The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 49

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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 49
The four people standing before Clover were each lost in their own thoughts.
‘So Clover nurtured this flower so carefully as a birthday gift for me?’
‘A little thing barely four years old already knows to prepare gifts—how precious.’
‘Come to think of it, hasn’t Clover’s birthday already passed? I think the day we first brought her home was her birthday… or was it? Am I misremembering?’
‘Wait—Father’s birthday? I completely forgot.’
In order, they were Kalid, Sone, Demian, and Arwin.
Kalid was moved by the thought that Clover had coaxed this flower into bloom for him,
Sone was astonished that her tiny youngest sibling already grasped the concept of a “birthday gift,”
Demian felt a pang of guilt for letting Clover’s birthday slip past unnoticed,
and Arwin was racking his brain trying to remember when exactly Kalid’s birthday was.
Watching her family members, each absorbed in their own thoughts and wearing such serious expressions, Clover broke into a cold sweat.
‘Why do they all look like that…?’
Beads of perspiration dotted her small brow.
Had they discovered the incomplete spirit?
[Why did that half-formed thing have to lurk around nearby?]
At Lucky’s reproach, the mournful wails of the unfinished spirit echoed from its hiding place in the distance.
‘It was just excited, don’t be too hard on it.’
Clover could sense the spirit’s feelings to some degree.
It was something she had created, after all.
Just as Lucky, her Summoned Beast, was bound to her heart, so too was this spirit—connected to her by invisible threads of emotion.
[Hmph.]
Lucky fluttered through the air and perched on Clover’s shoulder.
Clover stole a glance at her family. They were still watching her with deliberately solemn expressions.
And then—
“Come here.”
Kalid extended his hand.
Clover gently grasped it and drew closer to him, moving softly as a breeze.
“Thank you, Clover.”
“For… what?”
“For thinking of Father.”
Kalid pressed his cheek tenderly against her small, pea-round head.
“When you were planting this seed, you looked so joyful. I was grateful that the seed came from my heart, thinking how fortunate it was.”
“Mm.”
“And to learn that you nurtured it with such hope, all so you could give me a gift…”
How could a father’s heart not overflow with joy?
This child, who was already a blessing simply by existing, had spent every moment trying to bring happiness to Kalid.
Like a dandelion seed that had drifted to him as a gift one day, meant to fill his life with meaning.
“You and your Power—ever since you were born, you have brought me nothing but joy.”
The scent of Jasmine Fragrance brushed gently against their nostrils, delicate and sweet.
The fragrance born of a father’s love and a daughter’s devotion.
It seemed to drift from this corner of the garden, spreading wide and wide across the vast gardens of Claudian.
“Mm.”
So they hadn’t discovered the incomplete spirit after all—what a relief.
‘There, birthday gift complete.’
Clover pressed her small ear against Kalid’s chest.
‘Thump-thump, thump-thump.’
His heartbeat traveled directly into her tiny body.
“Mm-hm, I’m so glad you liked it.”
Pleased by this response, Clover nestled her head even closer to his heart.
She wanted to be even nearer to the sound of Father’s heartbeat.
So close that she could listen to this rhythm forever and ever.
***
That evening.
Clover, who had spent the entire day wandering among the estate servants and showing off her “flower,” grew tired and fell asleep at an unusually early hour.
“Is Clover asleep?”
“Yes, she is.”
Sone, who had put Clover to bed, slipped quietly into the room where the rest of the family had gathered.
After a day of play and a full belly from supper, the child had drifted off much sooner than expected.
For Kalid, it was a welcome development.
Today he needed to speak with the children without Clover present.
Once Sone took her seat, Kalid lowered his voice and leaned in conspiratorially.
“We’re beginning a secret meeting.”
At Kalid’s gesture, one of the servants approached the doorway to keep watch for any sign of Clover.
The child had a habit of suddenly bolting upright and padding through the estate in search of her family, so a lookout was essential.
“The reason we’ve gathered here today is…….”
“For Clover’s birthday party?”
“That’s right.”
In truth, Clover’s birthday had already passed.
The day they first brought her home was her fourth birthday.
But with everything that had happened, they’d simply let it slip away without proper celebration.
And yet.
