My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 42

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

Chapter 42
* * *
More than a month had passed since Agnes returned home.
Standing at the second-floor railing, Agnes surveyed the mansion—transformed beyond recognition.
They had repaired the worn sections, replaced the threadbare curtains and carpets with new ones, and left everything immaculate.
The roof work was nearly complete.
Once Amy’s room was finished, there would be nothing left to restore.
After breakfast,
Agnes descended to the village with Ignitan.
She meant to check whether the materials for the storehouse had arrived safely and whether the provisions for the villagers were in good order.
“Agnes!”
“Agnes!”
Young children rushed forward to embrace her with delight.
Meanwhile, the five or six-year-olds watched from a distance, apparently cautioned by their parents.
Among them was Seo, the carpenter’s son.
‘Can I come visit your house?’
‘Of course.’
Remembering the conversation she’d had with Seo, Agnes approached him first.
She reached out to ruffle his hair; he didn’t shy away, but gazed up at her with quiet attention.
“You said you’d come visit our house. When are you coming?”
“Oh, well—I’m not sure how I could manage that!”
“Don’t worry. Things are chaotic now, but once I’ve had it properly decorated, I’ll invite you over.”
Seo and the other children’s eyes widened at that.
“Really?”
“You mean it?”
“Oh my, children, I’m not sure that’s—!”
The adults listening in were quite flustered, though it scarcely mattered.
They would make fine playmates for Amy.
After exchanging a few words with the other children, Agnes asked Kania for news of the village.
“Nothing unusual?”
“Unusual? There was quite a lot!”
Kania proceeded to relate how difficult it had been, after recovering Baren’s body, to explain the matter to Yohas and his wife Marianne.
“How did they manage? He was no longer young—it must have been quite a shock.”
No matter how estranged a child might be, the heart of a parent learning of their violent death could not be easily described.
“Were they deeply grieved? Did they blame you?”
Kania took Agnes’s hand, noting how her expression had grown clouded, and drew her somewhere.
“I wanted to show you this.”
Kania had led her to the Village Cemetery.
In the darkest, most remote corner, a tombstone bearing Baren’s name stood in place.
Since the exiled were denied even their bodies in death, allowing Baren to rest here was itself a privilege.
“Yohas was such a good man. Even as Village Chief, he went to great lengths, and—everyone agreed this much was only right.”
“Even after he burned down the storehouse?”
“They said that though they hated what Baren did, he was still Yohas’s son, so they owed him this much.”
Though they had wept bitterly and suffered greatly, Yohas and Marianne seemed satisfied with it, Kania said.
“I felt a kind of relief from them, too. Their hearts must have been burning with anguish all this time.”
“They knew what Baren was doing?”
“Of course. His health was already poor, but his ranting about wanting to kill Baren only made it worse.”
“I see.”
Agnes felt genuine pity for Yohas.
She wished she could offer him comfort, but he would not want it.
Kania also dissuaded Agnes, saying Yohas didn’t seem as though he would live long, and that he preferred not to receive visitors.
Lunchtime arrived, and Agnes shared a meal with the village.
Thanks to the ingredients she had hastily ordered, the spread was generous.
The villagers were intensely curious how much the terrifying powerful Ignitan would eat, but were disappointed to see him consume only a few pieces of fruit.
Watching this, Agnes smiled softly to herself.
As they made their way back to the mansion after the meal,
warm sunlight poured across the wide fields that rolled gently beneath the low hills.
Spring was deepening.
In a landscape brimming everywhere with fresh green verdure, Ignitan, who had been walking in silence, suddenly spoke.
“Is there a river nearby?”
“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?”
“What river is it?”
“The Karun River. It flows between the Darkness Mountain Range and the Wind Mountain Range, passes through Kavas, and cuts across the entire Empire—we call it the Empire’s lifeblood.”
The Empire’s fertile territories owed their prosperity to the Karun River.
The vast plains that stretched below the Karun River formed the Empire’s Granary.
Valdemar and Laenheim, which flanked the Karun River, were renowned throughout the southern reaches for precisely this reason—and Calburn City itself held the distinction of being the South’s most celebrated metropolis, all because of the Karun River’s blessing.
Laberose Territory lay adjacent to the Karun River as well, though its modest size meant its agricultural advantages amounted to little more than convenient farming.
“Have you ever traveled elsewhere, Ignitan? To the Three Kingdoms, or perhaps to the forests where the fairies dwell?”
