The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 8

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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 8
‘That can’t be right.’
Dad looked so sorry to me.
‘He’s sending me away again?’
Lucky said nothing this time either, only sweating profusely. Clover stared at him hard, then clenched both her fists.
“I want to check if Dad’s really going to send me away……”
[What? How are you going to check?]
“There’s a way.”
Clover took off running, dragging a chair the size of her own body over to the window, then hopped up onto it.
She stretched both arms out and grabbed the potted plant sitting on the windowsill.
[Child, you…….]
“Sorry.”
Clover apologized to the plant before plucking off a single small leaf.
Then she closed her eyes quietly.
Through the leaf came a faint sound, and it reached Clover’s mind as well.
Clover’s ability was not limited to making plants sprout.
Through plants, she could listen to sounds.
Though she couldn’t use it often.
Good, that’s settled.
“Lucky, follow me.”
Hop, bounce.
Clover sprang lightly down from the chair and dashed off somewhere else.
When she pushed open the door, Belze and the Claudian steward, who had been about to enter, widened their eyes in surprise at the sight of her.
This was Clover’s first time seeing the steward. Startled by the appearance of an unfamiliar man, she froze a little.
“My, young miss. Where are you going?”
“Um, to Belze. Belze, hold me?”
Clover stretched out her chubby little arms, and Belze scooped her up with a broad smile.
“Young miss, are you feeling better now?”
“Um-hm.”
He seemed to think that eating cake had lifted Clover’s mood. As if it had done anything at all.
“But, who is this man?”
Clover, nestled against Belze’s chest, asked in a voice full of curiosity. He chuckled deeply.
“I am the steward who manages the Claudian Mansion, Tereno. I have served the Claudian family since my father’s time. It is an honor to make your acquaintance, young miss.”
“A steward?”
There seemed to be someone with a similar role back in Demper. And he was always stuck to the Count of Demper’s side.
Sparkle!
Clover’s eyes gleamed. Perfect—I found my eavesdropping target!
Clover held out the Four-leaf Clover Leaf she had been carefully clutching to Tereno.
“Here, take this.”
“What is this, young miss?”
“A gift. Don’t throw it away, keep it with you. Then good luck will come.”
Clover pointed to Lucky, her Four-leaf Clover summon, speaking proudly. Lucky poured out golden light to back her up.
Tereno laughed warmly.
“Young miss, thank you. I shall treasure it.”
“Take good care of it, I’m wishing you luck, steward. Good lucky, bye!”
“What a remarkable young miss you are—you already know the word for luck! I shall carry it with me carefully, and thank you again.”
Clover grinned widely as she watched Tereno slip the leaf into his front pocket. That was the perfect spot to eavesdrop from.
But then she felt Belze gazing at her with a slightly wounded expression.
Clover broke out in a cold sweat and deliberately looked away from his gaze.
She had only prepared one leaf, so she couldn’t give one to Belze. Besides, this gift hadn’t been given with a ‘good heart.’
So she could give one to Belze next time.
But still.
‘My heart hurts…….’
Clover, nestled in Belze’s arms, quietly turned her head away.
***
“How is the child? Still quite sullen?”
“She seemed fine just now. According to her attending maid, she ate the cake we brought very well, quite a lot of it. I suspect her mood improved after eating the cake.”
“Good, that’s a relief.”
“But what are you looking at so intently?”
“I’m looking into how to obtain the World Tree Branch from Demper and have a governess raise it separately at another villa. And…….”
Kalid fingered the worn parchment with the tips of his fingers.
“I’ve been searching for other ways to raise the child at the Claudian Mansion without resorting to such methods.”
“……So you’re still searching for the Claudian Family Treasure.”
Kalid nodded.
The Claudian Family Treasure.
Behind that grandiose title lay a single Ring of Storm’s Blessing.
A ring with a deep blue sapphire at its center and diamonds set densely around its band.
