The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 293

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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 19
I opened my eyes wide.
Rosetta had invaded the Bedroom with her companions.
In the distance, Hazel and Aina were waving thin sleep-inducing incense beneath the noses of the slumbering children.
“Be good now, listen carefully.”
Rosetta spoke quietly.
“I’m about to leave on a mission. It’s a solo operation, and I’ll even need to infiltrate the Banquet Hall disguised as a lower-ranking noble… so I’ll be carrying quite a bit of miscellaneous baggage. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I rolled my eyes around.
‘…Could she possibly be trying to help us escape?’
Before long, the other women were carefully placing the children, who had fallen into unconsciousness, into a briefcase riddled with air holes.
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
Thinking that I was hesitating about the escape, Rosetta added quietly.
“Little one. This place is not heaven. Heaven lies beyond The Wall.”
“….”
“…Sigh, yes. Truth be told, I’m not even sure if the outside is heaven. But it has to be better than being trapped here. You… must never live as I have.”
Her tone was desperately earnest.
‘Those words I hear from Mother—you must never live as I have…’
There was something about it that made one feel rather melancholy.
I wanted to protest vehemently, but I barely managed to swallow my words.
“The sorcerer who casts the ‘curse’ hasn’t arrived yet, so you still have time.”
Rosetta murmured thus, pointing to the heavy briefcase.
“You’re a clever child. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you? It will be uncomfortable, but bear with it for a little while.”
“But if we disappear….”
At my hesitation, Rosetta winked at me.
“Don’t worry about us. We’re planning to set fire to the Bedroom soon. Children panicking from a fire and escaping through a back passage… that could happen, couldn’t it?”
A nod.
I bit my lip firmly. Then I entered the briefcase.
At dawn.
Rosetta had successfully helped the children escape.
She led a cart through the main gate, but the inspection was merely perfunctory.
This was because she had swallowed a pill right before the Commander’s eyes.
“Disguise clothing and weapons. This mission will take quite some time.”
“Hmm, I see. You may pass.”
The mercenaries revered the Commander like a god.
Because of this, no one imagined that Rosetta and her team members had stopped taking the pills some time ago.
“My stomach feels terrible….”
Her mouth tasted bitter from vomiting up the pill and gastric acid together.
In any case, she rushed to the Nearby Village before daybreak and entrusted the children to the Orphanage.
‘This time it was a much better Orphanage, so that silver-haired little one must have been satisfied.’
“So… what about this mission.”
She furrowed her brow as she drove the carriage.
An infiltration mission at the Imperial Ball to kill ‘a certain man’.
For this reason, she had to dust off a very old identity.
‘The young lady of Baron Braum.’
Born as a bastard of the Baron’s household and abandoned at the Garbage Dump, it was a title she had never been called once.
Ah, when she was sold to the Mercenary Company to pay off Father’s gambling debts, she was at least valued as the Baron’s daughter.
“Sigh.”
Rosetta examined the documents containing the man’s personal information.
Her impression was surprisingly simple.
“…What kind of person has a build this massive?”
It seemed impossible to find a corpse similar to this one.
Moreover, since he was a nobleman of incomparably higher status than anyone she’d dealt with before, she had to be even more cautious.
If she carelessly presented a fake corpse, not only Rosetta but also her comrades who trusted and followed her could be put in danger.
Perhaps she would actually have to kill him.
It was fortunate that this was a solo mission. Only her own hands would be stained.
‘…His eyes are purple.’
Suddenly, from the crudely drawn portrait, she discovered the one thing that stood out.
‘Now that I think about it, that crybaby’s eyes were purple too.’
A memory from childhood now so faint it was almost gone.
“Th-thank you for helping me find medicinal herbs.”
“Since you understand, don’t get tears on my back.”
“Next time… you absolutely have to come play at my house. I’ll send an adult soon….”
“Since you understand, don’t get snot on… hey!”
The boy she had met briefly back then came to mind, but she quickly shook off the thought.
‘I don’t even remember his face anymore… and besides, that boy was a commoner anyway.’
She had no desire to indulge in idle thoughts.
Above all, this mission was far too important to allow any emotional involvement whatsoever.
Because….
“Rosetta. Don’t you think it’s about time you took your graduation exam?”
This was her final mission.
Last night, the Commander had called Rosetta and told her.
“You’ve grown into quite a useful child by now, so it’s time you went out into the world.”
“…!”
“Of course, befitting a graduation exam, it will be a very long and difficult mission. Will you still try?”
Rosetta was shocked, but she had no reason to refuse.
“I will do it. Then the keepsake box too…!”
“Of course. Here, take the key first.”
“…!”
The golden key that fell into her hands.
Remembering it, Rosetta squeaked the carriage to a halt and rummaged through her belongings.
‘…Huh? Where is it?’
The pocket containing the key was gone.
Then I spotted it lying in the luggage compartment.
‘Did I leave it there?’
The key pouch lay near the briefcase where the silver-haired child had hidden.
“It must have fallen when I said goodbye to the little one earlier.”
I recalled that round head, clinging so desperately to my embrace that it wouldn’t let go.
In any case, I was grateful not to have lost it.
Rosetta withdrew the key and wove a leather cord through it, fashioning it into a necklace.
“….”
Half of what I had yearned for more desperately than life itself now rested in my hands.
Thinking that the realization of my goal was within reach, my heart grew anxious in a way I had never experienced before.
‘Once I’m free from the Mercenary Company….’
I would reclaim Mother’s keepsake box as well.
‘And I’ll find a way to break the curse on the children.’
I would rescue my comrades—those who were like sisters to me—from the Mercenary Company.
That was one of Rosetta’s other life goals.
The few graduates who had come before had all apparently failed, leaving no word; but I would succeed.
‘So I cannot fail this mission.’
The finish line was within sight.
Though I had no right to apologize to the target who would be sacrificed….
‘I’ll be the one going to hell.’
Her blue eyes gleamed with an icy light.
And behind such a mother, Rubian hid behind a tree and secretly followed.
* * *
Back to the present.
“…Yes, so that’s what happened.”
After hearing the entire story, Kalid exhaled a grave sigh.
Now I understood why Rubian had wept the moment she saw me.
‘It’s not sadness—it’s frustration.’
I patted her gently in comfort.
‘There’s nothing Rubian can do for the Duchess….’
“…I think it’s best we return to reality soon.”
I didn’t want to see Rubian distressed any longer.
As I carefully tidied her disheveled silver hair, Rubian’s expression seemed to brighten considerably.
“So… now that we have the key in hand, all that’s left is to execute the plan ‘well.'”
I stared at the diary Rubian offered as if I meant to devour it.
The banquet seemed to be drawing to a close.
The cheerful music had grown subdued.
“I’m still bothered by this ‘first meeting’ part. The two of them did meet at that ballroom today, right?”
“Yes. It’s definitely today.”
For a moment, I wondered what target Rosetta had been assigned to assassinate—but I quickly dismissed the thought.
‘Mother would never actually harm anyone anyway.’
“But about that….”
It was precisely when Kalid began to speak carefully.
Crackle!
A plump squirrel scurried up onto Kalid’s head.
“…!”
Both Kalid and I pressed our ears to the ground almost simultaneously.
Thud, thud.
I sensed someone’s heavy footsteps approaching.
“Kalid.”
When I extended my hand, Kalid grasped it and transferred his mana to me.
Without hesitation, I cast a concealment spell to mask our presence.
Thud, thud.
‘Those footsteps sound oddly familiar somehow.’
I carefully poked my head out from the brush.
My blue eyes widened instantly.
‘Father?!’

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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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