For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 14

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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 14

Raina Hart quickly realized where Kevenriak must be.
It seemed he hadn’t finished making the dessert yet.

‘He’s probably in the Kitchen.’

There was a chance their paths might cross, so.
Instead of teleporting, Raina Hart walked slowly to the Kitchen.
What greeted her as she opened the door was a Kitchen transformed into absolute chaos.
Flour scattered everywhere, broken eggs, a soot-blackened ceiling, scattered utensils strewn about….
She’d asked him to play with textures, not to create an explosion.

“What on earth is all this….”
“Master!”

At Raina Hart’s appearance, hurried footsteps echoed.

“Kev—”

She reflexively opened her arms, but the impact against her stomach knocked the wind from her, and she doubled over with an “oof.”
Kevenriak had failed to control his speed in his eagerness to greet her.
The child’s head was surprisingly hard.
Raina Hart steadied her ragged breathing, pain-stricken, and continued her greeting as though nothing were amiss.

“…I’m home.”
“Welcome back!”

Kevenriak, apparently unharmed, wrapped his arms tightly around Raina Hart’s waist and looked up at her.
Kevenriak wore an apron and beamed with a radiant smile.
Seeing flour caked on him from head to toe made her head spin slightly.

“Kev, you’ve got snow in your hair.”

Raina Hart brushed the flour from the child’s dark hair and lifted her gaze.

‘I need someone to explain what happened here.’

I need an adult. I need an adult.
Person came into view, standing awkwardly before Raina Hart, who was trying to determine the cause of the commotion.
…A pink floral apron.

“Person.”

One must respect individual preferences, after all.
Raina asked Person without further comment.

“What’s happened?”
“Lady Raina, it’s-.”
“M-Master. You’ve arrived.”
“Yes. Kin. You’re covered in flour too.”

Kin, who approached hesitantly, wore an apron similar to the one hanging from Kevenriak Heteroven’s waist. I brushed the flour from her red hair.
Raina wiped the flour dust from Kin’s crimson locks.

“So, what’s happened.”

Raina’s expression was impassive as she turned her gaze back to Person.
It was a different face than when she looked at Kevenriak Heteroven and Kin.
This was Raina Hart’s true nature, so Person was more accustomed to this side of her.

“The two of them displayed remarkable culinary skill….”

The explanation came not from Person, but from beneath the counter.
The Head Chef crawled out awkwardly.
He held a whisk he’d retrieved from under the counter and bowed toward Raina.

“My Lord, you’ve arrived.”

Snow had fallen upon the tattered form of the Head Chef as well.
He too had suffered considerably from the flour bomb’s devastation.

“My Lord, the two of them have just finished baking a new dessert. Would you like to see it?”
“A new one?”
“Yes. This is their ninth attempt. Quite a masterpiece has been born.”
“…Show me.”

Raina Hart nodded.
The Head Chef withdrew a pan from the soot-stained oven near the entrance and placed it on the counter.

“Behold the magnificent creations of our little master chefs.”

“Ahem.”
“Hehe.”

Kevenriak and Kin’s faces glowed with pride and satisfaction at the Head Chef’s praise.
Raina Hart gazed down at the pan and uttered a single word.

“…Impressive.”

There was nothing else she could say.
The appearance was utterly incomprehensible as something made from edible ingredients.

‘Is this some kind of alchemy? Like creating a chimera.’

It would hardly be surprising if it began to writhe at any moment.
Raina Hart had shown interest.
Kevenriak’s ears perked up, and he spun around to point at one of the objects on the pan.

“Master, look at this! I made a flower that resembles you!”
“A flower? So you shaped it like a flower…?”

A purple toxin.

“It’s a cookie colored with red cabbage.”

Ah, a cookie.
Raina Hart silently praised the Head Chef with her eyes for providing the answer outright.

“Wow, this is…a cookie? It resembles me…?”

She then gently touched it with her fingertip, confirmed her hand didn’t dissolve, and picked up the cookie.

“…Thank you, Kevenriak. It’s wonderful.”

