The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 116

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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 116
“What… a portrait?”
His sharp eyes narrowed slightly.
Regardless, I hurried over to greet the Painter working beneath the tent.
“Hello!”
“Oh my, what charming visitors… Miss?”
“Oh, you know me?”
“Of course, of course! I often visit the Duke’s Mansion to restore murals. I’ve seen you from a distance a few times.”
“Ah, I see.”
I’d thought I was rather well-disguised, so I wondered how he recognized me.
The Painter chuckled warmly and smiled gently.
“Have you come to have a portrait drawn?”
“Yes! Me and my friend! Please draw us together!”
“Leave it to me!”
I dragged Kalid, who was standing there vacantly, and sat him down.
“Rubian, why suddenly a portrait?”
“Well, you know! When I hang out with friends, we often… take, I mean, draw things like this!”
It’s a way of recording life in four frames, so to speak…
Of course, this was just one frame.
Kalid wore a puzzled expression.
“Come on, sit pretty. That way it’ll come out pretty.”
As I leaned my shoulder against his, Kalid stiffened rigidly and straightened his posture.
The Painter’s hand moved swiftly. While formal portraits took days, street portraits like this were all about speed.
“You really draw and keep things like this with your friends?”
Kalid asked, moving only his lips.
I, somehow excited, nodded eagerly.
“That’s right! Of course, even on dates…! Oops.”
I quickly bit my lip. Kalid was still looking ahead.
‘He didn’t hear that, right?’
I was so excited that my thoughts had slipped out.
“I see… with your friends…”
A soft murmur drifted from beside me.
Then I felt his gaze turn toward me.
“So what was this impure thought of yours?”
Wait, was he still stuck on that?
“You really are obsessive.”
“Are dates impure to you?”
“…”
In my peripheral vision, I felt Kalid tilt his head in confusion.
“Why is that…?”
“….”
“What do people even do on dates?”
I quietly clenched my fist against my stiff thigh.
For some reason, the crown of my head felt hot.
Kalid seemed to expect me to respond to anything he said, but I simply couldn’t meet his gaze.
Oh, innocent lamb that you are…. I pray you remain forever pure.
But I’m already lost.
* * *
The next day, my birthday party was held in the lavishly decorated Grand Banquet Hall!
Due to the urgent schedule, there were no outside guests, but I was more than happy with just my family and the Duke’s Mansion staff.
“Rubian, happy birthday, though it’s a bit late!”
“Yay! Thank you so much!”
Glittering chandeliers, luxuriously ornate interior decorations, and mountains of rich food piled high!
Everything was for me.
Is this why everyone loves their birthdays?
I put on a party hat and blew out the candles on the cake. Asha’s fireworks burst with a bang.
Joyful laughter erupted amid the rainbow sparkles.
“Happy birthday, Rubian.”
Kalid whispered to me. That day, we drew two portraits and each kept one.
And that wasn’t all—Kalid gifted me every single thing I had touched while wandering the streets. I was genuinely concerned about his financial sense.
“Thank you, Kalid. But you absolutely must keep a ledger, understand?”
“…? I’ll try my best.”
“You two are getting close.”
Void suddenly interjected, his eyes narrowing.
“Where did you two go yesterday anyway?”
Void had been excessively monitoring my and Kalid’s movements lately.
Kalid, sitting beside me, replied casually.
“A da….”
“We went sightseeing!”
I quickly covered Kalid’s mouth.
Then Mother Rosetta, holding a glass of red wine in one hand, tilted her head.
“Hmm? I’d love to hear what our Kalid was about to say.”
“So it was a da….”
“Kalid, don’t be fooled. Mother’s smile hides arrows behind her back.”
“…?”
As I whispered while tugging his collar, Kalid wore a bewildered expression. Void dragged a chair over and sat between Kalid and me.
“Alright, all set! Come here, everyone—time for presents!”
Grandfather waved his hand from across the banquet hall.
“Presents!”
I leaped from my chair in an instant.
When I rushed over, one wall of the Grand Banquet Hall was completely filled with an array of ornate gift boxes.
Goodness, it would take a whole year to unwrap all of those!
“This is just a taste—the rest are in my Separate Building….”
“Huh? There’s more?”
“My boy. Should I just turn my Separate Building into a storage room for Rubian’s gifts? I can sleep anywhere anyway. That might be for the best, don’t you think?”
“That sounds reasonable. There’s a certain satisfaction in filling an empty space.”
“What are you saying!”
I frantically waved my hands in an X pattern, barely managing to preserve Grandfather’s sanctuary.
