The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 33

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

Chapter 33
* * *
“…What did you say?”
At my adjutant’s words, my brow furrowed sharply as I lay reading in my room.
Adjutant Lebon’s eyes widened slightly at the fierce gaze of Kiriel Yudia, whose expression betrayed a turbulent mixture of anger and bewilderment that defied simple description.
What manner of man was Kiriel Yudia?
After the Seonma War ended and my brother’s death followed, I had become the very embodiment of apathy—a man who seemed to prove that if you gave human form to listlessness, this is what you would get.
The minimal duties assigned to me by my adjutant’s relentless prodding I performed out of necessity, yet I moved through each day as though life’s purpose had vanished, breathing mechanically with a bleached expression.
I displayed no emotion, as though the only sentiments remaining were indifference and apathy, my face expressionless and my voice monotone.
“Lebon.”
As I furrowed my brow and urged him to continue, Lebon quickly adjusted his slipping glasses and hastened to speak.
“It appears Young Lady Bunny has become addicted to magical energy.”
“Then why are you asking me why she suddenly became that way after going to the Market?”
“According to the report from the shadow I assigned to her, it seems Young Lady met with the Marquis within the Marquis Estate grounds after returning from the Market.”
At Lebon’s explanation, I furrowed my brow, rose from my seat, threw a coat over my indoor clothes, and immediately left the room.
Lebon hurried after me.
“Afterward, Young Lady expressed a desire to visit the Imperial Palace, and the Marquis could not refuse, so he took her there.”
“The Imperial Palace.”
My brow narrowed.
If there was anyone in the Imperial Palace connected to magical energy, there was only one.
The Emperor’s sole and only son.
Simultaneously, the one cursed with a vicious curse that the Demon Clan had sacrificed their own lives to impose.
The Crown Prince, Roel Labdia Lotis.
He had spent more time in a state of misfortune than in a state of wellness. An unlucky member of the royal family cursed at merely four years of age.
Five years had passed since the curse took hold, and yet he clung to life with such tenacity—his will to survive was remarkable.
“Did she make contact with the Crown Prince?”
I spoke with rare ferocity, striding forward with long steps.
Lebon hesitated and shook his head.
“I have not yet received precise information on that matter.”
“The child.”
“For now, since she is in a state of magical energy addiction, she has been moved to the Holy Temple within the Duke’s House, it seems….”
Upon leaving the Dormitory Mansion, I headed straight for the Holy Temple.
From the entrance, an ominous aura could be felt.
I drew a deep breath and walked with long strides. Several people stood before the Holy Temple, as though they had heard the news.
And among them, a child caught my eye, lingering before the entrance without being able to enter.
A boy standing in a corner, unable to properly blend in with the crowd, at a loss for what to do.
Gray hair and golden eyes.
It was Allen, one of the children I had taken in.
Upon seeing the child, I stopped my hurried steps abruptly.
“Allen.”
“…Marquis.”
At Kiriel’s call, Allen looked at him with eyes wide as saucers. Whether from shock or surprise, tension flickered across his constricted pupils.
“B-Bunny said… that girl went to buy potatoes and hasn’t come back…. Oh, I-I was in class today so I couldn’t go with her…. Someone said she was cursed….”
Reading the fear in Allen’s trembling eyes, Kiriel roughly scrubbed his face with his palm to compose himself, then knelt on one knee.
“Allen.”
“Yes.”
“Calm yourself.”
“…But.”
“I’ll go inside and assess the situation, and I’ll do everything in my power. For now, no one knows what’s actually happened. So….”
“Chirp!”
At the sudden sound, Kiriel turned his head, and there on Allen’s shoulder sat what looked like a bright red small bird.
Kiriel’s eyes narrowed.
A Divine Beast?
He could faintly sense the aura of a Divine Beast.
“What is this?”
“Ah… well….”
Allen’s lips trembled as he carefully rolled his eyes. Then, squeezing his eyes shut, he opened his mouth.
“It was born from Bunny’s egg. Bunny said that since it wasn’t born as a Black Flame Dragon, you’d be disappointed, so she asked me to keep it hidden from you and everyone else….”
At Allen’s words, Kiriel’s expression became subtle.
