The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 286

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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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Side Story 12
“Move!”
“Ugh!”
“You, damn it!”
Crash, bang, bang!
The man I collided with tumbled across the ground without mercy.
I too fell hard on my rear end, landing flat on my back.
He was a man I’d never seen before.
‘What the hell just happened! Where is Kalid?!’
But I had no time to calmly assess the situation. The man approached me with a terrifying expression.
“You, damn it, argh!”
Whoooosh—thwack!
Then, with a sound that split the air, an arrow came flying.
“These wretched women!”
The man spat out another curse.
“Now you’re sending a child to bind my feet?”
A child?
What in the world—!
Before I could even protest, the man slung me over his shoulder and began running through the forest like a whirlwind.
‘What is this! This bandit-like, scruffy Guardian! He’s not my Father!’
Why did this suddenly turn into a chase scene?!
‘And Kalid is gone too! Hello! Time Warp Administrator! Are you there?!’
But…
Unable to read data.
Analyzing Warp System error…
3%… 16%…
‘You’re joking!’
… 16.5434%…
‘I didn’t ask for specific decimals!’
“Brat! If you keep squirming, I’ll throw you! If you’re a hostage, act like one!”
The Unknown Man bellowed roughly.
The surrounding landscape continued to blur past at dizzying speed.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
My limbs dangling in the air came into view.
They were short.
So short!
That was it.
I’d never been particularly tall to begin with, but my limbs were now absurdly short!
“This can’t be happening!”
My body’s clock had been turned back to the past as well. Feeling around clumsily, I estimated I was about eight years old.
My head was spinning.
Even as I struggled to comprehend what was happening.
Whoosh—thwack!
Arrows continued to rain down from behind.
So who exactly was chasing me?!
“Ahhhhh! I have no idea!”
“You lunatic, don’t wipe your snot on me!”
“It’s not snot—it’s tears!”
“If you’re going to be a hostage, act like one… Fine. I’ll just kill them all.”
The man being chased suddenly stopped. He then pulled several small explosive magical artifacts from his coat.
The surroundings were dense with towering trees—a forest.
It seemed he intended to trigger an explosion to knock the pursuers hiding in the branches down to the ground.
The man threw the explosive artifacts without hesitation.
Kaboom!
With a tremendous explosion, birds scattered in panic. Crack! Surrounding trees toppled over.
Thick, black smoke billowed upward.
A brief silence followed.
Just as I thought the attack might have stopped.
Whoooosh!
The black smoke was suddenly torn through.
Once again, a barrage of arrows descended.
‘That was completely useless!’
“Damn it!”
The cursing man ran again. My limbs flailed helplessly as he carried me.
Who on earth was pursuing us?
It was remarkable that they weren’t even fazed by an explosion of that magnitude. They seemed like well-trained assassins.
‘And this man looks like nobility.’
Though his appearance and demeanor resembled a bandit, judging by the quality of the explosive artifacts he used and his clothing… he seemed to be at least a lower-ranking noble of Babylon.
‘Is there an organization trying to assassinate a noble?’
I lifted my head to look behind us.
That’s when a silhouette leaped over a tree and flashed across my vision.
‘…What?’
My eyes widened involuntarily.
That distinctive auburn hair… she looked slightly younger than I remembered, but how could I not recognize her?
“Miss!”
‘Hazel?’
The Maid who had taken care of me since childhood.
“So, the Emperor… he hired the monster from the Wall. But I won’t surrender so easily. Never…!”
Yet the man’s stamina had its limits.
“Right, huff, I need to use you now.”
The man seemed to realize he couldn’t run any further, so he spun around abruptly and pressed a gleaming blade against my throat.
In that instant, everything came to a halt.
A soft whisper—leaves scattered through the wind.
The Forest fell silent.
As if no one existed at all.
“S-stop right there! If you don’t, I’ll make this brat’s neck spurt blood!”
“What are you doing! To someone’s precious throat!”
“Shut up!”
The man clamped his hand over my mouth.
At that moment, a single leaf fluttered down from a nearby tree. Someone was definitely perched in that tree.
The man took a step backward.
“Ha, haha. I know it all… The lightning-struck single-eyed emblem. Thunder Wall gathers orphans with nowhere to go and teaches them assassination techniques, deploying them on missions, doesn’t it?”
…What?
The grip of the man’s hand over my mouth loosened slightly.
