The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 111

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Episode 111
Clover nestled in Kalid’s arms as they drew closer to the Corrupted Being.
The sensation was similar to yet different from what she’d felt in her mother’s forest, and the child’s fingers fidgeted uncertainly as her face wavered with confusion.
Even so, the shard-like object embedded in the Corrupted Being’s forehead gleamed as brilliantly as a jewel.
‘What is that?’
Beautiful like a gem, sparkling and bright.
……but pulling it out felt like something would happen.
Though Clover had drawn near the Corrupted Being, she hesitated to touch it carelessly, wavering back and forth. Seeking an answer, she looked to Lucky perched on her shoulder. But Lucky shook his head.
[I’ve got no idea either, little one.]
“Is it dangerous?”
[Doesn’t look dangerous. Besides, your father’s here with us now.]
“Oh, I see.”
So it wasn’t dangerous.
That was when the Corrupted Being, its skull still pierced yet not yet dead, rolled its massive eyes and fixed its gaze upon Clover.
Clover gasped and swallowed hard. She wasn’t afraid, though—not when she was cradled in her father’s arms. And she knew that whatever happened, Kalid and Zitheia would be beside her to protect her, just as they had before.
‘You can do this, Clover.’
With courage gathering in her small heart, Clover reached out her hand carefully.
And just as Zitheia approached alongside Nenia and Pluto, her face full of questions, she turned to Kalid and spoke,
“Kalid, what are you doing……?”
“Clover, are you alright?”
It was around the time Pluto, who’d waded closer with gentle splashing sounds, looked down at Clover with worried eyes.
Pop.
She didn’t need to grasp it firmly or exert any force at all.
She simply reached out and stroked the Corrupted Being’s forehead, and with a soft pop, something came free, landing in Clover’s small hand.
It was a scale—a scale that shimmered with rainbow light.
“Clover, was that what you wanted to have?”
“Huh? It’s not that I wanted to take it…….”
It’s not that…….
At Kalid’s question, the child’s mouth fell silent.
…….
Why had she felt compelled to pull it out?
Then it happened.
The Corrupted Being’s body flashed brilliantly, and a blinding light erupted from its massive form.
Kalid instinctively wrapped his arms around the child, and Zitheia shielded both children with her Authority.
But there was no need for the adults to strike down the Corrupted Being with their power once more.
“……What……?”
When they opened their eyes.
The Corrupted Being no longer wore the shape of a Corrupted Being.
“Water, a fish……!?”
Clover leapt from Kalid’s embrace and gazed at the silver fish thrashing in the shallow Waterside.
It was unmistakably the same fish that had circled near her just moments before.
And yet it was also the being that had suddenly transformed into a Corrupted Being to threaten the child. Clover stared at the scale still gleaming brilliantly in her hand.
‘When I pulled this out, it changed back?’
What on earth was this fragment?
“Lucky, what is this?”
[This? It looks like a fish scale…… but it’s so large because you pulled it out when it was a Corrupted Being?]
“A scale.”
Was a scale something special? That was when Clover held the glimmering fish scale up to the sunlight.
“……Clover, how did you do that?”
Zitheia asked, her voice trembling with bewilderment.
“Huh?”
The child’s head whipped around to look at Zitheia.
“Just now—how did you do that……? How did you return the Corrupted Being to its original form?”
A Corrupted Being is a ruined thing.
Rotted, twisted, broken from birth—an existence that cannot be restored by any means.
It is a being that can only disappear from this land when it is destroyed.
Yet just moments ago, when Clover pulled out the scale, it reverted to its original form, and both Zitheia and Kalid stood paralyzed by shock.
“Clover, did you use an Authority?”
Kalid gripped Clover’s small hand tightly as he spoke. Clover gently swung his hand back and forth, shaking her head firmly.
“I didn’t use an Authority.”
“Then what?”
“Oh, when I pluck the shiny one, it gets smaller.”
Clover was telling the truth.
Moreover, if the child had used her Authority in that moment, Zitheia and Kalid, being Authority Bearers themselves, could not have missed it.
Clover held up the iridescent scale as she spoke.
“This one, and it’s shiny.”
Then she glanced toward the Sea.
The fish, which had transformed from a Corrupted Being back into its original form, lay dead in the water.
When it had worn the shape of a Corrupted Being, its Regeneration had kept it alive; but once it returned to its true form, it could no longer endure.
Looking at this, Clover felt her mind grow strangely unsettled—much the way it did when she realized she’d left her room in complete disarray after hours of play.
[But Clover,]
“Hmm?”
[why did that creature suddenly turn into a Corrupted Being? We confirmed there were no Corrupted Beings in the vicinity because the Bearer of Tidal Authority and the Bearer of Storm Authority were here!]
Lucky circled above the fish now sinking lifeless into the depths, speaking in agitation.
“I dunno either.”
Clover couldn’t explain why the fish had suddenly approached her and transformed into a Corrupted Being.
But what she was certain of was this: the fish had approached her at first with unmistakable joy.
That much she could perceive. The child was keen at detecting not just human emotions, but the feelings of animals and plants as well.
The fish had come near because it was happy at first, but then—
‘Something dark appeared again.’
Why did such a thing happen? As Clover understood it, when a wicked heart arose, the body twisted into a wicked form.
Then would people with cruel hearts transform into such terrifying shapes too?
‘That would be scary!’
The child, still clutching the iridescent scale, absently dipped her hand into the seawater.
That was when it happened.
“……They’re coming.”
Nenia, who had been gazing at the distant Horizon, murmured suddenly.
At her murmur, Zitheia’s head snapped up.
Zitheia, who bore the Tidal Authority, and Nenia could see through all that transpired beneath the waves.
Since everything that occurred within their waters belonged to them, the sea appeared to both women as transparent as glass.
“Fish……”
Nenia murmured.
Zitheia squinted, trying to gauge whether they posed a threat or not.
A school of the same kind of fish that had transformed into a Corrupted Being before Clover was approaching now.
Each one was tiny, no larger than a killifish. But their numbers were staggering.
If all of them were to grow as large as the Corrupted Being from moments before, it would become considerably troublesome. Unable to wait and see, Zitheia drew upon her Authority.
“Neptune.”
As Zitheia spoke the name softly, her Summoned Creature revealed its massive form.
A humpback whale of such tremendous size that it could never exist in shallow waters materialized, hovering in the air—Zitheia Eibe’s Summoned Creature.
At her gesture, Neptune released a long, sonorous cry toward the school of fish approaching them.
To the others, the sound seemed merely the bellow of a beast.

But to Clover, the vast voice resonated with perfect clarity.
“A whale uncle!”
The whale was cool.
But the huge voice was a bit loud.
At the booming noise, Clover slyly covered one ear.
Yet the school of fish seemed not to slow their approach. This much was plain from the troubled expressions on Zitheia and Nenia’s faces.
Kalid, who had been silently watching the Horizon, turned his gaze to Zitheia and asked.
“Are they dangerous?”
“They’re not inherently dangerous, but if they draw close and transform into Corrupted Beings again, it will be troublesome. We still don’t know why the last one changed, so I can’t allow them to approach.”
There was logic to what Zitheia said.
But then.