The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 120

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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 120
Circumventing the Village was no simple matter.
The Village itself sat in treacherous terrain, and there was scarcely anything that could be called a proper road in the surrounding area.
There was a path wide enough for a single carriage to pass through, though barely—and one of the knights, uneasy about having to escort the carriage along such poor ground, ventured to speak.
“Begging your pardon, sir, but couldn’t we simply pass through the Village? The hour grows late….”
“No.”
The Knight Commander’s refusal was absolute.
A true knight must respect the customs of other lands—and far more so when those customs concern funeral rites and ceremony, which could not be dismissed under any circumstance.
One could not ride in a carriage bearing the Claudian seal and dishonor the dead. The company turned onto the narrow path.
Bump.
The carriage jolted as it rolled over a stone. The tremor startled Clover awake, and she rubbed her eyes, peering at Kalid.
“…Papa, bump?”
She was asking if the carriage had indeed bumped. Kalid reached over and gently stroked her hair.
“Yes, it bumped. Did the carriage wake you?”
“Mm….”
“Go back to sleep, Clover.”
With practiced ease, he retrieved a plush cushion and tucked it beneath her head.
‘I’m so sleepy….’
Clover’s vision blurred, and she blinked slowly.
Whether it was the late hour or the weariness of traveling by carriage, sleep pulled at her once more.
They still had some distance to go before arriving, so a little more rest would do her good.
“Yawn.”
Clover yawned, her lips moving sleepily, just as she was drifting off again—
Crash!
“Huh?”
The carriage lurched violently. Clover’s eyes snapped wide open. The jolt was severe enough to chase away all traces of sleep.
Pluto, too, had been startled awake, blinking groggily. Kalid was patting the children to soothe them and about to call out the window to one of the knights when—
“Demon beasts! They’ve appeared!”
A knight’s voice tore through the darkness, raw with panic.
“Defensive positions! Take up your positions now!”
“…!”
Chaos erupted around the carriage. The knights swiftly lit their torches in the darkness. The flames had been kept sparse, burning only faintly to conserve oil—but now, as fuel was poured onto them, all the torches blazed up at once with a bright whoosh, casting the night in sudden light.
“Your Lordship, the beasts are moving within the darkness—they appear to be Fullmoon Wolves that dwell in these mountains. I glimpsed red eyes in the shadows. They are advancing to hunt us.”
“How many?”
“Approximately thirty, by my count.”
The Knight Commander delivered his report to Kalid in clipped tones. Kalid’s brow furrowed.
It was not as though he’d been unaware that demon beasts inhabited these mountains—he’d known it from his initial survey of the route.
But thirty of them?
It was the duty of the regional Lord to regulate the demon beast population and cull their numbers so they would not threaten the people. Yet thirty Fullmoon Wolves appearing at once meant the Lord of this region was neglecting his responsibilities entirely.
Moreover, a swarm of thirty was large enough to lay waste to an entire territory if they chose to rampage.
‘This is tiresome.’
Most demon beasts had no formal names. They were born in different places, each with different forms, each bearing their own appearance.
But occasionally, certain shapes of demon beasts appeared with unusual frequency, and when they did, the people gave them specific names. The Fullmoon Wolves that had just emerged were a prime example of such a creature.
Fullmoon Wolves were demon beasts born from the corpses of wolves, and they were intelligent hunters that began their pursuit at the moment when the moon reached its zenith. Unlike the mindless brutes that attacked indiscriminately, these creatures hunted in coordinated packs, employing cunning formations to swallow their prey whole in an instant—making them among the most dangerous of all demon beasts.
For that reason, they could not be left to the knights alone. Kalid prepared to exit the carriage, seating Clover and Pluto side by side and draping them with a wool blanket.
“Clover, I’ll be gone for a bit. You rest here.”
Clover mumbled sleepily.
“Papa, where are you going?”
“I have something to attend to. I’ll be back soon.”
The child nodded.
“Okay.”
Kalid pressed a light kiss to Clover’s forehead, then gently caressed her warm, soft cheek once more—still flushed from sleep. He stepped down from the carriage, leaving his daughter’s drowsy farewell behind.
Clover pulled the wool blanket up to her chin, waving goodbye to him as he hopped out.
Awoooooo!
Woooooo!
