The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 56

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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 56
‘Ugh.’
Rejected again.
Clover stared at the closed door before her, blinking slowly.
‘Does he not like cookies either?’
Pluto hadn’t accepted the cookies either.
Why? They were delicious.
[Just leave it alone. Let him be lonely. You don’t need to bother with him.]
Lucky fluttered over and perched on Clover’s shoulder, her voice subdued with displeasure.
“But still.”
[That prince, his Authority doesn’t align with yours. So there’s nothing good about getting close to him.]
She knew that much.
Kalid had told her—the Second Prince’s Authority was Death.
Completely opposite to Clover’s Authority over budding and blooming flowers. The Authority that awakens life, and the Authority that extinguishes it.
Was that why Pluto kept his distance?
‘Still, don’t be too hard on him.’
Clover understood.
When you’re endlessly rejected and scorned, there comes a time when you hate everyone in the world.
Of course, Clover had Lucky, so she was all right.
‘But a talking Summoned Creature like Lucky—the prince probably doesn’t have one.’
So it made sense that he might feel hurt.
Still.
She’d wanted to be his friend.
“Mm.”
Clover, crouching before the closed door, opened the cookie bag.
Rustle.
She pulled out a cookie and took a bite. It was sweet and delicious. But it would have been sweeter if they’d eaten it together.
Munch, munch.
Even as Clover ate the cookie, the door remained firmly shut.
As if no one lived inside at all.
***
‘Why does she keep coming back……?’
Pluto had slammed the door shut, his face uneasy and faintly anxious as he fidgeted with his Black Gloves.
His palms itched beneath the gloves. He couldn’t resist the urge to scratch them. Only six years old, the young boy’s face contorted with pain.
Any other six-year-old child would have given in to that maddening sensation and torn off the gloves. Or burst into tears.
But Pluto did neither. He simply endured. He bore through the pain.
After all, these things pass if you just wait a little longer.
‘No matter what, don’t take them off. If that troublesome Authority of yours runs wild, it’ll give me a headache.’
So he couldn’t disobey his father and remove them. Sweat beads formed on Pluto’s brow as he tried to ignore the sensation of ants crawling across his skin.
These were too much for a six-year-old to bear. Not one of them was easy.
Yet Pluto endured. Because this was his daily life in the Imperial Palace.
Having the Death Authority meant this was something he simply had to withstand.
‘But why…….’
Why was it so hard today?
Suddenly, he recalled what Orlon had said before coming here.
‘You’ve seen Clover, haven’t you? Unlike you, she’s small and lovely.’
‘…….’
‘If you hurt even one hair on that child’s head, Kalid Claudian won’t let you get away with it. Pluto.’
‘Yes, Father.’
‘Of course, I’ll forgive you…… So keep your damned Authority in check. Don’t let it show.’
Recalling those words, his entire body went limp.
‘Hello, Your Highness.’
‘Prince.’
Clover Claudian was definitely small. Smaller even than Pluto.
So he couldn’t draw near. His Authority might hurt her regardless of his will.
Thump.
The moment the exhausted Pluto collapsed onto the floor in a heap, a black dog with a dark form emerged from the shadows.
It was Pluto’s Summoned Creature. Because Pluto was still young and his Authority underdeveloped, his Summoned Creature took the form of a small puppy, whimpering as it nestled into his arms.
“Cal.”
Pluto called the name of his Summoned Creature as it burrowed into his embrace, holding it tight. The creature’s essence gathered softly within Pluto’s body, radiating warm comfort.
“Will Grandmother be all right……?”
Anernia Soren Rosipheron.
The only adult at the Imperial Palace who had stood by the boy after Pluto’s mother died.
Had she been in sound mind, Orlon would never have made the decision to cast Pluto out beyond the palace walls, no matter how much he disliked him.
Anernia would have stopped it.
But Anernia had lost consciousness for some time, and in that interval, Orlon determined Pluto’s fate. No one prevented the boy from being driven beyond the palace gates.
