The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 156

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 156
“Hahahaha!!”
Kalbad clutched his stomach and rolled across the floor. He had no time to worry about dignity or propriety.
He knew Allen, the aloof ice prince as he was called in high society.
As they grew older and taller, various people began approaching Allen and Kalbad. Especially after attending High Society gatherings and Banquets, young ladies frequently sought them out.
Both Allen and Kalbad possessed basic manners and conducted themselves with a certain decorum, but nothing more.
Among them, Allen showed almost no interest in other women because of his younger sister Bunny. That’s how he earned the nickname “ice prince.”
The sight of Allen—rumored to be so cold that even a pinprick wouldn’t draw blood—arriving with his eyes bound tightly shut with black cloth was utterly ridiculous.
“Heh, wh-what is that…. Hahahaha!”
Kalbad finally stopped only after his laughter became so breathless he could barely speak. Allen’s ears had already flushed crimson.
“Don’t laugh!”
“No, but how did you even get here like that?”
“….”
Allen fell silent.
Kalbad rubbed his chin, then rose from his seat with a mischievous expression and spoke.
“Don’t tell me… you brought the cloth with you and fumbled around out there tying it on?”
“…Shut up!”
Allen burst out loudly. It seemed he’d guessed correctly.
Kalbad chuckled again.
He brushed the dust from his clothes and stepped back. While teasing him further wouldn’t be bad, Allen seemed to have rushed here in a panic, so he decided to let it go for now.
“…Shut up.”
Allen clenched his fists and bowed his head deeply.
“Bunny, are you there?”
Bunny stared at Allen quietly and tilted her head.
Allen’s chest bore the same dark mark that Kalbad had.
Bunny blinked once more. Then she quietly looked up at Allen, whose eyes were firmly covered.
“Bunny, I’m sorry for making you cry.”
“….”
“I never wanted to make you cry. I wasn’t trying to ignore you, and it wasn’t because I hate you. I mean it. Please believe me.”
Allen spoke in a ridiculous tone, his voice barely a whisper.
Bunny blinked with a clear face and exhaled slowly. Her heart fluttered and tickled.
“It’s not that I’ve come to dislike you because you’re a Demon Clan Member.”
“….”
“But why did you cover your eyes in the first place? Allen?”
Kalbad, uncomfortable with the silence settling over the room, scratched his head and casually asked.
Bunny remained silent, for the sorrow of rejection weighed heavier on her than Allen’s ridiculousness.
“Lately I’ve been feeling strange. I keep imagining hating you. I don’t want to, but even after washing with cold water, sleeping, slapping my own cheeks… it’s like someone keeps poking me.”
Allen explained earnestly, his brow furrowed.
He was looking toward the source of the voice, but because his vision was firmly obscured, he couldn’t see Bunny. Yet he could sense her presence before him.
“I never disliked or hated you. Please, I’m begging you to believe at least that much.”
Allen spoke pleadingly.
“But… I really didn’t understand it myself. You won’t believe me, but I genuinely had nothing but terrible thoughts. I was afraid I’d hurt you….”
“….”
I remained silent.
My heart, which had been stinging, began to melt away. Yet for some reason, my lips wouldn’t part easily.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then slowly opened them and exhaled a long breath.
“I thought you’d come to hate me.”
After a long pause, I finally managed to voice my true feelings.
“Me?! That’s impossible!”
Allen, startled, drew in a sharp breath and quickly shook his head.
His fumbling appearance with his eyes covered was rather amusing, so Kalbad’s shoulders trembled silently.
Having already witnessed Bunny’s tears while meeting her gaze, Kalbad’s situation was slightly better than Allen’s.
He scratched his cheek, let out a quiet laugh, and sat down on the bed.
‘Facing her makes it a little better.’
Until now, merely meeting her gaze had felt like something catastrophically terrible would happen… but it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. At least that was a relief.
‘…Even now, something feels strange.’
If I relaxed even slightly, some unwholesome emotion would threaten to consume my mind. I kept wanting to avoid Bunny.
