The woman only laughed at my response and closed her car door. I was too careless, who would have known that the most logical and tranquil person that attended Eloise's tea party would enjoy stalking someone by car!
"I'm sorry if I scared young lady Amaryllis, I just found you very interesting that's all."
"I'm straight."
"Not interesting in that way…"
She heaved a heavy sigh and started to make her way to me.
"Then, what does the young lady Everhart want?"
I pushed my voice down and calmly smiled in the most respectful way I could manage.
"I want to see what you'll do today."
A straightforward answer from an unpredictable character. How am I supposed to answer this? And why the f*ck does she want to see what I'll do today?!
"Wow…You sure know how to surprise me…"
"I will be accepting your words as a compliment. Thank you."
Jade placed a hand over her chest and retured a closed eye smile to me.
It's not a compliment.
My smile faded quicker than lightning and was replaced with a frown.
"I'm just here to visit my attendant's hometown, is there something wrong with that?"
In the end, there's nothing else I could do but answer her. It's not like I'm her to do something illegal, I'm just visiting my attendant—that's not illegal at all.
"No, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with me visiting your attendant's hometown, right?"
Of course there's something wrong with that! Does she even know who my attendant is?!
Before I could even respond to her, a sharp voice echoed from nearby. It was the voice of a child.
"Miss Violet! You're here!"
It was one of the village kids. Behind him were a few other children, about ten to eleven, seeming like they're running after him, but it wasn't too long before all of them called my name.
I have visited this village multiple times—enough for children to know my name and launch attacks on me. Thankfully these children did not seem like they were here for that.
"What do you want?"
I asked with a stingy face. Getting along with children will never be one of my goals until the day I die.
"Nothing! We just wanted to see you!"
The child who was in front of the group beamed with a bright expression. I opened the car door once more, ignoring Everhart's curious and excited gaze. I took out four large paper bags filled with all sorts of food—not for the children but for myself. I was supposed to keep these to serve as emergency rations, just in case my parents uses food against me again. But since the children are here, it wouldn't be too bad if I give this to them.
"Here. Split this among yourselves."
The children all went silent but after a second, they took the paper bags and yelled a "Thank you!".
As the children giggled among themselves, I crossed my arms and ordered my driver to park the car somewhere that can't bother anyone. My driver usually goes to the little street market near the village entrance whenever we visit anyway, I'm sure he'll find something to entertain himself.
"So…is this one of your hobbies?"
I did not notice Jade was already beside me.
"What?"
"Playing with children, giving then treats…are you fond of children?"
She asked with her hands clasped behind her back.
"I'm not."
I answered flatly. I did not want her to pry in this topic any further.
Before Everhart could open her mouth again, a little girl, presumably an eighth year old girl, eyed on us intently. She looked like she wanted to tell us something.
"U-um…Miss Violet," The little girl pulled at the end of the thin sweater I was wearing, and with fidgety fingers, she mouthed. "My big brother and the others are trying to ambush you again…"
The rest of the children stopped whatever they were doing and huddled around me, the snacks that I bought for them were still in their arms.
"T-they're near Olivia's house! I saw them earlier!"
The children knew me, but not all of them liked me. For unknown reasons, some of them seem to dislike me—dispise even. They always blabbered about protecting Olivia from me. It seemed as if Olivia was a poor princess that needed to be saved from the wicked dragon, or how it seemed it was.
Either way, whether it's a child or an old man, I'm not going to let them land a hit on me. Whatever they throw at me, I'll throw it back at them a thousandfold. I already had a fair share of receiving the children's muddied attacks, I'm not going to stay still this time.
"Alright. Go back to them and tell them I'll be arriving at Olivia's house soon," The children nodded at my request. "And give them a portion of the snacks I gave you guys."
The children made their way back to Olivia's house, some hesitated and were nagging me on what I'm going to do next, but they went and followed the rest of the group. Jade however, was still beside me with an annoyingly bright smile.
"Aren't you supposed to follow the children?"
I turned to Jade who still seemed like she was enjoying herself in observing me.
"I'm supposed to follow the children?"
She tilted her head with a confused expression.
"Fine."
There's absolutely no use in arguing about this now…
I gave her the choice to follow me, and she did so. We took a detour behind the village's entrance and navigated our way through the dense, green bushes.
I must have been not paying to much attention on her, but I did not hear her complain about the terrain—not even once.
Her dress got mangled up in twigs and bushes along the way, but she only brushed it off and did her best to keep her pace fast enough to keep up with me.
Soon, the backyard of a house was seen. No doubt this was Olivia's backyard.
Lush crops and vegetation were growing neatly in their own rows and columns, wild flowers were adorning the field.
I signaled Jade to stay silent and she replied with a thumbs up. We crept slowly and shimmied close to the side walls until we could see the front yard.
As expected, a horde of small children were in front of the house, looking like they're preparing for a great war.
"Stay put."