The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 59

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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 59
* * *
It was the dead of night when they arrived at Trans Station, the transfer hub.
The party disembarked to make their way to the next platform for their connecting train.
Verity, riding on Ian’s back, wiped the drool from Hebeniah’s sleeping mouth with a handkerchief.
“She’s sleeping soundly. Not a sign of waking.”
“Once she’s out, she sleeps so deeply that she wouldn’t notice even if you carried her. It was the same back in the Exile Land.”
“Might be a growth spurt. Her height has increased noticeably.”
A train was waiting on the platform they’d reached.
Technicians inspected the railcar for the early-morning departure while the engineer and station attendants debated something in low, serious tones.
The party had settled into a makeshift rest room on the platform.
Ian laid sleeping Hebeniah down gently across his lap so her head could rest comfortably.
“Mmm…….”
Hebeniah frowned as if something felt wrong, then began smacking her lips.
“Popina, *smack*, bread, please…….”
“Ah. Found the source of the belly fat.”
Verity, sitting across from them, let out a soft, rueful laugh.
“Still, it’s reassuring to see her sleeping through all this.”
“Verity.”
Ian thought the moment while Hebeniah slept was the right time to ask.
Verity, who had been taking photographs of the sleeping Hebeniah, looked up.
“What is an Ordeal?”
“That’s a question you should be asking her.”
Just then, a station attendant approached and informed them they could board.
“Let’s get on, then.”
Once aboard, the party quickly shut the doors and drew the curtains.
For an early-morning run, passengers settled into their assigned seats and prepared to sleep.
The car soon fell silent.
“May I ask something else, then?”
“Of course.”
“I mentioned before that I once met the head of House Clavis. Do you remember?”
“Yes. I do remember…….”
Nema suddenly interjected with a start.
“You too?”
“You too? Don’t tell me you also……?”
“Actually, just a few days ago, the memory suddenly came back to me…….”
“You as well……!”
Ian, about to raise his voice without thinking, quickly closed his mouth. Nema did the same.
Fortunately, Hebeniah showed no sign of waking.
Her steady breathing and the gentle rise and fall of her chest told them the child was deeply asleep.
Still, taking no chances, both of them lowered their voices as much as possible.
“Did you meet the head of House Clavis?”
“I met the Minor Consort.”
“The Minor Consort means…….”
Ian glanced down at Hebeniah again. Nema nodded slowly.
“Hebeniah’s biological mother.”
“When did you meet her?”
“Before I was falsely accused, so it would have been four years ago…….”
Nema recalled those days carefully.
“I remembered it suddenly while talking with Hebeniah. But I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her…….”
She thought it would be cruel to speak of them to a child who’d been sent to the Exile Land under Collective Punishment because of her family.
“The Minor Consort visited the Costume Workshop where I was working. I was shocked. It wasn’t a place where people of high rank usually came.”
Not somewhere a great noble house like Clavis would visit.
‘Though Clavis isn’t nobility, technically.’
The rumor that had once been spread about the dog who carried a title proved true through the Duchy Title certificates that Popina and Chuchu had inherited.
Regardless.
“……It seemed like she came looking for me deliberately.”
“For you?”
“Am I being too self-conscious? It could be a misunderstanding, but…….”
“No, you’re not.”
Ian was certain of it.
‘She’s just like me.’
Clavis had sought them out deliberately.
‘The herb merchant said he’d met the head of House Clavis once, too.’
At this point, it couldn’t be coincidence.
The cool early-summer night air felt sharp as ice against his skin. Ian exhaled slowly, deliberately muting the tremor in his breath.
‘Hebeniah’s suspicion might actually be true.’
If so, had Clavis known who would be locked away in the Exile Land?
Why had he sought them out separately?
What had that conversation been about?
“What did you and Clavis discuss, exactly?”
“The strange thing is, I can’t remember.”
……
“But I know we met. It’s as vivid as if it happened yesterday.”
In her memory, the Minor Consort bore a striking resemblance to Hebeniah. If Hebeniah were to grow into adulthood as she was now, Ian suspected she would become exactly like this woman.
Beautiful and sharp-minded.
An air that inspired both warmth and reverence simultaneously.
He could still see the Minor Consort’s face clearly, her lips moving as she spoke to him.
“But the actual content of our conversation—that part, I simply cannot recall.”
……
“Is it because it’s an old memory?”
“No.”
Ian shook his head firmly.
When he spoke again, his voice carried absolute conviction.
“It will come back to you eventually. I’m certain of it, because the same happened to me.”
“You think… Clavis…?”
“She seems to have known we would end up in the Exile Land.”
“Good heavens!”
Nema shut her eyes tight.
Then she opened them suddenly.
“We can’t tell Hebeniah about this—”
“It must remain secret.”
“That’s right, isn’t it?”
Hebeniah, having lost her memories, now cherished the village and its people as if they were family.
For a child who thought nothing of harming herself for their sake, learning this truth would inflict a terrible wound.
Ian had also questioned Verity.
“Did you… did you hear what we were just—”
……
“V-Verity?”
Ian had assumed Verity would have some answer for him. Of everyone present, she knew Clavis best.
But instead—
“Wh-what? What in the world is this?”
Verity was perspiring far more heavily than the sleeping Hebeniah, her composure completely shattered.
Startled, Ian and Nema couldn’t bring themselves to continue speaking.
