The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 292

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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 18
Yet she responded with calm composure and a gentle smile.
“You’ve always told me to take pride in myself, Teacher. I think I’d be happy if I could become the Emperor’s hidden blade.”
“Yes, that’s a good attitude. However.”
….
“It seems you’re thinking a bit too much, aren’t you?”
….
“Haven’t I told you repeatedly? Too many thoughts and questions will only cause you suffering. So….”
The Commander spoke soothingly.
“I think you need medicine, my dear.”
….
Rubian clenched the hem of her garment tightly.
‘Don’t interfere. Don’t stand out….’
I cannot change the past.
“Rosetta? Why are you silent? Should I feed you the medicine myself in the Punishment Room again?”
….
Don’t stand out… Don’t interfere….
Even if that medicine… numbs thought and emotion….
Even if it feels like the Mage King’s mark control, absolutely….
But Rosetta saw no way to refuse.
After a moment of silence, Rosetta nodded slowly with a hardened expression.
“I will, Teacher.”
“Good girl.”
The Commander produced a small pill from his pocket and handed it to her.
The moment Rosetta accepted it, hoping it wouldn’t dissolve too much under her tongue.
Whoosh! A sudden gust of wind swept through. And then.
Crack—
“…!”
Boom!
“Aaaahhh!”
Suddenly, one of the old wooden support beams in the ceiling collapsed.
It fell directly above the Commander’s head.
“Aaahhh! Cough, cough! What in the—!”
He was struck by the debris and tumbled across the floor in disarray.
Since it was thin timber, there appeared to be no serious injury, but as a result, it rolled away….
The pill had vanished somewhere.
“Everyone, is everyone alright? Help me up! You there!”
The Commander flailed about awkwardly.
Rosetta’s eyes darted reflexively.
‘The little one. The little one is….’
“Huh?”
The child was crying, their face wrapped in their hands in shock.
“Are you alright….”
“I messed….”
Messed?
“I messed up, I messed up!”
The child’s voice burst out suddenly.
“I was too reckless… Ugh! But I was so frustrated!”
Shouting incomprehensibly, the child bolted from the room.
I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the way they ran suggested they weren’t injured.
‘But what was that? For a moment, their eyes….’
They seemed to glow red.
‘Could that child have done something….’
At that moment, crack! Several large rats scattered in all directions.
Rosetta scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
‘…that can’t be right.’
It seemed the cracked pillar had simply collapsed under temporary pressure.
Given how dilapidated the wooden building was, it wasn’t impossible.
“For today, let’s just, just head back!”
The Commander, covered in dust and debris, left the Barracks with a thoroughly displeased expression.
He limped as he walked, apparently injured from the fall.
Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, Rosetta and her comrades covered their mouths and let out sympathetic sighs.
“Oh my… it seems the Commander is hurt.”
“Someone should help him quickly….”
Murmuring filled the air.
“I’m really worried. Someone should hurry….”
“Aina, lower your hand.”
“…you first, Squad Leader.”
It was a strangely satisfying day.
* * *
“I wasn’t being reckless.”
Rubian muttered as if reflecting.
Before me… was silence.
“I was being filial.”
Silence….
Quiet….
“I’m, I’m serious! I didn’t change the past!”
As I cried out, finally a message window from the communication device popped up before me.
?
The system that was the very magic of this time warp itself and provided me with visual guidance had responded.
[Congratulations…?] You’ve awakened as a ‘Filial Daughter (S-Rank)’?
No, I’m telling you, that’s not the genre I meant….
I blinked rapidly beneath the blanket.
‘Was it… actually okay?’
Since no warning message appeared, the magic I’d used moments ago apparently wasn’t an act that would have a significant impact on the future.
“Sigh.”
By now, it was deep into the night.
The children who’d been dragged here with me had fallen asleep, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
The tension drained from my shoulders.
Yet my clenched fists still trembled uncontrollably.
“How dare they try to feed something strange to anyone.”
I seized the chaos as cover and secretly snatched a pill that had been rolling across the floor.
It was unmistakably a drug that numbed emotions and cognition.
‘I suppose even with gaslighting and brainwashing from childhood, there were limits to what could be accomplished.’
The taste of blood seeped from my bitten lip.
‘They turned them into puppets incapable of thought or judgment, then made them carry out assassination orders.’
It was nothing short of abhorrent.
But… that corpse from earlier.
Was it really the man who fell from the Cliff?
‘And Mother and Hazel seemed perfectly rational. I didn’t sense any trace of drugs on them at all.’
…Ah, I see.
Even if no one else could, I could quickly grasp the truth.
Because I’d experienced something similar before. Long ago, in Canalan Gorge.
Perhaps Rosetta had done something similar.
Saving someone and disguising them with another corpse.
There were several Monster Habitats nearby, so obtaining a few unidentifiable bodies might not be particularly difficult.
‘The surviving target would have been hidden away for a while, or smuggled out to a foreign land.’
If someone heard that there was a person trying to have them assassinated… who would want to keep living here?
I curled up.
“…I may have underestimated Mother.”
Why had I thought she would simply endure helplessly without doing anything?
And the idea that Father would rescue her.
That was truly… foolish thinking.
‘Mother was saving herself while living.’
Rosetta was not helpless even in a desperate situation.
She was struggling with all her might to keep from sinking beneath the filth.
It was something worthy of tears and admiration.
But unfortunately, it wasn’t a fundamental solution.
‘Honestly, it would be nice if we all just eliminated the Commander, grabbed the heirlooms, and escaped the Mercenary Company.’
The problem was the ‘curse’.
The curse that forbade mercenaries from ever leaving The Wall without the Commander’s permission.
The Commander held the power of life and death over every mercenary under his command.
Should the Commander believe any mercenary had defied him, he could activate the curse and strike them dead. This was why the Commander was regarded as an absolute authority among the mercenaries.
‘Just as I managed to break free from the stigma and stand against the Mage King, Mother would need to escape this curse before she could kill the Commander and flee this place.’
Rubian’s eyes narrowed.
But then again….
‘Does such a curse spell even exist? And if it does, who would inscribe it? The Commander isn’t a Mage.’
Rubian bit at her fingernails anxiously.
‘Would the Mage Kingdom send a Mage here? But… I’ve never read any records of such a thing.’
In fact, just moments ago, Rubian had seized the opportunity while the Mercenary Company was in disarray to investigate the area.
Thanks to that, she’d managed to locate the Captain’s Office where the personal effects were supposedly stored, and had gotten a chance to examine the area around The Wall.
‘At least I didn’t spot any sign of a key.’
The Captain’s Office was guarded so heavily that she couldn’t even approach it. The crude magical energy she sensed suggested they’d brought in all manner of barrier artifacts.
‘But around The Wall itself, I didn’t sense any particularly strong magical presence.’
Could it be….
Rubian’s eyes were beginning to darken with realization when it happened.
“Shh.”
A black hand shot out from the darkness.
“…!”
“Don’t scream.”
Someone was forcefully covering Rubian’s lips.
“Stay still. Then I won’t need to use the sleeping draught.”
It was Rosetta.

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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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