The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 65
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 65
“What in the world are you talking about? How could a dead man have a daughter? It’s been ages since my brother disappeared. Are you saying he was rolling around in bed with a corpse?”
“Pegasus found her. The Yudia bloodline is confirmed.”
“…What?”
Klein Yudia let out a hollow laugh.
With his arms crossed, he furrowed his brow and roughly swept his hair back. The story was so unbelievable that skepticism welled up inside him, but since a Divine Beast had confirmed it, he had nothing to say.
A Divine Beast was fundamentally a sacred life form of the gods.
It did not lie.
There was no way it could be wrong in finding something that met the specified conditions.
Ludbreed also seemed to feel Klein Yudia’s disbelief and frustration, and silently swept his hair back roughly.
“From what I hear, she’s about six years old now. That’s around when he disappeared.”
“So you’re saying there must have been a woman he was seeing right before he vanished? With his personality?”
“Precisely because of his personality. After he drew the holy sword ‘Orhathor’ that the first family head used, wasn’t he constantly being pushed around? He might have missed human connection.”
At Ludbreed’s words, Klein Yudia’s face contorted.
“How did you even discover her? And why is she only appearing now?”
“I don’t know. She might have been too far away. Pegasus only recently sensed her and informed me. Her face certainly… resembles his.”
Ludbreed murmured softly with a nostalgic expression.
Kiriel Yudia, who had been listening silently, slowly opened his mouth.
“…You’re saying my elder brother’s child is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then why haven’t you brought her here?”
Kiriel Yudia asked with a hardened expression.
At those words, Ludbreed hesitated. In the quiet anger emanating from him, Ludbreed could still feel how deeply Dios Yudia occupied a place within Kiriel Yudia.
“I intend to bring her, but it seems she’s refusing because she was startled to suddenly be told she’s a member of the Duke’s House.”
“Is there only the child?”
“No, the mother is there too. It appears she’s the woman he briefly met before his disappearance, as I suspected. We even found a letter he left behind.”
At Ludbreed’s words, Kiriel Yudia’s eyes widened sharply once more.
Not even remains had been left behind. Not a single fragment of a body could be found.
Since Kiriel Yudia was the last to infiltrate the Demon King’s Castle, the fact that nothing could be recovered made him feel the most hollow and miserable.
All he had been able to recover was a single pendant that fell after the Demon King died and turned to dust.
A silver pendant engraved with the crest of the Yudia Duchy. It was a pendant Kiriel had gifted to his brother long ago.
And inside it was a small photograph—a picture of a tiny newborn baby who hadn’t even opened her eyes.
At the time, he had no chance to wonder what it was, and later, just in case, he had quietly searched without telling anyone, but found nothing….
“Even so, do you have proof that the child is truly my brother’s and not from a branch family? Pegasus can’t distinguish between branch and direct lineage anyway.”
“She simply looks too much like him when he was young. You’ll understand when you see her. Why I think that way.”
He sighed as he spoke.
“When I heard from the mother, the man’s appearance was also similar to him. Of course, until we conduct proper tests, it’s nothing but my speculation. So we can handle the details once she comes and we examine her.”
“…It’s true that my brother did have a child.”
Kiriel, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.
At his sudden words, the gazes of all three people poured toward Kiriel.
“Wait, Kiriel’s Elder Brother had a child? Really? How did you even know that?”
“Yes. When I defeated the Demon King back then, I picked up Kiriel’s Elder Brother’s pendant, and inside it was a photograph of a newborn. The baby’s eyes weren’t even open yet, but the hair was the same water-blue color as Kiriel’s Elder Brother’s.”
At Kiriel’s words, Ludbreed’s jaw dropped.
He’d never heard that Kiriel had discovered the pendant in the first place, and learning there was a photograph of a child inside it left him utterly dumbfounded.
“It existed? Then why didn’t you say anything!”
“I didn’t think about it back then… Later, I investigated using Baek Young, but we didn’t find anything conclusive at that time.”
“Baek Young couldn’t find it?”
