The Baby Has No Strength to Hide! - Chapter 36

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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 36
Rubentaine Castle, cloaked in darkness, lay silent as a great beast crouched in slumber. On a night when even moonlight was swallowed by clouds, a boy melted into the shadow of the stone wall—Levian—and he found this pitch-black darkness quite to his liking.
“This suits me far better.”
The boy moved with practiced silence, wiping at his eyes as he went. He would hide here until morning came, and then—only then—would he confirm whether Ailyen was truly in this place.
That was when it happened. From a crack in one window of a castle wall that had seemed lifeless and colorless, a strange light began to seep through.
As if the night sky itself had been cut away and crumpled into the room, a light flowed forth—the Milky Way rendered in crystalline, achingly pure luminescence.
That radiance, which had torn through the absolute darkness in a single breath, was the only living color that breathed within this quiet castle.
“Ah.”
Levian’s footsteps stopped of their own accord. A strange sense of recognition flickered through the cold night air. A voice that had gazed directly into eyes that everyone else shunned as ill-omened, a voice that had bestowed upon them a beautiful flower’s name.
‘Your eyes are lavender!’
The ghost of that child’s laughter, clear and untainted by prejudice, seemed to overlay that distant light.
“Ailyen.”
Her name scattered from between the boy’s lips like a sigh. As if bewitched, Levian reached toward the window. His hand, stretched out to what he could never touch, looked pitifully small.
The darkness he had believed was comfort became tedious in an instant. He wanted only to go toward that light.
Over Levian’s violet pupils, the light that poured from the window descended like lavender petals.
***
The next morning.
Callisto and Kaieus waited for Ailyen and Meijina to join them for breakfast, but neither appeared. While Meijina’s absence might have been unremarkable, Ailyen’s failure to arrive was surprising—she who ordinarily treasured meal times.
The two men made their way to Ailyen’s room, only to find it empty.
“Where could Ailyen have gone?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know.”
Even the servants of the Grand Duke House had no answer. Upon hearing that the child had vanished since morning, Dorian paled and rushed outside, beginning to search the trees.
As if to mock all this commotion, Ailyen was somewhere no one would have thought to look.
In Meijina’s room, precisely.
“……What on earth is this pairing.”
Callisto, upon opening the door, found himself speechless at the sight before him. Surely this was Meijina, who had quarreled with Ailyen only yesterday. And more than that—she who had pathologically despised anyone not only climbing onto her bed, but even entering her room.
And yet here she lay asleep beside Ailyen.
Even the thick candle smoke that never seemed to dissipate when Meijina was present had vanished today.
Callisto carefully brushed the sleeping child’s forehead. He could sense not the slightest trace of Mana from this small girl, and he found himself utterly bewildered as to what manner of sorcery she was working upon the Rubentaine Grand Duke House.
“Brother?”
At that moment, Meijina’s eyes opened.
The weariness that had always clung to her due to chronic insomnia was nowhere to be found. She had awakened from deep, restorative sleep, and vitality bloomed across her face. Her eyes, slightly puffy with rest, reminded Callisto of his sister’s face from long ago, and he smiled faintly.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Brother.”
“Yes.”
“……I’m sorry.”
Callisto’s eyes widened at the sudden apology. Meijina continued in a voice thick with emotion.
“I’m so sorry for always being short with you, for my irritability. I think the guilt only made it worse. You’re out there on the battlefield, accomplishing great things, while I—weak as I am—feel like nothing but a burden……”
“Meijina.”
Something constricted in Callisto’s throat, and he could not speak at once. He cleared his throat, and made an effort to speak low yet clearly.
“I’m the one who should apologize. They call me a hero who saved the Continent, and yet I couldn’t even protect my own sister. That thought has weighed heavily on me.”
“I should have been a stronger Rubentaine……”
“You were strong enough. You endured so very well.”
Meijina wept at his words, yet she smiled.
“Ailyen told me that.”
Meijina found herself ashamed of who she had been before. Now that she had laid bare the truth of her heart, a profound peace settled over her.
Her gaze shifted to her nephew, who stood at the threshold.
“Kaieus, I owe you an apology as well.”
Kaieus was taken aback. He had thought his aunt a touch loud when she was irritable, yes, but he had never once regarded her as an unkind aunt.
“Why would you say such a thing all of a sudden?”
“I fear I’ve been harsh with you, as your aunt.”
“That’s not true.”
Kaieus gave a brief reply and looked away. True, Meijina had made a fuss about what germs he might be carrying from his playmates, but she had never once forgotten to bring him a gift when visiting the Grand Duke House.
What she brought were always fashionable fine garments and exquisite toys favored among boys his age. She reviled boys his age as “walking colonies of bacteria,” and yet she studied the market’s trends meticulously and spared no expense in payment to the merchants.
All for her one and only nephew, Kaieus.
“Thank you for understanding. But I’m afraid I can’t embrace you just now.”
“That’s a relief. I’m getting a bit too old to throw my arms around my aunt anyway.”
At that, a brief burst of laughter broke among the three of them.
“Ugh, be quiet!”
Ailyen, her sleep disturbed, swung her short legs and thumped the mattress in protest. A moment of quiet fell, but soon the room filled with laughter none of them could contain.
***
After a late breakfast, Meijina sat beside Ailyen and sipped tea. The wariness hadn’t entirely vanished—she’d even specified the temperature of the cup in her hands—yet the shift that had occurred in a single day was remarkable. The servants marveled at her composure, though their eyes held a deeper relief, as if they’d recovered a memory of the Rubentaine heiress from the days of war.
“So Ailyen is quite the prodigy!”
“My goodness, what a talent.”
Ailyen launched into proud boasts with unbridled delight, and Meijina matched her enthusiasm with an answering smile.
“How impressive. As for me, I’ll probably do no better than become a marquis’s wife.”
Meijina’s betrothed was David, the eldest son of the Pemerus Marquis House. Though the union had been arranged for political advantage, it was a station befitting an imperial heiress of her standing.
“Well then, Ailyen could make you a countess’s wife instead.”
“Oh, how generous.”
Meijina’s joy in Ailyen’s company was genuine—she smiled throughout their exchange. By contrast, Kaieus, who sat beside them, remained expressionless.
“Why does Kaieus look like that?”
“One should say your expression looks grim, not your face.”
“Fine. Your expression looks dreadful.”
Ailyen studied Kaieus with sincere concern.
Kaieus merely shrugged. His aunt’s condition had improved, and there was nothing genuinely amiss—he was content, of course. He simply hadn’t smiled out of habit, yet he couldn’t fathom why Ailyen seemed to treat it with such gravity.
“Ah, would Ailyen like to see something amusing?”
“Something amusing?”
“You know the Library, don’t you? Dorian?”
“The Library? Oh, that tulip?”
Meijina and Ailyen exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly. There was something conspiratorial in the air between them, and Kaieus felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
“Let’s go at once!”
The boy followed them, thinking it was probably nothing to worry about.

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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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