The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 87

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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 87
“H-how could you……?”
Manela murmured, her voice trembling.
‘Why is it here!’
She felt the sudden urge to snatch that Mysterious Seed and flee on the spot.
It should have been inside Peson’s body.
But why was it out here?
Nothing made sense.
Duke Zitheia, who hadn’t missed even Manela’s quiet murmur, turned to her and asked.
“Do you know what this is?”
“Me? Ah, well…… No. No, I don’t.”
Manela shook her head in panic and denied it. At her reaction, Nenia’s sharp canines flashed as she raised her voice.
“Liar! That’s what Manela had!”
“Ah, young lady!”
“Manela fed it to my brother!”
At Nenia’s words, Duke Zitheia pressed further.
“Fed it to him……?”
The room had become chaos. Nenia’s hissing, Zitheia’s rapid assessment of the situation, and Manela’s denials all tangled together in confusion.
Kalid gently wrapped his arm around Clover’s shoulders and asked.
“Clover, where did this Mysterious Seed come from?”
“It came from Peson’s…… from my brother……”
Clover answered hesitantly.
“Daddy, will you believe what Clover says?”
“Always.”
“This was stuck in my brother’s heart, and Clover pulled it out.”
Clover placed the small, ominous Mysterious Seed into Kalid’s broad, steady palm.
“When I pulled it out, my brother fell…… So I wanted to tell you……”
The child rolled her eyes, gauging the reactions of both Zitheia and Kalid.
“Clover, I know you didn’t mean to hurt your brother.”
“I know. Don’t worry.”
Kalid rolled the Mysterious Seed around in his palm.
The more he looked at it, the stranger it seemed. It didn’t resemble an ordinary seed at all, and it radiated an uncanny power.
Moreover, it was distorting the Authority around it. What in the world was this?
Zitheia, who had been watching this, approached Clover and asked.
“……You pulled this from Peson’s heart?”
“Yes.”
“And then he collapsed?”
She nodded.
Zitheia considered this.
She didn’t seem to be lying.
Besides, Clover was only four years old—it was unthinkable that she could construct such a specific, elaborate falsehood.
And this power of the Mysterious Seed that distorted Authority.
This power would explain the state Peson’s Authority had fallen into. It was highly probable that this Mysterious Seed was indeed the cause, just as Clover said.
Having reached that conclusion, Zitheia’s gaze snapped toward Manela.
She had clearly reacted when Clover showed her the Mysterious Seed.
The others, who didn’t know what the Mysterious Seed was, had all stood there blankly.
‘She alone had reacted.’
Clover Claudian’s Authority was Sprout Authority.
So it wasn’t particularly strange that Clover carried seeds around. Yet she had still reacted to Clover’s Mysterious Seed, which meant……
She truly knew what it was.
Moreover, Nenia had said that Manela had fed this mysterious Mysterious Seed to Peson.
Zitheia looked at Manela with eyes cold as frost and asked.
“Did you really feed this to my son?”
Her tone carried the threat of tearing Manela apart if she lied.
“Me? Your Grace, I……!”
“What is this Mysterious Seed, exactly?”
At Zitheia’s question, Manela shook her head frantically and fell to her knees.
“Your Grace! I truly don’t know! Why would I ever feed such a thing to the young master……? You know I’ve cherished and served him more dearly than my own children, more than my own blood!”
“Then you’re saying my daughter is lying?”
At Zitheia’s sharp question, Manela shook her head again with frantic desperation.
“I… I don’t know why Miss would say such a thing……!”
At Manela’s deflection, Nenia’s fists trembled with fury.
“Don’t lie, Nia!”
Nenia’s voice cut sharp as a blade. At that sharpness, everyone in the room except Peson turned to look at her.
“Manela fed it to you, I’m sure of it! I saw it!”
“Your Highness, Miss must have seen something incorrectly.”
“You fed him a Nutritional Supplement!”
“Miss! What I gave the young master was truly a Nutritional Supplement, not that sinister seed! You must be mistaken about something!”
“I…….”
