The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 41

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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 41
Just before the Power opened its vast maw to swallow Anernia’s consciousness whole.
The last thing Anernia Soren Rosipheron saw was not Tiaren’s face, nor her crumbling body.
“Beloved.”
Clover’s two round eyes.
The child’s gaze—clear as polished glass—pierced straight through Anernia.
In that moment.
As their eyes met, adult and child, a pale green whirlwind erupted from Clover’s small frame.
Clover’s Power.
Mingled with the blessing of Claudian who protected Clover, it wrapped itself around the child’s fragile body.
Beneath that protection, Clover seemed incapable of harm, beyond injury.
This way, the child could escape the runaway without being caught in its grip.
And yet.
‘Why won’t the child run……?’
Why doesn’t this little one flee?
Anernia’s expression twisted as she stared at Clover’s small hand, gripping her fingertips so tightly.
Then.
“Don’t worry.”
“……!”
“Clover will help.”
The child smiled brightly, clutching Anernia’s hand even tighter.
As if refusing to let go.
***
Why does Power runaway happen?
[Because the body cannot bear the strength, ……or perhaps an old wound in the heart has festered long.]
Lucky had said.
Though the reason for the Empress’s sudden runaway was unclear, in her case it seemed the Power began to reverse because of a wound in her heart.
That Power which delves into the depths of one’s mind had stirred through her own head, scattering and disturbing old wounds.
As the heart wavers, the Power wavers,
And as the body shakes, the Power runs away.
Clover listened to Lucky’s explanation and slowly approached where smoke rose.
Overwhelmed by the Empress’s Power, none of her attendants could stop or restrain Clover.
Even the North Wind Lion watched the child with unease, but neither stopped nor tried to hold her back.
Because Lucky, the Summoned Creature, had not restrained Clover.
A Summoned Creature senses its master’s danger faster than anyone else.
More so, Lucky was a Summoned Creature that fiercely overprotected Clover.
The fact that such a Lucky did not stop Clover meant the Summoned Creature had judged its master to be in no danger.
Kalid’s Summoned Creature, the North Wind Lion, could hardly contradict the judgment Lucky had made.
The North Wind Lion and Lucky followed after Clover as she ran toward Anernia.
‘……!’
Standing before Anernia, Clover gently grasped the tips of her fingers.
Then gazed intently at the smoke billowing from her body.
It was distinctly different from the mist created by her ordinary Power.
Golden smoke moved unstably, coiling around her body in turbulent waves.
And each time that smoke churned, the Power spread across the ground around her churned in turn.
‘Once the smoke clears, it’ll be fine.’
Clover, still gripping Anernia’s hand firmly, met her gaze and smiled.
Then.
“Come now.”
Just as she had done before Kalid, just as she had done when creating the Seed of the Heart—she extended both hands.
And then.
Whoooosh! Whoooosh!
The smoke moved violently, different from before, lunging at Clover like a serpent opening its fangs to strike.
Yet Clover did not run.
If frightened, she need only grip Anernia’s hand tighter. If still afraid, she can think of Father waiting beyond the North Wind Lion.
‘Because of her, I won’t run.’
As Clover steadily wielded her Power, the smoke that had writhed and threatened the child gradually began gathering into the child’s palms.
Like a serpent finding its burrow and slithering in, like water collecting in one place—it was drawn into Clover’s hands.
And in that moment.
Pop!
Bright yellow-green light burst forth once more from Clover’s palm.
‘It worked!’
The smoke that had been shaking Anernia so violently vanished entirely into Clover’s hand.
And in Clover’s palm……
Pop!
A tiny seed appeared.
It was something she had attempted once before.
The second time came easier than the first.
‘Phew, Clover did it.’
Clover wiped away the cold sweat beading on her skin and gazed down at the seed with satisfaction.
Wriggle.
“Um…… wriggle?”
[Wriggle?]

