The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 107

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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 107
“How dare you infiltrate a noble’s mansion and entertain thoughts of approaching my daughter.”
“Gasp!”
A hand extended with tremendous force, seizing the mage’s throat. The mage’s feet dangled uselessly in the air as he thrashed.
“This is so blasphemous that I could execute you on the spot without a word of protest… What do you think?”
A voice low as scratching ears.
The Fourth’s pupils trembled mercilessly beneath an aura so dark it raised goosebumps.
“Answer me, Mage.”
Leviathan laughed long and low.
* * *
I swear, I never intended to draw my sword from the start.
I planned to probe slowly first, and only draw it if the child seemed threatened in any way.
That was roughly my thinking.
Of course, sneaking in on a night like this wasn’t entirely without the possibility of overhearing such a conversation.
‘It seems the Outpost Mage is being coerced.’
I listened slowly to their exchange and tried to compose myself. But ultimately.
“I’ll have to infiltrate the mansion. If I catch the young lady alone…”
The moment I heard that far, something snapped.
When I came to my senses, a blue blade was already in my hand.
Still, thanks to a thread of reason, I didn’t immediately bring it down on the mage’s neck.
“Ugh. What in the—what are you doing?!”
The mage thrashed about.
His breath seemed ready to cut off at any moment, but each time I adjusted the pressure in my grip.
With consciousness flickering on and off, even proper mana manipulation became impossible. A mage unable to cast magic was utterly helpless.
“I’m the one who wants to ask questions.”
I smiled coldly.
“Why are you interested in my daughter?”
The veins on the back of my hand bulged further.
“Ugh. Let go—! Drucan!”
The mage glared at Asha with bloodshot eyes. But she merely slipped behind a tree, hiding her body.
“I-I can’t use offensive magic like that, you know…!”
“You worthless trash!”
“Yes, yes. I’m worthless trash and a coward…”
The Fourth cursed inwardly. Just as consciousness began to fade, air rushed back in.
“Gasp, cough.”
“You realized you made a mistake, so you should have fled desperately. Why are you targeting my daughter again?”
“That brat… isn’t even your real daughter…!”
The Fourth laughed with a flushed, desperate face.
“Where did you find her? Could it be Iosia? That’s the closest nation to Kanalan Gorge, isn’t it…? Do you know that?”
“Who’s teaching whom right now?”
Leviathan tightened his grip without the slightest tremor.
“You ransacked the secretary’s quarters, stole and read the adoption documents, and your command of the Empire’s language is rather poor, isn’t it?”
“How did you…?”
The Mage’s face drained of all color.
Before arriving here, Leviathan had confirmed that the Mage had infiltrated the secretary’s residence and secretly examined Rubian’s adoption documents.
Of course, he had also deliberately left them there after persuading the Emperor.
But with this, Leviathan was now certain that the Mage was still watching Rubian. There was no reason for him to hold back any longer.
“Ha. From Southern Babylon? That, that trivial document… if you search thoroughly…”
“You’re the one who’ll be searched.”
Leviathan flicked his eyes toward Asha Drucan.
“Go summon the palace guards.”
“Y-yes, yes.”
“His face!”
The Mage cried out urgently.
“What?”
“If you would just let me see that face once… everything will become clear!”
A thin trickle of blood streamed from the corner of his mouth.
“I, I am merely trying to assist you as a Mage, Your Excellency.”
Leviathan’s expression hardened terrifyingly.
“Help me?”
“Just imagine it…”
“…”
“That child being the very Mage you despised so… how utterly chilling is that?”
A laugh escaped him.
“What nonsense.”
“Kugh!”
“Foolish beyond measure. That Mage I despise.”
“…”
“Is standing right before my eyes.”
The Fourth’s eyes bulged as if they might burst. He was going to die like this!
“Me… me! You cannot treat me carelessly. This is an act of hostility against the Kingdom…!”
He made one final desperate struggle, then his lips sealed shut.
A strange gleam flickered across the Mage’s pupils. He looked like someone who had suddenly remembered something.
“Yes… immediately… Father, I must seek your aid…”
In that instant, the Mage who had been muttering suddenly coughed up blood.
‘What?’
A small, blood-stained sphere was visible between his teeth, regurgitated.
A glowing blue orb… was it a magical artifact?
“The price for defying our King… will be severe…”
Leviathan’s eyes narrowed as he instinctively drew his sword.
But the oddly smiling Mage was faster, tightening his jaw.
The moment a small orb shattered with a crack—
“…, …!”
Boom!
The explosive magical artifact activated.
* * *
‘Please, please!’
I rode Kalid’s wolf beast, racing forward.
‘Father is in danger!’
The wind stung my cheeks painfully, and the surroundings blurred past so quickly I couldn’t take it all in.
“Rubian, hold on tight!”
I bit my lip and gripped Kalid’s sleeve with all my strength. The wolf beast tore through the empty dark alleys, faster and faster.
“The price for defying our King shall be merciless.”
That voice echoed endlessly in my mind.
“Kalid, faster!”
The wolf beast accelerated further.
I was now almost certain. All the circumstances pointed to Fourth being the original story’s Mage.
‘I shouldn’t have just returned to the mansion yesterday!’
Why did I always regret things only after they happened?
I should have gone straight to meet Fourth instead of coming back to the mansion!
‘I was foolish to feel relieved just because Father had no connection to him!’
I cursed my own complacency, pounding the ground in my mind.
As we rounded the back path of the Imperial Palace Villa, a fence leading to the garden came into view.
The wolf beast leaped without hesitation, clearing the fence in one bound.
We raced through another shortcut toward the isolated Separate Building. The dark garden loomed ahead.
“There!”
I squinted against the rushing wind.
Two silhouettes flickered between the desolate trees in the distance.
“Father!”
I shouted with all my strength, but it seemed he didn’t hear. The two figures drew closer together.
Father had one hand twisted around the Mage’s throat while wielding his sword in the other.
That was the moment.
The Mage suddenly regurgitated something.
“What….”
A dark night. Faint moonlight.
Yet even from this distance, I recognized the blue glow emanating from it.
My eyes turned crimson, and the structure of the magical artifact flooded into my mind in an instant.
This is….
“No…!”
A powerful sense of déjà vu seized me.
A dark night. A mage clad in priestly robes. And Leviathan standing against him.
“The price for defying our King shall be… merciless….”
The moment I heard those words—so similar yet subtly different from the dialogue in my dream—I couldn’t help but draw upon my mana. There was no time to process the discrepancy.
I leaped from the beast’s back as though rolling off its spine. I heard Kalid’s shout, but there was no time to turn back.
“Rubian!”
Far ahead, Asha spotted me with a face drained of all color. I called out to her sharply.
“Asha, shield!”
The man rolled a bead inside his mouth, clenching it between his teeth. Before I could stop him, the magical artifact shattered with a crack, and at that very instant—
“Father, dodge!”
Boom!
My mana surged forward in a direct assault.

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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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