My teacher said it was wonderful.
Kevenriak laughed brightly.
I’m glad I made it with such care.

“I-I made some too…!”

Kin eagerly showcased the cookies she had made.
Though slightly better than Kevenriak’s, Kin’s skill was equally impressive.

“Kin’s creation is wonderful as well. As expected of my students. Your skill is quite remarkable…”

Raina Hart fell silent, holding cookies in both hands.
Kevenriak and Kin stared at her intently.

“…”

Their eyes gleamed with hope.
As if they desperately wished for me to taste their desserts.
I forced my reluctant lips upward into a smile and asked the children.

“Shall I try some?”
“…!”

I was right. The children’s faces brightened instantly.
Person and the Head Chef gestured their disapproval from behind.
But these were my students’ first homemade desserts.

‘There’s no helping it.’

I could only trust the resilience of my dragon quarter physiology.
Rather than storing them in my spatial pouch, I placed each dessert directly into my stomach.
Watching this, the children tensed and clenched their fists tightly.

“Wow, this is absolutely delicious!”
“It’s delicious? Really?”
“Even the one I made?”

Admiration spilled from my lips.
The children grew excited and bombarded me with questions.

“Both taste delicious. What should I do? What if my disciples decide to study cooking instead of magic?”
“That will never happen!”
“Well, you’re right.”
“My goodness. I never knew our disciples would love magic this much. How admirable. Then shall we all focus diligently on learning magic?”
“Yes!”
“Yes…!”

The children nodded at Raina Hart’s words.
Person and the Head Chef bumped their fists together in satisfaction.
The tactile play had apparently come to an end.

And as for the taste of the cookies the children had made for the first time….
Let’s just say it was a flavor brimming with their affection.

***

“Keri.”

That night.
Kevenriak Heteroven’s eyes snapped open at the sound of Raina Hart’s voice.
Raina Hart was lying on her side in bed, looking at me.

“Master?”

Kevenriak Heteroven’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at the sight of her.
Since the first day we arrived in Hibei, we had been using separate rooms, so lying in the same bed was a rare occurrence.
Raina Hart patted me over the blanket and asked.

“Are you sleepy?”
“No.”

Perhaps because I was looking at Raina Hart, my mind was perfectly alert.
Even if I closed my eyes again, sleep wouldn’t come, so I wasn’t tired.
At my response, Raina Hart let out a soft laugh.

“Then would you like to go on a picnic?”
“Right now?”

Kevenriak tilted his head in confusion.
Wasn’t an outing supposed to happen when it was bright outside?
It was still dark out there.

“Right now. Kin couldn’t wake up. Just the two of us will go on the outing.”

Just the two of us.
It had been rare for me to spend time alone with Raina Hart lately—I could count such occasions on one hand.
Kevenriak nodded with a brightened expression.
As Raina Hart rose from the bed and descended, Kevenriak followed suit.
Raina Hart withdrew a thick coat from her spatial pocket.

“It’s cold outside.”

Winter or not.
Raina Hart dressed Kevenriak in the coat, fitted him with fur slippers, wrapped a scarf around his neck, and only then set down her spatial pocket.
Kevenriak, bundled so thoroughly he waddled when he walked.

‘Satisfactory.’

Raina Hart nodded with contentment.
The child looked up at Raina Hart and asked.

“Master, shall we go now?”
“Let’s go.”

Raina Hart snapped her fingers, using magic to fling the window wide open instead of using the door.
Why was she opening the window?
Bewildered, Kevenriak was lifted onto Raina Hart’s shoulder.
Raina Hart went to the window and leaped straight down.

“R-Raina Hart!”

Kevenriak squeezed his eyes shut in shock, but soon cracked them open at the soft sensation beneath him.
It wasn’t hard ground—it was a vast bed floating in mid-air.

“My disciple speaks my name so carelessly. I like it, though. Call me by my name sometimes.”

As Raina Hart chanted the incantation, light bloomed around the bed—the telltale glow of teleportation magic.
What appeared before Kevenriak’s eyes in the next moment was:

“….”

