The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 306

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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, Chapter 32
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“Ugh…. Dietrian.”
Leviathan irritably swept his hair back.
“When I return, I’ll have to purge the inspectors from the ground up.”
Before the hunting festival began, I’d heard that safety inspections—including landslide assessments—had been completed in advance. Yet this disaster still occurred.
‘Could it be… that the Emperor caught wind of this beforehand and orchestrated it?’
This Northern Ridge was originally meant to be where the Crown Prince would hunt.
That Crown Prince, intending to ambush the Emperor, was likely prowling the Southern Slope in secret at this very moment.
Had he come here as planned, the likelihood of being caught in this catastrophe would have been high.
Just as I was.
“…It feels like I’m carrying a rock that’s been heated in a furnace.”
Leviathan glanced back at the small child clinging to his back.
With that slight movement, the child’s body slipped downward like liquid.
“Ah, wait.”
A complaint came immediately.
“Is this your first time carrying a child?”
“Yeah. First time.”
“….”
“If you’re not confident….”
“I’m not confident, which is why I entrusted her to you.”
Leviathan let out a short groan.
The sensation of the sleeping child’s limp weight pressing entirely upon me was profoundly strange.
“Rosetta!”
In that critical moment, Leviathan rescued Rosetta, who held Rubian in her arms.
But ultimately, the three of them were swept away by the debris and tumbled down the slope.
That they survived was thanks to Leviathan.
Rosetta glanced at the man.
He was covered entirely in wounds from stubbornly cradling both her and the child as they rolled. Yet he hadn’t uttered a single groan…. It was as if she were witnessing a monster that transcended the physical form.
“Damn, where exactly are we?”
Leviathan muttered.
They were in a disaster zone.
Large boulders and fallen trees lay scattered chaotically, making it difficult to find a path.
But the greater problem was.
“Look at the child’s complexion. She’s flushed like a stone baked in sunlight.”
“…Her fever is severe.”
The child on my back was in critical condition.
“Why was she even there in the first place?”
“She seems to have followed me.”
“What?”
“In truth, this child isn’t the Maid’s daughter. She was brought in by the Commander.”
“….”
“I helped her escape.”
Rosetta spoke while hurriedly searching the surrounding cave.
Leviathan adjusted his hold on the child, cradling her properly in his arms.
The child’s complexion was pallid.
The weight pressing against my arms was impossibly light, her body temperature burning hot yet somehow cold….
An inexplicable chill ran down the back of my neck.
I found a clean section of my cloak and scrubbed away the dirt caking the child’s face.
“There’s another cave over there. If we move quickly—are you trying to scrape the skin off the child?”
“No, I didn’t realize she was so fragile.”
I hadn’t applied any real force, yet her pale skin had flushed crimson beneath my touch.
In the oddly tense atmosphere, the two of us began moving forward.
Leviathan regarded Rosetta intently.
“But you—your condition seems….”
Something felt different from moments before.
“Ah, the medicine’s effects have worn off.”
Rosetta murmured absently.
For some reason, her mind felt remarkably clear.
Perhaps it was the shock of such a severe physical trauma.
Or perhaps—her brainwashing had shattered because there was something she desperately wished to protect.
“Carefully.”
The two of them laid the child down in a spot sheltered from the rain.
Leviathan gathered kindling and wet wood from within the cave, somehow managing to coax a fire to life.
“Her fever is raging. What do we do? Her hands and feet are so cold….”
“Let her lie down here for now.”
Leviathan removed his hunting coat and spread it across the ground.
Thanks to the thick cloak, the garments beneath remained relatively dry.
Rosetta also removed her wet clothes and examined Rubian in the lightest attire possible.
Watching the cold sweat beading on the child’s forehead, I couldn’t understand why I felt so anxious.
“With the child ill, we can’t move around…. We’ll have to wait for rescue.”
“Do you have any medicine? A fever reducer of some kind?”
