The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 34

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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 34

At the same time, at the Tower of Wisdom.

The place that served as the residence of the Council of Elders was bustling with countless nobles, unlike usual.

“Lisette?! How could His Excellency make such a decision…! In times like these, where is the Chairman who should be offering wise counsel to His Excellency!”

“He said he would remain in seclusion for the time being due to the aftermath of the Teramore incident.”

“Everyone’s suffering because of one little rat.”

“You say that, but it’s probably because that person’s anniversary is approaching.”

An agitated noble shouted.

“If the Chairman won’t step forward, then we must stop this ourselves!”

“Isn’t His Excellency’s will quite stubborn?”

“But if we leave things as they are, the Child of Fate will act as the lady of the house!”

“Does it make any sense for a commoner-born adopted child to manage the Imperial Palace and oversee all ceremonies in the Dubbled name?”

When even the high-ranking nobles with territories sighed, the retainers belonging to the Council of Elders burst with indignation.

“If His Excellency had remarried, such a terrible thing wouldn’t have happened. How about we petition him even now?”

“Finding a family of suitable rank and achieving compatibility would easily take at least one or two years.”

“Tch, the Duchess should have had at least one more daughter before she passed. Then we wouldn’t be pushed around by some unqualified brat.”

The Elder sitting at the head table in place of the Chairman rubbed his chin.

“Then wouldn’t it be solved if we had one more qualified daughter?”

“Pardon?”

The Elder looked around at Baron Winston.

“How old did you say your daughter was?”

Baron Winston, who had been blankly watching the meeting, asked “Pardon?”

* * *

One week after my middle name became ‘Lisette.’ My daily life had become miserable.

“Young Lady, our West Wing employees have served the Dubbled bloodline for generations. If we’re by your side, we’ll surely be of help.”

“L-Lady Lea and we can also serve you well, Young Lady!”

Every day the employees would fight amongst themselves, leaving me with no peace of mind.

I escaped to the garden to avoid the West Wing employees.

‘This is annoying me to death.’

They follow me around so much that I don’t even have time to go look at the money in the greenhouse.

I crouched behind a large tree and held my breath, only slumping down after the maids’ footsteps had faded away.

“I’ll play here and go back when it’s dinner time.”

I looked around at the flowers blooming in the garden.

Even though the winter wind hadn’t retreated yet, the flowers were in full bloom.

That was because of the mana stone floating in the air over there.

Just as Blue Spinel can be used to make Sacred Tools, Mana Stones can be used to make Magic Tools. This was because of their high mana conductivity.

The more vivid the color, the more powerful force it could contain, and the Garden’s Mana Stone was a very vivid purple. On top of that, it was incredibly large.

‘When I go into exile, it would be nice to take one of those with me. It would sell for a fortune.’

Thinking that, I picked flowers blooming in the Garden.

‘I should make a bouquet and give it to our Lea.’

Lea likes naturally growing wildflowers more than flowers cultivated by human hands.

So I searched around for small wildflowers that the Gardeners hadn’t noticed yet.

As I walked carefully examining the ground as usual, I was so focused on the flowers that I ended up bumping into someone.

‘Ow!’

“Kyaa!”

The person I bumped into screamed and sat down hard.

‘A kid?’

It was a girl who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen.

She was wearing a bonnet with a wide brim and a dress with a full skirt that was clearly expensive at first glance.

She couldn’t be seen as a servant boy doing errands in the Imperial Palace.

‘Ah, I should help her up first.’

Thinking that, I extended my hand, but the kid swatted my hand away and frowned. Then she got up by herself and glared at me.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“Shouldn’t you apologize?”

I obediently nodded and said.

“I know. Then let’s both apologize.”

“What?”

“We both bumped into each other because we weren’t watching where we were going.”

It was when the kid frowned as if she was dumbfounded.

“Kid!”

Isaac’s voice was heard.

“Somewhere around here…”

The kid who had been muttering searched through the rose vines with her hand. Then she saw me through a gap and her eyes sparkled.

Isaac grabbed the Garden’s decorative stand and leaped over the vines with a whoosh.

“So you were here.”

I looked at the Crystal Orb in the child’s hand with clouded eyes.

“Isaac, are you tracking me again?”

After Jacob’s incident, I received a Tracking Magic Device.

This outrageously expensive Magic Tool could not only pinpoint current location, but also track movement routes and even enable emergency calls.

“Oh, you’re angry?”

“It’s annoying because you track me all the time.”

Henri and Isaac constantly searched for me using this thing.

At least Henri controlled the frequency so as not to annoy me, but Isaac remained unchanged.

The kid grinned and suddenly stuck her face forward.

At first, I was startled whenever that handsome face came close, but now I was used to it and just felt burdened.

“If you knew what I told them to prepare for today’s snacks, you wouldn’t be able to stay angry.”

“…What is it?”

“French toast.”

“Why are you only telling me now!”

I quickly welcomed him warmly.

French toast, made by soaking bread in well-beaten egg mixture, then grilling it and spreading it generously with honey and butter, was my favorite snack.

