The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 12

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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 12
I eased the door open and felt a sharp chill seep through.
A bleak room containing nothing but an old bed and a shabby wardrobe.
Dallas’s young daughter lay curled on that worn mattress, covered by a single thin blanket.
Her hair was matted from lack of proper care, and her knuckles and heels were flaky with calluses.
“We should add child abuse charges to Dallas’s ex-husband’s file.”
……
Ian could barely speak through the fury rising in his chest.
I reached over and gently touched his clenched fist. The tension in it slowly eased.
‘It’s always the helpless ones who suffer.’
Cruel as it was, the reality remained: the society humans had built to protect the weak had always been merciless toward them.
“But……”
Staring down at the sleeping child, I found myself murmuring aloud.
“Would she even want to go back to her mother?”
“What?”
Ian squinted at me as if I’d spoken nonsense.
Realizing my slip, I rushed to explain.
“I was brought here under Collective Punishment, after all. I’m not suggesting anything about Dallas, but there’s always the possibility that—”
“That’s… true enough.”
Using my own situation as an example seemed to sway him, though his expression turned conflicted.
He wanted desperately to argue, but instead chose to acknowledge reality and not dismiss every possibility.
‘Ian really is a good person.’
So I proposed the most practical solution.
“Let’s inject her with an Anesthetic. She’ll stay quiet until we’re back in the Exiled Land. No need to give her a choice.”
“That’s quite a proposal.”
Beside a stunned Ian, Verity was already holding the Syringe filled with Anesthetic.
“But there’s a problem.”
Verity delivered the bad news.
“I don’t have medical credentials, so I can’t administer injections. If this goes wrong, I’ll be arrested for medical law violations.”
“The Bleached Demon mentioned something similar—why would a demon care about that?”
“If I ignore the law, I’ll end up like Baron Deste. The law exists to be followed.”
“I came from the Exiled Land. Why would I care about laws?”
“Hebeniah, we’re all victims of injustice.”
“I’m not innocent—I’m under Collective Punishment. I’m guilty as anyone comes.”
“Can ‘guilty’ and ‘righteous’ even be used in the same breath?”
We argued like fools.
So we didn’t notice.
……
That Dallas’s daughter had woken and was watching us.
* * *
Five days had passed since Hebeniah and her group headed into the Primordial Forest.
In the meantime, the Exilium residents had settled into a comfortable exiled life.
They farmed during the day, worked with carpentry or read, tended medicinal plants, and diligently participated in Resocialization Training. In the evenings, they gathered to discuss their future plans.
“When do you think they’ll come back?”
Late at night, Livy murmured as she prepared for bed.
“They say hardship follows those who leave home. I hope the three of them aren’t suffering too much.”
……
Dallas offered no reply to Livy’s chatter.
Yet Livy persisted in speaking to her. She held firm faith that Dallas would answer her someday.
Indeed, Dallas had visibly improved since arriving here. Her activity had increased, and her self-expression had become clearer.
“I worry about Hebeniah. We haven’t been the adults we should be, and I’m sorry that small child has shouldered so much responsibility.”
……
“By the way, do you know what this is?”
Livy showed her a Notebook with a flourish.
[Record of Hebeniah’s Assistance]
The adults’ greatest concern wasn’t money or food, nor even the harsh judgment of outsiders who misunderstood them.
It was the possibility that they might begin to take Hebeniah’s help for granted.
“Everyone is recording the help they’ve received from Hebeniah.”
The ingredients used in preparing meals, the solid shelter from rain and wind, the clothes and shoes they wore, the various tools—
Even the safety of the Exiled Land itself.
“It’s all thanks to Hebeniah that we enjoy such comforts.”
“…….”
“Still, we’re adults—if we have to cling to a child to survive, we ought to carry a heart like this, don’t you think?”
“…….”
Dallas offered no reply, but her eyes gleamed as they fixed upon the notebook. She seemed interested. At least, that’s what Livy sensed.
“You’ll write in it too, later. You must.”
“…….”
“Strange—no call from her today.”
The watch on Livy’s wrist was silent.
Since Hebeniah went to the Primordial Forest, there’d been a call every day, but tonight—this late—nothing.
‘Nothing’s happened to her, has it?’
Anxious, Livy tapped the watch, and across its black screen appeared a bright red inverted pentagonal star, emitting a sharp whine.
Dallas’s eyes fluttered rapidly.
“It’s a call from Hebeniah!”
Livy quickly pressed the inverted pentagonal star on the screen, and a small rectangular frame materialized in the air before them.
[Livy!]
Hebeniah’s face appeared in the video.
