The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 30

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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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Chapter 30
Obron cleared his throat with a cough, then clapped his hands once with a stern expression.
“Well then! Training ends here for today!”
He was a good adjutant, covering for his superior’s slip-up.
I watched Obron’s retreating figure grow distant, then approached the shade of a tree at the edge of the Training Ground.
“Uncle. Why are you sleeping here?”
Snore, snore. A strikingly handsome man in slumber.
“Wake up!”
As I shook him awake, he cracked open one eye. Scattered documents lay nearby, half-read.
“Ah, I was working.”
“Liar. You were sleeping.”
Regardless of what I said, Uncle stretched languidly before sitting up properly.
“Done playing?”
“I wasn’t playing!”
That training had been grueling.
“Why are you doing work out here anyway? You have a perfectly good Study.”
“I can’t see well from there.”
“…?”
“Let’s go get some snacks.”
Uncle scooped me up effortlessly.
With good nutrition and diligent exercise, I’d grown considerably heavier than before. My height seemed to have increased too (though Void wore a puzzled expression), yet Uncle still lifted me with ease.
‘Does the Northern Region’s water suit me well?’
I felt myself growing sturdier with each passing day.
“Oh, I’m going on a tour of the Castle Walls tomorrow!”
“Is that really something to be so excited about?”
“Of course it is. I’ve been wanting to go!”
Uncle’s steady stride came to an abrupt halt. Our eyes met directly—his violet gaze piercing.
“You’ve been wanting to go? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Huh?”
“How long have you wanted to go? If you’d said something, I would’ve taken you, naturally.”
I pressed my lips together and blinked.
“Is that how it works?”
“Rubian, I told you.”
Uncle spoke as if sighing. He brushed back my disheveled hair.
“If there’s something you want or something you want to do, don’t hesitate—just tell me.”
“But I didn’t want to trouble you, Uncle…”
Besides, I’d thought of ways to manage it myself, so asking felt unnecessary.
“Why would your request be troubl—”
Uncle stopped mid-sentence.
His gaze, lowered and darkened, fixed upon me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Even in Iosia….”
“….”
“Was it the same when you lived in Iosia?”
I closed my mouth. My Guardian’s lips moved silently before he added after a long pause.
“You know, to your parents.”
“No, that’s not it.”
I awkwardly averted my gaze.
Ah, my lie was growing, stretching. My heart pricked sharply once more.
But it was half true.
My parents…. In other words, the King—I had never asked him for anything.
‘There was nothing I wanted to do there.’
And he had never wondered what I wanted to do either. Not even when I was very young….
‘Hm?’
A sudden dissonance struck me.
‘Come to think of it… what was it like when I was very young?’
My brow furrowed involuntarily. My body went rigid. Very young? When I was young?
“Rubian?”
For some reason, my memories felt disjointed.
I could recall individual scenes, but the connections between them felt strangely wrong. As if someone had forcibly constructed my memories and stitched them together.
“Rubian!”
“What?!”
I jerked my head up. My Guardian’s deeply flustered expression filled my vision.
“Don’t think about it. I’m sorry.”
My Guardian suddenly pulled me into an embrace. I lifted my head over his solid shoulder, blinking rapidly.
“Huh?”
What had I been thinking about just now?
“I made you remember something unpleasant. It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t his fault….
But somehow I lacked the energy to say more. So I simply buried my face in my Guardian’s shoulder. A warm, large hand stroking my back.
It was a sensation I somehow missed.
* * *
The next day, I went to tour the Castle Walls as promised.
“Wow! How magnificent.”
Endless gray stone walls stretched before me. They were so thick that even a demon beast’s claws would leave them unscathed.
“Don’t get too reckless. It’s dangerous.”
As the wind blew sharply, my cloak’s hood slipped right off.
Obron, standing behind me, replaced the hood on my head.
‘Oh?’
As I looked up at him, a spire suddenly caught my eye. Several towers were constructed at regular intervals along the Castle Walls.
“What is that bell at the very top of the tower?”
“The bell in the Watchtower? We ring it when magical beasts attack or something happens at the Castle Walls.”
“Oh, so it’s like an emergency alarm!”
“An alarm? Well, we do ring it in emergencies.”
Obron nodded in agreement.
“Are there bells all along the Castle Walls?”
“Yes. We never know where trouble might strike.”
Interesting.
I stroked my chin and chuckled softly.
‘Found it.’
The perfect location for the boundary stones. And the tool!
