Let's start over, Your Majesty.

Chapter 16 Yumilia's Troubles

"Kids, do you want to know who will win today's Best Baby Award?"

"think--"

"Then, let me tell you all, the winner of today's Best Student Award is—Diwen!"

"Wow!"

"Let's raise our little hands and give him the warmest applause!"

A round of applause filled the classroom. Diwen, the little boy who won the Best Baby Award, shyly went up to the stage, accepted the prize from the teacher—a box of fruit gummies in various flavors—thanked the teacher, and walked off the stage amidst the applause.

After returning home, he immediately handed the candy he was holding to the pretty little girl with pigtails next to him, blushing as he said:
"Little Feifei, these are all for you."

"Thank you!"

The pretty girl, Felicity, happily accepted the box of fruit gummies, then turned to Caesar, who was reading a book beside her, and said enthusiastically:
"Caesar, Caesar, look, I have fruit-flavored gummies! Shall we eat them together?"

Seeing that the candy he had given out was immediately used to please Caesar, Devin's lips curled into a sneer, and he burst into tears.

"Caesar, what flavor do you want? I'll get it for you."

"Go cool off somewhere else and stop bothering me."

Caesar looked at the book and said coldly without expression.

Feeling a lump in her throat from being treated like this, Felicity burst into tears.

Then the other children started to jeer, and the classroom suddenly became noisy.

"Children, be quiet, be quiet."

The young female teacher tried to calm everyone down, but in the end she could only cover her head and sigh helplessly.

"Ms. Yumilia, I'd like to trouble you to come today mainly to discuss Caesar's recent performance at school."

Although the teacher wore a polite smile, the twitching corners of her mouth betrayed her embarrassment.

Opposite her was Yumilia, who was sitting in a chair with her feet not even touching the ground. The elven girl hunched her shoulders, her face showing great concern.
"Has Caesar gotten into trouble again?" Yumilia asked in a low voice.

"Is such that."

The teacher sighed and said, "We used to have a snack corner in our classroom. If a child behaves well or helps the teacher, they can get a snack voucher and exchange it for snacks."

"This was just a reward, but Caesar made a lot of counterfeit vouchers and sold them to other children. Because it was cheaper than selling snacks outside, almost the entire class bought vouchers from him with their pocket money."

"Later, because there were too many vouchers, there weren't enough snacks, so we had to increase the number of vouchers required for redemption. But that didn't work either, so we had to remove the snack corner."

"We learned about Caesar's situation last Wednesday from other children's parents. They found out after questioning their children about the amount of snacks they had bought that did not match their allowance."

"Is that so?" Yumilia lowered her head, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Um, I'll compensate for the school's lost snacks."

"As for the loss, it's not to the point where we need to compensate for it. The snacks are for the children anyway, so you don't need to worry about it."

The teacher chuckled dryly, "It does have some impact on our teaching work."

"Furthermore, we didn't notice because his voucher had the teacher's official stamp on it, but we don't know where that stamp came from."

The teacher stopped halfway through his sentence, but the meaning was clear: Caesar had stolen the teacher's seal and used it to make counterfeit vouchers.

Yumilia huddled on the bench, feeling utterly ashamed.

"I'm sorry." The teacher smiled helplessly. In reality, she still had many grievances about Caesar that she hadn't yet reported.

This child, with his seemingly harmless face, has become someone that all the teachers are at a loss with.

"However, I must say, little Caesar's... well, business acumen is quite impressive. If he puts it into the right direction, he'll surely become a remarkable businessman. I think parents should provide him with some guidance in this area."

“Yes, yes,” Yumilia said awkwardly, her head bowed.

As she stepped out of the office, Yumilia saw Caesar sitting quietly on a bench by the door, reading a book. She adjusted her expression, put on a slight smile, and approached him, saying:
"Have you been waiting long? Let's go home."

Caesar stood up without a word, picked up the book, and walked around reading.

Yumilia was about to say something, but she kept quiet and followed.

As they walked out of the kindergarten, two little girls who were buying things at a roadside trinkets stall saw Caesar and immediately reached out to greet him.

"Caesar! Caesar!"

Yumilia turned her head and saw that Caesar ignored them completely, so she couldn't help but say, "Caesar, some classmates are saying hello to you."

“I’m pretending I didn’t hear you,” Caesar said without even blinking.

"."

Yumilia had no choice but to wave to the two girls and say hello on his behalf.

“Caesar, you can’t do this. You have to be polite to your classmates,” Yumilia said to him from behind.

"Understood." Caesar turned a page, then took a pen from his pocket and made a mark on it.

They passed by a pastry shop and smelled a sweet aroma coming from inside.

Seeing the sign for new products displayed at the entrance, Yumilia called out to Caesar, "Caesar, are you hungry? Would you like some snacks?"

"Ah."

"Then, wait for me a moment."

Yumilia ran to the dessert shop and became quite familiar with the owner. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, she quickly returned with two lemon cream croissants.

Caesar held a croissant in one hand and a book in the other, eating as he read.

Yumilia was unwrapping the croissant's oil paper when she saw Caesar doing this and couldn't help but say:

"Caesar, stop reading while walking; it's bad for your eyes."

"Tsk."

Caesar clicked his tongue softly, but still put the book away and tucked it under his arm.

Seeing his impatient look, Yumilia could only sigh softly.

Caesar is almost five years old and has grown into a beautiful face that all the girls in the kindergarten like. Although he is adopted, he seems to resemble her more.

Although he wasn't like other kids his age who were mischievous and never went home, he still worried her a lot. The teacher would always call him to the kindergarten and tell her what he had done wrong recently.

In particular, Yumilia felt that Caesar was becoming more and more distant from her as he grew older. He would often ignore her when she spoke to him. When he was three years old, they would bathe and sleep together, but now he didn't even want to share a bed with her. He moved to a separate room and told her not to come in without knocking.

When she first learned to speak, I would always call her name, but I haven't called her that since.

Is this what they call a child's rebellious phase?
Yumilia sighed and took a bite of the sweet and sour croissant.

(End of this chapter)