The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 12

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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 12
“Wow, Father’s here too!”
Void held up the card with its golden border reverently.
The old man’s expression when he saw it was absolutely priceless.
“If you wanted it so badly, why didn’t you buy it sooner?”
At my blunt question, Void turned his head away.
“This is only sold in the Capital for a limited time. You can’t get it in the Northern Region.”
“You could have just written to the Duke asking him to buy it for you.”
“There’s no way I could say something like that…”
His pale cheeks flushed slightly.
“I said I’d become an excellent knight, so if I said I wanted something like this… it would seem so childish… I’d be disappointed…”
He mumbled so quietly I could barely hear him.
“Huh?”
“Nothing!”
Void neatly organized the cards and stood up.
“Anyway, thanks for this. I’m not really into games like this, though.”
A lie.
“But since my sister gave it to me, I have to accept it!”
Void puffed out his chest and stood before me.
“In return, is there anything you want? Tell me.”
“Well, I’d like some time alone right now.”
“Time alone? Of course I can give you that.”
Void patted my head with an exaggerated serious expression.
“Then tomorrow, play this card game with me.”
“If you say you don’t want to…”
A sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
Of course, it wasn’t threatening at all, so I just laughed it off.
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”
In that moment, Void stared at me intently.
“But the way you smile…”
“What?”
“It’s really like that.”
A flicker of something unusual crossed his innocent violet eyes.
“A girl…?”
I froze solid.
“Well, obviously not, though.”
What’s this brat’s intuition?
Flustered, I immediately kicked Void out of the room.
* * *
The next morning.
I opened my eyes lightly, as though waking from a dream upon clouds.
“Ahh, I slept so well.”
“Seems like it.”
“Oh, you startled me.”
Leviathan was sprawled across the ornate sofa like unwashed laundry.
“What are you doing there? Since morning?”
“It’s not morning—it’s afternoon.”
“Huh?”
Afternoon? Had I really slept that long?
I hurried to the window to check the sun’s position.
“….”
The sun was just beginning to rise in the east.
“What! Why did you lie!”
He chuckled like an idle nobleman in the neighborhood.
He wore a comfortable tunic. While they say fashion’s completion is the face, somehow he radiated brilliance even in such casual attire.
‘Appearance truly is everything, isn’t it.’
I absently grasped my unremarkable silver hair in the mirror and stretched it out.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Put on your slippers. Your feet are cold.”
“Yes.”
I slipped my feet into the small slippers he held out.
He tossed an apple into the air and caught it repeatedly, amusing himself with the trick.
“Aren’t you busy? I thought a Duke returning after so long would be swamped with work.”
“Well… I am busy.”
With a swift motion, his hand snatched the apple and placed it on the table. His sharp eyes, gleaming with violet irises, pierced through me.
“You seem well.”
“…?”
Confused, I tilted my head.
Rising lightly, he turned away. As he moved with an air of imminent departure, I asked somewhat urgently.
“Where are you going?”
“To work.”
“What about breakfast?”
“…? The cook will bring it, won’t he?”
“No, I mean your meal….”
He raised an eyebrow. A hint of discomfort flickered across his face.
“Ah, I have too much work for a while, so it’ll be difficult to eat together.”
The dark circles beneath his eyes suggested his busyness was no lie.
“You could eat with Void instead. Do you dislike that?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Once you’re done with your busy work, let’s eat together.”
“Understood.”
“If anyone bothers you, write down their name.”
The man chuckled in the morning sunlight, his expression darkening.
It was a wicked smile—closer to that of a villain than a hero.
“I’ll make sure to teach them a lesson they won’t forget.”
* * *
“My lord.”
As the Butler approached, Leviathan, who had been ambling lazily down the corridor, lifted his gaze.
“Shall we begin with an inspection of the Fortress first, or would you prefer to visit the Rezillus Mountain Range outposts? There’s also the Knight Order matters to attend to, and the financial documents require your review as well.”
The Duchy’s affairs that had been left unattended were piling up.
“The documents first.”
Leviathan considered for a moment before choosing to shut himself away in his study.
The Butler raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“You usually have me handle the documents, sir.”
“….”
He didn’t answer.
The words—that Rubian weighed on his mind and he didn’t want to leave her alone—wouldn’t come easily. It felt like something that didn’t suit him.
‘Was she alright last night?’
Leviathan had spent the night in Rubian’s bedroom.
After arriving at the Fortress and handling only the most urgent matters, dawn had already broken. When I quietly checked on her, I saw her sleeping face, breathing softly and peacefully.
