The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 66

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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 66
* * *
“Hevenia! Hevenia!”
Ian called out to the unconscious Hevenia, his voice frantic.
‘Please, she’s not dead, is she? I need to check if she’s breathing—!’
He pressed a trembling finger beneath her nose. A faint, shallow breath brushed his skin.
Yet relief would be premature.
Hevenia’s appearance was ghastly.
Her skin had taken on a sickly pallor as if all the blood had been drained from her; her clothes were torn in places, and through the rents he could see angry red welts blooming across her flesh.
On top of that, blood stained the space above her lip, her chin, and the front of her garments.
‘This is what they call a Trial? Something every Clavis member is expected to endure?’
Ian carefully lifted Hevenia into his arms.
She was taller now than when he’d first arrived in the Exile Land, her frame more solid, yet somehow she felt lighter in his embrace than she had that day on the train.
“Nema.”
He called to Nema, who was leaning against the stone wall, heaving for breath.
Her face was twisted in anguish, drenched now in cold sweat.
Each time she squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, the blood vessels in her eyes bloomed and receded in an endless cycle.
Her body, pressed against the stone, trembled as if ready to convulse at any moment, and spittle dripped from her lips as she drew in rough, ragged breaths.
“Nema! It’s all right now.”
“Gasp—huff—gasp……”
“Hevenia is safe. You arrived just in time.”
“Heve—nia……”
“Yes, it’s her.”
Ian spoke in a warm tone, steady as a lamp guiding the way through darkness.
“She’s right here.”
Only then did Nema manage to steady her reeling mind.
Her ragged breathing gradually calmed, and color began to return to her hands, which had been clenched so tightly around the stone that her knuckles had gone white.
“He—Hevenia……!”
Nema hurled herself away from the wall and dropped to her knees before Hevenia.
“Good heavens……!”
“She’s still breathing. But she needs medical treatment.”
“Yes, we need to get out of here—”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
As Nema swept her disheveled crimson hair back with one hand, a golden band of some kind became visible.
“Verity gave it to me. Some kind of artifact to suppress the madness.”
“The side effects……?”
“A headache. A little one……”
She laughed as if it were nothing, but Ian could deduce that the pain was severe enough to suppress the madness that threatened to consume her.
He was grateful that for now, having regained her reason, she didn’t seem to be suffering.
At that moment, Verity approached.
The demon butler lowered himself onto one knee.
“Miss.”
And with the utmost gentleness, she touched Hevenia, who had endured the Trial and emerged victorious.
“Verity.”
Ian couldn’t hold back any longer.
“This isn’t right.”
“……”
“She’s only seven years old. Just a child of seven!”
While fighting the Angel, Ian had felt as though he were plummeting into hell again and again.
The demon had nearly killed Hevenia countless times, and each time she had endured without so much as a single cry.
Forced to watch from the sidelines, Ian felt utterly wretched. He seemed to himself a useless fool, powerless to intervene.
What kind of Trial was this?
What possible justification could there be for a child to suffer to this degree?
“……Clavis……”
Verity fell silent for a moment, her gaze lowering.
The pain in her voice was genuine.
“The family has many exceptions. There are many things even I don’t know. Perhaps even the lords understand only the tip of the iceberg.”
“……”
“Your anger burns as fiercely as the fire consuming my own heart. I do care deeply for the young miss, you know.”
“I know she’s cherished.”
“There’s no one in the village who doesn’t know that.”
At Ian and Nema’s agreement, Verity smiled bitterly.
Ian asked.
“Could it be that there are three trials in total? Like the Savior’s Three Trials passed down in scripture?”
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
“This madness…….”
He’d have to endure it two more times?
If Clavis were standing before him right now, Ian would seize them by the collar and scream.
What burden were they placing on a daughter they cherished so dearly?
Didn’t they pity the child left alone?
‘……In the first place, what kind of trial is this?’
Ian was bewildered.
‘What is this trial for, and what do we gain from enduring it?’
As Ian wrestled with these thoughts, something was suddenly thrust toward him.
Taking the object almost reflexively, Ian murmured.
“Holy Water…….”
“Please drink it. You’re not in the best condition either. And Nema, stay still for a moment. I’ll remove the Restraint Artifact for you. The urge has subsided, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. Thanks to you…….”
“It must have been terribly painful, but you endured it well. This Restraint Artifact is what youkai use—well, a species superior to humans, you understand…….”
Verity handed Holy Water to Nema as well.
Then she hoisted the unconscious Hevenia onto her back.
“Let’s leave this place first. The air down here underground is stale and won’t do the young lady any good.”
“……Right.”
Ian was equally eager to get out of this cursed research facility.
“But before that, there’s something Havi asked me to do.”
“Havi?”
“She asked to be called by her nickname instead.”
“Ah, that’s a good change.”
The three of them loaded every bookshelf stored in the Document Storage Chamber into Verity’s Dimensional Pouch.
Then they moved to the research lab where medicinal herbs had been piled high.
As they went, they flinched each time they encountered a room crammed with bones or a laboratory covered in dark crimson stains.
“I don’t see any Undead.”
“I heard there’s a room on the fourth basement level where living victims are confined. Could they be there instead?”
