My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 33

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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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Episode 33
Thanks to the pebbles that Agnes and Rupert had scoured the fields for so eagerly, she’d grown remarkably close to the children.
‘I wonder if Amy would like these remaining ones?’
She imagined the girl would find it fascinating to learn that her older sister had played with them in childhood.
As she clutched the three remaining pebbles in her palm, Ignitan extended his hand toward Agnes.
Bewildered, she opened her eyes wide, but Ignitan simply thrust his hand into his trouser pocket.
Of course, her dress had no pockets.
Agnes smiled warmly and handed them over. Ignitan deposited the pebbles safely in his pocket.
“Don’t lose them, all right? I’m giving them to Amy!”
Intoxicated by the children’s innocence, Agnes teased them with deliberate playfulness.
Ignitan simply nodded in silence.
Agnes took the children’s hands and returned to the Town Square.
Since every child wanted to hold her hand, she had to take turns, grasping one small hand at a time.
“Grandmother, look at this!”
“It’s beautiful!”
“Doesn’t it look like a jewel?”
The moment they arrived, the children bustled about showing the pebbles to the elderly villagers.
“I’m hungry.”
“Me too, me too!”
After hours of playing, the children whimpered with appetite.
An elderly woman retrieved bread and porridge that had been baked beforehand in the communal oven and warmed them, and the children gathered together to share the meal.
“I’m hungry too—is there any bread left?”
“Something as coarse as this, I hardly….”
“If you’re still hungry, it’s no trouble at all.”
“I’ll give you mine, sister!”
“No, I’ll give you mine!”
Despite their own meager portions, each child tore off a piece of bread and offered it to her.
Thanks to their generosity, Agnes and Ignitan managed to fill their bellies.
The bread was soggy and carried the scent of grass.
Since it was wheat harvested last year, one could understand why it smelled somewhat aged, but the grass scent itself was peculiar.
“Is food in short supply here?”
At her question, Timona answered with embarrassment, her words trailing off.
“This time of year, it’s always like this. But the steward came by not long ago and distributed wheat to us, so we’re managing.”
“Alfred sent it?”
“Yes. We baked this bread with it.”
“But you mixed grass into it. Weren’t you short on wheat?”
At that, the elderly exchanged uncomfortable glances.
The way they carefully watched each other’s faces seemed suspicious.
Agnes narrowed her eyes and pressed further.
“Was it a shortage, or was something else wrong?”
“No, ma’am. There’s no way that could be.”
Just then, a small child who had been listening intently to the adults’ conversation raised his voice.
“Baren is bad!”
“Sophia!”
Timona, startled, quickly covered Sophia’s mouth, but it was already too late.
A bad premonition washed over Agnes.
With her expression hardening, Agnes stared directly at Timona and asked.
“Baren—the Village Chief’s son?”
Baren had made such an impression even in childhood that Agnes remembered him well.
They had played together as children, and even after growing up, she’d visited the Manor several times with the Village Chief.
‘They said he was a late-born son.’
She recalled Alfred grumbling that the boy lacked discipline.
When Agnes looked out the second-floor windows of the Manor, she remembered seeing that same boy standing before the gates, his eyes fixed upward with contempt.
“Has Baren caused some kind of trouble?”
“No, ma’am. That couldn’t possibly be!”
But the children were exchanging wary glances.
Despite being barely five or six years old, they clearly understood that Baren was a subject not to be mentioned.
“Children—did Baren bully any of you?”
When she asked directly, the older children fell silent with frightened expressions, but the four or five-year-olds began to chime in, one after another.
“He scolds us all the time!”
“Curse too.”
“You hit me last time!”
“That’s right, our big brother!”
“And he won’t share his bread.”
“He won’t give us any.”
“He says he won’t give bad children anything.”
“He said we were bad.”
From the children’s halting words, Agnes pieced together what had happened. She turned back toward Timona.
Her expression had hardened naturally.
“Oh, I wouldn’t know, Miss. What could an old woman like me say?”
But Timona shook her head. She didn’t seem about to offer any real explanation.
The elderly man beside them, who had been listening to the exchange, chimed in as well.
“We’re fine, Miss.”
“Thanks to your help, we’re managing well.”
Though anyone could feel that this was far from the truth.
