The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 40

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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 40
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“Daddy, you’re so bright and sparkly today.”
Bunny’s mouth fell open at the sight of Kiriel Yudia—his hair neatly combed back in an unfamiliar style, dressed in an immaculate, dazzling, and pristine white uniform without a single wrinkle.
‘Daddy’s wearing white clothes too.’
Bunny, I must be careful not to get flour on them.
My anxiety multiplied a hundredfold. My vigilance multiplied a hundredfold.
I was clutching my chick-shaped bag slung across my chest and inching backward on my bottom to create distance when Kiriel, watching me from a distance try to hug my knees, opened his mouth.
“Bunny, sit properly.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Kiriel’s correction, I sat down obediently.
‘Escape failed.’
I rolled my eyes and stretched my head out the window, but at Kiriel’s touch, I sat back down straight in my seat.
“But where are we going?”
“The Imperial Palace I mentioned before. You said you wanted to go when I asked you.”
“Oh, the big human boss. He said he’d give me a gift.”
“You helped the Crown Prince once before, remember?”
The Crown Prince! The future big human boss! He owes me a debt.
“Yes.”
“So the Emperor wants to thank you personally.”
Kiriel explained calmly, lowering himself to my eye level, that this was why we left the Territory this morning.
I nodded my head.
Restless and kicking my legs, I gradually scooted to the edge of the chair, rested my chin on the window frame, and peered outside.
Beyond the carriage racing through the center of the sprawling town, I could see a bustling market.
As I hung from the window, kicking my legs, Kiriel apparently thought it looked dangerous and moved to sit by the window, placing me on his lap.
“Don’t lean your head out so far—it’s dangerous.”
“Yes, sir.”
But I was bored.
I thought to myself inside the carriage, which barely jolted at all.
The scenery whizzing past was so vibrant and colorful.
I never noticed this when I lived with Luriel. I was always hiding and moving only at night.
Watching families pass by together, I opened my mouth.
“Daddy.”
“What.”
His answer still sounded blunt and languid, but I blinked a couple of times, feeling the arm wrapped firmly around my waist.
“But where’s mommy?”
“…What?”
“Mommy! Luri, you see, daddy and mommy are a set. But daddy is without mommy. Where’s mommy?”
I finally asked the question I’d been curious about ever since Kiriel told me to call him daddy, and I looked at him intently.
….
At Bunny’s words, Kiriel fell silent and turned his head away. He simply had nothing to say.
With his limited way with words, explaining adoption to the child would take an eternity, and on top of that, explaining why there was no mother seemed equally difficult.
Of course, he didn’t have one either.
“…I don’t have one.”
“Huh?”
Kiriel, who had answered while avoiding her gaze, opened his mouth again at the child’s puzzled response.
“You don’t have a mother.”
The child wasn’t completely young, and if there was anything lacking, he could simply fill it all in himself.
As I thought this and looked down at Bunny, I stiffened slightly.
Bunny, with her protruding lips, stood with her mouth agape, staring at me with an expression of shock as if she had discovered something she absolutely should not have seen.
“Mister, Luri. Why does this baby Demon King only have a daddy?”
“Ah~ You’re talking about the fairy tale ‘The Fierce Kitten of the Black Flame Dragon Family’, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s because daddy, the Black Flame Dragon, had only a handsome face but a ferocious personality, and was savage and unkind to women, so no one approached him. So… in short, an unchosen man.”
Bunny, recalling memories with Luriel, gazed at him with trembling eyes.
His father was handsome, but he had scars around his eyes, rarely smiled, and was certainly taciturn. He was kind to Bunny and Allen, but not kind to others.
‘Besides, no one comes near daddy.’
Except for his adjutant Lebon, I rarely saw anyone approach my father.
Gasp.
“Daddy… an unchosen man.”
“…What?”
“Luri said so. Daddy, if mommy is absent, then you’re an unchosen man, she said.”
What does that even mean.
