The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 72

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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 72
It happened in that instant.
Pluto’s Authority began to radiate outward in all directions at once.
“Your Highness!”
The waves of Authority rippled forth, and the Energy Waves flowing from the small boy’s body seized control of everything around him in moments.
Only then did Kalid dimly realize that Pluto’s ailment was not merely a common fever.
‘Growth Pains……?’
He’d heard that among Authority Bearers with exceptional power, some experienced Growth Pains.
A process in which the body transformed to match the Authority, and the Authority itself advanced to the next stage.
But it was such a rare case that there were scarcely any records of it. He’d never given it serious thought before.
“Your Highness, you must compose yourself.”
“My head hurts so much…….”
“Your Highness.”
Kalid glanced at Pluto’s Summoned Creature—the sword. The blade’s head seemed to flicker between appearing single and doubled, making it unmistakable that a change had occurred in Pluto’s Authority.
An Authority Bearer’s power was affected by their mental state. Just as the Empress Dowager Anernia had fallen into Rampage through her longing for her dead daughter.
Daebon’s thoughtless words seemed to have provoked Pluto. Realizing that Pluto stood between Awakening and Rampage, Kalid gestured to the knights.
“Leave us.”
“Yes, sir.”
Pluto’s Authority had yet to harm anyone, but given the nature of such power, it was all too clear what damage it could inflict.
“Ahhh, aaaaah! It hurts! It hurts! Sir, please! Help me, please!”
“Clover.”
Passing by the thrashing Daebon, Kalid approached Clover and extended his hand to the child.
“Go on now. Your father will handle this.”
“But Your Highness…….”
“I know. Which is precisely why you must leave.”
No matter how much Storm’s Blessing protected Clover, being near Pluto meant she could not completely escape the radius of his influence.
“Ah, aaaaaah!!”
Daebon convulsed and cried out. At his grotesque contortions, Clover flinched.
Through Clover’s eyes, the sword’s sharp fangs seemed to be drawing something from Daebon.
As Clover stared at it intently, Lucky sighed and spoke.
[It’s draining his Life Force.]
“……!”
[At this rate, he won’t last much longer.]
By Clover’s assessment, Daebon would not survive long.
Clover watched as the sword’s fangs ceaselessly drew something inward and reflected.
‘So that is what life is.’
After malice came life itself.
She could see far more now, yet in a moment like this, she could not simply rejoice.
Least of all when someone was having it torn away.
Kalid scooped up the hesitating Clover and held her, then, before handing her to the attendants outside, turned his gaze to Pluto.
“Your Highness, can you hear me?”
“…….”
“This man came from the Imperial Palace. To kill him would not serve your interests.”
At Kalid’s words, the sword faltered.
That meant Pluto was hearing him.
Even in an unsound state, there remained room for Awakening rather than spiraling into full Rampage.
Kalid did not let that slip away.
“If you would lower your power, I shall resolve this.”
“……Duke.”
“As one sworn to protect Your Highness, I failed to protect you properly. That responsibility falls on me as well. Grant me the chance to make amends.”
The sword stilled for an instant, and the ceaseless tide of Energy Waves paused.
Daebon, buried beneath, had lost consciousness, but Pluto still stood.
The young prince, accustomed to enduring what should have made him collapse, did not fall despite the sudden surge in Authority.
Yet.
“……Ugh!”
His pupils trembled erratically as if seeing something in empty air. His eyes had lost all focus.
“Ah, uh…….”
Pluto let out a short whimper. He was in a state of over-Awakening. One more step beyond this point meant Authority Rampage.
The hallucinations and auditory hallucinations that typically accompanied an Authority Bearer’s Rampage were already manifesting in Pluto.
If that happened, there would be no turning back. It was at that very moment Kalid looked down at Pluto with a troubled expression.
“Your Highness, Pluto!”
Clover squirmed in Kalid’s arms, her voice urgent.
“Are you alright?”
That was when the flow of Authority in the room shifted subtly.
The moment Clover’s voice reached him.
Pluto’s eye tremors ceased.
At the same instant, the Authority that had gathered within him began to rotate slowly, spiraling around Clover, Kalid, and Daebon at its center.