Ignitan shook his head.
“Then you’ve remained beyond the Flame Mountain Range all this time?”
“It is not land I am permitted to leave.”
“But you came here to find me.”
“Because it was something I had to do.”
“Is it forbidden for you to venture beyond the Giant Race’s domain?”
Ignitan did not answer.
Only the light in his eyes, which rested briefly upon Agnes, seemed unusually heavy and grave.
Perhaps someday she would hear the full story.
Without pressing further, Agnes offered only a bitter smile.
* * *
Not far from Laberose Territory lay a small lake.
It was too distant to reach on foot, nestled within a forest that one could arrive at by carriage in roughly thirty minutes.
Being modest in size, it harbored no fearsome creatures, making it an ideal destination for a spring outing on a warm day.
‘Rupert, have you ever seen the sea?’
‘No.’
‘They say it looks just like this lake. But no matter how far you walk, you can never reach the end. Isn’t that remarkable?’
‘Could such a place really exist?’
‘Of course—it’s written in books, isn’t it?’
Even the knight who had accompanied them confirmed he had never seen it himself.
‘The world holds so many wondrous places, yet we cannot possibly visit them all.’
‘Might we go there someday?’
‘How? I even asked Father and Mother, but they’ve never been either.’
The small lady, affecting a grave expression as if imitating her father, grumbled through her protruding lips with visible displeasure.
‘People are born and die in the place where they are born. That’s what the Laberose Count told me.’
‘I see.’
‘But I don’t like it. I’m curious. I want to see it with my own eyes.’
Surely it was a memory she had long forgotten.
Yet that distant conversation from that day surfaced vividly in her mind.
It was likely because she was now actually seeing the ‘sea’ that Agnes had once spoken of.
More than that—Rupert was sailing upon it.
Rupert pulled at the oars while keeping watch over Amy, who sat beside him in a listless daze.
Amy’s face remained ashen today as well.
She was suffering from mild seasickness.
Yet her body seemed in good condition, thanks to the thorough rest she’d taken in Elog, the land of giants.
The two were heading toward the Dark Elf Realm.
The Dark Elves inhabited a massive island situated in the midst of the vast sea to the south.
To reach it, one had to cross the Flame Mountain Range and travel to the southern edge of Kingdom Asmarin.
Rupert had paid a considerable sum to an old man who lived at the kingdom’s southern tip, borrowing his ship and his expertise.
On the mainland, he could carry Amy and race across the land as if flying, but he possessed no knowledge of navigation at sea.
The old man gripped the helm while Rupert pulled the oars.
Fortunately, the weather was favorable, and it seemed they would arrive before long.
Standing at the threshold of his final destination after a long journey, Rupert posed a question to Amy that had gnawed at him since they first departed.
“The Dark Elves would make four.”
“Yes.”
“Is Agnes’s ‘bond’ among them?”
“Hm?”
“Is it that choosing one of them is the only way to keep Agnes from being in danger?”
“Ah…….”
A worry utterly incongruous with Amy’s delicate, adorable face surfaced upon it.
It was profound and heavy, as though the sea’s dark depths had seeped into her very being.
“I… I’m not entirely sure myself…….”
“Pardon?”
“I just wanted to stop them.”
“Stop what?”
“The bad man! He’s going to hurt my sister.”
“If they’re there, you can stop him?”
A sorcerer, an elf, a member of the Giant Race, and now the Dark Elf she was heading to find today.
Four men.
And Agnes.
As she called to mind each of their faces, her chest grew tight.
“All of them… aren’t they rather unusual? It seems as though each of them lives in such a singular world of their own, and from what I can see, I find it hard to believe they would suit Agnes well at all.”
For Rupert, who had done nothing but follow silently until now, this was his first expression of doubt.
Wondering if a mere six-year-old could understand, Rupert added one more thing.
“Might they not rather try to use you?”
“Mm. You’re right, aren’t you?”
At that, Amy affirmed Rupert’s thought.
She even turned the question back on him.
“So what if that happens? Can you stop them, Rupert?”
Amy didn’t know everything, after all.
What she knew was already beginning to change.
First Kesenor, then Silmare, and now Ignitan.
Originally, she would have met her sister far later than this.
‘Because of me, it all happened so much sooner.’
She was worried about what all of them might be doing now that they’d met her sister.
‘In the novel, they were supposed to protect her, but now the villain hasn’t even appeared yet.’
Amy bit her lip hard.
‘What if they’re fighting each other right now?’
Seized by a sudden anxiety, Amy pressed the question urgently.
“How strong are you, Rupert?”

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