Why Did You Summon Me?

Fortunately, Baiyi had little to no interest in Harllotte even if she was still as bodacious and sexy as she once was. Just the fact that she was Vidomina’s biological mother, as well as the reminder that she was not as young as she had chosen to look, was enough to dampen any tiny rise he might have gotten from her.

More importantly, the assets that Lady Harllotte thought were her strongholds actually were not as exclusive as she would have liked; worse, they may not even be enough to fight Baiyi’s established harem of beautiful girls. They were all completely devoted to him, too.

First, there was Undine. She possessed the beauty, countenance, fashion sense, and attitude that were no less alluring as Lady Harllotte’s. Next, there was Aya, the little dragon lady who carried herself as a demure, soft-spoken, and reticent noblewoman. Then, there was the Fairy Walker, Sylvia Sidhe, whose beauty was like that of belladonna — beautiful, deadly, and a whole lot of troubles. After that, there was the starkly frigid and staid Warrior Walker, who sometimes lets out little moments of vulnerability and turned into a quiet, shy girl asking for cuddles and affection. Lastly, there was the simple-minded, adorably dimwitted, yet pure-hearted and sweet little Lady Assassin Walker.

Every single one of them was so cute! With so many choices who would jump at the chance to be with him, would Baiyi ever even need Harllotte at all? As for the thrill of an explicit threesome between a father, mother, and daughter. It was an insult to suggest that he would be into that sort of perversion.

In summary, Baiyi simply could not care less about what everyone else thought. To him, the only thing that mattered was Vidomina’s happiness, and it was the sole reason why he accepted the human trafficker’s ‘gift’.

The very next day, the loli that Baiyi had met the night before paid him a visit, with a brand-new Aldhelm in hand. After some tinkering on the staff’s minor issues throughout the night, Baiyi’s morning began with an extra dose of good feelings. He was feeling so pleased with himself, he even brought the little loli for an impromptu tour around Da Xue.

“This is so fun, Grandpa Hope, thank you! I’ve always dreamed of becoming a student here, and now, after exploring… I wish I can be a student now!” The little loli cried out in childlike jubilance. She pranced around joyfully before running towards Baiyi, grabbing him by his hand.

She smiled sweetly and added, “But when I did become a student here, you must promise me, Grandpa Hope… Please don’t be angry if I do something silly!”

‘Yes, very cute. Super-duper cute. If I had any bone to pick, it’ll be this: what should I do to make her stop calling me a grandpa ? Have I really reached the age where “grandpa” is the one true address to use? ‘ Baiyi mused a little dismally to himself as he held the little girl by her hand and began their tour.

For some reason, her parents had named the little girl Elise, as though that name would not make anyone raise their eyebrow. Not only that, they even had her golden hair bunched into twin horsetails. The resemblance just compelled Baiyi to testily ask her about her family, specifically to make sure that her father’s love thus far had been within reasonable bounds ¹ .

“He is a loving man and a kind father,” Elise replied with sweet, girlish candor. “I’m so grateful to have such a happy family!”

‘Hmph. An answer expected from a daughter of an actual noble family. She’s only twelve, yet she already knows exactly what to say and what to leave out—unlike my Mia!’ As Baiyi mused, an image of a certain girl with black twin-horsetails rose in his mind.

That “supposed” adult had reached the age of twenty-seven, yet she was still constantly blurting out thoughts that were so childish no one knew if they should laugh or cry hearing it. Sometimes, this “twenty-seven years old” even ran all the way to her Big Sister Dale’s home just to cuddle with her!

Still, nothing could be as much of a textbook example on “cannot adult properly” than her near nonexistent room-tidying skill. Whenever Baiyi gave her an earful for it, she would always retort with gusto, “Tidying is precisely what Mr. Hope to for!”

Maybe these two girls should exchange their shells, to match their personality and their age.

That was just a joke, of course. The truth was that Baiyi rather has a twenty-seven-years-old wearing her heart on her sleeves than to have twelve-years-olds acting unnaturally prim and proper. He loved it when Mia showed her true self as it meant she saw everyone as her family.

