The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 84
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 84
* * *
Declan and Melissa Marquess stood in the Portrait Gallery.
The memorial shrine was always kept spotlessly clean.
Someone must bring fresh flowers every day—such meticulous care.
‘It’s probably just for show.’
There must be someone specifically assigned to maintain this gallery regularly.
Melissa Marquess looked at Declan with uncomfortable eyes.
“You say my daughter’s memorial shrine is in this gallery.”
“Yes.”
“She couldn’t be buried at the Ortejo Family Estate. Thanks to you leaving my daughter on that plain.”
Declan didn’t bother to respond.
Instead, he walked a little further and pointed to a portrait hanging on the left.
“Here it is.”
A portrait of a brightly smiling woman with black hair and purple eyes.
The name written below: Olivia Ortejo.
In the small drawer positioned in front of the portrait lay countless letters and fresh flowers.
Melissa Marquess quietly gazed at the portrait.
The sharp edge she had been directing toward Declan was no longer there.
Declan simply turned his gaze away from Melissa Marquess without a word.
It was to give Melissa Marquess time to mourn Olivia.
And Melissa Marquess quietly held her breath.
Her eyes looking at the portrait were filled with tenderness.
As if stroking a child’s cheek, she caressed Olivia’s portrait.
“My baby…”
The sorrowful whisper of a mother who had lost her daughter first echoed through the gallery.
“I raised you for such a long time. Carried you for ten months, and when your father went to the front lines and died… I was so worried you’d be criticized for being a fatherless child, so I raised you with such precious care. When you said you’d take up the sword like your father, I told you not to…”
But she insisted on taking up the sword and becoming a knight.
She insisted on going to the Northern Region and marrying Lord Ortejo.
She insisted on going to war despite all my attempts to stop her.
In the end, she returned in death without even a body left behind.
“Are you happy there?”
“…”
Melissa Marquess barely managed to straighten her swaying body.
“Declan Ortejo. As my daughter’s mother, I ask you again.”
Declan averted his gaze and muttered.
“…Yes.”
“Why did you do it?”
“…”
“That day, if only she hadn’t gone to that most dangerous battle, that child could have lived.”
“…”
“You should have at least brought back her body from that battle. If that was difficult, at least some token of hers. If that, if that was difficult. If that…”
From her eyes flowed tears she thought had already dried up completely.
Declan, who had been silent all along, quietly muttered.
“I also, Olivia…”
“…”
“No.”
Then Declan bit his lips again.
“…I’m sorry.”
Whenever she had asked about Olivia’s death, even in letters, only soulless apologies had come back.
But now that she had actually met him and heard his apology…
“…I’m truly, truly sorry.”
Melissa Marquess calmly examined Declan’s appearance.
His eyes had long since burst with bloodshot veins.
His lips reeked of blood from biting them so much.
He must have been clenching his teeth so hard that his sharp jawline visibly twitched.
Right now, he looked like someone who had returned alone from a place akin to death.
So Melissa Marquess was stunned.
Like recognizes like.
That grief couldn’t be fake.
Declan, whom she had thought had coldly abandoned Olivia.
He was…
Living in hell.
But why, exactly?
Melissa Marquess’s gaze wavered.
Despite having such an expression, Declan remained the same.
Her eyes shook.
She couldn’t understand this situation at all, so she didn’t know what words to say.
And just when it seemed like the deathly silence would continue forever.
The sound of footsteps, tap tap tap, could be heard.
“…Airi?”
“Elder, Grandmother!”
It was Airi.
* * *
A few hours later, lying side by side with Airi on the soft bed.
Melissa Marquess looked at the child snuggling into her arms.
“How did you know this grandmother was there?”
“Serafin told me! He said Grandmother and Elder might fight, so he told me to run and see!”
“Is that so.”
It seemed Serafin, who had delivered the letter, had been watching over the two of them.
She deliberately added words to reassure her granddaughter.
“We didn’t fight, so don’t worry.”
“Yes.”
Airi also added a word.
“But still, Elder had a really, really hard time looking at the portrait today, right?”
“…Hm?”
“I mean… that portrait. He had a really hard time looking at the person called ‘Olivia,’ right?”
Seeing the child talk about her own mother like this somehow made her head feel complicated.
Then, Airi whispered softly.
“Elder cried a lot while looking at Lady Olivia before too.”
Airi recalled the time when she first tried to purify Declan.
Because she had tried to purify 5-star demonic energy with only 1-star abilities.
That time when ‘nightmare sharing’ occurred as a side effect.