Kiriel gazed at Bunny, who continued to speak in words he could not understand, and silently stroked the child’s head.
At Kiriel’s touch, Bunny’s lips softened and trembled.
“Bunny.”
“Yes?”
“You mention someone called Luri often—would it be alright to ask who she is? Is she someone who took care of you when you were little?”
At Kiriel’s words, Bunny flinched.
Glancing up at Kiriel, I saw a calm expression without a trace of hostility.
Bunny gazed up at him quietly for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth.
“Luri took care of Bunny when Bunny was a baby. She gave me lots of delicious things, taught me how to earn money, and read me lots of fairy tales.”
“I see. So that’s how it was.”
“Yes….”
Bunny nodded, becoming a little downcast.
Kiriel gazed at Bunny, whose head drooped as if her spirit had wilted, and silently stroked the child’s head.
“Aren’t you sad about being separated?”
“When Bunny becomes a fine adult, we’ll meet again. Bunny is preparing to find her daddy and become a fine adult.”
At the sight of Bunny thrusting out her thumb, Kiriel let out a soft laugh.
The child would droop for a moment, then spring back up like a roly-poly toy, as if nothing had happened.
Watching such a child, Kiriel found himself seized by a strange exhilaration—as if he could accomplish anything. Not that he particularly desired anything in the first place.
“We’ve arrived.”
The carriage came to a halt, and Kiriel casually scooped the child into his arms.
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“Oh, you’ve finally come. I didn’t expect you to show up, Marquis Kiriel.”
As Kiriel Yudia, cradling the child, entered the Greenhouse with his characteristic expressionless face, a tall man with golden hair came forward to greet them both.
Golden hair. Golden eyes.
Bunny’s eyes widened at the sight of him—a figure as if the sun itself had been sculpted into human form. He gleamed far more brilliantly than the Crown Prince.
Bunny’s mouth fell open as she glanced back and forth between Kiriel and the Emperor.
‘So handsome. Just like Dad.’
Bunny folded her arms across her chest, her expression turning serious and contemplative.
‘Handsome matters. Bunny, should I switch dads?’
“I pay my respects to the Sun of Lotis…”
While Bunny remained lost in thought, Kiriel Yudia—his voice characteristically languid and drawn out—offered his greeting without even properly facing the Emperor, then set Bunny down on the ground.
When he lightly tapped her shoulder, Bunny let out a small “Oh!” and quickly bowed her head.
“Hello there. I’m Bunny, four years old.”
It was an unusual greeting, with all semblance of etiquette abandoned—her two arms stretched straight back as if preparing for flight, which was particularly striking.
The Emperor’s eyes widened, and then he burst into laughter.
“She’s still young and hasn’t yet mastered proper etiquette perfectly. Please forgive her.”
It wasn’t so much that she hadn’t mastered etiquette as that she’d simply discarded it entirely, but the Emperor made no particular objection.
“Haha, that’s fine. I heard you’d suddenly adopted a child, but… what a lovely girl. Hello there, Bunny. Would you like to come sit with us? I’ve prepared a delicious lunch.”
“Okay!”
Bunny answered obediently and toddled forward, stopping before a chair and craning her neck upward. The chair was too tall.
“Bunny, Bunny. Your seat is over there.”
At that moment, a voice came from beside her.
Following the voice, Bunny turned to look and found a smaller chair nearby.
Bunny’s gaze shifted to the person who had spoken to her—the Crown Prince, who had been writhing in pain on the bed not long ago.
Bunny blinked as she met his crimson eyes.
Unlike before, he wasn’t sweating and didn’t appear to be suffering—he looked healthy. Perhaps that’s why? Even Dad seemed to be in a good mood.
‘Well, that’s a relief.’
“Shall I lift you up?”
Huff.
At the sudden voice, Bunny extended her stubby index finger and wagged it back and forth.
“Bunny’s not a baby. I can do it myself.”
Just as Bunny was about to dangle from the chair and jump up—
Her body lifted gently into the air.

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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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