Judging by the way he was being booed, it seemed as though the authority of Marquess Blader, the arrogant head of the magic tower, had long since been lost.

He ignored the crowd and confidently cut in line. “Shea! I’ll take everything!”

“We don’t allow that here,” she replied.

“Come on, it’s me, the head of the magic tower.”

She gave him a deadpan look and turned away. “Fel, where are you?”

Fel raised his head and asked, “What is it?”

“Kick him out right now.”

Eid and Edward were shocked at the way Shea coldly and viciously ignored the marquess’ importance as head of the magic tower. She spoke about him as if he weren’t right in front of her. They wondered whether she really was an average citizen of Zenoa, an average human.

The head of the magic tower, stripped of his authority in the café, held onto the counter with a pleading expression. “All right. Five—no, ten, please?”

The customers in line in front of him began to complain loudly.

“That’s too much, Marquess!”

“That’s not fair!”

“Shut up!” he cried petulantly, as if he was used to using his authority this way.

Shea, apparently unaware of what was happening, coolly began to count the number of bagels. “There are only ten.”

“That’s all?” the marquess yelped.

“Kick that one out, Fel.”

He changed his attitude almost instantly. “No, no, that’s enough. Yup!”

The other customers grabbed the marquess to drag him out of the café.

The class system was completely falling to pieces. Eid and Edward felt as though they were in some strange alternate dimension, a dimension where Shea Grande was king. What they didn’t realize was that they too were part of this strange scene as fellow citizens.

Meanwhile, Shea had grown sick of the commotion. “I don’t care. Take them all, but for one gold coin.”

“Here you go!” exclaimed the marquess, looking as though he’d glimpsed a bright future. He instantly held out a gold coin and received a bag of bagels in exchange. Genuinely ecstatic, he clutched the paper bag like a precious treasure.

The other customers despaired. Their expressions betrayed their thoughts.

“We should have dragged him out right away,” moaned one.

Eid and Edward had also lost their chance to get bagels. They were equally devastated.

The café door opened, and a little boy came inside. “Mom!”

“There you are, Elias.”

“I’m hungry.”

“We don’t have anything ready. What do you want to eat, sweetheart?”

“Hmm.” He glanced at the customers.

They began mouthing words, signaling the foods they wanted, with pleading looks.

Taking this in, Elias smiled brightly and turned to his mother with enthusiasm. “Blueberry cream buns!”

Several of the customers threw their hands into the air in silent triumph.

Paying no attention to them, Shea nodded to her son. “That won’t take long. Go ahead and play while you wait.”

“Okay!”

As soon as Shea disappeared into the kitchen, the customers gathered around the little boy with big hugs and shouts of joy.

The head of the magic tower, a blueberry addict, cheered loudest. “Oh, you precious boy! How could an adorable boy like you be Shea’s son?”

“Mom made me!” the boy replied, his cheeks rosy with love for his mother.

The customers were delighted by how adorable he was and took turns stroking his head. No one thought this was odd, even though the customers were all men. Given the boy’s innate cuteness, it was as though he’d been born to be adored.

“Have some of this, Elias,” offered a tall man with gray hair.

“Yay, candy!”

“This is just for you. Don’t share it with the other kids like you did last time.”

“Okay.” The boy popped a piece of candy in his mouth before grinning with joy.

The customers watched happily. Quite a few of them frequented Sangria to see the little boy, though they may not have been aware of it.

“Is it yummy?” the gray-haired man asked.

“Yup!”

“Better than your mom makes?”

“Nooo…”

“Haha! You love your mother so much, don’t you?”

Eid and Edward wore matching expressions of confusion as they watched this unfamiliar scene, overcome with a strange emotion. At the palace and among the aristocracy, a display like this was so rare that it could almost be considered heretical. Affection? There was no room for affection when children were considered possessions to be sold to the highest bidder.

But their world seemed completely detached from this one.

As they watched with wonder and confusion, the boy’s gaze slowly moved to the two of them. Their eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected eye contact.

Elias stared before hopping over with wonder in his eyes. “Wow, you two are so handsome!”

