The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 113

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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 113
* * *
Komer, the master of the Okto Merchant Guild, was a man of considerable bearing.
His silver hair, pale as frost, was always neatly groomed, and expensive rings adorned his hands.
He harbored no taste for extravagance for its own sake, but he understood that a man must display his wealth to some degree—otherwise others grow careless in his presence.
It was a simple enough filter.
It revealed whether a person could be bent by gold, or whether they could not.
……
On the carriage ride to the Mansion of his second son, Kebelis, who had recently struck out on his own, Komer found himself turning the ring over and over in his fingers.
In his blue eyes, fixed upon the ring, lay a deep and bitter regret.
When he arrived at the Mansion, he instructed the coachman to wait—he would be back shortly.
“Kebelis.”
He pushed open the door, calling his son’s name in a voice roughened by years of smoking.
“Blast it, come out here! After all, I am——!”
But what emerged from the shadows was not his son—it was the silver muzzle of a gun.
The seasoned merchant fell silent at once, raising his hands in submission.
‘I have a Magic Tool powerful enough to block this.’
In the moment of distraction, he would use the poisoned needle hidden in his ring to strike his assailant, then flee swiftly by carriage.
But instead of rushing forward rashly, Komer kept his composure and asked the question that now troubled him most.
“Is Kebelis safe?”
“He is sleeping soundly. He is not dead. Neither are the others.”
“What do you want? Who sent you?”
“Your youngest son.”
“……What?”
Verity, holding the gun, spoke to the bewildered Komer.
“The person I serve wishes to meet you.”
……
“Come with me.”
Verity extended the hand that was not holding the gun.
“And give me the ring.”
……
“Surely you don’t imagine I’m standing here alone?”
“I suppose not.”
Komer slipped the ring from his finger without protest and placed it in Verity’s palm.
Verity smiled faintly and gestured toward the staircase leading to the second floor.
They arrived at the Study.
……
Komer’s brow furrowed.
“Hello there?”
The reason was simple: the intruder sitting brazenly at the Study desk was nothing more than a seven-year-old girl.
She introduced herself with a bright smile.
“My name is Hebenias Clavis.”
“……What?”
Komer’s eyes went wide as saucers.
“Now that you know who I am, your grandson’s life is in my hands, wouldn’t you say?”
……
“But since I’m a kind village chief, I have no intention of fighting you. I simply have a few questions and a proposal to make.”
“Is my youngest alive?”
“Well, I was hoping to ask the questions first.”
Hebenias grumbled a little, then smiled faintly and answered readily enough.
“He’s dead.”
……
Komer’s sturdy frame visibly flinched. The color drained from his face in a heartbeat.
“……Why don’t you sit for a moment.”
Hebenias gestured to the reception sofa in front of the desk—her manner as natural as if she were the one who lived here.
Komer settled onto the sofa without resistance.
Hebenias asked her question.
“Six years ago, when Popina was imprisoned……”
“No!”
Before she could even finish, Komer’s fist slammed against the armrest with a crack, his voice rising like a roar.
“It’s not me! I didn’t do it!”
“What do you mean?”
“I never sent that letter about having Popina struck from the family register!”
……
“How could I ever do such a thing to our youngest……!”
Komer’s words fractured. He choked back a sob, pressing one hand across his eyes.
Yet even the broad palm of a self-made merchant who had built the Okto Merchant Guild could not entirely conceal a father’s grief.
Tears continued to spill between his thick fingers.
“He was the last child my wife brought into this world at the cost of her own life…….”
His wife, who had been so certain she would bear a fourth child, never rose from her bed again.
“My dear, I’m sorry…….”
“If you close your eyes to this, I will hate you for the rest of my life.”
“Then, instead, please give our youngest my share of love…….”
……
“You can hate me if you must, but love our youngest in my place as well…….”
And so his wife departed, leaving behind a youngest son he would be bound to love eternally.
He was the very image of his mother. It was impossible not to love him, even if one wished to resist. It was a curse, in its way.
“I lived always hearing news of that child.”
……
“I went to the restaurant where he worked in secret, even disguised myself to eat there once. His skill with cooking comes from me—when I was young, I built my fortune through culinary trade.”
So when his youngest expressed the dream of becoming a chef, Komer had opposed it.
He knew how grueling such a life could be.
“When I heard the boy had committed murder…….”
“You didn’t believe it.”
At Hebenias Clavis’s words, Komer nodded slowly.
“I had placed someone near him. I was certain I possessed witnesses and evidence to prove his innocence…….”
“Someone intervened.”
……
“Your other children.”
Komer answered only by clenching his fists.