There was no reason for disappointment. Whatever emerged from what was presumed to be a Divine Beast’s egg, there was virtually no chance it would be a Black Flame Dragon.
‘So this hatched from that egg that consumed so much sacred stone?’
Yet it appeared quite… small and weak.
He rubbed his chin with his eyes narrowed.
To begin with, no bird of this kind had ever been recorded in the archives of Divine Beasts or sacred artifacts summoned thus far.
“…Since Divine Beasts protect their masters, I thought it might be helpful, so I brought it along.”
At Allen’s words, Kiriel regarded him silently.
Despite always putting on a tough facade, he couldn’t meet people’s eyes properly, and he had no desire for human connection.
A boy who, rather than confronting the malice he heard, would simply turn away in frustration.
A child who had been slandered and treated as a monster for ten long years—the defeat had been carved into his very bones.
“Allen.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll look after that child. You’re still young and we don’t know what influence you might receive, so go back to your room for now.”
At Kiriel’s words, Allen hesitated.
He lifted his head, then lowered it again, his gaze falling as a faint disappointment spread across his eyes. It was clear he had wanted to go inside.
But bringing in a child who hadn’t yet come of age, whose sacred power was incomplete, carried far too many risks.
“Thank you for bringing the Divine Beast. Having it nearby will help somewhat. I’ll return your younger sister safely. And I’ll tell her you sent it.”
“…!”
At Kiriel’s words, Allen’s eyes widened.
Younger sister.
How deeply that single word struck his heart was beyond measure.
As Allen nodded, Kiriel gently stroked his hair once before rising from his seat.
“I’ll take good care of Bunny. And…”
“Yes.”
Kiriel gazed intently at the child’s golden eyes, bright as precious metals, as he answered so precisely, but when Allen tried to avert his gaze again, Kiriel spoke once more.
“From now on, stop calling me Marquis.”
“Pardon?”
“People might mistake you for someone unrelated rather than my son.”
With that final remark, Kiriel turned sharply on his heel.
“Even if hundreds of you gathered, it wouldn’t help, so it would be better if you scattered and attended to your own duties.”
In stark contrast to the tender words he had spoken to Allen, Kiriel delivered a cold statement to the assembled crowd that carried the bite of a northern winter wind, then entered the Holy Temple.
Watching him disappear inside, Allen’s mouth fell open before he slowly blinked.
“People might mistake you for someone unrelated rather than my son.”
His son?
He never imagined he would hear such words from Kiriel Yudia.
Allen’s face flushed crimson in an instant. He rubbed his reddened cheeks vigorously with his palms, then slowly turned his body.
‘I need to become stronger.’
Stronger in divine power and in my Divine Beast, so I won’t cause him worry.
Allen’s footsteps directed him toward the Training Ground.
* * *
“I’m surprised. I didn’t expect the Marquis to say such things.”
“Such things?”
“Yes. Compassionate words toward a child. I thought you were made entirely of apathy and indifference from head to toe, and the ice you brought from the Northern Region.”
“That’s not something you should say.”
Since Lebon matched him equally in delivering sharp words with an expressionless face as if his tongue were edged with a blade, Kiriel narrowed his brows as he spoke.
Then Lebon, his face still expressionless, shrugged his shoulders.
“In any case, it seems far too small and weak to have been born from that egg. I’ve never seen a Divine Beast like this in any records.”
“…”
Kiriel’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the small bird perched on his shoulder, then he abruptly pushed open the door to the Healing Chamber within the Holy Temple and entered.
At the sight that unfolded before him, Kiriel’s face hardened like stone.
“It’s not working. The healing power isn’t taking effect at all…”
“The purification power isn’t working either.”
“The fever has already exceeded 40 degrees, and we’ve been administering antipyretics directly into the bloodstream since earlier, but the medicine isn’t taking hold.”
Gathered there were the Healing Priest, the Purification Priest who specialized in cleansing, and even the family’s personal physician.
And between them lay a child on the bed, face flushed crimson, unable to open his eyes properly, breathing in ragged gasps.

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