The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 119

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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 119
The next morning.
Giteya, who had heard from Kalid about what Clover had told him the night before, narrowed her brow while sipping her coffee.
“Hmm, they were just children—couldn’t they have simply misremembered? Though I must say, it does seem odd that she would offer to go find them hiding places while they were playing hide-and-seek.”
“Up to that point, you could chalk it up to a meddlesome maid. But.”
“But?”
“Clover doesn’t often say something is strange unless it truly is.”
Kalid spoke while stirring his coffee absently.
Indeed, as Kalid said, Clover was still young enough that she forgot most things quickly after experiencing them.
It was a trait common to children that age—forgetting easily unless something was special or peculiar enough to carve itself into memory.
That Clover hadn’t forgotten this, that she’d told Kalid about it, meant the child had instinctively sensed something was amiss.
“Be careful.”
“Tch, I suppose I should. We’ve been expelling or detaining everyone we suspect of being an Authority Bearer connected to the Trina Order or whatever that sect calls itself, but it seems someone may have slipped through.”
“It’s better to be cautious about anything. And if Clover really didn’t misremember—if someone actually used an Authority on the children in that moment—”
“Then the Authority Bearer would have to possess an Authority related to memory.”
With Giteya’s words, the two fell silent. A moment stretched between them.
Among the dozens of Authorities possessed by Authority Bearers, none could directly manipulate human memory.
There had once existed Authority Bearers with the power to erase memories, or to read others’ memories and minds, but they no longer did.
‘The Emperor before last had them all executed.’
The Emperor before last—in other words, current Emperor Oron’s grandfather—feared those who could read minds and memories much as Oron feared Pluto’s Authority.
He worried they would leak imperial secrets, that they might become traitors who sold national intelligence to foreign powers. And so the path he chose was the tyrannical one: to put to death all who possessed the Authority to read memories.
The scribes of the Rosipheron Empire recorded it as a “Purge.”
His Imperial Majesty had purged those with “dangerous” Authorities who might one day sell the Empire’s secrets, they wrote.
Even afterward, he hunted down anyone connected to the manifestation of such Authorities, killing anyone who possessed even the weakest of such powers.
And so those with Authorities to manipulate memory, read minds, and disturb the human spirit vanished completely from the history of the Rosipheron Empire.
Since Oron’s grandfather’s “Purge,” no one bearing such an Authority had been found in this land.
If someone had used an Authority on the children in that moment, if that’s why they couldn’t remember following the maid—
Then this becomes serious.
“To be honest, I think the children might have simply misremembered. Clover is only four, and Pluto is six.”
Giteya set down her cup and rose to her feet.
“But your intuition that something is ‘off’—I don’t think that’s something to brush aside. So I’ll look into this as well.”
“Let me know if anything comes up.”
“Did the children see what the maid looked like?”
“Frizzy hair, dark eyes, freckles. That’s all they could describe.”
“That’s enough to go on.”
She smiled and turned to leave.
Beyond the window, the sun hung in the sky. It was time to wake the sleeping children.
***
“Nia, you have to let Clover go now.”
……
“Neinia.”
……Hmph.
Neinia held Clover in a tight embrace, her face pouting as she looked at Kalid and Giteya.
With her other hand, she was firmly gripping Pluto’s sleeve—it seemed playing with her friends had been far more fun than she’d anticipated.
Because Neinia refused to release Clover, Kalid, Clover, and Pluto couldn’t depart.
Even Peson, Neinia’s older brother, had tried to pry her loose.
“Nia, let your friend go.”
“……But I want to stay with my friend.”
Neinia dragged her feet. Clover, nestled in her arms, blinked her eyes repeatedly.
Of course, Clover didn’t want to part with Nia either.
But Lucky had said there are times when you must say goodbye.
Clover wriggled free from Neinia’s embrace and squeezed the girl’s small hands tight.
“Nia, Clover has to go.”
“……But.”
“Lucky says that if you say goodbye, you get to meet again. Clover wants to meet you again next time, so this time Clover is saying goodbye like this.”
As Clover spoke clearly and cheerfully, a natural smile blossomed on the faces of those watching.
But Clover remained undeterred, gazing into Neinia’s eyes.
“So Nia, wait for Clover!”
……
“Clover will come see you again.”
Neinia’s gaze drifted toward Pluto. He nodded in agreement and added his own words.
“I feel the same way. Take care, Neinia.”
“……Okay.”
Only then did Neinia consent, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked between Clover and Pluto in turn, her voice trembling as she spoke softly.
“You have to come next time. I think I’m going to miss you and Clover and Pluto.”
“Don’t worry. I promise.”
“Pinky swear?”
“Pluto too.”
“……Me as well?”
“All three of us. All three.”
The children wove their small fingers together. Once they’d linked their pinkies in a triangle, they repeated “We’ll see each other again next time!” four times before they could finally part.
Only then did Kalid help the children into the carriage. The moment Giteya and Kalid exchanged their brief farewells, the carriage began to move.
“Wow, look!”
Clover’s eyes sparkled as she spotted something through the carriage window where a cool breeze was blowing in.
“Your Highness, look at that!”
“What? What’s over there—oh.”
What Clover was pointing to was the large form of Neptune bobbing gently in the distance.
“A summoned creature……”
“Yes, the whale gentleman.”
And beneath him, Neinia’s summoned creature was moving in graceful spirals, as if dancing them farewell.
“Niia, see you soon!”
Clover murmured at a volume Neinia couldn’t hear—yet as loud as she could possibly make it.
Niia, goodbye!
Duke Eive, beautiful sea, fish friends, whale gentleman, everyone—goodbye!
A cool breeze brushed across the children’s cheeks. A current of wind carried their voices, flowing like undulating waves.
***
The journey back to Claudian took quite some time. Eive’s Territory was in the south, while Claudian lay in the north, so this was inevitable.
Still, if they took the fastest route, the journey wouldn’t take an unreasonably long time. Kalid, who was thorough in his preparations, had already scouted the quickest path before coming here, so there was no reason they should fall behind schedule.
……Or so it should have been.
But then.
“Duke, they say we cannot pass through this route.”
A Claudian knight who had ridden ahead to scout the path returned to report, his face troubled.
They had traveled this very road when coming to Eive’s Territory—why couldn’t they pass now?
“The village elder died a few days ago, it seems. They’re currently in the funeral period, so they cannot allow outsiders through.”
Kalid let out a short sigh.
“Is there another route in this direction?”
“There is not, sir. Going straight this way, we have no choice but to cut directly through the village…… Shall we proceed?”
At the knight’s words, Kalid exhaled and shook his head.
Had it been any other reason, he would have simply cut through. But during a funeral, that was impossible. Kalid had heard of the funeral customs practiced in this remote region.
In this land, far from Claudian, when someone died, the village gates were locked for four days, and no passage of any kind was permitted.
Those four days were believed to be the deceased’s final time in the world of the living. During this period, the villagers moved carefully and spent their days mourning the departed.
To ride through on horseback, trampling the earth with hoofbeats during those four days, would be no different than shaming the deceased and insulting and disrespecting all the villagers.
Kalid had no wish to shame the dead. Especially not for the mere sake of returning home quickly with the children.
“Never mind.”
Having made his decision, Kalid looked to the knight and spoke.
“We’ll take a different route.”
“You mean going around the village, sir?”
“Yes.”

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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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