The Baby Has No Strength to Hide! - Chapter 35

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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 35
At fifteen, the age when Calisto had first marched to war, Meijina threw herself into finding ways to be useful. She volunteered for Medical Aid to wounded soldiers and organized relief efforts for orphans left behind by the conflict.
‘House Rubentain’s daughter will surely make Zeronias proud.’
Meijina smiled with satisfaction.
The tragedy struck when she ventured into the forest to gather medicinal herbs for the soldiers.
A Demon Being lying in wait had kidnapped her.
‘Hehehehe, smells like House Rubentain!’
‘Let me go!’
‘Weak House Rubentain! Weak House Rubentain!’
The Demon Being seized her by the throat, laughing its cruel mockery, then crumpled her into a small box. Meijina curled her body tight, closed her eyes, and prayed.
‘Zeronias. Marlin, please…….’
As she recalled Marlin’s hand, Zeronias’s hand stroking her hair, her prayers grew more desperate. The Savior of Humanity would surely come for me.
She prayed until she lost consciousness, then prayed again and lost consciousness again. She clawed at the walls, begging for rescue.
Trapped in darkness and confinement, she could do nothing but repeat this cycle. She had no sense of how much time had passed.
‘Meijina!’
She was exhausted.
‘Please, open your eyes!’
This must be a hallucination.
‘Meijina, I’m sorry I’m late.’
When she opened her eyes, Calisto’s face came into view, twisted with anguish.
‘Where is Zeronias?’
‘He heard that Demonic Beasts had appeared on the Western Coast and rushed there immediately.’
At those words, something in Meijina’s chest crumbled.
Of course, her mind understood. It made sense. Of course Zeronias had to go there.
But.
Still.
Just once.
‘I’m sorry, Meijina. I have to go too.’
Alone in the vast expanse of Rubentain Castle, Meijina was terrified to leave her room.
If something like this happened again, who would come for her then?
People whispered as they watched Meijina shut herself away. And so she could only become the weak Meijina they saw.
“No one came. No one. Do you know how much I cried in that room? I thought he’d come at least once! But the moment the war ended, he vanished without a trace.”
When everyone was praising House Rubentain’s deeds, Meijina realized she could not remain in the castle. So she left for the Villa, claiming she needed rest and recovery.
But there was one thing she wanted to hear from Zeronias.
“Just one thing. I wanted to hear him say… that I did well to endure…….”
Her voice cracked with tears, and the raw truth that spilled out made her ashamed of herself.
“You did great, Gina! You really did!”
“…What?”
“You wanted to hear it, right?”
It was bright, cheerful encouragement—utterly at odds with her pathetic, shrinking confession.
Meijina stared at Ailyen, wondering if the girl was mocking her, but her large eyes held not a trace of jest.
“Riri fights with herself all the time! There’s the Riri who wants to get up in the morning and the Riri who wants to sleep more, and at lunch when I eat meat, there’s the Riri who’s sad she can’t have dessert and the Riri who thinks the meat tastes good anyway. The sleepy Riri and the Riri who wants to play are always fighting.”
Ailyen let out a sigh as she spoke, as though her daily battles truly exhausted her.
“But in the end, it’s Riri who wins!”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“It means the Gina who stayed in bed, the Gina who wanted to give up—she’s the one who won! You fought so hard!”
The blanket slipped from Meijina’s shoulders and fell away. She gazed blankly at the girl’s small, bright face, flickering with warm orange light.
It made no logical sense whatsoever. Yet why did her heart flutter so? It felt as though dozens of Reinforced Candles had been lit inside her chest.
“I didn’t stay in bed every day.”
“Then you’re even more amazing.”
Ailyen grinned widely and gave her a thumbs up, then, as though remembering something, rummaged through her pocket and handed her an object.
“A gift for the amazing Gina!”
“This is…….”
At the sight of the familiar flower shape, Meijina’s eyes widened. And slowly, color returned to the memory that had long since faded.
‘Meijina, let’s plant a tree here.’
‘Yes, of course!’
Marlin smiled, clasped the small Meijina’s hand in his, and planted the sapling.
‘When will it grow?’
‘Who knows?’
‘I hope it grows soon.’
‘I wish our Meijina would stay small forever.’
At Marlin’s words, Meijina laughed shyly.
But there was sorrow lingering in Marlin’s face then.
‘When this sapling becomes a tree, I hope the war will be over.’
Meijina had no answer to give.
‘Look, flowers bloom like this.’
Mana gathered in Marlin’s palm, and the form of a flower took shape. It was more beautiful than anything Meijina had ever seen.
But how could that flower be before her eyes now?
“Don’t refuse—take it!”
With trembling hands, Meijina received the flower and couldn’t tear her eyes from it for a long time.
Then it happened.
“Ailyen?”
Ailyen’s body collapsed lifelessly.
“The door!”
There was no proper ventilation. Especially these Reinforced Candles, made from wax hardened to burn all night long, gave off a particularly foul stench.
Only then did she realize the air was far too thick and stale for a child to bear.
“Hurry—open the windows!”
Meijina, clutching Ailyen tightly, cried out at the cat without thinking. What was more startling still was that the cat and the flying squirrel began opening the windows one by one at her command.
“What do I do, what do I do? I’m sorry. The candles—I have to extinguish the candles….”
Meijina gently lowered Ailyen onto the bed and picked up the Candle Extinguisher. In her haste to snuff them out, burns appeared on her hands, but she bit her lip hard and continued extinguishing the flames.
The moment she blew out the last candle, true darkness fell upon her room for the first time.
“Haah….”
Meijina, drained of strength, collapsed onto the bed as if her legs had given way.
She had to get the unconscious child out of here now.
But.
‘Weak House Rubentain!’
A voice mocking her, trapped in the darkness, tormented her ears.
‘Weak House Rubentain indeed!’
The voice of the Demon Beings became Calisto’s voice, then Evangeline’s voice, then the voices of strangers she didn’t know.
‘Weak House Rubentain.’
At last came Zeronias’s voice.
“Please….”
Meijina wished desperately to break free from the past—couldn’t she simply win?
With that thought, as she closed her eyes, the flower in her hand gave a flash of light.
The light rose into the air as gently as a drop of paint spreading through clear water. Pink dust danced like a swarm of fireflies, climbing toward the ceiling that had been swallowed by darkness.
Then something miraculous happened.
Small points of light bloomed there, one after another. At first a faint lime-green dot, then yellow and blue dots burst forth like popcorn—pop, pop, pop!—all at once.
They were crude, adorable stars shaped as if a small child had pressed them down with fern-like fingers. Yet the depth of that light could not be underestimated.
A river of starlight flowed across the room, and a cascade of stars descended upon Meijina’s head.
It was no longer a closed chamber.
Here now stretched the widest, most beautiful night sky in all the world.
“Ah….”
As Meijina cautiously opened her eyes, brilliant starlight filled her pupils.
“It’s beautiful.”
When she turned her head, the brightest star was smiling brightly, fully awake
Meijina crumpled her face and held the star tight in her embrace. Then, like a lie, a promise she had made as a child while planting that tree came rushing back.
‘Don’t worry, Meijina. Even when I’m not by your side, I will always be protecting you.’
At love pouring down like starlight, she simply couldn’t breathe.

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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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