The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 16

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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 16
* * *
Beriti’s brow furrowed sharply the moment he arrived at the Prayer Chamber.
“Ugh. Why are you still here? Didn’t you leave?”
“You don’t need to beg me for a bullet. My last one’s always reserved for you.”
“Cut your bangs, at least. Since you can’t see anything with all that hair, I suppose you just stick your gun in front and wander around. And why are your pants always half off?”
“A pervert who can’t act his age and only wears a school uniform wouldn’t know fashion if it bit him.”
“I see. So if you go around showing your ass instead of wearing pants, you’ll fall in love with that kind of fashion? Well then, I’ll just stay a single-outfit school-uniform deviant for life.”
After exchanging middle fingers with Angel in friendly fashion, Beriti checked that the others were safe.
Hebeneia and Ian were curled up sleeping soundly in the corner of the bed.
Flora and the Young Prince in priestly robes lay on the bed itself.
“Ah, so this is the child.”
Beriti stared down at the Young Prince.
“Sigh. Both our lady and the Young Prince are still so young…….”
“What’s Clavis doing?”
Angel asked while gazing at the door.
The Temple had gone into emergency mode after learning that the demon had put the city to sleep.
Yet no one had come to check on the Young Prince’s safety. It was easy enough to guess just how precarious his position was.
“The small one’s sleeping.”
“Not the small one.”
“Ah, the old and stubborn one?”
The “old and stubborn one” Beriti spoke of meant the head of the Clavis Family—Hebeneia’s grandfather, in other words.
“I don’t know either. That oddball didn’t tell us everything.”
“A shame we couldn’t see it.”
Angel pulled a lollipop from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. Because of his getup, it looked as though he’d stuck a cigarette between his lips instead.
“Could’ve seen that so-called-genius Clavis scampering away with his tail on fire.”
“Ha. I can’t agree more on that one.”
The worn golden eyes that had been hidden beneath Angel’s bangs gleamed.
“So, why’d you call me?”
“There was a Forced Succession Ceremony.”
“That’s a demon problem of yours…….”
“And there was also Illegal Enhancement.”
…….
A smile mixing contempt, anger, and irritation crossed Angel’s lips.
It was the same for Beriti.
“A troublesome matter for both of us, wouldn’t you say?”
Tsk.
“We’re planning to monitor the Emperor for now.”
“That idiot’s involved?”
“Surprising, isn’t it? I was shocked too.”
“I didn’t think the Emperor had the caliber for something like that.”
“That’s exactly why it’s a problem. We need to find out how this happened.”
“Looks like things’ll be busy for a while.”
“Same on your end.”
Just then.
“……Beriti?”
Ian woke quickly from sleep, not having forgotten his experience standing watch during external training as an Imperial Knight.
“You’ve come.”
“Yes. It’s all finished.”
Beriti gave Ian’s shoulder a reassuring pat, acknowledging his hard work.
“But…….”
Ian, cradling the sleeping Hebeneia in his arms, glanced toward the bed.
“Ah, the Young Prince should be fine.”
Beriti spoke while holding Flora.
“It seems our lady made a wish to that rotten angel for the Young Prince’s sake, so it’d be best if we disappeared quickly.”
“That’s not it…….”
Ian hesitated for a long moment before continuing.
“Actually, I gave the Young Prince an anesthetic injection…….”
“Well, he must have quite a bruise then.”
Beriti applied a Cat Band-Aid over the small red mark on the back of the Young Prince’s neck.
“It has antibacterial properties that prevent infection, and it fades scars quickly too.”
“Thank you.”
“……Idiots.”
Angel glanced at them with utter disdain.
“Get out of here.”
“Yes! Keeping my distance from you has been my childhood dream!”
* * *
On particularly exhausting days, I always had nightmares.
Mostly about “family”—and on those days, I could sense it instinctively.
Ah, another one’s coming. I wonder what I’ll see this time.
Since arriving in the Exile Territory, I’d never had a nightmare once, but now that peculiar feeling had returned.
‘But this is…….’
A grand palace-like place bustled with countless people.
Elegant servants in black uniforms, smartly dressed attendants, and advisors hurrying about with bundles of documents tucked under their arms.
‘……Advisors?’
How did I know those people were advisors?
In my confusion, someone rushed past me at speed.
My eyes widened as I turned.
“Hebeneia! You’ll trip like that!”
“Brother, hurry up!”
A young Hebeneia and a dignified boy who bore her resemblance.
“Edel’s coming! We have to go!”
“There’s no need to rush. Edel will come here.”
“But that unlucky thing is coming too! If he bothers Edel again, I’m slapping his face on sight! Grandfather says you have to beat them down from the start with these kinds of problems!”
The boy had hair the same rich bronze color as Hebeneia’s.
His eyes, though, were a luminous blue, and he appeared to be about fifteen years old.
‘I see…….’
I was witnessing a dream of Hebeneia Clavis’s childhood.
“Brother’s going to hit him too, right?”
“You shouldn’t get used to violence. Do you remember that song I taught you before?”
“Yes!”
Young Hebeneia sang while wiggling her bottom.
