The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18

Next was Henri’s turn.

Though not as fierce as Isaac, he certainly had outstanding talent.

Henri also unleashed his aura.

He handled his aura even more delicately than Isaac.

But when his training partner was switched, he couldn’t display his strength at all.

Henri’s new opponent was a man with graying hair who had aged considerably.

Despite being much weaker than his previous young opponent, Henri fell to the ground several times.

‘Is he going easy because he’s an old soldier?’

His opponent must have thought the same, as he frowned and shouted at Henri.

“Don’t look down on me!”

Henri quickly got up and dodged the old soldier’s attack, but soon his pupils dilated as he saw something, and the color drained from his face. The child immediately hung his head, and at the same time, his sword dropped from his hand with a thud.

The old soldier planted his feet firmly on the ground and raised his wooden sword.

‘He’s going to get hurt!’

“No way! (No!)”

I screamed and quickly squeezed between the old soldier and Henri, spreading my arms in front of Henri.

“Don’t hit Henri! (Don’t hit Henri!)”

“Young Lady, this is a fair match…”

The old soldier said with an awkward smile, but I frowned.

“Henri not holding sword. Looking at ground. (Henri wasn’t holding his sword. He was looking at the ground.)”

“…”

“Grandpa angry and hitting Henri not match. (Grandpa being angry and hitting Henri isn’t a match.)”

The old soldier flinched and looked down at the sword Henri had dropped.

“Oh my… I must have gotten too excited.”

The old soldier reached out his hand to help Henri up.

But Henri didn’t take his hand and shakily stood up on his own.

Henri left the training ground, and I quickly followed the child and hugged his arm.

“What are you doing?”

“Henri, hurt. Put medicine. (Henri, you’re hurt. Put on medicine.)”

“It’s fine.”

“Doctor scary? No, doctor grandpa good person. (Is the doctor scary? No, the doctor grandfather is a good person.)”

He had treated me gently when I was sick too. He’s a mild-mannered, kind person, so there’s nothing scary about him at all.

“There’s no way I’d be scared of some doctor! I just hate old people─!”

The child who had been shouting like that suddenly flinched and closed his mouth.

I stopped abruptly on the roadside and stared at him intently.

‘Hating old people… don’t tell me.’

I knew the hidden circumstances of Dubbled that were concealed from the world, having lived as the Duke’s daughter through multiple regressions.

On the surface, Dubbled was a prosperous family with wealth, power, and prestige, but internally it was a vicious den of demons.

If you receive one thing, you lose another. Dubbled was a world where everything was a cold transaction.

For generations, Dubbled’s children had to give up their parents’ warm care in exchange for enjoying the abundant wealth built by their predecessors.

Dubbled’s direct descendants are raised by the Family Head and his close associates from the moment they’re born. They can only meet their parents on a few commemorative occasions at most.

It was a system designed to instill absolute loyalty to the Family Head from childhood and to designate the most outstanding one as heir.

And the Three Young Masters, who are the current Duke’s children, were all raised under his hands until the previous generation died.

‘That terrifying old man.’

Duke Amitie, who was my father in my first life, would shudder whenever he mentioned Dubbled’s predecessor.

“Cain Dubbled is a terrible fellow. Isn’t he a demon who killed his own second son Chris in front of his grandson? Do you know what the reason for the murder was? Simply because he was lame. He killed his own flesh and blood for the reason that he had no need for a flawed child.”

What if the grandson who was present when the predecessor killed his second son was Henri?

‘Then he would inevitably have trauma from that old man.’

I bit down on the tender flesh inside my mouth.

Right, no matter how smart he was, he was still just a child.

A child who considered having trauma from the old man as a flaw, and had an obsession that having flaws meant death.

And Henri must have hidden the abuse because of that obsession.

‘The Duke didn’t know about the abuse because Henri thoroughly hid it.’

Teramore must have known about Henri’s obsession. That’s why he could abuse the Duke’s blood without any qualms.

What a truly rotten old geezer.

‘So what do I do now?’

The wise approach would be to just keep my mouth shut.

Would people believe me, a young child, if I exposed it?

Unlike previous incidents that happened in Dubbled, this case involved a retainer.

The people here have known Teramore much longer than me.

Naturally, his credibility would be higher.

‘Everything I’ve built up so far could come crashing down.’

If I made a wrong move, it could be a problem that might even lead to disinheritance.

Then I would have to repeat my previous unhappy life again.

But─

Henri’s hands were trembling. I couldn’t turn away from a child who had turned deathly pale as if he might die at any moment.

‘This is why a young body is troublesome. It’s problematic that my conscience hasn’t disappeared yet.’

I earnestly stood on my tiptoes and patted Henri’s head. Then the startled child swatted my hand away.

“What are you doing.”

I looked at the prickly Henri and sighed, “Ahem.”

“What on earth are you…”

“I’ll protect you, Henri.”

Then Henri furrowed his brow with an expression asking what I had eaten wrong.

I’ll protect you because I have no choice. So repay the favor by not tormenting me while I’m here.

* * *

The next day, I pestered Lea and headed to the Duke’s office.

When I poked my face through the crack in the door, North, who was with the Duke, called out “Young Lady” and approached me.

He knelt down to meet my eyes and asked with delight.

“What brings you here?”

To gather information about Teramore.

You need to know your enemy to devise a plan to defeat them. But I couldn’t obtain deep information from my room where mostly only employees came and went.

