The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 49

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

Chapter 49
* * *
“One, two, three, four, five….”
“What are you doing, Master?”
Bunny, who sat on the bed with her legs spread wide, counting coins one by one as she pulled them from Elephant’s belly, paused at the sudden voice from behind before continuing to speak.
It was Belial.
“Counting money to buy choco later.”
Choco was far more expensive than spirit stones, after all.
Of course, this was natural for Bunny.
Everyone knew that sweet choco was more expensive than a rock.
Naturally, Bunny knew this perfectly well.
“Choco? Ah, is there chocolate you wish to have, Master?”
“Mm.”
“Just say the word, and I, Belial, shall go fetch it at once….”
“No. Bunny has to buy it herself.”
Bunny shook her head as if to say he didn’t even know that.
Belial gazed at Bunny for a moment, then smiled gently.
“I see. I have been discourteous.”
“Mm. But Beri.”
“Yes, Master. Your Beri is right here.”
“From now on, you have to knock when you come here.”
As Bunny made a cute gesture of tapping the air with her small hand, Belial laughed broadly and nodded.
“Ah, of course! From now on, I absolutely will not forget to knock!!”
As Belial spoke loudly with his fist clenched, Bunny nodded repeatedly.
‘Beri is a bit loud.’
Bunny thought this to herself as she finished counting the numbers.
Bunny, who had stacked coins in bundles of ten roasts and arranged them, counted the bundles once more, then placed them neatly into Elephant before hopping up from her seat.
“Where are you going, Master?”
“Allen.”
Bunny left the room and crossed the vast mansion with familiar ease.
She turned right, then left again, and then made a wide turn around the corner.
The topmost floor of the Mansion of Trials.
Unlike the wooden floors below, polished marble stretched across the corridor, and there was no strange smell.
‘The fourth door here.’
Bunny stood before the door marked “Allen”.
Huff.
Bunny could read Allen now.
It was thanks to Allen bringing his name and eagerly waving it in front of her.
‘Allen, who gave me cookies today, seemed dark.’
It wasn’t quite a “tingle” or a “zing”, but more of a “flash” feeling.
Thump. Thump.
Bunny’s clenched fist struck the door with forceful determination.
Normally, a response would have come, but today—silence.
“Allen!”
Thump. Thump!
Bunny gripped both fists tightly and pounded the door twice more with all her strength.
The room remained silent. In that moment, Bunny’s lips puffed out in visible displeasure.
Belial’s eyes flashed crimson once.
“It appears no one is inside, Master.”
Belial, having sensed the interior, added that he detected no presence within.
When Bunny turned the doorknob slightly, the unlocked door slid open smoothly.
Bunny’s eyes widened as she stepped inside.
‘Allen’s room is way bigger than Bunny.’
Not even a hint of mustiness.
Bunny’s gaze fell upon books arranged in neat rows on the desk, and she hopped up to examine the surface more closely.
Clothes lay scattered carelessly across the floor, and a notebook rested on the desk. The open pages bore faint, wet stains.
As far as Bunny knew, Allen fell asleep at ten o’clock.
It was now nine.
Yet Allen was nowhere to be found.
The notebook bore what appeared to be—tear stains from Allen.
Gravity drained from Bunny’s expression, replaced by shock, before her eyes hardened with resolve.
‘Kidnapped!’
Allen’s been completely kidnapped!
However, unfortunately for Bunny, she lacked the strength to fight the kidnapper right now.
After all, the kidnapper was supposedly a monster-like person who commanded an enormous shadow beast, snatching the child away in an instant with some kind of sack(?), and locking them in an impossibly cramped space!
‘Unless Bunny transforms, still small and weak.’
That left her with only one possible conclusion.
Bunny turned with grim determination and left the room. Belial closed the door behind her in her place as she strode out.
“Belial, let’s go!”
“Where to, if I may ask?”
“To Father!”
Bunny’s short legs moved in rapid succession. Even Toto’s bounding gait seemed quite urgent.
Belial stroked his chin and followed leisurely at her side, opening his mouth to speak.
“Do you find this Allen fellow to your liking?”
“Mm. Allen shared some chocolate cookies with Bunny.”
“I see. He might not be a bad pet, certainly. For such a beast, it would be better to simply put a leash on him.”
“Mm?”
Belial, who had been muttering something under his breath, smiled and shook his head as Bunny tilted her head and looked up at him.
“It’s nothing. Let us go. I shall attend you.”
Bunny glanced at Belial, then dashed toward the Main Mansion with Toto. Only when she caught sight of the Guards standing watch before the Main Mansion did the child finally slow her pace.
