Chapter 3.2

Chapter 3 Part 2

When Hannah returned to the nursery, the children were gathered in the living room.

“I want to eat corn soup.”

“I want bread! Sweet bread!”

“You will gain weight if you keep eating such sweet things.”

“Where is the fat? This is all muscle!”

Jeremy rolled up his skinny arm. Masha’s expression was distorted by his action. And Ian didn’t seem interested in them in the first place.

The children seemed to be concerned over lunch. But their cute faces made Hannah smile.

“Teacher likes me more, so you’re going to make what I want, right?”

“What nonsense?”

The children’s footsteps approached Hannah as if they were dancing, and the situation became noisy.

“Teacher likes me more!”

Jeremy, who was rolling back on the sofa, jumped up.

“Hmph. Stupid! Can’t you tell? Teacher likes me the best!”

“That’s funny! Shall we bet what she will cook for us today?” said Jeremy, pounding on the couch’s cushion.

“Here comes the dust.” ( Dust came off the cushion when Jeremy pounded on it).

Ian’s hard voice flew at Jeremy. “Gross, here we go again!”

Ian replied to Jeremy’s voice. “Jeremy, at least not you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Teacher Hannah’s favorite.”

“What? So you think it’s ‘Masha’ too?” Jeremy raised his voice. His face was full of anguish.

“Not Masha.” said Ian, who was reading a book slowly turned to Jeremy and Masha.

“Why would she like a bunch of troublemakers like you?”

“Wait, what?”

“So, you mean the teacher likes you more?”

Ian shrugged with a confident look at Masha’s question.

“He’s out of his mind.” Said Masha as she clicked her tongue.

“Where did she even learn that?”

Hannah suddenly stepped back, wondering if it was a mistake to enter the living room.

“Hey! You should bet too!”

“That’s right. Let’s find out what she will cook!”

“I want fish.”

Oh my God, Ian’s taste really is like an old man’s.

“Let’s decide today whom she likes more!”

“Okay!”

“How childish.”

Even when Ian criticized them for being childish, he didn’t say he wouldn’t join.

‘Let’s pretend I didn’t hear anything…’, Hannah thought to herself. However, her plan had gone into vain.

“Teacher!”

“Hm?”

She had an awkward smile while the children were looking at her with their shining eyes.

“Bread! I want some sweet bread! Please make bread for me.”

“Teacher, corn soup! Soup!”

“Fish stew”

This was a problem. She was put to the test again and who would be offended today by her decision of what she would make for lunch. The villains who grew up in the future would remind her of her mistakes today as Hannah played the scenario in her head.

“You didn’t make the soup back then, you will get consumed by the flames.”

She thought it must be really painful to burn to death, so she decided to make the soup, but then another scenario popped in her head.

‘’You didn’t make my bread that day ten years ago!’’ The voice of the future Jeremy who would eagerly torture her with a sharp poisoned dagger to her throat. Now Hannah needed to make the bread.

However, the tyrannical emperor Ian’s voice rang loudly in her ears,’ I can’t believe you didn’t make my fish stew until I did become emperor. I will cut off your neck and hang it on the wall.’ As seeing the guillotine vividly in front of her eyes, Hannah thought she should run to the river to catch fish.

Hannah’s face looks like she was going to cry, “Why are you doing this to me?” She wanted to cry louder than anyone else right now.

“Teacher? Please make me lunch!”

“What are we going to have for lunch today?”

At the nonstop asking, Hannah raised her voice and asked the children to take a seat at the table. After everyone sat down in their place, Hannah put a fork in the children’s hands. And the asking continued.

“Teacher. How about bread?”

Jeremy’s sullen eyelids were half-covering his eyes. At first glance, he was like a heartbroken puppy.

“Teacher, where is the soup?”

As expected, Masha, who was looking at the table with her arms crossed with a disappointed look on her face.

“No fish?”

Then, Ian frowned his forehead, showing a bitter expression. An unpleasant air spread across the room. Then Hannah gently sat down in front of them.

“Children, you will eat what I want you to eat.”

On the table was the vegetable salad which she grew in the garden and the meat which she bought yesterday, were prepared. There was no bread, no soup, and no fish. Even though the children’s burning gaze was on Hannah, she held her fork firmly.

“Don’t be picky and eat, ok?”

The children began to eat without making a sound. Hannah began to eat as well, ignoring the children’s stinging gaze, wishing the children would not hold the grudge against her in the future.

—-

But that afternoon, Hannah had no choice but to go to the market. It wasn’t until the day passed by half and she was worried the children were hurt. And she was afraid of being unable to give them what they wanted because of their poor finances.

“I have to get rid of the danger as much as I can,” Hannah mumbled to herself.

And wasn’t it better to be sure that the children would not hate her if they really grow up to be villains? Hannah didn’t know if it would happen but what was certain was that the trio of villains in the novel was going to be really vicious.

They were just people who would kill other people because they were displeased with them, and the kind of thing that they wanted to do was never, never, ever good.

“How much is this fish?”

Hannah’s shopping basket contained bread, corn, and vegetables.

“Give me one silver and you can have it.”

“Why do you give me such a low price?”

“Aren’t you the nursery girl? It’s for the kids, so I’ll give you a good deal.”

“Thank you!”

Hannah concluded that she couldn’t feed the children properly with the ingredients provided by the temple. So from that day on, she started to buy food for the children with her own salary.

When the villagers found out about her sad story, they began to give Hannah this and that.

“Take this too. It’s delicious if you grill it lightly. There are not many thorns, so it’s good for kids to eat.”

“Oh, well, I’ll pay for that, too.”

“No. Just take this. When I saw the kids a few days ago, they were just skin and bones.”

“Ah…”

Hannah brought the children out a few times because she was afraid they would be frustrated to stay indoors all the time, but the owner of the store, who saw the skinny children, said, “The fish cannot be sold after today anyway,” and added a well-packaged fish into Hannah’s shopping basket.

However, it was a fresh fish that didn’t show any signs of going bad soon even after washing its eyes.

“Children should eat well when they are young.”

“Yes, I’ll take care of it.”

When Hannah smiled, the fish owner smiled as well.

There have been a lot of bad rumors at the nursery school, but because of Hannah, the new nursery was good.

“Good luck, then.”

Bowing after her greetings, Hannah went through the market to buy other ingredients. She has been doing the footwork for many hours, however, the walk back with a lot of ingredients to make delicious food for the children was lighter than hard work.

“Hmph, let’s go and make a delicious dinner…. huh?”

As Hannah was on her way back to the nursery, she found a familiar face.

“Jason?”