The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 124

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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 124
At Kalid’s gesture, the North Wind Lion swept Clover and Pluto from the deck in one fluid motion.
Thud.
The two children landed in Kalid’s arms. Clover beamed, throwing her arms around his neck.
“Daddy, I missed you so much. We were apart for such a long, long time…….”
“I missed you too. Are you hurt anywhere?”
Kalid set the children down on the ground and examined them carefully.
Both bore only minor scratches; nothing serious was apparent. Yet Kalid winced as though the wounds were his own. He stroked Clover’s injury gently, his voice barely above a whisper.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
His gaze shifted to Pluto.
“Forgive my tardy arrival, Your Highness.”
“Duke……!”
“This too.”
With that, Kalid pulled both children close in a fierce embrace. Clover and Pluto nestled into his broad frame.
His arms were far softer than the hard deck, far warmer than the cold sea. The children instinctively reached up, wrapping their small arms around him in return.
Meanwhile, Claudian knights who had entered the vessel had rounded up all of those who had abducted Clover and Pluto.
Watching them, Clover cried out.
“Her eyes! Her eyes need to be covered!”
“Her eyes?”
“That woman—when I look at her eyes, I hear her voice. Her eyes have to be covered.”
At Clover’s words, the knights immediately blindfolded the curly-haired woman and bound her so she could not escape.
There were seven people in total aboard the vessel, including the rowers.
Seven had come to abduct the children. For kidnapping two Authority Bearers, the number seemed absurdly small.
“……Hah!”
Yet with the woman’s presence, the number was far from inadequate.
An Authority Bearer capable of brainwashing—a powerful ability that could even enslave an entire village.
This one woman possessed the strength of twenty ordinary people.
In that regard, the abduction team composed of seven people and a single vessel was nothing short of perfect.
With few in number, they would attract little notice. With a brainwashing specialist, the children would not awaken to resist.
Kalid held the children close and spoke to the bound captives in a voice as cold as ice.
“For now, keep them as they are.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hastily approaching servants then draped the children in a Wool Blanket.
It was far softer, warmer, and finer in quality than anything the abductors had used to cover them.
“My goodness, young miss…….”
“Your Highness, are you all right? I’m so terribly sorry. We should have been more careful……!”
If the servants had been shirking their duties or inattentive when the children were taken, it would be a grave crime.
But the servants had been under brainwashing. Kalid was willing to overlook that much.
“Wait a moment as well.”
“Yes, Duke.”
The servants swaddled the children in the blanket as they acknowledged his words. Clover poked her face out from between the folds.
“W-wait a second.”
“Hmm?”
“Daddy, I need to thank the fishies.”
“Thank them?”
Clover pointed to the Sea.
“I threw my scales into the Sea, and the fish came and helped Clover.”
Kalid gazed out at the water.
As Clover had said, fish were gathering in abundance beneath the vessel—a detail he had overlooked in the relief of having recovered the children.
Draped in the Wool Blanket like a cloak, Clover scampered to the Beach and stood at its edge.
Then.
Gently.
Kalid caught the child with a breath of wind, lifting her up and setting her afloat upon the water.
Beneath Clover’s feet, which floated gently on the Sea’s surface, the fish gathered and swirled, glimmering like the Milky Way.
Clover’s smiling face was faintly reflected in the dark water.
“Fish friends, thank you.”
Splash.
When the child plunged her hand into the Sea, the fish rushed forward and gently nibbled at her soft palm.
Then, as if their task was complete, they swam leisurely back out toward the distant waters.
Kalid watched in silence before drawing Clover back into his arms.
“That’s all of it.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Good work.”
Kalid seized Clover’s hand, which had grown cold in the meantime, and warmed it with his own body heat.
As he did, the knight commander who had forced the culprits to their knees approached him.
“Your Grace, shall we return at once?”
“No.”
Kalid regarded those kneeling before him. They wore something like Priest Robes underneath.
The Trina Church.
At the thought of that name, Kalid cradled Clover’s cheek—which had grown slightly cool—in his large, warm palm and spoke.
