The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 84

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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 84
* * *
The next morning.
“Stop teasing Ppoppi and Chutchu, would you? And if you’ve got some kind of dog-language translator app, give me one. I want to use it while I’m observing the kids.”
“But it’s so much fun to tease them.”
Verity installed the Woof-Woof Translator app on my watch.
“For your information, the app purchase cost is being deducted from your wish balance.”
“Speaking of which, how much of my debt remains?”
“Enough that you needn’t worry about it.”
Assuming you make three wishes a day, she said, I’d need at least a hundred and twenty-eight years to exhaust my balance.
“Great, so I’ll be dead before I use them all up.”
“Don’t say such sad things.”
Verity joked that I should manage to live comfortably for five thousand years.
I laughed and promised to try my best. Verity smiled quietly in return.
“By the way, the Long-haired Lord sent word…….”
“Did the Antemma Research Institute discover anything from the Demon and Angel they captured?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Verity’s eyes widened with what looked like surprise, as if I’d forgotten something.
“He said if you catch the crazy Demon, he’ll retrieve something you left behind in Korea. Don’t you remember?”
“Oh, that’s right!”
How could I have forgotten such an important promise!
I quickly began deliberating what to ask for.
‘A tablet would be ideal, but thinking about chargers and Wi-Fi… it’s all so complicated.…’
Or maybe food ingredients?
‘Wait—ramen! God, suddenly I’m craving it like mad!’
How many packets of ramen were still at home?
‘No, I can’t abandon my principles. At the very least, my magic staff—the one I spent three hundred on back then—!’
Drowning in a well of desire, I couldn’t bear to part with any of it.
“Are you really sweating over a choice like this?”
“This is important to me……!”
“In that case, this news will surely be welcome.”
Verity continued what she’d left unsaid.
“The Lord says he’s prepared to count the Demons you’ve caught as three.”
“Th-really?”
My eyes lit up, and Verity burst into laughter.
“In truth, Demon Necro wasn’t that formidable an opponent. But he turned out to be a very sturdy potato vine.”
His father was actually the real mastermind, and you even uncovered the secret organization connected to him.
On top of that, you arrested the Fallen Angel, which put the major investigation authority in the hands of the Demons.
“Our young mistress is just too amazing, I tell you!”
“Kyahaha!”
Verity and I immediately began dancing with delight.
“Which means—”
Verity held up three fingers.
“He said he’d bring you three items!”
“Kyaaaah! Kyaaaaaaah!”
That meant I could get all three—the tablet, the ramen, and the magic staff! I could keep my vessel of desires brimming to the top!
“However.”
That single word from Verity sent my soaring heart crashing down in an instant.
Unease seized me, so I pretended not to have heard and fiddled with my watch.
Should I test out the dog-language translator?
“The Lord asked me whether you’d want the tablet to work here as well, so I inquired whether it would be functional in this realm.”
Beep.
[There’s no servant as capable as me. When will this tiny speck understand my true excellence?]
The translated words played automatically from the watch.
“…….”
“…….”
A suffocating silence fell.
“You think of me as a tiny speck?”
“……I apologize.”
Verity prostrated herself before me in contrition.
And still lying flat, I continued speaking.
“They said they’d set up automatic charging and wireless internet for the Tablet so I can use it comfortably.”
……
“But they want us to count it as one item instead of three separate ones…….”
“It seems like they could send all three, though?”
“How?”
“Well, there’s an Insane Demon right in front of us, so if I just capture this bastard and hand him over, we could get everything from Korea right now?”
“I apologize…….”
In any case, after thinking it over for a few days, I promised to give them an answer, then went wandering through the Village looking for Ppoppi and Chutchu.
‘Ugh, what an irritating Demon.’
Riding in the Shing-Shing Car, I stomped harder on the ground than usual.
‘When I first met him, I thought he was this refreshingly upbeat pretty boy, but these days he’s apparently crawled so far up the walls that he’s stuck to the ceiling.’
Still, I couldn’t quite bring myself to hate the Demon.
‘It’s nice that we’ve gotten so close.’
To me—or rather, to Chae Ha-bin—my brother was a horrible existence.
I’d taken plenty of hits from him, and he was the kind of monster who’d curse over trivial things.
But thanks to the brothers I’d met here, that monster could no longer torment me.
‘…… That phrasing sounds a little like some overdone line from a South American TV drama.’
But the “brother” I use here has a genuine meaning—like a blood relation.
It’s nothing like that Insane Demon spouting ‘Oh come on, that’s not the kind of relationship we have! We’re like real siblings, so why the misunderstanding? Don’t tell me you’ve got an inferiority complex?’ while trying to press his chest against my senior’s arm—and nothing like how my senior screamed ‘Ack, I felt fat cells!’ and immediately pushed him away, which actually made me feel better.
Of course my senior pushed him back yelling like that, so the mood stayed fine.
‘Ian is conservative but dependable—the responsible older brother. Verity is the younger brother where nagging and playfulness go hand in hand.’
And then there’s Pertel from the Clavis Household, who calls me baby and treasures me.
