The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 298

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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 24
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Darkness descended.
‘It feels as though I’ve stepped into another world entirely.’
Rosetta sat upon the bed, her gaze sweeping quietly across the room.
The Villa was silent—situated far from the building where the banquet unfolded.
[ Mission Delayed ]
I had discreetly sent an urgent letter to the Commander. Meeting with a messenger disguised as a day laborer at the Banquet Hall proved no difficult feat.
Since the ambush had failed, this mission would inevitably stretch into a prolonged affair.
The messenger received the letter from me and handed over a single pill.
“The Master watches over you.”
That hollow utterance likely meant there were watchers everywhere, so I shouldn’t do anything reckless.
Of course, I vomited up the pill I’d swallowed entirely once I was alone.
‘I won’t harm anyone while robbed of my own will.’
Regardless, the infiltration had succeeded.
‘Though something feels… rather strange now.’
Come to think of it, I seemed to have been bewitched by something.
A fake romance, suddenly?
Why had such a novel idea occurred to me at precisely that moment?
In truth, it was a thought born from overhearing a conversation between Rubian and Kalid.
But the instant those two departed from this timeline, their existence faded swiftly from my mind.
“Where did I pick that up from…?”
I scratched my brow.
Either way, it mattered little.
The banquet would continue for roughly a week.
‘During that time, I must remain at this Villa and search for any openings.’
Even if I’d become something as absurd as his ‘fake lover.’
I had no intention of appearing at official gatherings anyway.
Once I killed Leviathan, I planned to stage my own death and make my exit.
‘So it’s best I don’t expose my face to the outside world as much as possible.’
After passing the graduation exam and escaping the Wall, I intended to leave the Empire and live elsewhere.
I ran my fingers through my own wavy, pink hair.
Since things had come to this… living like a chameleon, changing my appearance freely once I was out, would be rather amusing.
‘Perhaps I should try dyeing my hair?’
Forgetting the tedious past, being reborn anew with each passing day.
Well, that’s a matter for later.
Splash.
I poured the medicine prescribed by the Physician into a vase.
‘If I want to avoid appearing at official events, claiming illness is the best excuse.’
My broken fingers screamed as though crying out, but this level of pain was bearable.
“…Why is this place so spacious anyway?”
She gazed around the assigned bedroom with fresh eyes.
I had never stayed in a room this vast before.
The plush bed, the texture of the quilts beneath my fingertips—everything felt foreign. Even the sensation of being truly satiated after a full meal was entirely new.
Sitting awkwardly at the foot of the bed, I exhaled a long sigh.
“This place is truly strange….”
Perhaps it was the absence of the mask I always wore. Or perhaps this sanctuary was simply too comfortable.
My sense of purpose blurred, and my vigilance threatened to crumble away.
I let my body collapse backward.
‘I should rest now.’
Midnight had long since passed.
The hour when the breath of the living surrenders to the god of death.
“Why on earth….”
Is she sleeping here?
Leviathan frowned, gazing down at the woman asleep on the floor beside the bed.
Despite the expansive mattress—large enough for two adults to sprawl across—she lay curled up on the bare floor, a sight he found incomprehensible.
“…This won’t do.”
Then he noticed beads of cold sweat glistening on her forehead.
‘Did the medicine not work properly?’
He clicked his tongue and, with utmost care, lifted Rosetta into his arms and carried her to the bed.
Lost in pain-induced slumber, she did not stir.
He set the incense burner on the table.
He had brought along a medicinal fragrance with analgesic properties, just in case.
“….”
Pale moonlight filtered through in gossamer threads.
As Leviathan carefully drew the blanket over her, he found himself entranced, gazing down at her face.
Flawless, luminous skin. Long, luxuriant lashes. Lips full and tinged with crimson.
His gaze traced the soft curves I lacked, lingering in the delicate contours.
“….”
Then he discovered something near her neck.
‘This is….’
A small key threaded on a worn leather cord.
Violent waves surged through Leviathan’s violet irises.
‘So it was you after all….’
