The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 60

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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 60
I warned him before Verity could launch into his explanation.
“You’d better get this right. Depending on what you tell me next, I’ll either become a dutiful daughter to a volcano, beat up an old man, become a scoundrel, or pursue abandoning all morality.”
“Is that something I can control just by explaining well?”
His explanation began with an introduction to my ability.
“Clavis possesses a power that runs through blood.”
“That’s the space-opening thing, right?”
Nema mimicked turning a doorknob with her hand.
It was a gesture I often made whenever I used the ability.
Verity nodded.
“Opening and Closing. The power of opening and shutting doors, as some call it.”
“Isn’t that an important secret? I only heard about it through Hebenia.”
Ian asked if it was really information they were allowed to know.
“It doesn’t matter. The young lady displayed the ability so openly anyway, and those acquainted with Clavis know about it to some degree.”
“What? So my ability was high-level information after all.”
I said it lightly, but I caught the hidden secret behind Verity’s words.
‘The Emperor knows too.’
That tyrant—was he coveting me to get his hands on my power?
“……Ugh.”
The mere thought that the Emperor desired me made my stomach turn.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Does something hurt?”
“It seems I ate some of your bread this morning without you noticing and got indigestion. You didn’t realize, did you?”
The chatter from the three who didn’t know the real situation felt oddly unjust.
“Anyway, Opening and Closing is an extremely delicate and complex power. You’ve all seen it, haven’t you? How the young lady coughs up blood every time she pushes the ability to its limit.”
At that, I fidgeted with my nose absently.
Just remembering the vivid sensation of hot blood rushing and pouring out made my strength drain away completely.
“Clavis devised a method for this ability to grow in stages, for the sake of safety. That method is what we call the Trial.”
The Trial consists of three stages total, and each time one is overcome, the ability grows by leaps and bounds.
“Mm.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t content worth abandoning my family over?
“The problem is that this Trial is so harsh that even real demons would stick out their tongues in awe, so there’s a minimum age requirement—you must be at least twelve years old to attempt it.”
Ah, so I was wrong.
I retracted my earlier sentiment.
‘This is the kind of content I’d have every right to abandon my family over.’
A trial that involves fighting demons head-to-head sounded too much even for a twelve-year-old.
And the part I disliked most was this:
“Trial or whatever—why isn’t my will being reflected here? It’s like how mandatory night study sessions are actually mandatory night labor sessions…….”
“That, I’m afraid I don’t know.”
There was no trace of dishonesty in Verity’s answer.
“But once a Trial is imposed, refusal is impossible. Receiving help from others is also forbidden. That’s why I cannot assist you.”
“What about Ian and Nema?”
“They probably will be able to help. Possibly.”
“What kind of answer is that! What’s the standard?”
“I’d like to explain it properly, but Clavis isn’t an ordinary household. That’s why it’s called a Trial rather than a test…….”
“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more.”
I waved my hand dismissively through the air.
What difference would knowing make? All I’d get from hearing more was to have my lungs turned inside out.
“Sigh…….”
Overwhelmed by this helplessness, I shut my eyes tight, as if trying to escape reality.
‘No matter how strong I become, I’m still just an ordinary human. How am I supposed to fight a demon.’
The Research Institute, our destination, is a den of madmen who don’t hesitate at human experimentation.
If there were grotesquely modified undead soldiers, it’d be a full-blown zombie film.
‘And zombie films aren’t even my taste!’
On top of that, there’s a good chance an Angel is also hiding somewhere in the Institute.
“Is there really no way to back out? What if I just abandon the deal?”
“The deal and the Trial are separate matters…….”
I let out a hollow laugh the moment I heard that.
‘They don’t seem separate at all.’
Whether Verity knows it or not, the Long-Haired Demon is Clavis’s accomplice.
‘I’m the one who proposed this deal in the first place, to get you to accept the trial.’
And here was my favorite Demon, of all people, stabbing me in the back like this.
I made a mental note to start showing favoritism to the Bleached Demon from now on.
“Wait, a deal?”
Ian asked what I was talking about—then asked again what I meant.
I gave him a quick explanation of the agreement I’d struck with Verity. Naturally, with some embellishment.
“If I capture the Demon on my own strength, Verity promised to retrieve my belongings from the Deste Estate.”
“That’s a terrible bargain for you.”
“You’re thinking exactly what I thought. But there’s no helping it—Clavis made the first move to force my hand.”
“Your grandfather?”
Since he was already notorious as an eccentric, I had no qualms about using his name freely.
‘He’s actually taken steps to keep me from getting my hands on Imperial Court information.’
Surely the price of playing puppet to one’s granddaughter must be paid, old man.
Thanks to that, Ian’s eyes held a look that read: ‘Mad old fool—though I can hardly curse him, being Hebenia’s grandfather.’
“Miss, what do you intend to do?”
