The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 147

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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 147
The jet-black hair caught my eye first.
“Tch, my spitting image has become identical to Leviathan….”
When I first saw it, I was so indignant!
“What! Move aside! My hair will turn dark too! I took pride in having the same color as my youngest!”
“Ugh, Grandfather has white hair! I have silver hair!”
“What’s the difference.”
“There is a difference! Anyway, there definitely is!”
Rubian shrieked and fled far away. Remembering it now, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Such a lovely thing.”
Such a precious thing.
A warzone for someone like her?
She may have grown up rough in Iosia, but no matter what, that was simply unthinkable.
I gazed contentedly at my granddaughter, whom I had met after ten days.
‘I wish we had met sooner.’
Then this old man would have taken care of everything difficult and hard for her.
Well, I can do it from now on!
There will be more time to spend with this precious little one ahead.
‘Has she grown a bit?’
Ballock gently brushed across Rubian’s round forehead. The child’s brow furrowed.
“Mm… tickles…. Beard attack… forbidden….”
“Oh dear, I almost woke her.”
I hastily withdrew my hand and rose to my feet.
Seeing her intact face was enough.
The tangled thoughts that had been swirling somehow felt neatly organized.
Yes, what was there to worry about.
‘Well, I can just ask that Leviathan fellow when he comes tomorrow.’
It’s surely nothing serious.
Surely.
As I returned to the Townhouse and crept quietly down the corridor, my footsteps suddenly froze.
“…Huh?”
The vast corridor of the sprawling Townhouse.
I had discovered a figure standing ghostlike in the very center of it.
“When did you arrive? What are you doing here?”
He hadn’t even removed his disguise yet.
Leviathan turned his head slowly.
“Ah. You haven’t slept.”
In the dark night, his face was half-submerged in shadow, making his expression difficult to discern.
“Yes. So what are you doing here?”
“I was about to enter.”
“Ah, right. And what perfect timing—we’ve run into each other. Let’s have a word, shall we?”
Ballock gestured toward Leviathan. But Leviathan gave a subtle shake of his head.
“My apologies, but I’m rather fatigued at the moment. Perhaps another time….”
“…?”
What in the world had I just heard?
Ballock dug into his ear with a thick finger.
“Tiiiiired?”
His mouth stretched into an enormous grin.
Surely this was the most novel and creative excuse he’d heard all year?
“…You seem to forget rather often, but I am human as well.”
Leviathan replied flatly.
“Ah, is that so? I understand now.”
“Then I shall take my leave.”
Thump, thump.
The sound of footsteps faded into the distance.
Ballock watched that retreating figure, then roughly ruffled the back of his own head.
Tch, I shouldn’t have brought it up now.
“It’s about Rubian, you see.”
But in the end, the image of his granddaughter’s face that he’d just witnessed won out.
And naturally, this was something he needed to discuss with Leviathan as well. He was Rubian’s father, after all.
His previously unobstructed stride came to an abrupt halt, as if it had been a lie.
“What is it? Did you perhaps discover some new trace in Iosia…? Nothing like that?”
“…Why suddenly that question?”
Swish. A black shadow turned around.
The very air around them shifted in an instant.
“You’re asking me?”
Only then did Ballock realize it.
Leviathan’s mood was thoroughly twisted at this very moment.
It merely appeared serene, but it was no different from the state just before an explosion.
“Father.”
Leviathan took a step closer.
“I asked why you would inquire about that.”
Look at that.
His manners were impeccably formal.
‘This is serious.’
Ballock deliberated once more, but decided to simply speak the truth. He’d never possessed the skill to gracefully redirect a conversation anyway.
“No, it’s just that Liam said something strange!”
“Something strange?”
“That youngest brat asked if Kalid had ever experienced a battlefield before, or something like that!”
“….”
A terrible silence descended upon the study.
“Liam… did that?”
It was Leviathan’s murmur that broke the quiet.
“Yes.”
“…”
“It’s nothing serious, right? Right?”
Ballock asked as if urging a response.
Leviathan, who had been staring into empty space for a long while, finally lifted his head.
“Yes.”
The answer was clean and simple.
He smiled faintly at Ballock.
“So stop worrying needlessly and get some rest.”
