The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 170
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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 170
Hello, Young Lady Bunny.
The words appeared more composed than usual, formal, and somehow weighted with a heavy resignation. Even though they were merely characters on a page, she could feel it.
Bunny stared at them without speaking, then slowly exhaled.
“Luriel.”
As Bunny called out that name with careful deliberation, the characters vanished and new ones emerged in their place.
Are you angry with me, Young Lady?
Luriel’s Notebook asked.
Bunny gazed at the Notebook without responding.
She blinked her eyes wide once, then exhaled sharply. She didn’t want to be angry. She wanted to have a conversation.
“No, I’m not angry. I just have so many questions, so much I want to understand. Is that okay?”
At Bunny’s question, Luriel wrote nothing for quite a long time.
Only after a considerable silence did new characters appear.
Yes.
A brief word of permission that emerged after that prolonged silence.
Bunny drew in a deep breath and blinked slowly.
Then she flexed her fingertips lightly and carefully opened her mouth.
“All this time, I thought you had gone somewhere far away to recover. Your body grew weak from caring for me, after all. So I believed that once I became an adult and the Demon Clan members regained their full strength, you would return….”
So I thought that if I became a worthy adult, we could meet again. It would be no exaggeration to say I endured and waited, clinging to that belief alone.
But in an instant, everything shattered. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. I was angry, and my chest felt so tight and suffocating.
Yet the greatest emotion was… the fact that Luriel had lied to me.
“But Luriel is already dead…?”
….
“…You’re not alive. You’ve already become a relic? This Notebook is… Luriel? Is Luriel dead? Or alive? What happened? I….”
Bunny’s head drooped.
“Was I deceived by Luriel? There’s no chance Luriel will ever return? Why….”
Patter.
Pitter-patter.
“Ah….”
Tears spilled down her cheeks without warning.
Bunny rubbed her eyes furiously with her sleeve. She hadn’t wanted to cry, but the tears came anyway, and she couldn’t believe it.
Bunny wiped her cheeks.
“Why did you do this?”
Bunny asked.
She truly didn’t understand the reason.
She couldn’t fathom why Luriel had to become like this and leave her behind. To Bunny, Luriel was everything.
Family and friend alike, and also the one and only mother figure.
Bunny had learned from Luriel how to live steadfastly even in the face of sorrow. That’s why she could endure without Luriel, why she could survive without her.
Yet the reason Bunny felt most betrayed and heartbroken by all of this was….
“Why did you lie to me and leave me behind and go alone…?”
The fact that Luriel had vanished to an unreachable place without saying a word.
Bunny burst into tears, rubbing her eyes furiously.
Though I could sense Bunny’s anguish, I couldn’t speak a word in return.
I was a Notebook now, no longer possessing warm arms or a body to embrace a child.
I could only feel Bunny’s emotions through the hands that held me.
“…Luriel?”
Bunny called out to me hesitantly, her thick tears falling one by one in sorrow.
Only then did I slowly form words upon the Notebook’s pages.
I’m sorry. At that time, there was no other way. I was going to die soon after cutting off my horns. I couldn’t just accept that fate. I wanted to see you grow up… no, I wanted to see the Young Lady grow up.
“….”
And the Demon King asked me to do this too. To protect you safely until you became an adult, until the day you became the Demon King.
“Mother…?”
Bunny’s eyes widened.
This was the first time she had heard such a story from me.
I had rarely spoken to Bunny about her father and mother. Bunny hadn’t pressed the matter either.
With me present, the existence of a mother and father didn’t seem particularly necessary. So all this time, she had been able to live without much curiosity about it.
At some point, Bunny even gained a wonderful father named Kiriel Yudia.
I provided good knowledge, and there was a mother-like presence who loved her more than anyone else.
She gained siblings, sisters, a grandfather, and countless servants.
So Bunny was never lonely.
She had never been lonely once. Everything I taught her kept loneliness away.
So… Bunny found all of this simply joyful and happy. She even wished everything could last forever.
But the world wouldn’t leave Bunny alone. So she was pushed and pushed until she finally arrived here.
Yes. Though my words were clumsy, I was certainly concerned about you. My precious Young Master. My dear Young Lady. I have so much to say. I wanted to tell you these things after you grew older and became a magnificent Demon King.
“Luriel….”
I actually came from a very distant place. I died once in that far-off world long ago.
“…What? You died?”
Yes. I hated living, and trivial torment was too painful to bear. If I could have just endured that one moment, it would have been enough, but I couldn’t manage it… so I died. Or so I thought, but when I opened my eyes, I was in the Demon Realm.
“Was there some incredible magic involved?”
Perhaps. But some incredibly powerful archmage told me I could live again and return to the Original World. And there would be many people like me. If I could make some child who would be born someday happy and raise them into an adult, they would send me back to the Original World.
Bunny read the words written in the Notebook calmly.
Neither quickly nor slowly, she read carefully. She didn’t want to miss a single character.
“People like you?”
People who thought the world was too difficult, who believed they were the most unfortunate in the world, who gave up far too easily.
Bunny stared at the letters for a long moment, then nodded very slowly. Some of the story was difficult to understand, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t comprehend it.
It’s funny, isn’t it? I hated that world so much that I ran away, but when I came here, I wanted to go back home. So… I decided to make the Young Master who would be born someday happy.
“…Yes.”
It’s true that I started this to return home. But… my wish for you to be happy was genuine. My desire for you to be happier than anyone else was no lie. My heart wasn’t entirely false.
The letters grew faint, then clear, then faint again.
The once-neat handwriting trembled slightly, and the ink smudged and blurred. It seemed to reveal my emotional state completely.
Bunny drew in a breath with deliberate slowness.
I nodded and clenched my fists before releasing them.
I knew this much—I had rarely sensed a lie from Luriel.
Luriel had always loved me and done her best for me. That much was no deception.
I used the Young Master for your sake. For that, I apologize. I only wanted to make the Young Master happy. Because… I knew his future.
“His future?”
Yes. A future from within a certain story. So I tried to prevent it. In that story, the Young Master would suffer far too much.
Bunny gazed at the words in silence before nodding slowly.
So I wanted to create a future that exists in no story—one where the Young Master and I could be together.
“…A future we build together?”
Yes. A future where the Young Master could be happiest. That’s why I thought at first that taking Shalone’s place was the right thing to do. It seemed like I was succeeding to some degree.
I pushed Shalone aside and hoped that Bunny would find happiness in her stead.
Luriel had made Bunny into the brightest and most cheerful child imaginable, and I had become utterly unlike the villainess from the story. Now I was different from any story at all.
Most crucially, there was one decisive difference: I did not seek happiness for myself alone.
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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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