The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family - Chapter 99

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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 99
Demian and Arwin took Clover straight to the dart game.
They landed five darts right in the center and won two dolls—precious prizes earned without using any Authority whatsoever.
Demian and Arwin, accepting the two oddly crude dolls, handed one each to Clover and Pluto.
Next came the circus—a small Foundation Day memorial performance the circus troupe was putting on in a corner.
Unlike Kalid, who had shown puppet theater instead of the circus for fear the child might be frightened, Sone, Demian, and Arwin took Clover and Pluto to see the mini circus.
And fortunately, Clover was captivated by the mini circus performing for Foundation Day. She even bought a commemorative Circus Ring being sold there. The hands of her older siblings grew heavy with gifts for Clover and Pluto.
Clover had quickly forgotten all about the soap bubbles, too absorbed in everything new around her.
“Phew, let’s rest a bit.”
Arwin hoisted Clover up and dropped into a nearby chair with a sigh.
With so many people passing through, he kept a firm grip on her, terrified of losing her in the crowd.
“Are you tired, oppa?”
“Hm? We’ve been walking around, so I’m a bit worn out. You’re not tired, little pea?”
“Nope, Clover’s fine.”
So her oppa was tired.
Then Clover could rest with him for a while.
Clover liked her oppa, after all. The child turned her head to look at Pluto.
Pluto had climbed onto the chair by himself without anyone’s help, and his gaze met Clover’s.
“Is Tasha tired too?”
“No.”
“Huh, so only the oppas are tired?”
At Clover’s murmur, Demian and Arwin felt a pang of conscience.
But there was nothing odd about the two children. After wandering around for four hours, it was strange that Clover and Pluto weren’t exhausted!
Arwin tore off bits of the cotton candy he’d bought earlier and popped them into Clover and Pluto’s mouths, muttering as he did.
“But why aren’t they handing out seedlings this year?”
“Seedlings?”
“Yeah, normally on Foundation Day everyone gets a small seedling. It’s an old tradition of the Rosipherone Empire.”
Watching it grow over the course of a year was meant to symbolize passing another year safely for the nation.
Clover turned her head to look around the area.
She didn’t see anyone carrying a pot. There were no seedlings either.
Turning her head back, Clover chewed on her cotton candy as she asked.
“But why don’t we have it this time?”
“That’s what I’m wondering. Maybe they’re running late? They usually hand them out around here.”
Arwin pointed to the World Tree Statue standing majestically in the plaza.
It wasn’t only Arwin who found it strange that the seedlings hadn’t been distributed. Empire citizens had gathered beneath it, their voices rising in murmurs.
“Don’t we get them this year? That doesn’t seem right.”
“Is it running late?”
One or two questions drifted up from those standing below the statue.
Clover watched the scene with curiosity before biting eagerly into her cotton candy.
Only the width of Arwin’s index finger disappeared from the cotton candy—such was the size of the bite from her small mouth.
At the sight of that tiny mouthful, Sone, Demian, and Arwin’s faces melted instantly.
“Mm?”
Clover, having noticed something, reached out her hand.
“Clover, what is it?”
“That over there.”
There was something there.
Clover’s eyes narrowed as she spotted something in front of the World Tree Statue.
“A summoned creature?”
It was someone’s summoned creature.
And a very weak one at that.
[Whose summoned creature is that doing here?]
The sophistication of a summoned creature varied according to how strong an Authority Bearer’s Power was.
If a summoned creature possessed a “form,” its master was an Authority Bearer of considerable strength; those who carried around amorphous lumps as summoned creatures belonged to the weakest tier among Authority Bearers.
And what stood before Clover’s eyes now was a formless, fumbling summoned creature.
It was a deep brown like soil, and it resembled Clover’s own “Spirit”—though not quite.
But it was a summoned creature, not a spirit. The child instinctively sensed that its master, an Authority Bearer, was nearby.
“Why is it here?”
While Sone murmured, the summoned creature that had toddled from the statue all the way to their chair fumbled before Clover.
<Sprout, little sprout’s child…!>
[Hm?]

The summoned creature mumbled the words right in front of Clover’s face. Whether because the creature’s power was weak or because its master wasn’t nearby, its voice came out tiny and faint.
Lucky’s irritation flared up in an instant.
[Our girl isn’t some kind of fixer…….]

The summoned creature repeated itself in a dejected tone. Clover stood there in a daze, watching Lucky and the creature bicker.
‘They need help?’
“Yep.”
Then I’ve got to help!
If someone needs help, you help them. That way, someday Clover could get help too.
Seeing Clover’s eyes sparkle, Lucky let out a long sigh and spoke to the summoned creature.
[You didn’t tell your master that my girl can talk to summoned creatures, did you?]

The brown summoned creature mumbled with all its might.

In other words, it was asking her not to tell its master, and pleading for her help.
Sone, who found it odd that the summoned creature was mumbling in front of Clover, cradled the back of the child’s head and asked.
“Clover, what’s going on?”
“They want help.”
“This summoned creature?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Nod, nod.
Clover nodded eagerly.
Sone scanned the surroundings with a bewildered expression, checking whether the summoned creature’s master was nearby.
But the Authority Bearer was nowhere to be seen. Moreover, judging by how the summoned creature’s power was growing fainter, it seemed to be some distance away.
But then why would it seek out Clover specifically to ask for something?
The summoned creature wriggled and nestled into Clover’s small hands.

“Mm…….”

The summoned creature’s voice grew even quieter than before.
Clover tilted her head as she listened to this.
Authority?
The child worked her small hands over the summoned creature and asked.
“What’s the problem?”

“Just tell Clover first.”
Clover shifted her gaze subtly toward Pluto so that her conversation with the summoned creature wouldn’t be discovered, and whispered.
“Then I’ll help.”
***
The story the summoned creature relayed to Clover in an ever-quieter voice went something like this.
The summoned creature’s master, an Authority Bearer, possessed an extremely weak Soil Power Ability.
That Authority Bearer’s name was Jena.
She was a commoner, and she had kept the fact that she possessed an Authority hidden thoroughly, fearing she’d be dragged away and executed if it was discovered.
But then.

Her unscrupulous employer at the greenhouse where she worked had found out. After that, it was the same old story.
The employer threatened that if Jena didn’t obey him, he’d tell everyone about her Authority, and unable to resist the threat, Jena ended up working like a slave under that corrupt employer.
“Bad person!”
As Clover huffed indignantly, the summoned creature mumbled and nodded.

The place where Jena worked was a greenhouse of considerable scale.
It distributed cultivated plants and food products across the entire nation. So naturally, an Authority Bearer with the Soil Power Ability would have been all the more coveted.
Every single day at that greenhouse, Jena used her Authority to accelerate the plants’ growth, just a tiny bit at a time.
Because her Authority was tied to soil, she would enrich the earth with a touch of her power, raising the quality of the products grown there.
But using an Authority without rest ruins the body. And besides, Jena had only just turned fifteen, they said.
Hearing this story, Lucky cried out in shock.
[This is child labor! Shouldn’t it be reported immediately? Instead of asking her to use her Authority, you should be asking someone to report it!]

The summoned creature spoke in a wavering voice.
<Jena is a commoner. If I report him, he’ll face punishment. But if it comes out that Jena is an Authority Bearer… the nobles might try to k-kill her.>

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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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