I’m the Strong Youngest Daughter Here to Save My Family from Darkness - Chapter 8

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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 8
Kyle hastily pulled his hand back, glared at his own palm, and clenched and unclenched his fist.
A blue glow burst violently from the open palm.
Between the blue light, something else was showing through… red.
‘…Red.’
Kyle clapped a hand over his mouth.
His Special Ability was going haywire.
Could it be because of that brat?
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Capital.
The members of the Rheinfeld Count’s household were sipping tea with elegant composure.
The Countess cradled her precious daughter, Melissa, and turned her gaze toward an attendant.
“You said that child entered the Monster Mansion safely?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Send a pursuit party. She must die without fail. Within the three days the curse remains active, we need to finish off the sacrifice we sent to Monster Island.”
Count Rheinfeld nodded along as he listened.
‘The sorcerer said it. Only when the sacrifice offered as a bride in Melissa’s place is dead will the Soul Covenant with the monster prince be completely broken.’
He could not send his precious daughter to a prince who might die at any moment.
Melissa had a suitable match waiting for her.
Someone like House Beiprun, the Grand Duke’s family, known as the most prestigious noble house in the Empire.
She could not be sacrificed to a Prenatal Betrothal with a monster prince like that, one who had been completely cast out of the Emperor’s favor and wasn’t even treated as a member of the imperial family.
Once that girl known as ‘Melissa’ is dead, we won’t be able to use the name ‘Melissa’ anymore.
But severing the cursed Prenatal Betrothal mattered more.
After all, the monster prince, who was due to go on a Rampage, would surely meet his end in death.
‘Then I’ll make Melissa my adopted daughter. That will make everything perfect.’
Count Rheinfeld replied briefly and dryly.
“The sooner the sacrifice dies, the better. You may even move up the timing.”
The Countess curved her eyes into a smile.
“As quickly as possible.”
* * *
That night, on Monster Island.
Arienna was eating hard, chewy military toast, even less appetizing than what she’d had at the Rheinfeld Count’s house.
During the meal, Arienna made her case to Kyle: if she couldn’t be his fiancée or family, she wanted to become his maid.
Kyle’s response was frosty.
“Didn’t you hear? If I go on a Rampage, you could die.”
“Rampage!”
“You don’t even know what a Rampage is.”
“Fireworks in the sky, boom-boom!”
“That’s fireworks.”
First attempt: failed.
“What do you want?”
“I want to pat Kyle’s fluffy fur, and then I’ll beat all the monsters, and make a wish!”
“What are you talking about? You? Beating monsters?”
“Yesss!”
“Get out.”
Second attempt: a complete disaster.
Kyle agonized over the brat who kept hovering nearby, spouting nonsense without a shred of shame.
What’s going on? Do little kids always have this much energy?
No matter how many times he told her to go back, she showed no sign of giving up, and Kyle felt utterly drained.
“Why won’t you let me…? I can do whatever you ask, I can do it all!”
Kyle let out a sigh deep enough to shake the ground. Then he muttered in a low voice, his face weary.
“No matter how I look at it, you’re just a fool… Well, fine. Whether it’s a maid or anything else, the bottom line is you want to be my subordinate, right?”
So Kyle decided to change his approach.
“No, that’s not it. I want to be friends with you. And being a maid and being a subordinate are different…”
“Right, aspiring subordinate. I’ll give you a mission.”
“Mis… sion?”
“…Mis. Sion. A job you have to do.”
“Gasp, yes!”
Arienna straightened her shoulders with fierce determination.
Kyle lowered his voice and whispered.
“Let’s see whether you can stay on Monster Island. Test your abilities. The moment you finish that bread, patrol the mansion.”
Nobody in their right mind would expect a child who looked this timid to patrol anything properly.
The sun was setting, and once it got dark, she’d wander around the mansion and surely scare herself back home.
Arienna stuffed a fistful of bread into her mouth and shouted with all her might.
“I ate it aaall!”
Then she pressed both hands flat against her knees.
“I said patrol, didn’t I?”
“Yes!”
She had plenty of spirit, but her hands and feet were still glued stiffly in place.
Kyle asked, his expression full of suspicion.
“You don’t even know what a patrol is.”
“I know patrols very well.”
Arienna clenched both fists tight.
Then she pressed her lips together, just as stiffly.
Kyle’s shadow fell over her, dark and ominous.
“So what is it?”
“Patrols and I are close friends.”
“Answer me.”
Faced with the greatest trial of her life, Arienna answered with complete seriousness.
“It’s the name of a puppy.”
Back when she was Tuntuni, still wriggling her tiny hands and feet, she had often watched through the window as the forest keeper made his puppies go on patrol.
Every time, the forest keeper would call out to the puppy, ‘Hey, let’s go on patrol!’
How on earth did Kyle know the name of the forest keeper’s puppy?
But that wasn’t what mattered right now. Somehow, she had to win Kyle over.
‘To do that, I have to get past this trial!’
Tense all over, yet certain she had gotten it right, Arienna curled up the corners of her mouth with pride.
Before long, the corners of Kyle’s mouth began to climb slowly upward.
“Pfft, hahaha!”
He laughed brightly, wholeheartedly.
The round eyes that had always looked so prickly curved into crescents.
Seeing Kyle smile for the first time in her life, Arienna blinked.
‘Was he laughing at me?’
With a slightly dazed look, she scratched the back of her head, and Kyle spoke up.
“Still a baby, huh? Wrong. Completely, five thousand percent wrong.”
Arienna muttered, her face sagging with disappointment.
“Then I’ll go, I guess? Do I really have to go outside now? I even gave you that warm bread!”
Looking dejected, Arienna hung her head low.
Just then, Kyle let out a sniff and muttered.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to keep her around for a day.
“In the end you’ll have to leave, but for now, I’ll give you one last chance, my lad. A patrol means circling a designated area and watching for dangerous monsters!”
I didn’t understand a single word…
While Arienna just blinked at him, Kyle shouted.
“Then you’ll patrol the mansion with me. I’ll see your skills for myself.”
“Yes. Okay!”
Arienna clenched both fists tightly and nodded.
And so the two of them set out to patrol the Monster Mansion with great diligence.
At the mansion’s front gate, Kyle tilted his head.
The aftermath of the ogre’s rampage was a dreadful sight.
“Look at this! How did the Barrier break? And how on earth did you get into this mansion, huh?”
Arienna pressed her hands firmly to her waist and answered with great solemnity.
“I don’t know, either, sir.”
“Suspicious. Really suspicious.”
“Suspicious? Yes, sir.”
“You’re impossible to talk to. Seriously, it’s infuriating.”
And so Kyle kept glancing at the doorway for a long while.
‘Surely it wasn’t an outside intrusion? If it was…’
Amid all this commotion, the day on Monster Island was slowly coming to an end.

