The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 287

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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 Episode 13
“….”
This grimy little thing….
‘Is this child accustomed to such wounds?’
An ordinary child would never dare touch a wound gushing blood so freely.
‘They would be frightened and terrified.’
Yet despite trembling with fear, the child pressed firmly against their own wound with practiced precision.
As if they understood that such pressure would help stop the bleeding.
“Hmm.”
“The blood, it won’t stop, wahhh!”
Rosetta seized the child by the scruff of the neck and threw them roughly to the ground.
Blue eyes swept across the small body methodically.
“How old are you?”
“…8, eight years old?”
Probably….
The added words were too quiet to hear clearly.
The small, plump palm was splayed open, and the sight of crimson blood staining that pale hand was somehow displeasing.
“So, little one.”
Before continuing, Rosetta quickly assessed the child’s appearance.
The snow-white silver hair was tangled and disheveled, yet it appeared remarkably soft and fine. Someone had clearly taken great care in maintaining it.
The skin had a lustrous sheen, the clothing was of fine quality, and those bright blue eyes were as clear and transparent as crystal without a speck of dust.
In other words… the child was rather adorable, and clearly had a guardian.
“What will you tell the adults when you go home?”
“Pardon?”
“What will you tell your parents about what you just saw… I’m simply curious, dear.”
At the gentle tone, the child blinked rapidly.
Rosetta exchanged a glance with Hazel. In that moment, their shared thought was singular.
Leave no witnesses.
They were assassins. For assassins, the cardinal rule was to leave no trace, no witness at the scene.
“….”
I saw Hazel take a step back. The dagger hidden behind her back was likely coated with paralytic poison.
‘…A scratch from that blade would cause severe suffering for quite some time.’
The poison would induce high fever and slightly distort memory, so whatever the child said would certainly be dismissed as delirium.
‘Killing would be the quickest solution.’
Still, I preferred not to kill those who weren’t targets, and using poison on a child felt somehow distasteful. So first, I needed to assess how well this child understood the situation.
“…My parents….”
The child stared blankly at Rosetta.
Then, as if remembering something, they puckered their lips like a duck. Not that it made them any less adorable.
“My parents… they were there….”
The child looked rather serious.
“It was there?”
“It’s… gone?”
Wavering blue eyes.
“….”
In that moment, silence fell.
“…Ha!”
Behind them, Hazel and the masked mercenaries exhaled sharply.
Rosetta closed her mouth as well.
‘They dressed him up nicely and just… abandoned him in the Forest?’
Had she ever seen such garbage of a parent?
They had all been abandoned by their parents too, but this was a first even for them.
The quality was appallingly low.
To dress him in fine clothes and deliberately abandon him on a Mountain—it was comprehensively the worst.
“But I was so startled when I almost got kidnapped by a Demonic Beast! Thank you so much for saving me…!”
The child bowed respectfully.
“I was really scared….”
Mumble, mumble—the small lips kept moving.
“I survived because of you….”
It seemed the shock of abandonment had even dulled his cognitive abilities.
Though the boy looked rather unkempt, to mistake him for a humanoid Demonic Beast was still absurd.
‘Or perhaps his ability to read the room was exceptional.’
I felt Hazel smoothly sheathing her short sword.
“Hmm.”
What to do.
Just then, the child who’d been cautiously observing tugged at the hem of Rosetta’s garment.
“So, um…! I’m in quite a confused situation right now, so I wanted to ask….”
Though his grip was feeble, I couldn’t move an inch.
“Would you… take me with you? Of c-course! I’ll do all the chores! I have lots of experience with odd jobs, so I’d be really helpful!”
The child gazed up at the dark-clad mercenaries for a long moment, his cheeks flushing slightly.
For a moment, it seemed like he muttered something like “Not this again…” but that must have been my imagination.
“Do you perhaps….”
“….”
“Not need a youngest member?”
* * *
“No, we don’t need one.”
“Then, it was fun.”
‘Why is this exactly like Father too eeeeeee!’
I tore at my hair against the Palace Wall of the Orphanage.
‘Like husband, like wife indeed!’
It was the exact same routine as when I first met Leviathan back then.
But the indomitable Rubian persisted.
Just as before, I successfully escaped by pretending to head to the restroom.
‘The old Orphanage was far more decrepit, so this is actually easier.’
But where exactly was I?
Given how freely mana flowed here, it didn’t seem to be the Capital.
Based on what I’d casually observed and heard at the Orphanage, it appeared to be somewhere in the Southwest Region.
Rubian collapsed into the Dark Alley with a soft thud.
‘So why does my body look like this, and why am I separated from Kalid?! Administrator! Hey, status window! Answer me!’
Reference time input error
‘Reference time input error?’
Rubian’s brow furrowed.
Then something began to dawn on me.
‘Could it be… there was a problem with the diary I offered as the medium?’
The engagement ceremony of Rosetta (20) and Leviathan (20)
Premise error
Accordingly, transfer to adjacent timeline completed
‘There was no engagement ceremony?’
That couldn’t be!
[Notification] Additional errors detected in the medium (diary).
