The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 25

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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 25
***
“Investigate Count Sidu.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Look into his Authority again as well. Find out where he’s been recently, what he’s been doing, who he’s met, how he’s made contact with people—everything. His family too.”
“His entire family, sir?”
“Yes.”
Clover had told him that her summoned beast Lucky said the power seemed to stem from Malice.
But as far as Khalid knew, there was no one in the world who could harm others with Malice alone. Such an Authority didn’t exist. So more investigation was necessary.
“Understood. We can bundle this with the Demper matter and handle it all at once. It’s unfortunate—the Sidu family has been loyal for generations.”
“Only the previous generation was worth anything, I think. Both Demper and Sidu declined once their incompetent heirs took over as house head.”
But he felt no real regret. There were plenty of other capable families besides Sidu.
Then.
“Ah, Khalid.”
Teniron pulled a single sheet of letter paper from the towering stack of documents, gleaming with golden light.
“What is it?”
“A letter from the Imperial Palace. I should have delivered it sooner, but you seemed occupied with the young lady’s matter, so I missed the opportunity.”
He held out the letter. The envelope, sealed with golden wax, bore the Imperial Palace’s crest stamped at the top as proof of its origin.
“From the Palace?”
Khalid opened the letter with a puzzled expression and began reading at once.
Duke Khalid Claudian,
News travels fast when you’re in the Palace.
I hear everything—what happens at the empire’s edge, who spilled coffee on whose dress in the Capital today, all of it reaches my ears.
But I’ve heard something rather amusing.
You’ve decided to take care of your youngest daughter at Claudian, is that right?
She looks just like Elicia.
I’m told her Authority resembles Elicia’s as well.
So I’d like to see her once.
As you know, Elicia and I share a rather special bond.
Hearing that her youngest looks just like her, I naturally grew curious.
So bring her to visit sometime.
The sooner the better.
*Since this comes from someone outside the house, don’t arrest anyone innocent.
“The Dowager Empress has sent this.”
Khalid read over the letter quietly.
The Emperor’s mother, the late Emperor’s first wife, and the greatest elder of the empire—Anernia Sorren Rosipheron.
She had been Elicia’s closest friend and was one of the few who knew her true identity. It was the Dowager Empress who had helped Elicia adapt to high society, after all.
So it wasn’t strange that she wanted to meet Clover, who looked so much like Elicia.
“What does she say?”
“The Dowager Empress wishes to meet Clover.”
“The youngest lady?”
“Yes.”
The Dowager Empress would do nothing to harm Clover. She held House of Claudian in high regard, caring deeply for Elicia as she did.
But the Emperor?
Would the Emperor still regard House of Claudian favorably? Khalid set the letter aside as he pondered.
“I’ll hold off on a reply. I need to think more carefully about whether to bring the child to the Palace. What Clover wants matters too.”
The Dowager Empress’s letter was buried once more beneath the stack of documents.
***
“Found it?”
Clover, wearing shorts that didn’t mind having dirt on them, watched the almost-Spirit with bright, gleaming eyes.
It hovered in empty air like Lucky, spinning round and round in place.
“Found it!”
[You understand me well?]
Of course I do.
I’m the one who made it.
Clover shrugged and followed the incomplete Spirit as it fluttered about, flying off somewhere in a frenzy.
The first task Clover had given it was to find where the Nucleus needed to be.
The Nucleus seed, which governed all the nutrients in the earth, was usually located where the land’s nutrients flowed most abundantly.
So what this incomplete Spirit had found was precisely where that ‘seed’ should be placed.
Pitter-patter-patter.
The incomplete spirit that had been hovering about finally came to a halt.
……
Clover stood quietly at the spot it indicated and asked the incomplete spirit a question.
“Really here?”
This wasn’t a joke, was it?
……
Clover glanced at the fountain she had destroyed.
‘Father said he’d fix it……’
He still hadn’t. The dangerous pieces of rubble had been cleared away, but the fountain remained in a deplorable state.
Clover looked away from the stone dog statue with its head blown off in the explosion.
‘Pricked right in the conscience.’
It stung.
But sting or not, work was work. Clover had a job to do.
She simply sat down at the spot the spirit indicated and placed both hands there. The flow of this vast garden seemed to converge toward this place.
‘So it’s real.’
This really was where a Crystal should be. The incomplete thing had done one thing properly.
Clover carefully used her Authority to create a single round seed.
This wasn’t made with her father’s heart the way it would be when she was with him, nor was it a seed to create a Spirit.
Just a seed, as the name implied.
But seeds, they…
[A flower doesn’t know what kind of flower it is before it blooms, and a seed doesn’t know what it will become before it sprouts.]
It becomes something you cannot predict.
‘Before it grows, you don’t know what will grow.’
Remembering what Lucky had said, Clover dug a small hole with her finger and tucked the seed into the earth.
This was a seed whose nature was unknown, a hollow seed whose future Clover herself could not foresee.
In other words, it meant this could become a ‘vessel’ that gathers the nutrients of the land.
And that was precisely what a Crystal became.
“Lucky, should I water it now?”
[I think so. This should be enough to gather the power that was scattered and unfocused. It can definitely serve that purpose.]
“Good.”
Clover nodded, dusted off her hands, and looked around.
Belze, standing in the distance, smiled as if he thought she was about to leave.
But Clover deliberately avoided his gaze.
Because.
‘I still have more to do.’
Clover had more work ahead of her.
She’d helped the land come alive a little, and now……
Clover took out the seed she had carefully tucked away.
A Heart Seed, made with her father’s heart.
Now Clover intended to find the sunniest spot and plant this seed there.
‘It has to grow well.’
Every seed Clover had planted before had failed to grow and withered away. But this time, she didn’t want it to end that way.
Together with Lucky, after deliberating for thirty minutes, Clover found the ‘very best’ spot and buried the round seed made with Khalid’s heart.
It was a place she could see well from her room, and a spot the gardener had left empty, planning to plant something there later.
When Clover told the gardener she wanted to plant a seed there, he readily agreed and even promised to put up a fence around it.
Delighted, Clover planted the seed, asked Belze to bring the Watering Can, gave it plenty of water, patted down the earth to keep it from being disturbed, and sang beside it.
“Grow, grow, grow tall and strong~”
And then it really did feel as though something truly extraordinary would sprout from that seed.
“Hehe.”
With her work finished and her spirits lifted, Clover broke into a broad smile.
***
Watching Clover bustle about with the Seedling Shovel, Arwin estimated her size with his thumb and forefinger.
From this distance, she looked like a tiny pea scurrying about.
‘……No, wait—covered in dirt like that, maybe a little potato?’
He wondered why she’d worn shorts, but then realized that’s what happened whenever this child went outside these days—she’d come back covered in dirt and grime, as if she’d been rolling across the ground.
Whether a little potato or a pea, one thing was certain: she was small and adorable.
‘I wonder what she’s planting.’
Arwin narrowed his eyes and watched Clover’s every movement carefully, so as not to miss a thing.
He’d need to tell Elicia when she woke up.
‘I should tell Mother.’
My dearest younger sister, how much like a pea baby Clover had been, and how grubby like a little tuber fresh from the earth.
The moments and seasons that Mother had missed while sleeping—those Arwin longed to convey to her in meticulous detail, and so he had to observe them carefully.
Watching Clover’s pale-green hair flutter softly in the breeze, Arwin tilted his head and fell into quiet thought.
‘Mother, I miss you.’

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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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