The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 57

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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 57
‘Aunt…? Is that you…?’
It was strange. Belze had said her aunt couldn’t reach this far.
That the wicked aunt and the cruel Louis wouldn’t be able to come here.
‘Why is she…here?’
As the startled Clover gripped Demian tightly, Sone stepped forward and positioned herself between Count Demper and the child.
“Step back.”
“Young lady! I merely wish to clear up this misunderstanding with the child….”
“Didn’t you hear me? Step back.”
Sone bared her teeth with a feral snarl, and in that instant the wind shifted, clouds shuddering overhead.
Yet Count Demper held firm.
No matter how threateningly Sone behaved, Sone Claudian was still merely fifteen years old—little more than a girl.
And Count Demper was a fully grown woman. With years of life behind her, she would hardly cower before the threats of a child. Not when her situation had become so desperately urgent.
Her circumstances were dire indeed.
‘If only this little wretch would just speak a word in my favor!’
Then perhaps Kalid Claudian might overlook everything with generous forbearance.
Then the Demper Family might rise again. Count Demper drew a breath, her eyes glittering with greed as she fixed them on Clover.
‘It’s all because Elicia isn’t here!’
If Elicia had lived, would Kalid Claudian have sought to obliterate her own blood family, no matter how angry he became?
And what was the Demper Family anyway?
The noble house that had taken in poor orphaned Elicia, raised her as one of their own, and treated her with the greatest affection. Her benefactors.
How could he treat them so harshly merely because this little one had once shown them discourtesy?
Count Demper’s jaw clenched, teeth grinding.
Had Elicia lived, Kalid would never have been so cold, so heartless to Demper.
Elicia, for all her stubbornness, had always yielded when it came to her family’s sake.
“Clover.”
The countess called to the child in the gentlest voice she could muster.
“U-um…?”
Clover, peering from behind Demian and Sone, looked up toward Count Demper.
“Step back.”
A single word, unmistakable in its finality.
Wind surged forward with violent force.
“Ah!”
In an instant it lifted Clover’s small frame, separating her from Count Demper, and hurled the countess backward with tremendous force.
“Father!”
At the same moment, Clover, suspended in the air, flailed her hands desperately.
Kalid gathered her to him effortlessly, pulling her into his arms. The small child buried her face against his chest.
“Mm…”
“One woman and you couldn’t stop her?”
Kalid rebuked the Claudian knights who had followed, and they hung their heads in shame.
That they had failed to properly stop or restrain Count Demper—sister-in-law to the Claudian Duchess—was their error alone.
There was no excuse. The knights’ eyes blazed with resolve that they would not make such a ‘mistake’ again.
“Your Grace! There is merely a misunderstanding between myself and the child! If only you would permit us to speak together, in private, to resolve it….”
Count Demper cried out pleadingly.
“And leave my daughter alone with you?”
At Kalid’s words, Clover, held in his arms, flinched slightly.
That minute tremor did not escape Kalid’s notice. He shielded her ear with his hand.
“The child startles at the mere word ‘alone,’ and you speak of having a conversation with her…? Are you out of your mind?”
“Please, Your Grace!”
Count Demper gripped the hem of her dress with whitened knuckles.
The Claudian knights, who had treated her with courtesy mere moments ago as Elicia’s sister, gradually closed in, encircling her.
‘Yet I cannot simply accept this…!’
Her situation was quite simply catastrophic.
She could not pay even half the sum listed in the Child Support Bill, and her husband remained imprisoned for his involvement in illegal enterprises.
To escape this bind, she needed Clover Claudian—that wretched child—absolutely.
It was at that moment Count Demper’s gaze turned to Clover again, gleaming with desperate hunger.
“I’ve heard enough. Take her away.”
Kalid gestured with the expression of a man whose patience had reached its absolute limit.
Count Demper looked toward him in sudden alarm.
“Your Grace! You cannot treat Demper this way! When Elicia awakens, surely she will…!”
“Quiet, drag him out faster.”
The Claudian Duchy’s knights hauled the Count of Demper from the Garden, his heels scraping uselessly against the stone.
The Count thrashed and called out for Kalid, but Kalid gave no sign of hearing him.
