I Picked Up The Evil Duke’s Child

Those who saw Sertien standing in front of the old man, with his short arms stretched, began to murmur.

“Oh my, what’s with this kid?”

“Where are your parents?”

The leader of the gang, who glanced at Sertien, briefly wondered what the situation was, but soon burst into laughter as if it was hilarious.

“Ha, this is really.… Right, I’ve lost my status, so now even this little snotty-faced brat thinks I’m ridiculous.”

“Dad says you shouldn’t hit others recklessly!”

“Little boy… No, young master? You seem like a noble’s son, so quit troubling us and go get some milk from your mom instead. We’re not considerate, so we won’t let you slide just because you’re a child.”

“Then, apologize to grandpa instead!”

“If I do more, won’t you stay still?”

I wondered where all that courage came from in such a young child.

Apart from that, the gang in front of me was really malicious, so I didn’t know what they might do to Sertien, who was still a child.

I rushed forward thinking that Sertien would be hurt if I left it as it is.

The Knights’ plan or whatever, that doesn’t matter anymore.

But I guess I was a little late.

Without even having time for me to come forward and say anything, one of the thugs who had an annoyed look on his face stepped up and said:

“What are you looking at? He’s a child anyway. Are you worried that something might go wrong later because he’s a son of a noble? Stop being so afraid of everything.”

“Don’t be so cocky.”

Upon hearing that, the thug chuckled and kicked Sertien in the stomach.

The kick was so hard that he was almost thrown backward, unable to scream.

I let out a shriek and dashed towards him.

“Seri!”

“Who’s this woman?”

I was seething with anger.

A child’s body is weaker than that of an adult’s, so even if they attacked him with little force it would still be fatal to Sertien.

But he got kicked so hard that he couldn’t even scream in pain?

“You look like a lady of a noble family. Don’t step out of your sense of justice and step away quietly. Before you end up like that little boy.”

They seem to have no clue about who I was.

I’m quite the celebrity you know, so even if there’s not one who doesn’t know about “Litia Alfrez,” Commander of the Imperial Knights, only a few people actually know what I look like.

I guess it’s only natural since besides meeting me in person, there was no other way to see my face.

Instead of answering, I gave those thugs a murderous look.

Only then did they feel that I wasn’t an ordinary noble lady, and they flinched noticeably.

In addition, the people around me were nervous about the air I gave off and became quiet in an instant.

I observed Sertien’s condition first.

I doubt that Sertien missed the kick, but he didn’t seem to be seriously injured.

Still, he was kicked painfully and was now covered in dirt. Sertien bursted into tears.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes and stood up.

‘It must’ve hurt so much.’

I frowned at the thought.

“What, are you his mother?”

He seemed a little angry at me ignoring him.

Only then did I stood up and spoke to them.

“Yes, I’m his mom.”

“What? …. Did you guys hear that? His mom?”

The gang started laughing and giggling at my words.

Sertien was looking up at me with sparkling eyes at my remarks.

Everyone around me seemed to look at me with sympathy.

It was a look that said, ‘What’s she trying to do?’

“The hats are putting on a show in pairs.  Look, you need to know when to get in and when to get out. You can’t live properly if you keep meddling in like an old woman.”

“Don’t you remember that you kicked my son first?”

“Don’t say nonsense… I’m saying this because you’re pretty, but if you don’t want us to get rough with you, then run away. There are a lot of guys here who are hungry for women.”

It wasn’t even funny.

They seem to think they can do anything to me if they want to.

“What can you even do to me?”

I answered with a grin.

The thug muttered, not seeming to understand what I was saying.

“What the hell’s wrong with this lady…”

I don’t intend to let him finish talking.

Before he could even finish his sentence, my fist hit the thug’s abdomen, he then groaned and fell to the ground.

“The way you talk is cheesy. How dare you hit my son.”

t/n: tbh this doesn’t make sense to me LMAOAOAOA

No matter how you look at it, I didn’t appear to be strong so everyone around me seemed surprised.

Perhaps because of the lack of brains, one of his underlings behind him ran straight forward and tried to attack me knowing his boss got knocked down with my fist.

“Mom!”