Later, when Anernia recovered, she could not undo what the Emperor had already decided.
‘Pluto.’
‘Yes, Your Majesty…….’
‘Don’t address me that way. Whatever anyone says, you are my grandson. Go and live well.’
‘…….’
‘The Claudian Duke is a good man, and his wife is no different.’
Anernia had to let Pluto go, and Pluto came to the Claudian Estate as though abandoned.
Not a single proper attendant, not a single proper horse, not a single proper groom.
Which meant Pluto’s Succession Rights had been stripped from him entirely—he had been cast off completely by the Rosipheron Royal Family.
Pluto’s head drooped low.
‘Why do only I have such an Authority?’
Never mind that he hadn’t inherited the Authority of the Rosipheron Royal Family.
Had he not possessed this cursed Authority, Orlon would never have hated and despised him so.
Pluto’s Summoned Creature, Kalid, let out a whimpering groan and burrowed deeper into the boy’s arms.
Pluto held Kalid’s form tight and buried his face in that small body.
Just as he had done in the palace whenever he’d needed to cry.
***
“Pea, do you want to get closer to His Highness the Prince?”
Arwin poked Clover’s soft cheek playfully.
Clover, who had been carefully inspecting the jasmine flowers to see if there were any withered leaves, slowly raised her head.
“Hmm?”
“You keep hovering around His Highness.”
“Ah-huh…….”
That was true.
Today marked the fourth day since Pluto had arrived at the Claudian Estate.
Ever since Pluto came, Clover had been seeking him out again and again.
‘Because I want to be friends!’
But each time, Pluto simply vanished or ran away.
‘A whimper—I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…….’
So after four days, Clover still hadn’t gotten a proper look at Pluto’s face.
But.
“Mm, I wanna be friends.”
She still wanted to.
“You have us, though. Your brother plays with you every day—why do you want to be friends with His Highness?”
“……?”
Clover looked at Demian with eyes that seemed to ask, what does that matter?
“……Never mind.”
Demian, somehow defeated by the gaze of a four-year-old, quickly backpedaled.
It was just as Arwin, who had been watering Clover’s Flower Garden with his Authority, seemed about to say something more and his lips twitched.
“Clover! Demian, Arwin!”
Sone came toward them from a distance, accompanied by handmaids.
“Huh?”
“Mm?”
“Eh?”
The children playing in the Flower Garden lifted their heads in unison, as though on cue, and looked toward Sone Claudian.
Arwin, startled by Sone’s urgent expression as she approached, swallowed hard and asked.
“Sister, what’s wrong……?”
“Don’t stay outside. Come inside.”
Sone swept Clover into her arms without bothering to answer Arwin.
Patter-patter.
As dirt came cascading from Clover’s clothes and mud slid down her legs, Sone’s eyes narrowed with alarm, but.
“Clover, stop playing and come inside.”
Sone did not put Clover down. She pulled a Handkerchief from her pocket and scrubbed the dirt-covered Clover’s face vigorously.
“Mm, but why?”
“There’s a guest at the estate—someone you won’t want to run into.”
Sone wiped Clover’s face clean, tucked the Handkerchief into Demian’s breast pocket, and handed Clover over to him.
“Take her inside and keep her there. Don’t come out until I tell you to.”
That’s when it happened.
“Clover!”
“…What?”
A familiar voice called from somewhere nearby.
Clover, nestled in Demian’s arms, turned slowly toward the sound, her joints creaking slightly.
‘Why does that voice…’
sound so familiar?
“Damn it, get inside, now!”
Just as Sone was pushing Clover and Demian through the door, a long shadow fell across them both.
A woman who had clearly run here breathless paused to catch her breath, then smiled at Clover and reached out a hand.
“Clover, it’s your aunt!!”
‘The villainous aunt…’
[No—what is she doing here?]
Clover swallowed hard, gripping Demian’s shoulder even tighter.
Thump-thump.
At the sudden appearance of her aunt, the child’s heart raced wildly.
Clover’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.

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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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