The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 182

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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 182
* * *
The next day.
After taking Borbel’s medicine from the Northern Region, I made a spectacular recovery!
“Hah, hah!”
Feeling vitality surge through my entire body, I spun around the Training Ground for the first time in ages.
Father seemed reluctant, but fortunately Borbel and Mother convinced him that some moderate exercise was necessary.
‘Now I can circle the Grand Training Ground with ease!’
“Mmhahaha.”
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with a refreshed expression.
In the distance, Grandfather and Liam were locked in a fierce dispute over whose homemade nutritional drink was superior.
“Your Highness!”
At that moment, my head snapped around.
That form of address!
Allen, wearing an eye patch over one eye, spotted me from afar and came rushing over. It seemed he’d headed straight to the Duke’s Residence upon arriving at the Capital without even changing out of his traveling clothes.
“Uncle Allen! It’s been so long!”
I ran toward him eagerly, but in that instant, Allen’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
“I’m not an uncle….”
“Pardon?”
“I’m not married. I don’t have a girlfriend either. Never had one, and won’t have one…. Ugh.”
“Where on earth did you suffer such emotional wounds to come back like this?”
Allen started to spit, but then caught my eye and swallowed instead.
“Listen! Try spending a month with that rough, arrogant brat who doesn’t have a single ounce of delicacy! You’ll be reduced to nothing but a tattered paper doll, I’m telling you!”
“Kalid….”
I rolled the name around in my mouth blankly.
“When will Kalid arrive?!”
“Ah, well. It should take about three or four more days. I came early because he kept nagging me so much.”
Allen added with an exhausted expression, scratching the back of his head.
“You know the King and Princess of Casalia are visiting Babylon, right? He’s probably on his way back escorting them.”
“Ah, I see.”
I nodded slowly in understanding. Since their routes overlapped anyway, I suspected Casalia had made the request first.
‘Speaking of which, the Princess of Casalia?’
The princess they’d lost and then found again during that war?
“It seems the Casalia royal family has taken quite a liking to that fellow?”
“Oh.”
“The King himself even sent a messenger…. They’re trying so hard to bring him into the royal family, it’s quite touching, really.”
Allen chuckled and counted off on his fingers.
“A title, territory, a reward. The way they’re tempting him is truly top-notch.”
“But Kalid doesn’t seem to like that sort of thing. He finds it bothersome.”
I laughed while wrinkling my brow.
I’d naturally expected him to agree, but Allen regarded me with an oddly enigmatic expression and crossed his arms.
“Well, who knows? Your mind might change again during this return procession.”
“What do you mean?”
“The princess of Casalia.”
He fixed me with an unwavering gaze as he continued.
“I hear she’s around your age? And apparently she’s extraordinarily beautiful.”
“…And?”
What did that have to do with our current conversation?
At that, Allen leaned in and whispered with utmost seriousness.
“You see, miss, men are creatures who always want to appear impressive to someone they fancy.”
Someone they fancy…?
“Think about it. What’s he lacking? Looks, height, build, intellect, skill—he has it all. So what’s missing?”
“…I heard his height isn’t exactly impressive either…. Ah, his character?”
“You’re far too perceptive.”
Allen thrust both thumbs upward and waggled them enthusiastically.
“In any case, while that’s certainly true, objectively speaking, it would be power and status, wouldn’t it?”
“Kalid…. Why would he need status?”
He’s a member of the Zebert Knight Order.
“Well, if the person you fancy is of high birth, you’d want to reach a level where you wouldn’t feel ashamed, wouldn’t you?”
Someone they fancy….
I blinked blankly.
“So you’re saying…. Wait.”
My throat felt strangely tight. What was this?
Was my body still unwell? Why was my heart racing like this?
“…Kalid will receive a Casalia title?”
“Perhaps?”
“…By falling in love with the beautiful princess during the return procession?”
A suppressed laugh escaped Allen’s tightly sealed lips, though I, lost in thought and staring down at the ground, failed to notice it.
“Life always brings countless variables, miss.”
“….”
Whoooosh.
A biting winter wind swept across the Training Ground. Awakened by it, I suddenly lifted my head.
“That guy….”
For reasons I couldn’t explain.
“Where is he now?”
