The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 48

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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 48
Magical Girl Milk Shake.
An all-ages animated comic featuring a magical girl as its protagonist—a character who brings comfort to weary hearts, sweet and cool as a milkshake itself.
Each main character represents a different type of shake.
‘Magic Milky, Magic Strawberry, Magic Chocolate, and so on…’
Which is why the series’ emblems are heavily shake-related: glass cups, syrups, teaspoons, and more.
Straws in particular are the prototype weapon wielded by every magical girl, and straw-shaped ornaments dangle from various points on their costumes.
‘This hair tie was made to match that.’
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The worn rubber connector with its frayed seams, the chipped metal ornament, and the black hairs caught between them—all unmistakable.
It was definitely the hair tie I’d used for hastily gathering my hair into a ponytail.
There had originally been a pair, but the other one had lost its decoration, and my senior had often used it to tie back her bangs.
“What would you like to do?”
Verity’s voice wavered in my ear like heat shimmer.
‘It’s not a bad condition.’
I began untangling my feelings and thoughts, which had been knotted together like a snarl of thread.
‘I’ll have to clash with the Emperor eventually, so it’s better to settle it quickly. And I can recover my belongings in the process. It’s killing two birds with one stone.’
But they were my things.
To have to obtain my own possessions—things I’d bought with hard-earned money—through such a difficult and dangerous method.
‘I suppose gratitude and irritation can exist side by side.’
In the first place, this whole situation is because of my grandfather, the Clavis family head.
“Phew!”
I finished organizing my thoughts quickly.
Verity, who had been waiting in silence, asked me with a brightened face.
“Does this mean you accept the contract with the Demon?”
“Before that, let me ask a few things.”
“Anything at all.”
“As I was listening, something seemed off—it sounded like you were asking me to fight directly.”
Verity’s eyebrows twitched at my words.
‘As I thought.’
I knew it would be like this.
When I stared at her as if waiting for an answer, Verity offered a helpless smile, as if thoroughly ashamed. Her hands, folded neatly before her navel, fidgeted.
“The Master instructed me to refrain from involvement as much as possible.”
“I see.”
“Of course, I will accompany you. However, it is you or the village residents who must fight the Demon.”
The village residents too?
‘Are you training us…?’
If that was the case, the conditions I’d heard weren’t half bad.
‘Thinking of it that way makes it easier.’
Besides, Verity stressed emphatically that she would step in the moment things became truly dangerous.
‘Then that’s fine.’
Libi came to mind naturally.
She, who had succeeded in casting magic for the first time, had told me to rely on her more.
Her efforts had been for my sake.
‘I can’t describe how happy I was to hear those words.’
That’s when I decided I wanted to grow stronger too.
Strong enough to protect the village residents safely.
‘Oh, I just thought like a real magical girl for a moment.’
I immediately added one condition to Verity.
“Then please prioritize protecting the village residents, not me.”
“I’ll protect everyone together.”
“Even so.”
“You’re a kind one.”
Though I never did get an outright agreement, I knew that when such a moment came, Verity would do exactly as I asked.
‘Now that Poppi and Chuchu are here too, I feel even more reassured.’
I stroked both of them once. The tails of the wagging creatures felt like a confident affirmation.
“And one more thing.”
This was my final question.
“Is it possible to transfer the item to them?”
“To Korea?”
“Yes.”
Verity’s brow furrowed at once. She seemed baffled as to why I’d ask such a thing.
“May I ask your reason? This doesn’t seem like a topic I can answer lightly, so perhaps I should confirm with the Master once—”
“I’m writing a will.”
“…….”
Verity stiffened at my unexpected answer, and I offered a casual shrug in return.
“I want to leave behind a will to put Chae Habin’s life in order.”
“…….”
“I should say goodbye. We won’t meet again.”
“……I’ll ask the Master.”
The next day.
Verity told me she’d received permission for at least a letter. Then she handed me a pen.
“Your hands aren’t developed enough yet, so your handwriting would look messy. With this, you’ll be able to write as neatly as an adult.”
Thanks to her thoughtful consideration, I was able to write the letter in Chae Habin’s hand.
The letter itself was nothing special.
I wrote to the few friends I had, thanking them for their kindness over the years.
Next, I documented how to dispose of my meager possessions. And I didn’t forget to note the location where I’d hidden evidence of domestic violence.
‘He’ll be the first one to find it.’
He knows our home’s password.
So I placed the letter I’d written to him at the very front.
In the letter to him, I was sincere—telling him that while I knew he’d be irritated if he met someone else right after I was gone, I still hoped he’d find happiness and become the devoted husband he wanted to be.
‘Well, so my first love ends like this.’
Finishing turned out to be easier than I’d thought.
Fifteen letters written through the night, and tears shed the next day until my eyes were so swollen I couldn’t open them—that was all it took.
* * *
“……Yes, I’ve sent the letter by express post just now.”
Deep into the night, when everyone was asleep.
Verity was on a call inside the darkened village hall.
