My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 57

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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 57
Her gaze drifted naturally to his hands.
Despite his boyish, guileless face and playful demeanor, Rapitor’s hands were covered in calluses and countless small scars.
More than that, there were dark smudges on them from handling various things just moments before.
Agnes drew a handkerchief from her pocket and offered it to him.
“Oh, me? Are they that dirty?”
Only then did Rapitor realize the state of his hands, and he quickly hid them behind his back.
Agnes laughed and shook her head.
“No, not at all. I actually thought they were rather remarkable. I was only worried you might get dirt on your face.”
“No, no, I couldn’t possibly use a clean handkerchief on them. I can just wash them with water.”
With that, he casually wiped both hands on his clothes and grinned broadly.
“I’ve noticed something since yesterday—you have a gift for saying kind things, Agnes.”
“Do I?”
“Yesterday too. It felt almost like being scolded by my mother after getting into a fight, but I didn’t dislike it at all. After hearing you speak, even that insufferable mage—well, somehow I think I’ll just have to get along with them somehow.”
Amy, who had been listening quietly beside them, regarded Rapitor with something like pity.
‘He’s just taken a fancy to her, hasn’t he?’
But Agnes seemed to interpret his words quite differently.
“Perhaps that’s only because I’m an ordinary person? I was simply offering common sense, nothing more.”
“No, Agnes. You are a Companion of the World Tree.”
Rapitor’s expression grew serious. The bright golden flicker in his eyes deepened to a richer hue.
“That’s precisely what makes it persuasive—because you’re ordinary! If someone great and magnificent had said such things, why would they trouble themselves with the feelings of a different race separated from us by a thousand years?”
It was a perspective she hadn’t considered.
As Agnes fell silent, Amy, who had been standing quietly beside her, reached over and took her hand.
Rapitor gently ruffled Amy’s hair in response, then continued with mock complaint.
“Take that disagreeable mage, for instance. If he’d been there yesterday, instead of saying ‘let’s all get along,’ he’d have told us to fight it out and give the world to whoever won. How’s a frail faerie like me supposed to manage under those conditions?”
That struck her as rather unfair.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Kesenor’s voice drifted down from above.
“Surely you’re not speaking ill of me.”
“Ah, you startled me! Give some warning before you appear!”
“I had no idea you were so dull of hearing. Unfortunately, I have acute ears—I heard every word.”
Kesenor was looking down into the garden from a second-story window.
He gave a brief wave to Amy standing beside him, then raised his voice.
“All the same, I agree with Rapitor. I’m grateful that the fate of the world rests with you, Agnes, and not with me.”
“Your Grace…!”
When she thought about it, Kesenor had been cooped up in his room all day, busy making something.
After hearing yesterday that Agnes was in danger, it seemed he’d decided to turn the Mansion into a fortress.
This morning alone, a device that would fire Ice Arrows at Agnes’s signal had been installed, and he appeared to be constructing something else as well.
‘Ah, so that’s why Rapitor and the Duke have been so busy since dawn.’
Agnes recalled what Kesenor had said the day before.
‘Starting tomorrow, males will start making quite a fuss, it seems.’
To realize all of this was done to show her his care—her face grew warm.
Fortunately, from where he stood above, Kesenor didn’t seem to notice, and he continued speaking.
“In any case, I’m relieved that Rapitor came. We of the Magic Tower pride ourselves in Magic Stone Crafting, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the work of the Dark Elves.”
“Pride yourselves! And you’ve made a mess of precious Magic Stones—I’m heartbroken over the Stones that have been decaying uselessly all this time!”
“The crafters of the Magic Tower would be quite wounded to hear that. Everyone simply has their own area of excellence.”
Thanks to this, a point of confusion from moments earlier was now resolved.
“Ah, so that’s why you gave me the Magic Stones just like that!”
“The Magic Stones I gave Rapitor? If I merely craft what I need from them, the debt is more than paid.”
“That’s exactly why I brought him here!”
When she glanced down at Amy standing beside him, the girl wore an expression of utter satisfaction.
“That’s right! Amy came all the way across the sea to fetch me from our home.”
“It was hard work riding the ship!”
“Really?”
Come to think of it, the Dark Elves lived on an island in the south.
“You’ve never been out to sea before—what was it like?”
“Really amazing. Rapitor’s home and the giants’ home too—they’re all so amazing.”