It was a Family Treasure passed down through the direct line of the Claudian bloodline since ancient times.
The ring was prized not merely because the sapphire at its heart was rare and invaluable.
‘It was far more than that.’
The ring possessed the power to nullify the Abilities of the Claudian clan.
Long ago, the husband of Thaena Claudian, the first matriarch of the Claudian family, was too frail to withstand her Ability.
For the sake of her husband, Thaena Claudian crafted a ring forged from the blessing of storms, and beneath its protection her husband thrived in health.
For a time, the ring was treated as a keepsake passed down to each successive head’s spouse.
But
‘it had vanished.’
More precisely, ‘the Claudian removed it.’
The reason was simple: should a ring impervious to Abilities ever leak beyond the family, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Indeed, other families who learned the ring’s secret had made attempts on the matriarch’s spouse more than once. After such incidents repeated, the Claudian family destroyed the ring entirely.
So that no one would ever covet it again.
‘Damn it……has it truly vanished?’
Yet for four years, Kalid Claudian had searched for that ring with desperate fervor.
Kalid pored over stacks of ancient manuscripts from the Claudian archives, seeking any clue to the ring’s whereabouts.
“Your Grace, having searched this long, you surely know as well as I do…….”
“I know, Tereno. But the records don’t say how it was destroyed. An Ability like the blessing of storms wouldn’t simply vanish, would it?”
Which meant there was a possibility it hadn’t vanished at all. Kalid had hung his hopes on that possibility for four years now.
‘Then I could raise Clover at the Claudian Mansion.’
I wouldn’t have to refrain from holding her for fear of her being hurt, and I wouldn’t have to leave my beloved daughter alone in a distant place.
That alone was worth the effort not to abandon. Kalid spoke while leafing through the ancient texts.
“If I cannot find it, I’m considering whether there might be a way to create the ‘treasure’ anew. They say the first matriarch made it using her Ability, so if I can discover that method, I can accomplish it myself.”
Indeed, Kalid Claudian was regarded as the man with the strongest Ability since the first matriarch herself.
Nothing was impossible for him.
Tereno, who had been quietly listening beside him, turned to Kalid and asked.
“Then, sir, if you truly do find the treasure, will Miss Clover be able to live at the Claudian Mansion?”
“Yes. They say that ring possesses the power to ignore Abilities entirely.”
Tereno recalled the small girl he had seen moments before.
A tiny child with pale green hair, eyes as black and round as seeds, and rosy cheeks.
‘Take good care, and good luck to you, sir. Good luck, boy.’
A smile bloomed naturally across Tereno’s face at the thought of Clover. Thinking that the young lady could be raised at the mansion from this point forward, he could not help but smile.
Tereno had asked Kalid all this while not to devote himself to work with ‘no possibility of success.’
But now that he had seen Clover with his own eyes, he could no longer voice such a request.
Tereno nodded.
“I will help as well. If there is anything you wish me to do, please tell me. I do hope that we might…… care for Miss Clover at the Claudian Mansion.”
“Very well.”
Just as Kalid was about to lower his gaze back to the manuscripts, he noticed something and raised his brows.
“By the way, Tereno, what’s that in your pocket?”
“Pardon?”
At Kalid’s words, Tereno absent-mindedly touched his pocket. There, his fingertips caught the Four-leaf Clover Leaf that Clover had given him moments before.
“Ah!”
He chuckled softly and carefully returned the leaf to his pocket.
“A gift from Miss Clover. She said that carrying it would bring good fortune. It’s as endearing a gift as the young lady herself.”
“……Clover gave that to you?”
“Yes.”
“I envy you.”
Kalid gazed intently at the leaf and murmured. As Tereno said, the tiny leaf that resembled Clover seemed to carry good fortune simply by being held.
***
Meanwhile, Clover, who had overheard the entire conversation,
“Oh gosh, was I really trying to send him away……”

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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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