My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - 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
It wasn’t that she had secrets worth hiding, but having someone standing right in front of her who could read anything was an entirely different matter.
Agnes found herself studying Silmare carefully without quite meaning to.
At that, Silmare drew a short breath, looking momentarily flustered.
She hadn’t expected that to be a problem, it seemed. But he soon recovered, smiling at ease and shaking his head.
“No, it’s nothing. Animals and plants don’t have such high intelligence, after all.”
“Ah, of course.”
“What a tree can perceive is merely joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. Like just now—I could sense that it’s grown fond of Oliver.”
“Is there anything you can sense right now?”
Watching Agnes absorbed in his words, Silmare gazed at her with deep eyes and spoke quietly.
“It seems the rats around here have been running short of food lately. They’re quite hungry.”
“Ah, that’s probably because more people have arrived recently. The population swelled with refugees fleeing the Northern Region because of the Rift.”
“Yes. They’re upset that people keep taking from them.”
As he said this, Silmare’s gaze drifted subtly toward Kesenor.
He hadn’t spent two hundred years idling away his life.
The inner workings of a human who hadn’t yet lived even thirty years were often transparent to him—like gazing into a clear lake.
It was no different now.
‘He’s trying so hard to seem disinterested in our conversation.’
Silmare let out the faintest of silent laughs.
Each time Agnes directed her attention toward Silmare, the corners of Kesenor’s eyes tightened almost imperceptibly.
A chill seemed to settle around him alone.
He likely wasn’t aware of it himself.
‘That’s rather fortunate for me.’
Silmare had never viewed Kesenor as a rival from the start.
Not merely because he was inexperienced, but because of something Amy had said.
‘You’ll treat my sister well, won’t you, Silmare?’
Her round, tender eyes had brimmed with fear and anxiety.
For reasons he couldn’t quite explain, he found Amy’s trembling plea so touching that he’d promised her gently.
‘Of course. We’re bond-mates, destined from birth.’
‘That’s right. I trust you, Silmare! Because you protected her to the very end!’
‘In the future you saw?’
‘Yes!’
‘How grateful I am to hear that.’
‘This time, our sister can’t get hurt! She has to be happy! That’s why I came all this way!’
‘Amy, I promise you. I’ll do my best, just as you’ve come so far to the Naopa Forest with me.’
If Amy could truly see the future.
Then the fact that only Silmare had protected Agnes meant that Kesenor had not.
‘That’s hardly surprising. Even now, he calculates with every move.’
With every light word and careless gesture, Silmare could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.
‘Right now, he believes helping Agnes is to his advantage.’
But he couldn’t know how he might change should circumstances shift.
So Silmare wouldn’t even entrust her fingertips to Kesenor.
He would watch all of Kesenor’s actions with caution, maintain sharp vigilance, and guard her from within walls of solid stone.
For a bond-mate he had waited two hundred years to meet—one the world itself had woven into his fate.
* * *
That night.
Kesenor’s room received another visitor—Aser, his adjutant.
“An official request has come to Celestial from the Imperial Palace.”
Kesenor, who had been processing the documents Aser brought, exhaled slowly.
“They’ve noticed already?”
“Yes. They appear to be taking the matter of the Fairy-kin violating the Non-Aggression Treaty without notice quite seriously. Since the Tower Master is with us, it seems they’re inquiring with us first before launching a full investigation.”
“We’ve had occasional contact, true, but this is the first time anyone’s crossed over without word.”
“Why did she really come? Is it truly because of that young lady?”
“The Imperial Palace doesn’t seem to have caught on to her.”
“They believe she came because of your youngest sister’s escape from the Rift. So they were more curious about Amy than about Agnes.”
“Ah, so they think Silmare came to investigate the Rift like I did.”
“Yes, that’s what they believe.”
That would be a relief. Kesenor didn’t want talk of the World Tree’s bond-mate reaching the Imperial Palace.
“They’ve got keen intuition anyway, so to avoid trouble, tell them I’ll handle everything myself and report back.”
“Pardon? The Tower Master, you say?”
“Yes. I’ll keep watch here until Amy arrives, and if there’s anything new to report, I’ll send word.”
