Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 117
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The sky was an unusually pristine blue, unmarred by a single cloud. Sunlight poured down relentlessly, blazing with intensity. It was perhaps a touch too warm for a child who had only just turned three. The little girl with red hair barely brushing her shoulders had it braided into two neat pigtails on either side. She gazed up at the crystalline sky, then scrunched her face in discomfort and lowered her head again. The brightness stung her eyes.
“Alexio.”
I call out my friend’s name in my clumsy voice. Of course, there is no answer. Right now, I am it, and my friend is hidden away somewhere, evading me.
“Where did you go…?”
I murmur softly to myself as I move forward. To my young eyes, the Royal Palace is nothing less than a vast, impenetrable jungle. It is enormous, sprawling, and utterly unfamiliar. I have been here a few times, clutching Mother’s hand, but at three years old, even paths I must have crossed before feel strange and new. Yet I have never been one to fear new places or the unknown. And with my friend beside me, there is nothing to fear at all.
“Alexio?”
I call out his name as I toddle along, my steps quickening. My feet carry me toward the Secondary Palace behind the Main Palace. I search carefully between the towering columns that loom impossibly high above me. Alexio is not here.
“Hmm…”
A giant question mark hovers above my head. Unaware that my friend is being held by Father in the garden behind the Main Palace, squirming and struggling, I continue forward. My direction is westward. Even after walking for what feels like an eternity, the colossal columns stretch endlessly before me.
“…”
Suddenly, fear grips me. Though I am accustomed to poking and prodding about fearlessly, wandering alone through an unfamiliar place is genuinely frightening.
“Whimper…”
With a trembling lip, I push past one more column. Just as it seems the path will never end, tears begin to well up in my large, sky-blue eyes.
“Sniff…”
My mouth quivers as if I am about to burst into full-fledged wails. But I clench my lips firmly shut and shake my head vigorously.
“I won’t cry.”
A brave child does not cry—or so the pretty aunt with pink flowers in her hair used to joke. I clench my small fists tightly and take another step forward.
“…Wow.”
And my mouth falls open in wonder. I have emerged into a small back garden. One of the two Secondary Palaces in Lebovni. This is the tiny courtyard attached to the Western Palace. Untouched by human hands, the grass has grown wild and uneven, tickling my ankles.
I forget my fear entirely and gaze around in fascination. The outer wall of the Western Palace is half-covered in ivy that has grown of its own accord. Dense shrubs encircle the palace like a protective embrace. A massive, ancient tree stands sentinel. From its sturdy branches hangs a flower swing, swaying gently back and forth in the breeze.
“…”
To a child accustomed to living among crowds of bustling people, this scene is almost unnervingly quiet and serene. My wonder at the unfamiliar landscape is short-lived, however, as unease begins to creep back in.
“Whimper. Is anyone here…?”
A whimpering sound escapes me again. I spin around frantically, searching. Only the occasional rustling of branches in the wind breaks the silence; the world around me remains still.
“Did I do something wrong?”
It is at that moment—just as I am about to burst into tears—that a human voice reaches my ears.
“No, don’t read it!”
“If I’ve done something wrong, please tell me. I will try my best to correct it.”
“I said don’t read it!”
Two people are bickering. There are two voices. One of them is familiar to my ears.
“Give it here. Ah, I’ve lost my mind. This isn’t what I meant to give you!”
“Why? Wasn’t this a letter meant for me anyway? And you gave it to me to read.”
“I didn’t mean for you to read it aloud in front of me!”
It is the voice of my beloved aunt—always gentle and kind. The aunt with the beautiful smile. She is one of my favorite adults. I dash toward the massive tree from which the voices are coming.
“If you don’t write back this time, I won’t write any more letters… Hmm, your attitude has completely changed in just a few days.”
“Oh, really!”
My steps falter. Where the flower swing had been empty just moments before, two figures now cast their shadows.
Whoosh.
“Your frustration is starting to show in your letters too… Ugh.”
A calm blue dress hem flickered from behind a tree trunk before a sweet rose-pink head of hair emerged fully from behind the bark. The child’s beloved aunt, the youngest Princess of Lebovni, Yerenika, had her arms hidden behind her back as if concealing something. With a slight frown, Yerenika shot back sharply.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll read them out loud.”
“I don’t mind.”
“…Ugh.”
Brizni poked her head out from behind a short tree. Soon the view beyond what had been obscured by the thick trunk came into sight. There was the flower swing she’d seen just as she’d slipped out in front of the Western Palace.
“Fine. I won’t read them. Come here. You’ll fall.”