Elise Harriott, on the other hand, might be cute and mature, but something always felt off about the way she carried herself. Her behavior, action, and her choice of words felt calculated and scripted. She acted like an adult noble who had been accustomed to the mind and social games their station had required them to play.

With the same girlish candor, Elise told Baiyi that she was engaged to an imperial duke’s son about two years ago. Supposedly, by the tender age of sixteen, the girl would have to marry him already.

The kicker was that the two had never met each other before. The only form of contact they ever shared was restricted to exchanging letters.

‘So, she started getting knee-deep into the life of a noble by the age of ten, huh?’ Baiyi remarked quietly. Admittedly, early arranged marriages like these were hardly out of the norm. Baiyi had heard that some baby girls were betrothed to a man right after they were born, and even that was considered part of the package of being a noble.

Honestly, Baiyi was pissed at this custom. One thing was certain: none of his daughters would ever be forced into some stupid arranged marriage, even if that fiancé was some stupid duke’s stupid son. In fact, Baiyi bet that brat must feel so good about himself being born into the cadet branch of the royal family that if he were on Earth, he might just end his whole life idly watching videos on Bilibili ² .

Just thinking about this made Baiyi’s blood boiled while his fingers itch to skin that brat.

Mentioning her engagement finally lent a subtle display of anxiety befitting a girl her age. She lowered her voice while holding Baiyi’s hand tightly and muttered, “To be honest, I’m really unnerved about this arrangement…”

“Well, sometimes, you gotta’ learn to fight for yourself,” Baiyi replied ominously under his breath.

He did not add anything else into his advice, however, since this was ultimately the Harriott family’s internal affair. An outsider like himself had to exercise some sort of caution when it came to things like this. Sure, Elise was an adorable loli, but the world was full of cute lolis like herself. Baiyi was already having a hard time providing the ones he now owned a comfortable living; On top of that, he had yet endeared himself to his newest additions, Anna and Santa!

In conclusion, even the self-titled Savior of All Young Girls like himself would have to skip out on this one.

Anyway, Elise seemed to have heard Baiyi’s words. A series of undetermined expressions flitted across her face as she asked pointedly, “What did you say, Grandpa Hope?”

“Elise, do you know that Da Xue forbids any existing student to get married while they are still studying?”

Baiyi had given her a non-sequitur answer, yet the shrewd little girl caught on easily. Her trademark sweet smile resurfaced as she replied happily, “Then I guess I’ll have to work even harder so that I could get into this beautiful academy one day!”

‘I’m sure my advice had helped secure a talented individual for Isythre,’ Baiyi reassured himself repetitively to assuage his own guilt for inciting a rebellion in a tween going to go through her phase.

“Speaking of which, who is the one in the family joining the academy?” Baiyi said, changing the subject. Typically, the names of the new students were not known during the auction itself unless the noble explicitly mentioned it to him. It was usually unimportant for him to know, however, since he was sure that no noble would be daft enough to abuse their hard-earned chance by sending the most hopeless stooge of the family to the academy.

“It’s my fifth brother,” The little loli answered lithely as she nibbled at a piece of cake that Baiyi had just magically produced from thin air (he actually stored it in his inner pocket). The way she ate was quite similar to a little woodland critter.

The cake might have loosened up some of Elise’s guardedness because she started talking about her brother candidly. “He’s currently learning as an apprentice in our family’s smithy. He was supposed to be the rising star of our generation! But then my third brother returned home from Da Xue and suddenly, he became the prodigious staff-maker and the center of the attention. It really dismayed my third brother, so he tried his best to pass the entrance exam with his own skills last year. He didn’t make it, so he had to resort to being a sponsored student this year.”

It was then, quite suddenly, Elise placed the unfinished cake down and cupped her hands before her chest like a kitty begging for food. She widened her big, watery eyes and stared at Baiyi intensely and pleadingly.