If I embedded a magical stone in that Watchtower bell, I could unfold a barrier across the entire Castle Walls. And that was just the beginning.
‘If an intruder triggers the barrier, it could automatically ring the bell to alert everyone!’
And if I linked it to my own magical power, I’d be the first to know, naturally.
That’s when a hand suddenly grabbed my armpit.
“Tsk, you’re interested in everything, aren’t you!”
The Old Master who lifted me up so suddenly… was my Grandfather. He’d been following me around since morning, and now he’d even come along on this Fortress tour.
“Eek!”
As my perspective rose higher, the blue sky seemed to draw closer. The wind blowing from this height felt remarkably refreshing.
I watched my Grandfather trudge along the Castle Walls and asked him a question.
“Grandfather, why did you come here anyway?”
“Hmph! I came to tighten discipline at the Fortress after all this time!”
My Grandfather pouted his lips.
“Ah, yes.”
“Tsk. I thought you’d gained some weight recently. But you’ve turned into skin and bones again overnight.”
My Grandfather glanced at me with dissatisfaction and muttered.
‘Uncle said the same thing this morning.’
Last night, Uncle and Void slept in my room again.
At this point, I couldn’t help but notice.
‘I must have sleepwalking.’
Otherwise, why would they watch over me all night?
I suddenly felt a chill of dread.
Since nothing particularly happened, they probably didn’t touch my body.
‘Oh no, am I saying nonsense in my sleep?’
Goosebumps suddenly erupted across my skin.
That’s when it happened.
Dong, dong, dong. The Watchtower bell rang frantically.
The piercing high-pitched sound made me cover my ears.
“Sir Obron! Sudden attack! A horde of magical beasts!”
“Tsk, I thought things would be quiet for a while since we swept them out a few days ago.”
A subordinate came running from a distance. Obron, who had been standing nearby, changed his expression and placed his hand on his waist.
“How many?”
“Thirty grizzlies, no—forty of them!”
“Tsk, Ballock.”
“I know.”
Grandfather’s eyes flashed sharp in an instant.
My body shrank slightly in the air that grew taut and cutting.
“There’s nothing to fear. They’re merely small fry.”
Grandfather spoke as he fastened his cloak firmly around himself.
“Yes.”
I wasn’t afraid. After all, I already knew that Grandfather and the Knight Order uncles were incredibly strong.
The aura of the magical beasts was drawing closer.
I felt a tingling surge of mana, but I didn’t let it show.
“Send the defensive knights. What about the report to the Main Fortress?”
“A messenger should have already left.”
“Hmm, very well.”
A subtle tension settled over everything.
Yet even this seemed routine in this place—no one panicked or fluttered about.
They moved with the precision of ingrained habit alone.
“Ah, it would be good to test those new arrowheads we’ve developed, sir.”
Obron said to Grandfather.
Grandfather, who had been heading toward the stairs leading down from the Castle Walls, nodded.
“Very well. Test them and report back.”
“Yes! Then let’s get Rubian to safety at once.”
“Go on, go.”
“Prepare the archery unit. Guide them so they don’t scatter, and….”
Obron’s voice issuing orders to the junior knights faded into the distance.
Grandfather held me tight and headed toward the stairs. The moment he took the first step.
Boom!
A tremendous roar shook heaven and earth.
“This can’t be right!”
I jerked my head up sharply.
The presence of the magical beasts had vanished?
“Child! Don’t look up!”
Grandfather’s rough hand pressed firmly against the back of my head. Because of that, I saw gray smoke rising from beyond the Castle Walls, but nothing else.
Grandfather let out a harsh, gravelly shout.
“What in blazes is happening! An explosion? Do you not know who is here right now!”
“Sir! Vice-commander!”
Someone came running in a frenzy.
“What on earth is going on?”
“I, I don’t…”
The adjutant gasped for breath, speaking rapidly.
“The demonic beasts have been completely annihilated!”
“What?”
It was exactly as I had anticipated.
“Someone suddenly appeared and swept them all away, they say…”
“Who on earth could it be?”
“I, I don’t know…”
In that instant, Grandfather’s aura grew chillingly cold. The distinctive presence of a swordmaster who had transcended the body’s limits began to leak out uncontrollably.
“An enemy? Could it be… a mage?”
His voice dripped with hostility, and my skin crawled.
“I cannot say for certain. However…”
The adjutant added urgently.
“They appeared to be a Young Boy…!”
This time, I could not help but lift my head.

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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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