The colorful boxes each had small cards tucked inside them. Many bore the names of senior Knights or servants from the Duke’s Mansion.
I eagerly picked them up and stuffed them into my pocket.
I dislike excess, but this? I absolutely love it.
“Oh, that’s right! There’s something I really want to receive!”
As we were entering the family gift-giving session, I suddenly remembered and spun around.
“Huh?”
My family was quite taken aback by my sudden outburst.
“Goodness, Rubian. You should have said so earlier! What do we do, Liam!”
“Calm down, Void. If we objectively consider our family’s wealth and influence, we can procure anything within a day at minimum….”
“It won’t happen in a day.”
“What?”
Liam’s glasses tilted slightly askew.
Father, who had been watching, placed his hand on my shoulder and bent down. His expression seemed somewhat wounded in pride.
“What is it, then? Tell me everything, Rubian.”
I grinned widely.
“Hehe. Come in!”
The door creaked open, and the Painter peeked out cautiously.
“Ah, hello there….”
“Who is this?”
I puffed out my chest proudly.
“For my birthday… I want to commission a family portrait!”
* * *
My eyes widened as I stepped into the Portrait Studio.
“Wow!”
“Haha. Already impressed? There’s still quite a bit of work left before it’s finished.”
The Painter scratched the back of his head bashfully.
The portrait, having just completed its sketch phase, showed only the vague forms of the figures, yet even that alone drew gasps of admiration!
“It’s amazing even now!”
When I gave a double thumbs up, the Painter laughed even more heartily.
“Thank you. It should be complete by summer.”
A family portrait—how wonderful!
My family seemed awkward at first, but now they appeared just as eager as I was.
Father and my two older brothers planned to be away from the Castle during spring, so we decided to finish Grandfather’s portrait first—just Mother Rosetta, myself, and the painting.
‘Once I add the colors, it’ll be perfect, won’t it?’
For some reason, the composition with me in the middle felt a bit amusing…
“By the way, the General departs today, doesn’t he?”
The Painter asked while organizing his brush tools.
“Yes…”
My shoulders drooped slightly as I gazed at the portrait.
“Oh, he goes every year, so there’s no need to worry. Please don’t be concerned.”
“Yes… Ah! Has what I mentioned been completed?”
“Of course. Here it is.”
The Painter withdrew a piece of paper from his bag, no larger than my palm. It contained a sketch version of the family portrait.
“Thank you so much!”
I bowed deeply to receive it, then left the Portrait Studio.
Walking through the Corridor, I held the sketch up to the light to admire it.
The cream-colored paper gleamed in the morning sunlight, and the rough charcoal texture was vividly apparent in the drawing.
“Hehe. Even as a sketch, it’s wonderful. A family portrait!”
I’ll cut a small corner and give it to Father.
It’s a shame there’s only one copy…
“Miss! You’ve returned from the Portrait Studio?”
Just then, I ran directly into Hazel coming out of my room.
“Yes!”
“I’ve finished airing it out, so please go rest now.”
“Thank you, Hazel!”
I quickly entered my room and rolled around on the freshly cleaned bedding.
“Ahh, this is wonderful!”
The Eastern Room was several times larger than my previous room.
There were so many charming little things, and though Father and Mother said to discard anything unnecessary, I adamantly refused.
‘They put so much care into selecting everything in this room.’
That scatterbrained Father remembers exactly where everything is in this room—that says it all.
Throw it away? Absolutely not!
‘Besides, to be honest, this isn’t even mine.’
It belongs to the child of my deceased parents.
There was no way I could carelessly discard it.
“Hmm…”
After rolling around for a while, I suddenly rubbed my lower back at a thought that occurred to me.
‘I need to start moving soon. To break free from the curse’s shackles…’
Thinking it over, I rose to my feet, and my gaze suddenly fell upon a desk placed in the center of the room.
My lips parted slightly.
“That’s…”
I went to the desk and picked up an Academy pamphlet with my hand.
“Ah, I still haven’t thrown this away.”
I thought I’d discarded it.
The heart of the Empire,
Rieta Academy awaits you!
The large promotional text caught my eye.
‘Now that I think about it, Void and Liam will be returning to the Academy soon.’
School….
Honestly, I didn’t have particularly fond memories from my past life, so I wasn’t especially interested.
Besides, the Capital is a land drained of mana, so if I truly had to go somewhere, wouldn’t the Southern Academy be better?
I quietly tore through the pamphlet before returning to the cover.
‘…heart…?’
Suddenly, that word seemed to stick oddly in my mind.

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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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