The Baby Has No Strength to Hide! - Chapter 20

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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 20
I’m late, I’m late.
Count Huyato moved quickly toward the regularly scheduled meeting of the Lubentain Grand Ducal House retainers.
He had been guarding the Seal Stone at the forefront of Lubentain Territory—such a weighty duty meant he frequently missed these gatherings.
But this time, there was a reason he’d resolved to attend no matter what.
Even as he walked hurriedly, his eyes darted about the castle, searching.
‘So she’s really that adorable.’
He hoped to catch a glimpse of ‘that child’ the Grand Duke had supposedly brought back personally—the one people wouldn’t stop gossiping about.
A golden-haired angel blowing the trumpet of victory, they’d said—utterly lovely. Her soft white cheeks were full as though she were holding a giant piece of candy, they’d claimed.
But he reached the office without ever crossing paths with her.
Having released a disappointed sigh, the moment he opened the massive doors, he saw—
“Lili doesn’t have one!”
A golden-haired angel perched on the Grand Duke’s lap, clutching at his collar and whining.
What startled him more was that everyone in the office seemed utterly accustomed to this, their eyes fixed on the documents before them as though nothing unusual were happening.
“You’ve arrived, Huyato.”
“Ah, Your Grace, gleaming like an oath beneath the moonlight—”
“Lili!”
Before Count Huyato could finish his greeting, Ailien, sprawled across the Grand Duke’s lap, struck his chest with her small feet.
“Good heavens. The tantrums today are truly something else.”
“I’ve never dealt with anything like this before.”
As he spoke, the Grand Duke wrapped his arm firmly around Ailien’s waist, careful she might tumble backward.
Count Huyato, who had been staring in bewilderment at the scene, was able to take his seat thanks to a gesture from Baron Kirain.
“I did tell you we had work to do now.”
“As if that matters more than Lili’s demands?”
“Far more important than indulging your whims.”
“What?”
Ailien’s soft lips parted delicately.
“But listen!”
Yet Ailien proved to be no easy opponent.
“Fine. Say what you need to say, then off with you.”
“Give Lili one too!”
“Did Kaiius not teach you Rhetoric? You ought to learn that if you want to logically persuade someone, you can’t leave out the object of your desire.”
“Lili wants to have one? I want to have one.”
“What?”
Before Ailien could finish speaking, Calisto’s expression grew cold. The flying squirrel that was always at his side chittered as if it wanted to add something. Though it was unfortunate not to understand what it meant, the truth was Lili’s speech was no more comprehensible.
“Why would you need one?”
“Because I don’t have one, that’s why.”
“The young lady wishes to have a peerage, sir.”
At that moment, Ailien’s Maid approached soundlessly and spoke in a flat tone. Where had she been? She was the only one among this trio anyone could actually reason with.
Calisto, peering into her expressionless yellow eyes, felt an odd sense of relief even as his brow furrowed slightly.
“A peerage?”
“At last, words we can understand.”
“Words I understand, rather.”
“Words we can understand.”
“But a peerage is not something to be given easily.”
“Huh? Now we’re not understanding each other again.”
Ailien pushed out her pale rosy lips in a pout. Her white cheeks puffed up so full that pressing them would seem to produce sweet cream.
“But Lili really wants one, you know?”
“Not everyone can have one.”
“But I’m Ailien, aren’t I? And practically everyone here has one?”
Ahem.
When Ailien pointed to the gathering of retainers with her thumb, awkward coughs erupted from every corner. Truthfully, her words weren’t wrong—ever since the Inma War, peerages had been distributed liberally to boost morale.
“At the very least, those of us present here are not the sort to hear such talk.”
“Lili’s here too, though?”
There was simply no defeating her with words. The Grand Duke raised one massive hand and dragged it slowly across his brow and eyes. He needed to somehow get this child out and begin the meeting, but as always, she showed no sign of leaving until she achieved her goal.
He sometimes wondered what went on inside that small head. He’d raised a child before, yet nothing came easily. Even his only son, Kaiius, had been sufficiently obstinate, but somehow this cream puff always managed one step beyond.
“It doesn’t make sense for only you to lack one. Kaiius doesn’t have one yet either.”
“But Kai will get one later when he receives his sword. Besides, hasn’t the Deladium Kingdom been desperate to give Kai something as well?”
“How did you even know that?”
“In any case, give one to Lili. Lili simply cannot live like this.”