“Hey, you don’t mean ours is less impressive?”
“No, it’s just—Rapitor’s home is a cave with lights inside, and things creak and move all over the place. There are these huge moving figures that work all by themselves.”
Even from Amy’s vague description, a wondrous sight rose in her imagination.
“Automatons? So they move on their own, just like that spatula we saw earlier?”
“That may be true, but…….”
Rapitor offered a wry smile.
“All the machines we have now were built a thousand years ago. We simply swapped out the Magic Stones. The trouble is, being an island, we’re desperately short on materials to craft new parts.”
As he spoke, he shot a glance up at Kesenor, who was looking down from above.
Kesenor shrugged.
“Well, it’s not my fault, supposedly.”
“If your ancestor did it, you bear the responsibility.”
“We’ll look into the facts soon enough.”
No matter how you looked at it, he seemed to be deflecting casually, but at least there was none of the sharp tension from before, and she felt her shoulders ease.
“So, about that, Rapitor.”
“Yes, Agnes?”
“If you need materials, Amy brought everything from the Dragon Lair.”
“Ah, yes. I heard. Goodness, whether it’s the mage who’s strong, or Rupert—either way, it’s likely the latter.”
Rapitor continued cutting down Kesenor in every way he could manage as he asked with a puzzled expression.
“But why is that?”
“Because I thought there might be something in there we could use as materials.”
“You mean you’d simply give us what was in the Dragon Lair?”
“Of course not. The way you craft Magic Stones for the Marquis in exchange for obtaining them—I have a request for you as well.”
“What would that be?”
Agnes gripped the fabric of her skirt tightly as she watched Rapitor ask with an expression of complete bewilderment.
If Rapitor would help her.
Her chest swelled with anticipation and excitement.
Agnes recalled a conversation she had once shared with Alfred.
‘They won’t come all the way to our Territory just for cheap, convenient rest. People flock to the city because there are things worth enjoying there.’
A way to draw people heading to Kalburn City to our Territory instead, right beside it.
Not merely a pleasant place to stay, but something that merchants—for surely many of them were merchants—would find genuinely intriguing.
‘If only I could learn from Rapitor.’
The dark elf was said to be skilled at anything he could do with his hands.
Magic Stone Crafting, of course, and handling mechanisms, naturally even making clothing and handicrafts—all of it.
Agnes had a sister who could do anything with her hands equally well.
And beyond that, there were diligent people in her Territory.
“Would it be possible for you to teach the people in my Territory?”
It was something Rapitor had not anticipated at all.
The shock on his face quickly gave way to a broad grin.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking for, but our techniques aren’t easy to learn. And we’re not generous teachers, either.”
“Of course not.”
“But you seem quite confident? The tuition will be extremely expensive—are you certain?”
“Will you at least consider it?”
Agnes immediately made her way to the vault in the Basement.
When she entered what appeared to be an empty space and emerged carrying treasures of immense value, Rapitor let out a gasp of wonder.
“My goodness, this is real magic…. How can there possibly be a vault here?”
More than that, as Rapitor examined what Agnes had brought out, he suddenly cried out.
“Aaaah! What is this!”
What Rapitor had picked up was an uncut gem that gleamed with an unusually bright silver light.
“This is Elixirium! That radiant, iridescent shimmer even without light! That noble silver! Even as it seems to reflect all things, the opaque interior is like an abyss—this is priceless!”
Amy, who had been fidgeting around the vault trying to confirm whether truly no one but Agnes could enter it, and Agnes herself, who had just retrieved a Hair Pin from inside the vault and placed it in Amy’s hair, both turned in shock to stare at Rapitor.
“Is it such an expensive gem?”
“A gem? This itself is a Magic Stone! Unlike the common Magic Stones that come from Demon Beasts, this is something generated naturally by the earth itself—pure magical essence from nature condensed like a pearl! This is the highest, the supreme grade of Magic Stone!”
Rapitor was waving both arms wildly in his excitement, and it was almost frightening; Agnes stepped back awkwardly with a strained smile.
“Then the tuition I mentioned…….”
“Of course I’ll do it! I could do it for the next hundred years! If word got out that these actually existed, my entire household would be begging me to teach them!”
“Actually, there are several more inside…….”
At that moment, Rapitor seemed as though he might faint.

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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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