The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 117

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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 117
Roshi’s face flushed crimson as her body trembled.
Before arriving at the tea party, she’d forgotten every word her father Arun had hammered into her ears about how she needed to make a good impression on the Crown Prince.
“Why would my grandfather be your grandfather!”
“But that’s what Grandfather said, though?”
Annabel spoke with her hand on her hip, radiating confidence.
“If you don’t believe me, ask the adults. I came with my grandfather Komer! He bought me this dress, and he gave me these shoes as a gift!”
“That’s… that’s impossible……!”
Roshi pointed an accusing finger at Annabel, calling her a liar.
But Annabel only lifted her chin and held her composure, which made the children even more confused.
In that moment.
“Quiet.”
The Crown Prince spoke.
The clamorous tea party fell silent as if cold water had been poured over it.
The children belatedly closed their mouths, realizing the Crown Prince was genuinely angry.
Roshi too fell silent, remembering what her father Arun had said, but tears welled up in her eyes from the injustice and hurt she felt.
Rather than comfort Roshi, the Crown Prince let out a heavy sigh.
At that blatant display of contempt, Roshi’s shoulders flinched.
“You there.”
The Crown Prince called to an Attendant nearby.
“Find out who that child came with.”
The Attendant returned shortly with the answer.
“She is Miss Annabel, who came with the chairman of the Okto Merchant Guild. It appears one of the chairman’s closest associates married his cousin’s sister.”
With her identity confirmed, the tea party stirred again.
Meanwhile, Roshi’s face crumpled as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
“See? Look!”
Annabel was triumphant.
Then she dropped something shocking.
“Grandfather Komer actually wanted to come with Roshi, but Roshi’s father wouldn’t allow it, so he had no choice but to bring me instead.”
“……What?”
Roshi’s eyes widened like saucers, just before she was about to cry.
Annabel nodded lightly.
“Because, well, um, they said they had to discuss some really difficult matters with the adults, so they brought me instead.”
The tea party fell silent for a different reason now.
All the children stared at Annabel with eyes full of shock and surprise.
But Annabel simply chattered on, saying whatever came to mind.
“Grandfather Komer bought the dress and shoes as a commission fee! Don’t you know what a commission is? It’s money you get for doing work. Salary! Wages!”
“……Uh, Annabel, you.”
Roshi, who had belatedly grasped the situation, asked in a noticeably more composed voice, speaking seriously.
“Are you alright in the head?”
“Yeah, am I pretty?”
…….
* * *
‘Haha, that was a complete disaster.’
I hadn’t planned to act like Annabel was this foolish.
But I don’t regret it.
I couldn’t ignore Roshi’s sadness, thinking her grandfather’s love had been taken from her.
‘You haven’t done anything wrong.’
I’m already a criminal in the eyes of that child.
I’ll be bringing Chairman Komer to the Village, and I’ll punish Arun, Roshi’s father. My aunt Kanna will disappear as well.
I couldn’t inflict more wounds on a child who would soon lose her family.
As a result, I’ve become genuinely unhinged.
What’s fortunate is that the other children’s gazes toward me have shifted favorably.
If I had to guess, it’s probably because the fact that I’m a relative of the Merchant Guild chairman has been revealed.
‘They know what matters, even young as they are.’
Children are far more clever than adults give them credit for.
“But isn’t a tea party just about eating and chattering?”
I handed a slice of pie generously filled with nuts to Prince Aidellos, then asked the orange-haired short-haired girl sitting right beside me.
Her name was Monile, wasn’t it?
‘I’ll remember you.’
Monile was a child who cared well for others. Among all the children at the tea party, she was the first to speak to me, and she stopped my discourteous behavior.
This time too, she answered my question without any hint of annoyance.
“A tea party is a place where we deepen our friendships while sharing information.”
“Information? What kind of information?”
“Popular books and music these days, and…….”
“We also discuss various policies and economic editorials.”
Roshi swept back her lustrous pink hair with an exaggerated gesture.
Then she looked at me as if to warn me off.
“Today’s tea party will discuss the dock expansion at the Temari Trade Port. His Highness the Crown Prince proposed it himself.”
“Wow!”
I expressed my genuine admiration.
A glance at the Crown Prince showed his spirits had lifted noticeably. Even without smiling, his expression had visibly softened.
‘Hmm, should I build him up a bit more?’
After all, my reason for attending the tea party was to protect Prince Aidellos.
Fortunately, because the clueless Annabel had drawn everyone’s attention, the prince had escaped much harassment.
Moreover, if I angered the Crown Prince any further, it could put the prince in danger instead.
“I know nothing of such things, but truly, Your Highness the Crown Prince must possess such remarkable thoughts!”
“It’s not particularly remarkable.”
The Crown Prince spoke with the teacup at his lips.
Then, over the rim, he looked at Prince Aidellos sitting across from him.
When their eyes met, the prince checked his already rigid posture once more and straightened it further.
‘Well, well?’
That Crown Prince?
I praise him a little and already he’s thinking of something improper.
“Aidellos, I’m curious what you think.”
“I’m ashamed to say I understand little of such matters. I know how to pray, but I lack the dedication you show in working for the empire, brother.”
