‘The wish ticket!’

Noah’s enthusiasm burned bright as he searched for treasure notes with hawk-like eyes.

‘With that, I can make Lady Calliphe and the Duke closer. By making them do things they don’t usually do!’

He had already decided on his wish. All that remained was the glory of victory.

“You’re searching really hard, aren’t you?”

Mihail, who had run along with Noah, declared with competitive spirit.

“Just so you know, I don’t plan on losing either. I really need that wish ticket too.”

“What wish are you going to make?”

“I’ll make the saint handle all the High Temple’s work for one day. Including all of my grandfather’s duties.”

Mihail clenched his fists and trembled.

“Grandfather worked incredibly hard while the saint was away. So now the saint needs to work a lot!”

“…Mihail, you’re kind.”

“What? Why am I kind?”

Because I would have made him work for a whole week, not just one day.

Noah didn’t answer and just shook his head.

Mihail, who had been puzzled, swept back his blonde hair and pointed at Noah with his index finger.

“Anyway! I won’t go easy on you even if we’re friends, so be prepared!”

“Okay.”

Nod-nod!

The two children competitively rummaged around searching for treasure notes.

“Found one, worth 5 points!”

“……”

When Mihail made progress, Noah’s eyes narrowed.

“…6 points.”

When Noah quietly declared this, Mihail gritted his teeth.

As this competitive but strange standoff continued.

Whoosh.

The wind blew, and a note from the tree knot that Noah was trying to grab flew away, landing in the middle of the path.

The note loosely opened, revealing the number.

10 points.

“……!”

“It’s mine!”

The two children simultaneously lunged for the 10-point note. Their foreheads collided in the process.

“Ow!”

“Ugh.”

“Move, Noah. I grabbed it first!”

“If you’re going by that logic, I found it first.”

“Don’t you know the rule that says we can steal? It’s mine now!”

“You haven’t stolen it yet.”

Though Mihail was bigger in height and build, Noah didn’t back down.

The two children clung to each other, desperately preventing the other from reaching for the note.

Noah was the first to break through the other’s defense.

“The note…!”

“Aaah, no!”

Right when Noah was about to get his hands on the 10-point note.

“Eeeng!”

Imelen, who had rushed out from the bushes, pushed the two entangled children from the side.

“Aaaah!”

The two children, who had been tangled like one body, rolled into the bushes.

Meanwhile, Imelen leisurely picked up the note with her mouth.

“Hmph.”

She even gave a crooked smile to the two dumbfounded boys.

Having taken the lead in an instant, Imelen trotted forward.

Noah and Mihail, who had finally come to their senses, hurriedly got up and chased after her.

Mihail jumped toward Imelen first.

“Stop right there! Yaaah!”

“Eeng!”

Swoosh! Despite her seemingly sluggish build, Imelen nimbly avoided Mihail.

Then Noah blocked Imelen’s path.

“Stop…!”

“Grrrr!”

Whoosh. The heavy body leaped over the child’s head.

Noah, who had instinctively curled up covering his head, was amazed at this incredible sight.

Imelen’s experience and agility from surviving in the wild were not something the two little ones could easily match.

Mihail spoke while panting.

“Looks like we underestimated the saint.”

“Yeah.”

“…Let’s call a temporary truce and attack together.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

The two children charged like heroes at the giant, evil capybara.

But they were knocked down several times by the capybara’s short limbs, and even by her long rabbit ears.

Finally, Mihail chose the last resort.

“Heya! Sorry, Saint!”

“Eeng!?”

Mihail wrapped both arms around Imelen’s entire face to cover her eyes.

“Now’s your chance, Noah!”

“Mihail…!”

Noah, who was momentarily surprised, soon put on a determined expression and rushed forward, finally succeeding in recapturing the treasure note from Imelen’s mouth.

“Got it!”

“Hurray!”

Though it was wet, victory was sweet. The two children who had cooperated for the first time jumped up and down with joy.

Toward the two of them, a thoroughly provoked Imelen scraped the ground with her front paws like an angry buffalo.

“Grrrrrr!”

Imelen had never played with peers in her current form.

So she didn’t realize that her version of ‘appropriate force’ was at a dangerous level for those two.

Just as she was about to make a dangerous charge.