“Oh, don’t even mention it. You should have seen how puffy her eyes were. The others living with her were so startled they stuck to her side all day.”
[You don’t sound entirely pleased with this.]
A deep voice came through the receiver, spreading quietly.
“Well, she’s just a child, after all.”
Verity’s mouth twisted downward with displeasure as she replied.
“Her mind is twenty-five, but her body is seven. And the other person is older than twenty-five!”
An adult man and a seven-year-old child.
“This is an absolutely unacceptable combination!”
[Did you give birth to ants?]
“I’ve grown too attached to them…….”
Verity spoke with a sigh.
“When these people eventually die, how heartbroken will I be?”
[But if they transcend, they’ll live a long time.]
“A long life is just a dog or a cat to a Demon anyway.”
Why is it that those who leave before me are always so beloved?
I’d deliberately kept my distance, even speaking formally to avoid growing attached, yet here we are.
“……But speaking of which.”
Verity, forcing her emotions back in check, asked a question.
“Is it Clavis again this time?”
[What do you mean?]
Those people have committed no end of misdeeds.
At his following words, Verity nodded frantically.
“The item the girl left behind in Korea.”
[Ah.]
“Earth isn’t affiliated with the Multidimensional Alliance, so we don’t have much contact network. Dimensional customs clearance is also complicated, you see.”
[That’s true.]
“It’s nearly impossible, but if it’s Clavis, it seems like he could pull it off…….”
Whenever Hebenia would normally make a wish, Verity would select something from items Clavis had prepared in advance and provide it to her.
And the majority of those items were things brought from Earth.
Even Verity, handing over the items, would be caught off guard, thinking to herself, ‘How did he manage to get this? It didn’t even get flagged at customs?’
“The Master should have seen it himself. How the girl’s eyes welled up the moment she saw the hair tie. Watching it made me feel nothing but pity.”
[…….]
“I understand that Clavis cares for the young lady…….”
[There is an accomplice.]
“Pardon?”
The long-haired Demon revealed something extraordinary.
[The item from Earth was brought by that accomplice.]
“Oh, a capable Demon, then. Is it someone I know?”
[No.]
A human.
* * *
The Devitat Empire was the largest and oldest nation on the continent.
Surrounded by azure seas to the east and south, dense forests to the west, and a deep chasm marking the northern border, it was a fortress blessed by nature itself.
Built upon blessed land, the Devitat Empire had suffered fewer foreign invasions.
Thanks to this, it had flourished into a magnificent civilization and reigned as the undisputed strongest power on the continent.
‘But if nine-tenths of that glory belongs to Clavis…….’
Doesn’t that make the empire his?
Phereus, the Crown Prince of the Devitat Empire, shut his book irritably.
Brilliant golden hair and sharp blue eyes only accentuated the noble status of the heir apparent.
Despite his tender age of nine, his striking features gave him a commanding presence that proved a great advantage as the future master of the Imperial Court.
As the young crown prince moved, an attendant and several servants who had been waiting fell into step behind him, treading softly.
‘Even with Clavis gone, he remains a thorn in my side.’
When news of Clavis’s annihilation reached him, Phereus had felt genuine joy.
The thought of those insolent, presumptuous creatures disappearing felt like a cure for an illness he’d never had.
Yet when he had confided these true feelings to his uncle, Duke Stria, he had been scolded severely, so of late he had learned to conceal such thoughts.
‘Especially that woman.’
Phereus hated everything about Clavis, but the one he despised most was Hebenia Clavis.
Clavis’s precious only daughter.
“Why would Havi marry you?”
“You have no sense of propriety. Study harder.”
“Crown Prince? My older brother is engaged to a princess.”
“Is the Emperor more impressive than my grandfather?”
“……You’re rather annoying.”
For the offense of ruffling young Clavis’s feathers, Phereus had never again set foot in the Clavis Estate.
That day’s humiliation spread swiftly through aristocratic circles.
He knew well that the young nobles he encountered at play would criticize Clavis as disrespectful in his presence, yet mock him behind his back.
“…….”
As the anger sharpened anew, his pace quickened.
To mollify this burning fury, Phereus had been about to summon those same young nobles who had consoled him then—when a most convenient plaything appeared before his eyes.
A disgrace to the Imperial Court.
One who made him shine all the brighter by comparison…….
“Aidelus.”
“……Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
His half-brother, the same age as him, stood alone in the corridor gazing absently out a window, then hastily composed himself.
Aidelus approached with a smile that made him look like a fine elder.
“There’s no need for such formality. We are brothers, after all—just the two of us.”
“I was late with my respects. I offer greetings to the Crown Prince of the Empire.”
“I said there’s no need for that.”
Phereus grumbled as though put out, yet did not raise his bowed brother’s head.
Golden hair drained of color, pallid as water; golden eyes that always looked downward.
‘As expected of a half-brother—lacking in so many ways compared to me.’
Something odd caught Phereus’s attention as his mood lifted slightly.
“What do you have in your hand?”
It was an old hair tie held in Aidelus’s hand.

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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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