***
‘Damn it.’
Kalid had not wanted the Count of Demper in the Claudian manor at all.
Yet the Count had forced his way inside, wielding the fact that he was Elicia’s brother as a battering ram.
The knights on duty at the time had possessed no authority to turn away a nobleman who invoked the Duchess’s name and pushed through regardless.
‘I should have tightened security.’
The mistake had been in looking at his face — if he had to see what the man wanted to say, he might as well hear it out. That small courtesy had triggered everything.
The moment the Count saw Kalid, he’d insisted on clearing up the misunderstanding and had used his Authority to track down Clover without hesitation.
And now they had come to this.
“Clover.”
Kalid stroked her small head gently, carefully, as she buried her face in his chest and hid there.
“He’s gone now. You’re safe.”
“Mm.”
Clover lifted her head, her hair rumpled.
The child glanced nervously around the room, and only after confirming that her aunt was nowhere to be seen did she release a shaky breath of relief.
‘What misunderstanding could there possibly be?’
Children did not lie.
Watching Clover’s reaction, the hesitation that had wavered in his heart hardened once more into resolve.
‘I’ll have it done immediately.’
He had intended merely to ruin the man’s standing in society — nothing more severe than that. But this would require harsher measures.
If someone forced their way into the Claudian manor and frightened a young lady of nobility, there was a price to be paid for such audacity.
‘Forgive me, Elicia.’
He had never meant to obliterate her family of origin, yet it seemed that was precisely what was about to happen.
Kalid drew Clover’s small frame close and murmured softly.
Clover’s round eyes darted about the room before she seized the hem of his coat with both fists.
“Daddy, she won’t come back anymore?”
“No. Not anymore.”
“What’ll happen to Auntie?”
“…From now on, she won’t even dare to show her face around here.”
Kalid Claudian pressed a light kiss to Clover’s round forehead.
“She won’t be able to eat a single meal in peace.”
“Mm…”
“I had meant to postpone this until Elicia woke. But it can’t wait now.”
Forgiveness always came swifter than permission.
Once it was done and he explained the reasons, Elicia would understand well enough.
“Postpone?”
“Yes, postpone it.”
Kalid brushed the child’s bangs aside and bumped his forehead gently against hers, speaking softly.
“While we’re at it, let’s go see your mother, Clover.”
“…!”
“There are some things I need to apologize for.”
“Huh, Mama…!”
The child, who had been cowed and withdrawn by the Count’s sudden intrusion, suddenly blazed with light in her eyes.
“Mama, for real…?”
Clover murmured in disbelief.
‘I haven’t been able to go until now.’
Kalid had told her that the ‘Forest’ where Elicia dwelled was not yet safe, and that he would take her once it was secure.
So Clover had swallowed her longing to see her mother and spent each day counting down the moments until they could be reunited.
And now, at last, she would truly see her mother!
“Haah!”
“From what I hear, the dangerous things nearby have been dealt with well enough. We should be able to make the journey.”
“Mama, yes yes yes!”
Clover beamed from the haven of Kalid’s arms.
“Hurry, I wanna go!”
All trace of the Count’s menacing face had vanished from Clover’s mind; she grinned brightly, transformed.
Watching her, Kalid and Sone and Demian and Arwin all breathed out sighs of relief.
***
In the hours before she would meet her mother, Clover floated through the entire day on air, her spirits impossibly light.
The incident with that villainous aunt had long since slipped from her mind.
In such high spirits, she’d finished supper and ventured out to play, only to discover someone sitting in front of the Jasmine Flowers.
‘Who could that be?’
The silhouette was far too small to be Sone or Demian or Arwin, yet too large to belong to some creature.
As Clover peered intently at the figure, Belze, following her gaze, opened her eyes wide.
“My goodness, the Imperial Prince is here.”
“The Imperial Prince?”
“He seems fascinated by the Ancient Flower. It’s rare to see him venture outside the Separate Quarters at all…….”
At Belze’s words, Clover’s eyes widened with interest.
The flower—Clover’s flower!
‘Ah, so he’s taken an interest in it.’
Did that mean he wanted to play with her now?
Delighted, Clover sprang from Belze’s arms.

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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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