The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 68

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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 68
The Mother Seeing had failed by Belze’s method, but Clover wasn’t unhappy.
‘It felt like Pluto and I have grown closer since that day.’
We had grown closer to each other.
The prickly young prince, sharp as a kitten’s claws, had begun seeking out Clover more often.
That alone was satisfaction enough. It didn’t matter that the water in the bowl had refused to show her mother.
But.
‘His Highness has developed a fever again, so it seems we won’t be able to see each other now.’
‘Oh no…….’
Had they played too hard together through the night? Pluto had caught a cold.
The servants who had once readily permitted Clover and Pluto to meet had now forbidden them from seeing one another.
A special measure had been enacted until the cold fully subsided — Quarantine. As a result, Clover couldn’t even visit him.
It had already been three days.
‘When will he get better…….’
Clover sagged against the window frame, gazing blankly out into the courtyard beyond.
In the Claudian Mansion’s Garden, which had once felt as empty as a void, she could now sense a faint stirring of life.
‘The Spirit…….’
The Spirit seemed to be working hard.
If it had been a stronger spirit, it would have transformed this garden swiftly and splendidly, but the spirit Clover had created was ‘incomplete,’ so its pace was slow.
Yet steadily, one piece at a time, it was transforming and cultivating the Claudian Mansion’s Garden.
It felt good.
Clover had shifted her thoughts from Pluto to the Spirit without quite noticing, and was amusing herself by breathing onto the window frame and drawing pictures with her finger.
‘Hm?’
Clover’s eyes narrowed as she spotted an unfamiliar Carriage approaching beyond the Garden.
A Carriage she’d never seen before — who could it be?
Then.
“Readahs, my young lady.”
Belze, noticing Clover dangling perilously from the window frame, gently scooped the child into her arms.
“It’s dangerous if you hang there like that.”
“Mm-wah.”
“Come, let’s play on this sofa instead.”
“But, Belze — whose Carriage is that?”
“A Carriage?”
“Yeah, a Carriage. I’ve never seen it before.”
As Clover pointed out the window, Belze paused in thought, then opened her mouth slightly with an ‘ah.’
“A guest is supposed to arrive from the Imperial Palace today, so I imagine they’ve just arrived.”
“A guest?”
“Yes, they said it was to see how His Highness is doing.”
“Gasp — because he’s sick?”
“Whether they’re coming because he’s ill or for some other reason, I’m not certain…….”
Belze paused, thinking, then spoke.
“Since the master didn’t give any special instructions, you won’t need to greet the guest, young lady.”
“Mm-hmm…….”
“From what I understand, the guest is simply coming to check on His Highness’s wellbeing and leave. So there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Alright.”
I see — just a quick check.
Clover nodded obediently.
‘But why does it bother me so much.’
Was it because she’d once overheard people from the Imperial Palace speak ill of Pluto?
Clover glanced away from Belze’s gaze toward the direction of the Annex Building.
And not long after.
“Young lady, it’s nap time.”
The moment Belze lay Clover down and tucked the blanket around her before leaving the room.
“Lucky, let’s go.”
Clover slipped quietly out of the room.
The four-leaf clover shimmering in golden light followed in her wake.
***
When the report reached the Imperial Palace that Pluto’s condition was poor, an Imperial edict came back at once, saying they would send someone to check on him.
But what arrived from the Imperial Palace upon receiving the report that Pluto’s condition was poor was not the Imperial Physician.
His name was Daybon.
He was a man who had worked in the department that managed the prince’s residence during Pluto’s time at the Imperial Palace, a faithful servant of the Emperor.
He was not a man of high rank. Yet Daybon’s arrival was grander than that of the Second Prince Pluto himself.
Through the window, Kalid’s brow narrowed as he watched Daybon arrive at the Claudian Mansion in a carriage far larger and safer than the one Pluto had traveled in.
Daybon descended from the carriage and entered the Claudian Mansion, where the majordomo Cherenio guided him toward the Duke’s study.
“Greetings, Duke.”
Kalid did not receive him with ceremony, but Daybon paid no mind.
In truth, his reason for coming was less that of an “Emperor’s Envoy” than simply to record Pluto’s condition.
There was no need for formality, then. Besides, the Emperor himself had arranged this sudden visit.
So Daybon, having received orders to be careful not to offend the Duke of Claudian, conducted himself with utmost caution.
“I’ll only perform a simple inspection, so there’s no need for concern.”
“His Highness the Second Prince is staying in the Annex Building.”
As Kalid finished speaking, Cherenio, the majordomo of the mansion, guided Daybon directly to the Annex Building.
Daybon followed Cherenio through the long garden toward the Annex.
‘Living in a fine place, aren’t you.’
Having witnessed with his own eyes that the Second Prince Pluto’s treatment here was far better than during his time at the Imperial Palace, Daybon’s expression grew puzzled.
‘Why send him here specifically?’
The stubborn Duke of Claudian would surely never mistreat the prince as the Imperial Palace people did—surely His Majesty knew that.
To the palace servants, the prince was worth less than a stone on the road.
A stone, at least, posed no threat to anyone’s life until someone picked it up to throw it; but Pluto, merely by existing, was a threat to someone.
With that dreadful Authority, ominous beyond measure, the palace servants treated the boy as beneath a common pebble—and in the next moment, feared him as if they’d glimpsed the god of death himself.
But Daybon did not fear Pluto. After all, with the boy’s Authority, he could do little more than kill a handful of ants.
Perhaps the Emperor, precisely because Daybon feared him not, had sent the junior official in so grand a carriage.
With such thoughts, Daybon’s shoulders grew tense. At this rate, he might even receive a promotion.
While Daybon was lost in such reverie, the two men arrived at the Annex Building.
He’d expected the Annex to be shabby, but it was as magnificent and splendid as the chambers where the Duke of Claudian himself resided.
Indeed, in every corner of this mansion—from the smallest room to the fountains—nothing was mean or contemptible.
Beside the ruins that had been Pluto’s own Prince’s Palace, the contrast struck Daybon’s eyes with force, and his brow furrowed of its own accord.
Cherenio walked ahead, guiding him to the room where Pluto was staying.
Standing before the door, Daybon glanced subtly at Cherenio.
“I’ll enter alone—there are certain matters I need to verify privately.”
“As you wish.”
Cherenio replied. Daybon passed him and stood before the door.
Then.
Rustle.
‘Hmm?’
A sound of movement came from within.
What was that?
He suppressed the urge to fling the door open at once and instead knocked politely, twice.
And he spoke in the most formal voice he could muster.
“Your Highness the Second Prince, I come by command of His Majesty the Emperor from the Imperial Palace. I am entering.”
Creak.
As he finished speaking and opened the door, the wooden door swung slowly inward.
What he saw next was.
“……What, what is this.”
Pluto standing there in an awkward posture, looking thoroughly startled, and the bed beyond him in complete disarray.
At such an unseemly sight, Daybon’s eyebrows shot upward.
***
‘Oh no, almost caught.’
Clover held her breath beneath the bed, peering out between the bedclothes at the outside world.
But that gap was soon closed.
Pluto, adjusting his blankets, had completely hidden Clover beneath the bed from view.
Clover, suddenly tucked beneath the bed, blinked her eyes.
‘She’ll worry since I snuck out without Belze knowing.’
Will that man leave early?
She hoped he’d leave soon. Then she could get back to Belze quickly.
Clover Claudian, the beloved youngest lady of the Claudian Mansion, lay hidden beneath the bed in the Annex Building, thinking to herself.
Clover, concealed beneath the bed.
To explain why Clover was crouched in hiding here, one would need to go back just a moment in time.

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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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