The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 197

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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 197
The Mage stammered slightly, his face flushed with emotion as he spoke.
“Th-thank you, Your Majesty.”
“I said come right away.”
“Pardon?”
Right now?
Leaving the bewildered Mage behind, Leviathan turned his head toward Leon according to the script.
“Leon.”
And so Leon disappeared from view as planned.
Just for a moment.
“Oh, goddess above!”
Rubian entered the cottage right on cue. Her hair was thoroughly disheveled and her clothes hung askew. Anyone would have thought she’d come rushing in alarm.
Of course, her appearance was a masterpiece that Rosetta had meticulously crafted with painstaking care, and Kalid had brought her here with remarkable ease up to this point.
“You are….”
Rubian walked forward unsteadily, her hand covering her mouth.
Her eyes were wide open in apparent shock.
Leviathan swallowed a hollow laugh at the sight.
‘So they really are performing a play at the Academy Academic Conference.’
Her acting was quite masterful.
But wasn’t “Oh, goddess above!” a bit too contrived?
“Uh, well….”
The Mage’s face showed some confusion, but he quickly immersed himself in emotion again. Leviathan didn’t miss the turmoil that crossed his features.
It seemed he hadn’t anticipated meeting Rubian in this manner.
Caught off guard for a moment, he nonetheless seemed to view actually meeting his target, Rubian, as an opportunity, and he began to rise unsteadily to his feet.
“Ah, my dear….”
Calling her “my dear” like that. This fellow had raised my child so well.
Leviathan scoffed inwardly with great satisfaction.
Now Rubian was supposed to say according to the script, “Are you my real father?” But then.
“Are you my fa….”
Rubian froze completely.
Surely not.
Leviathan’s eyes narrowed.
“Fa….”
“Yes! I’m your father!”
“Fa, fa…. Fa…b-brrrr! It’s a bit drafty in here!”
At the unexpected outburst, the Mage, who had been preparing to shed tears of emotion, froze in place.
Simultaneously, blue eyes rolled toward Leviathan as if pleading with him to fix what she’d carelessly blurted out.
What do I do? I messed up the script!
Rubian’s gaze was so transparent that her inner thoughts were laid bare.
Only then did a satisfied smile finally appear on Leviathan’s lips.
“What are you talking about? Are you… cold?” The Mage’s trembling voice was absolutely exquisite.
How’s that, you straw man? My daughter’s impenetrable fortress of titles.
He admitted to his own childish competitive spirit. No matter how much of an act it was, he didn’t want to exchange the word Father.
Feeling the filthy sensation lift somewhat, Leviathan lifted his chin.
* * *
Ugh, I messed up my words.
‘But now that I see him, I just can’t say the word Father!’
I stared at the man before me.
‘Do I look like him? Are we similar?’
Soft silver hair and blue eyes. Combined with his round impression, if I were to compare us side by side, our outward appearance was indeed similar.
‘No, that’s not it.’
The Mage King must have deliberately chosen someone who looked like that.
‘He’s probably not someone from the Royal Palace.’
Because I knew the faces of most people in the Royal Palace.
“My dear….”
The man extended his hand toward me without hiding his trembling lips.
“Even though you’ve grown so much, I’d recognize you right away. You… you really were alive.”
The air rippled and wavered. Curious, I glanced over and saw black energy pouring out from Father’s shoulders.
‘What the! Where did he sell off his kind character act!’
It seemed our father and daughter weren’t cut out to be actors.
The man seemed quite flustered at first, but soon launched into all sorts of melodrama.
“Father, come to Father. Yes? Just let me hold your hand once.”
The man stumbled toward me.
Sigh.
I had no choice but to extend just my index finger slightly. Father’s black energy increased by about 20%.
The man tried to grab my hand eagerly, but the moment our fingertips brushed, I withdrew it quickly. Then Father’s black energy returned to normal. What was this? Remote control?
“I have no regrets now. This is enough… You have no idea how much I blamed myself for losing you like that. Not once have I been able to sleep with my legs stretched out.”
The man shed tears one by one. I responded halfheartedly.
“Yeah, really.”
“Thank goodness. I’m so glad you’re alive… Just knowing you’re healthy like this is enough. I was so happy when I thought you might be in Babylon. But all this time, no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find you….”
In my mind, I was running simulations about the possibility that this man was the Mage King’s puppet.
“Yeah, really.”
“I really wanted to see you.”
“Yeah, really.”
“You even appeared in my dreams.”
“Yeah, really.”
“Achoo!”
“Yeah, rea—ly.”
Oops. I cut off my words wrong.
….
A brief silence fell. The man cleared his throat with a soft cough before asking carefully.
“My dear… why do you only say, ‘Yes, really’?”
Well, what else was there to say?
After collecting my thoughts, I slipped back into my dazed state and collapsed onto the chair Leon had brought for me.