“You’ve both met with Clavis?”
Ian and Nema nodded.
“Ah, no… no, no!”
Like a restaurant owner confronting a terrible loss, Verity clenched and unclenched her fists at the air repeatedly.
Then she began scrubbing her face with both hands, endlessly.
“This insane Clavis!”
Will her schemes never end?
All the while, terrified that sleeping Hebeniah might wake, the Demon butler stifled her voice, crying out in silent desperation.
‘Even Demons are no match for Clavis,’ Ian thought to himself.
None of this made sense to him.
But he was genuinely grateful never to have become her enemy.
“Um…”
Nema murmured, her face drained of all color.
“I just… just remembered something…”
“What is it?”
“What are we going to do about the Antema Research Facility…?”
“…….”
“I only… I came here trusting only you, Verity…….”
“Ah.”
Now the color was draining from Ian’s face as well.
* * *
After a good long sleep, I woke to find we’d already switched trains.
I’d worried the sleeping berth would be uncomfortable, but I’d slept so soundly that dried saliva caked the corners of my mouth.
‘I’m a bit embarrassed.’
Nema carefully wiped my face with a handkerchief dampened in water.
“I can do it myself…….”
“Today I’ll do it. Look how soft your cheeks are.”
“Hehe…….”
After she’d finished braiding my hair, Verity pulled food from a Subspace Pouch.
We ate round bread that Dallis had made, spread with butter and jam, along with bottled milk for breakfast.
I bit into a mouthful of bread.
“Miss.”
Verity’s eyes narrowed in warning.
“Stop accepting snacks from Popina.”
“Huh.”
How did she know?
I reflexively swallowed the food in my mouth. My throat tightened, so I quickly downed some milk to chase it.
“Phew, how did you even……!”
“You were muttering about it in your sleep and even smacking your lips.”
“Oh no, my adorable sleep habits!”
“As I’ve said before, Pediatric Fatty Liver is terrifying. Be careful.”
“You don’t bother a dog while it’s eating.”
My appetite vanished.
I ended up eating only two of these delicious breads and stopping there.
“Seems like you’ve eaten enough?”
“This brother thinks I’m a joke. I could eat another one, but I’m restraining myself.”
Ian chuckled and wiped the crumbs from around my mouth.
“But aren’t you going to eat, Verity?”
“I’ve no appetite.”
“You stole my appetite and got punished for it.”
That’s what I said, but I grew worried seeing how poorly Verity looked. In just one night, she seemed to have aged forty-two years.
“Are you really sick or something?”
“I’m irritated and upset about various things…….”
“Did House Clavis appear in your dream? Did she tease you for being ugly?”
“Ugh……!”
At the mention of House Clavis, Verity clutched her stomach and banged her head against the window frame.
“Seriously, was it really her?”
How could I make this up to her.
Though I had no memory of it, a sense of guilt washed over me because of our blood relation.
‘……Still, isn’t that too much to hate her?’
Because we were blood relatives, my chest tightened a little.
But since I was an educated person, I set aside my feelings for a moment and tried to comfort Verity.
“They say it’s good luck when a dead person appears in your dreams. Buy a lottery ticket. Who knows, you might win first prize. But since I told you to buy it, promise me you’ll give me ten percent.”
“Hebeniah, right now I just…….”
“Let Verity be.”
Ian and Nema both stopped me from continuing.
‘Now that I look, those two don’t seem to be in good spirits either.’
It seemed the sleeping arrangements had been uncomfortable.
Verity didn’t touch breakfast at all, and spent the morning sniffling. Damn Clavis, I thought, poor miss being upset like this.
‘What is it, did she see me being abused in her dream or something?’
I quietly pulled over the bread Verity had left behind and nibbled at it bit by bit.
‘It’s because I’m still growing, because I’m still growing.’
I patted my own plump belly.
“Verity.”
“What…….”
“When we arrive at Antema Station, explain what this Ordeal is.”
* * *
The train ran for three more hours before pulling into Antema.
“It’s sweltering…….”
The summer heat beat down mercilessly from overhead. The air hung thick and acrid, befitting the city’s reputation as an industrial powerhouse.
Antema Square was dominated by buildings in deep blue and shadowed tones.
The smell of industrial oil seemed to vibrate through the air as naturally as breathing, and workers in maintenance uniforms crowded the streets.
Tall smokestacks belched pale smoke without pause, alongside vehicles that looked like automobiles themselves.
It was a place where machinery and technique had seeped deeper into the bones than any magic.
‘Our village truly was a pleasant place to live.’
The cool shade cast by verdant leaves. The clean air.
Even the Primordial Forest—desolate, without a single shaft of sunlight—had begun to seem dear to me.
We chose the most expensive-looking lodging available.
“May I have your name, please?”
“Angrus.”
While Ian completed the reservation, Verity leaned close and whispered.
“Angrus is one of the aliases owned by House Clavis. It’s a secret name unknown to the wider world, so feel free to use it as needed.”
“Angrus…….”
Was that meant to sound wealthy?
The rooms Ian had secured were two premium suites on the highest floor.
But we gathered in one immediately.
Click.
By now, closing the space to erect a Protective Barrier had become habit every time we arrived somewhere unfamiliar.
“Before we devise a plan to infiltrate the facility,”
Verity began,
“I should explain what the Ordeal is, and why I cannot assist you further.”

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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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