The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 110

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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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Episode 110
After Popina’s older brother had departed in a carriage,
we ventured deeper into the Alley, and just to be safe, we donned the Cloak of Concealed Presence.
Olive couldn’t resist running her hands over this cutting-edge Magical Tool, touching it again and again.
‘I’ll have to get her one later.’
Modi spoke up.
“Popina, do you have a rough sense of what’s happening?”
“That man who just left is my second older brother.”
“Were you close?”
At my question, Popina nodded.
“He was the only one who supported my dream of becoming a chef.”
“I see…….”
“The loud voice we heard from the Building just now—that was my father. It sounds like the two of them had quite a quarrel.”
Ian seized on that remark.
“Were they never on good terms to begin with?”
“No. On the contrary, he was the brother closest to Father.”
Popina was one of four siblings.
After the eldest brother and their sister had formed a succession rivalry, the second son, who gracefully withdrew, had instead become someone whom the head of the Okto Trading Company cherished—free of worries as he was.
“Is this what we usually see?”
Verity murmured.
“We came here to solve the Orphanage problem, right? To check if the Okto Trading Company is connected. But now a father and son who were close suddenly clash?”
Oh no.
‘That.’
I grasped what Verity was getting at.
Given the current situation, there was only one conclusion we could draw.
“Factional Conflict.”
The Emperor’s faction or Clavis’s faction.
“Huh? Our clan was exterminated, though?”
“That’s just an example. The real question now is who’s backing the Emperor…….”
Verity trailed off, then finally noticed Popina’s expression.
He offered what amounted to a consolation, though it was perhaps better left unsaid.
“Still, at least you might be able to save one of them. We should count our blessings.”
“Verity, shut your mouth before I sew it shut.”
That was when—
“Arf! Arf!”
“Grrrrr!”
Ppoppi and Chutchu suddenly seized the hem of Olive’s cloak and began shaking it frantically.
Olive, caught off guard, sent me a desperate look for help.
I yanked hard on the Harness Leash and pulled the dogs away.
“Shh. Stay still——.”
But the dogs simply began tapping my Shoes with their front paws.
“……Olive.”
Understanding what they meant, I spoke.
“Take out the Shoes we found at the Orphanage.”
Only then did the others seem to grasp what was happening.
I held the small Shoes that Olive handed me down toward the dogs.
They sniffed eagerly, then pulled forward, drawing the Harness Leash taut.
‘That direction is…….’
The same direction Popina’s second brother had gone.
‘Wow, this is really serious.’
We all fell silent.
“Arf.”
Chutchu tapped my leg with a black paw and then pointed his small snout toward the Okto Trading Company Building.
‘Oh, the truly serious part was something else entirely.’
The scent of the Orphanage child was coming from inside the Okto Trading Company Building.
‘Losing both Father and the second brother would be the bigger catastrophe.’
* * *
Kevillis Okto.
Second son of the Okto Trading Company, he swept his lush pink hair back with a hand and squeezed his eyes shut as if exhausted.
It was from not having slept properly these past few days.
‘This is going to end badly.’
The carriage carrying Kevillis Okto headed toward a small mansion he’d purchased not long ago.
Officially it was a private residence, but in truth it was a front—a building bought to conceal something.
So the mansion employed only the bare minimum of staff he trusted, just two people.
“We’ve arrived.”
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Shall you be going out again afterward?”
“No, that’s been cancelled.”
Kevillis Okto stepped into the mansion and brushed past the employee’s greeting, moving toward his chambers.
He asked the butler who was accepting his overcoat.
“How was today?”
“We confirmed that someone broke into the Orphanage.”
“Them?”
“There appears to have been a struggle. We found blood traces, but no bodies.”
…….
“The Trading Company head…….”
“He’ll already know. And don’t contact that side for a while.”
Kevillis Okto spoke with finality.
The butler bowed his head and answered respectfully that he understood.
Once the butler had withdrawn and Kevillis Okto was alone, he sank heavily into the plush, smooth leather sofa.
The cool sensation gradually calmed his racing thoughts.
“Sigh…….”
Even in those brief moments of rest, his beautiful features seemed to recover their composure.
Shallow sleep was just beginning to claim him.
When a sudden crash—a loud, jarring noise—made him shudder and bolt upright.
‘What’s happening?’
Kevillis Okto moved toward the door to investigate, then hesitated.
…….
After a moment’s thought, he turned and pushed the bookshelf against the wall with all his strength. A hidden passage appeared.
Kevillis Okto entered the passage, slid the bookshelf back into place, and descended the stone stairs that stretched downward.
What he found was a well-appointed basement.