The howls of the Fullmoon Wolves echoed from all directions, exchanging signals with one another.
‘Intelligent beasts—always so troublesome.’
Kalid clicked his tongue disapprovingly, then raised his hand. In the darkness, the North Wind’s Lion appeared, its eyes gleaming with an eerie, fierce light as it fixed its gaze upon the demon beasts. Those blue eyes caught the moonlight and glowed with a terrible beauty.
“They’re tightening their encirclement around us!”
“I’ll settle this in one stroke. Just watch for their formations and stay clear of the melee.”
They hunted by drawing their prey toward the center of their massive formation, so if even one knight were pulled into that vortex, it would be a catastrophe.
The Storm Authority was optimized for striking enemies across a wide radius, which made it nearly impossible to rescue someone already caught within.
Kalid, standing with his back to the carriage as though shielding it, glanced over his shoulder.
He dismounted, and several servants climbed aboard to look after Clover and Pluto. But it didn’t seem like enough.
“The children might be frightened, so summon the other servants from the second carriage as well—”
Kalid was about to order them to go to the children’s carriage and tend to them when—
“Ugh—uuuugh!”
From the darkness came the sound of a Fullmoon Wolf’s jaws clamping down on a knight’s shoulder guard with a sickening crunch. Jagged, grotesque teeth sank deep into the armor.
Moments later, another knight standing not far from the carriage cried out in pain as a magical beast struck.
Kalid invoked his Authority without hesitation.
Savage winds erupted around the North Wind’s Lion, then shot forth like arrows toward the beasts.
The wolf-shaped creature took the full force of Kalid’s power; its head was pierced clean through, and it fell dead on the spot.
But another magical beast immediately stepped forward to fill the gap.
They seemed intent on maintaining their formation and continuing the hunt.
‘Strange,’ Kalid thought.
He rarely encountered magical beasts outside the walls. Beasts possessed an instinctive sense for detecting strength.
Though creatures operating on pure animal instinct would sometimes throw themselves mindlessly at opponents they couldn’t hope to overcome, they had always hung back in the face of Kalid’s overwhelming Authority—an Authority without equal.
‘Are they targeting Clover?’
Just as the magical beasts had done before.
The thought flickered across Kalid’s mind, and his brow twitched. In that instant, the Fullmoon Wolves began to move again.
Their tactic: slowly drawing victims one by one into the center of the formation, absorbing them, then hunting the whole group.
Kalid muttered to himself.
“That won’t do.”
He needed to dispatch these creatures quickly and return to the children. Kalid began gathering his Authority into his right hand.
Violent winds converged, solidifying into a rigid spear shaft powerful enough to shatter a magical beast’s skull with a single strike.
Then, as a sharp, honed blade of wind took form and began to hover, the magical beasts gathered in the darkness suddenly flinched.
Rumble—crack!
In that moment, lightning flashed savagely above Kalid’s head.
And as though it were a signal, the North Wind’s Lion and the Storm Spear Blade shot forth from the darkness in one breath.
Toward the vanguard and rear of the Fullmoon Wolves, arranged in a whirlwind formation.
Shriek, shriek! Shriek!
Lightning descended from the sky, striking the beasts with force; gales of wind swept through like a blade, tearing through their bodies.
Simultaneously, the spear blade pierced through skulls, and the North Wind’s Lion crashed into the heart of the enemy line, scattering their formation.
Thirty magical beasts fell in an instant, and their ranks were obliterated. The time it took for the whirlwind formation to collapse was shorter than a single blink.
The knights had no need to intervene; the situation resolved itself in moments. Yet no one moved carelessly.
Kalid stood listening to the darkness, his fingers working at his sleeve.
He was gauging whether any enemies remained standing. Once he determined that all the magical beasts had fallen, he finally raised his head.
“Half of you continue to guard the carriage. The other half remains here to collect the Fullmoon Wolf corpses.”
“Yes, Commander!”
He nudged the nose of the dead magical beast at his feet with his boot.
Just then, the North Wind’s Lion approached, carrying a Fullmoon Wolf still clinging to life clamped in its massive jaws. The creature, too weak to struggle, hung docile in that enormous maw.
“Kill it.”
Crunch.
At the command, the lion closed its jaws. The magical beast’s body snapped in two, and the lower half dropped beneath the beast’s chin.

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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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