Declan’s back as he witnessed Olivia’s death looked so very small.
So Airi said quietly.
“Elder looked like his heart was really hurting…”
At those words, Melissa Marquess’s eyes wavered.
‘Declan wasn’t trying to kill my daughter on purpose?’
Airi didn’t even know that she was gradually untangling the threads of Melissa Marquess’s misunderstanding.
So when her grandmother’s expression became serious, she blinked her eyes.
“Um, Grandmother.”
“Hmm?”
“Grandmother, you can’t secretly take me to the Southern Region while I’m sleeping…”
“Why.”
“Because I’m a hero who has to save the world!”
The world, whatever.
Compared to her beloved granddaughter, it was nothing.
Airi worriedly furrowed her brows and muttered.
“So I have to stay in the Northern Region. I also have to protect the Elder who’s in so much pain.”
The more Melissa Marquess listened to Airi’s words, the more complicated her thoughts became.
At that moment, she remembered a letter that would help clarify her mind a bit more.
Olivia’s message asking her to finish reading the letter after meeting her husband Declan.
Perhaps she needed to fulfill that request right now.
After laying the drowsy Airi down on the bed.
She sat by the bedside and took out the letter again.
And she read it from beginning to end without even breathing.
[Mother, Airi will never die like I did.
You can trust that.
So let the child do what she can do.]
‘Let the child do what she can do.’
My precious daughter who is no longer in this world.
Pondering over those last words left by that child, she finally made her decision.
* * *
The moment she opened her eyes in bed, Airi instinctively realized.
The grandmother who had warmly warmed her side for three whole days was gone!
Airi quickly ran.
“Grandmotherrr!”
Grandmother was outside the door looking at the window.
Seeing that she already had her bag on, it seemed she had finished all preparations to leave the castle.
Airi looked at her grandmother and drooped her eyebrows downward.
“Baby. Why did you come out so quickly? Sleep a little more.”
“I came out because Grandmother wasn’t there…”
Sadness was already filling Airi’s eyes.
Melissa Marquess scooped Airi up in her arms.
Melissa Marquess felt just as heavy-hearted thinking it was really time to leave the Northern Region.
“Can I ask one last time?”
“Yes!”
“You really won’t leave this place, baby? Still, this grandmother is very worried about our little puppy.”
“Yes! Airi is a hero.”
She now knew that the hero Airi spoke of wasn’t simply a child from fairy tales.
She also knew that the power the child possessed was immense.
Nevertheless, to Melissa Marquess, Airi was just a very young baby.
It was natural for Airi to weigh on her mind and worry her.
But now she really had to go.
Because divine power was rising in her body once again.
Melissa Marquess lifted her reluctant feet.
“Grandma, are you leaving now?”
“I have to go. But I’ll come back regularly, baby.”
“Huh…?”
“Grandmother now knows how to drain divine power, doesn’t she.”
“Huh, huk.”
Grandmother’s eyes sparkled.
Flustered Airi gulped.
* * *
On the way back after seeing off grandmother who declared she would return.
Cookie decided to check Airi’s condition after she had consumed all the artificial magic energy.
[‘World’s Strongest Hero’ Airi’s Purification Power Status Window!]
2-Star: Light ‘Tree’
■■■■□
(…)
2-Star: Light ‘Tree’
■■■■■
(…The star level is rising…)
“Huh, huk.”
Airi and Cookie clasped their hands together as if praying.
“It’s rising to a whole 3-star level!”
“This might be the chance to become a truly powerful hero!”
Airi and Cookie earnestly clasped both hands together while looking at the status window.
[‘World’s Strongest Hero’ Airi’s Purification Power Status Window!]
3-Star: Light ‘Shield’
□□□□□ (Growing so well! Amazing!)
That’s right.
Thanks to the evil dark forces that tried to dominate the Northern Region, Airi finally became a 3-star hero.
And numerous words began to be written below the status window!
[Special Reward!]
[Amazing Reward!]
[A reward that will make Airi incredibly happy!]
Her heart fluttered with tremendous anticipation.
Then, from the sky, a gift box swooshed down onto Cookie’s round hand.
“Woooow!”
“Oh! This time it’s an item instead of an ability! An item sent down from the Divine Realm! Let’s open it quickly, quickly!”
Airi and Cookie closed their eyes tightly with pounding hearts.
Cookie began playing background music with sounds of boom, ba-boom.
Ba-boom!
Music played loudly in their heads.
And what appeared before their eyes was!
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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