The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 96

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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 96
Fearing her hand would shatter under the tremendous pressure, Shalone quickly withdrew it with a yelp.
Bunny giggled with delight, her entire body trembling with joy at whatever had pleased her so.
‘Does she know who I am…? Or is she simply returning my own cunning back to me like a fox?’
‘Bunny, this is my first handshake…’
Bunny rubbed beneath her nose with satisfaction, puffing out her chest proudly as she gazed at Shalone.
“I thought you were stupid, but you can shake hands, little one.”
“You’re doing it amazingly well? And I never even taught you how to shake hands.”
Watching Kalbad and Allen heap praise upon Bunny for merely shaking hands, Shalone gently massaged her throbbing fingers.
Hmph.
“Bunny is a genius.”
“That’s right, our Bunny is a genius.”
Allen stroked Bunny’s head while nodding enthusiastically.
‘What is wrong with this household! That wicked Demon Clan member…!’
Shalone suppressed the surge of emotion rising within her as she watched Bunny gaze at her with pride and satisfaction, turning her head away sharply.
‘I will expose your true identity completely.’
‘Bunny, I might have actually become closer to the Homunculus.’
Their thoughts were worlds apart.
* * *
Shalone.
She was a Homunculus born from a mad Witch—an artificial human.
A created life born in a small cottage, brought into existence by the Witch’s hands as she desired.
A doll animated by a small stone infused with countless things, serving as her heart.
Shalone’s purpose for existing was singular: to secure the Witch’s luxurious and peaceful rise to prominence.
To achieve this, Shalone’s role was to become the sole precious daughter and granddaughter cherished by this household.
It should have been simple.
“It’s easy, Shalone. If you simply do as I say, you can become the happiest child in the world. As the one and only cherished daughter of that arrogant Marquis household, you’ll live surrounded by everything you need, everything you desire—love, affection, all of it.”
“Hmm? Me? You mean me? Ahahaha! Yes, yes. You must be curious like this. How delightfully human. My goal is to live peacefully beside you as your creator mother, free from financial worries for the rest of my life.”
“Now, just follow my words. After all, that girl in the Yudia Duchy is a Demon Clan member.”
Shalone recalled the story she had heard countless times and slowly lifted her gaze. She blinked and stared straight ahead.
“Because she’s a Demon Clan member, that child is very, very gloomy and…”
Gloomy…?
“Why isn’t it working?”
Muttering in frustration, the child had nearly torn the flour sack to shreds when it suddenly burst with a loud pop, scattering flour everywhere and reducing the kitchen to chaos.
“Oh no, don’t!”
Thump.
The child, now covered head to toe in white flour, sat down on the floor with an expression of despair.
“Having lived in lonely isolation, she grew up knowing nothing of love, and thus understands nothing of human emotion either…”
Through the haze of flour dust, Shalone blinked again at the scene before her.
“Oh my, I did tell you I would tear it open for you.”
“Bunny, you’re eight years old now. I thought you could do things on your own without help…”
Bunny pouted with a dejected expression, fidgeting with her fingers before speaking softly.
“Sorry.”
A long sigh.
Luca, the Chef who had once been a trainee but now served as the Udiah Duke Family Estate’s official chef, watched Bunny’s slumped shoulders and suddenly sprang up, shaking his head vigorously.
Goodness, my mouth runs away with me! What does a little mess matter anyway!
“It’s perfectly fine, I’ll clean it all up~! Come now, I just opened this new one for you—shall we try baking some chocolate cookies?”
A man waving something like a mortar pestle back and forth caught my eye as he stood before the dejected Bunny.
“All that child knows how to do is glare at others or push them away with cold words. A demon who knows nothing of giving.”
The Witch’s voice, always spoken with confident amusement, and that scene now slowly overlapped with the present reality.
“No. Today, eight-year-old Bunny is trying something new.”
“Oh, not the swirly potatoes, nor the sweet potato honey preserves, nor the potato butter pops, nor the bread bites you can eat in one mouthful?”
“Nope. Today it’s pizza.”
Bunny declared this with an extremely solemn expression.
At Bunny’s words, Luca’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands together enthusiastically.
“Today’s name isn’t very intuitive, is it?”
