The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 63

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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 63
The maid who came to find Clover was one of Pluto’s attendants from the Separate Building.
Clover recognized her face. She’d visited the Separate Building where Pluto stayed often enough to have committed it to memory.
The Claudian Mansion was vast—too vast to remember every servant’s face—but hers she knew.
‘But what’s she doing here?’
As Clover tilted her head in confusion, the maid bowed respectfully and spoke.
“Good day, Miss Clover. His Highness the Prince has sent you a note.”
The maid, offering a bright smile in greeting, handed the note to Clover.
“A note?”
“Yes, he asked me to deliver it to you.”
The maid replied warmly, then withdrew with quick, graceful steps.
Clover watched her go for a moment before carefully unfolding the note.
There, in Pluto’s precise handwriting, lay a brief inquiry about her well-being.
To Clover—
Heard you encountered Demon Beasts in the White Forest.
Are you hurt?
Like Pluto himself, who spoke only when necessary, the message was remarkably terse.
Yet Clover, upon receiving it, felt like she might burst with joy.
‘Hehe.’
Pluto, who once flew into a fuss and snapped at her merely for drawing near!
Now he was hearing that she’d been in danger and asking after her welfare.
That encounter in the Garden before had apparently borne fruit.
‘He’s growing up.’
He’s really growing up.
Clover felt, for no reason she could quite name, as though she had raised him herself.
“My, it seems His Highness the Prince is concerned about you.”
“Yep, looks like it’s kinda working.”
“Working?”
Ah, Belze didn’t know.
About Clover’s ‘Operation: Befriend Pluto.’
Clover spoke with what she clearly felt was great solemnity.
“It’s about the friend-making operation—looks like it’s kinda working.”
Beaming with satisfaction, Clover grinned widely and squeezed Belze’s hand tight.
“Belze, can I go see the Prince?”
“Right now?”
“Yep, I’ll just see his face and tell him I’m fine.”
Yet Belze did not immediately agree to take Clover to Pluto.
Under normal circumstances, she would have grasped Clover’s hand at once and led her to the Separate Building, but something held her back.
‘Hmm?’
As Clover tilted her head in puzzlement, clutching the note carefully, Belze hesitated before speaking, her tone uncertain.
“Well, I’m not sure if it would be all right…….”
“Why not?”
“I’ve heard he has a bit of a cold. Let me check with the staff at the Separate Building first to see if it’s all right for you to visit.”
“Oh…….”
A cold?
She’d thought he was perfectly fine—he’d sent her a note and everything, asking after her.
Lucky materialized beside the startled Clover and whispered in bewilderment.
[Wait, so the little prince is sick and he’s asking if you’re hurt?]
“That’s…….”
Completely foolish.
What kind of person asks after someone else’s health when they’re the one who’s ill?
Clover bounced over to Belze and threw her arms around her, rubbing her cheek against Belze’s affectionately.
“Then go ask real quick, okay?”
“Of course. I’ll be back in just a moment!”
Belze smiled brightly and pulled Clover’s small head close in an embrace.
***
“Heh.”
The moment she received permission to visit Pluto, Clover poked her head through the door and grinned from ear to ear.
Seeing her like that, Pluto’s eyes narrowed in surprise.
“What?”
“A note, okay?”
“You got a note, so why did you come all the way here?”
“Hm?”
“If you got a note, you should’ve answered with a note too.”
“But it’s easier to see your face in person…….”
Clover trailed off, glancing around the room.
There were no signs of her doing anything in particular—she appeared to have simply been resting.
So it would be all right to come in?
Still gripping the door frame with one hand, Clover leaned forward to peer inside, then shifted her gaze to Pluto with a question in her eyes.
“Am I bothering you?”
“Not exactly…… but are you feeling all right?”
“Yep, definitely.”
Clover grinned widely and bounded over to Pluto’s bed, flopping down across it.
Then, as if delighted, she shook her head and beamed.
“Hugging!”
“……But you said you had a cold. What if you pass it to me?”