“Bunny?”
“Yes! Hello. Is Father here?”
“He hasn’t gone out today, so I believe he should be somewhere within the mansion.”
“Okay.”
Bunny stepped inside, and Belial gave a slight bow in the manner of a guard knight.
Bunny dashed forward to Kiriel’s Room, which she’d visited countless times before, and pressed herself against the door, pounding it with both fists.
“Father!”
“Bunny…?”
A startled voice came from within, and soon the door swung wide open.
Kiriel, fresh from bathing with his upper body bare and water still dripping from his skin, looked at Bunny and spoke.
“What brings you here at this hour…? Don’t tell me you came just to see me…?”
“Father, Allen is missing.”
“…Ah.”
Kiriel’s words caught short as he heard Bunny’s statement, and he paused for a moment.
‘So it was that.’
With an expressionless face, I turned my gaze to the distant mountains beyond the window for a moment, then looked back.
“Judging from what Bunny saw, it seems like a kidnapping.”
“A kidnapping?”
That couldn’t be right.
Not here, not in the Udiah Duchy. Certainly not within the Duke’s House itself.
Committing such an act here would inevitably mean getting caught.
‘I haven’t heard anything about this either.’
As I turned my head in thought, the full moon hanging heavy in the sky entered my field of vision.
I paused, gazing at it for a moment.
“Ah.”
The full moon is when the power of the Beast-Human Clan reaches its peak. And Allen is half Beast-Human and half human.
“He’s probably sleeping elsewhere tonight.”
“Why?”
“Allen is a special child. When the full moon rises—round and complete—he no longer maintains his human form. He probably doesn’t want us to discover that side of him.”
At my words, Bunny blinked her bright eyes with a puzzled expression.
“If he doesn’t want us to find out, why is he hiding?”
“Who knows? Perhaps that’s the reason.”
“But…”
Bunny thought of Allen.
The way he would lower his head and shrink back slightly whenever someone whispered that he was a monster, a beast.
Perhaps he wanted to hide because everyone said that form was shameful and repulsive.
‘I felt sad too when people called me a child without parents while I was with Luriel. When they pointed fingers, suggesting I might be a Demon Clan child, I wanted to hide.’
Luriel had worn a hat at first, and when I was younger, I was clumsy at maintaining a human form, so I would wrap cloth around my head to hide my horns.
That’s why we couldn’t stay in one place and kept wandering. Of course, I became perfect at it later thanks to Luriel’s teaching.
But…
“But listen, what if Allen and Bunny think you see them as monsters because they’re not human?”
“….”
Kiriel’s eyes widened slightly at Bunny’s words.
“Or what if Father doesn’t like Allen because he’s not human?”
“No. I don’t dislike him.”
Kiriel spoke with conviction.
If he had harbored any aversion to Beast-Human Clan members, he would never have agreed to take Allen as his son in the first place. Kiriel regarded all races except the Demon Clan as fundamentally no different from humans.
It was only the Demon Clan he despised—so much so that he wished to erase their very existence from this world.
“Then you have to tell him you love him even though he’s not human. You have to say he’s beautiful, that he’s wonderful—so Allen feels encouraged too. Otherwise… Allen will cry alone….”
Bunny spoke with a dejected, downturned expression.
Kiriel stared at Bunny, his expression growing taut.
It was a perspective he had never considered.
Since the child wished to hide his nature, he had naturally assumed it was better to let him do so.
But Bunny was right.
If I continue to absent myself every full moon, refuse to face him, and fail to stop him, Allen will persist in believing his form is monstrous, bestial.
He will think no one draws near to him on full moons because he himself is a monster.
“…I see.”
Kiriel murmured softly, blinking his eyes.
“Stay away from the youngest son of the Udiah Duchy. He was cursed by the Demon Clan and fell ill. No one knows when he’ll die.”
“Kiriel! My little brother! You’re adorable today too.”
In that moment, a memory surfaced—the voice of someone unknown overlapping with his brother’s voice.
‘Come to think of it, something like that did happen.’
Kiriel slowly opened his mouth.
“Do you want to see Allen?”
“Yes.”
“Then shall we go find him together?”
Bunny’s face brightened at Kiriel’s words.
Bunny nodded eagerly.
“Yes!”
At Bunny’s spirited response, Kiriel gently stroked the child’s hair before scooping her into his arms.
After that, he commanded Belial to withdraw, then left the mansion with the child cradled against his chest.

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