There, a young woman was reading to a group of children—all appearing to be around ten years old.
“Everyone, get up!”
Kevillis Okto shouted.
He tossed the children’s coats hanging on the wall to them.
The frightened children received their coats but couldn’t manage to put them on properly. Several trembled violently, barely holding back tears.
“Why… why are you doing this……?”
Kevillis Okto didn’t answer the woman’s question directly.
‘Where should we go? Should I contact someone? But there’s no time…….’
Then he felt a sharp, stinging sensation at his back.
And something being injected into his body.
Like a shot you’d get when catching a cold.
…….
Kevillis Okto managed to turn his increasingly weakening body around.
“Wow, seriously.”
An unfamiliar young girl stood there with a syringe in her hand.
“You look too much like that respectable man, and it pisses me off.”
“You… who are you…….”
“Sweet dreams, you kidnapper.”
The girl pressed two fingers together and flicked them against her eyebrows.
The chilling words spoken with one eye cutely squinted were utterly brazen.
Kevillis Okto collapsed into unconsciousness.
* * *
‘How dare you commit crimes with a face that resembles our master.’
Ah, saying it that way makes me sound like I have some weird fetish.
I clicked my tongue as I tossed the syringe I’d just used on Kevillis Okto into a Subspace, discarding it.
For reference, this wasn’t the same syringe I’d used on the one who attacked us yesterday.
I don’t follow Medical Law by choice, but Verity’s so meticulous about it that he never reuses a syringe once.
‘Anyway, this guy’s completely insane.’
Kidnapping orphans and a teacher in his own basement.
Even the basement, which I’d only glanced over briefly, was finer than most houses.
Charming wallpaper, toys children would love, small beds and low-slung chairs—even the bathroom and bathing room were designed with young children in mind.
‘……Could this bastard be some kind of deviant?’
Having lived through the harsh world, I couldn’t help but harbor such suspicions.
That was when it happened.
“Ugh, uhhhhh!”
“Wahhh! Sob-sob-sob!”
The children suddenly burst into tears.
‘They must have been startled.’
They’d probably been terrified, trapped in this place.
I was about to tell them to calm down, that we’d help them—
“Mister! Wahhhhh!”
“Mister! Wake up please!”
“You’re mean! Why did you hurt our mister!”
“Save the mister! Please save him!”
“……Huh?”
For some reason, the children had started blaming me.
‘What’s this? Stockholm Syndrome?’
I stood there stunned, my lips opening and closing soundlessly, when the woman soothing the children turned to me.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who came to help, for starters…….”
“Help?”
“I came to help all of you who are being held captive.”
“We’re not being held captive.”
“What?”
“That person……!”
Then.
“Popina! Calm down!”
“Let go! I said let go!”
“Please come to your senses, sir!”
“Just let him be. Creatures like that are better off dead anyway.”
Three people desperately trying to stop him, and one who seemed utterly indifferent.
“Are you all right, miss?”
One Demon whose only concern was my welfare.
Pitter-patter.
Pitter-patter.
And the brisk footsteps of two creatures.
An enormous commotion descended into the basement.
“What the—”
I stood there, my mouth hanging open in shock.
Popina, his face streaked with tears, was rushing straight at me wielding a sword like a madman.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Wahhh! No-no-noooo!”
The terrified children let out fresh wails, and my mind swam as if I’d stepped into another world entirely.
“Kevillis! I can no longer overlook your depravity! As your older brother who loved you most, I shall end this! That is my only apology to the victims……!”
“He’s not the kidnapper!”
The gleaming blade came to a halt just above Kevillis’s chest.
“Kevillis…….”
The woman shouted with such force her neck cords stood out.
“He helped me and the children! Without him, we would have been taken by those strange people!”
* * *
Thankfully.
‘No one died…….’
There were minor injuries, but none of us killed anyone in this mansion.
‘That was close. I almost turned my back on Popina.’
After moving the fallen butler and maid to separate beds, I gave them the Dulcevia Drug I’d brought along.
When they awoke, they’d be far healthier than before, and I could only hope they’d accept this as settlement.
I moved Kevillis to a bedroom as well.
“Phew, you really are something, miss.”
Verity applied a cat-shaped bandage to the syringe marks on his back.
Ppoppi and Chutchu growled as though they disapproved of the cat-shaped bandages.
“You can’t just administer anesthetic however you please.”
“But you put me in your hands!”
“That said…….”
Modi asked the woman, exhaustion etched across his face.
She was a teacher at the Orphanage and introduced herself as Edul.
“Kevillis Okto wasn’t the kidnapper—he helped you all?”
“Yes.”
Edul kept her fists clenched as she desperately explained everything that had happened.

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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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