‘In times like this, you need to find someone who holds a lot of information.’

Namely, Duke Dubbled, who owns one of the Empire’s finest intelligence departments.

“Mmm, wanna see Dook-nim.”

Watching me wiggle my hands as I spoke, North clutched his heart and groaned, “A daughter really is the best…”

Then he picked me up and headed toward the Duke.

“The Young Lady has come.”

“She really can’t stay away from me.”

“Shall I look after her?”

When North asked with a goofy expression while looking at me, the Duke quickly snatched me away and swiftly placed me on his lap.

I placed my hands on the table and peeked up, trying to steal a glance at the Duke’s documents.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

Caught red-handed while trying to spy on the ducal family’s retainer information, I quickly made an excuse.

“Dook-nim’s writing pwetty. Amazing~!”

“You’re impressed by something so trivial.”

Then North chuckled and replied.

“Since she doesn’t know how to write yet, it must seem amazing to her.”

The Duke picked up a blank piece of paper from one side of the desk.

Then he placed a pen in my hand and covered the back of my hand with his large, warm hand.

I wondered what he was trying to do, but it seemed he intended to hold my hand and write for me on the blank paper.

My hand didn’t move very well, so it was written a bit crookedly, but I could recognize the letters at a glance.

【Leblaine】

And once more.

【Leblaine Dubbled】

“Can you read it?”

“Leb name. (Leblaine name.)”

“The maids wrote it for you often, so you remember it.”

At North’s words, the Duke chuckled softly and patted my head.

‘I was worried he might dislike me coming all the way to his office, but he doesn’t seem to be in a bad mood. That’s a relief.’

Indeed, the Duke casually kept me by his side in the office and continued his work.

I stayed quietly so as not to be a bother, while eavesdropping on various conversations.

“How is the establishment of the advisory council proceeding?”

“We plan to inform the retainers of today’s content.”

“Right.”

Most of it was about headache-inducing politics or power struggles.

But there were also some helpful stories.

There was a vacancy in the elder position, so the Senate was planning to select a new elder.

The candidates were Teramore and Viscount Misenk, who was Teramore’s sworn enemy.

‘If this goes well, I’ll get something for nothing.’

I grinned with a sinister smile.

* * *

That afternoon.

Pretending to be out for fun, I killed time in the garden in front of the entrance where many people passed by.

While sitting on Lea’s lap and playing by picking flowers, I stole a glance at her wristwatch.

‘It’s four o’clock now…’

Since Viscount Misenk had an appointment with the Duke at four-thirty, he would pass through the castle gate around this time.

As I was stretching my neck out waiting for when he would come, someone entered through the castle gate.

Bronze curly hair, droopy eyes, a gentle build that looked to be in his mid-thirties, and a scar under his chin.

It matched exactly with Viscount Misenk’s description.

I hugged my shoulders and said to Lea.

“It’s cold.”

“Should we go inside then?”

“No, I want to finish making this and give it to Lea before we go.”

When I showed her the flower crown I was making, Lea cupped both her cheeks and was moved, saying “You’re going to give it to me?!”

After looking around and confirming that there were guards in the distance, Lea stood up.

“I’ll bring an overcoat and blanket.”

“Yes.”

As soon as Lea hurriedly headed toward the castle, Viscount Misenk entered through the castle gate.

He was about to go straight into the main castle when he spotted me and turned his steps toward me.

“So I meet the famous Child of Fate here. I’m Karn Misengk.”

“I’m Leblaine. Hello.”

When I greeted him as cutely as possible, he looked me up and down.

He seemed curious about what had attracted the Duke’s interest enough to adopt me.

“What were you doing here? The weather is quite chilly.”

Perfect, I was waiting for that question.

I giggled and said.

“I’m waiting for Grandpa Tera.”

“For Teramore?”

As expected, as soon as Teramore’s name came up, his expression turned unpleasant.

“Leblaine wants to take classes with Henri and Isaac too.”

At my words that I was waiting to ask to let me take classes together, Viscount Misenk’s lips twisted.

“Everyone is misunderstanding. Teramore is an old man who lacks the qualifications to teach Dubbled’s direct lineage. His family is humble, his knowledge isn’t that extensive, and—”

When I deliberately blinked my eyes, Viscount Misenk explained it in simpler terms.

“What I mean is there’s nothing to learn from Teramore.”

“No, Gwandpa is smaht. (No. Grandfather is smart.)”

“What words did that man use to deceive you…”

“He said he’s gonna wear a weally cool wobe now.”

It was referring to the deep crimson robe worn by the Grand Elders representing the Dubbled Council of Elders.

‘Misenk, that’s the very robe you’re also aiming for.’

When I raised my arms high while speaking, Viscount Misenk’s expression changed immediately.

“He said that?”

“Yeah. Leb heard him talking with another retainer uncle.”

“That’s ridiculous. That position is…!”

“But he said everything was already decided. He said they’re giving Gwandpa the wobe.”

“Surely the Chairman wouldn’t…”

I drove the final nail into Misenk, whose face had hardened stiffly.

“He said let’s watch together as the idiot who thinks the robe is his sheds tears of blood.”

For a moment, proper pronunciation came out despite the childish speech pattern, but Misenk didn’t seem to notice anything strange.

Blood vessels bulged in Misenk’s hands as he gripped the hem of his pants.

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