‘Soon it’ll be Father’s birthday, she said…….’
Clover wanted to do something special for Kalid’s birthday.
‘On birthdays you give gifts. Since Lui got presents then…….’
Here was a child who’d never received a proper gift herself, yet insisted on giving one.
Kalid regretted not having prepared something for Clover’s birthday earlier.
So he’d gathered the children here today.
After putting Clover to sleep, in secret.
“But her birthday’s already gone. How can we throw her a birthday party now?”
Demian raised his hand, speaking up.
“We can’t turn back time to her actual birthday.”
“Are you stupid, brother? We just tell her it’s a belated birthday party and throw it anyway!”
“Arwin’s right. Even if it’s late, she’ll be happy. She’s never had a proper party before, I think—not back in Demper, anyway.”
Despite all the money he’d sent, there’d never been a real celebration.
Kalid felt a violent urge to kill someone, but thinking of Demper—likely in financial ruin by now from repaying his funds—he held himself in check.
Click.
When Sone rose from her seat, the sword at her waist shifted, and metal rang out.
Demian and Arwin stared at her in confusion.
“Sister, where are you going?”
“Huh? Where are you heading?”
Sone replied tersely.
“To Demper.”
Her expression was murderous.
If no one stopped her, she looked ready to walk straight out and kill someone before coming back.
Only after Kalid stepped in to calm her did she settle quietly back into her seat.
Silence fell again.
They all shared the desire to give Clover a birthday party, but no one could quite imagine how to pull off a surprise celebration after the day had already passed.
“Then, how about this.”
Sone put forward an idea.
“If we just call it a birthday party, she might be confused about having one on a day that isn’t her birthday. So instead, we throw a celebration for her awakening flowers, and use that occasion to congratulate her on her belated birthday.”
Kalid, Demian, and Arwin all fixed their attention on Sone.
“That way there’s no confusion for the child, and we still get to celebrate her birthday.”
It was a genuinely clever idea—rare from her.
The three men’s eyes widened.
A clear sign of approval.
Realizing they all agreed with her, Sone clapped her hands once.
“Then that’s settled. Everyone prepares a gift. And for the party arrangements…….”
At that moment, Cherenio, who had been quietly listening to this secret planning from the shadows, stepped forward.
“I’ll handle that, sir. It’s been my role since Elicia fell asleep.”
“Very well.”
Kalid nodded, then looked back at Sone, Demian, and Arwin.
“Is that everything?”
“There’s one more thing!”
Arwin jumped to his feet.
“What?”
“The most important thing about a surprise party is keeping the secret!”
“……Keeping it secret?”
When Arwin’s eyes gleamed with intensity, Kalid seemed to grasp what he meant and opened his mouth slightly.
“I see.”
***
A rumor began circulating among the nobility that the youngest daughter of the Claudian Family had bloomed the Ancient Flower, spreading discreetly from one whispered conversation to the next.
The tale traveled from mouth to mouth with remarkable speed, and a considerable portion of the Rosipheron Empire’s populace came to know of it.
So it was inevitable that those with keen interest in the Ancient Flower would learn of this news as well.
“Denoragon.”
A man wearing a blood-crimson hood approached quietly, knelt, and bowed his head.
“Through a servant of the Imperial Palace, I have verified that the rumor is true. The Ancient Flower that the little one bloomed is said to be flowering in the gardens of the Imperial Dowager Anernia.”
The man finished speaking with measured dignity and pressed his mouth to the floor.
“Hesty has been executed and is no longer of use, but what shall we do now?”
“An Authority that can bloom the Ancient Flower…….”
The old man called Denoragon closed his eyes slowly, then opened them. A strange light flickered across his two pitch-black eyes, which held no luminescence whatsoever.
“Only the World Tree can restore what the Ancient Flower, already vanished from this land, once was.”
Yet that light flared and dimmed like a flame burning fiercely in its final moment, flickering brightly before fading away.
Denoragon spoke.
“The World Tree has descended upon the mortal realm.”
Having finished, he smiled faintly and touched the head of the kneeling man below with the tip of his foot.
“Move. There is much to be done.”
The man immediately pressed his forehead to the floor with a thud and responded.
“Yes, Denoragon!”

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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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