“Their destination was the headquarters, wasn’t it? They’d even prepared a ship.”
Kalid gently covered Clover’s ears with his hand.
“Yes.”
“We destroy it now. If we delay any longer, they might target the children again.”
“But then…….”
“Get them back on the ship.”
“What of the young lady and the prince? What shall we do with them?”
“Someone will come to take them soon.”
Kalid’s gaze turned toward Nenia’s sea lion.
The eyes of the sea lion, which shared its Authority Bearer’s field of vision, gleamed like stars in the darkness.
And not long after.
“Kalid! Are you all right?”
Giteia of Eive appeared aboard a ship. The emblem of the Eive ducal house, carved at the bow, shone distinctly through the darkness.
The presence of the sea lion here meant these waters lay within Nenia’s domain.
So Eive would naturally have been informed of the situation as well. And Giteia was not one to ignore such matters once he learned of them.
This wasn’t a case of happening to pass through the area—he’d been visiting Eive and was kidnapped on the way back.
Such an incident could become politically entangled with the Eive ducal house, so Kalid had assumed Giteia would naturally come to this place.
And Kalid’s assumption proved correct. On the water, Eive’s swiftest vessel was anchored far out at sea.
Giteia and Nenia leaped from the ship and waded toward them, splashing.
“What’s going on? What is all this?”
“A Brainwashing Authority Bearer.”
“What? You mean there really was a Brainwashing Authority Bearer alive?”
“Yes. A surviving Authority Bearer did exist.”
While Giteia and Kalid spoke, Nenia rushed toward Clover and seized her in an embrace.
“Clover~!”
“Oh! Nenia!”
“I was so worried about you. So, so worried.”
While holding Clover in her arms, Nenia’s gaze drifted over Clover’s shoulder toward Pluto.
“The prince too. I was worried about him as well. I was so shocked…….”
“Nenia, how did you know? Clover was there.”
“The fish were moving in a strange direction, so I knew. Their movements were… they felt wrong.”
[This little girl from Eive, the more I see her, the better a friend she is!]
Lucky circled around Clover and Nenia, speaking excitedly. Nenia took Clover’s hand and walked briskly toward where Pluto stood.
She examined whether Clover and Pluto were in good condition.
Kalid, watching this scene quietly, turned to Giteia and spoke.
“Watch the children for a moment.”
“Where are you going? You’re going to leave them right after they’ve just been rescued from kidnapping…….”
“I’m going for the head.”
Kalid nodded toward the kidnappers.
“These are just the tail. I have to strike at the head, or they’ll never think to do this again. They had a ship prepared, so there must be a destination—somewhere they were heading—across the sea.”
“Across the sea……? Ah!”
Giteia’s eyes widened.
“Now that I think about it, while investigating Manela and the Trina Church, I learned something. There’s a Trina Church Temple somewhere across this sea!”
At that moment, the bound kidnappers trembled slightly, their bodies tensing. Kalid, who didn’t miss that subtle reaction, turned to Giteia and spoke.
“Keep talking.”
***
Across the sea, if you follow the direction the kidnappers had been sailing, a Small Island eventually appears.
That was where the Trina Church Temple stood—the headquarters of the Trina Church.
Until now, they had only known it as an emerging heretical cult operating near the Eive Duchy, and the location of the temple where the sect established its base had remained unknown. It was only recently that Manela revealed the location.
“Simple enough.”
Kalid propelled the boat forward through the darkness, speaking as he went. The North Wind Lion beside him flashed his eyes bright.
Behind them, the kidnappers thrashed against their bonds. But their struggles were quickly subdued by Claudian knights.
“Remarkably easy.”
Giteia and Kalid had both been thinking it was high time to eliminate the Trina Church anyway. There was no harm in clearing them out ahead of schedule.
Yet to think they’d so obligingly revealed the temple’s location.
“Was it this simple for you as well…….”
Taking my daughter and the child I protect.
As Kalid finished speaking, a low growl rumbled from the North Wind Lion.

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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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