Klein Yudia, who had been listening quietly, furrowed his brow in question, and Kiriel nodded.
“That’s right.”
“It’s curious that something even Baek Young couldn’t find has surfaced now.”
Baek Young.
Literally meaning “white shadow,” it was a covert special unit that had served the Udiah Duke Family for a long time.
Within the Udiah Duke Family, where meaningless killing was forbidden, it was an organization dedicated to purposeful elimination.
Operating within the deep shadows cast beneath brilliant white light, they were mostly quiet operatives specialized in information gathering.
An independent institution that included no members of any family existing within the Udiah Duke Family.
Rather than serving the family head, it was a special organization where one member per generation—chosen from the direct line of the Udiah Duke Family—became their master.
And in this generation, the master Baek Young chose was Kiriel.
There was nothing they couldn’t find, and they would sacrifice their lives without hesitation for mission completion.
Baek Young’s selection of members was conducted solely through the hands of their leader. Though the Udiah Duke Family was their employer, no one could interfere with their personnel decisions.
Because no one’s hand could reach them, they were trustworthy even if internal strife or betrayal occurred within the Udiah Duke Family.
Even more so because they would never betray their chosen master until death.
“So you’re saying this child might actually be Kiriel’s Elder Brother’s?”
“There’s a possibility.”
Baek Young had chosen not the eldest son who drew the holy sword, nor the second son who achieved consecutive victories in every battle, but the youngest.
A young boy whom everyone shunned, whispering that he was cursed by the Demon Clan.
“So you’re bringing him here?”
“Either way, he carries Yudia blood. Whether he’s Dios Yudia’s child or not requires further verification, but…”
“If he’s a direct descendant and not a branch family member, we can’t just leave him be—someone has to take him in.”
At Salame’s words, Ludbreed narrowed his eyes and slowly turned his head.
Only one person came to mind as someone capable of raising the eldest son’s child.
“If the child comes, will you take him in, Kiriel?”
Since he had followed the eldest son, Dios, so well, he would surely raise him without any shortcomings.
Especially… it seemed like something had changed slightly since recently adopting two children.
At Ludbreed’s words, Kiriel hesitated and fell silent.
“….”
Normally, he would have certainly agreed lightly. Or rather, he might have even volunteered to adopt the child himself first.
But…
‘…Four children in total?’
Kiriel’s brow furrowed. No matter how he thought about it, it seemed difficult to manage.
After all, caring for just Bunny alone was as burdensome as caring for three children.
“Father… the man who wasn’t chosen.”
A sudden memory made Kiriel pause.
He’d already been labeled as a man who wasn’t chosen, and yet here he was with four children—wasn’t that rather contradictory?
Moreover, if he took on one more, he’d feel the exhaustion of caring for six children, and he wasn’t confident he could handle that.
“Even now with just three children, I should give this some thought.”
After a long silence, Kiriel answered thus, and Ludbreed’s expression became peculiar.
“Three? I understand Bunny and Allen, but who else did you adopt?!”
“Well…”
Kiriel spoke languidly, his gaze leisurely sweeping over Klein.
“A nephew of mine came to the Annex Building after disowning his father, saying he hated him.”
“Are you picking a fight?”
“Even as an adult, he acts like a child, so there’s no one left around him, Brother.”
At Kiriel’s words, Klein Yudia’s cheek twitched as if he were choking back emotion, and he opened his mouth with a fierce expression.
“I don’t want to hear that from you of all people, even if the whole world condemns me! Who else plays as much of a loner as you do!”
“In the end, your own son came to me too, didn’t he…? I didn’t realize I was so popular with children.”
“What?”
“He was so oppressed by you that his face turned bright red from just one compliment—he didn’t know what to do with himself.”
Seeing Klein Yudia’s bewildered expression, Kiriel let out a soft laugh and rose leisurely from his seat.
“You complained endlessly that Father was too strict, and yet you’re doing the exact same thing? Anyway, it’s time for me to go.”
Click.
Kiriel left with an expressionless face, having dropped that bombshell, and the door closed. Soon, a heavy silence descended.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————