The Golden-Handed Baby Fixes Everything! - Chapter 12

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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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Chapter 12
If I became a Duchess, I’d never go hungry again.
And I wouldn’t have to shiver under a thin blanket at night, either.
And above all.
‘I wouldn’t have to go to the orphanage!’
Honestly, that was the best part of it.
Being sent to an orphanage with my Power already known was no different from being thrown into a hunting ground with nothing but my bare body.
Whether a decent orphanage even existed had stopped mattering to me.
If I were sent to one in my current state—
‘Those bastards would come for me.’
The ones who kidnapped me in my past life—the so-called , that is.
Judging by the conversations I overheard while I was locked up, that mysterious group seemed to have a fairly long history.
Kidnapping people, experimenting on them, and keeping them confined also seemed to be an activity they’d kept up for a long time.
So, if I were sent to an orphanage now…
‘Ugh. Even imagining it makes me sick.’
But if I became the Duchess’s daughter of Pantheibe, the story would be different.
‘Those bad guys wouldn’t be able to get near me easily.’
Going up against Pantheibe, the foremost house in the Empire, wouldn’t be an easy thing to do!
Hmm.
As I pondered, I slyly lobbed out a question.
“Then, are you adopting me, Lord Gongzan?”
“No. I was planning to introduce you as my illegitimate daughter, actually.”
Illegitimate?
He’s going to introduce me as his illegitimate child?!
“…W-why?”
“No reason. Just because I feel like it?”
…I didn’t realize this when you were Uncle Oliver.
‘Is the Duke of Pantheibe really this… strange of a person?’
Of course, for me, being an illegitimate child had more advantages than being an adopted one.
‘Because that would mean I’m the Duke’s blood.’
My Power is a new kind of Power that has never existed in this world before.
So I’m bound to attract attention, whether I want it or not.
And if that happens—
‘An unknown orphan with a new kind of Power’ versus ‘a child born of a Power-bearing bloodline, who alone has a different Power, a Mutant.’
Doesn’t the latter sound at least a little more ordinary?
Ordinary.
I know how precious that word is.
So, well, so…
“I’m glad you’re happy about it too. From now on, you’re my daughter, Marshmallow. I found a daughter I didn’t even know I had while I was undercover.”
Oh, dear. That’s downright shameless.
The Duke tacked on the rest of his words in a humming, sing-song tone.
“Why don’t we say that the reason I went undercover in Brambshua to begin with was to meet a daughter I’d stumbled upon by chance? What do you think, Marshmallow?”
W-well, asking me about that is…
Above all, I still couldn’t fully accept this situation.
Becoming the Duke’s daughter would be beneficial in many ways, but still…
“I don’t get it, mister.”
“You don’t understand? Was there a difficult part?”
“No, that’s not it…”
I wiggled my hands, which were resting on my stomach, and asked.
“I don’t get why you’re taking me along, Lord Gongzan. There’s no profit for you in it…”
I really didn’t understand.
For me, becoming a Duchess’s daughter would be a gain, but for the Duke, wasn’t it a situation where he only stood to lose?
An unmarried Duke with an illegitimate child.
‘That’s the perfect recipe for wrecking his image.’
So why on earth did he want to take me in?
“Nothing in this world is free, you know. The world is very cold about that…”
Even the alms you receive on the street come with something in return.
Pity, and the warm satisfaction of having done a good deed.
So I bowed and scraped for them with everything I had.
I pressed my head to the ground and played the pitiful orphan with all my might.
That was the only thing I had to give.
‘…You’re not planning to keep me for a few days and then throw me out, are you?’
I want to believe Oliver isn’t that kind of person.
But he’s also the Duke of Pantheibe, the one people whisper about in fear.
Nngh.
“Gongzan would be happy too, if he had some good things…”
* * *
‘Good things about taking Marshmallow in as my daughter?’
If I’m being cold and objective about it, there are none.
And yet, the reason I wanted to take Melloni was simple.
‘I just wanted to.’
