The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 15

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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 15
The worn door was a Prayer Chamber.
Inside the stone chamber with no windows, where cold air drifted through, a young prince stood alone reinforcing a Defensive Magic Formation, dressed in pristine white priestly robes.
“You’re Ian, aren’t you?”
The young prince’s eyes widened in surprise at the arrival of these strange intruders.
Then, moments later, he smiled brightly and removed the white veil from his head.
Tangled platinum hair glinting in the candlelight. Eyes of pale gold with a reddish tint, and an impression of quiet trustworthiness.
“Wow.”
I couldn’t close my mouth.
‘Handsome already, at his age?’
The young prince was the most beautiful human I’d met since arriving in this world.
I couldn’t even imagine how much more striking he’d become when he was grown.
“You’re safe. I’m so relieved.”
And worse — he had a kind heart to match his face.
Which made me angrier.
‘Leaving a child alone in this wretched place…….’
Making a child work this late at night — by my standards, it was utterly inexcusable.
Beyond that, demons had appeared outside, chaos was erupting, and in the Primordial Forest the barrier had shattered, monsters were killing people — a crisis was unfolding.
If that was the situation, they should have at least stationed a guard to protect the young prince.
‘Then again, what do you expect from a nation that exiles seven-year-olds?’
I was about to let out a heavy sigh at the bleak reality when—
“Havi!”
The young prince suddenly threw his arms around me.
Startled, I quickly looked up at Ian. His mouth hung open in shock that matched my own.
Meanwhile, Flora, nestled in his arms, had long since fallen asleep from exhaustion.
“Havi…….”
The prince’s voice trembled slightly.
‘So you know me.’
It seemed we must have met in some past I couldn’t remember. And we appeared to be quite close.
Clavis had said that he wielded such vast authority that the Emperor granted him a title he could even give to a dog. So he must have met with the Imperial Court regularly.
‘Is Havi my nickname?’
The protagonist in “Clavis: One Volume, One End” was also named Havi.
‘Hebennia, Havi, Chai Habin…….’
It struck me that my name from the world I’d lived in before bore a striking resemblance to my name in this place — and that was no coincidence.
“You’re safe. You came back safely.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
“I’m so glad you look healthy.”
The young prince stepped back from me slowly, breaking into a smile. His eyes were slightly wet at the corners.
‘……What is this?’
My chest ached.
Beyond the Primordial Forest, someone had been worried about me.
Someone cared about my welfare — something I’d only vaguely envied in the faces of the exiles!
The realization was so overwhelming that rational thought dissolved, and tears nearly burst forth.
‘Don’t cry, twenty-five!’
I have my pride as an older person!
I pressed my lips together hard, fighting to hold back.
“Your Highness.”
Ian suddenly stepped in front of me, dropped to one knee, and lowered his head.
“I, a faithless offender, dare to greet Your Highness, the prince of the Empire. How have you been keeping?”
His posture was rigid, his voice grown heavy.
In that simple gesture of greeting, I caught a glimpse of Ian as he’d once been — a knight of the Imperial Court.
He must have been a model knight of unparalleled excellence.
The young prince was genuinely delighted by Ian’s sincerity.
“I too am greatly pleased to see you again, sir.”
“Thank you. And I am truly sorry.”
Thud.
The young prince’s eyes rolled back, and his body collapsed forward.
Ian caught him carefully as he fell, and something clattered to the ground at Ian’s feet.
A syringe.
A syringe filled with anesthetic.
I quickly snatched up the syringe and stuffed it into my cloak pocket to destroy the evidence.
“We’re in trouble now. They’ll arrest us for violating medical law.”
“Medical law violation? I’ve also committed regicide.”
“How delightful. A new cellmate to add to our collection.”
Shocking as it was, Ian had actually done the right thing.
‘We have to summon a demon.’
We hadn’t forgotten what Verity had said.
Ian carried the unconscious prince to a small bed prepared in the corner. Flora was already lying there, having been placed there beforehand.
I stared at the sleeping prince. Looking closely, I noticed faint shadows under his eyes.
A wave of pity washed over me, and I gently patted his head.
‘I’m sorry. But it’s better you don’t see this.’
I activated the Summoning app. Thanks to the photograph I’d taken of the summoning circle earlier, I spared myself the trouble of drawing it on the ground.
Red light poured from my watch, tracing a five-pointed star on the floor.
‘Magic Milky, grant me the audacity to bear this shame!’
Then I extended my watch-wearing arm and shouted with all my might.
“Summon!”
“…Do you really have to yell it that loudly?”
“Be quiet. I’m in the zone—no, I’m concentrating….”
I was about to snap back at Ian for interrupting, when I noticed something was wrong.
‘The star shape…’
It was pointing upward.
The moment I realized the mistake, I pulled my arm back to cancel the summoning. But it was too late.
The glowing red star began turning blue. A soft wind rose from the summoning circle like a waterspout, and the gentle scent of fabric softener filled the Prayer Chamber.
Thud.
A pair of bent sneakers touched the ground.
“……”
“……”
Ian and I slowly raised our eyes, beginning from the feet and moving upward.
Baggy pants slung over a prominent rear, a garish neon-pink underwear of deeply questionable taste, a loose white sleeveless shirt, and bronzed skin covered entirely in demon tattoos.
