The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 242

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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 242
His tone was monotonous and his expression blank, yet somehow it felt like a threat.
The Mysterious Man carefully brushed back Rubian’s hair as though handling a glass doll, then gazed quietly at her sleeping face.
The scene was utterly serene, yet Idelaine read within it a tidal wave of emotions churning more dynamically than ever before.
Ah, that.
‘The face of someone who’s hopelessly smitten.’
And she even seemed accustomed to restraining it.
Traces of affection and longing that couldn’t be fully contained dripped from his perfect features half-shrouded in darkness.
‘If I’m reading this right, it’s a very old feeling.’
A brief smile crossed her weathered face.
‘The young lady probably can’t even imagine it.’
“Listen.”
Idelaine offered one last piece of advice before leaning on her cane.
Watching these young two stare at each other while digging themselves deeper somehow made her want to chime in.
“Cherishing something is fine, but cherishing alone can lead to nothing but an ending.”
“….”
The Mysterious Man glanced at Idelaine as though she were spouting nonsense, but that was all.
* * *
There are things we treasure precisely because they are so precious.
A first pair of shoes, the single fruit decoration atop a cake, a fragile and costly jewel prone to scratching….
Of course, Kalid had never understood the hearts of those who cherished such things.
Shoes were merely shoes, he didn’t particularly care for cake, and jewels were nothing more than glittering stones—nothing more, nothing less.
“…Huh?”
But when I looked at Rubian, it all made sense.
“What is it, Kalid?”
Because I too possessed something too precious to touch, something I kept treasured.
“Sleep more. The Duke hasn’t arrived yet.”
Kalid pulled Rubian back as she tried to rise, speaking softly. But she shook her head.
“Uh…. No. I need to help repair the portal.”
Kalid felt the sudden emptiness beside me and swallowed a short sigh.
The headaches that had tormented me and the mana that had churned anxiously both vanished like a lie the moment we arrived in Arcadia.
‘Whether it disappeared or merely retreated, I’m not sure.’
In any case, I was grateful not to hear that troublesome voice.
But.
‘Why do I feel….’
So regretful?
If I could pull that warm, soft body away from my embrace back just a little, using the voice as an excuse.
Right now, I wouldn’t mind being swept up by that voice at all.
“….”
Realizing my own unconscious desire, my fingertips trembled slightly.
‘What garbage.’
Self-loathing flooded through me in an instant, though of course I let none of it show to Rubian.
“Hmm. You’ll stay here?”
“No. The Imperial Prince and Liam are standing watch. We need to switch shifts.”
Rubian folded the blanket crisply, tilting her eyebrows.
“Liam, please keep a close eye so I don’t lose my way….”
“Do you have any idea how much that necklace beeps and cries the moment I stray even slightly out of range? It’s impossible to get lost.”
At that, Rubian laughed with a pleased expression, her shoulders shaking with mirth.
“Just make sure he doesn’t get hurt. I’m not sure if he’s used to close combat….”
“…?”
“Hm?”
“Do you have any idea what kind of training the prince does every dawn?”
Question marks floated in her clear eyes, then instantly transformed into exclamation marks.
“Oh.”
“It was you. You gave that advice to the prince.”
“Ah…. That’s right.”
I wanted to touch Rubian’s slightly puffed cheeks.
“Brother, you said stamina is essential if you want to read books for long periods.”
“Fine. Hell training it is.”
It was something from so long ago I barely remembered it.
“Wow, from then until now?”
Rubian’s expression showed she’d known Liam woke before dawn to do something, but hadn’t realized it was training.
She added, her face deep in thought.
“…Now that I think about it, Liam was that overachiever type who excels at both the literary and martial arts.”
More incomprehensible words. But since I was accustomed to such things, I silently accepted the blanket from Rubian’s hands.
“But Kalid, are you alright?”
“What do you mean.”
Rubian, who had been wearing a slightly troubled expression, carefully opened her mouth.
“On the boat, your mana actually felt a bit unstable. Now…. it seems fine, though.”
“….”
She had noticed.
I quietly lifted the corners of my lips.
“It might have been because we were getting closer to Arcadia. My mana did feel a bit shaky. But now it’s fine.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Rubian shot me a suspicious look.
There was a skill Kalid often used in moments like this—drawing closer to her instead.
“If you’re worried, just check for yourself.”
I extended a hand to Rubian, who sat in the chair, and leaned forward. Long lashes fluttered beneath my gaze.
‘But when I approach like this, she usually pulls away.’
He knew his place well.
Having grown up rolling through the Mercenary Company since childhood, maturing faster than his peers, reading the room became second nature—whether he wanted it or not.
Your feelings and mine are not the same.
I’ve known that truth for a very long time.
‘Friend.’
That word Rubian always kept on her lips.
Ah, yes. Perhaps that was slightly better.
“We’re childhood friends, aren’t we!”
…Though it might be far worse.
These feelings I’d carefully accumulated over the years.
My precious Rubian, so dear that I wanted to cherish her.
I didn’t care what others thought, but I had to be careful never to let Rubian discover it. I had to keep it contained, never letting it spill over.
If she found out and felt burdened, or if we could no longer remain as we are now because of it….
It would be no different from losing everything in my life.
Of course, lately my body wasn’t cooperating with my heart, which was somewhat troublesome. Still, it should be manageable for now.
‘Holding hands like this was something we did often as children…. But ever since we grew up, Rubian noticeably stiffens.’
See, just like now.
She just stares with that startled expression. Now that we’re grown, she might find it repulsive.
Kalid was about to withdraw his extended hand, maintaining his usual composed expression, when—
“Then…. Should I?”
…What?
The warmth of her grasping his hand caught Kalid quite off guard.
“….”
“Why…. You said to check….”
Slender, pale fingers slowly threading between his thick fingers. Kalid’s entire body went rigid, his mind spinning into chaos.
“Let’s see. Your mana….”
Rubian murmured softly, closing her eyes slightly.
“Seems…fine?”
“….”
“Why are you looking like that~”
Just as Rubian, finding his silence awkward, was about to withdraw her hand, Kalid grasped it with a strength he’d never shown before.
“More.”
If this were a desert, you would be the savior holding the water pouch. I am merely a wanderer digging at the parched earth.
“Feel more of it.”
“…Huh…. Should I? But aren’t we getting a bit too close?”
Even if it were merely Rubian’s simple whim, unpredictable as it was, it was enough. What did her intentions matter when she was the sweet lifewater quenching my parched throat?
“Hey, could you not brush your thumb across the back of my hand? It feels a bit….”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Is it…fine now?”
Rubian withdrew her hand and pulled her body back.
Kalid gazed once more at his meticulously arranged fingertips and smiled.
It was a shame, but I mustn’t be greedy.
“Then I’ll go check out the Portal Room!”
Rubian moved away toward the goddess statue. He drew a deep breath, attempting to calm his flushed body.
Just as he was about to rise.
“….”
By chance, his eyes met with the goddess statue standing in the center of the chapel.
In that moment, he thought an inexplicable rage was surging within him.
A sensation of his abdomen being violently churned washed over him.
Kalid tilted his jaw to the side, his mind dazed as vivid symbols and languages etched themselves clearly into his consciousness.
‘This is…. a teleportation magic circle?’
His gaze instinctively fixed upon the grand ceiling fresco.
Simultaneously, a voice that had been silent echoed through his mind like a reverberating whisper.
‘At the Royal Palace….’
He quietly traced that voice.
‘May we meet again.’
Despising.
And despised.
My goddess.
There shall I achieve our long-overdue reunion.

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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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