The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 101

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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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Episode 101
“Follow me?”
A nod.
“Why?”
Jena wiped her tears despite her bewilderment, rose to her feet, brushed the dirt from her skirt, and followed her Summoned Creature.
Jena’s Summoned Creature led her to a spot some distance from the warehouse, just as it had promised Clover.
It was a small hill—one that overlooked the Festival Street in full view.
“…Why did you bring me here?”
Jena gazed at her Summoned Creature with confusion, and it urged her forward, as if to say she should sit.
After glancing at the passersby, Jena wiped away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes and settled into a chair.
Patter-patter.
Then her Summoned Creature quietly nestled into her arms.
The landscape dyed in sunset.
People laughing and chattering.
All of it lay before her at once.
Jena stared blankly at the sight for a moment, then lowered her head to gaze at her Summoned Creature.
Normally, she would have hidden it. One couldn’t risk exposing that she was an Authority Bearer.
But not now. Jena wanted to savor this moment with her Summoned Creature freely.
“…You brought me here to comfort me, didn’t you?”
At Jena’s murmur, the Summoned Creature hesitated. The girl unwound the handkerchief from her head and draped it over the creature to conceal its form.
And there she remained for a long while.
***
“Jena, go.”
Clover, who had been waiting for Jena to leave, slipped into the warehouse the moment she was gone.
“Clover, be careful.”
Sone ushered Clover inside the warehouse, speaking softly. Harna gently wrapped her long tail around Clover’s body.
“Yes, don’t worry, sister.”
Clover, beaming brightly, vanished into the warehouse.
Fortunately, the window allowed them to watch her from outside.
Meanwhile, Lucky, who had followed Clover inside, circled around her and spoke.
[Clover, hurry and get out. We don’t know when Jena might come back.]
“Yeah, I’ll be quick.”
Clover looked up at the countless flowerpots stacked like a wall before her.
And then.
“Clover can do this.”
She placed her hand on the foremost flowerpot and smiled brightly.
[I’ll help you. Just take it slowly, Clover.]
“Mm.”
Clover closed her eyes gently and, following Lucky’s voice, slowly channeled her power.
Clover’s delicate power flowed from her palms, streaming into the flowerpots as naturally as water pouring in.
‘One isn’t enough.’
More, more.
To make sprouts emerge from all these countless flowerpots, she needed far more power.
It was far easier than when Pluto had killed everything throughout the Garden.
As Clover channeled a bit more power, the thin stream flowing from her hands swelled like a wave, embracing all the nearby flowerpots.
Every meager sprout in this soil bends to Clover’s will.
So whatever she commands will grow.
[You’re doing great, Clover!]
Lucky fluttered with encouragement, adding her strength. Then, in that instant.
Sprout.
Sprout, sprout. Sprout. Sprout.
Sprout!
Sprouts burst forth simultaneously from countless flowerpots.
Once they began, there was no end to it.
Sprout, sprout!
From the many flowerpots touched by Clover’s power, seedlings pushed through the soil.
A sight she could never have dreamed of before—when she lived in the Demper Countess House.
Clover opened her eyes slowly and gazed at the flowerpots before her.
The flowerpots where sprouts had grown so effortlessly.
Then she looked down at her small palms and wiggled her fingers.
‘It was incredibly easy.’
Easier than she’d expected.
Part of it was surely because Clover’s power had grown, but probably.
‘Jena’s strength.’
Lucky spoke the words Clover had been thinking. That girl’s power—the Soil Power she possessed—must have influenced it as well.
Lucky voiced what Clover wanted to say.
Clover, kneeling in the center of the warehouse, looked up at Lucky and broke into a wide smile.
“Mm.”
She nodded her head. As the child’s face brightened, Lucky couldn’t help but smile back.
Lifting her gaze to the window, Clover saw Demian, Arwin, Sone, and Pluto watching from outside.
Arwin raised his thumb. ‘Amazing!’ She could read it from the shape of his grinning mouth.