“Grandpa Hope? Can you make a tee wee promise to me? Just promise me that you’ll take care of my poor brother in my stead,” She said in a low voice. “We have always been very close to each other. It pains me greatly to see him neglected and forlorn. If you could just promise me that you will help him, Grandpa Hope, then I… I will…”

The typical ending for such a “plot” would have Baiyi suddenly curling his lips into a sinister smile as he lowered his voice and asked, “What will you do, hmm? What are you willing to offer?”

Then, the little loli would be lowering her head bashfully, her face red wit blushes. She would then cup her hands around Baiyi’s and placed them over her yet-developed chest before suddenly quivering her lips into a seductive smile, “I’ll give you absolutely everything …”

Now that was a line that could escalate any situation from zero to over a hundred!

Fortunately, Baiyi was never one who played by cliché scripts. Seeing Elise suddenly acting a tad bit too adorable, he remained unfazed and replied matter-of-factly, “First, your brother would need to pick a faculty of interest and learn from a teacher there. If he managed to attract attention, he could stand a chance to learn from the Principal of that faculty himself, just like your third brother did. That kid was very dedicated and hardworking. It was his own hard work that had earned him the chance to learn about the long-lost art of forging Aldhelms. Really, you don’t have to worry at all. Da Xue treats all of her students as equals.”

“Oh, is that so?” Elise mumbled, lowering her head in disappointment as her hands gripped the sides of her skirt tightly. Baiyi had a feeling that she was now trying to draw his attention to the pair of white silky sock she was wearing as she tried her best to look as pitiful as possible to rouse his affection and fatherly instincts.

Not that it could work on Baiyi, though. The girls back at his place were always wearing all sorts of silky socks before showing them off to him. Being exposed to the same fanservice to the point over these years had hardened Baiyi’s heart; Now, he was inoculated from whatever charm silky socks originally had.

Nonetheless, Baiyi had to admit that Elise was really… something else. Maybe that was just how noble children acted. They had to be a lot more calculative and scheming than a commonfolk’s kid; It was par the course of growing up as a noble. Still, Elise had shown herself to be quite sly; From the way she brought up her arranged marriage — as if to grind for sympathy — to her coyly asking Baiyi to take “extra care” of her brother so that she could offer herself as thanks, every move Elise made had been deliberate, almost as if they were all parts of a grander ploy.

Baiyi suspected that this was the Harriotte family’s plan all along. They wanted to use their loli as a bait to get to certain famous and powerful lolicon. Unfortunately, those nobles got their intel wrong!

Baiyi was not a lolicon! Nope, not at all! The Harriott family’s move was not very effective!

Just like that, Little Elise had failed to complete her secret objective. After frolicking around the academy with Baiyi for a bit more, the Fifth Walker finally took her back to the main entrance to see her off.

Before she left, she made a sharp turn and flashed Baiyi an enigmatic smile as she curtsied.

“Why, why. Grandpa Hope, you’re not the kind of person I’d imagined you would be at all,” she said melodiously before turning back and vanishing into the transporter portal.

Watching her back vanishing into the portal, Baiyi sighed. “Heh. All noble kids are like that, huh? Nice to see, nice to hold… probably out to get your soul.”

He headed back to Da Xue without feeling any regret and started walking back to the residential area. He took only two steps before stopping himself and turning to a large tree on a side, calling out, “Alright, come out from there.”

There was a loud crash echoing out from that tree before he heard girly-soft grunts:

“Owww…”

“Uwaaah! Anna… You’re crushing my chest, and it hurts!”

“I’m s-sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

Baiyi went behind the tree and picked the two girls up from the ground before placing them on each side of his shoulders. “So, why were the two of you following me everywhere?”

As if to scare the girls, he trembled his arms and caused the girls to let out panicked cries. Instinctively, they wrapped their arms around his, which seemed like they were hugging Baiyi on their own volition.

Santa was the one who answered Baiyi first, pursing her lips and speaking in a defiant tone, “Well, Big Meanie, why didn’t you catch that little girl as you did us, since she was so cute and pretty, huh?”

‘Hold up. Just what kinda person do all of you think I am? I’m not the kind to see a cute loli on the street and immediately thought of lassoing her and swinging her around like a rodeo just to bring her home while she’s unconscious!’ Baiyi retorted sourly in his head.