“Hmm…….”
Verity, who had been carelessly stuffing herbs and manufactured medicines into her Dimensional Pouch, shook her head.
“I sense no distinctive dread emanating from Undead. Nor any presence of the living.”
“How is that possible?”
Nema, who had been busily loading herbs and medicines into Verity’s pouch, froze.
“This is supposed to be a research facility that creates Undead.”
Yet there wasn’t a single Undead to be found.
Ian pointed out another irregularity.
“Verity, the quantity of medicinal herbs here is smaller than expected. It seems like they’ve been transporting them from the Capital again…….”
“Truly choosing only the most tiresome tasks. Are they insane, or…….”
“Could there be another research facility somewhere else?”
At Nema’s words, Ian and Verity’s hands stilled.
Feeling their gazes turn toward her, Nema’s shoulders curled inward slightly, embarrassed.
“Ah.”
Just then, Verity checked on Hevenia, whom she carried on her back.
“Her breathing has become rapid…….”
At that, Ian placed his hand on Hevenia’s forehead and gasped.
“She’s developed a fever.”
“We’ve gathered enough for now. You said there were victims on the second basement level earlier, right? After we regroup with them, we blow this research facility——”
Creeeeak——.
Thud, thud.
Heavy leather heels struck the pristine marble floor, producing a crisp, rhythmic sound.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
All three stopped moving at once, pressing their backs quietly against the corridor wall and lowering themselves.
At the same moment, a footstep passed overhead.
‘A gait I’ve heard before……!’
Ian’s eyes trembled.
When the footstep halted before the Document Storage Chamber—the research facility’s innermost sanctum—Ian quickly scrawled a message across the back of Verity’s hand.
Verity nodded, her expression hardening.
Once confirmed, Ian wrote the identity of the footstep on Nema’s palm.
[The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief]
Nema’s eyes bulged wide.
Verity swiftly handed both of them cloaks that muted presence, and they wrapped themselves in haste.
* * *
Late night.
No one knew why the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief had come to the Antema Research Facility.
Had even a single researcher survived, they would have grumbled, “An unannounced inspection, really—how thoughtless!”
It was precisely that inexplicable a visit.
“Hmm.”
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief surveyed the empty Document Storage Chamber and exhaled a sound of little interest—his face registering only a bland indifference, as though noting nothing of consequence.
Yet the corners of his mouth had lifted.
Ever so slightly.
As he passed through the storage chamber and entered the eastern wing, where a secret passage connected to the fourth underground level, he released a low murmur.
“Ahh.”
He regarded the devastated landscape before him as though admiring a beautiful work of art, drawing in an appreciative breath.
Click-click—his fine leather shoes rang out with a crisp rhythm.
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief removed his gloves and traced the sword marks carved into the walls and the deep, razor-sharp gouges scoring the floor with his bare hand.
He lifted his gaze to the shattered ceiling above.
His eyes took in the bloodstains scattered across the ground.
When he beheld the blood, his brow furrowed slightly, but he quickly returned to his former impassive countenance.
As the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief left the Document Storage Chamber once more,
“…….”
he drew his sword.
Crack—!
Bang—!
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief entered each empty laboratory in turn, smashing and slashing everything in sight.
And with each destruction, he spoke aloud.
“Nothing here.”
“Not here either.”
“Empty.”
“How strange.”
“The one who left…….”
“I didn’t cross paths with them on the way in.”
Every word of the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief’s murmured monologue,
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
the three figures hiding in the nearest laboratory to the stairwell entrance heard every syllable.
‘Damn it—he knows!’
Ian ground his teeth.
‘He knows we’re still here!’
A moment sooner and they would have climbed the stairs to safety, but the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief’s emergence had forced them to take shelter in a nearby laboratory.
Though they wore cloaks that muted their presence, they could not suppress their tension.
Verity had even cautioned them to hold their breath as much as possible.
‘The fact that Verity doesn’t underestimate the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief means…….’
Ian swallowed hard.
‘He really is strong.’
He’d sensed it even when they first glimpsed him beyond the Primordial Forest, but now, his own power grown, Ian could fully grasp just how monstrous the Imperial Attendant-in-Chief truly was.
Then.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—!
Someone descended the stairs in rapid succession.
“…….”
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief quietly sheathed his blade.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—!
The sound drew steadily closer.
And the moment footsteps descended the staircase and reached the third basement level—
Crash!
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief’s blade flashed out as he rushed forward, meeting a massive axe blade swung down by someone descending the stairs, and the collision sent a tremendous shockwave sweeping through the underground chamber.
Every piece of glass installed throughout the research facility shattered in sequence as the wave of force rippled outward.
Ian and Nema shielded Verity, who cradled Hevenia in her arms, pulling them down beneath themselves. Shards of broken glass rained down across both their heads and backs.
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief and the unidentified figure had locked into combat in the corridor directly outside the research facility where the three of them were hiding.
“Hm.”
In the fierce deadlock between blade and axe—
The Imperial Attendant-in-Chief spoke first.
“To what end does the Heresy Inquisitor grace this place with his presence?”

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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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