The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 28

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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 28
“Brother!”
“Take care now, all right? You need to be careful — and if anything happens, go straight to the Northern Wind’s Lion!”
Arwin pressed a kiss to Clover’s cheek, his voice earnest with instruction. Clover nodded, her gaze fixed on the figure standing in the distance — the Northern Wind’s Lion, or rather, the cat.
“Mm!”
“If anyone bad tries to take you away, kick and scream, all right?”
“That won’t happen, Arwin.”
Demian gave Arwin a dignified nudge. He too kissed his youngest sister’s cheek — this was her first venture beyond the family estate — before meeting Clover’s eyes directly.
“Safe travels, Clover.”
“Mew!”
“See many wonderful things at the Imperial Palace, and when you come back, tell your brother all about them. Promise?”
“Promise.”
Clover hooked her pinky finger around Demian’s. Only then did Demian step back from her.
“Are you boys finished saying goodbye?”
“Yes.”
“Father! I’ll bring Clover back safely!”
“Good.”
Calid exchanged a light fist bump with both Demian and Arwin.
Then, with Clover in his arms, he climbed into the carriage. At that moment, Belze hurried over and spoke to Calid.
“Master, where shall I load this?”
In Belze’s hands was the flowerpot — a “gift” that Clover had specially prepared.
Calid had learned long ago that Clover had taken to scurrying about the estate in quick steps, eager to give a gift to the Empress Dowager.
Thus he knew both what the flowerpot contained and the purpose Clover had prepared it for. But Clover, unaware that Calid knew, gasped and reached out her arms.
“Give that to me—”
“Load it with the other gifts. Be careful it doesn’t shift or break.”
“Yes, I will.”
Before Clover could blink, Belze was hurrying away with the flowerpot.
Clover watched him go quietly, then turned to Calid with a question.
“Father, aren’t you curious?”
“About what?”
“The flowerpot, the— the gift.”
Why he’d prepared it, why wasn’t he asking?
At Clover’s tilted head, Calid reached out and gently tapped her soft cheek.
“You don’t need to tell Father everything.”
“Mm, okay.”
“And I already know why you prepared it.”
“Okay… mm?”
How could he know?
She hadn’t told anyone!
Clover’s head snapped around toward Lucky. Lucky stared back at her with an bewildered expression.
[Do you think I told him?]
Fair point.
Only Clover could speak with Lucky. So there was no way Lucky had said anything.
Then how on earth had Father figured it out? Clover looked at Calid with a puzzled expression, but he didn’t explain how he’d known.
He only reached out and stroked her head gently.
Clover sat in the rattling carriage for a moment, then wriggled closer, settling snugly against Calid’s side.
***
“The Claudian Duke has arrived.”
At her handmaiden’s words, Empress Dowager Anemia set down her teacup with evident pleasure. A soft smile crossed her face.
“Has it come to that already?”
“Shall I have him brought in?”
“One cannot keep the pillar of the empire waiting long — show him in.”
At Anemia’s words, the handmaiden bowed and slipped out of the room.
Before receiving her guest, Anemia gazed into the mirror her other attendant had placed for her.
Within it sat an elderly woman still beautiful to behold, though her hair had grown white with age.
The Emperor’s mother.
Empress Dowager Anemia Sorren Rosipheron of the Rosipheron Empire.
She had lived many years now, yet her eyes — a bright blue — still gleamed with keen intellect. It was eyes that betrayed an acuity one would hardly believe in a woman of her age.
Yet neither the Emperor nor the Empress Dowager who had borne him could escape the march of time and years. All are equal before its passage.
‘How much time has passed,’ she mused.
It had been four years since Elicia, the Duchess of the Claudian Duke House, had fallen asleep.
For Anemia, who felt each day acutely, four years was an unbearably long stretch of time. She had found those years desperately tedious.
But perhaps that was about to change. Clover had returned.
‘They said she resembles Elicia greatly.’
Clover Claudian—a frail child sent away from the Claudian Estate to her maternal grandmother’s home.
The fact that she had not grown up in her parents’ arms reminded Anemia of her own grandson, Pluto.
Pluto too had grown up alone in the Separate Palace, separated from his parents. Without Anemia’s care, he would have come to ruin long ago.
