My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 32

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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 32
Perhaps it was because he spoke so little that Agnes had to be the one to take the initiative if she wanted to draw any response from Ignitan.
Ignitan turned his back again and moved forward.
Yet he didn’t seem to be ignoring Agnes’s words.
He seemed merely to be choosing what to say.
As she waited in silence, Ignitan turned to face her, his voice reaching her across the distance.
“Everyone has their reasons. I do too.”
“I’m curious what yours is, Ignitan.”
“If the World Tree’s Companion appears, it must be protected—that’s what I was told.”
“Did someone tell you that?”
“It’s been passed down from our people’s priest to the next, and so on.”
“Is it an absolute command for you?”
“It’s my divine duty.”
“Do giants serve the World Tree as well?”
“No. We serve our own god.”
That much was unexpected. She was still wondering how to ask about it when Ignitan continued without being prompted.
“We do what we must do. There’s no reason beyond that.”
Humans had their own god too—one without a name they could speak aloud, only described as the one who created and ruled the world.
At first, it had probably been the World Tree, but perhaps it had become something called a god as time passed.
That’s what she’d thought when listening to Silmare’s words.
‘I’ll have to ask Amy about this too when she comes.’
She was worried about whether Amy was all right now, whether she’d fully recovered.
The moment Amy came to mind, an unbidden sigh escaped her.
Then Ignitan turned back to look at Agnes.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m worried about my sister.”
“She’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
His steady gaze and voice, delivered without flourish, carried absolute certainty.
So she had no choice but to believe him.
Agnes smiled and forced herself to push aside the anxiety that filled her heart.
“Besides, Rupert is with her.”
“Have you spoken with Rupert?”
“No. But that man…….”
Ignitan trailed off, a rare occurrence, his strong jaw tightening as his brow furrowed.
“I heard he carried Amy across the entire continent on his back.”
“What?”
“Is such a thing even possible for a human?”
Agnes was momentarily taken aback, then slowly shook her head.
“I’m not sure. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other.”
Soon the two of them arrived at the village.
Everyone had gone out to work, leaving the place quiet as a tomb, so they headed toward the plaza.
Ten years ago, there were always children gathered at the plaza playing.
Once a week, when they brought back supplies needed in Kalban City, the children would come rushing in excitedly to look for sweets.
Most of them were cheap confections that merely imitated sweetness, but Agnes had often waited for them too because the colorful dyes made them so pretty.
As expected, only elderly people who could barely move and a handful of children remained at the plaza.
About ten children, large and small, played together by themselves, while three elders sat in the shade watching them.
“……Agnes?”
One of the elders spotted Agnes and Ignitan and was startled.
She tried to stand and greet them, but her body wouldn’t cooperate, and she ended up sitting back down.
Agnes rushed over to stop her.
“Timona, is it? It’s all right! Stay where you are.”
“My goodness! So it really is you! How you must have suffered, losing even your mother all this time!”
“How did you recognize me? It’s been ten years since we last met.”
“How could I not? You’re the very image of your father, the Lord.”
As the two of them murmured together, all eyes turned toward them.
“She’s the Lord’s daughter?”
“The young lady from the Lord’s house?”
“What? Is it really true?”
The other elders also hastily bowed their heads to Agnes.
Seeing their reaction, she felt somehow embarrassed.
‘I just kept taking taxes and never paid attention to anything else.…’
Agnes, who remembered the village from childhood as small but prosperous, found the scene before her now deeply disturbing.
Even the fountain in the center of the square had run dry, with only weeds sprouting from its bed.
The children’s appearance was particularly distressing.
Their limbs were gaunt and spindly, all of them clearly malnourished.
“I heard things had gotten a bit better.”
“Workers came by last time, you know.”
“The youngest lady is coming back?”
“You heard all that?”
“Of course we did. We have ears too, you know.”
“How worried we all were—we even heard the Lord wasn’t well.”
“He was such a good man. Losing his wife like that must have grieved him terribly. Tsk, tsk.”
“Oh goodness, imagine what the young lady’s been through, losing her mother so suddenly. Watch what you say.”
“You’re right! Getting old makes me careless.…”
Agnes wore a thin smile as she studied the elderly woman called Timona.
“Timona, are you unwell? Is something wrong with your health?”
Ten years ago, Timona had been a warm grandmother to the village children.
Every time Agnes came to visit, she would preserve fruit in honey and make delicious apple pie.
But now she seemed worn down with age, her strength all but gone.
Timona’s wrinkled face broke into a wide smile.
“That’s just age, dear. It’s nearly time for me to go, that’s all.”
“But you’re always saying you don’t want to die.”
“Well, who really wants to?”
Amid the affectionate teasing exchanged between the elderly women, children began to gather one by one, their eyes bright with curiosity.
They were all no more than five or six years old.
The older children must have gone off to help with the work.
‘I wonder how big Amy would have been by now.’
Agnes knelt down to meet the children at their eye level.