“Ah, haven’t I told you repeatedly?”
The Crown Prince set down his teacup and chuckled softly.
“You too must recognize that you are a prince of the empire. No matter how difficult your studies, you must persevere.”
“Yes, brother.”
Even under this public rebuke, Prince Aidellos merely apologized meekly as if taking full blame.
‘……So familiar, isn’t it.’
My chest ached as if it might burst.
Part of me wanted to become the oblivious Annabel and confront the Crown Prince about this absurdity right then.
But like that earlier moment of confidence had been a dream, I could only sit in silence.
“…….”
It was because Prince Aidellos had taken my hand under the table.
Telling me silently to stay still.
As I stiffened in surprise, opinions about the dock expansion began to circulate across the table.
At the same time, the prince released my hand.
Only then did I regain my senses, pretending to eat a pastry while slipping it into a subspace pocket and listening intently to the conversation.
Thanks to playing dumb, no one asked for my opinion, which was convenient.
The prince too was naturally excluded from the gathering.
‘It wasn’t so much an exchange of opinions…….’
It resembled a one-sided lecture.
The Crown Prince would explain why the expansion plan was beneficial, and the children would nod and praise how splendid it was.
The only dissent came from Monile, sitting beside me, who maintained her silence.
And truly, surprisingly.
‘……Roshi, do you disagree too?’
Roshi sat right beside the Crown Prince, nodding and smiling, yet the emotion flickering across her face was unmistakably distrust.
‘Just as the merchant guild leader’s granddaughter would be.’
In the carriage we rode together, he had worried deeply about his granddaughter, and now I understood why.
She must be a good granddaughter who loved her grandfather enough to weep at the sight of me.
‘He may have failed at raising his children, but his grandchildren turned out well.’
Then.
Prince Aidellos interjected in a soft yet firm voice.
“You’re truly remarkable. However do you come up with such thoughts?”
“You could do the same if you tried as hard as I do.”
The Crown Prince chuckled and spoke with thinly veiled contempt.
‘Hmm.’
To my ears, it sounded like he was mocking me.
Perhaps because he’d held my hand earlier, I no longer saw the Crown Prince as merely simple-minded.
‘Could he be a hidden mastermind—someone who plays innocent on the surface but schemes darkly behind the scenes?’
Yes, better to live that way than be deceived.
‘If you usurp the imperial throne, I’ll help you!’
So I found myself praying for the Crown Prince to be a secret schemer.
“Actually, now that I think back on it, there was something I didn’t quite understand.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t see how you can go underwater at the trade port construction site and detonate the foundation with bombs. How can you set off explosives in water?”
“Oh, that’s not really a difficult problem.”
The Crown Prince explained as if bestowing a favor.
“These days, magical tools are so advanced that there are plenty of bombs that explode without needing a flame.”
“Even without matches?”
Matches?
“The trade port has specialized bombs designed to test the bedrock integrity. When you put them in water, the special explosives react and burst with heat and steam.”
“Wow, so they’d explode even more powerfully outside the water?”
“That’s what I’ve heard. They supposedly produce flames strong enough to level an ordinary building.”
Flames.
‘Fire, matches…’
Where had I heard about this before?
‘No, not heard—’
Seen.
The matches I’d found at the orphanage, located based on the testimony of the young siblings rescued from the Antemma Research Institute.
The blackened exterior walls of the building.
“Miss, congratulations.”
“You’ve earned a delivery voucher.”
And the demon.
‘The matches were a blind…’
The fire hadn’t been started by matches.
Among the thirteen demons’ powers that the Emperor had grasped, there was one similar to what the Crown Prince had just mentioned.
Heat Accumulation.
The power to gather heat.
“The Temari Trade Port mainly receives industrial products and raw materials. If a fire breaks out, the damage would become uncontrollable.”
The Crown Prince spoke gravely, setting a heavy tone.
“I understand the Okto Merchant Guild leader is being cautious about this matter, but if an accident were to occur, it would be catastrophic.”
Even as he spoke with concern, the corners of his mouth had risen slightly.
……
The sweet scent and chattering voices grew increasingly distant, and only the cicadas’ song, heated by the summer air, filled my mind.
‘I have to go.’
I need to get to the port right now.
‘Damn it, I have to go NOW! Or else—!’
Crash!
A teacup fell to the ground.
“Wh-what…?”
“The t-table is shaking…!”
Boom!
Boom!
A tremendous sound began—as if the earth itself were being crushed.
The noise grew louder, drawing closer, and with each tremor the children’s faces drained of color.
The Marble Pavilion swayed as if it would collapse at any moment, and the ground was already littered with teacup shards and food from the overturned table.
The forest heaved like an endless wave.
“Aaahhhhh!”
“No! I’m scared!”
“Mother, Mother!”
The frightened children screamed and fled. At the head of their flight was none other than the Crown Prince.
But not me.
‘This sound…!’
Instead, I ran deeper into the forest. With Aidellos.
Or rather, Aidellos was gripping my hand and leading the way.
“There’s a small caretaker’s hut inside.”
The Crown Prince spoke.
“Go through that door to Temari Trade Port. With your abilities, you can do it, can’t you?”

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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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