The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 21

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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 21
Khalid noticed that Clover was conversing with her summon again, so he decided to wait quietly until their exchange was finished.
Each time she opened her mouth, her small, round pea-like head bobbed slightly—the most adorable sight Khalid had ever witnessed in his life.
‘How cute…….’
He raised his hand to shield the child from the direct sunlight.
A gentle breeze drifted past.
***
“……Huh?”
Clover stared blankly at Lucky, then looked down at the seed resting in her small palm.
Then back at Lucky.
Then at the seed again.
Then at Lucky once more……
“Lucky, what’re you saying?”
[That’s no ordinary seed! It’s the Seed of Heart, Clover! Your power just grew stronger!]
“Seed of Heart?”
[That’s right! You just made a ‘seed’ from your father’s heart! Ha-ha-ha, little one! Tiny thing! My precious bean! Look how much you’ve grown!]
Clover found it difficult to understand what Lucky was saying.
The heart was invisible to the eye—how could one possibly make a seed from a heart?
Still struggling to grasp what she’d accomplished, Lucky fluttered down to Clover’s knee and began explaining at eye level with the child.
[When you first met your father, how did you feel?]
“Clover, like it…….”
The child smiled brightly.
[Right, you liked him! So how did your father feel?]
“Papa, papa is…….”
A glance.
Clover lifted her head and looked at Khalid.
Khalid gazed down at Clover with an expression that made his heart tickle.
But Father’s heart was Father’s heart.
There was no part of it Clover could be certain of. She answered with a question mark in her voice.
“Does Papa like it too……?”
Lucky nodded frantically.
[Yes! I guarantee it—he definitely liked it. But listen here, little one. When people feel emotions, an ‘aura’ rises from their heart. Whether sad or happy, it’s all the same.]
In that moment.
Clover’s eyes went wide.
“Wait, aura?”
Clover has seen aura before!
Just yesterday, and today.
She’d seen it rising from Father—blue aura drifting up and coming toward her.
Could that be the aura rising from the heart?
[That aura was drawn into your hand and became a seed…….]
Clover stared intently at the seed in her palm. The seed made from Father’s blue aura rolled gently around in the child’s small hand.
[So you just made a seed from a person’s heart, Clover.]
Lucky said it like he was driving in a nail. Then he fluttered down again and perched beside the seed Clover had just created.
[This is what a ‘heart’ is.]
Lucky said.
The heart is something invisible to the eye.
Unlike Clover’s own heart beating thump-thump inside her, something that cannot be touched or seen.
And yet.
“Then I, I touched it?”
Did Clover touch Papa’s heart?
[You touched it, and you’re still touching it now.]
Whoosh.
Clover’s face bloomed open. The thing in her hand was Father’s heart.
Clover had made it from Father’s heart! Her own heart began racing fiercely again.
‘Heh, I’m totally a genius.’
If she planted this seed, would a sprout grow?
Truth be told, making seeds was not such a difficult task for Clover.
Though this was her first time making one from a person’s heart, she’d made ordinary seeds before, several times.
Yet none of those seeds had ever grown into anything.
‘Will this one be different?’
It’s her father’s heart, after all. It might be a little different.
“Hee, hee-hee, heheheng.”
Clover clutched the seed to her chest and beamed.
The thought that she’d accomplished something remarkable kept the laughter flowing.
***
After returning from the picnic, Clover fell asleep almost at once, exhausted.
By the time they arrived, her eyes could barely stay open for the drowsiness—she was every bit the child her age should be.
Yet even as she drifted off, she clung to the seed she’d created with her own hands, refusing to let it go.
Khalid laid Clover on the bed, waited until he was certain she slept, then made his way directly to his study.
There were matters left unattended while he’d spent the day with Clover. Those needed to be addressed first.
“What about what I asked you to look into?”
“It’s all here, sir.”
Teniron, Khalid’s aide, produced the documents he’d organized meticulously. Khalid took them and flipped through with a rustling sound.
There, laid out in detail, was where Demper had diverted the child support payments. Khalid let out a quiet laugh.
“She’s gotten her fingers into something preposterous.”
From the looks of it, Demper’s husband had dabbled in illegal ventures. And she’d gone to considerable lengths behind the scenes to clean up the mess.
In the process, naturally, the child support had been skimmed off.
Early on, it appeared she’d actually spent the allowance on Clover, but after her husband’s serious misadventure, the payments had been funneled entirely in that direction—so the investigation showed.
Khalid flipped through the ledger again and turned to Teniron. “How much is left in the Demper estate?”
“The assets have been liquidated, and most of the land is mortgaged. There’s nothing that could generate immediate funds. However, the Diamond Mine continues to produce revenue, and they seem to be living off that income.”
That Diamond Mine was what Khalid had given to the previous Count Demper as a dowry when he’d married Elicia.
“Then we’ll have to take it back.”
Khalid set the documents down with a sharp tap.
“I gave it in gratitude for raising Elicia. Since she failed to raise Clover properly, she’ll have to return it. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Quite right, sir.”
“By neglecting Clover, Demper dishonored Claudian and tarnished my name. I can’t let this pass. Start with an investigation into these business dealings. If we can make charges stick, we will.”
“Yes, sir. It will be done as you command.”
Teniron gathered the documents carefully. The matter of Demper would be settled through this.
She would have to return double what she’d received in child support from Claudian. The Demper Family would be ruined in the process.
Until now, he’d been lenient because she was Elicia’s sister. But that consideration no longer applied.
If she’d thought she could escape consequences without paying a price, she was mistaken.
‘The lady herself seemed to have little affection for the house anyway.’
Within his judgment, the matter was settled.
Elicia Demper.
Her sole reason for entrusting Clover to the Demper household was one thing alone: the World Tree Branch buried and absorbed in the Demper family’s garden.
So what became of the Demper family was no concern of his.
‘I need to find a way to recover the World Tree Branch again…….’
Click.
Khalid opened a drawer and withdrew a framed portrait of Elicia from within.
In the portrait, Elicia smiled with the brightest face in the world.
Like the happiest woman alive.
He traced her face with his fingertips. Not that touching the portrait would let him touch his wife’s face.
……
After gazing at Elicia’s portrait for a long while, Khalid looked toward Teniron, who was still organizing documents, and asked, “How is the White Forest these days? Any trouble?”
“No, sir. The knights maintain a strict watch in rotation, so there should be nothing to report.”
“I see.”
“Will you be going to the forest, sir?”
Teniron, one of the few who knew Elicia’s true nature, posed the question.
Khalid set the framed portrait down carefully on the desk and replied, “I should.”
Elicia is in the White Forest.
“Clover has come back.”
Elicia Demper, the Tree Spirit born there, sleeps within its depths to recover her strength.
“I want to show her the child.”
According to Elicia, when Tree Spirits exhaust their power and can no longer maintain human form, they return to the trees to rest.
So there was no need to worry greatly; she would return before long, she had said.
But it had been four years since Elicia left. And cruelly, his wife showed herself not even in dreams.
So he had no choice. He would have to take Clover there and let her see for herself.

Khalid, who had been lost in thought for a moment, spoke slowly.
“The child wants to see her mother. I’m sure you miss Clover too.”
“Then I’ll make the arrangements so you can visit White Forest soon.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Teniron bowed his head and withdrew from the room.

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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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