But if Clover’s circumstances were better than Pluto’s in any regard, it was that her parents at least loved her.
From what Anemia remembered, the girl was the only one of Elicia’s four children who truly resembled her mother.
When she had borne the first three one after another, every child had been the image of the Claudian Duke—so much so that Anemia had wondered at the strength of that bloodline.
And then, at last, the youngest was born, bearing Elicia’s likeness. When Anemia heard the news, she was overjoyed.
‘Elicia.’
Anemia smiled softly at the memory of Elicia. It was the recollection of their first meeting.
‘Sorren? I’ve heard of it.’
When Anemia first met Elicia, the latter was a woman in her twenties.
Beautiful enough to make anyone turn and look, brimming with vitality.
Anemia’s gaze was naturally drawn to her. There was no resisting the pull of Elicia’s radiant, spirited presence—one’s eyes and heart were helpless before it.
It was not long after that Anemia came to realize Elicia was not entirely human.
After becoming Elicia’s dearest friend, Elicia said she had a secret to tell her and led her to the beach.
There, standing on the White Sand Beach—where sand lay so thick that no tree could possibly take root—Elicia turned to face her.
‘You see, Anemia.’
‘What is it? Why all this suspense?’
‘I’m actually a Spirit.’
‘What?’
Anemia thought it a lie. A commoner girl playing a jest on her, the highborn daughter of the Sorren Marquis House.
But as Anemia married the empire’s Crown Prince and became Crown Princess, bore children, and watched them grow in turn……
Elicia remained a woman in her twenties.
Still beautiful enough to make anyone turn and look, still brimming with that vital radiance.
The Elicia who had delivered such a bombshell revelation to the cherished daughter of the Sorren Marquis House—she proved her words by never aging a single day after that.
So there was no choice but to believe it. Elicia truly was not human.
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘Because you are the most trustworthy person I have ever met.’
Had Elicia been smiling when she said that? Now, after so much time, Anemia could not quite remember.
What followed was unremarkable in its way—the tale of a Spirit striving to live among human society.
It was Anemia who had helped Elicia, who changed her identity repeatedly, gain entry into a noble house.
She had honored Elicia’s trust, just as Elicia had said. To this day, she had never revealed Elicia’s true nature.
Not to her husband, not to her son, not to her daughter.
Because Anemia had never disclosed Elicia’s secret to anyone.
Anemia had helped her hide her true nature and enter nobility, and later, when Elicia confessed she had found a man she loved, Anemia helped her marry him.
All the while, Anemia had aged steadily, but Elicia never grew old. She never aged at all.
Anemia had felt it was both enviable and frightening.
Of course.
‘That’s all ancient history now…….’
Now that age had taken its toll, those events seemed distant and hazy. Even when she tried to recall them, the details were thin and faded.
Yet the shock and fear of that moment, and Elicia’s vivid smile, remained sharp and beautiful in Anemia’s memory still.
To reminisce about Elicia, she did not need to look far. Until four years ago, Elicia would visit the Imperial Palace and sit across from her sharing tea.
‘When will she wake, I wonder.’
Anemia brought the teacup to her lips—its warmth long since faded—and took a sip. The fragrant black tea flowed into her mouth.
Just then.
“Your Majesty, the Claudian Duke and his daughter have arrived.”
“Show them in.”
Anemia set down her cup. She gazed quietly at the great doors, waiting for those who would enter them.
How much did she resemble Elicia? When she was an infant, the resemblance had seemed faint, but now—could it be different?
Countless thoughts bloomed and faded in Anemia’s mind. Then.
The door opened, and Calid Claudian entered. The husband of her long-time friend, whom she had seen many times before, bowed respectfully before Anemia.
“Calid Claudian pays his respects to the Empress Dowager.”
“Yes, Duke Claudian. It has been long.”
But where was the child?
The one Anemia had craned her neck to see was not him. Her eyes remained fixed on the door, waiting for the person she had been expecting to appear.
And not long after.
Pop.
A pale yellow-green head poked out from behind the door, small hands clutching the frame.
The child peered cautiously inside, and upon catching sight of Anemia, her eyes widened into perfect circles.
“Oh, h-hello…….”
The youngest daughter of Elicia, the one Anemia had waited for so long—bearing that unmistakable resemblance to her mother.
Clover Claudian’s debut.

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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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