The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 299

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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 25
By now, Leviathan lay sprawled across the garbage dump, a small medicinal herb clutched in his hand.
It was something the pink-haired girl had just retrieved, scrambling down the treacherous slope like a monkey.
He had wept so much up there, terrified she might fall to her death.
Leviathan’s eyes were swollen and puffy from crying.
“…I’ve never wandered around like this with anyone before.”
“Wow. You really are a lonely kid.”
“…Am I? Am I really lonely?”
“You’re always alone, aren’t you? That makes you lonely, doesn’t it? Though honestly, I’m not sure myself!”
That was when Leviathan finally understood.
When I saw Mother’s sickly form and Father’s hunched back before that enormous bed, what I felt was… loneliness.
I finally learned the name of the emotion that had been bundled into a dark mass within me, yet somehow tears still came.
Loneliness.
How could such a word exist that makes one feel as though their entire body might crumble away?
“Don’t worry.”
Just then, the pink-haired girl lying beside me turned her head and smiled softly.
“I’m lonely too.”
Ah….
I understood once more.
When loneliness meets loneliness, that loneliness melts away.
But then… if I’m separated from you?
I’m certain I’ll become lonely again.
“…Can I really take this herb? It looks incredibly rare.”
“Yeah, you whiny little fish.”
“I’m not a fish… Thank you. You needed this too.”
The pink-haired girl and I had much in common.
She also said she was caring for a sick Mother.
“It’s fine. I can just dig up more herbs if I find them again! Now come on, get up. You’re not planning to sleep at my house without being invited, are you?”
My ankle throbbed from the unprecedented exertion. In the end, I had to be carried down from the garbage dump on the pink-haired girl’s back.
“Th-thank you for helping me find the herb.”
“I know, so don’t get tears on my back.”
“Next time… you have to come visit my house. I’ll send an adult soon….”
“I know, so don’t get snot on—— Hey!”
I burned the image of the pink-haired girl’s hair into my eyes.
So I would never forget. So I could recognize her instantly, anywhere, anytime.
“Really? We’re promising to meet again and play?”
“Why are you making such a big deal about seeing each other again?”
“You said you’re lonely too.”
“….”
“Being together like this… it feels like loneliness melts away like snow. Doesn’t it?”
“What, a bit. Is it because of body heat?”
“Maybe!”
The young boy made a decision.
Once I cure Mother’s illness with this medicinal herb, I’ll throw a tantrum for the first time in my life.
I’ll invite the pink-haired girl to our house… and ask them to let me play with her more happily.
‘This time, I’ll make you happy.’
“But are you really a commoner? The way you act is just like a young master.”
“No. It’s just… really, just an ordinary household.”
Since Leviathan had heard countless times that he mustn’t reveal his status carelessly outside, he concealed his identity for now.
“Oh! I need to give Mother the bread!”
“Then, shall we part ways here? I can walk now.”
Even in that final moment of parting.
The young boy waved his arms enthusiastically toward the pink-haired girl as she fluttered away.
“Young Master! Oh dear! Young Master! You were here!”
The moment we parted, a vast loneliness and solitude rushed in, but it was alright.
For the young boy now knew how to melt this icy loneliness.
“I’ll come get you soon.”
However, unfortunately, that resolve was never fulfilled for a very long time, because Gloria Zebert breathed her last that very day.
‘…Sniff.’
Having glimpsed this brief past, Rubian pouted her lips.
So that was the end of it.
‘Mother’s mother also passed away not long after… and when Mother was dragged away to the Braum Barony, they missed each other.’
Rosetta endured harsh times in the Mercenary Company afterward. There would have been no time to dwell on childhood memories.
‘Father continued searching for Mother ever since that day.’
What dominated the past Leviathan was a relentless ennui.
Having to let go of the first person who opened his heart forever, he must have been devastated beyond measure.
To the point where everything in life became meaningless and joyless.
‘Father, you can do it…!’
Rubian discovered Leviathan keeping vigil beside the sleeping Rosetta in the gap between the spiral columns.