“Clover, you’re amazing.”
Following Arwin’s words, Clover beamed and raised her own thumb in return.
But then.
Creak.
Not the main entrance, but the back door of the warehouse swung open, and someone walked in suddenly.
“Uh, ah……?”
Startled by the abrupt appearance, Clover didn’t even think to stand. She simply blinked in confusion.
The person who entered the warehouse was none other than.
“……Huh?”
“……What?”
A girl with chestnut hair braided into two long plaits.
The master of the summoned creature who had come looking for Clover.
Jena.
***
Jena couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
‘I have to go, I have to do something about the flowerpots……’
<……!>
‘I can’t avoid it. Even if I run, that person will chase me.’
Her summoned creature spun in circles, as if hoping Jena would stay longer.
But Jena couldn’t stay there any longer. If she didn’t fix those flowerpots, the boss would torment her.
She had to take responsibility—either by apologizing to the Empire’s citizens or by finding something else to make up for it.
The fifteen-year-old girl, carrying the weight of that responsibility on her shoulders and the memory of the sunset she’d seen moments before, returned to the warehouse.
And then.
“What is this……?”
In every flowerpot that had shown not even the slightest sprout, sprouts had suddenly grown.
Jena knew it—those seeds shouldn’t have been able to sprout at all.
Goren, who owned the Plant Nursery where the girl worked, had bought the cheapest seeds he could find to save money, trusting in Jena’s power.
The seeds were already poor quality to begin with, and with careless storage meant to cut costs, they had no chance of being viable.
That was why nothing had sprouted.
True, Jena was also in a state where she could no longer use her power to accelerate the growth of sprouts.
But surely something had to sprout first before anything else could be done? Yet with defective seeds from the start, there was nothing to work with.
And yet.
“What on earth……?”
Before her eyes lay dozens, hundreds, thousands of seeds that had grown as if in a dream.
And sitting dazed in their midst was a small girl, delicate as a leaf.
“Caught…….”
The child murmured as she looked at Jena.
Unable to believe her eyes, Jena rubbed them and gazed repeatedly at the sprout-like young child and the scene spread before her.
But pinching her thigh, rubbing her eyes and looking again—the sight remained unchanged.
In that moment, unable to explain what she was seeing, Jena found herself murmuring aloud.
“A fairy……?”
A fairy of the leaves?
She seemed to recall a story about spirits and fairies from a fairy tale she’d read as a child.
A tale of a fairy who came in secret while people slept, leaving a single sprouted leaf by their pillow.
Suddenly remembering the story her mother had told her, Jena took a step forward toward the child delicate as a leaf.
“Jena!”
A sharp voice rang out from outside the warehouse. Jena’s head snapped up.
‘It’s Goren!’
Goren had come! He’d clearly arrived to check on the condition of the flowerpots.
Jena stared at the small child before her, her face drained of color. Then she turned to look at the mountain of flowerpots stacked behind them.
Jena asked the child.
“You did this?”
…….
“I know it wasn’t me. Little one, you did this, didn’t you?”
Nod, nod.
As Jena pressed urgently, Clover nodded, bewildered.
It had been only an hour since she’d asked the Summoned Creature to hide her Power, but in her panic, the words had tumbled out anyway.
‘I was startled, I just….’
She’d known she shouldn’t say anything, but the answer came reflexively.
Clover was so stunned at being discovered that she couldn’t even think to move.
Even as the child kept nodding, the sound of footsteps drew closer.
‘No. Not like this.’
Jena was seized by a single instinct: she had to hide this child.
She scooped Clover up and drew her close, then rushed between the flowerpots and squeezed herself into the narrow space between them.
There was just enough room between the towering stacks that if she crouched low enough, they could both fit.
“Uh….”
“Shh.”
As Clover began to squirm, Jena gently covered the child’s mouth.
And then.
Creak!
The storage room door swung open once more.

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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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