(BL) Rejected by daughter's second male lead-Chapter 20

"Yuan, I really do not like that tone of yours. I am not talking about thoughtlessly taking Ivy with me to raise or work her like a dog. I am saying I will find a way that can be of practical help to this child."

"That sounds just like a noble young lady. Do you know what they call that, Cecil? They call it having your head in the clouds."

Yuan said coldly.

"There are kids like her everywhere. There are countless children who are sold to the slave market from a young age, or starve to death, or are beaten to death. Getting hit by their fathers and getting into trouble with nobles while begging on the streets is the daily life of commoners."

"Just because something is widespread does not make it right. Yuan, are you saying that because this happens often, we should just ignore it?"

"Who said to ignore it? This is something that cannot be solved with simple sympathy—"

"Enough."

It was Gillan who cut off the argument between Cecilia and Yuan. He spoke firmly.

"Both of you, stop."

Neither of them was saying anything wrong. Therefore, there was no need to fight.

"First of all, Cecil, you did well."

"Ha..."

The sound of Yuan snorting as if he found it utterly contemptible could be heard. However, Gillan paid him no mind and spoke to Cecilia.

"Your kind heart and compassion are things that one should naturally have as a human being. You are the Duke’s daughter of this empire, and you have the means and the power to help others. I am proud that you, who tries to use that power rightly, are my daughter."

"Thank you for saying that, Dad."

"However..."

This time, Gillan turned to look at Yuan and said.

"Hampton is also right. What if what you saw was not just this one child, but a group of three or four, ten, or even more than thirty pitiful children huddled together? Or what if it was the machination of another faction trying to attack the Ducal House of Blake by using you as a hostage, or if the child was involved with a criminal organization? What if the child you were trying to save had someone they absolutely did not want to be separated from, and had circumstances that prevented them from leaving this place?"

Yuan’s pupils wavered. Gillan looked at Cecilia again. Cecilia was looking down, appearing resentful.

"This is something you should have thought about more deeply, more persistently, and more carefully, Cecil. What you are trying to save right now is a person’s life. It is a person’s entire existence. It is something too vast and complex to push forward with good intentions alone. You do not know where or how it might be connected."

Finally, Gillan cast his gaze upon the child who was trembling and trying her best to hide behind Claire. His stern voice softened.

"However... despite all that, I too would like to ask this child."

Gillan slowly approached Ivy and knelt down on one knee. Ivy, who had been hiding behind Claire’s body, cautiously poked her head out.

"Your name is Ivy, right? Do you want to go with me and your big sister to our home?"

As soon as Gillan’s question ended, a pitiful sob escaped Ivy’s small body. The child was now trembling like an aspen leaf. At the same time, as if something had burst, Ivy poured out a torrent of incoherent words.

"My... my lord noble... please take me with you... I will be fine as a maid... You can give me leftover food... My dad hits me all the time. He hits my head and he hits my stomach. Mister Ismael and the lady next door know my dad hits me, too. But they pretend not to see even when I am bleeding. But. The lady Ismael sometimes gives me leftover rice so it is okay. I am full even if I only eat leftover rice. So please take me with you, my lord noble." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

It was almost a level of begging while crying. The way the small child spoke, her fists clenched and her body shaking, was utterly tragic. A heavy, angry silence fell upon the cramped and messy house.

After a moment, Gillan spoke in a gentle voice.

"Alright, little one. I will take you with me. Have you perhaps heard of a place called the Blake Academy?"

"...No. But I can listen. I really can. Please."

"It is okay if you do not know. I will just explain it to you from now on."

The Blake Academy was a boarding school-style educational facility owned by the Blake family. Originally, it was a prestigious academy that only accepted the children of high-ranking nobles, but after Gillan was transmigrated, it was changed into a scholarship academy for a charitable foundation.

"At the Blake Academy, you can sleep in a warm bed, and you can eat three delicious meals a day. You can also study and make friends. There are kind teachers, too, and I will personally visit once a month to check if our Ivy is doing well."

"Dad, are you really going to send Ivy to the Blake Academy?"

Cecilia, who had been silent, asked joyfully. Since the Blake Academy was connected to the foundation run by the Duke, Cecilia could not make such a promise rashly. Though she had been hoping for it to some extent.

"Weren’t you planning on asking me anyway?"

Gillan gave Cecilia a look that was not unkindly. Cecilia cutely stuck out her tongue and giggled with a hehe.