“In… Bunny doesn’t have a wallet…”
“No, intuitive—I mean the name isn’t very direct. You see, swirly potatoes are called that because you cut them in spirals and fry them, making them swirly, and potato butter pops are small potatoes cooked with butter, and bread bites are vegetables and meat stuffed into bread so you can eat them in one mouthful…”
“Yep, this is pizza.”
Bunny brushed off Luca’s lengthy explanation with a dismissive snort.
In my memories, Luriel was an exceptionally skilled cook. She always made delicious food from bland vegetables, and this was a dish Bunny could rarely eat.
After all, it contained premium ingredients and cheese, which Bunny absolutely adored!
‘It’s definitely not because I want to eat cheese.’
Bunny’s devious plan to put the Homunculus in my debt by making her something delicious.
“Wait a moment, Homu… I mean, Shalone. Bunny will make you something delicious.”
She won’t eat it if I don’t call her by the right name.
“What should I help with first?”
“Um… hands!”
Bunny rolled up her sleeves and stretched both hands high. Luca chuckled softly and simply lifted Bunny, carrying her to where the water flowed.
“A pitiful child who desires love yet knows neither how to love nor how to be loved. That is precisely what that child is.”
Shalone blinked once, then nodded with a smiling face as she pondered this.
‘None of that is accurate.’
How could that possibly be a child who desires love yet knows neither how to love nor how to be loved?
Far from being gloomy, she was so thoroughly beloved that the evidence of it flowed from her entire being, overflowing onto the very floor.
‘Is that really the terrible Demon Clan Member?’
A Demon Clan Member who uses grotesque, frightening, and filthy dark magic.
Yes. The child of that terrible Demon Clan Member who killed her own biological father?
‘Is that really the future Demon King?’
The future Demon King, dangling from human hands making squeaky sounds as she washes her hands meticulously, stands on a small child’s step stool, and kneads flour with her tiny hands…
Is that really her?
No, she wasn’t even kneading the dough.
The human standing beside her was the one kneading, while Bunny merely fiddled with a minuscule amount of flour.
“Uhhh… Puff, puff.”
As Bunny squinted her eyes because her dough wouldn’t come together properly, Luca suddenly thrust his head over from beside her.
“Would just water and flour be enough, Young Lady?”
“No, salt and also um, the slippery stuff!”
“Ah, oil perhaps? This?”
“Yep. Just a little.”
“Understood.”
Luca deftly shaped a round ball of dough beside her, but Bunny’s refused to hold together and wouldn’t soften either.
Bunny grasped the flour in both hands again and began kneading it anew.
‘This is strange. Bunny, the recipe is flawless, yet the little round ball won’t form.’
Shalone’s body trembled with frustration.
‘She needs to add more water and knead it properly with force. What is she even doing?’
When they shook hands earlier, I could tell her grip was incredibly strong, yet here she was merely repeating the motion of clenching her fist around the flour and then releasing it.
There’s no way it would come together like that.
‘If I were standing there instead of her…’
I could have made it perfectly.
Though I still have no idea what this ‘pizza’ thing actually is.
Tap, tap, tap.
“Sigh…”
Shalone, who had been rolling her feet in exasperation, finally couldn’t contain herself and approached Bunny with a bright laugh.
“Wow, Bunny. This looks fun—would it be alright if I helped?”
“Hmm? Uhhh… but you’re still a young child, so this would be difficult for you.”
Shalone froze at Bunny’s innocent yet serious words. She couldn’t believe who was calling whom a child right now.
“Aren’t I older than Bunny? Let me help.”
“…Shalone will help Bunny?”
“…Yes.”
Whether Bunny hadn’t noticed or was pretending not to notice Shalone’s reluctance, her eyes sparkled with delight.
‘Did the Homunculus helping Bunny make the protagonist go all lovesick?’
Bunny, have you already made the protagonist fall head over heels?
Hmph.
Bunny wiped beneath her nose with flour-covered hands, smudging flour across her face, then grinned mischievously before hopping down from the child-sized step stool.
“Ahem. If Bunny likes it that much, then I suppose I can help.”
A surge.
Something churning within her, Shalone smiled silently with a nearly shattered perfect smile plastered across her face.
‘Bunny, you’re too wickedly brilliant—this is troublesome.’
Now that Bunny had grown into a massive eight-year-old adult, she had become invincible, capable of even conquering the protagonist.

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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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