The seed suddenly began to writhe and thrash about in Clover’s palm.
Clover’s eyes flew wide open in alarm.
It’s wriggling—what do I do?
Are seeds supposed to wriggle like this?
‘What now.’
Startled, Clover clutched the seed uncertainly, then promptly crouched down, seed in hand.
“There.”
She scratched out a shallow hollow with her fingers and planted the seed inside.
Then.
Wriggle-wriggle.
Sprout.
The soil where Clover had planted the seed began to shift, and a tiny sprout suddenly burst through.
Clover stared at it in stunned silence.
[Clover, use your Power! Now!]
Lucky cried out in a frenzy of excitement. Clover, still dazed, obeyed—she poured her Power directly into that budding sprout.
Then.
Shoot.
Shoot.
The sprout suddenly surged upward at a terrifying pace, growing vast and towering.
“Oh……”
At the tip of the now-massive stem,
an enormous flower bud formed,
and then.
Bloom—
The petals unfurled and the flower opened in full glory.
An Ancient Flower—one that This Land had thought never to see bloom again.
It had flowered at last.
***
Thunk, thunk!
The moment the flower opened, a book that had been resting on the table suddenly lurched and fell directly in front of Clover.
And.
Flip-flip-flip-flip.
With no one turning the pages, they began flipping wildly of their own accord.
Clover lay prone, her gaze darting back and forth between the book and the flower in bewilderment.
Soon enough,
Stop.
The pages ceased their wild turning and the book fell open, spread wide as if urging Clover to read that very page.
With her still-developing reading skills, Clover traced her way slowly through the text.
There, drawn on the page, was a picture of a flower identical to the one she had just brought forth.
Broad petals spread like a platter, and blooms the golden hue of the sun itself.
“Sunflower……”
Clover sounded out the name written beneath it, letter by letter. All on her own.
Sunflower.
Its flower language: patience and longing.
As Clover read those words aloud with careful precision, the mist that had engulfed everything around her began to thin and drift away.
Clover lifted her head and looked toward Anernia.
Plop.
Something fell onto Clover’s cheek.
Clover brushed it away with the back of her hand.
And then, almost at once, she knew what it was.
It was a tear.
A tear from the Dowager Empress Anernia.
***
Anernia’s fog lifted, and the Power Runaway ceased.
The authority that had writhed through her body as though it might burst her apart settled once more into her hands and feet, docile.
Yet Anernia could not take a single step from where she stood.
The Ancient Flower that Tiaren had loved.
The beauty of This Land, vanished from the world so very long ago.
The flower of legend bloomed now beside Clover’s knee, before Anernia’s eyes.
Anernia recognized it at once for what it was.
‘Mother, I love sunflowers the best.’
‘A sunflower is a flower that gazes upon the sun. There must be a face you wish to see, so day and night alike, it turns its gaze toward the light.’
She had read that book Eliscia gave her countless times after Tiaren died.
So many times, again and again, until she could recite every single Ancient Flower in its pages…….
The stem grown tall and thick as though reaching toward the sun, and the great leaves unfurled.
The vast golden bloom, like the sun itself that illuminates the earth.
“A sunflower…….”
The flower Tiaren loved most of all.
Tears flowed from Anernia’s eyes—not tears of blood, but clear tears.
The clear tears fell one stream, two streams, like rain to wet the earth, before soon spurting forth like a spring.
Thud.
Anernia neither gathered her authority nor looked back at the devastated landscape around her. She simply collapsed to her knees before the flower.
Her shoulders shook without cease.
Plip, plop. Tears fell like rain, wetting the ground.
Yet Anernia could not lift her head, nor could she stop the tears.
‘Mother, I love you.’
Behind the vast petals, the beloved face of her daughter shimmered dimly into view.
She lifted her head and gazed up at the sunflower. Her trembling fingertips reached out, brushing the softly unfurled yellow petals.
Touch.
The moment her fingers met the petals, a fragment of a girl’s laughter, heard faintly from somewhere, scattered upon the wind.
The longing she had buried deep within her heart lifts its head and gazes upon the sun.
Anernia’s body, tension released, tilted forward and crumpled.
Her vision inverted. Yet she could not move at all.
‘My baby.’
Instead of struggling to move, she wept quietly.
‘The Imperial Princess shall be named Tiaren, after a word meaning the sun.’
My beloved flower.
My daughter.
My sunflower.
‘Mother—!’
Tiaren.

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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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