If you wish to safely complete your journey,
correct the ‘falsehoods’ written in the medium!
Time warp end#$@% until
Remaining time: □■■■■
‘Could it be…’
The fine hairs on Rubian’s head stood on end.
‘If I don’t properly correct the errors in the diary, I won’t be able to return to reality… right?’
Just as I swallowed hard, I felt a rustling sensation from my pocket.
It was a page from the diary I’d offered as the medium.
“Alright. Let me read through this slowly from the beginning again.”
My blue eyes rolled back and forth.
Year N, Month N, Day N
I held an engagement ceremony with Leviathan, now twenty years old. Whether it was because he’d aged another year or because he’d become my fiancé, he somehow felt more dependable than before.
It feels like only yesterday when we met at the Imperial Court’s summer Banquet last year… My heart feels renewed.
Of course, we met very properly and ordinarily—we first encountered each other when our sleeves brushed as we passed through the Banquet Hall Corridor.
(This part was written somewhat hastily for some reason.)
In any case, I decided to entrust him with something precious to me as a token of our engagement.
When I said I loved him at the end, he looked like he was about to cry. Hmm…
He’s really adorable. I almost wanted to bite him.
‘So there’s a lie hidden in here.’
Rubian gathered mana like ink at my fingertips. Editing someone else’s diary was her specialty.
‘If the engagement ceremony itself is a false premise… then the engagement ceremony never happened at all?’
Let me try correcting it in that direction first.
…Leviathan and I
held a grand engagement ceremony.
We went on dates? Yes, we did.
(omitted)
Somehow
it felt
reassuring?
(omitted)
When he said he loved me at the end,
he wore an expression like he was about to cry
or burst into laughter (Father would never cry!) on his face.
He’s really adorable. I almost bit him.
…??;;;
Um, I’ve finished correcting all the errors?
“…”
But the warp system remained silent.
The traces of her corrections faded from the paper like water seeping away.
Even when I generously kept “reassuring,” it was the same.
“Ugh, why isn’t it working!”
Little Rubian collapsed in frustration like a snapped twig.
“Then… at least tell me how many errors are left!”
Analyzing…
…
Analysis complete!
Remaining falsehoods: 2
Only two places are wrong?
It was a number that felt strangely hopeful yet daunting.
‘I suppose I need to observe for a while.’
My plan to approach Leviathan, quickly copy the key, and leave fell apart.
To correct the errors in the diary, I needed to understand what would happen in this past.
‘But why did Mother show me a fake diary in the first place?’
“Ah…”
I exhaled a long sigh.
The image of Rosetta I’d just seen came to mind.
‘Mother was…’
not a simple mercenary. She was an assassin—a member of the Assassination Guild.
I bit my lip hard.
‘What on earth happened to Mother…’
That was when it happened.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
[ …Rubian! ]
‘Kalid?!’
The communication circuit connected. A familiar, welcome voice resonated through my mind.
[ Thank goodness. ]
Even so, I nearly burst out laughing.
I mean, I was glad to hear from Kalid, but…
His voice was…
‘Hey! Your voice sounds like a mosquito! Did you also get rejuvenated?’
[ …You too? ]
It was Kalid’s voice from before his voice had changed—calmer than his peers, but unmistakably a child’s voice.
‘Yeah. I’m eight years old now. Something’s seriously gone wrong. So, where are you?!’
[ I’m here… Northern Region… Zebert… ]
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The static was so severe I could barely make out individual words.
‘Hello? Can you hear me?’
[ …Keep… saying hello… Damn it, this child’s body has limitations… ]
Kalid pushed through the crackling static to convey his message.
[ So… in four days… Imperial Palace… unofficial banquet… ]
‘What did you say?’
[ There… we’ll… meet… ]
‘Nooooooo!’
Click—
The connection cut off.
Kalid was clearly struggling with his own set of problems.
‘So, piecing together what I managed to catch…’
There was an unofficial banquet at the Imperial Palace in four days.
My blue eyes widened.
‘That’s the day Mother and Father first met!’
The “Imperial Summer Banquet” from the diary!
‘Of course, there’s a chance it could be a lie, but Father told me the exact same thing before!’
“I first met Rose at the Imperial Summer Banquet.”
“Oh…!”
I brushed myself off and stood up, clenching both fists.
If that was the case, there was only one thing to do.
‘I have to go to that banquet.’
Kalid would be there anyway.
My clear eyes sparkled with determination.
The warp had become rather chaotic, but I had to move forward. Staying still would get me nowhere.
‘First, I need to figure out where Mother is….’
I subtly shifted my mana.
A small hemispherical orb of pale blue light materialized at my fingertips.
“Mother, I’m sorry.”
Half of the luminous sphere flew through the air, seeking its counterpart.
‘I’ll apologize when I get back for using tracking magic.’
“Let’s go.”
I was just about to follow the direction and take a step when it happened.
“Child.”
Someone called out from behind me.
My shoulders jolted up in surprise.
That voice was, as if….
“Why are you alone in a place like this?”
As if….
“Did you perhaps lose Mother and Father?”
‘…Mother…the Demon King?’

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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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