The older children hung back shyly at a distance, but the toddlers, barely three or four years old, shuffled hesitantly toward Agnes.
“Hello?”
“Who are you?”
“Agnes.”
“Ag…nes?”
“That’s right.”
“Are you a big sister?”
“No! I’m an older sister!”
“You’re not! You’re a man, so you should call her auntie!”
Watching the tiny mouths chatter away, Agnes was reminded even more strongly of Amy.
‘Amy used to talk just like that when she was learning to speak.’
I should have brought something for them to eat.
Then I could have shared it with the children.
When she stroked the cute child standing closest, the children behind grew pouty.
“I’m pretty too! Say I’m pretty!”
“Say I’m pretty!”
She smiled and patted their heads, and the older child standing behind grumbled enviously.
“You’re not even pretty.”
“I’m pretty!”
“Sister, am I pretty?”
“Yes, you are. You’re pretty. You’re adorable.”
As she patted them again, the children began clinging to her dress, demanding to be called pretty.
Some of them even tugged at the soft fabric of her gown, fascinated by its texture.
“Oh goodness, you rascals. That won’t do!”
The alarmed elderly women tried to stop them.
“It’s all right.”
Agnes shook her head with a smile.
After all, between Amy and the troublemakers of House Valdemar, she was used to children.
“What were you playing with?”
“This is bread!”
“This is a sword!”
They held up wooden sticks and pebbles to show her.
At the sight of it, old memories surfaced.
“The carpenter’s house is still there, isn’t it?”
“Past the creek?”
“That’s our house!”
A child’s eyes lit up as he raised his hand eagerly. Agnes searched her memory for the carpenter’s name.
“Then you must be Parvan.”
“That’s right! Seo Parvan!”
“And if you walk a little way past there, isn’t there a great oak tree?”
The children erupted in commotion.
“I know about it!”
“Noah’s always climbing up there!”
“That’s supposed to be a secret!”
“You’ll get in trouble with the master!”
Agnes raised a single finger to her lips in silence.
One by one, the children fell quiet.
Speaking as though sharing a secret, Agnes whispered softly.
“There are rocks near there, and I hid treasure nearby.”
“Treasure?”
“Really?”
The moment they heard this, some of the older children were already running off, while the littlest ones hesitated, glancing back and forth between the old man and Agnes as if seeking permission.
Sensing the unspoken question, Agnes smiled warmly and turned to the elder.
“Would it be all right if we took a little walk?”
“Oh, the children can be quite a handful.”
“It’s fine. I wanted to look around the village anyway.”
Ignitan followed behind Agnes as she took the children by the hand and led them forward.
Though it had been so long since childhood, Agnes found she could recall the path to the oak tree with striking clarity.
‘Come on, Rupert!’
‘Agnes, slow down! You’ll fall!’
When they were young and formal speech was still difficult for them, they spoke freely when adults weren’t around.
With only a year between them, both had been mere children then.
As circumstances made it so they were never alone together anymore, that familiar ease in their speech had naturally faded.
Along the roadside, fresh green shoots were pushing through the dried grass of winter.
At the end of a path that wound between scattered houses, a wide plain spread open.
In the distance stood Carpenter Parvan’s thatched cottage.
To reach it, one had to cross a shallow creek, but the oak tree came before the cottage.
Beside it lay several rocks.
Using the largest as a marker, Agnes and the children moved five paces away, brushed back the undergrowth, and began to dig, though the flat stones they’d picked up nearby made it difficult to break through the earth.
Ten years of accumulated soil had hardened the ground.
Seo, the carpenter’s son, went home and returned with a small spade.
After several rounds of digging, one smooth pebble after another began to emerge from the soil.
Round as pearls, the stones were revealed one by one.
“This is the treasure?”
The oldest child muttered his disappointment at the sight of the dirty, small stones.
Agnes laughed and replied.
“Go wash them in the creek.”
With half-hearted doubt, the children took the pebbles down to the water’s edge, and soon gasps of delight began to ring out.
“They’re just like real jewels!”
“They’re sparkling!”
The faces of the children still waiting for their stones grew eager.
Agnes dug them all up and distributed one to each child. Even after that, there were three left in her palm.
“It’s cold!”
“Be careful! You’ll get your clothes wet!”
“Will we catch a cold?”
The three-year-olds squealed and ran about in chaos, while the five- and six-year-olds tried to restrain them, and the creek rang out with cheerful noise.
Each child held their pebble up to the sunlight.
Once washed clean, the dull stones shone with a brilliant, gem-like luster.
“How did you know?”
Seo asked excitedly, and Agnes answered him kindly.
“I buried them when I was young.”
“You lived here?”
“I live here.”
“Where? I don’t see it.”
“Over there.”
Agnes pointed toward the direction of the Mansion with her hand. Naturally, it was obscured by the hill and out of view.
Regardless, Seo’s eyes lit up.
“Can I visit sometime?”
“Sure.”

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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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