“Pfft!” The innocent, cheerful remark caught both men off guard, making them spit out their tea. After growing up in the brutal aristocracy, such a pure and straightforward exclamation felt incredibly new and unfamiliar, even more so because it contained not a trace of malice.

As the two men blinked in confusion, Elias nattered excitedly. “You’re the handsomest men I’ve ever seen! You’re even handsomer than Mister Leonardo, who comes to the café sometimes.”

He must have been referring to Leonardo Davinchi, the notorious playboy. They smiled awkwardly as they recalled the delinquent duke. It was almost insulting to be compared to Leonardo, but they couldn’t fault this cheerful little boy. They kept their mouths shut instead.

The other customers burst out laughing.

“They certainly are handsome,” called a ragged man in the corner. “But what about me? Aren’t I better looking?”

The two men furrowed their eyebrows at this nonsense, but the boy responded first. “These two are more handsome!”

The café filled with laughter at the boy’s honest assessment.

“Hahaha! He’s right. How dare you compare your ugly mug?”

“Go look in the mirror!”

“Hey,” the man replied good-naturedly. “I was kidding!”

“You crossed the line,” said a dour man at the table next to him. “What possessed you to compare yourself to those two? Even I have to admit they’re the most handsome men I’ve ever seen.”

The emperor’s face wasn’t well known, so he hadn’t attempted to disguise himself. Most of the nobles didn’t dare meet his gaze head on, so they didn’t know what he looked like, and the commoners had never had the chance to see him. The same applied to Edward van Griffith, who rarely showed his face anywhere.

The other customers gossiped without hesitation, blissfully unaware who sat among them. For the two men, who were used to being known wherever they went, this was yet another new experience. They’d never considered wanting to be treated like normal people.

But it felt quite nice.

Shea emerged from the kitchen, waving her rolling pin. “What’s with the noise?”

Everyone turned guiltily.

Elias hopped over to his mother. As she scooped him up, her eyes darted to the two men. Her eyebrows furrowed. She seemed to remember kicking them out herself yesterday. “Ugh, why are they in here?”

The two men faced Shea, showing no signs of remorse. They appeared to have no intention of backing down.

Shea’s voice was full of regret. “I really shouldn’t have taken down that sign.”

Eid’s expression hardened. This woman knew exactly who he was, and yet she treated him with such disdain—exasperating, but also refreshing. Usually when people found out who he was, they prostrated themselves at his feet, trembling in fear.

Shea looked around at everyone staring at her, and her eyebrows furrowed again. “What? What are you looking at? Am I that pretty?”

Such a shameless thing to say—but she wasn’t entirely wrong.

The customers went back to their seats, grumbling quietly. They didn’t seem to want to admit it, which seemed likely to get them slapped.

Elias, on the other hand, was eager to share his discovery. “Mom, I found someone handsomer than Mister Leonardo!”

Shea let out a huff of laughter. “There are plenty of better men than that piece of trash, my dear. The only good thing about that man is his looks. Don’t associate with bastards who rely only on their good looks.”

It was good advice, but not something you would necessarily tell a small child.

Elias seemed used to his mother’s rough language. “Okay.”

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Shea set Elias down, and he hopped over to Lucy and grabbed onto her skirts. She smiled and picked him up, and everyone’s attention turned to them.

Shea turned to face the two men, her typically cold expression now as chilling as a snowstorm. “So, what brings you two gentlemen here?”

The emperor smirked. “So you do know me—and yet you address me with this attitude?”

“Whatever. It’s not like I’m particularly loyal to the empire. I’ve also been personally slighted by you, you see.”

“Slighted?” He gave her a confused look. He was mind-bogglingly intelligent and had an exceptionally good memory, even for the smallest details. But there was nothing about the name Shea Grande or anything related to her in his memory.

Shea found no reason to give him an explanation. “I would like you to refrain from coming here ever again. Why don’t you go somewhere fancy, somewhere more appropriate to your status?”

It was a slightly nicer, roundabout way of telling him to stay cooped up in his palace.