The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 69

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 69
Slipping away from Belze’s watchful gaze during the afternoon nap, Clover made her way to the Annex faster than any guest summoned from the Imperial Palace could have.
And while the Annex servants were busy preparing for visitors, she stole quietly into Pluto’s room.
“Wh-what? Why are you here?”
The moment Clover slipped through the door, Pluto’s eyes went wide with shock, his face already flushed from fever.
Worried that someone might hear she’d come, Clover scrambled onto the bed and pressed her hand against his mouth.
“Shh!”
“Mgh-mmph!”
“Don’t worry.”
Clover still remembered how the Emperor had seated her and Pluto in the adjoining room and spoken those cruel words.
And she remembered all too well the sadness that had crossed Pluto’s face as he listened.
‘But how could I leave him alone?’
The guest from the Imperial Palace might make Pluto sad again, and she couldn’t abandon her friend to face that alone.
So the fiercely loyal girl had slipped past the servants and dodged Belze’s attention, infiltrating the room on a covert mission.
Since Power might leak from Pluto’s weakened body, Kalid’s order to minimize contact meant the Annex was nearly empty of attendants—making it far easier to reach his room.
The North Wind Lion, Kalid’s summoned creature, had even secretly escorted Clover to the Annex without its master’s knowledge.
With such cooperation, even with her short legs and narrow stride, Clover had reached Pluto’s room in no time.
“A visitor came. From the Imperial Palace.”
“Ugh, p-phew! I know…!”
Pluto, barely managing to pull free from Clover’s grip, stared at her with his still-flushed face.
Thud.
The wet towel resting on his forehead tumbled uselessly to the floor.
“I know, so go. Hurry.”
“But what if they say mean things? I’ll stay with you.”
“Will they not say mean things just because you’re here? Go. Now.”
“But—”
“There’s no ‘but’ about it.”
It was then that Pluto and Clover were bickering back and forth.
Voices and footsteps approached from outside, growing steadily closer.
!
“Oh no, they’re here.”
Clover and Pluto both froze, their eyes snapping toward the door.
Pluto hesitated for only a moment before his expression hardened with resolve, and he grabbed Clover’s arm.
“Huh?”
“Hide. You have to hide.”
“What?”
“They can’t know we’re close…”
Pluto quickly shoved Clover under the bed and yanked the quilt down to conceal the child’s body.
Clover went without complaint, unsure what was happening, simply doing as Pluto pushed her beneath.
The result was a peculiar arrangement: Clover hidden under the bed while Pluto, supposedly the patient, stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.
“…Your Highness?”
“…Ah, from the Imperial Palace… yes.”
Pluto fumbled over his words as he climbed back onto the bed, resuming the posture of an invalid.
***
Deibon sensed something odd in the air of the room, though he couldn’t quite place what it was.
But Pluto’s personal attendant had entered right behind him, and he had no chance to focus on it further.
“Pardon?”
“Good day, Your Highness. I am Sira, a servant of this estate attending to the young Prince.”
“I made it clear I wished to meet with him in private…”
“Oh, but the Duke has given strict orders that young Pluto is not to be left alone with adults…”
Sira’s expression grew uncomfortable. Deibon’s brow twitched slightly.
“You expect me to believe that ‘private’ was mere jest?”
“That is…”
“Leave. Now.”
Sira looked troubled, her gaze flickering between Pluto and Deibon.
Pluto didn’t want his longtime servant to suffer on account of Imperial Palace business and his own position.
“It’s all right.”
“But Your Highness…”
“I’m fine.”
At Pluto’s command, Sira hesitated still, her displeasure evident, before she finally lifted her head and spoke.
“Then I shall return shortly.”
Sira glanced at Pluto, intending to quickly relay to the Claudian Duke that the Imperial Palace’s guest had requested a private audience.
“See you soon, Your Highness.”
She offered him a reassuring smile before slipping from the room.
Only then did Deibon realize that he and Pluto were alone.
In the Imperial Palace, where no one ventured near this abandoned prince, solitude came easily enough.