“Ha, using even children this young in actual combat—you’re truly rotten!”
“…”
I thrashed my body desperately. With my mouth covered, it was difficult to make any sound.
“Disgusting women. Though I suppose…”
“…! …!”
“Insects are best left to swarm in their own sewers. …Ah, wait! Hold still!”
“…! …!”
The man stumbled backward in large strides. My eyes widened to an impossible size.
Then, the man’s body tilted and began to lean.
I grabbed the back of his head with all my might.
“There’s a Cliff behind you, you octopus-brained idiot!”
“…Ugh! My hair!”
My body flew through the air along with the man.
Strands of his hair that I’d torn out without thinking fluttered in the void, and there was a small bald patch on the back of his head… but that wasn’t the important part!
At that moment, someone rose to their feet atop a large tree.
The silhouette seemed strangely familiar.
“You two.”
A soft, refined voice.
“Catch.”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
I felt something blunt strike the body of the man holding me with a dull thud.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘I just told Kalid that I can’t die in the past, didn’t I?’
What happens if I die in five minutes?
My sense of time, which had slowed for a moment, suddenly accelerated.
And in that instant.
Error analysis complete.
Partial mana seal release…
[Notification] A magic overuse prevention system has been activated for the safety of the ‘Stranded Traveler’!
Activating magic usage markers on the traveler’s body… 1%… 57%… 100% synchronization complete!
My eyes burned crimson.
Simultaneously, roughly twenty-seven magical formations capable of breaking through this situation flashed through my mind….
Click!
That was when it happened.
Someone seized my hand with brutal force.
“So….”
I blinked blankly.
As I slowly lifted my head, I saw a woman dangling from a tree growing on the cliff face, holding me fast.
“Who are you?”
Pink hair fluttering in the wind.
Transparent blue eyes.
The familiar sensation of our touching hands….
“I, I am….”
Your daughter… your daughter?
But unable to answer anything, my lips merely fumbled, when suddenly my body shot upward.
The woman had leaped up the cliff face while casually holding me.
“Is the target dead?”
Masked figures who had been hiding in the trees approached.
“Who knows. I saw the arrow pierce through the shoulder. From this height, well….”
The woman set me down carelessly and shrugged.
“Go retrieve the corpse.”
“Yes.”
Several women immediately vanished like shadows.
“More importantly…. Is this what that bastard supposedly stole?”
Blue eyes turned toward me, sitting sprawled on the ground.
“No. What he stole is something else.”
Hazel approached with heavy footsteps, her masked face speaking in a voice utterly devoid of her usual charm.
It was a tone so rigid and mechanical that it bore no resemblance to the cheerful Hazel I had always known.
“Since you mentioned it was a precious treasure of the Imperial Court… I suspect he may have intended to use it as a hostage.”
“Ah, so I saved them for nothing.”
The blue eyes visible above the mask were utterly cold. The expressionless face, devoid of all warmth, felt strangely unfamiliar.
Without time to process the situation, I found myself captivated by that gaze, staring at her blankly.
Wow… so that means….
‘A mother my own age…!’
Then the woman pinched my disheveled hair between her thumb and forefinger, lifting it up.
“Ugh, filthy and matted. Do her parents even know she’s running around like this?”
I pressed my upper and lower lips together firmly.
Mm.
To call her Mother, even if only in my heart, here of all places….
“Exactly. What kind of irresponsible parents abandon their child in a forest like this….”
Somehow, I felt as though I were committing an unintended act of filial impiety…?
* * *
“Team leader, you’re injured.”
“Ah. I need to move on to the next mission right away.”
Rosetta gripped her shoulder roughly.
The wound had been caused by the explosion the man had triggered earlier, but it had torn deeper as she hauled the child up.
Hot blood gushed through the gaps between her fingers. Rosetta raised her eyebrows once and rummaged through her belongings to find a hemostatic agent.
“Hazel, do you happen to have any hemostatic…what are you.”
Now that I think about it…
Rosetta tilted her head.
‘Why am I carrying this child.’
The child I had fished out from the Cliff was clinging to my back like a barnacle.
And somehow… it felt familiar.
Not to me, but to the child.
“There’s blood, so there’s blood.”
The child, having wriggled into a comfortable position, pressed firmly against Rosetta’s shoulders.
Of course, it did nothing to stop the bleeding….
Suddenly, a sense of dissonance washed over me.

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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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