The Baby Has No Strength to Hide! - Chapter 14

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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 14
Ailiene blinked slowly, her doll-like stillness drawing a sharp intake of breath from Kaiusu.
He was about to step forward when—
“Since this isn’t even your house, isn’t it cowardly to jump in like that?”
“What—what did you just say?”
Bek’s face flushed crimson as he stammered, and Ailiene shook her head with practiced sympathy.
“I’m sorry, but I’m far too busy to waste time on your posturing…”
With a soft sigh, Ailiene turned away without hesitation, moving as though an elder gently chiding a small child. Bek found himself entirely at a loss for words.
The boy vanished, leaving only suffocating silence in her wake.
“Did she just—what did she say?”
“Hahahaha!”
What answered Bek’s question was Kaiusu’s full-throated laughter. The unfamiliar sight of him doubled over, clutching his sides, left the other boys bewildered and flustered.
After laughing for some time, Kaiusu turned to look at Bek.
He said nothing—merely held his gaze—yet Bek instinctively stepped backward.
“Sorry, Bek.”
Kaiusu drew closer, his voice quiet but firm.
“I don’t have use for yes-men.”
He tapped Bek’s shoulder lightly and, leaving the boy frozen in place, followed after Ailiene.
***
After running some distance, Ailiene reached a corner of the Garden and let out a long breath she’d been holding.
“Did I do well?”
At her question, the flying squirrel and the cat both nodded their heads vigorously in unison.
It was an emphatic gesture, as though to say she’d done wonderfully.
Kiki padded silently forward and gently wrapped her warm tail around Ailiene’s plump legs. Ailiene crouched down immediately.
The cat gazed up at the child with eyes full of concern, then licked her white cheek softly with a rough, warm tongue.
A red scrape marked her cherubic cheek—likely from when Bek had shoved her and she’d tumbled across the ground.
“I’m really all right.”
Ailiene sniffed determinedly as though unbothered, then held up her tiny fist with great seriousness.
“Most Demon Beasts are easier to handle than the worthless creatures crawling all over this world!”
The raw lesson Marlin had once taught in the Cottage yard, a five-year-old had learned perfectly well.
Demon Beasts move only by hunger or instinct, but humans—humans wound others with nothing but petty malice and hollow pretense.
The small master of Great Magic cared more for her friends’ hurt feelings than for the scrape on her cheek, and she shook out her tangled golden hair with a gentle, artless smile.
***
‘What is that little troublemaker doing?’
She’d abandoned a well-kept path for dense brush that would clearly soil her dress—it made no sense. Yet, thinking it over, he couldn’t deny the child had reason to be peculiar.
Her behavior was impossible to predict.
Kaiusu clicked his tongue at his own foolishness and tried to turn away—but found he couldn’t move.
Ailiene had stopped abruptly at a certain point in the undergrowth. The spot lay in shadow cast by the fortification wall, twisted through with the roots of ancient trees, a place where few people’s feet ever trod.
‘This looks dangerous.’
The stubborn little thing wouldn’t accept a word of caution, yet sending her there alone troubled him.
Of course, she wasn’t truly alone.
The cat and flying squirrel that followed her were with her.
Kaiusu exhaled slowly and followed her anyway, telling himself it mattered only because her father would hold him responsible if she came to harm.
‘Fearless little thing.’
Ailiene pushed through grass taller than herself, advancing with determined purpose. Her resolve was striking, yet comical—her plump cheeks bounced with each step, white as flour-dusted bread.
After staring at those cheeks for some time, Kaiusu closed his eyes and shook his head. However he thought about it, he sensed they should go no farther.
They’d come much farther than expected, and he found himself glancing back repeatedly.
He didn’t know why they’d come this far, but he was about to speak—to suggest they end this small adventure and return.
“Wow!”
Ailiene gasped with genuine wonder. Kaiusu, however, found himself unable to utter a single word. He couldn’t even close his mouth.
‘There was a place like this in our castle?’
The view was beautiful beyond belief.
Tiny wildflowers, glowing with a gentle luminescence like stars descended from the heavens, clustered in great profusion. And weaving among them, golden hair the color of the flowers themselves rippled and danced.
“Found it!”
A bright smile bloomed across Ailiene’s face. She crouched and began to examine each flower carefully. There was nothing of pretend play in her manner now—Ailiene studied the color of petals, the shape of leaves, the thickness of stems with meticulous precision.
Some flowers she placed in her basket without hesitation, while others she passed by with a shake of her head. She seemed to discern some subtle difference between flowers that looked identical to any ordinary eye.
Her grave, deliberate manner made Kaiusu unconsciously hold his breath.
‘What is she doing?’
This was far more than simple wildflower gathering—her hands moved with a clear standard and certainty, like those of a seasoned expert who’d handled medicinal herbs for decades.
By the time Ailiene had filled her basket with wildflowers, she was smiling with satisfaction—that innocent, unguarded smile that pulled Kaiusu abruptly back to reality.
‘Surely not.’
It had to be nothing more than a joke. Even as he told himself that, a chill crept through his body. While he stood motionless, Ailiene turned around, her eyes widening.
“Kaiusu! What brings you here?”
Spotting him standing there transfixed, Ailiene rushed over. Didi, perched atop Ailiene’s head, waved a small hand in greeting.
Ailiene glanced behind Kaiusu, her expression turning stern.
“Did you come all this way alone? Little ones shouldn’t wander off by themselves!”
“No, I…”
Only then did Kaiusu recover his wits, and he found himself caught between exasperation and disbelief. Was he really being scolded by this fluffy white thing for coming here alone?
“And what about you? You came all this way by yourself.”
“I’m not alone.”
At his retort, Ailiene tilted her head, her eyes growing round. Kiki let out a soft meow, and Didi covered her mouth with her hand, giggling bashfully.
Kaiusu clenched his fists. The squirrel was far cuter than he’d anticipated.
“Fine. What’s with the flowers?”
But he realized that bickering over trivial details would only exhaust him. So Kaiusu moved straight to the heart of the matter. He was far too curious about what Ailiene had been doing all this time.
“Oh, these!”
Ailiene thrust the basket brimming with flowers toward him, her smile radiant as the blooms themselves. That brilliant smile stirred something odd in Kaiusu’s chest.
“Will you help me?”
“Help you with what?”
“You see, I was gathering all these flowers—”
“Gathering flowers?”
Ailiene’s eyes sparkled with an intensity that seemed almost excessive as she looked at him. Why had she been so meticulous in picking and collecting every single bloom? The question that had lingered in his mind was finally about to be answered.
And then, from her soft pink lips, came the words:
“Let’s play pretend play together!”
It was far more absurd than he could have imagined.

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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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