The headwind blew my bangs across my forehead, tickling it as they scattered.
Hehe!
My mood lifting, I sincerely wished misfortune upon that Insane Demon and accelerated further.
* * *
Four days had passed since I began observing Ppoppi and Chutchu’s daily routine.
This observation, started to figure out how to treat the Duchess of Stria, revealed an unexpected fact.
‘They don’t spend that much time staying in the Village?’
Ppoppi and Chutchu spent far more time in the Primordial Forest than in the Village.
On the collars of the ducal couple hung a Barrier Key given to them by the Long-haired Lord.
Originally it had been entrusted to them so that when Ian and Verity were busy or away, they could take the villagers there and train them.
Woof woof!
Arf!
“We have been waiting for you.”
Yes, just like this.
As reference, today’s training participants were Popina with aptitude for the Dancer Who Shakes the Fate of Stars, Deyf the Prophet Who Reads Fate, and finally Aig the Archer Who Guards the World Tree.
‘Popina really did change his training outfit into a crop top…….’
His pants were slung so low they sat almost at his pelvis, his hip bones completely exposed.
‘Sigh, what is this feeling…….’
I was genuinely happy that the neighbor seemed to have found his own happiness, yet unsettled at having to witness that particular sight.
Grooan, hnngh.
Kiin.
Ppoppi and Chutchu’s reactions seemed odd, so I quietly activated the translator from behind. This time I’d pre-disabled autoplay to prevent anything unseemly.
Beep beep.
[Ah, I want to mate…….]
[Sister, was yesterday not satisfying?]
[Oh, you. It’s because it was satisfying, that’s why I want this, isn’t it?]
[Hehe, sister, you slept all through the night……!]
Click, click.
[Delete the app?]
[‘Woof-Woof Translator’ app has been deleted.]
I quietly turned the Shing-Shing Car around.
A wound was left in my heart that would never fully heal.
* * *
“So, I’d like to propose two things.”
In any case, after four days of watching the ducal couple.
“I think it would be best to structure their diet around soft textures like sous-vide cuisine and boiled vegetables, and to prepare a quiet rest space where they can contemplate in solitude.”
I presented the two things that had impressed me most to Frelia.
‘I probably didn’t need to see some of those things, but…….’
Now I understood why Verity had called it “a real headache.”
So this is another embarrassing memory added to my collection.
“The day you leave the Deste Estate is the death anniversary of the Empress who passed away. It must be difficult for you in many ways, so it would be good to take care of your health.”
“Now that you mention it, it’s about that time of year.”
Frelia’s expression turned rueful.
She noted down the two suggestions I had offered, speaking as she wrote.
“I was quite surprised myself, living as I did in a small but thriving provincial estate. To think that such a dignified person fainted upon hearing of Her Majesty the Empress’s passing.”
“Good heavens.”
I found myself wincing without meaning to.
It was a grief I could imagine vividly enough without ever having experienced it.
“Do you know the Duchess of Stria?”
“No. But she is a well-known figure.”
She came from a family of considerable renown to begin with, and after her marriage, she wielded positive influence as the mistress of a great household, earning the respect of countless women.
She founded a school that only women could attend, and personally operated a scholarship foundation to help children in difficult circumstances with their studies.
With a discerning eye for the arts, the musicians she patronized directly had often gone on to great success.
“She was also very close with the Duchess of the Clavis Household.”
“What?”
My eyes widened involuntarily.
“I had a grandmother too?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Ah, I have no memory of it.”
When I mentioned that I had no memories from before the exile, Frelia looked at me with sympathy for just a moment—a reaction I had grown accustomed to and thought nothing of.
‘Come to think of it, I did have a grandmother, didn’t I?’
The head of the Clavis Household had such a dominant presence that I had simply forgotten she existed.
I felt a little guilty about that.
“In any case, she was such an extraordinary woman…….”
Frelia let out a weary sigh.
“After that tragedy, she has scarcely left her residence.”
“The shock was too great?”
“That, and she also divorced her husband.”
“My goodness.”
Apparently, the Duchess of Stria had been fiercely opposed to marrying off her daughter to the Imperial Palace.
But the Former Duke of Stria, her husband, had forced the matter through, and as a result, their marriage had suffered greatly.
“The current Duke is the younger brother of Her Majesty the Empress.”
…….
Why was I suddenly thinking of Olive, the miserable sister-complex character?
“They say the two of them were incredibly close as children.”
“Good heavens…….”
“And then, the Former Duke had a carriage accident that left him seriously wounded. It was because of this that the young Duke inherited the title.”
“Quite the convenient accident.”
“Indeed, isn’t it.”
…….
Ah, well.
‘So he had a sister-complex too.’
Though at least it was the kind where they could hold hands and say, “Yes, I understand your heart.”
Moreover, this was crucially important information.
‘The Stria Household must absolutely despise the Emperor.’
If that were the case, then building a friendship with the Duchess of Stria when she visits might prove invaluable to me later.
‘The Imperial Court, the Magic Engineering Academy, the Stria Household.’
Just hearing them listed, they sounded like a reliable group of allies.

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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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