The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 97

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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 97
Kalid showed Clover and Pluto around the festival, taking them to see everything.
There was a puppet theater, so he brought them to watch that,
“It’s… such a sad story……”
“……It was fun. I’ve never seen puppet theater before.”
Whenever the children showed interest in food, he bought it without hesitation and gave each of them a taste.
“Wow, chicken!”
“Food……”
So naturally, both Clover and Pluto were practically glowing with excitement. Of course they were—they were with a father who bought them anything and showed them everything!
‘Clover, I’m really happy.’
The dream she had desperately longed for every day when she was in the Demper Count’s House had become simple, ordinary life here.
It was no longer an impossible dream, but a life that Clover was naturally entitled to enjoy. Each time she reflected on this truth, Clover still felt a kind of astonished wonder.
Kalid settled the children in chairs for a moment, then finished eating the Grilled Chicken Skewers they’d left behind, and carefully wiped around both their mouths.
It would have been easier if he’d brought attendants along, but now the only retinue were two plainclothes knights following a hundred meters back, so Kalid had to manage it himself.
Kalid had eaten quite a lot of the leftovers the children left behind and felt uncomfortably full, but he couldn’t show the children throwing food away or wasting it, so he just ate what he could.
‘I should have brought at least one attendant.’
Then the two of them could have split the children’s leftovers. Kalid felt a brief pang of regret.
But in any case, two children were hardly more than he could manage. Kalid was a knight forged through strength, so he could certainly handle a four-year-old and a six-year-old.
But being able to handle them didn’t mean it was easy to control children who darted off in every direction.
As he caught his breath for a moment, Clover, swinging her feet from the chair, spoke up.
“Papa, papa.”
“Yes.”
“Clouds are round, and the sky is blue.”
At Clover’s words, Kalid absently looked up at the sky.
True to the child’s observation, the clouds were indeed round and the sky was indeed blue.
“I used to hate blue skies, you know.”
“Why did you hate them?”
“Um, when the sky turns blue, I want to go out and play, but my aunt wouldn’t let me go outside, so……”
The child laughed brightly. She spoke of such things as though she were happy.
“But after I met papa, I like them so much.”
“……”
“Papa takes Clover to fun places……”
She trailed off as though there were more to say, then, as if she’d run out of words, she hopped down from the bench.
Then she grabbed Pluto’s hand and went bounding off toward a new vendor stall.
Kalid stood frozen, watching the child’s retreating figure.
A child who had hated good weather because she desperately wanted to go out and play but was constantly kept inside.
How could he possibly compensate her for those four lost years?
Kalid hurried after the two children.
And he lifted both children into his arms to show them the jewelry stand they were curious about.
The children reached out their hands in wonder at the glittering bracelets and rings, but Kalid’s gaze was fixed not on the rings and bracelets themselves, but on Clover and Pluto’s eyes.
Something far more precious and radiant than cheap stones or jewels.
‘After I met papa, I like them so much.’
The words Clover had carelessly let slip moments before lodged in Kalid’s heart.
Probably the rest of what she meant was something like, ‘I like papa’—she likely left it unsaid because she thought there was no need to say the same thing twice.
Clover’s judgment was sound.
There was no need to say it twice.
With not even a single word—or indeed, with no words at all—she was expressing ‘I love papa’ with her entire being.
Why would she need to say it twice? Kalid rubbed his cheek against Clover’s as she examined the vendor stall.
From his arms, Clover pointed at an inexpensive bracelet.
“Papa, this bracelet is pretty.”
“Does it? Do you like it?”
It wasn’t a bracelet set with gems, nor one set with raw stones—just a simple string bracelet. The cheapest thing on the entire stand.
“It seems the young lady has taken a fancy to this bracelet,” said the vendor, who had picked up the string bracelet from the stand as Clover’s eyes lit up.
“A Wish Bracelet,” the vendor continued.
“They say that if you wear it until the string wears through and breaks, your wish will come true.”
“A wish…?”
“Does the young lady have a wish she’d like to come true?”
The young vendor slipped the bracelet onto Clover’s plump wrist.
Kalid hesitated for a moment, but once he confirmed it was a bracelet with no magical power at all, he allowed the vendor to do as he wished.