“What, just now… were you laughing at me?”
What in the world was wrong with this bastard?
Despite Ballock’s suspicious gaze, Leviathan turned away without another word.
And in that instant, with a soft clink, his sword fell from his hand as if by accident.
“…Leviathan? You…”
“Ah.”
His massive frame casually picked up the fallen blade from the floor. Then he turned his back again with complete composure.
“Rest now.”
“That bastard, that…”
Ballock’s brow furrowed deeply.
Decades had passed since he taught Leviathan swordplay.
His own son, yet a monster of a man.
I swear, not once in all those years since Leviathan received a true blade from me have I ever witnessed him drop it by accident.
For a Knight to lose grip of his sword was nothing short of disgrace.
“What exactly happened out there?”
A discontented murmur escaped.
He thought he might finally rest after seeing Rubian, but it seemed the sleepless night would not end.
The insomnia showed no signs of stopping.
* * *
Delcan Ruins, Mage King. Currently in seclusion. No significant activity expected in the near future.
Allen’s letter was concise.
A routine situation report. That was all.
If not for the tiny, cramped handwriting crammed into the corner of the small scrap of paper.
Hey, you little bastard. I nearly got caught by Zebert Duke and died.
The moment Leviathan read those words, he sensed something was terribly wrong.
Why didn’t you tell me the Duke was coming? But anyway, I got to see the Princess’s face, so it’s all good~
The tone was as carefree and reckless as his appearance suggested.
Leviathan sat alone in his bedroom, gripping the letter tightly.
‘The mercenary brat who can relay my movements is….’
I cannot even remember how I made it back to the Capital.
‘Only Kalid.’
“The youngest runt has experienced warfare with Kalid!”
‘That mercenary was acting under Kalid’s orders.’
Then who is the ‘princess’ this letter refers to?
Only the Mage King’s enemies—or those fleeing from him—would dare to surveil his movements.
Crunch. Blue veins bulged across the back of my hand gripping the armrest.
‘If that is the case….’
I closed my eyes in despair.
‘The fugitive Mage is….’
Please. I wished someone would stop this thought.
“Father, Father! Hide me!”
A memory from long ago.
Whenever I wrestled with documents in my Study, the child would often burst through the door.
“What is it?”
“My brothers are chasing me!”
Then she would crawl beneath my legs.
Those two cheeks flushed crimson like rubies beneath the desk were unbearably precious.
In return for hiding her, those small fern-like hands would tap gently, promising to massage my legs.
‘Hide-and-seek….’
That word now carried a weight entirely different from before.
Scattered memories flipped past like rough pages.
The pages stopped at a memory from Ipson.
“Ah, that was it.”
Rosetta, who had been rolling about in the Bedroom, suddenly sat up.
Her gaze fell upon a tapestry hanging on the wall.
One embroidered with a map of the Continent.
“It was similar to that….”
“Similar to what, exactly?”
“The shadow I found on Rubian’s back at the Hot Spring yesterday. It looked just like that branch.”
Rosetta laughed coldly.
“But the Mage Kingdom’s crest? Pfft. I feel sorry for our Rubian now.”
“…Do you ever misread things?”
“Me? Am I omniscient?”
“…I suppose not.”
Words I had dismissed as trivial.
The scattered fragments, one by one, took on meaning and fell into place, completing the picture.
‘Why did Rubian hide her gender?’
It all began with that question again.
‘What if it wasn’t simply fear of abandonment….’
What if there was a more complicated reason beneath it all?
“Your Grace, we found no trace of her in Iosia this time either.”
So if that’s why no record of Rubian could be found anywhere in Iosia….
“Father, Father! Hide me!”
A child fleeing from someone’s grasp, seeking shelter in my shadow…. And so in the end, that child.
‘Rubian….’
If she were of the Kingdom Mage Order.
“Ah….”
Leviathan let out a short groan and bent at the waist.
The way she gauged time by watching the sun.
The words she murmured while caught in nightmares.
The child’s face rushing toward me during Fourth’s explosion accident.
“Uncle.”
What Rubian had hidden….
“Is the war over?”
Was it truly only her gender?
He understood then.
He could no longer be certain of anything regarding that question.

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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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