Meanwhile, the mansion on the outskirts of the Capital, which everyone had considered ominous.
After a full year, its door had finally opened.
Surrounding the gloomy outer mansion in the capital were, of all things, the knights of House Beiprun.
The knights of House Beiprun stood in rigid rows, solemn and composed, as though the whispers of the townsfolk did not reach them at all.
“So the ones who came here to recuperate were the Grand Duke and his wife?”
“Good heavens, from the Grand Duke’s household?”
Inside the mansion, a man stood before a mirror. For the first time in a very long while, the lanterns along the wall had been lit.
He no longer had any intention of living out his days as the dark, brooding man who had come here to recover.
It was time to reclaim the name of Grand Duke Veipran.
He cut his hair short, the long locks he had never trimmed since the day darkness had settled over his life a year ago, and shaved off the unkempt beard as well.
Then he gathered his belongings.
His travel bag was sparse. There was no water, no food.
Only a pair of shoes no bigger than his palm, tied with pink ribbons, a tiny child’s dress, and a soft gauze cloth for infants.
Before long, his footsteps carried him to the darkest bedroom in the mansion.
Opening the door, he gazed at his wife’s withered face.
Then he quietly embraced her frail body, like dried kindling, and whispered.
“I’ll be back.”
The woman who had once been an elegant and lovely Grand Duchess showed not a trace of life.
She only stared vacantly into empty space.
He whispered to his wife, very briefly.
“I’ll bring you back. Again.”
Only then did the vacant-eyed woman turn to look at her husband.
For the first time that day, her gaze found its focus, and she murmured softly.
“Our child.”
“Mm.”
“Bring… her back, again?”
“Yes. In exchange.”
He pressed a deep kiss onto her vacant eyes and whispered.
“As long as you don’t cry and stay well.”
There was affection in the kiss, but he did not say that he loved her.
Since that day, neither sweet words nor laughter had remained in this house.
“So wait for me. Again.”
He added, briefly.
“Because I’ll make you smile.”
That night, the man entrusted all of the household’s affairs to his aide,
and boarded a ship bound for Monster Island.
Neither his wife nor his son came to see him off, but for him, that was the better way.

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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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