The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 69

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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 69
* * *
‘Good grief, why is the journey home so impossibly difficult?’
A salmon fighting its way upstream could hardly struggle worse than this.
Bound by rope and dragged along, Verity remained unmoved.
If he set his mind to it, what was this pitiful cord? He could free even an armed bandit. Naturally, through physical means.
For Verity, commander-in-chief of the Demon Forces and second only to the four Demon Lords themselves, this was no different from a newborn’s idle play.
Yet he obeyed the bandits’ instructions without resistance for two reasons.
First: Hebeniae’s condition was not good.
One careless movement might injure her. Since the bandits were armed, there was no point in provoking them.
The second reason was Olive.
Because this inquisitor firmly believed Hebeniae to be a saint—one who even voluntarily endured torture out of curiosity—neither Verity nor Ian nor Nema dared move recklessly.
‘One foolish disturbance and the situation spirals out of control. That’s the real danger here.’
No matter that he was Livy’s younger brother, blind trust was premature. Believing in the Holy King behind him—much less in the State Religion itself—was still too soon.
Moreover, this entire operation had relied on the help of Saker and Cherdo, priests attached to the Deste Sacred Shrine.
If the State Religion caught wind of anything suspicious and investigated, the fallout could reach them as well.
‘Most of all, the young lady would be hurt.’
She was fundamentally a good person, after all.
‘Still, this is refreshingly different.’
Verity had never experienced such treatment before, and found himself oddly entertained.
The Demon observed the train robbers’ work with a clear conscience.
Their movements were efficient, without excess.
The careful restraint to avoid unnecessary commotion, coupled with their silent hand signals and meaningful glances—such coordination spoke volumes.
‘Remarkable organizational discipline.’
They must have practiced endlessly for this day.
‘Or else this isn’t their first venture of this kind.’
Their only critical failure was their choice of hostages.
Because all five hostages the Bandit Group had selected were part of Verity’s company.
A Demon commander-in-chief, a cold-blooded Demon knight, a bloodstained berserker.
And, at the youngest, a heretic inquisitor.
They had been disarmed, but this posed no real problem.
Even Verity and the others weren’t particularly concerned.
When another bandit took the sleeping Hebeniae from his arms, he had briefly considered simply disposing of them then and there.
“Ah, why does such a little thing hurt?”
“We should have a Physician look at her.”
“Look at those rosy cheeks from eating well.”
Their kindness seemed so genuine for bandits that he decided to hold back and observe.
“You may depart.”
The woman who appeared to be the Bandit Leader released the train without resistance.
The crew and engineer watched the five hostages depart with sympathetic eyes, but ultimately had no choice but to restart the train and leave.
‘Five hostages cannot be saved at the cost of over a hundred passengers.’
Watching the train disappear into the distance with its shrill whistles and billowing steam, Verity felt a question rise within him.
‘What was the purpose of this abduction?’
The bandits had taken only the hostages—they hadn’t touched a single coin or ration from the other passengers.
Upon descending and checking the train directly, there were no signs of damage, and the tracks remained intact.
“……We, we did it!”
“Hooray!”
The bandits celebrated their own joy with unrestrained delight.
“Ah, forgive us for startling you.”
Having stood there watching vacantly, the Bandit Leader gave a shrug and offered a light explanation.
“This is our first train hijacking, and we’re a bit excited that it went well.”
“Your first time?”
“Don’t worry—I’ll return you all unharmed.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Ian asked the question, his voice edged with caution.
“If you knew, I’d have to kill you.”
The reply that came back was extraordinarily cheerful and deadly in equal measure.
* * *
I was walking alone through the corridor of the Clavis Estate.
‘Hmm, do I no longer dream of my Korean family?’
On days when exhaustion from overwork reached its peak and I fell asleep, I’d always have nightmares where the family members who abused me appeared.
But this time, instead of a nightmare, I was reliving a childhood I couldn’t remember—as a dream.
‘Will I meet that little brother again?’
The Clavis Estate was lavish no matter how many times I saw it.
And it was still crowded with people.
The servants bustled about managing the house, while the attendants hurried to assist their respective masters.
That was when it happened.
“Young mistress.”
A young servant passed by my side in quick strides, calling out to someone.
Young mistress.
‘If she’s the young mistress of Clavis…’
Before I could even arrive at the answer, a beautiful woman’s face came into view.
Rich, lustrous dark blue hair.
Bright, crystalline blue eyes.
A face that conveyed both intellectual beauty and gentle nature at once.
The young mistress of Clavis took a thin book from a young servant with charming freckles.
“Young mistress, this is the Fairy Tale Book the young lady was looking for.”
“Thank you for finding it. Where was it?”
“It was in the pavilion installed in the White Rose Garden.”
“Hmm…”
The young mistress of Clavis smiled mysteriously, then lowered her gaze.
There was a little girl who looked about four years old.
A lovely, adorable girl who bore a striking resemblance to the woman.
“Havi, how did this happen?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Not uh-huh, is it?”