“This too—when I see you, I’m afraid I’ll hurt you without even realizing it. That’s why I covered my eyes. And why I didn’t open the door! It’s all because of that.”
Allen rushed to continue speaking.
He was driven by the anxiety that if he didn’t persuade her now, he might never get another chance.
Both Kalbad and Allen were acutely aware of when they’d begun to change.
The Witch who claimed to be Shalone’s Mother had cursed them both.
It was a curse with a texture somewhat different from black magic. For one, curses require neither dark mana nor demonic energy. They only need a small sacrifice. Thus they leave no traces, and evidence is difficult to find.
Curses are difficult to confirm with the naked eye. They leave no mana residue, nor are they filtered by holy power, making them hard for mages and priests alike to detect.
Indeed, there were rumors that even the ancient forces—those said to be the very source of magic and holy power—were themselves born from curses.
Only demons, born from the desires and greed that spawned the curse, can perceive it.
‘There’s a writhing smoke around Allen and Kalbad.’
I crossed my arms, my expression troubled. It was because Luriel had taught me what that wispy smoke writhing near the heart truly was.
‘Dazzling, dazzling… no, it makes people all hazy and confused.’
It could make someone who hates you come to like you, or make someone who likes you come to hate you.
A kind of illusory magic. But a strange ancient magic that only demons can perceive.
“B… Bunny?”
When I said nothing, Allen called out to me cautiously. Only then did I realize my mistake and jerk my head up.
“Yeah.”
“Are you very angry?”
I, with my arms crossed, pondered.
Hmm. Was I very angry?
‘My heart was hurt, but….’
Truth be told, I wasn’t angry. I simply wished that if they’d come to dislike me, they would have explained their reasons to my face. Honestly, without running away.
If they had, I wouldn’t have cried.
Bunny, feeling a belated flush of embarrassment, scrubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“…Mm.”
“I’m sorry. Will you forgive me? Really… I was foolish. I should have been honest with you from the start.”
Bunny glanced sideways at Kalbad.
Kalbad, suppressing his laughter, suddenly grinned mischievously when their eyes met and pressed a finger to his lips.
At that gesture, Bunny’s eyes widened and she giggled in return.
“Well… I’m terribly disappointed, Allen.”
“No, I really didn’t mean it that way. What would I do without you? Don’t be like this, Bunny.”
“…But Allen, you were trying to let me go. Kalbad opened the door wide the moment I said I was leaving and spoke honestly, but you didn’t even try.”
Bunny shook her head with a mischievous expression, as if truly disappointed.
Kalbad, unable to contain himself, buried his face in the bed and kicked his legs in the air.
“No! That bastard Kalbad only did that because he overheard what happened in my room!”
“Allen’s room and Kalbad’s room are three doors apart.”
Bunny spoke as if bewildered.
She herself was different, but it would be difficult for an ordinary human to hear sounds from such a distance.
Allen’s lips fluttered in confusion.
Members of the Yudia Ducal House fundamentally summon Divine Beasts or Divine Artifacts. And naturally, their own abilities developed in directions connected to their Divine Beasts or Divine Artifacts.
Kalbad’s Divine Beast was a Giraffe.
And Giraffes were characterized by exceptionally keen senses.
Naturally, Kalbad, as its master, was also affected—his five senses were several times more acute than those of ordinary humans. Hearing was naturally included among those five senses.
‘So of course he would have heard!’
Allen’s lips trembled violently.
Bunny had summoned a Divine Beast of such a unique nature, and she herself was rather peculiar, so she seemed unaffected, but that was not usually the case.
Why else would there be a saying in the Yudia Family that “the person follows the Divine Beast”?
The anecdote from several generations ago about a famous ruffian who drew a calm Divine Beast and subsequently reformed was something everyone in the Yudia Ducal House knew.
“I’m not lying—I’m serious. Say something, Kalbad.”
“Huh~? Say what?”
Kalbad scratched his ear and replied with deliberate indifference.
Allen’s lips quivered as he realized there was no intention to cooperate in that voice.
Yet Kalbad simply widened his eyes and shook his head.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————