“Scheming, Strategy, and Cruel Schemes! This is the lethal technique of an elegant princess!”
“That’s right. An elegant princess must use her mind rather than her fists.”
I was astounded.
‘Teaching her good things, are we.’
But young Hebeneia was no pushover either.
“But I don’t understand what it means, so I’ll just hit him instead.”
“Then I’ll protect you so you don’t end up locked in the basement.”
“Is brother an elegant princess too?”
“Yes. I’m the terror of a fist, only for my baby sister. Closer than the law itself.”
“Hehe! But I’m not a baby!”
The affectionate siblings ran down the corridor again, and the adults around them watched with fond expressions.
Among them, only I stood with a rigid face.
“What is this…….”
I’d assumed this family was garbage. People insane enough to murder a crown princess while raising a young daughter couldn’t possibly be a functional family.
Yet the boy I’d just seen, though I questioned his sanity, was still a devoted older brother who cared well for his younger sibling.
The servants too watched the young ones with tenderness.
Young Hebeneia’s beautiful clothes.
Her silken hair and plump, rosy cheeks.
‘She grew up wanting for nothing.’
A true princess of the Clavis Family.
‘Then what of Hebeneia at twenty-five?’
If she’d lived so loved, what reason could there be for her to suffer as she does in another world?
“Damn it, what kind of bullshit is this……!”
“Hebeneia.”
Young Hebeneia’s brother stopped the curse about to spill from my lips.
“You shouldn’t speak such crude language. It soils such a pretty mouth.”
“…….”
The grand mansion vanished, and in the darkness, only the boy and I stood facing each other.
The boy looked at me as if I were the most precious treasure in the world.
“……Oh, brother?”
I called out to the boy without thinking, the way young Hebeneia would have.
The boy smiled with joy.
“Wait just a little longer.”
I’ll come to meet you.
* * *
My eyes opened with the jolting vibration of wheels.
“Ian……?”
“Are you awake?”
I rose with Ian’s support, my sleep-clouded eyes surveying my surroundings. The first thing I saw was a canvas tent arched in a graceful dome overhead.
‘A carriage……?’
Beriti and Flora sat across from me. Flora clutched a Rabbit Doll I’d never seen before against her chest.
“We’ve left the Estate.”
Beriti handed me a Canteen filled with water as he spoke.
“I dealt with the vicious demon. The others at the manor have fallen into deep sleep, and I’ve applied a Cat Band-Aid to the Young Prince.”
Beriti had alluded indirectly to the deaths of Marquis Deste and the two rat creatures—a courtesy to Flora, who sat beside us.
‘That reptilian demon must have killed them.’
I took a sip of water from the Canteen. The deaths of three men felt deserved; I felt nothing.
“But are you all right?”
Ian studied me with worried eyes.
“Me? Yes. I’m fine.”
For having endured such chaos the day before, I felt surprisingly energetic.
The blessing of youth—or rather, of a young body—was boundless stamina.
Yet worry lingered in the faces of Ian and Beriti as they looked at me.
Beriti pointed to the corner of his own eye with his finger.
“Miss, you were crying.”
“……I was?”
Startled, I rubbed the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand to check. Sure enough, my skin came away damp.
“Sister…….”
Flora fiddled with the Rabbit Doll’s ear as she asked.
“Does it hurt……?”
“No.”
I laughed and reassured her.
“It doesn’t hurt at all!”
“Don’t hurt…….”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Relieved by my answer, the child’s face softened as she turned her attention back to the Rabbit Doll.
Flora was a good girl—someone who could genuinely care for a stranger she’d just met.
Watching her, the boy from my dream surfaced in my memory once more.
‘Ah, now I understand why I wept.’
I cried out of sheer frustration.
Not from joy at having a wealthy, powerful family—but from the bitterness of twenty-five years spent unable to enjoy that privilege, suffering through hardship instead.
‘How could I not shed tears?’
It was certainly not longing for them that made me cry.
‘What? Wait a little longer? You’ll come to meet me?’
When we met again, that day would be their funeral—when the whole family could pass their inheritance to me.
“……Well, we’re finally heading home.”
Ian stretched with a satisfied yawn.
‘Home…….’
I found myself drawn to the word Ian had spoken.
Yes, our home was hidden in a small village deep within the Primeval Forest.
We finally had a place to return to safely.
“We’ve managed to accomplish quite a bit.”
Beriti counted off our achievements on his fingers one by one.
“We rescued Flora, taught that wicked demon a lesson, bought gifts with our herb money, and gathered some rather valuable information.”
I nodded beside him like a loyal chorus.
‘Yes, information.’
We had obtained something truly precious.
Framing someone to send them to the Exile Territory in order to eliminate Dalis—the woman who survived the Summoning Succession Ceremony—was no simple task.
All of this required the approval and complicity of those in power.
‘Like the Emperor himself…….’
Minerals mined through forced labor in the Exile Territory.
Medicinal herbs gathered, supposedly for a sickly princess.
‘A wretched man.’
In other words, when you pieced it all together.
“There’s no answer but a coup d’état.”
“Pfft!”
Ian, mid-sip from his cup, spat water everywhere.

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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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