It was the key the girl had once shown him in secret.
“My mother gave this to me! She said I could open the box later if I wanted!”
“I wish…my mother could give me gifts too, but she’s ill. Sniff.”
“….”
His dark hair brushed against Rosetta’s forehead, nearly touching.
His knuckles whitened as he clenched the sheets, blue veins prominent across the back of his hand.
“At last… you’ve come.”
A deep, resonant voice flowed forth.
“To my home.”
It didn’t matter how you came to stand before me again.
I had finally met you once more.
To soothe my loneliness.
That was enough.
* * *
Spin, spin, spin.
Wow, I didn’t know.
Time warps come with such cybernetic visual elements!
Whirl, whirl, whirl.
Spin, spin, spin.
The surroundings blazed with light.
A colossal spiral of luminescence flowed past Rubian’s sides.
Examining the spiral closely, its interior was a continuous sequence of countless scenes.
Like a film reel, or a zoetrope of sorts.
“Huh?”
There, Rubian even witnessed Mother and Father in their youthful days.
“Ah!”
Then it dawned on me.
‘So this is what Kalid meant by meeting again…!’
Rubian decided to seize the moment and peek into the two’s past.
Of course… seeing Rosetta’s upbringing had been far from ideal, leaving me momentarily speechless.
Yet watching the young Leviathan shed tears and snot with such abandon was its own peculiar joy.
‘Wait? It’s Grandmother Gloria…!’
Rubian saw her grandmother, whom she had only known from a portrait in Ballock’s room.
Rubian’s grandmother, Gloria Zebert, had contracted a grave illness after giving birth to Leviathan.
‘Oh dear.’
Of course, no one blamed the child. Everyone, including Ballock, loved and cherished Leviathan. Yet always, it was never quite as much as Gloria.
“Young Master, shh. You must be quiet. Gloria is sleeping….”
“Young Master, you cannot go out. Gloria might look for you….”
“Young Master, perhaps next time. Gloria’s condition isn’t very good right now….”
For Gloria’s sake… Gloria, Gloria….
‘Once, our household revolved entirely around Gloria.’
Even as a child, there was no exception to that rule.
“So surely our Young Master can endure this, yes?”
Of course.
“Yes!”
Leviathan was fine with it.
I could endure it all and swallow my pain.
I had long since decided that I needed to become someone who could accomplish anything on my own.
“I must grow stronger. I won’t become a child who burdens Mother.”
Make Mother smile. Then Father would praise me too.
Beneath ailing parents, a child inevitably learned to manage alone.
Mother’s words—that the only thing worth smiling about was seeing me—became a joyful curse that bound me. I vowed to become someone who could make my parents happy.
As Gloria’s illness deepened, Ballock clung desperately to his wife’s care, growing increasingly indifferent to his son.
So he never knew that his seven-year-old son had snuck away to find medicinal herbs to cure Mother’s illness.
It was when they were searching for a renowned physician in a city near Biltain.
“…You actually live in this Junkyard?”
“It’s not garbage—!”
At first, my ear was bitten.
He, who had lived as the young master of the Duke’s Mansion, cried like a king out of fear of the girl.
So the girl, with no other choice, soothed Leviathan.
“This is our home! You hopeless crybaby!”
“I-I’m sorry… I was careless…”
“What are you! Why did you come to our home!”
“I… I just heard from adults that there were really good medicines here… but I got lost…”
“Medicines?”
“Medicinal herbs! I wanted to give them to Mother…”
In truth, what Leviathan overheard was the poor quality “medicine” that circulated only in the Back Alley. But to a child’s ears, it sounded like a cure-all.
In any case, the girl listened to his entire story and, saying “I suppose I have no choice,” helped him search for medicinal herbs.
The countless obstacles they encountered in the process—thugs, stray dogs, wild beasts—…
“Get out of here! Scram! Shoo! Crybaby, run!”
The girl drove them all away.
‘…Like a hero.’
Leviathan gazed at her shimmering pink hair and thought just that.

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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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