The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 152

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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 152
‘And strangely, Father doesn’t seem to be in a good mood…’
I walked down the Corridor, glancing up at his composed face.
‘Did something happen during his business trip?’
I pondered it carefully, but nothing stood out. Besides, I didn’t even know what the trip was for in the first place.
We headed toward the Lounge on the upper floor of the building where the Banquet Hall was located.
Since the presentation took quite a long time, it seemed each family was given their own room.
Click.
As the large door closed, I felt as though I’d entered an entirely different world from the bustling Banquet Hall.
The interior was filled only with silence and stillness.
‘Father is… somehow different from usual.’
I sat quietly on the sofa, watching him light the lamp.
‘When he speaks, he seems exactly the same as always.’
But sitting here without saying anything, I felt a strange sense of discord.
Was it just my imagination?
“Oh, come to think of it, I bought a gift on the way here.”
Father, having brightened the interior somewhat, sat down right beside me and spoke.
“Huh? A gift?”
“Puff Macarons.”
“Puff Macarons? Really?”
“You know of them?”
My eyes widened slightly.
I’d heard about them from Sortie, who knew all the best dessert shops.
“Yes! That’s really famous!”
“…I suppose I wasn’t entirely wrong then.”
“What do you mean? More importantly, where is it?”
“Over there, near Father’s outer coat…”
Father pointed to an inner room attached to one side of the room. It was a small Dressing Room.
I jumped up immediately.
“I’ll go get it!”
“No, Father should…”
“I’ve already made you walk all over! You should rest!”
This much is nothing!
I dashed quickly into the Dressing Room. I spotted a large jacket that was clearly Father’s.
It had been hung on a clothes rack, but it seemed to have fallen, and a large box was underneath it.
A pink box tied with a blue ribbon.
Even with my brief dessert experience, I could tell.
That’s the Puff Macarons box!
I quickly ran over and picked up the jacket. It had decorative ornaments hanging from it, making it heavier than expected.
“Huh. Is it because his build is so imposing that even his outer coat is this large and heavy…?”
In the end, I yanked the jacket with force—
Was that a mistake?
Something flew out of the jacket pocket. And then….
Crash!
“…Huh?”
With a sharp shattering sound, something familiar shattered into pieces.
* * *
Leviathan swallowed a sigh and buried his face in both hands.
His hands trembled faintly.
‘Calm down. Don’t let it show.’
Rubian was a perceptive child.
I didn’t want to make her withdraw into her own worries like she had in the carriage last time.
Besides, today was the presentation day for a child I hadn’t seen in ten days.
‘She’s so happy.’
There were mountains of questions I wanted to ask, but I scraped together every ounce of patience I possessed.
‘I’ll ask after it’s all over.’
At least after Rubian’s presentation ends. Then. Step by step.
‘Yes. There could be some misunderstanding. The appearance is still different, and the age too….’
He recalled the characteristics of the fugitive Mage like a prayer he’d memorized.
Red eyes. A Mage with considerable power around ten years old.
Before, that had been powerful evidence that prevented an equals sign between Rubian and the fugitive Mage.
‘Was gender really the only thing Rubian was hiding?’
The moment that sentence crossed his mind, everything flipped upside down.
“…Damn it.”
Leviathan clenched his teeth. His insides, charred black, had already turned to ash, filling him with acrid smoke.
Don’t let it show.
It might not be true.
‘If I talk to Rubian, a different answer might come out.’
That slender thread of possibility alone barely kept him sane.
He felt like someone standing face-to-face with a distant black storm bearing down on him.
That was when it happened.
Crash!
At the sound of something shattering messily, Leviathan’s body jolted upright.
He rushed quickly to the Dressing Room.
“Rubian!”
“Oh…. Father, I’m sorry….”
In the middle of the small Dressing Room.
Rubian sat on the floor, looking up at me with an awkward expression.
Seeing the transparent glass shards scattered around the child, my heart sank.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
“I, I’m fine…. It’s just…. The glass bottle….”
Rubian spoke in confused fragments, pointing down at the floor.
Leviathan quickly lifted the child and set her down in a spot clear of glass shards.
The carefully stacked macaron boxes had collapsed entirely—ribbons had come undone and their contents spilled everywhere, leaving the surrounding area in complete disarray.
“Are you hurt? Did you get cut?”
“No, I’m fine. I just pulled Father’s jacket too hard…. I didn’t…. I had no idea this glass bottle was….”
A whimpering voice trailed off. Rubian’s eyes flickered repeatedly toward the glass shards scattered across the floor.
A glass bottle tied with a blue ribbon.
It was something that had helped Leviathan during the war.
He had forgotten it was tucked away in his inner pocket.
“I’m sorry….”
Rubian apologized hesitantly.
“Don’t apologize. I’m just glad you weren’t hurt.”
“Y, yes. But this glass bottle….”
“It’s Father’s, so it’s fine.”
Leviathan swept the glass shards together with his foot and tidied the area.
It was an object he had strangely been unable to discard.
Yet now that it had come to this, he felt oddly indifferent—unable to understand why he had clung to it so.
Rather, the thought that he had nearly hurt Rubian by keeping this useless thing made his blood run cold.
‘But… where did the ribbon that was tied to it go.’
The blue ribbon that had been wrapped around the glass bottle.
Looking around, he spotted ribbons scattered haphazardly beneath Rubian’s feet.
They were mixed in with the ribbons from the macaron boxes.
“Rubian, could you pick up that blue ribbon underneath….”
Leviathan spoke unconsciously before closing his mouth.
‘She won’t understand if I say it like that.’
He was about to correct himself.
“Oh, this one?”
Rubian picked up the blue ribbon that had been tied to the glass bottle and handed it to him without hesitation.
It was a motion without a moment’s uncertainty.
As if….
“….”
She were picking up a ribbon she recognized.
As if she had known from the start that this ribbon had been wrapped around the shattered glass bottle….
Of course, she might have simply seen the ribbon when the bottle broke.
But… that ribbon….
Whiiiiing—
A ringing erupted in his ears.
He could say nothing.
“Father…?”
As Leviathan fell silent, wondering what was happening, Rubian took a step forward.
Poot, poot, poot—!
A short trumpet blast echoed from outside the window, followed by the Professor’s cheerful voice.
“Now then, let us begin the final tea party! All Camp participants, please gather in the Garden by the Lake!”
“Oh! I need to go!”
The child spun around abruptly.
“Father, I’m sorry for breaking the glass bottle. I’ll call the Maid for you, so change your shoes and come quickly!”
He watched the child’s hurrying figure disappear, his gaze hollow and distant.
Left alone, Leviathan stared down at the pathetic ribbon remaining in his hand.
The reason he had meant to correct himself was something else entirely.
The ribbons on the macaron boxes scattered around Rubian were also blue.
“What is this? Good heavens. There’s blood staining the ribbon….”
“It seems quite a lot of blood splattered.”
An ordinary child would never have easily picked up a blood-stained ribbon among so many blue ones.
“…Rubian.”
His fist clenched hard. Crack.
“This is….”
He could only fall to his knees.
“How could this possibly be blue….”
The blood-stained ribbon.
It had long since lost its original blue hue, now dyed a dark, crimson purple.
His head hung limp. Before the harsh reality laid bare, a pained groan escaped him.
The storm that descended was vast and overwhelming, cruel enough to transform everything about him.
Rubian had been in that war.
My child.
In the very heart of that hell.
Secretly helping 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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