Verity too was gazing at me with the pity one reserves for a victim of fraud.
‘So that’s why you looked so unwell on the train earlier?’
Worried about my safety, with no way to escape the trial?
“If I may offer my opinion, Miss—since we’ve come this far, I’d recommend you face the trial. No matter how eccentric Clavis is, he wouldn’t lead his own granddaughter to her grave, would he?”
“You little—”
Speaking so bluntly when it’s none of his affair.
But Verity was right.
That brother I’d seen in a dream. The only Clavis I remembered had seemed to genuinely care for me.
‘It shouldn’t be impossible—not fatal, anyway.’
Besides, if I backed out now, I’d never be able to reverse the Abnormal Herb Circulation.
Even if Clavis had done something before his family’s destruction to ensure no deaths occurred, who knew how long this miracle would hold?
‘But I came here because I trust Verity.’
Could I do this without him?
I had no confidence in that.
‘I really do depend on Verity far more than I realized.’
Suddenly my circumstances felt terribly pathetic.
All I’d wanted was to live a quiet, pastoral life in the Exiled Lands with the villagers.
In the process, I kept clashing with the Emperor, so in a fit of ‘try ruining me once, why don’t you,’ I prepared to resist a coup d’état.
‘It’s a strange thought, but maybe this is what they mean by reaping what you sow.’
I must’ve read too many novels with protagonists who got trampled or treated as tools.
‘I’m not being punished for drooling over the tragedies of paper people, am I?’
Without entertaining even these idiotic thoughts, I couldn’t calm the anxiety crashing down on me.
‘Honestly, what does any of this have to do with me?’
As long as our village was safe, that was enough.
‘Whether people outside die of plague or suffer under the Emperor’s tyranny…’
But I immediately retracted this petty, selfish sentiment.
‘…How could I turn a blind eye to this?’
When someone struggles, you help them. When you have plenty, you share.
‘Isn’t that what any human does? Back in Korea, I desperately wished someone would help me like that. And here, I’ve met people who do exactly that.’
The village people I love.
And the families and friends they love—I simply couldn’t pretend not to see them.
“Ugh…!”
I pressed my clenched fists to my forehead and ground out through gritted teeth.
“When I see you, I won’t go easy on you, damn it all, Clavis!”
After roaring out my genuine fury toward family, I took deep breaths and gradually settled the chaos churning inside me.
‘All right—if I can’t escape it, I’ll enjoy it.’
Even if avoidance would’ve been the smartest move.
‘Given my nature, I couldn’t have refused anyway.’
Once I’d made up my mind, confidence bloomed that I could handle whatever trial lay ahead.
‘…Though if it’s all the same, maybe just… something for beginners, please?’
With my resolve steeled, I turned to face Ian and Nema.
Their expressions couldn’t have been more different.
Ian had the grim, set face of a knight preparing for battle. His lips pressed in a thin line spoke volumes of his determination to stand by my side.
Meanwhile.
……
Nema seemed so terrified she would collapse if I merely grazed her.
“Nema.”
I held her hand gently between both of mine.
“I’m here.”
“Oh…….”
“I can’t protect you with my own strength. You came here trusting Verity, didn’t you?”
“But how can you possibly manage alone……!”
“Well, if worst comes to worst, I’ll just use my ability to slip back over here.”
I laughed and jokingly suggested we escape to Exsilium together afterward.
But Nema never answered that remark.
With a wronged and frightened expression, she only wept quietly, repeating apologies over and over.
* * *
“Hebenia was badly bullied as a child, I’ve heard.”
Ian mentioned it casually as we browsed Antema Square together.
Our hands were full of wrapped gifts—presents to distribute among the villagers.
After visiting the Research Institute, I doubted we’d have leisure time for this, so we were shopping ahead.
“Because of that, her younger brother got caught up in it and was badly hurt.”
“I can’t understand people who bully others. Those kinds should never hold their heads up. They’re worthless—just decapitate them and toss them in a field for bird feed.”
“……During the process of your sister nearly beating her bullies to death, her brother was the one who got hurt.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
This part of Nema’s past had never come up during our conversations before.
Only then did I understand her behavior.
‘So she’s already experienced something like a rampage in the past.’
Because of her brother’s injury in that incident, Nema seemed to fear becoming a Berserker.
“Tsk.”
My mouth turned bitter.
She had fought through her trauma to travel with us, and now my damned Trial was about to render that struggle pointless.
“But… is it okay to tell me that?”
It was her personal matter, after all.
I asked carefully as we entered the Lodging building.
“Everyone from the Exiled Lands knows.”
“Really?”
“Before you arrived, we’d gather around a campfire every night and recall the outside world, shedding tears together.”
“Sounds like exile life was pretty sweet without me.”
I’d never heard anything quite so novel—conducting candlelit memorial ceremonies in a place of banishment.

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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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