
"There's no need to complain," Maria added. "That's good for you, that way the beastkins won't feel intimidated to come in. Since the hotel will serve as an embassy, Poutis can't be so disrespectful as to want to impose its sense of morals and customs."
According to Maria, the prejudice against beastkins is quite severe in Poutis. The vast majority of nobles prevented them from frequenting places that humans had access to. Even if they are wealthy beastkins, some inns still refuse their stays.
Even if Sian's hotel does not follow the same line of thought as the nobles in the region, it is luxurious enough to attract many of them. This alone would scare off most of the other races other than humans.
But being the embassy of a kingdom like Hosnein, which does not treat races distinctly, they might be more comfortable getting in. Although it was unusual for a hotel to be treated as an embassy, there was nothing to hinder it.
"Probably foreseeing this situation, the king of Hosnein prepared countermeasures for this," Illianna said. "Obviously, in planning it's one thing, but in practice it's another. It is more likely that the beastkins of Poutis will not dare to enter even if they have permission."
"Even so, this is still amazing," Fran had a smile stamped on her face. "To receive favors from a king, our little Sian became someone quite important."
"I guess that 'fear of him causing a mess' would fit better."
"I can't help but agree."
Maria said and seeming to follow the same line of thought, Illianna agreed.
After a brief laugh, Maria expressed her thoughts to Sian.
"Unlike what I initially thought, you seem to be getting along very well with Lady Charlotte. Her voice was completely different from her usual."
"Well, I guess you can consider us to be good friends."
***
Since they could not keep the employees waiting forever, Sian and Illianna went to find them.
On the way, Illianna also didn't forget to add Maria as another curious fact, after all, she was someone Sian hadn't seen in years and out of the blue, she appeared. In addition, just like Fran, she was also helped by merchants who showed up at the right time and place.
Even though they have been for several years in a small town, the two have never seen each other before and only came to meet after Sian's appearance.
"I'm telling you, this is suspicious," Illianna insisted. "Come to think of it, even Ophilia and I got here because of merchants."
When they arrived in the courtyard, not only the employees hired through Charlotte arrived, but also the suppliers with the rest of the products they bought.
After a bit of interaction, Illianna discovered that some employees are from noble families with first or second daughter positions. Even if it wasn't said, it was obvious that the parents sent them as an attempt to create a connection with Sian.
With that said, no highly ranked sons of nobles were sent. As for those who came, all were at most third or fourth in their family's line of succession. Since sons have more importance to the nobles, they probably didn't send them for fear of the worst happening.
Although some of the employees were the children of nobles, they were the large minority. The majority were commoners who had received a proper education.
As a side note, Illianna turned down 7 people. She said that these people were suspicious, so just in case, it was better to leave them out of the hired employees.
Although Sian questioned how she knew, she only replied that it was her unique skill. Even though Sian wanted to question the effectiveness of her skills, he knew very well how effective they were.
After directing the employees to the previously prepared dormitory, they went to receive the merchants.
With the missing products in hand, everything was almost ready for the inauguration of the hotel.