The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 24

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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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Episode 24
“No, sir! It’s a misunderstanding! You’re misunderstanding the situation!”
“What misunderstanding?”
“I was doing nothing, and then the youngest lady just appeared out of nowhere——”
“Appeared?”
“Appeared and——”
Sidew’s and Kalid’s gazes shifted in unison toward the furrow gouged into the floor.
To anyone’s eye, it looked as though a four-year-old child had been dragged ruthlessly across the ground.
And the trail ended exactly where Clover had been sitting moments before. Kalid tilted his head.
“I’ll ask again: what, exactly, is the misunderstanding?”
“I—I truly had nothing to do with it, sir! The lady appeared suddenly like that! As if she’d been dragged from somewhere——!”
“Clover, is that true?”
Clover, trembling violently, buried her face in Kalid’s chest.
“Papa, I’m scared.”
“I know.”
At Kalid’s gesture, Claudian knights appeared from nowhere.
Sidew sensed the situation tilting in an unfavorable direction and scrambled backward.
“G-sir! This is truly a misunderstanding! Really, it is! Please, youngest lady, tell them—tell them I didn’t do this!”
“As it happens, I’ve been wanting to investigate you. Take him away.”
The Claudian knights seized Sidew by both arms.
“Sir!”
They dragged him away, smothering his cries, and disappeared.
Kalid removed Sidew from Clover’s sight, then looked down at the small daughter nestled in his arms.
The child’s face was a complete mess, as though she’d been dragged through something terrible. Her clothes were no better—the new dress he’d put on her was caked with dirt and would need changing.
“Papa.”
Just then, Clover lifted her head and looked at Kalid with a question.
“That man’s gone?”
She looked filthy, as though she’d been buried in earth.
“Yes.”
“He won’t come back?”
“No, you won’t see him again.”
Clover stared blankly toward where Sidew had been dragged and murmured softly.
“Good.”
***
Clover knew Sidew.
When she’d been at the Demper Earl House, she’d seen his face from a distance several times.
Each time, Sidew had approached her with feigned kindness and false gentleness, but in truth——
‘Hmm, the Duke pretends to care for her well enough, but that’s clearly not the case. Would the Duke’s youngest daughter, who bears no resemblance to him whatsoever, really be pretty to him? Especially one who can’t even use the Storm Authority.’
‘He says he’ll come looking for me when I’m ten? As long as he doesn’t abandon me entirely, that should be blessing enough.’
He was a thoroughly wicked man.
In league with her aunt.
A villain who despised Clover.
So Clover had hated the days when Sidew came to Demper. On those days, she would lock herself in her room rather than sneak out to the gardens.
And now, to see him here of all places!
Moreover——
“Ugh, ahhh!”
[Clover!]
A Black Hand erupting from Sidew seized Clover’s ankle and dragged her to him.
Clover gasped when she saw that the formless hand was connected to Sidew’s body.
It resembled the wisp of smoke that came from her father’s body, but it was distinctly different. Far more aggressive, far more vicious.
But then——
“Could it be… the youngest lady?”
Why was he acting as though he didn’t know, when he’d been the one to bring her here?
Moreover, her father didn’t seem to have seen the Black Hand coming from Sidew’s body at all.
Could it be that he couldn’t see it?
Even now, thinking of that Black Hand made her hair stand on end. The thought of Sidew terrified her. But if neither of them could see it——
‘Why can only I see it?’
She didn’t want to see frightening things.
And the moment that Black Hand seized her ankle, Clover felt an overwhelming, inescapable helplessness wash over her.
It was an emotion she’d never experienced in her brief life until now.
The moment the spade slipped from her grip, the instant she lost her hold on the grass and was dragged away, Clover felt an overwhelming sadness wash over her.
Sadder than when they’d taken her cake. Sadder even than the time she’d dropped the large strawberry from the top—the only one—without tasting a single bite.