“Does showing interest in Agnes seem like a smoke screen to you?”
“Make it seem that way. Tell them I’d rather not have this matter spread about—it’s too delicate.”
“I’m not certain they’ll believe that, sir.”
“They’ll believe it if we make them. I don’t want every heavy-footed gossip in the realm tramping through here.”
That was when Kesenor suddenly swept his hand through the air.
The documents stacked high upon the desk vanished as though they had never existed at all.
In the same instant, Aser’s form melted away like snow. The moment the magic circle that had glowed faintly on the floor faded, a knock sounded from beyond the door.
“Who is it?”
“Silmare. We need to talk.”
Kesenor took a moment to survey the room. Every trace of Aser’s visit had been erased—it was immaculate.
When he opened the door, Silmare stood there, unchanged from how he’d appeared at dinner.
“What brings you here?”
“I’m curious about something.”
“You think I’ll answer?”
“You won’t have much choice.”
Without waiting for permission, Silmare strode into the room and settled into a chair. Kesenor let out a short, irritated sound and reluctantly closed the door behind him.
Silmare glanced around the chamber for a moment.
“You had a visitor, didn’t you?”
“No. I was alone.”
“The winds told me otherwise—that you had company.”
“It seems I can’t keep secrets from you.”
“That’s true, in a manner of speaking.”
Silmare leaned back in his chair with an easy smile.
“I wasn’t listening on purpose.”
“Can you swear to that?”
“I can. They don’t speak of things they’d rather keep hidden.”
“I doubt animals possess the intelligence to make such distinctions.”
“Usually they don’t.”
Kesenor let out a hollow laugh.
He hadn’t expected a visitor, so he’d only muffled the sounds—next time, it seemed, he’d have to drive every living thing within a certain radius away from the room entirely.
Despite his thoughts, Kesenor smiled pleasantly.
Silmare met that smile with an expression of clear displeasure and pressed on with his questions.
“So, was your visitor a mage? From the way they vanished in an instant, they must have used Teleport. And if they went to the trouble of seeking you out here, they’d be a mage from the Magic Tower.”
“An accurate deduction.”
There seemed little point in concealing it, so he gave a brief confirmation.
“As Lord and Master of the Magic Tower both, I have duties to attend to.”
“I’ve heard as much, but I’ll never understand why humans insist on complicating their lives so.”
Kesenor took a seat across from Silmare without further comment.
None of that was the real issue.
What troubled him was why Silmare had sought him out at this hour.
“So then—why did you come tonight? Is it about Agnes?”
“Yes.”
Silmare sighed and turned his gaze toward the dark windows beyond, lost in thought.
“As you said, there’s much about her that intrigues me.”
His face clouded with concern as he fixed his eyes on Kesenor.
“A man of your temperament would have done your homework on her by now. If there’s anything I should know—anything I need to be careful of—tell me everything.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt her without realizing it.”
Kesenor exhaled slowly and settled into his chair across from Silmare.
“How long do you intend to stay here?”
He turned back the question the Laberose family’s steward had once asked.
At that, Silmare let out a soft, bitter laugh.
“Until my time runs out, I’ll remain at her side.”
“You mean that sincerely?”
“I do.”
“Even if she doesn’t choose you?”
“That won’t happen. She’ll choose me.”
“You have remarkable confidence.”
In the eyes of the blindly certain Silmare, there was not the faintest shadow of doubt.
How could it possibly be that way?
Was there something he understood differently?
Even without certainty that she would answer, Kesenor posed the question.
“What makes you so confident? Does Amy have the gift of prophecy?”
“She does.”
But Silmare answered without hesitation, and at her straightforward reply, Kesenor drew in a sharp breath.
“Agnes told you she would choose you?”
“Do I need to spell out the exact details for you?”
The beautiful man smiled as he spoke, and Kesenor glared at him with intensity.
No—thinking about it, there was no need.
Whatever prophecy Amy had made, it must have been a future that ended poorly.
That six-year-old was traveling across the entire continent precisely to change it, wasn’t she?
“It doesn’t matter. You need not tell me.”
Having come to this realization, Kesenor recovered his composure.
“The future isn’t fixed, unfortunately—and right now, I’m the only one who can help Agnes.”

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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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