“Uh-huh-huh?”
“Not uh-huh-huh either. And don’t go wiggling your bottom so cutely.”
The young servant was desperately pretending not to hear the mother and daughter’s conversation.
In the end, it was the young Hebeniae who surrendered.
“Havi didn’t know, so please forgive me.”
“Good grief, how shameless.”
“She takes after Father!”
Laughing, the young mistress suddenly embraced her little daughter and lifted her into the air.
The mother and daughter parted from the servant and entered a room.
Following them as if enchanted, young Hebeniae immediately recognized this as the room she had used as a child.
“Mother, read the fairy tale to me!”
“If I read this, you’re going to take a nap. Understood?”
“Yes.”
The young mistress, settling beside Hebeniae on the bed, opened the book she held.
“Today, I’ll tell you the story of the Three Trials of the Savior.”
“Havi loves this!”
“Mother loves it too.”
A world in chaos.
God sends down three trials to find a hero who will save the world.
Many people challenged the trials but ultimately failed, yet only one person overcame them and received God’s selection.
“Mother, what are trials?”
“The trials in the fairy tale are three in total.”
The first is the Trial of Qualification—finding the limitless possibilities hidden within oneself.
The second is the Trial of Courage—using that power to help those in difficulty.
And the third and final is the Trial of Determination.
“Determination?”
“Choosing. What to do.”
“Havi’s going to sleep now! Sleepy-sleep!”
Clearly, important information had appeared.
But then.
……
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the tender scene of mother and daughter, like something out of the fairy tale itself.
‘It’s always been what I…’
wanted.
That scene I’d yearned for even in my dreams—it existed somewhere in my memory, a place I never knew until now.
A mother who kissed my sleeping forehead, adjusted my blanket, and unable to tear herself away, surrendered to her own reluctance and kept watching over my sleeping form.
“I love you, Havi.”
I bowed my head at those words.
The child I was then must have accepted such boundless love as a matter of course.
But I, standing here now, don’t know how to receive a mother’s love that pours forth without asking for return, as if what she gives were never enough.
Chae Habin had never known anything like this.
“My baby.”
Someone gently lifted my chin.
Eyes of blue, the same shade as my brother’s, gazed at me with perfect clarity.
“My baby.”
……
“You’ve suffered so much pain, haven’t you?”
“Ah, I……”
“Havi, come here.”
Mother opened her arms wide.
I let myself be held, feigning helplessness.
Though it was clearly a dream, I felt the warmth of her body, the scent of skin I’d unknowingly longed for, the gentleness of her embrace and the tenderness in her voice.
“You did so well. You did so very well.”
……
“My darling, you worked so hard. So very hard.”
“Sob, sob……!”
“Mother will keep watching over you. Always……”
“Waaaaah! Waaahhhhh!”
I wept with a desperation that shamed even a four-year-old.
* * *
“Doctor, she’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
“How much pain is she in if she’s crying like this……”
The bandits gathered around the bed where Hebeniae lay, worrying endlessly.
“Step back, all of you! I can’t examine her like this!”
A thin-faced man wearing round glasses wielded his stethoscope like a whip.
The bandits shrieked and finally retreated.
“How long has she been running a fever?”
……
“Guardian?”
“Oh, well—about four hours now.”
“It doesn’t appear to be a dangerously high fever. There are no signs of infection, and nothing about what she’s eaten seems problematic, so……”
The Physician examined Hebeniae with careful attention.
“Children her age often run fevers for no clear reason, so you needn’t worry too much. We’ll keep watch while she receives an IV drip.”
“Thank you.”
Not that gratitude would bring down her fever.
Verity bowed respectfully to the Physician for his considerate care of their hostage.
“Young master.”
The Bandit Leader, who stood at the doorway observing them, called to Verity.
“Why don’t we leave your sister here and have a word in the next room?”
In the adjacent room, Ian, Livy, and Olive sat side by side on a three-person sofa. Verity settled across from them on an opposite couch.
The Bandit Leader, seated in the place of honor, spoke.
“I apologize for the surprise. As I promised, I’ll return her safely, so don’t worry. You can even report this to the authorities once you leave. What’s your address?”
“What is the purpose of doing something like this?”
Ian asked the question once more, the one he hadn’t been able to ask before.
The Bandit Leader smiled faintly, saying she couldn’t answer this time either.
“If you find out, you won’t be leaving here.”
“Do you live here?”
Olive asked.
The Bandit Leader readily changed the subject.
“It’s just a temporary base. We move about from place to place.”
“But there were children……”
Nema recalled the sight she’d glimpsed as they passed through.
This was a small manor built deep within the mountain foothills—the sort of place wealthy nobles typically visited for a month of summer retreat.
Yet the Bandit Group had arranged it to resemble a small village, making it their home.
About five children played in the garden, and laundry hung thickly on the sun-drenched yard fluttered with vigor.
To Nema, the scene looked much like what life had been like during her days in exile.

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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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