Feeling the delicate shift in the current of Authority, Kalid held Clover protectively and considered the moment unfolding before him.
‘Depending on where the Authority flows, it will branch into Awakening or Rampage.’
If the Authority dispersed and vanished as it was, Pluto would move one step closer to Awakening. But if it were reabsorbed back into his body and reversed course, he would descend into Rampage.
And if that happened, Kalid would have to execute Pluto.
That was why Ouron had entrusted Pluto to him.
Please, not that. Anything but that.
Please, let it never come to presenting the young prince’s head to the Emperor.
Kalid stared at the child with desperate longing, his teeth grinding against his lower lip.
Then Clover spoke, her voice tinged with a faint melancholy as she looked at Pluto.
“Don’t worry…….”
That was the moment.
“……!”
The Authority gathered within Pluto began to organize itself, rotating slowly before suddenly exploding outward in all directions.
Boom!
It erupted with a deafening roar, and a surge like towering waves swept through everything in an instant.
Kalid clutched the child tightly to shield her from the impact and wind that accompanied the violent Authority washing across the room.
“Ugh! ……Clover!”
He quickly checked her condition.
“Mm.”
But Clover was unharmed.
Looking around, even those standing outside the door who were not Authority Bearers had been swept off their feet by the wave of power, yet there seemed to be no other injuries.
‘Is His Highness’s Authority weak?’
Despite such a massive quantity of Authority being released at once, not a single person had collapsed?
Yet seeing Daebon’s state, one could hardly joke that Pluto’s Authority was feeble.
Then where had all that power gone?
As Kalid looked around in confusion, something caught his eye.
“!”
It was the flowerpot that Daebon had brought.
Every plant that had been growing atop it had withered and died completely.
Moreover.
“Look there, please!”
“Outside, Master!”
The servants, who had been knocked to the floor by the wave of Authority, pointed outward in unison.
Kalid reached the window in three strides, still holding Clover, and stood near the frame to look down.
And at the sight that unfolded before his eyes.
“This is absurd…….”
He murmured softly.
“Wha……?”
Clover, following Kalid’s gaze out the window, opened her mouth in a small O.
What the two of them saw was no mere damaged tree or sapling snapped by the wind.
Everything in the Garden surrounding the Annex had withered, dried, and died.
Just like the two flowerpots that had shriveled.
Wherever Pluto’s Authority had swept, nothing remained alive except for the Claudian servants.
It was as though the god of death himself had passed through with a massive scythe, reaping everything in his path.
***
Kalid quickly brought the situation under control.
He sent Daebon to the Underground Dungeon and checked on Pluto’s condition.
Fortunately, Pluto had not descended into Rampage and remained conscious.
Having passed through Growth Pains and survived the Awakening state, his fever had noticeably dropped from before.
Pluto came to himself and stared vacantly at the flowerpot, his mouth hanging open.
“……What?”
Then he quickly rushed over and looked out the window.

Pluto’s face drained of color as he beheld the garden beyond the window, withered and desolate.
Seeing it from the glass alone wouldn’t suffice—he bolted down the stairs and planted himself in the center of the garden.
But nothing changed.
What greeted Pluto was only the blackened ruin of everything his Authority had touched.
According to the servants’ account, even the insects throughout the grounds had been entirely annihilated by his power.
Pluto trembled as he grasped what he had done, his fingers worrying at his gloves.
Those gloves, which the boy had refused to remove even in sleep, could protect him from nothing now.
They were merely scraps of leather. Pluto stood before the window, shaking.
“How…?”
How could this be?
How had this happened?
So many people had taken such care to prevent this very thing.
Only after everything had ceased did Clover finally slip free from Kalid’s arms and approach Pluto quietly.
Glance.
Clover watched him warily before asking with careful hesitation.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”

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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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