As the vendor pulled the bracelet taut around the child’s wrist one more time, the bracelet made for an adult’s wrist fit perfectly on the child’s small arm.
“And for you too, young master.”
He slipped the bracelet onto Pluto’s hand as well. When the gloved hand made contact, Pluto’s face scrunched up in discomfort for a moment, but he bore it with admirable composure.
“Oh wow, a Wish Bracelet!”
“……Does wearing this bracelet really make your wish come true?”
Clover and Pluto turned the bracelets this way and that as they spoke.
Their reactions differed, but both children clearly adored the bracelets.
It was a common bracelet—every citizen of the Empire who came to the Foundation Festival wore one or two around their wrists—so the price was remarkably cheap.
Yet more than any gem-studded bracelet or other costly trinket, the promise that it would ‘make your wish come true’ seemed to have lodged itself deeply in the children’s hearts.
“Of course! I’m wearing one myself.”
She laughed softly and showed them her own sturdy string bracelet.
“Let me pay you.”
Kalid reached into his pocket to take out money as he watched her.
At that moment, she smiled gently and shook her head.
“It’s a gift because the children are so adorable—you don’t need to pay.”
“But—”
“It’s a festival for everyone to enjoy together, and it’s not expensive, so please don’t worry!”
The kind-faced woman turned her attention to another child who had come to her stall, treating them with the same warmth and courtesy.
Kalid gazed at her for a moment, offered his thanks, and led the children away from the stall.
“She’s a good person.”
Clover fingered her bracelet.
“She was good?”
“Yeah, no bad thoughts either.”
“I see.”
The bracelet around Clover’s arm was pale pink. The one on Pluto’s wrist was deep purple.
She had clearly chosen colors that suited each child.
There exist in this world kindnesses that ask for nothing in return. Kalid resolved to thank the stall owner properly after the festival was over.
And glancing around, he noticed that children throughout the festival wore bracelets of every color.
It was something commoners typically did far more often than nobles, so he hadn’t thought of it earlier.
‘Only our children didn’t have one.’
Feeling a twinge of embarrassment, Kalid set the children down and ruffled their hair enthusiastically.
He thought he was doing his best, yet he still fell short as a father and guardian.
***
“Ahhhh, that was so much fun…….”
Clover, thoroughly bathed and scrubbed clean, lay in bed with a blissful grin.
The Foundation Festival had truly been wonderful.
So many people, so much delicious food! While there were occasional people harboring dark intentions in their hearts, the vast majority posed no real concern.
Because of that, Clover had been able to play and enjoy herself without a single worry.
[Did you have fun, little one?]
“Yep, it was perfect.”
[What did you like best?]
“The bracelet!”
Clover sat up suddenly with a bright smile. Lucky tilted her head at the sight of the humble bracelet.
[The bracelet?]
Among everything Kalid had bought today, there were countless things far more expensive than this. So why had this bracelet captured the child’s heart?
As Lucky pondered this.
Clover gazed intently at the string bracelet, beaming.
“They said it’s a bracelet that makes your wish come true, so I like it…….”
The child caressed the string bracelet as if it were the most precious thing in the world, giggling with delight.
[What wish are you going to make?]
“For my mom to get better…….”
[……Your mom?]
“Yeah, I’m gonna wish for mom to wake up soon.”
The child smiled broadly and reached up to pat her own head.
“Then mom will praise Clover like this.”
[…….]
“Hurry, I hope my wish comes true soon…….”
The tale of the Wish Bracelet—that wearing it until it breaks will grant your wish—originated from the idea that if you yearn earnestly enough, anything can come true.
If the heart remains whole and intact until the firmly knotted bracelet finally wears through, if it is something yearned for so desperately, then surely one day it will be realized.
Lucky recalled the time when the Wish Bracelet was first created, watching Clover.
The knot binding the bracelet around the child’s wrist seemed somehow stronger than ever today.
But Lucky knew the truth.
What was stronger than that bracelet was none other than Clover’s own heart.
[That’s right, wear it well!]
Lucky fluttered above Clover’s face, scattering golden light in a shimmer.
[Then it will surely come true for you, Clover.]
Clover broke into a radiant smile.
Just then.
“Clover!”
Someone’s voice called out to Clover from beyond the door.

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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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