“There are rather too many people about, wouldn’t you say, Your Highness?”
Deibon addressed Pluto with an amiable smile.
Pluto’s eyes, sharp with wariness, widened slightly—he tensed like a cat bristling at an unseen threat.
“What brings you here?”
“The usual, as always. His Majesty has ordered me to assess your physical condition and observe how much your Authority has grown since my last visit, then record my findings.”
At Deibon’s words—”the usual”—Pluto’s face went pale. The boy’s hands trembled visibly as he gripped the rumpled bedsheet.
“Your health does seem acceptable enough, at least…”
Pluto’s forehead burned with fever. The boy could barely maintain consciousness against the raging heat.
Yet he pressed on as though unaffected.
“Well then.”
Deibon set the wooden box he’d brought onto the table beside Pluto’s bed.
“We should finish quickly, before the servants return. That terrible Authority of yours mustn’t harm anyone else.”
Language so disrespectful it was almost unbelievable to hear it directed at a prince.
And yet Deibon could speak to him this way.
More than that—everyone who worked in the Imperial Palace, perhaps everyone in this Empire, could speak thus, and he would not punish them for it.
Both Pluto and Deibon understood this fact all too well.
As Deibon opened the wooden box, two potted plants emerged from within.
Then several more pots were placed upon the table.
All Authority Bearers in Roshipheron grew in their own way, and each recorded how much their Authority developed.
The method of recording such growth typically involved descriptions of the size and intensity of flames.
But Pluto’s Authority could not be measured in such terms.
The boy’s Authority was not some fierce conflagration—it was Death itself.
So the Imperial House wanted to test Pluto’s Authority by determining what stronger things he could kill.
Of course, thus far the prince’s Authority only extended to withering a single ant or a leaf, so potted plants remained a suitable test.
“Your Highness.”
Deibon looked at Pluto. Pluto met his gaze, hands clenched in their gloves.
“Go on. Do it.”
It was the same as always.
Withering plants was no difficult task for Pluto.
But.
‘Clover is… beneath the bed.’
Beneath the bed, Clover would be listening to this entire conversation.
Hearing it all, witnessing it all.
Clover loved every plant in the world. She never treated even a single blade of grass carelessly.
To do this in her presence—regardless of whether it was for Authority testing—he simply didn’t want to.
“…I won’t.”
“…Pardon?”
“I won’t. Please tell Father I apologize.”
Pluto spoke without meeting Deibon’s gaze. His eyes, refusing the emperor’s command and evading the gaze of the North Wind Lion, trembled without direction.
But Pluto truly did not want to do this.
Clover…
She had told him not to worry, that flowers bloom again and new shoots always grow back.
Still, he didn’t want to. Pluto’s Authority could only kill—it could not bring life.
For a long time, the boy had resisted this method of testing his Authority.
But in the Imperial Palace, burdened by guilt, he’d never dared speak it aloud until now.
“…”
Perhaps the events of days ago had given him courage.
Pluto could not understand himself. He didn’t know why he was acting this way. Everything felt bewildering.
But ‘I don’t want to do this’—
That much was certain.
At this, Deibon let out a hollow laugh, as though utterly exasperated.
“Your Highness, what is the meaning of this? You defy an Imperial Order! Authority testing is something every Authority Bearer in Roshipheron must undergo!”
“…”
“Have you forgotten your station after merely days in Claudian?”
“……that’s…”
“Your Majesty possesses that terrible Power and yet still draws breath — that is the Emperor’s mercy! Surely you understand that!”
It was the moment Deibon suddenly bellowed, as though venting his rage at Pluto’s defiance.
Slap!
Thump!
“!”
“Bad words!”
From beneath the bedspread tumbled a small child, no bigger than a pea.
“Imperial Palace visitor — bad!”
It was Clover.
Clover positioned herself between Pluto and Deibon.
And from behind her, the North Wind Lion and Lucky, who had been hiding beneath the bed alongside her, came pattering out.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————