The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 80

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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 80
It wasn’t uncommon for young children to sleep in the same bed.
Sometimes children slept more deeply with a friend than alone, after all.
So the maid didn’t refuse Neiania’s request.
Besides, didn’t Peson himself—the girl’s brother—used to take naps in the same bed as Arwin when Neiania wasn’t around?
“Just come in quietly, all right? The young lady is sleeping.”
“Yes.”
If Neiania slipped in quietly and went to sleep, there’d be no reason to wake Clover.
The youngest miss slept so deeply that she wouldn’t wake even if you carried her away.
The maid, who had changed Neiania into Clover’s pajamas, took the child’s hand and headed toward Clover’s Room.
True to her promise with the maid, Neiania tiptoed soundlessly toward the bed.
So quietly, in fact, that her footsteps were barely audible—it was almost remarkable.
Neiania, hugging the Cat Doll tightly, climbed onto the bed where Clover slept, and just as the maid moved to help her up—
“Oh, you woke up.”
“……?”
“Sorry.”
Clover, roused from sleep, stared blankly at Neiania.
Or rather, not quite fully awake, she buried her face in the pillow before looking up at Neiania again.
“Oh my, young lady. You’re awake?”
“Mmmn…….”
“Just rest a bit more. This is the young lady of the Eave Duke’s House, and she’s come for her nap time.”
The maid hastily introduced Neiania. As the maid spoke, Neiania still hung half over the edge of the bed, gazing blankly at Clover.
‘She’s smaller than me.’
Neiania thought to herself.
And for some reason, she smelled nice. Had she eaten something sweet?
Neiania suddenly thrust the Cat Doll—which she’d been clutching the whole time—at Clover, who was still drowsy.
“……Mmmn?”
“Sorry, here.”
Neiania spoke in a matter-of-fact way.
“Hug this and go back to sleep. Then you’ll sleep better.”
“…….”
While Clover stared back and forth between Neiania and the Cat Doll, the maid lifted Neiania’s half-dangling form up onto the bed properly.
Clover, who had been watching blankly, sat up in bed with a rumpled face.
Her hair was pressed flat on one side from lying face-down.
Warm and tousled as she was, Clover blinked sleepily, then reached out and took Neiania’s doll.
“Clover, are you lending me this?”
“…….”
“Thank you.”
Clover smiled sleepily.
Neiania’s eyes widened at the sight. She didn’t lie down but sat up on her knees, half-burying her face in them as she watched Clover intently.
“You…….”
“Huh?”
“……You smell nice.”
Neiania remained sitting at the foot of the bed.
The bed was wide, so an enormous gap existed between the two small children.
But it wasn’t so wide that they couldn’t hear each other’s voices. Neiania sat at a distance from Clover, watching her, and murmured.
“……But why aren’t you surprised?”
“Huh?”
“I came out of nowhere, and you just woke up and saw me for the first time.”
So why aren’t you surprised? Neiania stared blankly at Clover.
“Uh, of course I was surprised…….”
Clover rubbed her eyes as she answered. She seemed to be waking up little by little now.
“I thought you were a fairy coming to me…….”
“A fairy?”
“Yeah, a fairy with really pretty eyes…….”
Clover answered dreamily.
To Clover’s eyes, Neiania truly looked just like a fairy born from within the snow itself.
With hair as white and pure as fresh snow, beautiful and fluffy, and eyes as blue as icicles frozen solid.
So beautiful and adorable that one could believe she’d just been born from the heart of winter.
So she’d simply said what she saw and felt.
Whoosh!
“!”
In that instant, Neiania’s face flushed crimson. The little girl who had been watching Clover warily the whole time crept forward, closing the distance between them by two cautious steps.
“Nia looks like a fairy……?”
“Mm.”
“……So do you.”
The maid watching over the two children, who had taken to each other without need for introductions, let out a soft laugh.
Nia stared at Clover without so much as a blink.
Clover had called Neiania fairy-like, but.
In truth, it was Clover who looked more fairy-like to Neiania’s eyes.
Of course, Neiania was cute too. She knew it very well. It wasn’t just from the maids’ endless praise wearing their lips thin day after day.
