The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 159

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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 159
* * *
That evening.
“Waaaaahhhhh.”
The Reception Room was filled with an unfamiliar sound of weeping.
‘What do I do.’
I rolled my eyes around in exasperation.
It had been an absolutely exhausting day.
Not only did I encounter the Second, but I was also attacked by the Mage King.
Once the Emperor grasped the situation, he declared Arcadia an enemy, and messenger birds carrying this news flew simultaneously toward each of the Allied Kingdoms.
The Academy was nearly destroyed.
Fortunately, despite the extraordinary incident of two magical beasts appearing in the heart of the Capital, there were reportedly no serious injuries.
From what I heard, the Zebert Knight Order and the Palace Knights brought by the Fourth Prince had played a significant role….
Only I knew what had happened in the Ancient Manuscript Archive, so the true reason why the Mage King had invaded this place would likely never be revealed.
Needless to say, all Camp events were cancelled.
The Academy would enter an indefinite break until the buildings could be restored.
‘Really…. It was incredible.’
As soon as I returned to the Townhouse, I received a brief examination from the Physician. After that, I sat in the Reception Room with the adults.
Things were going reasonably well up to that point.
“Waaaaahhhhh.”
“Um….”
I fidgeted with my fingers and looked up at Father, who was wiping my cheeks with a damp cloth.
“…What do I do?”
“Right? I have no idea either.”
Perplexity clouded his otherwise composed eyes.
“Oh my, Rose. Stop crying now. Why are you sobbing so miserably….”
Unable to bear it any longer, Grandfather stepped in.
That was right.
Mother had been burying her face in the table and crying her heart out since earlier.
It started the moment the Physician finished saying there was absolutely nothing wrong with my body.
Eventually, Father, who had finished wiping away all the dust on my face, spoke up.
“Rosetta.”
As if she’d been waiting, Mother’s head snapped up. Her face was a mess of tears and snot….
“I thought my heart was going to stop! I retired from active duty long ago, and I’m not used to being shocked like this anymore! Do you understand, or do you not!”
“I understand. I understand completely. Please stop crying. This is all my fault.”
“Why do you apologize so readily….”
Waaaaahhhhh.
Father let out a long sigh and patted Mother’s shoulder.
Seeing her blue eyes about to overflow with tears again, I quickly rushed over.
“M-Mother. Why are you crying…. I’m not hurt….”
I spoke while lightly leaning on my slender arm, and Rosetta stared at me with tears streaming down her face.
“Rubian…”
She turned her body. Her long arms stretched out.
“…Come here.”
Thinking she was going to embrace me, I stepped a little closer, but suddenly my shoulders were grabbed firmly.
“You…you need to be scolded by your mother.”
“What?”
Suddenly?
Bewildered and unable to do anything, Mother, who held me tightly, gave my bottom weak, gentle taps.
“Your Grandfather was near the Lakeside. Your Father was in the building nearby.”
Tap. Tap.
Tears fell along with it.
“The Professor was around too, and there were Knights…”
“…”
“But why didn’t you come there…”
Eventually her hand lost its strength and fell away.
“A villain was chasing you, so why did you run the opposite way…? Why…?”
Rosetta murmured with an anguished expression, then finally pulled me into a tight embrace. My shoulders were soon soaked with her tears.
“I’m relieved you weren’t hurt, but I really thought I was losing you…”
“…”
“I thought I was losing my daughter again…”
Somehow her words made my own eyes well up with tears.
It seemed Mother was far more frightened than I had anticipated.
My lips moved uncertainly. Not knowing what to say, I simply embraced Mother in return.
“I’m… I’m so sorry…”
As I apologized quietly, Mother quickly pulled away and shook her head.
“No, don’t apologize. I’m sorry. I should have come faster.”
“No. I’m sorry…”
“No, no, no… I’m more sorry…”
Waaaaaah.
Once again, a flood of tears.
Mother and I engaged in an apology contest, holding each other tightly and sobbing.
“…This is clearly supposed to be a tearful scene.”
Father, who had been watching this unfold, let out a soft cough.
“Why does it feel a bit funny…?”
“Well, there certainly are a lot of tears.”
Grandfather also scratched his chin awkwardly.
For a moment, that was all.
After a knock—tap, tap—the door opened carefully.
“Your Majesty, I apologize.”
As Adolf entered the Reception Room, he startled slightly upon seeing Mother and me lying side by side like flounder.
Father was methodically sipping his tea while monitoring our condition.
“What happened?”
“Young Master Liam and Young Master Void have completed their medical examination and gone upstairs. Both are without a single wound.”
“Phew, thank goodness.”
“They wanted to come to the Reception Room, but I barely managed to stop them.”
“They must have been shocked too. Have them eat something first, then wash up before coming down.”
“Yes, and… His Majesty the Emperor is calling for you. He says there is an urgent matter to discuss.”
Father exhaled a long sigh once more.
His expression suggested he’d been expecting this.
“Understood. Prepare yourself.”
As he rose to his feet, I reflexively grasped his sleeve.
It was an incredibly faint grip, but Father didn’t miss it and gazed down at me.