“You had me worried. Nothing’s wrong, is it?”
[No, nothing much.]
“Then why’s it so loud there?”
A crash and commotion sounded from the other side of the screen.
[It’s nothing. Ian’s got a fat rat caught right now.]
A rat?
Livy tilted her head in confusion.
[But anyway!]
Hebeniah shifted, looking for Dallas.
[Dallas!]
“…….”
[Do you remember what I said? That I’d bring you a gift.]
With a flourish and a sound, Hebeniah stepped aside.
Then an unfamiliar girl appeared in the center of the screen.
Livy, squinting to make out who this stranger was, drew in a sharp breath. She turned quickly to Dallas.
“Auntie……!”
And then she saw it.
Light kindling in Dallas’s hollow, empty eyes.
[I found your gift.]
* * *
Dallas’s daughter didn’t cry at the appearance of these strangers.
Not because she was composed or mature for her age, but because she had resigned herself to everything, surrendered entirely.
When you live through the same cycle of shattered hopes and broken dreams over and over, you become like that.
‘I was the same.’
I knew that expression well—I’d seen it in the mirror every morning, sick with familiarity.
“Hi there?”
Shaking off the overlapping ghosts of my past, I offered the brightest smile I could manage and greeted her.
Ian and Verity quickly waved along with me.
“We’re not bad people. We came to help you.”
“…….”
“Don’t you want to see your mom?”
“Huh? Mom……?”
For the first time, light flickered in the parched child’s eyes.
Ian, Verity, and I seized the moment, speaking in turn.
“That’s right—your mom!”
“We’ll take you to her.”
“Just as long as you behave, um—we don’t look like kidnappers at all, do we?”
But this textbook kidnapping pitch worked remarkably well.
“Mommy, mommy…….”
Dallas’s daughter repeated only the word “mom,” tears rolling down her small face with each utterance.
The sight was so poignant it made the heart ache.
I exhaled quietly in relief.
‘Dallas is a good mother.’
With that settled, I could take her away with an easy conscience.
But the child wouldn’t stop crying, and that was a problem.
“Miss.”
Verity tapped my wrist twice.
I understood her meaning at once and activated the Watch.
“Baby, do you want to talk to your mother?”
“Mother……?”
“You’ll hear her voice, and see her face too!”
Dallas’s daughter nodded eagerly.
As I placed the call, Ian suddenly rose to his feet and positioned himself beside the door, flattening himself against the wall in silence.
A moment later, someone pushed the door open and stepped inside.
It was the heavyset man I’d glimpsed in the bedroom where Lord Deste had been lying earlier.
The moment he caught sight of us, his fleshy cheeks trembled.
“W-who are you……!”
Before the startled man could cry out, Ian emerged from his hiding place and drove his fist deep into the man’s thick belly. The man gasped and crumpled unconscious.
Ian lowered the collapsing man gently to the floor, bound his limbs, gagged his mouth, and shoved him into the wardrobe.
Verity clicked her tongue.
“It seems the Summoning Succession Ceremony preparations are already complete.”
Meanwhile, I’d managed to set up a video call between Dallas and her daughter.
“Mom! Mommy!”
[My baby! Flora!]
Remarkably, the moment Dallas saw her daughter, her mind snapped back into focus.
The eyes that had always been hollow filled with awareness, and a face that had known no emotion now etched sharp sorrow across its features.
Not just I, but Ian and Livy on the small screen were astonished. So was Verity.
‘So it was the forced separation from her daughter that had fractured her mind.’
The magnitude of that shock was staggering.
‘……That’s what real family is, then.’
Though this moment called for relief, something in me wouldn’t allow pure joy.
I felt envious, and afraid.
‘Everyone here has real family and friends outside the Exiled Land.’
But I don’t.
Clavis—whom I don’t even remember, who’s all but a stranger to me—enacted Clan Extermination and abandoned his youngest daughter.
He must still be alive somewhere, but I don’t know where. He’s never come to see me.
‘……They all want to leave the Exiled Land, don’t they?’
It was only then that I realized: my wish to live together in the Primordial Forest—that might be mine alone.
But I couldn’t keep them bound to this place out of my own selfishness.
[Don’t I have my own wants? I’m just an ordinary girl too!]
[But I’ll bear it. Because I don’t live in a world all by myself.]
The season one finale of “Magical Girl Milk Shake.”
When the final boss villain tried to corrupt the protagonist Magic Milky and steal her magical power, the hero cried out these words in resistance.
‘Magical girls really are something else.’
The line held me steady when I was about to waver again.
‘That’s right, Magic Milky—you put them before yourself.’
The millions I spent on you were worth every won.

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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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