“I don’t want to. …Really. Not that expression again!”
The voice that reached her sounded terribly aggrieved. The child tilted her head slightly. Was her aunt arguing with someone? But that didn’t seem to be it. The brief bickering soon faded into cheerful laughter.
“Huh…?”
Arguing, then feeling wronged, then laughing. Something seemed odd about her aunt. Brizni trotted sideways and slipped behind another tree. Only then did the scene beneath the great tree come fully into view.
“Wow.”
An innocent exclamation spilled from the child’s lips. Rose-pink hair that sparkled in the thin rays of sunlight filtering through the dense branches and leaves. And silver hair so pure and untainted it was rare to find in Lebovni.
“Ooooh.”
Brizni’s eyes grew wide.
“I knew something had gotten more intense since we hadn’t seen each other. I didn’t expect to see signs of it in the letters too….”
“If you say anything more, I won’t let you touch this anymore.”
“Understood. I’m sorry.”
Two colors rarely seen anywhere on the continent swirled together dizzily. Brizni blinked as she watched the unfamiliar man extend his arm and curve it around Yerenika’s waist. Even from a child’s perspective, his smile was dazzling. Sharp, extended eyes had softened into something sweet. The child murmured without thinking.
“Beautiful.”
Beautiful? Brizni tilted her head the moment the word left her lips. The descriptor seemed to fit and yet somehow didn’t. It didn’t fit, yet strangely it did. It was difficult for the child’s mind to think beyond that.
“We shouldn’t be out here this long. Someone might see….”
“I didn’t think I liked being confined, but it’s not as bad as I thought, ugh. Yerenika.”
Yerenika pushed the man’s face away. A small complaint followed.
“This person really. Confined, no less. There’s nothing you won’t say.”
Were they arguing again? Brizni grew increasingly confused. But the way the man immediately bowed his head to Yerenika, and the way she complained while not actually pushing him away, suggested they weren’t really arguing.
Then were they playing? Brizni clenched her small fists and made a decision.
“Brizni wants to play too.”
[Children shouldn’t be watching that.]
“Eek…?”
A sudden burst of silver fur sent Brizni into a short shriek as she tumbled backward. A silver wolf the size of the child gently took her hand in its mouth without hurting her.
[You shouldn’t interrupt adults’ romance.]
Of course, Raulus’s murmur didn’t reach Brizni. She sat dazed, listening to the wolf’s low growl before being dragged away from the Western Palace by the creature.
But a child’s curiosity was not something that extinguished so easily. Especially not that of a three-year-old whose curiosity, stubbornness, and possessiveness reached toward the heavens.
With execution that rivaled Yerenika’s, Brizni returned to the Western Palace the very next day. The back garden of the Western Palace, reached by hurrying on short legs, was as quiet as it had been yesterday.
“Auntie!”
She called for Yerenika while taking quick little steps. She approached the great tree where Yerenika and the strange man had been yesterday, but today no one was there.
“Auntie Yeni?”
It took time for her short stride to circle the tree trunk even once.
“…She’s not here.”
Disappointment quickly bloomed across her doll-like, delicate features.
“Hmph.”
Tears glistened in her large, sky-blue eyes, shimmering with unshed emotion. Brizni thrust out her lower lip as if she might cry at any moment, then listlessly pushed the empty flower swing.
“Fine… I’ll play alone.”
The flower swing, adorned with verdant vines and vibrant blossoms of every hue, still hung too high for a child to mount alone. Yet once a child had resolved to do something, she simply had to see it through—such was Brizni’s nature. She grasped the swing’s rope and began struggling to hoist herself up.
The swing tilted precariously. In an instant, the world before her eyes spun wildly. Her small body lurched toward the opposite side of the swing. Instinctively sensing the impending impact, she squeezed her eyes shut.
“…?”
But the impact never came. Brizni cautiously cracked open her tightly closed eyes.
“Huh?”
Before her, she saw silvery hair fluttering gently.
“A person…?”
A man knelt before her on one knee, lowering himself to her level. Her small body, which had been about to tumble headfirst from the swing, was now firmly cradled in his large hands. Brizni blinked her wide eyes in bewilderment. Silver hair. It was him. The man who had been with her aunt yesterday.
“Beautiful.”
The simple word tumbled out. Auredhian Belgot, who had caught the small girl just as she was about to strike her head on the ground, gazed at her with an unfamiliar expression in his eyes. The child, whose clear sky-blue eyes blinked several times, broke into a radiant smile.
“A beautiful person!”
“….”
“A beautiful person, a good person.”
Auredhian Belgot let out a hollow laugh.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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