At times Huyato found himself wondering whether Ailien’s vocabulary was impoverished or remarkably rich. She knew words like “furthermore” and “neither here nor there,” yet for some inexplicable reason she insisted on using “what on earth” in the most peculiar ways.
Meanwhile, she cupped her small hands together and deployed a “please, please” that was both endearing and exasperating.
“I’m begging you, Ailien—stop that.”
Calisto hadn’t meant to let out what amounted to a sigh, and he regretted it at once. He quickly examined her face, worried her feelings might be hurt.
But contrary to his concern, Ailien’s eyes were gleaming.
“Stop what?”
“Lili—that’s what I meant.”
“I’m Ailien the—stop?”
Ailien raised her short arms high into the air. She pressed a hand over her mouth, her expression one of barely contained delight—as if to keep the cream on her lips from spilling out.
“Lili has two stops!”
“What?”
“They’re incredibly high!”
“No, that’s not what I—”
“It’s a heavy responsibility, but if it’s something you’re asking of me, I’ll give it a try….”
Ailien’s expression as she said this was almost solemn.
With a grunt, she scrambled down from Calisto’s lap and bolted from the room.
He could faintly hear her shouting, “Lili has two stops!” It seemed she was eager to boast about it to Kaiius outside.
“I’ll be right back.”
Calisto rose and followed after her.
“Tsk.”
An unpleasant clicking sound—sharp as a splash of cold water—shattered the silence.
Sure enough, it was Baron Molton.
“Still willful as ever, I see. With no proper foundation, one can hardly expect even the barest courtesy from the child.”
“His Excellency is simply magnanimous enough to overlook it.”
Led by Baron Molton, the Traditionalist retainers chimed in as if they’d been waiting for just this moment. Ever since the plan to drive Ailien away had come to nothing, the rift between the two factions had widened beyond repair. Baron Molton, in particular, sneered openly, keenly aware of the New Faction’s gaze upon him.
“Even that brat occasionally says something sensible—that everyone and their dog holds a peerage these days.”
It was unmistakably a direct insult aimed at the New Faction. The air in the reception hall froze in an instant. The eyes of the New Faction knights—who had been shuffling through documents or sipping tea with composed expressions—darkened perceptibly.
Of all of them, Huyato found the affront hardest to bear. He was a man born of common stock, elevated to the rank of earl through deeds earned on the hellish battlefield of the Inma War, recognized for service rendered after gaining his knighthood. Since the war’s end, he had been the Empire’s shield, faithfully guarding the Seal Stones that all others shunned.
His honor was fundamentally different from that of those who lounged in comfort and wagged their tongues merely because they’d inherited a family name. As his hard-won glory was toyed with by their idle remarks, thick sinews rose across Huyato’s weathered knuckles.
But he had to endure it.
Even men like that were useful to his lord.
It was then that Baron Kirain leaned subtly toward him and whispered in a low voice.
“If I may say so, sir.”
“Yes?”
“I believe Miss Ailien may be Zeronius’s successor.”
“What?”
That tiny creature—the successor to Zeronius, the great archmage who commanded the—?
Huyato’s astonishment was so genuine that he spoke louder than intended, and every eye in the room turned toward him.
“My apologies.”
“Do keep your voice down, Count Huyato.”
“But surely a child so small cannot be Zeronius’s successor…. Does that even make sense?”
“You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you? That Miss Ailien can dispose of demonic beasts.”
Wasn’t that merely the whimsy of a young child?
Huyato tilted his head in doubt, but Baron Kirain remained firm.
“You don’t understand, Count Huyato. Not what our young lady truly is.”
……
“Last time, our young lady wished to entertain us personally, so she plucked wildflowers and brewed them into tea for us.”
Wasn’t that just the sort of thing a child does at play?
And you actually drank it?
Huyato’s expression twisted slightly.
“Yet the moment we drank that tea, vigor flooded through our bodies and our spirits revived. How do you explain that?”
“Hmm?”
“It turns out those wildflowers were a medicinal herb that purges demonic energy.”
“No, that’s….”
Now that he thought of it, Baron Kirain did look remarkably well.
He was the one who’d been suffering from headaches as an aftereffect.
“Our young lady may possess power far greater than we realize.”
Huyato found Baron Kirain utterly unfamiliar now. How could a man once so rational and sharp suddenly transform like this?
Before he could open his mouth, Calisto returned.
“Let us begin the meeting. Today’s agenda concerns the Imperial Decree.”

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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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