At Manela’s brazen denial, Nenia faltered and stepped back.
Nenia was not lying.
It had definitely been that seed.
She remembered its shape, its form.
It was larger than before, but unmistakably the same one from that day.
Yet Manela continued to insist that Nenia had simply misread what she’d seen—and faced with a grown woman’s relentless pressure, five-year-old Nenia trembled without even managing to repeat her denial properly.
“Nia, this is…….”
It was then, as Zitheia stepped forward to make sense of their deadlock argument, that it happened.
“I’m not lying!”
Nenia’s voice erupted. And at that same instant, her Summoned Creature appeared.
“Nia!”
The vast Authority that Nenia wielded rippled through the room, and a massive sea lion roared with terrible force.
And simultaneously.
“……!”
Nenia’s eyes blazed with brilliant blue light as her Authority surged. Aive’s tide-calling power drew every drop of water from the Residence, forging it into a long, unyielding Iron Chain.
The thin, endless chain—long enough to wind around the entire Residence and back—brushed against the skin of everyone in the room.
And simultaneously.
Clang.
“Nia!”
That chain bound Nenia’s own body. Those who knew what it meant—the Authority Bearers—widened their eyes.
That was the Oath of Authority, a vow only Authority Bearers could invoke.
It was the Oath of Authority—used by those who wielded power to prove their innocence, or to give trust that they would not betray on a whim!
“I really am not lying.”
Nenia’s eyes shone a brilliant blue.
The Iron Chain drew tight around her small frame.
“Check. What Nia says is true.”
So tight it seemed her tiny body might shatter at any moment.
And then.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
Nenia’s Iron Chain rippled like waves as the Oath of Authority activated.
Now that the Oath had been invoked, if Nenia’s words were false, her body would crumble to dust.
The Oath of Authority is the final recourse by which an Authority Bearer can prove their innocence.
To wager one’s Authority, to stake one’s very flesh—that vessel which holds Authority—and declare: I am innocent.
Yet it was a vow few Authority Bearers could invoke, for even the strongest could not wield it without understanding its theory.
There was no way Aive could have taught such a thing to a five-year-old child!
‘But how…….’
How had she done it? Zitheia reached out toward Nenia, bewilderment evident in her touch.
The Oath of Authority was a measure invoked only in the direst moments. This was hardly the occasion for it.
‘Did she use it instinctively?’
Since no one had ever taught her the theory, it didn’t seem like something she’d done with conscious thought.
Could it be pure hurt, then?
That a five-year-old Nenia had no recourse to prove her truth except this single desperate measure?
Zitheia’s gaze fixed again on Manela. Manela continued to shake, her head lowered in denial.
“No, no, Your Highness, truly not. Miss must be confused.”
“And yet you see my daughter like this—still you call it confusion?”
Zitheia’s voice seethed with barely restrained fury. But Manela still would not yield.
“But how can I claim something false is true, Your Highness……!”
She stared at Nenia’s eyes, glowing that impossible blue.
“Your Highness, Miss was only four years old a year ago…….”
“…….”
“How could Miss remember something from a year ago so precisely? There must be confusion in her memory. It must be a misunderstanding! Four-year-old children often mix things up, and believe they’ve seen things they never saw…….”
Kalid’s brow furrowed at Manela’s words. They were exactly what Clover’s aunt had said.
While Manela rattled off excuse after excuse, Nenia said nothing. Zitheia remained equally silent.
Neither did Kalid, nor Clover, who lay cradled in his arms.
The Claudian siblings and their servants, who had been witnessing every moment of this scene from beginning to end, said nothing as well.
A terrible silence hung in the air.
Sensing the strange tension, Manela slowly lifted her head.
In that instant.
“……Ah!”
Duchess Zitheia’s murderous gaze met Manela’s eyes. Her blue eyes flashed as she spoke.
“A year ago?”
“……I’m sorry?”
“No one mentioned a year ago. How did you know Nenia saw it a year ago?”
Duchess Zitheia clenched her teeth.
“You fed it to her a year ago?”

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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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