A velvet-black sky, a luminous moon hanging vast and serene, gossamer clouds drifting lazily, and countless stars scattered across the heavens like diamonds sewn into darkness.
It was a sight so breathtaking that I could not tear my gaze away.
A dreamlike landscape unfolding from a bed suspended high in the sky.

“How do you like it? There are so many stars out tonight.”

Raina Hart spoke with evident satisfaction.
It was a method she had discovered after arriving in Hibei, while contemplating how to indulge in the most gratifying idleness.

‘Magic truly is the greatest.’

By wrapping a spherical protective barrier around the area, she could enjoy the scenery without being affected by the weather at all.
Ordinarily, she would have simply lain there and slept for hours.
But instead, Raina Hart sat on the bed and gently patted Kevenriak’s head as he gazed silently at the sky.

“Do you like it?”
“It’s amazing…. It’s amazing, Raina Hart!”
“The night isn’t entirely a bad thing, is it?”

Kevenriak nodded earnestly.
Unaware of what Raina Hart was truly asking with that question.

“I’m sorry….”

How many times had I heard it? Whenever I slept beside the child, Kevenriak’s anguished sleep-talk would jolt me awake more than once.
And just moments ago, it happened again.

“It’s cold…. It hurts, please stop….”

Night after night, that terrible hell returned, and the child still could not escape from it.
Raina Hart grasped Kevenriak’s shoulders and pulled him toward her.
His round head fell limply onto her thigh.

“…?”

Blue eyes gazing upward at the ceiling, wide and unblinking.

“The view here is best enjoyed while lying down. Let me cover you with the blanket too.”

I was already bundled up tightly, but Raina Hart pulled the surrounding blankets over me as well.

‘Raina Hart looks so happy.’

It was a bit warm, but I didn’t want to disturb her joy.
I surrendered myself to whatever she was doing, remaining still.

Soon after, I lay in bed, snugly wrapped in blankets.
Raina Hart lay beside me, gazing at the same sky I was watching.
She pointed to countless stars scattered across it.

“Do you know what those stars are?”
“I don’t.”
“They’re stars that protect Keri.”
“…?”

How could stars possibly protect me?
Raina Hart continued her absurd explanation without a shred of embarrassment.

“You know I’m an exceptional mage, right?”
“Yes.”
“When you’re as skilled as I am, you can command the stars. So I ordered them to protect Keri.”
“….”
“From now on, the stars that shine at night will watch over Keri.”

I was bewildered.
The way she said it made me wonder if it could be true.
But I had learned that stars are actually enormous in size.
The reason they appear so small is because they’re incredibly far away in the cosmos—or so the books said.

‘Stars that distant couldn’t possibly protect me.’

Yet Raina Hart never lies….
My mind churned with confusion.
And somehow, because she had said such things, the stars themselves began to seem trustworthy.

“….”

Raina Hart, too, gazed quietly at the sky, lost in thought.
Somewhere in this sky, the Tunterra Archipelago must be drifting about.
Beneath the land where the archipelago vanished, a dragon would be sleeping.

‘A dragon lair….’

It could become an unforeseen variable.
I should visit the Sinkhole that existed when I first entered this novel.
Come to think of it, didn’t the Village Chief bring the orphanage budget yesterday?
For some reason, my concerns kept multiplying.

’14 years of idleness, or so I thought.’

Raina Hart bid farewell with tears to the leisurely rural lord’s life slipping away from her.

***

Hibei, the Lord’s Castle.
Person, Shukal, and Fontepon sat in a row before the Castle Gate.
The landscape of Hibei spread out before their eyes.

“What a bountiful harvest.”

The village that had been desolate when they first arrived was nowhere to be seen.
Golden, ripened crops filled the fields to bursting.
It was thanks to Raina Hart, the Marquess and lord of Hibei who had returned.

Some of the credit belonged to the three members of the Imperial Third Knights Order as well.
They had helped the villagers tend to the crops.

“It’s fulfilling and gratifying, but what about us?”

Fontepon muttered weakly.

“We haven’t received orders to return in four years.”

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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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