“Father, when you come back…”
I brought up the conversation I hadn’t finished at the Academy.
“When you come back, I have something to tell you. The words I couldn’t say before…”
I’d already said what I wanted to say.
Now I needed to say what I had to say.
“…”
“To Grandfather and Mother too.”
My heart raced.
It was already a secret that had been exposed, but still, I wanted to bring closure to it with my own voice.
Summoning courage was, after all, a slightly trembling affair, so I was somewhat rigid.
“Adolf.”
Father spoke while gently wrapping his arms around my shoulders.
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell His Majesty I will visit him tomorrow.”
“But he said it was urgent…”
Then he leaned back against the Reception Room chair once more.
“Hearing this is more urgent. More important.”
Adolf, reading the atmosphere, bowed deeply.
“I will convey it well.”
“Clear the area. Let no one in.”
“Yes.”
Click. The door closed.
“So then…”
“…”
“Shall we talk about us?”
Father spoke. I clenched my fists and nodded.
My heart pounded like a double-headed mallet.
Truth be told, I was trembling so badly that I wanted to flee.
I wanted to hide behind the wall as I always had, pointing elsewhere while merely gesturing with my fingers.
But I gathered my courage.
This time, I decided to walk forward on my own.
“This is….”
My hand moved with agonizing slowness toward the hem of my shirt. Since I had released all the magic concealing me, my lower back was exposed.
“….”
The mark of the Mage Kingdom was displayed in unmistakable clarity.
“Good heavens….”
Rosetta covered her mouth, holding back tears. Father fell into a terrifying silence, veins bulging at his temples, while Grandfather stood rigid, eyes wide and unblinking.
The mark I had wanted to hide.
The past I had wanted to conceal.
But now I understood that concealment and secrecy alone were not the answer.
Wounded scars could only heal when exposed. It took courage to speak of pain as pain, to voice fear as fear, and to ask for help.
Since coming here, I had grown.
Slowly but surely. Steadily.
I wanted to show them that this growth was not merely physical.
“Father, Mother, Grandfather….”
“….”
“I am from the Mage Kingdom.”
To my precious family.
“But I hated it… so I fled that place and came here….”
It was the beginning of a long story.
* * *
The three adults of the Duchy watched over the sleeping child.
“….”
None of them could find words easily.
Rubian, in her small but precise manner, had explained that she was actually a mage, that she had fled the kingdom and met Leviathan in Iosia before coming here.
She had hidden everything, including her gender, to evade pursuit.
“If I were discovered as a mage, I would be dragged back to the kingdom… I was the Mage King’s ‘Seventh’.”
It was devastating.
Yet they listened calmly without showing their turmoil.
Rubian seemed somewhat frightened, but she persevered and told her story to the end.
Then, with a slightly relieved expression, she fell asleep from exhaustion. After such an ordeal, she collapsed into sleep as though losing all her strength.
The child had done her part.
Now it was the adults’ turn to accept.
“How could this be….”
Ballock let out a short groan, gripping his forehead.
Rosetta, though she had braced herself for this revelation, remained rigid and speechless.
Only Leviathan continued to stroke the sleeping Rubian’s hair endlessly.
“Nothing changes.”
A voice, slightly hoarse, spilled forth.
“No matter what past Rubian carries, nothing changes.”
A child who suddenly threw herself into my arms one day.
I made the decision to protect her long, long ago.
“Yes. Of course.”
Ballock growled the words.
“Rubian is our family’s child. Absolutely… no one can lay a hand on her.”
Rosetta nodded in agreement.
“But she was only ten years old… To think she was on that battlefield….”
Ballock released a pained groan, striking his forehead repeatedly against his fists.
“…She was so small.”
When I first saw Rubian, her eyes shining with such brightness.
The child appeared to be no more than six or seven years old.
“All of it was because of those cursed mages.”
The thought made my stomach turn.
Once again, the horrifying image of a brand burned into their minds surfaced.
Ballock ground his teeth, his eyes blazing fiercely. Rosetta quietly wiped away her tears, and Leviathan remained silent.
“My son.”
The broad back that had kept vigil by the child’s bedside seemed somehow fragile today.
He exhaled deeply, leaning on Leviathan’s shoulder.
“You must keep your mind sharp. This is just the beginning. You must steel yourself to protect this child from those damned mages.”
“Yes, I will.”
A low voice flowed forth. But only for a moment.
“However, Father….”
Leviathan’s head dropped as if he were collapsing.
Drip, drip, drip.
Thick stains fell upon the sheets.
“I was there on that battlefield….”
Rubian, whom I first met in Iosia, that border village.
Small, fragile, and pitiful as she was.
I realized that her phantom would follow me for a very long time.
The past of the child I could not protect with my own hands… like a ghost, enduring.
“If I had resisted the kingdom to the very end, protested, and questioned….”
“….”
“Perhaps Rubian would never have been there….”
I regret it so deeply.
A sob, steeped in blood and anguish, spilled forth.
Ballock and Rosetta, who had been watching, could no longer hold back the emotions welling up within them.
What have we done wrong.
A quiet sob that she couldn’t bear to let her child hear lingered in the room for a long time before finally fading away.

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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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