“Um… are you really my father?”
“Of course I am!”
“What’s your proof?”
“Over there are those things you used when you were little…! Come now, sense the mana carefully. Isn’t it yours?”
I nodded.
“Well, I suppose so. But if I believed everyone who had my belongings was my real father, what would that make me?”
“Ah, I see you have doubts. Then let me settle this matter here and now, and I’ll work harder to verify myself more thoroughly before returning…”
“No, no! Why don’t we verify it right now?”
“What do you mean…”
“It seems paternity testing is quite the trend these days.”
I pulled out a small potion bottle from my pocket.
“I’m sensitive to trends like everyone my age these days. Right, Father?”
“It’s a bit much to keep up with.”
“You heard that? Anyway, that’s why I have all the famous items. Thanks to that, I could prepare right away. So, shall we begin?”
The man looked up with a dazed expression.
That potion… why is it appearing here?
“May I pluck some hair?”
“Ah… um…?”
“I’ll do it.”
Father, who had been silent, rose to his feet.
The way he cracked his knuckles made him look less like someone about to pluck hair and more like the grim reaper coming to harvest a head.
* * *
‘What? Why is this…?’
The man was bewildered.
‘Why is this… mixed?’
He stared down at the bowl where the potion had been dropped.
In the center of the shimmering, iridescent liquid, a single long strand of hair and a clump of his own hair swirled chaotically.
‘This really does seem to be a paternity verification potion.’
He was flustered. The burning sensation on his scalp faded completely in his confusion.
He never expected the princess to bring it with her like this.
‘I was planning to receive the potion from the King of Casalia!’
That was the Mage King’s command as well.
And why?
Why was the Duke allowing the princess to meet him so readily?
‘And how did she prepare that?’
They said the Seventh had excellent magical knowledge—did she create it through magic? But where did she source the materials? How did she manage this so quickly?
As if he had anticipated his own arrival!
The man’s mind spun in confusion.
This wasn’t the scenario he had envisioned.
Once I slipped away from the Duke’s sight, I was supposed to make secret contact with the King of Casalia, who was staying at the Imperial Palace. I knew he had covertly brought a vial of potion from Casalia.
So I was planning to use the doctored paternity verification potion and detonate it at Rubian’s coming-of-age ceremony tomorrow to ruin the entire event—but….
Then why.
“Wow, it’s mixing!”
Why is this mixing right now?
‘I’m a fake!’
The water’s surface swirled briefly. The two streams of silver hair that had been dancing gently intertwined and then knotted tightly together, as if shaking hands.
“Really….”
Rubian lifted her eyes, which seemed oddly moist.
“Really, you’re my actual… father!”
“Huh? Yes? Um….”
What? Was the potion doctored?
But why would the Princess tamper with the potion?
‘Shouldn’t she have brought the genuine potion to verify it?’
If that were the case, it shouldn’t have mixed at all!
He was genuinely bewildered. He tried to examine the vessel more closely to see if any suspicious magical formations were inscribed on it, but his skill level made that impossible.
“Father! I found my… *cough cough*, real father!”
“That’s good.”
The Duke’s mouth and expression seemed to operate independently. He still looked like someone who regretted not pinning down the man’s neck.
“How wonderful! But why did you abandon me? No, wait. You said I was lost. To risk your life searching for me like this. You really are my… *ahem ahem*! My throat is so dry.”
“Drink some water. And put on a scarf.”
The Princess drank from the water jug, and carefully wrapped the scarf the Duke had removed around her neck.
And as she looked at him with a bright smile,
What was happening here?
“Seeing it confirmed with my own eyes puts my mind at ease.”
The Duke rose to his feet and patted the man’s shoulder. Though he called it a pat, it nearly drove him into the ground like a stake.
“Let’s go to the Mansion together.”
Really? I’m a fake, and he’s taking me to the Mansion?
“Let’s go! Real faaaather.”
“You’re sleepy.”
“Very much so.”
Was this right?
He couldn’t regain his composure. Feeling trapped in some snare, he was relentlessly assailed by the father and daughter surrounding him, making coherent thought impossible.
By the time he came to his senses, he found himself already being carried—no, transported—in a carriage heading to the Duke’s Residence.
‘Could I have unknowingly fathered a cute daughter?’
That was obviously impossible.
‘But, thinking about it… Ultimately, my plan is proceeding well, isn’t it?’
The process seemed somewhat oversimplified in the middle, but regardless, I succeeded in approaching Rubian while posing as his biological father.
I even managed to infiltrate the Duke’s Residence, where I could target Rubian from close range?
‘That should be right, shouldn’t it?’
The Mage rolled his eyes around before falling silent. Rubian and Leviathan, who had been watching, exchanged glances without a sound. It was almost as if they were suppressing laughter.

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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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