I heard Sertien anxiously shouted from behind.

Don’t worry, because I’m not the one who’s going to get beat up.

I dodged lightly and knocked down the underling who ran towards me with a strong elbow hit on the back.

At this point, the rest of the gang seemed to have felt the seriousness of the situation, and no one seemed to think of rushing to me.

Perhaps it was because I hadn’t moved like this in a long time so my shoulders felt a little stiff. As I was rubbing my shoulders, I saw a group of uniformed men approaching from afar.

It was the Knights of Reed.

‘Come here faster!’

Isn’t this too slow of a response? Only coming here after I’ve already settled the situation?

I waited for the knights to come, thinking that I should talk about this incident at least once when I return to the imperial palace.

“I’m from the Knights of Reed. Everybody, please make way.”

That voice sounded familiar somehow.

Now that I saw it, the Commander of the Knights of Reed personally came.

I wondered why it took so long, but it seemed like a big deal, so the head decided to move himself.

The knights began to catch all the thugs.

I was supposed to leave before the knights came, but I wasn’t able to because of all the fuss.

“I apologize, can you please explain what happened, Mi… Dame Alfrez?

The Knight of Reed’s Commander looked surprised when he finally recognized who I was.

No matter how hectic the situation was, how can you not recognize me right away?

By the way, I was part of the Knights of Reed before I became the Commander of the Imperial Knights.

I was also the Knight Commander of the order at that time and the current Commander of the Knights of Reed, Zetton, was a subordinate knight directly below me.

So it was natural that we were close and knew each other well.

After recognizing that I was Litia Alfrez, Zetton seemed to be glad to see me and spoke with a straightened expression on his face.

“What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Commander.”

“You should’ve come here quickly. The situation had been going on for quite a while.”

At my words, Zetton replied with an embarrassed face.

“It’s my mistake. This hasn’t happened much lately, so I’ve been relaxing.”

“Commander, we’ve arrested them all. But….”

Zetton and I were having a conversation when a seemingly rookie knight approached him and spoke.

Zetton answered, pointing at me with the palm of his hand.

“This is Litia Alfrez, the Commander of the Imperial Knights of the Palace.”

“Oh… my God,  I apologize for not recognizing you!”

It doesn’t really matter…

I thought to myself as I looked at the rookie knight who greeted me with excessive nervousness when I was mentioned to be the Commander of the Imperial Knights

Zetton’s remarks had quite a large impact.

The people around us who were curious about what we were doing started to mutter, and the thugs I knocked down were also looking at me with surprised eyes.

“If you’re the Commander of the Imperial Knights… Do you happen to be the Duke of Alfrez’…”

It was incredible even after hearing it.

I lightly scratched my head at everyone’s reactions.

Of course, I knew Litia Alfrez was famous, but it was this much?

I wanted to leave as quickly as possible because it seemed like finding Prince Ered would become troublesome if rumors spread that I had come.

“Anyway… What brings you here? I heard you were busy.”

“Um… I don’t really want to say it here, so I’d like to talk about it somewhere far from the crowd.”

“Then would you like to come with me to headquarters? It’s not too far from here, so if you don’t mind.”

Now that it had come to this, I was thinking of telling you about Ered, so I tried to answer.

Now that it’s come to this, I was thinking of telling you about Ered, so I tried to answer.

Wriggling next to me, Sertien who came up and clung to me said,

“Mom, who is this?”

‘Oh dear…’ I saw Zetton’s face in front of me turn white in real-time.

I broke out in a cold sweat

“M…. mom…?”

“No, it’s not that… I’m not his mother…”

I was trying to deny what Sertien said while waving my hands, but Sertien, who was looking up at me with a pure innocent face, cried with a frown.

“What are you talking about? You just said you were my mom! You’re my mom!!!”

Ah, right. I said that.

It was only then that I remembered the words I had just shouted out to the thugs at the heat of the moment.

Things are certainly getting out of hand.

At this rate, rumors that I had a hidden child might spread throughout the city.

“Oh… the child looks quite old, when did you give birth to him? Having a son before I even knew about it..!”

“No!”

I almost cried out in a fit of tears.