"I was planning to ask once... but if that did not work, I was really going to take her in as my personal attendant."

"I see, so you had a backup plan of your own."

Gillan let out a small laugh and looked at Ivy again. The large-bodied, sharp-featured man was looking at her, and she flinched reflexively, but Ivy soon met Gillan’s eyes steadily. The child had also recognized the kindness dwelling within Gillan’s eyes.

"You do not have to worry anymore. Difficult things might still happen in the future, but at the very least, you will absolutely never be beaten by your father or have to endure pain and go hungry again."

Gillan held out his pinky finger. Ivy stared at the finger in bewilderment.

"You just have to hook your pinky finger on that finger, Ivy. It is our dad’s special signal. It is a sign that he will definitely keep the promise he made to you."

Cecilia explained with a smile, as if sharing a secret. Yuan silently stared at Gillan’s pinky finger.

At the words of the pretty, princess-like big sister, Ivy quickly held out her own pinky finger and hooked it onto Gillan’s.

"I promise on the name of Blake. So let’s go together, Ivy."

At Gillan’s words, Ivy nodded her head rapidly.

It was at that moment. With the sound of a door being thrown open with a bang, a man’s shout flew in.

"Who says who is going where?"

A man with a brutish impression from the start, reeking heavily of alcohol, staggered into the house. Gillan reflexively stood in front of the others to block him.

The man saw Gillan’s well-tailored clothes, his great height, and his formidable presence, and his spirit was immediately crushed.

"We... well, looking at your clothes, you seem to be lord nobles, but for what reason have you come to our house?"

Despite that, it seemed he could not help the suspicion and defiance that crept into his voice. Either that, or he was so drunk he could not see straight.

"We came after receiving reports of continuous child abuse. We plan to separate the abused child from the abuser and report you to the Imperial Palace."

"Wha, what... Hey! Did you do this? What, child abuse? That little thing must have gone crazy after I let her sleep and eat here."

The man’s eyes rolled back as he shouted threateningly. His face, which had been red from the alcohol, instantly turned a dark, purplish red. Ivy reflexively crawled under the table. Seeing that sight, Cecilia scowled and took a step forward.

"How dare you raise your voice in front of the Duke and the Duke’s daughter of Blake?"

"Wha, what... Duke of Bla, Blake?"

In the empire, one might not know the name of the imperial family, but there was no one who did not know the name Blake. From the prestigious Blake University of the empire to the Blake Academy, Blake Street, the Blake Knights, the Blake Foundation, and so on... The Blakes were the founding contributors of this empire, and they were heroes who appeared in all the legends and in the fairy tales that children read. There were also many shops and ships that took their name simply because it was distinguished and looked cool, even without any direct connection to the Blake family.

"Wh, what do you mean you’re Blakes? Don’t give me that shit! This is kidnapping, hey! It’s an abduction!"

The frightened man, on the contrary, raised his voice and lifted his hand as if to strike the more approachable-looking Cecilia. However, before Cecilia or Gillan could block him, the man’s entire body stiffened like stone. He had literally become a stone statue.

"All that shrieking is making my ears hurt."

Yuan said indifferently, and as he walked slowly forward, he poked the block of stone with a single finger.

Thump, crash. The man who had become a stone statue shattered into pieces from that one simple poke of a finger.

"N-no, Ha, Hampton...!"

"Hey, Yu, Yuan... just, just now..."

While the Blake father and daughter were stuttering in shock at the murder, no, the petricide, that had happened before their eyes, Yuan shrugged his shoulders.

"Go ahead and report the child abuse as planned. Just make it so that he ran away because he was scared of being reported."

"No, Hampton... you..."

Didn’t you just kill a person? As expected of the villain-level second male lead from the original story... While Gillan was staring blankly, Yuan spoke.

"Even if you had reported him for child abuse, it would have ended with just a fine at most. Is it a new thing for kids to be beaten and starved to death? If we handle it as him having run away, the security patrol will treat the child abuse more like a felony, because they will find it more infuriating. That is better in the long run."

Yuan spoke leisurely, even as he crushed the stone fragments under the tip of his foot. Gillan, still unable to believe that the stone had been a real person, could only open and close his mouth.

"You are going to get a bug in your mouth. Let’s get going now. We have to go report this to the security patrol, don’t we?"

Yuan kicked a few more stone fragments one last time and then nonchalantly walked out of the house. As Gillan, Cecilia, and Claire stood frozen, Ivy crawled out from under the table.

"Is that prince a magician?"