This child, who kept nagging at the back of my mind, who reminded me of Ravella, had said the orphanage frightened her.
She had said that if she could go anywhere, she wanted to go to our home.
Wouldn’t it be better to keep her close, rather than leave her far away and keep worrying?
That was the whole of it.
Well, a child who seems to believe nothing in this world is free won’t be satisfied with a reason like that.
‘…Maybe I should just come up with a convincing reason.’
Conti’s eyes curved lazily after reaching his decision in an instant.
“If you become my daughter, I stand to gain a great deal too.”
“…Weally?!”
The child, who had been slumped over, lit up and stared at him.
Her eyes sparkled at the mere mention of something good for her, too.
Honestly, she’s a strange one.
“Of course. I have no intention of marrying. I’ll keep the dukedom for a while, and when my nephews are grown, I plan to hand the title to them.”
Nod, nod.
Her small head bobbed up and down eagerly, completely absorbed in the story.
“Some old codger keeps pushing me to get married, though. It’s driving me up the wall.”
“Then if Melloni is here, that solves it…?”
“It does, indeed. If I had a daughter, fewer women would propose to me, and the old man couldn’t just pair me off with any woman he likes, not with a child in tow.”
It had been a plausible reason he’d prepared for the child, but as he spoke, he realized that her presence really would be useful.
The child’s brow furrowed slightly.
‘She seems to be thinking something over.’
Before long, the child, who had been pondering hard, wore the look of someone who had finally understood something.
“…So the old geezer is Gongzan’s father…?”
Her solemn murmur was so earnest that Conti couldn’t hold back his laughter.
Ha.
He let out a short laugh and gently tugged on Melloni’s soft, chubby cheek, careful not to hurt her.
Looking at that face, he suddenly wanted to tell her something he had never told anyone.
“And one last thing.”
“Mm-hm.”
“I’ve spent my whole life hearing people call me a genius.”
“…Ugh.”
The child’s face instantly soured.
Amused by how quickly her expression changed, Conti let out a small laugh.
“But someone once told me something. That I shouldn’t live only as a genius, that I should sometimes try being a fool.”
A woman surfaced in his mind.
A woman with violet hair streaming behind her, laughing like sunlight.
The first person who had ever told him, someone who had only ever known him as a genius, that he seemed lonely.
“If we ever have a child together, you’ll have to play the doting fool for them.”
“Doting fool?”
“Like a doting dad or a doting mom. You’ve lived your whole life as a genius, so you’ll be a fool to your family. How does that sound?”
How could it sound like anything but yes?
“Fine. If a child who looks like you is born, I’ll gladly become a complete fool for them.”
“And what if a child who looks like you is born?”
“Then I’ll try my best for that one, too.”
“Ha-ha. Yes! You promised, didn’t you?”
The bright smile on her face gradually faded.
The smile that had lingered on Conti’s lips dimmed for a moment as well.
“Mister? You okay?”
It was the child’s worried voice that snapped Conti out of his daze.
Conti gazed at the child for a moment, then reached out and poked the soft, puffy curve of the child’s cheek.
So squishy. I’d like it a bit plumper, but still.
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
Probably.
It’s manageable enough by now.
“Anyway, I made a promise back then. To try being a fool.”
“…But what does that have to do with me, mister Gongzan? I don’t really know how to make you a fool…”
“It has everything to do with it. I need you if I’m going to become a fool.”
“Really? What do I have to do?”
Her violet eyes sparkle, bright and shimmering.
“Nothing in particular. You just have to stay my daughter.”
Eyes gleaming like that, loud and boisterous.
“If I’m your daughter, will you become a fool, mister Gongzan…?”
“Probably?”
At the humming reply, Melloni tilted her head.
Her expression was puzzled, as if she could almost but not quite understand.
“Does it make a little more sense now?”
“Mm, a little bit.”
The child nodded, then added earnestly.
“So it’s like a deal, right? Melloni becomes mister Gongzan’s daughter and diligently gets in the way of his marriage, and makes mister Gongzan a fool…”
…I don’t think she understands at all.

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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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