[Clover.]
Lucky floated gently before Clover, who hung her head in dejection, and spoke.
[I think you should tell your father about what you saw.]
“Mmm…….”
Clover was already thinking the same thing.
Lucky had said that stepping in when something happens to a child is what a “protector” does. And this—this was exactly one of those “somethings.”
But how could she explain it? That the Black Hand just appeared and grabbed her?
And that the Black Hand was connected to Sidew, the earl?
Clover’s fingers tightened on the hem of her dress, her knuckles turning pale.
‘What if he doesn’t believe me?’
That “hand”—it seemed like only she had seen it.
What if he called her a liar?
Bad memories from the Demper Earl House slithered out like serpents, coiling around her and threatening to choke her.
[Clover!]
That was when Lucky suddenly broke in.
[If you can’t trust yourself, then trust me. Your father will listen to you calmly. The way I’ve always listened to you, all the way through.]
Golden light poured brilliantly from Lucky’s form.
[Go on, tell him. This is something you must tell. From what I saw, what came out of him was… malice.]
“Baby?”
[……Not baby. ……Anyway, hurry and tell your father, Clover.]
That was when it happened.
Kalid’s gaze, which had been lowered on Clover all this while, finally met hers.
Eyes brighter and warmer than the sun hanging in the sky—golden as dawn itself—gazed upon her with a tenderness like sunlight.
Caught in those eyes, Clover stared blankly at Kalid as his handkerchief reached toward her cheek.
Soft.
Gently, as though cleaning something precious, he wiped the dirt from her face.
“Clover.”
“……Yes.”
“May I ask what happened?”
“Yes.”
Clover nodded carefully.
And she turned Lucky’s words over in her mind, again and again.
Father will listen to me calmly.
The way Lucky listened all the way through.
Not dismissing me like the others in Demper…….
Then Kalid murmured softly.
“Whether I should tear that bastard in half or fold him up—I’ll decide once I’ve heard what you have to say…….”
“!!”
Clover jumped in alarm.
***
Kalid’s expression grew grave as he listened to Clover’s account of the Black Hand.
‘It seized her?’
Sidew’s Authority was the Pure Wind Authority, aligned with the Claudian Family’s own power.
There was no reason for something like the Black Hand to emerge from him, nor did he possess the ability for such a thing.
Yet Clover didn’t seem to be lying. Moreover,
‘Those drag marks.’
And the child covered in dirt.
Those were unmistakably the marks of a child being dragged. The evidence made it clear that someone had dragged the child before Sidew.
“Are you unhappy with me?”
Clover, freshly washed and clean, fidgeted with her small body.
“I believe you.”
Kalid answered without a moment’s hesitation.
The small body seemed to crumple slightly. She’d let out a breath of relief.
“Lucky said I’m like a baby, so you need to know too, Father.”
“……A baby?”
“A-ba-by.”
“…….”
What on earth did she mean by that.
Kalid had raised four children including Clover and had mastered the peculiar pronunciation of young children, but this particular puzzle proved remarkably difficult.
When Kalid failed to grasp it properly, Clover, growing a bit frustrated, explained again.
“Baby, just heart bad.”
“Bad heart…… ah.”
Baby,
bad heart.
Using the hint Clover had provided, Kalid reasoned through the puzzle intently until he finally deduced the true meaning of “baby.”
“You meant ‘Malice,’ didn’t you?”
“Yes, baby!”
“That’s right, baby.”
Kalid gently stroked Clover’s head. Yet the more they talked, the more a certain question gnawed at him.
What on earth was Clover’s Summon?
Summons typically grew alongside their Authority wielders, so Clover’s Summon should have possessed the intellect of a four-year-old at most.
But listening to the child speak, that golden four-leaf clover that followed the girl everywhere seemed less like a four-year-old and more like a sage—a wise elder who knew the world’s secrets.
‘What could it be, Clover’s Summon….’

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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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