The Baby Has No Strength to Hide! - Chapter 22

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

Chapter 22
Ailien’s resilience was truly remarkable. As if she’d already forgotten yesterday’s encounter with Molton, the moment she finished breakfast, she tugged at Kiki’s sleeve and shook it urgently.
“Explore! Let’s explore!”
The Grand Duke’s Estate was nothing less than a vast treasure map to Ailien. The back of the estate, where the forest boundary blurred seamlessly with manicured grounds, was perpetually draped in verdant moss and mysterious mist—enough to captivate any child’s curiosity.
The Garden of the Grand Duke’s Estate was too overwhelmingly vast to be contained by a single word.
The small cottage where she’d lived with Marlin had its own spacious surroundings, but Ailien’s freedom to wander had been limited. Here, in this manor, she could roam as she pleased, and she loved it.
Calisto and Kaius always appeared wherever she went, as did the knights—and though she complained about them out loud, secretly she didn’t mind at all.
‘They always find me, no matter where I go!’
So she should explore everywhere she wanted.
Even if Calisto wasn’t around, Kaius would follow.
“Hmm?”
The Ruby Necklace around Ailien’s neck began to hum softly.
“Maybe it’s cold.”
Why was it trembling like this? Ailien raised her small hand and clutched the necklace tightly, speaking with concern.
“Doesn’t seem to be the cold,” Kiki said.
At that same moment, Ailien’s Heart Wand shot out from the necklace with a pop. The wand pointed unerringly toward the deepest, most shadowed corner of the Garden—like a compass drawn to true north.
“What’s over there?”
As if answering her question, the Heart Crystal at the tip of the wand pulsed rhythmically, like a beating heart. Something enormous seemed to slumber in that direction.
Ailien moved toward it as if entranced. Kiki followed close behind.
“Where are those two going?”
Kaius, who had caught up in the blink of an eye from a distance, furrowed his brow. Something about Ailien’s state seemed off. Just as he moved to call her back, a sharp chirp sounded at his feet.
Looking down, he found Didi—the flying squirrel—staring up at him with an unusually stern expression, chirping once more: “Chirp!”
“You’re telling me not to interfere?”
“Chirp!”
“This is infuriating.”
Kaius swallowed a bitter laugh and stopped in his tracks. In truth, even without Didi’s interference, he wouldn’t have been able to call Ailien back. The way she walked slowly toward that shadowed corner of the Garden was identical to how she’d moved when she’d sought out the yellow flower field before.
Completely absorbed in her Treasure Hunting, she radiated vitality. There was something captivating about the sparkle in her eager eyes—a subtle force that made anyone watching feel that something extraordinary was about to unfold.
“Why does she always manage to catch me following her?”
Couldn’t she at least do this sort of thing quietly, without him noticing?
Grumbling to himself, unaware that Kaius was trailing behind her, he nonetheless followed carefully in Ailien’s wake.
Didi, sensing that Kaius had no intention of stopping Ailien, said nothing more.
The only problem was this: Ailien’s pace was faster than expected, and Didi’s short legs had to move at a pitiful scramble to keep up. The sight of the small creature bounding forward seemed genuinely exhausting.
Kaius glanced down at Didi for a moment, then deliberately extended his hand without a word.
“Want a ride?”
Kaius reached his hand toward Didi. The squirrel chirped excitedly and leaped onto his palm. The soft fur-like sensation and the tickle of tiny claws made Kaius’s brow twitch slightly, but he deftly lifted Didi onto his shoulder.
“Don’t fall.”
***
“Kaius! Where on earth did he go?”
The young nobles who’d lost sight of Kaius stood muttering irritably in a corner of the Garden. All of them had come with orders from their parents to “secure a position at the Crown Prince’s side, no matter what.”
Beck, who normally would have been at the forefront causing trouble, was unusually quiet today.
“Hey, Beck. You alright?”
One of the boys, noticing Beck’s foul mood, jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow. Beck responded as though everything annoyed him and was tiresome.
“What? Nothing.”
“You got thoroughly humiliated by that little brat the other day. I figured you’d be furious, but you’re holding it together pretty well.”
“Yeah, I was being childish first, so I guess I deserved it.”
Though he spoke dismissively, a flame of inferiority still burned within him.
The memory of Kaius’s frigid Cold Reception Spell and the irritating little five-year-old’s mocking face as she called him a nobody wouldn’t leave his mind.
“But apparently she’s made some kind of incredible Flower Tea? The New Faction people drank it and went absolutely mad.”
The boys chatted idly, glancing around as they spoke. The sacrifices of the New Faction, who had led the Human-Demon War to victory at the front lines for the empire’s sake, were apparently of no concern to these Traditional Faction scions, who were steeped in their own arrogance.
“Could there be some dangerous substance mixed in it?”
Beck cut through his companions’ casual murmur, speaking in a low voice.
“What?”
“It’s suspicious. There’s definitely something odd about it—like a hallucinogenic drug was secretly added.”
Beck’s eyes gleamed darkly. An inkling struck him that this might be his chance to overturn the pathetic reality where his father had always played second fiddle at the Grand Duke’s Estate, only to have the New Faction seize what power he had.
“I should look into it.”
.
Behind that worthless little brat being revered as the successor of an Arch Mage, and behind Kaius’s strange behavior, there had to be something—some hidden conspiracy and filthy secret.
***
Ailien’s footsteps came to a halt before a colossal stone wall deep within Lubentain Forest.
The wall, which had surely stood for centuries, rose precipitously, as if hewn from the living rock. Sparse vines crawled across its surface in intricate tangles. At first glance it appeared to be nothing more than a massive natural cliff face, yet the Heart Wand in Ailien’s hand pointed toward it and trembled violently, as though possessed.
Golden tendrils of light spiraled from the wand, burrowing into the crevices of the stone wall. One by one, geometric patterns emerged across the surface of the rock—patterns that had seemed solid moments before. Then, as if the stone face itself were drawing a breath, the wall split open with a silent roar, spilling forth an otherworldly luminescence.
“Wait!”
The moment Ailien moved to enter, Kaius seized her shoulder from behind.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t even know where that leads!”
“Exactly. That’s why we have to look inside.”
“But why go in at all?”
“Because we don’t know. We need to see what’s there.”
Ailien’s expression had grown far more resolute than usual. Beneath her halting words lay an undercurrent of quiet determination.
“Will you come with me?”
Every instinct told him this was madness, yet he found himself nodding. As if she’d known all along, Ailien’s lips curved in a faint smile before she stepped forward without hesitation. Kaius swallowed hard and followed her into the passage.
Rumble.
The heavy stone doors sealed shut with a finality that echoed through the dark. The slab returned to what it had been—an ordinary garden stone, its mouth firmly closed.
“Where did they go?”
Above the place where the children had vanished, a shadow deeper and colder than the surrounding night stretched long across the stone.
Silent footsteps—not even the leaves trembled. The shadow’s master lingered there for a long time, as if tracing the lingering presence of the two who had disappeared beyond the wall.
Only the wildflowers swayed softly in the breeze, keeping their secret.

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