The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 120

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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 120
Kalid pressed his lips together firmly.
At that moment, Allen, who had been running his fingers along the shackles, squinted one eye.
“Huh? The inside feels a bit bumpy. Kalid, shine some light here. Could there be some precious gem embedded in it? Damn, this bastard… Is that why he wanted to come here?”
“Move.”
Kalid quickly snatched the shackles and shone light on the inside.
The shackles that had bound his wrists and ankles.
While bound, the inside was naturally impossible to see.
“…This is…”
“What is it! What!”
Allen rushed forward in a frenzy.
‘The World Tree, a dragon coiling around it and ascending…’
As far as he knew, only one place used such inscriptions.
The Mage Kingdom.
‘Did the Kingdom lock me here as punishment for committing a taboo?’
But he was an unregistered mage of Arcadia. So the current Mage King didn’t even know of his existence.
‘That worm of a king couldn’t have known about me and pretended otherwise.’
The young boy’s eyes narrowed.
Then, a small inscription carved beside the Kingdom’s emblem caught his eye.
‘What is this?’
It didn’t seem to be the Empire’s language. Nor the Continent’s common tongue.
Kalid read the characters in order.
“Nagre…”
“What did you say?”
“Me… loph?”
What nonsense was this.
Kalid furrowed his brow sharply.
“What are you saying, talking to yourself.”
“Do you know what ‘Nagre Me Loph’ means?”
Allen shrugged instead of answering. He wrapped his arm around Kalid and thrust his head closer, saying let me see.
“I’ve never heard of it before. Could it be read completely differently? Well, somehow… you know it?”
As he nodded, Allen pulled out a notebook and wrote down the characters as if drawing them.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen Yuliope.”
“Yuliope?”
The name somehow felt familiar.
“Ah, the linguistics professor. I’ve crossed paths with him at a tavern before during some business. Of course, he doesn’t know my true identity.”
“…A professor means an Academy professor, right?”
“Right? Where was it again…”
“Rieta?”
“Yeah, you know about it?”
Kalid fell into thought, staring into the void for a moment.
“It’s been ages since we’ve met. Let’s have a proper duel… Wait, why are you taking the notebook?”
The Young Boy tore out the page that Allen had transcribed without a word.
“I’ll figure it out myself.”
After tucking the paper into his pocket, he rose to his feet without hesitation.
‘I won’t ask Rubian about this.’
Rubian might decipher it quickly, but that was precisely why Kalid disliked the idea.
‘What if it says something terrible?’
He decided he needed to grasp the general content first on his own.
Allen snickered at this sudden whim.
“Yes, yes. Your Majesty. As if you needed my permission. Do as you please.”
He bowed deeply, his back turned.
Kalid almost kicked him out of sheer irritation but held back.
The two stepped outside.
“So where are we headed now?”
Allen asked, brushing black dust from his clothes.
Kalid gazed down the mountainside, buffeted by a parched wind. Allen thought his expression looked strangely tense.
“Western Babylon.”
“What?! Hey, you reckless fool! From here to the west—how long will that take?!”
A long, resigned sigh escaped him.
Of course. Who could possibly stop this willful brat?
“Which part of the west?”
“Trapista, Baidel Valley.”
Allen froze instantly.
“…You mean that place.”
“Yes.”
His grayish-blue eyes rolled slowly.
He met Allen’s gaze and murmured indifferently.
“Where the Duchess Zebert’s carriage accident occurred.”
* * *
A leisurely afternoon.
I was at the Mini Training Grounds with Mother Rosetta.
Mother had returned to her pink cotton candy hair. After venturing out with black hair and startling the people of Zelocks, she seemed genuinely refreshed by the change.
“When do you think Father will return?”
“Soon enough, I’d imagine.”
“Kalid should hurry back too…”
“He said he was visiting his hometown, remember? It’s already been two weeks.”
“Yes…”
Mother pinched the tip of my nose gently and let go.
“I hope they both come back soon. By the way, our Rubian seems rather listless today. Did you not sleep well last night?”
