The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 256

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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 256
The Mage King struggled to manipulate his magical power, but it was futile.
This was a new restraint Rubian had created solely to bind the Mage King.
Had he fully transformed into a Dark Mage, things might have been different, but his plan had stalled midway.
The Mage King felt as though he were trapped in Rubian’s grasp.
“Listen! Listen! Seize the intruder! Where are my mages!”
The Mage King shouted thus, but no one came running.
Why? Where had all those numbers gone?
The Royal Palace had been invaded—the battle mages from the Ostavia Plains should have rushed here. What was First doing?
Realization struck suddenly.
‘Ah, all the battle mages from the Ostavia Plains have… marched out to Babylon.’
It was he himself who had ordered them to invade that place.
“Ha, ha ha…”
Where had things gone wrong?
Where exactly had this plan begun to crumble?
From when I ordered the joint invasion of Babylon?
Or from when I manipulated the Southern Base Mage?
No. Perhaps from when I secretly infiltrated those young mages.
If not that, then from when I dispatched the fake father of Seventh…
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Quiet. Shut up.”
Rosetta, gripping his hair, struck the screaming Mage King’s cheek. Blood trickled down his pale face.
Rosetta lifted his head by his hair.
“Speak. You have something to tell me.”
Hurried footsteps approached from behind.
She thought she heard someone calling her name, but already nothing reached her ears except the Mage King’s face and his whimpering groans.
“Answer me! What did you do with my daughter’s body!”
“Rosetta.”
Someone grabbed her shoulder.
“You’re injured. Stop.”
“Get away!”
Rosetta roughly knocked Leviathan’s hand away and tightened her grip on the Mage King’s hair.
“Ugh…”
“What did you do with my daughter!”
The Mage King then stared at Rosetta intently. The black veins across his body continued to writhe.
Soon he spoke in a whisper.
“I raised her.”
Her vision turned crimson.
“I poured my magical power into a body devoid of its soul, cherishing her as though she were my own daughter… most preciously… so look.”
He gestured behind Rosetta as if to say. As if Rubian were standing there.
“Your silver hair is truly beautiful, resembling mine as it does.”
The Mage King grinned wickedly, baring his teeth.
* * *
“Where am I?”
Liam Zebert narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
He had been heading to the Tower with Father just moments ago….
Yet the Tower had vanished, replaced only by a dilapidated entrance before him.
“….”
Compose yourself, Liam Zebert.
You’ve grown into a man now. Surely you can find your own way.
I distinctly remembered seeing the map of the Royal Palace interior that Void had brought.
Ah yes, that structure corresponded to this one, and that passage led to this corridor, and if I go this far, I should reach that area….
My mind traced the map meticulously, yet my body moved with unwavering certainty in an entirely different direction. Of course, I remained oblivious to this discrepancy.
It was a dark, cavernous place.
Dreary and filthy—precisely the sort of environment Rubian despised.
‘…A prison?’
The moment I became aware of my surroundings, someone seized my shoulder with a sharp tap.
“Gasp, gasp. Wheeeew.”
‘Damn it.’
I’d made a terrible mistake. I must have taken a completely wrong turn.
“Running into a pervert like this.”
“What are you talking about!”
An indignant voice shot back.
“I came looking for my brother, and that’s what you say to me? I’m telling Rubian everything!”
“Void…?”
I turned around and adjusted my glasses. Void, his hair disheveled, took a deep breath to steady himself.
“I was wondering how far you’d go!”
“…Void, let me offer some brotherly advice. From now on, when calling someone, maintain at least a meter’s distance and compose your breathing before speaking calmly. Of course, I love you dearly as your older brother, but having your breath brush against my ear is quite an unsettling experience….”
“What is this place anyway? A beast lair? I can’t hear anything from inside.”
A…beast?
I quickly approached Void, linked my arm through his, and smiled.
“My precious younger brother, would you mind guiding me to where the beasts are?”
“You just said I ruined your mood.”
“Your older brother speaks with a forked tongue.”
“This shamelessness is something else.”
The brothers moved forward slowly.
An indistinct sound reflected off the stone walls grew progressively louder. It resembled a thin whistling wind, yet also the cries of young beasts.
“Children’s voices…?”
Our eyes met in perfect synchronization.
Without hesitation, we both pressed ourselves against the wall and moved swiftly forward, our presence masked.