It seemed to be how they looked right after we left.
“Whatever your identity is, it doesn’t matter. I will never let you go again from now on.”
His murmured words were barely audible.
But Rubian saw Leviathan’s eyes gleaming more fiercely than ever before.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the very moment Rubian and Kalid were excitedly traveling through the past.
At the Zebert Duchy.
“The kids just popped like well-roasted popcorn! Right before my eyes!”
Ballock slammed the table.
“Running away from home? Our youngest little runt… running away from home!”
He buried his face in his forearms and wept bitterly.
The vivid image of my granddaughter vanishing in a flash, hand-in-hand with Kalid, remained etched in my mind.
“Have I been nagging too much all this time? Or was it too obvious when I recommended that novel about the protagonist working in isolation?”
“….”
“Oh no!”
“What is it now?”
“When we were walking… deliberately positioning myself between those two… I think they noticed!”
“You’ve certainly interfered in quite a variety of ways.”
Leviathan muttered, his role as the Duke and father of the three children evident in his tone.
“That’s right…! Why are they fighting like that! In front of the children!”
Ballock patted Leviathan’s back encouragingly, slap after slap.
“I told you if you’re going to fight, do it somewhere out of sight!”
“That hurts.”
“Oh dear! Oh dear!”
“I didn’t intend for it to happen this way… It’s been so long since I’ve fought with Rose. I suppose I was quite flustered myself…”
Leviathan muttered listlessly.
Though he had initially intended to hide it from the children, the prolonged cold war had inevitably made it obvious.
“And now they’ve run away from home, of all things.”
At first, I thought it was just a trip, but no one knew where the two of them had gone.
Thus, gradually, the interpretation shifted toward “running away.”
The logic was that, unable to freely pursue romance as it was, they chose to run away due to the gloomy atmosphere at home.
It was a distinctly Ballock-like interpretation.
However, since he was the last to see the two of them, I couldn’t simply deny it.
“Sigh.”
Leviathan gazed at the empty space in the Reception Room.
Rosetta remained barricaded in the West Annex, refusing any communication. She didn’t seem to know yet that Rubian and Kalid had disappeared.
“In any case, we need to find out where the children have gone as quickly as possible.”
“Right. Let’s inform Rose quickly and properly search for the children…”
“No, that comes later.”
“You mad fool?”
“If Rosetta finds out, she’ll go search for them herself.”
“You’re planning to confine Rose!”
At those words, Leviathan’s eyes turned cold in an instant.
“Confine her, you say.”
The sound of grinding teeth echoed sharply.
“I would never do such a thing.”
Indeed. Even now, the gates of the Duke’s Residence stood wide open.
Rather than that.
‘Why is she really like that? Just because Rose said she’d go to Biltain doesn’t mean she can find the key with 100% certainty. Why is she being so sensitive about it?’
And last night, she was caught trying to secretly dispose of the heirloom box.
It was as if Rosetta desperately hoped that the heirloom box would never be opened.
“Why on earth did you dig up something that looks like a memorial box? Tsk.”
“No, I was just trying to pull out a cute scarecrow….”
Ballock was about to add something when it happened.
An Attendant came rushing in frantically.
“M, Master!”
“What is it?”
“T, the Emperor has arrived!”
“…What?”
“He was returning from inspecting the Capital….”
Before the Attendant could finish speaking, someone appeared in a gust of wind.
“Is it true that the Princess has gone missing?”
It was the Emperor, his lemon-blonde hair tied to one side, dressed in formal traveling attire.
“Your Majesty?”
He waved his hand dismissively at those hurrying to pay their respects.
The Emperor surveyed the atmosphere of the Inner Chamber and his expression grew grave.
“My, it seems to be true. The Princess is our Empire’s sole Mage Tower Master and Grand Mage… When exactly did she disappear? Have the Knights been dispatched? What is the search status? Is there no note left for her uncle?”
At his rapid-fire questions, Leviathan furrowed his brow in exasperation.
“What exactly… are you doing here?”

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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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