“That’s not it….”
Truth be told, I felt a bit of pain last night.
I was sleeping soundly when a sudden burning sensation flared across my back.
Of course, it lasted only a moment, and the pain subsided quickly… but it startled me terribly.
‘The stigma has grown.’
I immediately examined my lower back and found that the branches had extended slightly.
‘I’ve never felt the stigma growing until now.’
Then I suddenly recalled Father mentioning that I often suffered from severe nightmares. Could it be that the stigma had been growing little by little each time?
‘Well, I certainly had some genuine nightmares.’
In any case, my heart grew restless without reason.
“Rubian? If your condition isn’t good….”
“No! This is exactly when I need physical training!”
I shook my head while exhaling sharply through my nose.
‘The stigma growing—it’s not something I didn’t already know!’
I just need to find a way to eliminate it myself.
Be brave, Rubian Zebert!
Clinging to anxious thoughts will only let my emotions consume me!
I stretched both arms toward the sky and shouted.
“I’m going to become stronger!”
After firmly resolving this and adjusting my shoes with a tap, I saw Grandfather rushing toward me from far away.
“Oh my! Our precious granddaughter at the Training Grounds again!”
Ever since Grandfather learned I was a girl, he had been fussing endlessly about me wearing the Knight Order uniform. Father was the same….
Was it true that they didn’t make daughters into knights in the Northern Region?
They seemed to regret placing me as the youngest member of the Knight Order, but it was already too late.
I had become completely enamored with the appeal of this functional attire and the joyful life as a knight….
“Today… four laps!”
Shouting a new record, I ran around the Training Grounds in circles once more.
This was the maximum effort I could manage right now, so I would work hard at what I could do!
* * *
Allen trembled.
“This place is still so desolate.”
Western Babylon, Trapista, Baidel Valley.
Allen gazed up at the distant cliff and rubbed his arms.
“Phew, how eerie.”
It was clearly warm spring.
Yet somehow, chills ran down my spine.
In terms of atmosphere alone, this place felt more damp and oppressive than that cave I had seen days ago.
Was it because of the awareness that this was where that accident had occurred ten years ago?
Allen gestured ahead.
“Is that the place where the accident happened?”
Kalid nodded, his expression unreadable.
Light scarcely penetrated the depths of the valley.
“The Duchess truly has a tragic fate, doesn’t she?”
Allen muttered as he prodded the barren earth, devoid of even a single blade of grass.
“She helped a fugitive mage out of kindness, and this is what befell her….”
Few knew the detailed circumstances surrounding Duchess Zebert’s accident ten years prior. Yet Allen himself was a seasoned information broker and a mercenary of the Dark Alley.
“So why are we here…. What is it, Kalid?”
Allen’s brow furrowed.
“Why are you trembling? Are you cold?”
He placed a rough hand upon the young boy’s shoulder.
Kalid gently shook it off.
“…Get away.”
The very ground where the accident had occurred.
I traced the earth and imagined the scene as it unfolded then.
A mage fleeing the Mage Kingdom deliberately wounds himself and collapses.
By chance, the Duchess’s carriage passing through the valley discovers this mage.
The mage, with a desperate and pitiful expression, requests aid to cross only this valley.
The Duchess, moved by compassion for the wounded mage, grants him passage.
And finally, here.
Upon reaching this unreachable depth, where no one could easily arrive.
“He suddenly turned and attacked….”
I clenched my fists against the ground. Damp soil compressed between my fingers.
Rosetta Zebert was gravely wounded by the sudden magical assault, and she could not protect the child within her womb.
To think that trust and goodwill returned in such a manner.
‘…Mages cannot be trusted.’
I pressed my lips firmly together.
“Kalid? What are you doing?”
The resolute young boy then unfastened the bracelet on his arm.
I forcibly controlled the overflowing mana, sensing the chaotic traces of mana that had seeped into this land.
‘Just as Rubian taught me….’
I concentrated, tracing the mana of this place.
For a moment.
….
Eyes that had been stubbornly shut slowly opened.

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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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