“I have hemostatic agents, painkillers, thread and needles for stitching wounds—can we use those?”
“You want to stitch up the child’s body right now?”
“And what medicine do you have?”
“Poison, aphrodisiacs, explosives.”
“…That’s quite the collection.”
Both of us had remarkably meager supplies.
Rosetta sighed.
We had no choice but to dilute Leviathan’s painkiller and administer it to her.
A small throat bobbed as the child swallowed, and both of them visibly exhaled in relief.
“She’s having a nightmare.”
The child stirred restlessly, murmuring something through small lips, and the two leaned in to listen.
“Mother, Father… no fighting, please….”
“….”
“If you fight… I can’t get #%@ and the wedding $@#$ ….”
“What is she saying?”
“…I have no idea.”
Mumbling incoherently.
Her fevered mutterings were too unclear to make out the details, but it was evident she kept calling for Mother and Father.
“Actually, I first met this child in the Forest. She was searching for her Mother and Father who had abandoned her.”
“Seems she ran into some truly hopeless parents as well.”
“They were definitely worthless parents. So small and adorable, yet they couldn’t even care for her properly.”
“Family problems usually stem from the father’s side in most cases.”
“If I ever meet them, I might just assassinate them.”
“….”
“….”
It was strange.
I was clearly blaming this child’s terrible parents, so why….
Did the back of my neck prickle so uncomfortably?
“So, Rosetta.”
Leviathan tossed a piece of wood into the campfire with a soft thud.
“About what we were discussing earlier.”
“Let me go check on things outside.”
Rosetta stood up abruptly.
Just then, Rubian, who had been sleeping soundly, rolled over and grabbed the hem of Rosetta’s garment.
“Heeheehee. So, dark, cold….”
“The child is cold.”
“….”
In the end, Rosetta had no choice but to sit back down awkwardly.
After gently soothing her, the child fell back into sleep. One hand gripping Leviathan’s garment, the other clutching Rosetta’s.
“….”
“….”
…They seemed like parents who had failed her.
Yet when the child was sick, had they always been there beside her like this?
In any case, running away wouldn’t solve anything.
“Don’t avoid it. Avoidance won’t change anything.”
“….”
“My offer still stands. Destroy the Mercenary Company. And come to me.”
Violet eyes flickered with searing flames.
“Please… let me help you.”
Rosetta stared at that flame in silence for quite some time.
After a moment, she opened her mouth.
“…The Commander used to lock disobedient children in the Punishment Chamber. And he constantly brainwashed us so we couldn’t go against him.”
“…”
“If you spend time there from age seven until now… the Commander truly feels like a god.”
A faint tremor was evident beneath her calm voice.
“Of course, I struggled within those walls and tried to defy the Commander at times, but destroying the Mercenary Company or leaving on my own… those were things I couldn’t even imagine doing by my standards.”
“So you only waited for the Commander to release you?”
“…”
“Rosetta.”
Leviathan opened his mouth with extreme care.
“The women who left the Mercenary Company… that is, your four comrades who passed the ‘graduation exam’.”
“…”
“…were all killed by the Commander not long after they left.”
Crack!
The sound of firewood splitting echoed through the Cave.
Rosetta took a long, deep breath with her eyes closed.
“…I see.”
It was a story she was hearing for the first time, yet strangely, it didn’t come as a great shock.
Perhaps she had always vaguely sensed that such a thing was possible.
The Commander was that kind of person, after all.
He would never carelessly release someone who could serve as evidence of an illegal Mercenary Company.
He merely needed to keep the mercenaries alive by sustaining false hope, preventing them from taking their own lives.
“I wanted to search this entire world to find a way to break the curse… That’s why I wanted to save those girls. But perhaps the best I could manage was recovering that memorial box.”
Rosetta laughed bitterly.
Leviathan clenched his fists tightly.
He had to be careful not to recklessly embrace those trembling shoulders.
“The memorial box… how did you end up losing it?”

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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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