I Am the 5-Year-Old Spy Who Kidnapped the Villain - Chapter 149

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 149】

‘Could it be?’

I thought of the few maids who had come with her.

I was wondering if there was anyone among them who had shown strange behavior.

Lucas, who had been staring at me intently, twitched his jaw with a displeased expression.

He asked quietly with a slightly disappointed look.

“…Aren’t you underestimating the Croste Family too much?”

My goodness. Is that how you interpret what I said?

“Brother, you’re the one taking Doctia lightly! Even though the Pose Duke’s Family was destroyed, it was a family with solid spy training.”

“Who are you defending right now?”

“But still…”

As I was fumbling with my lips, a deep sigh from across the room cut me off.

For a moment, I thought Callipus had returned.

Father had a habit of sighing deeply when something during meetings didn’t sit well with him.

“…Aisha. I understand what you’re worried about, but the Croste Family is strong enough that we don’t need to worry about such things. And if we’re going directly to the Marquis’ Estate, you’d have to come too, so do you think I could just stand by and watch you get put in danger?”

“…No.”

He had chased away even the young marquises who came to pay their respects politely, so what would he do to those who threatened our safety?

“But if Count Rowan is a spy and wants to come to our castle, there must be some intention behind it!”

My voice grew louder.

“So whatever that intention is, I’m saying I’ll protect both you and our castle!”

Naturally, Lucas’s voice rose too.

“Do you think that’s as easy as it sounds?!”

“Because it’s not as easy as it sounds, I’ve been training like hell for 10 years just like Father!”

“Even our father, who went through hell, was defeated by Ariena! …Oh.”

Oops. A slip of the tongue.

I quickly covered my mouth with my hand, but the water had already been spilled.

‘Ariena is a forbidden word for Lucas.’

Brother had roughly heard about his birth and Ariena’s secret in the past, but he hadn’t said anything.

He had brushed it off as if it was fine, but for someone who was so talkative and loved to grumble to have no reaction meant the shock had been severe.

“…”

Naturally, Lucas looked as if he’d been struck by lightning at my mistake.

He wasn’t breathing.

With his blue eyes unnaturally dilated and his whole body frozen stiff, I felt as if I’d been doused with cold water.

“Brother, what I meant was…”

“I know.”

A cracked voice barely escaped from between his lips.

“I know, Aisha.”

What exactly did he know?

I would have rather he cried and screamed and got angry so I could at least kneel and apologize.

His uncharacteristically terribly calm appearance was actually scary, and I couldn’t move my mouth.

Watching me like that, he clenched his fist tightly for a moment before opening it and slowly rising from his seat.

“Because of Ariena, the Croste Family, no, Father’s life…”

Then suddenly his lost blue eyes found something.

It was Count Rowan’s letter.

“Aisha.”

“…Yeah?”

“I was a child she planned to have, and you were the child who was outside her plans, right?”

His gaze, which had been staring intently at the letter, turned toward me.

I unconsciously swallowed and nodded.

“…Yeah.”

At my answer, the corners of his mouth, which had seemed anxious for some reason, finally rose faintly.

“I’m glad that at least you gave that woman a taste of her own medicine.”

“…Brother.”

Then what he said next was so shocking that my mouth fell open automatically.

“…Right, I think your opinion is correct. As you said, we’ll send a reply saying we’ll come to their side. See you later.”

Having hastily concluded the conversation, he turned his head sharply and left the study.

I stood there, my whole body frozen and unable to move.

I felt like the greatest sinner in the world.

* * *

The place Lucas arrived at after fleeing the ducal palace was the top of the massive ice wall spanning between the Edge of the World and the Frozen Kingdom.

After passing the sentries standing between the barriers, a white world soon spread before his eyes.

The North was always unchanging.

Endless snowy plains. Dry skies. And snowflakes falling like rain.

Yes. The North remained unchangingly the same.

What had changed was not the world, but his perspective.