But it wasn’t something I could eat often, thanks to the cooks burning with unnecessary passion, saying “We cannot serve food that commoners eat to the Young Lady.”

“Oh my, it’s the Young Lady.”

A youthful voice came from beside me.

“I didn’t recognize you and failed to greet you properly.”

Then Isaac’s face scrunched up in a frown.

“What, why are you here?”

“It’s been a while.”

The child I had bumped into earlier smiled shyly and bowed her head. Then she looked at me.

“My name is Cattleya Winston. I’m an eighth cousin to the Young Masters.”

“Eighth cousin?”

“Yes. You must have been startled earlier, right? Please forgive me. Your attire was so simple that I didn’t recognize you.”

My attire was indeed simple.

Ever since my finger got scraped on dress decorations last time, the Duke had been keeping a sharp eye on things.

Isaac had torn the dress to shreds, saying it ‘hurt me,’ and Henri had sweetly smiled while telling my clothing attendant, ‘If you consider the family’s prestige in Leblaine’s clothes from now on, I’ll skin you and make clothes out of it.’

After that, I only wore comfortable clothes.

Of course, the fabric was the finest available in the market, but it looked plain without any decorations.

On top of that, I had been crouching on the dirt ground, so I must have looked shabby with dust all over me.

The girl took my hands in both of hers and said,

“Please forgive me.”

She closed her eyes gently and continued speaking.

“We’ll be living together in the castle from now on, and I don’t want us to have an uncomfortable relationship.”

Living together in the castle?

Isaac and I looked at each other with wide eyes.

* * *

I entered Henri’s room with Isaac and heard about Cattleya.

She was said to be twelve years old, and she was truly precocious.

She could rattle off difficult words fluently and was very smart. She was said to be at a level where she could enter the Academy for Gifted Children following Henri and Isaac.

Also, she was a child with divine power, which was extremely rare in Dubbled. It was quite strong too, so she was receiving education at the temple.

Isaac stabbed a strawberry with his fork and handed it to me while making a sulky expression.

“Why bring up kinship education again when he never bothered with it before.”

I glanced at Henri cautiously.

Bloodline education refers to a system where the Family Head gathers and manages all of the Dubbled bloodline to control the family.

It’s the system that forced the Duke to hand over the Three Young Masters to the Previous Duke.

In other words, it was the trigger for Henri’s trauma, so I was being careful.

However, Henri spoke with an indifferent expression.

“I heard it was Winston’s voluntary request.”

“Are they crazy? The branch families were always trembling in fear that the Family Head would take away their children.”

“Well. But it’s beneficial for us. Just by educating the Winston Young Lady for a few weeks, we can keep the other branch families in line.”

“Why?”

“They’ll be scared that the Duke might decide to conduct bloodline education in earnest like the Previous Duke did.”

“Then Winston is deliberately doing something that will earn resentment from other families? Why?”

At Isaac’s question, Henri glanced at me and changed the subject. His voice suddenly became gentle.

“We need to go to the banquet hall now, but is it okay to already be full?”

The snack stomach and the meal stomach are separate.

When I said “It’s possible” with a serious face, the Young Masters chuckled.

“Then shall we go.”

I took the Young Masters’ hands and headed to the banquet hall.

Dubbled’s banquet wasn’t an ordinary meal. It was practically a networking event between the leadership.

When we entered the banquet hall, the nobles I had seen at the grand council were seated there.

As the Family Head’s children appeared, they all rose from their seats, placed their hands on their chests, and bowed their heads.

“We greet the precious ones of the family.”

“We greet the precious ones of the family.”

I was a bit nervous at the respectful greetings from the people in power, but the Young Masters headed to their seats with familiarity.

When we sat on the left side of the head table, Cattleya across from us smiled brightly.

‘That kid came too.’

Then, the Duke appeared.

Another round of polite greetings followed.

After the Duke took his seat, the meal began.

While the adults discussed difficult topics among themselves, I focused on eating.

‘Beef, so good.’

Whatever Dubbled does to their meat, it melts the moment it touches your mouth.

It was a taste I hadn’t experienced even during the time before regression when the Empress Dowager doted on me and cherished me. That’s when it happened.

“Ah…!”

At Cattleya’s voice, the people who had been chatting focused their attention on her.

“I’m sorry. I was startled…”

Baroness Winston, her mother, asked “What’s wrong,” but Cattleya stood up without answering.

Then she approached me and wiped my face with a napkin.

“There, all done.”

With my face turned into a steamed bun from the sudden vigorous wiping, I blinked and looked at Cattleya.

‘I wasn’t eating that messily though?’

I had been careful since it was a banquet hall.

But the adults who were focused on the story didn’t notice, and Cattleya smiled, pleased with herself.

“I was watching the Young Lady’s cute behavior and thought I really couldn’t let this continue…”

Cattleya giggled and returned to her seat.

Then she glanced at Duke Dubbled and shyly placed meat on his plate.

“It’s delicious, Your Grace.”

Once again, the Retainers chuckled heartily, saying how truly kind she was.

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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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