I! Cleaner!
Chapter 161 - 161: 0140 As soon as I came in, I saw Anna hitting Melanie_1

"Sister?"

Just as the two siblings were embracing warmly at their doorstep, silently promising in their hearts to always be each other's safe harbor, a curious little head poked out and inquired,

"So it's big brother who's back! Are you still gonna hit Melanie today?"

???

Along with this loaded question, Leon felt the person in his arms suddenly freeze, and unusually clear teeth-grinding sounds echoed in his ears.

"Hit! Definitely hit!"

Releasing her grip around Leon's waist, the frail girl stomped her foot hard and gritted her teeth angrily,

"It doesn't matter if you come back, even if Mom and Dad came back today, she won't escape this beating!"

?!?!!?

What?! Is it that serious?

Seeing Anna, who rarely mentioned their parents, so mad she was speaking nonsense, Leon quickly hugged his angrily frowning sister tighter, trying to persuade her earnestly,

"Stop, stop, don't rush to hit her, education comes first, education comes first!"

"My hitting her is educating her! Bro! Let me go! Let go!"

At William's reminder, Anna, who had just been gentle as water, now recalled her anger. She struggled and complained in rage,

"It's all your fault for always stopping me from hitting them. Do you know what they did?"

"Uh... what did they do?"

"In just their first week at school, they rallied those noble kids to chase away the teacher and started some kind of class parliament!"

"It's a class parliament."

Correcting his sister's mistake, William seriously explained while buttoning his pants,

"We're learning the Kingdom's two-chamber system, those from big noble families go to the Upper House. Those who are super-rich, particularly good at studying, or exceptionally good at fighting join the Lower House. The Upper House regularly drafts class regulations, but those need to be voted on by the Lower House. Finally, the class president, elected by the Lower House, announces the regulations and is responsible for negotiations with the principal and teachers. The model is very rigorous."

"..."

Wow, it's a perfect replication of it. Are kids these days a bit too ferocious? When I was their age, I was still arguing with my desk partner about whether there were urinals in the girls' restroom!

"How dare you still talk!"

After hearing William's pseudo-adult correction, Anna in Leon's arms struggled even harder, shouting angrily as she did,

"Melanie asked me for two packs of cookies, saying she wanted to share them with classmates, but she used the cookies I baked to get votes for herself, bribing the election to gain support and become the class president! Bro! Do you know? After that little brat became the class president, the first decree she passed was to unite with all the classmates to chase away the Religion and Home Economics teachers! Those two teachers together are almost a hundred years old. When I went there, one was pointing at my nose and cursing, and the other was holding the holy book and sobbing. I didn't even know how to apologize!"

"..."

Well, that is a bit too much, indeed they need some proper education.

Frowning with a headache, Leon brought his constantly struggling sister into the house. He looked at the closed door of the inner room, then turned his head to look at William on the side, and said with a slightly serious expression,

"Everything else is fine, but why chase away the teachers? If the reason isn't suitable, don't blame big brother for not helping you stop it."

"As for the reason, those two teachers really did suck."

Little William tilted his head, thought for a while, and then answered,

"The Home Economics teacher is the class advisor's aunt. Her cooking is really horrible, and she's always very kind to those noble kids, yet very harsh to us normal-dressing kids. The work Melanie and I were assigned in the Home Economics class involved washing potatoes, cleaning organs, and scraping fish scales. Then, we had to eat those unsuccessful dishes made by the noble kids. It's just terribly annoying."

"The Religion teacher is about the same. Every day he only tells us to loudly read the holy book and quizzes us on it. If we can't recite it, he hits our palms, calling us unfaithful little brats who should go to Hell and be taken away by demons when we die. Melanie and I just transferred there a week ago, and we weren't familiar with the holy book like others. As a result, we always got our palms hit.

Melanie couldn't stand it and found some tricky questions in the holy book to stump him. Then she asked him if he couldn't answer them, did it mean he wasn't faithful and should get his palms hit, too? In the end, he even kicked her once."

"..."

So that's what happened...

After hearing William's explanation, Leon and Anna's expressions froze slightly, with a trace of regret flashing in Anna's eyes. Then she lowered her voice and said,

"Then why didn't you tell me when I asked you just now?"

William didn't respond to that but instead hesitated a bit and glanced at Leon. Seeing the little guy's gaze, Leon vaguely guessed the reason they hadn't told her earlier.

Knowing that the kids at home had suffered, Anna would definitely go over directly, but her health hadn't recovered yet; she needed a few more months of medication. If they explained, it might make things more troublesome, especially since Leon had been away recently. It was simpler just to take a beating and then explain it later.

Additionally, if they were ordinary kids, they might think "the adults" would certainly help them seek justice, but these two little guys had known since they were young that their older brothers and sisters were not omnipotent. If enduring a beating and writing a review could solve the problem, they would probably just take the beating and get it over with.

These two little tykes are... both heartbreakingly sensible and headache-inducingly clueless...

...

"Maybe they've grown up and don't want to tell the family everything."

Fearing that telling the truth might upset Anna, Leon offered a vague excuse, then said to William,

"Bear with it for a few more days. Your big brother is too busy with work now to look after the family temporarily, but once things settle down, I'll go to your school right away."

Letting go of his no longer struggling sister, Leon squatted and patted William's head, solemnly promising,

"Big brother promises you, if it's indeed as you said, those two teachers will definitely be replaced, and they must apologize to you and the other kids. But next time if something similar happens, you are not to act rashly, rally classmates, and chase people away. Tell the family first. As long as you are in the right, big brother will definitely back you up!"

"..."

As long as we are in the right?

Looking at Leon's serious expression, William tilted his head and pondered for a moment, then nodded vigorously.

"Okay! Next time we'll definitely make sure we're right first!"

"..."

While there seems to be nothing wrong with that, why do I feel like what you understand isn't quite what I meant?

Leon smiled helplessly, then ruffled his little brother's always-unique-mindset head, before standing back up and patting him on the back.

"Alright, go call Melanie out, tell her she won't have to take the beating."

"Mm!"

Using his excellent diplomatic skills to defuse the family war, William trotted to the inner room and started pounding on the locked door.

"Come out, it's fine now!"

"Not coming out!"

From inside the room came Melanie's wary voice after hearing the knocking.

"You're surely trying to trick me into opening the door for another beating! Forget it, I won't come out before dawn! If I come out now, I might get beaten for an hour, but if I can hide until school tomorrow, Sister Anna might only beat me for ten minutes to avoid me being late!"

"Get out!"

After banging on the door for ages to no avail, William became visibly impatient and shouted,

"Big brother's back, sister has no time to beat you now!"

"Not coming out, you liar, no way I'm gonna get beat with you!"

"Then don't blame me!"

Seeing how unloyal she was, William squinted his eyes, then turned towards Leon and Anna,

"I'm telling you, Melanie took my pocket money to buy roses and planned to send them to the Home Economics teacher's house, making her husband think she's having an affair! And yesterday she wrote a complaint letter to the Sanctuary Church, reporting that the Religion teacher was too unfamiliar with the holy book, suggesting the Sanctuary Church check his priest's qualification to see if he bought it!"