“Belze says it’s fine.”
Clover gestured toward the door crack. Belze, standing in the gap, bowed respectfully to Pluto and then quietly closed the door.
“Anyway, I’m okay. Demon Beasts don’t catch colds.”
“The Duke fought off a Demon Beast?”
“Nope, Mother did.”
“……The Duchess did?”
“Yep! Mother just appeared out of nowhere and used this amazing bow to go whoosh and defeat it, then she hugged me really tight.”
Roll.
Clover wrapped her arms around the thick blanket, rolled her entire body and burrowed deep into it.
Just as Elisia would have done, the plump quilt embraced Clover snugly.
Pluto watched in silence, then spoke with narrowed eyes.
“……That must have been nice.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Go now.”
“Huh? Already?”
Clover blinked.
“Didn’t you send the note because you wanted to play with me……?”
“No, I just sent it out of curiosity.”
“Oh…….”
“My curiosity’s satisfied now.”
At Pluto’s words, Clover’s face fell and she pouted her lips.
‘I should’ve just stuck with notes.’
Then maybe she could have gotten another two replies.
Or not.
Maybe he wouldn’t have even answered by note and would’ve just ignored her once his curiosity was satisfied.
Faced with Pluto’s callousness—or rather, the icy wind that seemed to blow from him—Clover let out a small whimper through her nose.
“Are you seriously leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“Fine, I’ll call you if I need anything.”
“Okay.”
Ugh, he’s really that cold.
Clover dragged herself off the bed reluctantly.
She was trudging toward the door, her back to Pluto, when—
“……Clover!”
Pluto called out to her.
Perk.
Clover’s ears perked up instantly at the sound of his voice, and she spun around sharply.
“What?”
“…….”
“Don’t tell me you called me just to not say anything…….”
“……How was it?”
“Hm?”
“How was it? Seeing Mother…….”
His voice was barely audible.
But Clover didn’t miss a word of Pluto’s voice.
“How was it seeing your mother?”
“Good.”
Pluto nodded, his face flushed slightly from the cold.
Clover regarded him with a puzzled expression.
‘Why would he ask about mother after telling me to go?’
Did he want to spend more time with Clover?
Or was he genuinely curious about his “mother”?
Then, something Kalid had once told her flickered through Clover’s mind.
‘The Second Prince’s mother passed away long ago.’
Mother had died, he’d said.
Clover blinked.
Was that why he was curious?
Then what about the way he kept fidgeting now?
After Clover had met with her mother.
More precisely, after making Pluto think of his “mother”…….
Clover was only four years old, yet she possessed a natural gift for reading people’s hearts.
After a brief pause, Clover came running over and bounced back down beside Pluto.
“I didn’t see her long, but I like her lots.”
“I see…….”
“She hugged me like this.”
Clover stretched her arms and carefully wrapped them around Pluto in a gentle embrace.
Had Belze, who had warned against getting too close lest the cold spread, witnessed this, she would have been astonished—but Clover paid no mind and held Pluto tight.
“…….”
“But it was so quick.”
“!”
“Just for a moment, then she’d go away, so mother must miss me.”
Tilt.
Still holding Pluto close, Clover tilted her head to look up at him.
“Do you miss your mother too?”
“……What?”
“Do you miss your mother?”
“You…….”
The meaning behind Clover’s question was unmistakable.
Whether he missed his mother who had “passed away.”
How could a child of only four know that his mother was dead?
Pluto faltered for a moment, began to murmur ‘How did you even know that……,’ then bit his wounded lip.
Everyone in the Imperial Palace knew.
Perhaps everyone in all of the Losipheron Empire knew.
That Pluto was born into this world by killing his mother.
So there was nothing strange about Clover knowing it.
Pluto’s eyes reddened, and tears began to well up. Something hot surged up from deep within his chest, threatening to overflow.
Just as Pluto was about to push away Clover, who had suddenly embraced him tightly as his heart broke at the word “mother”——
“I felt that way too…….”

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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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