Black bangs obscuring the eyes.
Bleached back hair, chewed up like a rat had gnawed it.
Sides shaved clean.
‘What.’
This was really.
‘An enlightening fashion statement….’
The shocking ensemble made me realize I was too precious a being to have to lay eyes on something like that.
Just then, Ian silently nudged me with his toe.
His trembling eyes, quivering like aspen leaves, desperately pointed to something that had fallen near the summoning circle.
A white feather.
‘Mother of god.’
I’d summoned an angel right after the demon.
* * *
“Ah, so you’ve summoned them.”
Verity, who had returned to the Deste Estate, looked up and turned in the direction where the Sacred Shrine lay.
The School Uniform Demon was examining the summoning circle where corpses were piled.
“Hmm, summoning the second legion commander? The aura feels exactly like that unlucky wretch. I wonder if our young lady will be shocked by the angel’s sense of fashion.”
Verity examined the summoning circle again.
“Summoning Succession Ritual and Body Enhancement….”
Outside the summoning circle lay the corpse of a thin man who had been adjusting his glasses with a smug expression. The last expression frozen on his face was horribly contorted.
‘He must have been killed the moment we fled.’
There was not a single trace of life left in this place.
‘Even the fat rat I’d left in Flora’s room is dead. And it seems Count Deste met the same fate….’
Verity’s plan to extract information crumbled to nothing.
“Ugh!”
Verity finished observing the summoning circle and stretched their back, exhaling a long breath.
“This is troublesome.”
Their face was painted with annoyance.
“Things just keep getting bigger.”
* * *
Clean and sacred in atmosphere.
A beautiful woman with snow-white wings.
A divine representative who consoles people with gentleness and guides them in the righteous direction.
This is precisely the fixed image that comes to mind when people think of an angel.
“Damn it, can’t a guy get some peace?”
Not some thug who’d botched hip-hop lyrics.
‘And she even had a tongue piercing……!’
I pretended not to notice the pitch-black gun shoved into her waistband.
Apparently, the god that existed in this world was remarkably open-minded and violent.
Judging by how she let an angel like that roam around unchecked.
I was keeping my eyes respectfully lowered when the angel’s voice dropped down from above my head.
“What’s this?”
Unable to ignore that brazen stare, I finally looked up.
The gangster angel had come right up in front of me and was scrutinizing me intently. Her bangs covered her eyes, but there was no doubt about it.
“You came back?”
“……Yes?”
“Ah, so then, hmm, I see.”
The gangster angel muttered something incomprehensible to herself.
In that moment, Ian and I exchanged glances with silent comments: ‘That angel got a demon-worship tattoo,’ and ‘If you have a tongue piercing, does water pass through when you drink?’
“Well, I’ll be going now.”
“Huh?”
Flustered, I quickly grabbed the leg of the angel, who was already beginning to dissolve into light.
“Wait, where are you going! You didn’t grant my wish!”
“I wasn’t summoned to grant wishes.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Some demon with a severe case of middle school syndrome must’ve summoned me. Only that bastard has such an irritating and unpleasant power. Actually, all demons are trash anyway.”
Wow.
‘In my eyes, you’re the trashy one now.’
But I wasn’t naive enough to let such thoughts show.
“Angel, please…….”
I made my most pitiful face and pleaded earnestly.
“Could you grant just one wish?”
“No.”
“Can an angel really abandon a human in danger?”
“Because of your filthy human prejudices!”
The angel’s eyes flared with fury as she shouted, though it wasn’t clear where the anger was coming from.
“You always draw us angels naked! Day in and day out you depict us as handsome and beautiful men and women, and then some perverts harass us!”
“……What?”
Though bewildered at being scolded out of nowhere, I quickly glanced at the young prince collapsed on the bed and let out a sad whimper.
Actually, I’d never intended to make a wish for us to be saved.
“This child — Your Highness the Prince — helped us. The truth is, we’re innocent people falsely accused of terrible crimes. Yet he never told anyone that we were here.”
Clearly, the young prince had no real backing within the Imperial Palace.
The evidence lay in how he spent nights reinforcing the Defensive Magic Formation in this shabby Prayer Chamber, and how he trained in Swordsmanship under Ian, a commoner.
And on top of that, he’d hidden criminals for us.
‘I have to help him before I go.’
The angel exhaled, as if mocking my resolve.
“You’re overstepping your bounds.”
Despite her rough words, the angel’s body had already turned fully toward me. I allowed myself a secret smile of relief.
“So, what’s your wish?”
“My wish is…….”
When the angel heard my wish, her lips twisted into a smirk, but she didn’t refuse.
“And the price…….”
“Never mind. I’ll bill you later…….”
“Hack, ptui!”
Saliva fell onto the Summoning Circle.
It was the culmination of effort to gather what little moisture remained in my parched mouth from all the running.
“Is this enough?”
…….
“Gulp, but wait — did I spit too much? Then I’ll just write it down in the debt ledger. We can settle up whenever you summon me.”
Behind me, I heard Ian’s voice breaking into despair: ‘……We’re finished.’
‘Hmph, as if I care.’
My blood is worth more to demons than gold—an angel would be satisfied with it.

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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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