Hebenias Clavis regarded Verity quietly.
Verity lowered her gun slowly and stepped back, then slid a heavy bookshelf aside.
Komer’s breathing trembled as if he were about to face some terrible nightmare.
“A letter bearing my seal, or so I’m told.”
……
“That Popina has no connection to the Okto family, and that henceforth, whatever punishment he receives, he shall accept with humility……!”
When Komer learned this truth.
He felt as if he had lost his child all over again.
“Ugh, ahhh……!”
The old man, who had by now descended from the sofa, fell to his knees and prostrated himself. His broad, sturdy back heaved with pitiful tremors.
Hebenias Clavis rose from her chair and stood before the weeping man.
Then she glanced to the side.
Someone emerged slowly from the hidden passage that had been concealed behind the bookshelf Verity had just moved.
Hebenias Clavis smiled wryly and extended her hand.
Someone took it.
Hebenias Clavis guided that hand to rest upon Komer’s shoulder, then withdrew to give them space.
Even in his anguish, the sensitive Komer felt something amiss.
The hand resting on his shoulder was far too large to belong to a child.
And the scent that reached his nose—so familiar.
That appetizing aroma of food, the very smell that clung to his youngest whenever he practiced cooking in secret.
Komer lifted his head quickly.
……
“……Why.”
Popina spoke through his tears.
“Why did you love me so that I could not even hate you freely?”
……
“Why did you never tell me the truth…….”
“……My, my youngest.”
“If you had, then I wouldn’t have spent all that time in anguish blaming you……!”
“Ah, ah! My youngest! Popina!”
A man like an iron statue, revered by all as the master of the merchant guild.
“Youngest! Ah, ah! Youngest……!”
He cried out for the youngest as though he’d lost his mind, his voice hoarse from wailing.
Popina too wept bitterly, as if pouring out all his sorrow from those long years. Komer held his sobbing son—forgetting all dignity—as though he might shatter.
Sniff.
Hebenias Clavis, watching this, wiped away tears with a sniffle.
“Oh dear, I must have gotten something in my eye…….”
“In all my days, that’s the most absurd excuse I’ve ever heard. You can just cry openly. What’s the shame in that?”
Verity gently wiped the tears from Hebenias’s cheek with a handkerchief.
* * *
I wanted to let Popina and Komer continue their tearful reunion,
“Whoa-ahhh, oh-oh-ahhh……!”
“Miss, I can’t hear you over the crying.”
“Whoa-oh-ahhh! Wahhh!”
“Miss says she understands you’re grieving, but she’d like to continue the conversation from before.”
Given the circumstances,
I sat back at the desk with puffy, swollen eyes.
I sipped the cold water Verity offered me and tried to calm my racing heart.
Hiccup.
“Our miss certainly has her hands full, doesn’t she?”
“So, um, you’re saying it wasn’t you who abandoned Popina, Merchant Guild Master?”
“That is correct…….”
The glass in Komer’s hand as he answered held cold water, half-full.
His eyes, now calm after all that weeping, were as sharp as a bird of prey’s talons.
“My two eldest abused my official seal without permission.”
“Arun and Kanna…….”
Popina murmured sadly.
“Don’t call them that!”
The Merchant Guild Master’s voice trembled with fury.
“How could a merchant who deals in people betray his own family? To abandon both human relations and natural law!”
“Then the succession…….”
“I’ve decided to pass it on to Kebelis, your second eldest brother.”
“Father.”
“They are no longer people to me.”
Komer spoke with cold finality.
“Do you remember what a merchant must never betray?”
“People, you always said.”
“Yes.”
A merchant does not sell things.
A merchant trades with people.
“You, youngest, became a cook, yet you never forgot that. You always cooked with people in mind. You practiced my teachings better than anyone.”
“Father…….”
“That’s enough sentiment.”
I interjected quickly.
Otherwise, we’d be drowning in tears again.
I spoke through the sting in my eyes, raw from all that crying.
“So what about Arun and Kanna? What happened to those two children?”
“They are not my children.”
“……In exchange for selling their brother, what did those two gain?”
“They became Imperial Merchants.”
Merchants who supply goods to the Royal Family.
‘Ah, of course.’
The medicinal herbs the Emperor purchased.
The carriage that took away the orphan children who vanished.
‘The Okto Merchant Guild’s distribution network was involved in this!’
“Merchant Guild Master Komer!”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, I made a quick proposal.
“Hand over the Okto Merchant Guild to those troublemakers at once and step back!”
“What? That makes no sense at all……!”
“And you should operate a new merchant company instead.”
I asked Komer, the guild master, to take charge of running the Izel Merchant Company.

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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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