‘I knew she adapted well to her surroundings.’
Leviathan suppressed a smile within himself.
She was a child who slept well anywhere. She wasn’t picky about food and rarely complained.
She seemed to enjoy bathing, though even that she wouldn’t insist on if circumstances didn’t permit.
Rubian had slept well last night.
That fact brought Leviathan a certain sense of peace.
Throughout the journey from the Capital to the Duchy, the child hadn’t slept well.
“Don’t go… that way….”
“That place… I can’t….”
How anxious I had been, watching her toss and turn, cold sweat streaming down her face, whatever nightmare she was trapped in.
Even Leon and those rigid knights had been troubled all night by her pitiful state.
‘What kind of nightmare is she wandering through?’
Leviathan’s eyes darkened.
Rubian didn’t even seem aware that she was having nightmares.
Every morning, she would wake up smiling and go about her day as usual, bustling around.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
But watching Rubian like that weighed heavily on Leviathan’s heart.
‘Is she still dreaming about the time the Village was attacked?’
Yet the sparse sleep-talk she uttered had something strange about it.
“I… I want to do more…”
“I’ll go… I will…”
What could a child possibly have needed to do in that Village?
Leviathan’s brow furrowed deeply.
‘She said she was a healer’s child.’
Rubian was reluctant to speak of her past. Leviathan treaded carefully, wary of touching upon the child’s wounds.
‘Should I wait until Rosetta returns…?’
After all, I was rough and hopelessly clumsy as a person.
I couldn’t fathom what merit I possessed that made Rubian follow me so.
‘With Void, we still…’
He exhaled a heavy sigh.
It hadn’t been long since he’d begun making eye contact and conversing with Void. It was more accurate to say that Leviathan had been drawn along by Void’s natural charisma.
Even that remained awkward in truth. With his eldest in the Southern Region, it was far worse.
‘This is difficult.’
I don’t know where to even begin.
“Ah, Your Excellency. A letter has arrived for Lady Rosetta.”
“From Rose?”
Leviathan accepted the letter.
It was the reply to the inquiry he’d sent from the Capital beforehand, asking if it would be acceptable to take in Rubian.
The affirmation was so simple it was almost laughable.
Ever since the carriage accident that cost her the child she carried, Rosetta had begun actively caring for children left with nowhere to go.
Yet she couldn’t adopt every child, so she began with modest sponsorships.
That was how she met Liam and Void. Both were children she had brought in of her own initiative.
Leviathan neither strongly opposed nor enthusiastically endorsed—he simply watched in silence.
So for him to suddenly take it upon himself to bring Rubian here.
There was much she could have questioned.
‘She intends to ask when she returns.’
He discerned his wife’s intentions and let out a soft chuckle.
“Hmm?”
There was a postscript hidden beneath his finger.
The carefulness evident in the handwriting itself—Leviathan’s gaze darkened considerably.
He had buried the dead child with his own hands.
He remembered how heavily the rain had fallen that day, how bitterly cold the small thing in his palm had been. He recalled it all as vividly as if it were yesterday.
“…Ah.”
His mood sank into the depths. The air around him began to ripple ominously.
This wasn’t good.
He made a deliberate effort to steady himself.
He shook his head roughly, intentionally erasing the thought.
“When does Rose return?”
“She said it would take approximately one month, Your Excellency.”
“Yes.”
I resumed my steps.
I walked down the corridor, bathed in sunlight streaming through the expansive windows.
I recalled Rubian’s freshly awakened face, still soft with sleep.
The image of her tugging at her silver hair in apparent displeasure made me smile unbidden.
‘Such a temperamental one.’
The servants of the Duke’s Mansion had spent the entire day gossiping about Rubian’s lustrous hair.
How lovely and mysterious it was. Whisper, whisper.
I thought Rubian’s azure eyes were the most beautiful, but her hair was certainly exquisite as well.
‘Beautiful, pretty—words I rarely used in life.’
Yet whenever I thought of Rubian, such adjectives spilled from my lips unbidden. And so I found myself smiling again….
I stopped abruptly.
“Is something the matter, my lord?”
The Butler asked, noticing my sudden halt.
An inexplicable sense of dissonance had seized me.
“It’s afternoon, not morning.”
“Pardon?”
It was a thoughtless jest on my part.
“What! Why would you lie!”
Rather than checking the clock, Rubian rushed to the window.
As if such an action were second nature.
The ease with which she read the position of the sun and moon to gauge the time was striking.
‘Like a soldier navigating a battlefield….’
In that moment, an inexplicable wave seemed to engulf me.

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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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