I felt an inexplicable urgency to see him immediately!
Watching Rubian’s retreating figure grow distant, Allen finally let out the laughter he’d been holding back—a soft, amused chuckle.
“I didn’t say anything specific, miss.”
Neither subject nor object.
‘That silly girl~ your precious master is leaving~’
Allen hummed cheerfully to himself until he felt a chilling gaze and turned his head.
“….”
Ah, there they were.
In one corner of the Training Ground, Zebert Grandfather and Prince Liam stared at me with eyes blazing like fire.
“Um, I’ll come back next time….”
“Catch him, you firstborn brat.”
“Yes.”
After that day.
No one ever saw Allen again.
* * *
Late at night, at the Temporary Outpost.
Kalid furrowed his brow.
“What on earth is he doing?”
His nose was bleeding profusely.
He was examining the letter that had arrived for him—sent from Allen, who had gone to the Capital first.
‘He seems to be pushing himself too hard.’
What should I do?
I just want to abandon everything and go.
But I couldn’t.
“The Casalia Kingdom has requested that you escort them from here to the Babylon Empire. Since you’re returning anyway, simply reorganize the procession and depart.”
Just as I was preparing to return after completing the subjugation, an envoy from Casalia arrived and said exactly that.
I had no intention of listening, but the emblem on the Knight Order uniform I wore gave me pause.
The emblem of the Zebert Knight Order.
As long as I wore this emblem, I couldn’t act as recklessly as a child.
Though the Duke would probably just flick my forehead and say, “Who cares about such things?”
That’s why, even more so.
‘I wish I could at least hear her voice.’
I habitually tried to connect my mana, then stopped.
Rubian was in the Capital. I didn’t want to make her use magic carelessly. Especially since she said her condition wasn’t good.
Moreover, my mana had become so vastly expanded compared to the past that I had become cautious about intertwining my mana with Rubian’s.
I feared I might consume her.
“….”
Kalid clenched the note and let out a low sigh.
The mana that had once been tangled like tree roots now seemed to have my mana clinging to and coiling around her slender mana.
‘That’s exactly what it looks like.’
I clicked my tongue while gazing at the emblem of the Mage Kingdom carved into the map hanging on the wall.
The World Tree and the dragon coiling around it as it ascended.
The World Tree was called the symbol of wisdom, and the dragon was the symbol of mana and power.
I thought the feeling was unpleasant when a short bell chimed in front of the tent.
Before I could say to enter, the tent flap was suddenly drawn open.
“Kalid, are you resting?”
It was a woman’s voice with a pleasant resonance.
Kalid regarded the approaching woman with an impassive expression. She was the princess of Casalia, her lightly tanned skin contrasting with her undulating reddish-brown hair.
It was Sebelena.
“Would you like to play cards? Do you know how?”
With each step, the ornaments dangling from her richly adorned garments clinked and clattered.
The woman, dressed in every inch the royal fashion, settled herself across from Kalid with an air of perfect ease.
Then she withdrew a deck of cards—the sort commoners idly played with in taverns—and shuffled them gently.
“Perhaps a knight raised so delicately doesn’t know such things?”
“Even if I knew how, I would not play with Your Highness.”
“My, the heavy-tongued one finally speaks. Why is that?”
Rather than answer, Kalid smiled faintly and lowered his gaze. He folded a slip of paper with deliberate slowness—once, twice, and then a third time.
After carefully placing the folded note in his inner pocket, Kalid raised his eyes with equal deliberation to meet Sebelena’s gaze.
“Do I have an obligation to answer Your Highness?”
How presumptuous of him, standing before royalty.
If not for that infuriatingly handsome face, he would have been on his knees long ago.
Sebelena laughed inwardly.
“Then what about this?”
“….”
“I’m speaking of the youngest lady of the Zebert Duchy.”
The atmosphere shifted in an instant.
Sensing the chill that descended like a predator about to strike, Sebelena continued with composure.
“The Mage King’s ‘Seventh.'”
He slowly grasped his sword. Blue mana surged forth.
The emblem of the Zebert Knight Order held importance, certainly, but naturally not as much as Rubian.
“The Mage Kingdom is making its move. Are they trying to take her again?”
Her jungle-green eyes gleamed with intensity.

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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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