“…That bastard.”
Liam’s violet eyes gleamed with murderous intent as he peered around the corner.
First stood before a massive prison cell.
He was saying something to the children inside—apparently demanding they emerge and lend their magical power since the Royal Palace was in crisis.
“Looks like they’re young mages captured from the villages.”
Void ground his teeth audibly.
Liam stared silently at the back of First’s head, then smiled faintly.
“You know what, Void?”
“What?”
“That bastard used to pretend to be our youngest fairy brother at the Royal Palace.”
“….”
Liam watched his brother’s shoulders stiffen sharply.
Then a terrifying aura reminiscent of their father began to shimmer into existence.
“Rubian is my brother. I’m Rubian’s older brother. Of course, he stubbornly insists on calling me ‘brother’ anyway. But that bastard, what?”
Muttering incessantly.
“Do you have any idea how annoying and difficult it is to look after a troublemaking younger sibling? How many years did I spend carrying that fluffy thing on my back….”
“Time to move. Now.”
“Damn it!”
Void, who had always been obsessed with his role as the older brother, could no longer restrain himself and burst forward like lightning.
Before First could even turn around, Void had restrained the mage’s body.
“W-who are you!”
“Haaaaaah. It’s your older brother.”
“You sick bastard, where the hell did you come from!”
“Shut up.”
Void was about to kill First when he glanced at the children inside, then instead brought his knee down in a crushing blow.
Crack! The sound of something shattering echoed from somewhere, and Liam found the sound satisfying.
Seizing the moment, Liam extracted the key from First’s waistband and opened the prison door.
“P-please save us!”
“Aaaahhh!”
As expected, they were young mages who had been captured by the Mage King simply because of their exceptional magical abilities.
After surveying the interior of the stone chamber, Liam spun around like the wind and seized First’s forearm with crushing force—a wound that hadn’t yet healed.
“I’m only asking one thing.”
“Ugh.”
“Was our youngest fairy, Rubian, here?”
Void’s eyes widened.
His gaze fell upon the worn, shabby cradle in the darkest corner of the dim chamber.
First’s eyes rolled around before he answered.
“Yes.”
His mind went blank.
In this place, alone?
“What’s the problem? Besides, he won’t even remember it anyway. That carriage accident….”
The carriage accident—it was the very one in which Rosetta had lost Rubian.
“It took time for that child’s soul, which had vanished somewhere, to return to her body.”
“What?”
Her soul…. What did he just say?
The words made no sense whatsoever.
First forced the corners of his mouth upward despite their resistance.
“Father personally cultivated the body of Seventh, whose soul had vanished. Of course, it was possible because that child’s soul hadn’t truly ‘perished.'”
A glimmer of madness flickered across his dark eyes.
Since his brother’s expression grew more rigid with each word, he continued without pause.
“Soul and body must ultimately be connected as one. That child’s soul, which had vanished somewhere, found her body and returned here. She was about three or four years old then. Kekeke, I was right to steal that body and keep it….”
“….”
“Oh, and one more thing—Father was such a busy man that he often forgot to cultivate her growth. Is that why? Seventh is so tiny, like a little mouse…. Cough, hack!”
“Brother.”
Liam stared at Void.
His younger brother’s face had flushed a violent crimson. His chest heaved, and the whites of his eyes were streaked with blood. It was the face of someone consumed by rage, stripped of all reason.
“I’m going to kill this bastard.”
“…Come here, you little ones.”
Liam clenched his teeth and gathered the young mages into his embrace, turning them away so they couldn’t look back.
There was nothing more to hear.
From this point on, it was a story they already knew.
And so, as Rubian’s soul returned and she gradually began to understand speech,
the moment the Mage King saw a child drawing magical circles far beyond what she was being taught, he forcibly carved a mark into that small body.
And at the age of eight.
When the Human-Beast War reached its fiercest peak, he pushed Rubian and the young mages to capture a dark mage alive.
At the age of nine.
Rubian, for reasons he couldn’t fathom, decided she had to escape the Mage Kingdom.
And at ten.
The moment the long, endless war came to an end.
Rubian came to House Zebert, holding Leviathan’s hand.
And throughout this entire sequence of events, the Mage King’s First had always existed like a shadow.
He laughed with a strange, unsettling cackle.

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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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