“Hey yeah, this is for me, right?”

Shock!

Someone quickly snatched the note that Noah had been holding up.

It was none other than Dietrich.

“Thanks, fish poop?”

The three children’s gazes focused on him at this sudden intrusion.

Mihail immediately shouted.

“Why are you butting in when you’re an adult? Don’t you have any pride?”

“What? Look who’s talking with that model student hairstyle swept back! You’re not even a noble! Shouldn’t you speak more politely?”

“Hmph. Don’t you know what really matters is power? I’m more influential than a low-ranking noble like you because I’m the High Cardinal’s only grandson? Watch yourself, mister.”

“L-look at this brat!”

“Give it back.”

“Fish poop, you too?”

“Eeng!”

Thump! Imelen rammed into Dietrich from behind.

“Agh! My back!”

When Dietrich fell, Noah and Mihail took that as a signal and rushed in, sticking fingers in his nostrils or tickling him.

“Uwahahaha! You crazy kids… Hyaack.”

Finally, the note rolled from his weakened hand.

The three children rejoiced at obtaining the 10-point note.

“We won!”

“Grrrr!”

Noah clapped his hands and asked.

“But who gets to keep it?”

“Oh, right… They probably won’t accept it if we tear it into three pieces?”

“Eeng.”

Imelen took the note in her mouth and gave it to Noah.

“I get it…?”

“Eeng, eeeeng.”

At these unintelligible words, Noah furrowed his brows and attempted to communicate.

“Ee, eeng……”

“Stop it, Noah. There’s no need to analyze the content. I think the saint means you should have this. If so, I agree too.”

“Eeng. Ee.”

Imelen nodded.

Noah, who received the point note, fell into thought for a moment.

Tweeet―

The whistle sounded from outside.

The treasure hunt time had ended.

* * *

I looked down with folded arms at the children who came running breathlessly at the whistle’s call.

“Hmm, you all look quite messy, as expected.”

They were covered in dirt, looking like they had rolled around together on the ground, and their hair resembled bird’s nests.

Only Imelen maintained her initial neatness.

It seemed quite clear who was at the top of the food chain among the three.

“Now then, submit your treasure notes.”

As the children submitted their notes, I immediately began grading.

Lynen and Allen joined as spectators beside me as I opened the notes.

Mihail’s results came first.

“40 points. Most of them are low-point notes.”

As I recorded Mihail’s total score and spoke, Allen looked proud.

“He diligently collected small scores. That’s just like Mihail.”

“He makes a good rival for Noah when they learn swordsmanship together.”

That was Lynen’s comment.

When he taught Noah swordsmanship, Mihail would often join the lessons too.

He probably didn’t want to miss out on sword lessons from the Empire’s greatest swordmaster.

Thanks to that, Noah and Mihail were meeting almost daily.

“Now let’s check Imelen’s notes.”

I opened Imelen’s saliva-soaked notes one by one to calculate the total.

“Oh, 40 points! Tied with Mihail!”

“Imelen…!”

Allen offered a short prayer in emotion. Lynen keenly spotted the common feature among the notes.

“Judging by the dirt on each high-point note, these must have all fallen on the ground?”

“Ah, ahem.”

Allen cleared his throat awkwardly at Lynen’s probing question, though he already knew the answer.

But many of Mihail’s collected notes had dirt on them too.

While Allen had scattered notes evenly on the ground, Mihail mainly picked up low numbers while Imelen went for high numbers.

‘Mihail, you need to compete with diligence rather than luck.’

Now it was time to check Noah’s long-awaited score.

Since I had urged Lynen to hide notes carefully, it would probably be quite a high score.

‘I can’t miss out on this 10-point filial piety quest!’

After all, this event was held for me to achieve my filial piety quest.

‘Hehehe. Kids, you’ve been used. I’ll give mini wish tickets as consolation prizes to second and third place…’

By the way, the only difference between the ‘mini wish ticket’ and the ‘winner’s wish ticket’ was the name.

“6 points, 7 points……”

As expected, high scores kept appearing as I opened each note.

I opened the last note with a grin, ready to confirm first place.

“And with this, the winner is Noah―”

But my words cut off abruptly.

I couldn’t believe the number written on the note.

―0 points