‘Someday we’ll leave this cold place. There are more wonderful places than the Croste Family.’

From around age three when conversation became possible, Ariena had instilled in him and his brother Sedric a longing for other worlds.

More wonderful places.

Warm places unlike the cold North.

‘Ice abilities are already being put to good use here. So how about using your abilities somewhere else?’

At first, those words seemed quite appealing.

Ariena, who spoke as if it were for Lucas’s own good, was, thinking about it now, nothing more or less than a heretic enchanting her young son.

‘It’s a secret from Father.’

From the moment he heard those words, Lucas’s suspicions began.

Like other children, both Lucas and Sedric liked secrets.

But if there was a difference between the two brothers, it was their innate temperament, which could be called fate.

Lucas had liked hanging around with the guards since he was young.

So he might have unconsciously felt aversion to the word “secret.”

For guards who could only rely on their comrades in monster subjugation battles where lives hung in the balance, there were no secrets between them.

The moment secrets arose, trust crumbled.

‘I’m a Croste person. But why do I have to keep secrets from Father?’

‘…Fine. Then live that way.’

When he couldn’t shake such doubts even at age five, Ariena seemed to finally give up on Lucas.

She treated both brothers equally like her own children outwardly, but gradually increased the time she spent alone with Sedric.

Left out, Lucas watched many things.

How his brother accumulated more secrets day by day.

How he burst into frivolous laughter on the surface while busily thinking other thoughts inside.

‘It’s fine to be stubborn, but keep the secrets. Don’t make Mother any sadder.’

The day the completely changed Sedric warned him.

Young Lucas was so terrified that he couldn’t come out of his room for a while.

How frightening those words to keep secrets had seemed to young Lucas.

Because he was young, he had no choice but to be innocent, and he couldn’t tell Callipus about their behavior…

“?”

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, a thick and soft sensation covered his vision.

“What?”

Not particularly surprised by the familiar sensation, he grabbed the back of the neck of whatever had covered him and pulled it away.

It was a young Peri.

“Kyu, kyuuu! (What do you mean what! Aisha said Lucas would be crying, so I came to comfort you!)”

“…Why is this thing so noisy?”

Unfortunately, Lucas couldn’t understand the young Peri’s warm heart.

But this situation was just as confusing for the young Peri.

“Kyu? Kyuuuut? (Why aren’t you crying? You need to cry so I can comfort you!)”

For reference, this Peri had just finished ‘Baby Peri’ training.

While eagerly waiting to become an ‘Adult Peri’, he had received a special mission from Aisha.

‘I absolutely want to succeed! I want to comfort Lucas!’

He recalled Aisha, who had given him the mission with a serious expression.

‘Lucas, you know. He’s secretly tender-hearted, so he must be crying… Can you hug him with your warm fur and wipe away his tears?’

That’s right.

I am Baby Peri. An official knight of the Croste Household, armed with warm fur that humans don’t have.

I must comfort the crying Lucas!

While he was lost in thought, the merciless hand that had grabbed his scruff suddenly tightened.

“Hey, little one. It’s admirable that you climbed up here, but it’s dangerous, so I’ll put you back down.”

Oh no! That won’t do.

Leaving Lucas who isn’t crying would mean mission failure!

“Kyu! Kyu! Kyu! (So cry, cry. Cry!)”

The warm, fluffy paw pads without grown claws suddenly poked and jabbed at Lucas’s eyes.

“Ahhh, you crazy weasel!”

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, he dropped the Peri and stumbled backward.

When that damn fluffball touched his glossy eyeballs, it stung and hurt as if they were on fire.

Lucas finally started crying.

The delighted Baby Peri raised his brave front paws and shouted.

“Kyuuut~! (Now he’s crying! Comfort him!)”

“Kyuut! (I’ll get praised!)”

“Kyuuut! (Aisha will praise me!)”

Receiving the signal, the Baby Peris began pouncing on Lucas with crazed eyes.

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