Agnes decided to ask a question they might actually answer.
“Where’s the Village Chief?”
“Yohas is ill and resting at home.”
“It’s been that way for quite some time now.”
“Then who’s managing the village? Someone has to maintain security, and distribute communal resources……”
At that, they fell silent again.
Agnes offered them a reassuring smile.
“Baren’s doing it, then. That’s why you can’t answer.”
“……”
They looked away entirely.
Without opening their mouths, their posture had said everything.
Grasping the situation well enough, Agnes turned to Timona with a warm, gentler smile.
“It’s all right. I’ll protect you.”
As she rose to leave the square with Ignitan, the children began following one by one.
“Go on back and play. And what you told me—that’s a secret, understand?”
“Huh?”
“If you keep the secret well, I’ll bring you something delicious next time.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Something that tastes sweet!”
At that, the children cried out with delight and raced back into the square.
Ignitan watched the children disappear with a penetrating gaze.
“Will they be all right?”
It had been so long since she’d heard his voice.
Agnes shook her head with a wry smile.
“No. Children aren’t good at keeping lies.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I need to solve this before Baren threatens the children.”
“Who is this Baren?”
“The Village Chief’s son. He seems to be acting as chief in his father’s stead while he’s unwell.”
“Is he an evil man?”
“He was a bit spiteful and cunning, but it’s been so long since I last saw him, I’m not sure what he’s like now.”
“I think you have some idea.”
“It’s an old story, really. In villages the lord doesn’t oversee, those with power torment those without. It’s our fault. As lord of this territory, I should have maintained order here, but I’ve neglected that duty for years.”
What must the people have thought when they realized their lord would only collect taxes but offer no protection in return?
After the first year passed, then the second, they must have sensed something was terribly wrong.
‘That’s when I sent all my retainers away.’
A lord’s responsibilities were heavier than most realized.
She had to secure the territory’s safety at once. Among those she’d dismissed were knights and soldiers who had served the Laberose House.
They had all departed to find other positions.
In other words, the village had lost those who might have protected it.
‘On top of that, we used to send down precious goods, but even those dried up.’
Spices, fine beer. Meat and milk they could enjoy at harvest festivals.
And when grain ran short, Laberose would purchase more with its own fortune.
Security had deteriorated, and their lives had become barren.
‘They couldn’t leave the place they’d always lived, so they must have thought they had to try anything just to survive.’
Perhaps it had been something like a Self-Defense Militia.
“It seems they’re monopolizing the village’s supplies.”
When Alfred heard from Agnes that he should help the territory’s people, he naturally sent far more provisions than he had been able to before—abundantly so.
Yet the children were eating gruel mixed with grass.
Agnes’s round, gentle eyes narrowed.
Anger roiled inside her.
‘How could anyone oppress people through what they eat?’
Even as a child, she’d had that temperament.
She’d caught him more than once trying to deceive the adults with cunning words, and she’d stopped him every time.
‘Baren’s a liar! You told the children to bring you candy. Rupert and I both saw it!’
‘Is that truly so, miss?’
‘Of course. Surely you don’t doubt my word?’
What would he try this time?
The reason Agnes could step forward with such confidence was Ignitan alone.
Even the Self-Defense Militia couldn’t match trained soldiers or knights.
Naturally, they would be far too easy for Ignitan.
“I have a favor to ask, Ignitan.”
“What is it.”
“When I meet with Baren, could you help me?”
“How so.”
“Just intimidate him a little. They’re not real soldiers, after all.”
“Understood.”
The two of them finally arrived at the farmland.
Three oxen were plowing the field, and a man followed behind, gripping the plow handles.
Where the oxen couldn’t reach, it fell to the people to manage.
Women scattered seed, and children picked out stones from behind.
But two men standing beneath the shade of a great tree were doing nothing at all.
They merely watched the man who worked like an overseer.
A sword hung at his hip.
“Baren.”
Agnes recognized him at once.
Eyebrows raised in that characteristic sneer, eyes sharp with malice, lips always twisted in a mocking smile.
The face was exactly as she remembered it from childhood.
At first, he seemed not to recognize her, naturally enough.
But as he suddenly grasped who she was, his face went pale with shock and he approached Agnes hurriedly.
“Well, what brings you here!”

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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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