Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 53

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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 53
“How noisy. If you’re going to call out so loudly, why hide your face?”
“Ha, my apologies. Well, it’s a sort of holiday for me anyway…… But are you truly planning to stay here longer?”
“Yes. There is someone I’m waiting for.”
“I thought it was strange from the start that you handed over the Western campaign to the First Holy Knight Order…… but surely you’re not about to storm through the Northern Gate?”
“I would do no such thing.”
The Paladin Dantelion spoke as though sighing.
I stepped backward again.
[ Remember this, child. There is no perfect concealment in this world. You must avoid meeting him at all costs. ]
[ You understand his obsession with you well enough by now. Even the smallest trigger could neutralize my power and restore your memory to him. ]
If Father saw me, the chance to save him that the Goddess had granted might come to nothing.
It meant Father might die because of me.
My breath caught. My mind was already spinning in chaos.
‘What do I…’
What should I do?
Where do I even start?
‘I have to… run.’
I have to flee.
Yes, I have to run.
I cannot let Father see my face!
But…… my legs wouldn’t move.
They trembled and wouldn’t take a single step. Why!
“Little one? Is something wrong?”
At that moment, the shopkeeper noticed me standing so still and spoke to me.
“……!”
No. If you talk to me right now……
Sure enough.
In that instant, Father, who had been standing far away, turned his head toward me as if by illusion,
“Haniel?”
Brad swept me up into his arms in one motion.
“-!”
“Child, why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Are you still in pain somewhere……?”
I buried my face in that large embrace.
Only then did the breath I’d been holding burst out all at once.
“Brad… sir.”
“There, there.”
“Please… let’s go home……!”
“Hmm?”
“So this is Brad Smith.”
A soft, quiet voice drew near. My shoulder jerked.
“……Dante…… sir?”
It was Father.
“It has been a long time. Two years now, hasn’t it?”
“……What brings you here?”
Brad’s tone was suddenly wary. I gripped the edge of his clothes tightly.
“I heard that recently there have been various troubles among the pillars of the Northern Region……”
“……”
“It happens to be convenient. Please tell him I wished to see him. I’ve come not as a Paladin, but casually.”
At Father’s quiet voice, Brad let out a short groan before responding.
“I see…… I shall convey the message to His Highness. Though I would advise you not to expect too much.”
“Understood. ……But.”
The voice that had fallen silent for a moment now continued slowly.
“Who is that child?”
My body jolted sharply.
Brad stroked my back as if to calm me.
“A child from our village. They were bored, so I’ve simply been showing them around Nostein.”
“……A child from the village?”
It was then I understood that sight itself has a shape. Father’s gaze wound around me like a thick rope, binding me tight.
Footsteps drew closer. Father’s footsteps.
“……Which family does the child belong to?”
It was a low, dry voice I’d never heard before.
“I don’t believe I’m obliged to answer that.”
“Your origins.”
Thud-thud. Father closed the distance between us once more.
“How so.”
“That too, I’m not obliged to—”
“If you’ve immigrated from outside, perhaps—”
“Dantelion.”
Thud-thud.
“When.”
Thud-thud.
“From where…….”
Whish!
“Dantelion.”
Brad could bear it no longer. He stepped in front of me and gripped his weapon, his voice dropping to a growl. “Why are you doing this? If you come any closer, I’ll consider it a threat.”
“If you advance further, I will respond with force.”
Father stopped mid-breath.
“……a threat? I would never—”
Only then did I realize my body was trembling like an aspen leaf.
“My apologies.”
Father withdrew. Brad, suddenly taut with tension, shielded me firmly and turned away.
“Then, we’ll take our leave.”
“……please wait a moment.”
Then Father caught at my steps again.
“But, Commander……. Why do you keep…….”
His manner had softened noticeably from before. That gentle voice…….
“Little one.”
It was directed at me.
For a moment, tears nearly spilled.
“Little one. My beautiful princess.”
That voice…… I knew it far too well.
But now, no matter what, I could never answer it again.
“You dropped this.”
Rustle. Father picked up the fallen candy wrapper and handed it to me.
I didn’t move, my face buried in Brad’s chest.
Silence hung between us.
Father asked carefully, his tone carrying a hint of anxious urgency. “……is the child perhaps unwell?”
“She seems quite tired. We should be going.”
Brad took the candy wrapper instead and turned toward the cargo wagon.
As Brad moved quickly toward the cargo wagon, he whispered to me, “Haniel. Are you really hurt somewhere? Hmm? Why are you suddenly like this?”
I shook my head mutely, like someone who’d forgotten how to speak.
Quickly, quickly…….
I wanted to escape this place.
Neigh-hiii!
The cargo wagon galloped away swiftly.
We crossed back through the Northern Region checkpoint and returned to Bedel village.
Eight hours had passed since I ran away.
Ch. 10 New Residents of the Veil River Valley
“I… a child also doesn’t care much for him, so why does he show such interest today?” Mark said.
“Come to think of it, it’s been a long while since I’ve seen such lovely silver hair like the Commander’s.”
“…….”
“Well then, what will you do? Even without the Holy Knight seal, entry to the Northern Region seems difficult, but will you attempt it anyway?”
“…….”
“Commander…….”
Mark swallowed his breath.
“……sir?”
Dantelion’s face, when he turned, was terribly, utterly frozen.

A strange light flickered across her wide-open eyes. A face that had finally shed even the soft mask she always wore.
Mark had never seen a Paladin—someone whose emotional range was naturally narrow—wear such an expression before today.
She looked furiously angry. At once, she seemed gripped by fear; and at the same time, like someone who had finally found something they’d been searching for all along.
“……Let’s go.”
Her throat moved sharply. Dantelion, barely managing to swallow something down, could only part her lips with effort.
“Yes? Yes, of course……!”
Dantelion moved forward in a daze, her gaze fixed on the spot where the child had vanished.
Her head throbbed.
‘Why was Brad looking after that child?’
A small girl.
Very small, fragile-looking.
Of course, it wasn’t necessarily strange. People took children from the village out for brief walks all the time.
“…….”
But why.
Why did this feeling sit so wrong with her?
‘……Could it be a child who fled from the Z Zone?’
But then—at that moment, she hadn’t thought about such things at all.
She’d simply wanted to see the child’s face.
If Brad hadn’t stopped her, she surely would have.
An indescribable,
utterly strange feeling.
She clenched her fist tight. For some reason the suffocation rose to her throat, and she roughly undid the buttons she’d fastened so neatly at her collar.
‘Now that I think about it.’
Quietly, she retraced the scene from moments ago.
‘That red scarf the child was holding……?’
She’d kept it hidden, clutched tightly as though concealing it.
Yet the edge had been visible.
That…….
Wasn’t it similar to the yarn of the scarf she’d been given?
Of course, yarn like that was common enough in the Empire. She’d seen it at the general store just moments before. But for some reason she couldn’t simply let it pass.
Her senses, sharpened by a lifetime of serving only God’s will, were urging her forward.
They seemed to be telling her not to ignore her instinct—that very voice now speaking within her.
It was at that moment.
“Phew! Finally the next week!”
A group of people passed by, chattering loudly.
“Now we just need to get a wagon and we can all head into the Northern Region together!”
“I heard someone’s been guarding the gate lately……surely we won’t be turned away?”
“As long as identification checks out, there’s no problem!”
Heading to Bertus……new settlers, then.
“…….”
Dantelion’s gaze slid smoothly toward them.

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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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