There was a mirror in Nia’s room, after all.
Nia knew how to use a mirror.
To Nia’s eye, she was an extraordinarily cute and pretty little girl.
But if you had to choose which one—Clover or Neiania—looked more “fairy-like”…
‘It’s obviously her, isn’t it?’
Clover was smaller than Neiania, and her pale green hair, sun-warmed and perfectly soft, gleamed like new leaves.
Those large, dark eyes were mirrors themselves, reflecting Neiania’s face with perfect clarity.
Of all the children her age that Neiania had ever seen, none looked more fairy-like and precious than this.
As that thought took hold, the distance between Neiania and Clover shrank a fraction more.
Neiania crept closer, her gaze still carrying a thread of wariness as she regarded Clover.
Clover, now fully awake, stretched luxuriously.
She’d slept well.
It seemed time to rise—she felt refreshed, her spirits bright and clear.
Once her stretch was complete, Clover turned to Neiania with eyes that sparkled far more keenly than before, and asked her a question.
“What’s your name?”
She thought she’d heard ‘Nia’ before, but drowsiness had clouded her memory.
When Clover asked, Neiania pondered for a moment before answering.
“Neiania.”
“Oh.”
“You can call me Nia.”
And she added with a hint of mischief.
“But if you’re going to call me Nia, you have to stop sleeping.”
Her eyes—cool as ice, or perhaps like shallow, clear waves—gleamed with blue light.
They were full of curiosity.
***
“I’m not here because I like you.”
“It’s the same for me, so don’t talk to me.”
Arwin and Peson exchanged words. Peson, having requested a book from the maid, was reading it on the sofa.
Naturally, he hadn’t spared Arwin so much as a glance.
Meanwhile, Demian, having heard that Peson had arrived, crept over and sat beside Arwin, yet Peson’s eyes never turned toward the two boys.
Peson kept his gaze fixed stubbornly on his book. At last, Arwin’s patience snapped.
“If you’re just going to read, why did you come at all?”
“Mother asked me to.”
“You could have refused.”
“I don’t refuse Mother’s requests.”
“Of course you don’t, mama’s boy.”
“You talk too much for half a man.”
Bang!
Arwin and Peson rose to their feet at the same moment, fists clenched. Where their gazes met, sparks seemed to fly.
Yet neither drove a fist into the other’s face. The two boys glared at each other with murderous intent before dropping back into their seats with a heavy thud.
“Hmph.”
“Ha……”
Arwin exhaled a long sigh and leaned back against the sofa, his eyes tracing the ceiling.
‘This is exactly why I can’t stand him.’
The eldest son of Eave Duke’s House, Peson Eave.
From childhood, Peson had harbored an unusual obsession with growing stronger.
He’d always strived to become more powerful, and nothing less than the best would do. His fixation on achievement and results was a birthright—a natural flaw etched into his very being.
Of course, that alone wouldn’t have been a problem.
But there was one thing that did cause trouble: in his hunger for achievement and power, Peson grew careless about the feelings of others, dismissing them without a second thought.
He dismissed anyone who failed to meet his standards, and by Peson’s criteria, Arwin and Demian fell predictably short.
Brothers who split the Storm Authority between them.
Two boys who could never possess it wholly, forever dependent on each other’s strength.
No matter how much Kalid and Sone loved them, cherished them, supported them—there remained one immutable truth.
Their Authority was insufficient.
And people only ever see what is lacking.
They never notice how a person compensates for their weakness.
Peson was exactly like that.
***
“Tell me.”
Kalid raised the teacup, wisps of steam curling from its rim, and spoke.
Ziteia gestured, and Authority flowed from her fingertips like waves cresting against shore.
It was her Summoned Creature, its form twisted into a different shape.
The creature circled the room once, then slipped through the window to patrol the grounds beyond.
Only after confirming that no one lurked nearby did it return to Ziteia, its body rippling like water.
The Eave Duke set down his teacup and finally spoke.
“Has anything troubled your domain?”
The question came without warning.
Kalid’s eyes narrowed.

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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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