Lumine turned back.
She now not only wanted to participate, but also to ruthlessly slap this person's face.
However, right after she made her victory declaration.
A little girl jumped out and said that everyone present was trash (bushi).
She said that everyone on the scene was wrong, and the final winner would definitely be her.
Paimon stared at the little girl, "Why is there really a children's group? And she's inexplicably confident."
The little girl snorted, "Because big brother Caterpillar said so, and he won't lie to me."
Just as everyone was preparing for another round of verbal sparring.
Another guard appeared and interrupted the game.
The newly arrived guard, Noailles, really disliked Estienne's kind of 'game'.
He believed that prisoners were prisoners.
Guards had authority and should make them obey all orders.
Estienne remained unmoved, "I have my own way of doing things. As for you, Noailles. You've been in the Fortress of Meropide for a while now; you should adapt to the local atmosphere as soon as possible."
As a newcomer on duty, he inevitably had some arrogance, "Laziness and slackness... I will rebuild the order of the Fortress of Meropide."
"Starting with you all. Stop gathering here and go complete the tasks you are supposed to complete."
[Wriothesley: You said you want to rebuild the order of where?]
[Eat my Duke's iron fist.]
[He's a newbie. After one beating from the Duke, he'll behave.]
After finishing his act, Noailles left.
The two arguing people returned to their respective companions.
The little girl also disappeared without a trace at some point.
Estienne looked at his new colleague's back and curled his lips, "Being serious can be considered a virtue in some places, but being overly serious is hard to say."
He turned to Lumine and Paimon again, "Alright, the annoying guy has left the stage. So, do you two want to participate in this time-passing game?"
Lumine nodded, but unlike her earlier fit of pique.
She was now concerned about the little girl from earlier.
How could such a small child appear in the prison?
This wasn't right...
Lumine quickly found the little girl.
The little girl recognized her, "Ah, it's the big sister from earlier, and you... are you a little bird?"
[Nickname +1]
[White Feifei, idiot.]
Paimon wasn't angry, but mostly puzzled.
"Little bird? Where do I look like a little bird?"
Lumine rolled her eyes at her, "The part where you chirp and chatter a lot is very similar..."
Paimon stubbornly said, "Then it's also a clear and pleasant chirp."
The little girl scratched her head and muttered to herself, "So strange. You can fly, but you're not a little bird. Then are you an evil dragon? Are you a baby evil dragon?"
Lumine spread her fingers and listed Paimon's crimes one by one.
Gluttonous when eating, greedy for food, greedy for money, miser...
"She really does resemble an evil dragon."
The main point was tearing her down.
"Hey! That's not like me at all, okay." Paimon quickly stopped her and introduced the two of them to the girl.
While listening, the girl kept glancing toward where the guards had been earlier.
"My name is... my name is Lanoire. Can you two big sisters secretly tell me... has that bad wizard left?"
She added, "The bad wizard wearing black clothes and holding a forked staff. Big brother Caterpillar said I must not be discovered by the bad wizard, otherwise it will be very troublesome."
Lumine, who often communicated with children and simple-minded creatures, immediately guessed it was the guard.
But she still entered full drama mode, pulling out the Narzissenkreuz holy sword, "Where is the bad wizard? Take my hero's sword!"
[Lumine is getting more and more playful.]
[Give me back my cute little sister, wuwuwu.]
Even so, when Estienne was here earlier, Lanoire also came out to speak, right?
She explained that Uncle Estienne was a good wizard.
Last time when he came back from outside, he even brought flowers for Lanoire.
The color of the flowers was the same as the color of his current skirt.
Once she started talking about this, the little girl's desire to share surged.
She said that big brother Caterpillar taught her to put flowers in books to make pressed flowers.
That way, the words in the books also smelled good; this was the fragrance of knowledge.
Lumine had no way to roast such a child's words.
She only said a few things about how the bad wizard was wrong, then asked Lanoire why she was staying in the Fortress of Meropide.
Lanoire had an expression of "as expected," "I've always stayed in the Fortress of Meropide. Why does everyone ask this?"
"You two big sisters, don't you have your own homes?"
Lumine answered without thinking, "Where family is, that's home. However, this place is technically a prison..."
"Prison?" This word clearly exceeded Lanoire's understanding.
No one had ever told her this, including big brother Caterpillar.
Perhaps it was for the little girl's protection, so they didn't tell her.
To learn the truth, Lumine could only choose to meet this big brother Caterpillar.
Lanoire agreed to take Lumine to see him.
However, it was still early now.
Lumine had to accompany Lanoire on an adventure first.
After playing to their heart's content, Lumine and Paimon followed Lanoire back to the place where she usually stayed.
There, they met the most powerful big brother Caterpillar in the girl's eyes.
A little boy with gray hair.
"Lanoire, welcome back. It looks like you've made new friends."
Lumine frowned slightly. How did Lanoire describe him to her earlier?
Big brother Caterpillar was even taller than the bad wizard and had a powerful staff.
But now the staff was gone, so he could only hide from the bad wizard.
This height didn't match at all?
Facing the two's scrutiny, Caterpillar was very polite and courteous, "Lady Lumine, Lady Paimon, please call me Caterpillar."
Lumine was very direct, "Where are your guardians?"
Lanoire tugged at her arm, "Big brother Caterpillar is not a child."
Caterpillar said very seriously.
"I indeed am not a child. As for why I look like what you see now... you can consider it a kind of illness."
With that, he unhesitatingly extended his pitch-black hands.
Lumine felt like she had seen hands like this somewhere before...
[This... looks just like the Knave's hands?]
[Eh? Doesn't the Knave wear gloves? I thought it was for some kink.]
[Overpowered.]
Regarding his illness, Caterpillar did not explain too much.
He only said that he had stayed in this prison for a very long time.
Because of what he had done in the past, he had reason to stay in this place.
"It's just Lanoire... she was born here."
Lumine now understood why the little girl would appear in the prison.
Lanoire's mother had originally been plagued by illness and passed away from her disease some time ago.
Caterpillar said, "I don't have the habit of prying into other people's privacy, so I wasn't particularly familiar with their mother-daughter situation originally..."
"But after her mother passed away, Lanoire had no one to take care of her."
"Perhaps because I have been here longer, Lanoire is more familiar with me. She is closer to me."
"So Estienne temporarily handed over the task of looking after her to me."
Caterpillar had an idea: to send Lanoire back to her relatives outside.
Even though little Lanoire wasn't very willing to leave...