I Became a Kindergarten Teacher for Monster Babies!-Chapter 581 Hope

Alina’s smile faltered for a moment.

Inside, a panic rose. It started in her chest, a cold flutter that spread through her stomach, up her throat, into her thoughts.

They couldn’t see it.

They couldn’t know.

The kindergarten wasn’t normal. Nothing about it was normal. The children who shifted between forms. The staff who appeared out of nowhere.

If they saw even a glimpse, if her mother saw a child’s ears turn pointed, if her aunt noticed a shadow moving against the light, if either of them caught anything, it would shatter everything she had carefully, painstakingly kept separate.

Her two worlds could not meet.

She had built walls between them, high and thick, and she had maintained them for years. Her family knew she taught children. They knew she worked at a private royal academy. They knew she was happy.

They did not know that the cute babies she talked about were very dangerous. After all, all babies would grow up very dangerous in the future, although they were still babies in her eyes.

They did not know about Dante. They didn’t know her boyfriend was the Shadow Lord, whose horns were enough to scare them. Although she loved his horns very much... she even found them hot. Don’t think about that right now, Lina. She was going insane.

She swallowed slowly, the movement deliberate, controlled.

"...It’s just a small place," she said, trying to sound casual, trying to make her voice light. "Nothing very special. Just desks and chairs and books. The same as any kindergarten. Just a fancier building, maybe."

Her aunt tilted her head, her expression unreadable.

"That’s fine. We just want to see where you spend your days. We don’t need special. We want you. And it’s a royal academy, so it must be beautiful."

Her mother nodded quickly, her smile soft and hopeful.

"Yes, even if it is simple. I want to see your classroom, your desk, everything. The place where you are a teacher. The place you talk about so much. The academy that took such good care of you when I was sick."

Alina looked at them.

At their hopeful expressions, their bright eyes, their genuine excitement. At her mother’s soft smile, the one that had been missing for so long during her illness, now returned and brighter than before. At her aunt’s curious gaze, the same one she had worn since Alina was a child, always wanting to know more, always wanting to understand.

A small sigh escaped her.

"...You really want to see it?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," her mother said immediately, her voice gentle but firm. "Very much. More than anything. I want to see where my daughter became the teacher she always wanted to be."

There was a pause.

Alina lowered her gaze for a second, thinking.

Her mind moved quickly, racing through possibilities, weighing options, calculating risks.

Could Dante create an illusion? A normal version of the classroom, stripped of magic, scrubbed clean of anything supernatural? Could he weave a spell that would make her mother and aunt see only desks and chairs, only books and crayons, only what was safe?

Or would that be too dangerous? Too much magic, too much effort for something so small?

Should she avoid it completely? Make excuses? Say it wasn’t allowed for visitors, wasn’t possible, wasn’t something she could share because of the royal family’s privacy?

She looked at her mother’s face again.

The hope there was so pure, so simple.

"...I will ask," she said finally.

Her mother’s face lit up instantly, the way it used to when Alina was small and said she would draw her a picture, make her a gift, write her a letter.

"Really?"

"Yes," Alina nodded, though her chest still felt tight, her thoughts still spinning. "But I don’t know if it is possible. It is a royal academy. There are rules. Privacy rules. Security rules. For the children, for the staff. For the royal family."

Her aunt nodded slowly, understanding.

"Of course. Royal academies must be very careful. We understand if it is not allowed."

Her mother’s expression dimmed slightly but she still smiled.

"Just ask. If it is possible, wonderful. If not, we understand. We are just happy you are there."

Alina forced a small smile back.

"...Okay."

The call continued for a little while longer. Her mother talked about her walks, her improving health, the flowers she had planted in the garden. Her aunt talked about the neighbors, the weather, the small things that made up their days. Alina listened, nodded, responded when she needed to.

But her thoughts were no longer fully there.

They were in the kindergarten, walking through the halls, trying to see it through her family’s eyes. Shock in their eyes when they would see a ghost baby flying or see shapeshifting.

And Dante.

What would they see, if they looked at him? Would they see the power that radiated from him, the darkness that clung to his edges? Or would they see only the man who made their daughter smile, the principal of the royal academy who had given her a chance when she needed one?

She didn’t know.

That was the problem.

After it ended, she slowly lowered the phone.

She sat there for a long moment, staring at the dark screen, her reflection faint and distant.

*****

When Dante arrived later that night, the house was quiet.

Lucien and Sable had already fallen asleep after finishing their homework, their small breaths steady and peaceful in their rooms.

But Alina sat in the living room, unmoving, her thoughts clearly somewhere far away.

She was curled on the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest, her hands wrapped around a cup of tea that had long gone cold. Her eyes were fixed on nothing, staring at the window across from her.

Dante noticed it the moment he stepped inside. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The quiet was not the peaceful kind. It was the kind that came before storms.

He closed the door quietly behind him and walked toward her, his footsteps soft against the floor. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in her expression, the way her shoulders were hunched, the way her fingers were white-knuckled around her cup, the way she hadn’t even looked up when he entered.

She hadn’t even noticed him at first.

"What’s wrong?" he asked, his voice low but firm. Not demanding. Just there.

Alina blinked and looked up at him, as if surfacing from deep water.

"Dee..." she said softly, biting her lip.