The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 317

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Special Side Story, Chapter 1
Thump, thump.
Kalid walked down the corridor.
Before long, the familiar door to the bedroom came into view.
As he stepped inside, the pristine white bedsheets lay in disarray—far from their usual immaculate state.
The room was silent. Not even the presence of servants could be felt.
In the stillness, soft breathing could be heard—delicate and rhythmic.
The moment he recognized whose breath it was, his shoulders went rigid.
“Mmm.”
Sensing his presence, the sleeping figure stirred.
The sheets slipped away with a whisper, revealing smooth, bare shoulders in their entirety.
‘Wait, wait just a moment.’
Kalid froze as though struck by an arrow, his entire body stiffening.
“Kalid…? You’re back already?”
Her voice emerged thick and drowsy.
“Ah, I… I can’t move at all…”
The woman lying on her back, facing away, flailed only her arms helplessly.
Because of this, the sheets slipped further, exposing her white back completely.
‘No, no, seriously—timeout.’
Kalid’s eyes spun in circles.
‘Right now, is she…?’
Could she possibly be completely undressed?
And more than that.
Those persistent marks etched across her smooth back…
The moment understanding dawned, it felt as though molten lava had been poured over his head. His jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached.
‘Insane time-warp device.’
He’d asked it to show him a future where he and Rubian married safely…
‘Who asked to see a scene like this?’
He’d thought it would be something like entering the wedding hall hand in hand.
He never imagined such a sudden development…
“I don’t want breakfast. I just… want to sleep. Could you cover me with the blanket…?”
Rubian murmured in a slightly hoarse voice.
Kalid, bewildered yet moving by instinct, squeezed his eyes shut and began to move.
Pushing his physical senses to their absolute limit, he carefully wrapped the blanket around her, taking meticulous care not to let his hands touch her bare skin.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
A single cocoon lay upon the bed.
Kalid barely cracked his eyes open and released a deep sigh.
The sleeping profile beside him came into view. She looked somewhat haggard—as though her very soul had been drained away.
‘You madman.’
Just how much had he tormented her?
‘Does he have no self-control?’
Or perhaps… had he been so entranced that he forgot all restraint?
‘I’m not some beast.’
He splashed cold water on his face, cursing his future self with relish.
Thud, thud.
Then, he sensed footsteps from outside.
It was likely the sound of this timeline’s version of himself returning.
Kalid hastily mobilized his mana. The stimulation had been too intense; he had no intention of lingering in this timeline any longer.
Thus, click.
When the “future” Kalid opened the Bedroom door,
“…”
the room was empty.
He, loosely draped in a robe, set down the breakfast tray on the table.
A large cocoon lay neatly on the bed.
A faint, deflating laugh escaped him.
Ah, was it around this time?
A hazy memory intruded. Well, it hardly mattered now.
“Rubian, I’m back.”
“Mmm…”
Smack, smack, smack.
Kalid pressed his lips relentlessly against her rounded shoulders.
Beautiful yet mischievous fingers burrowed without hesitation beneath the blankets. Her body trembled, remembering last night’s fervor, yet even that was endearing.
“Let’s eat something.”
“…I’m sleeping, I’m telling youuuu…”
“Yes, eat first, then sleep. You’ve grown thin again.”
Rubian suddenly felt a surge of emotion.
“If I eat, then again…! Again!”
“Again… what?”
That fox-like pretense of ignorance—how infuriating it was.
Rubian glared at the radiant, strikingly handsome face, her emotions overwhelming her.
“I’m going to return you…!”
Kalid chuckled against Rubian’s nape as she pouted, kissing her softly.
“Sorry. I didn’t know I lacked so much self-control either. But you were the one clinging to me at dawn,”
“Let’s cut ties for a while. It seems harmful to my health, you.”
“No, that won’t do. Look how far I’ve come for this.”
“Ah, true enough.”
Rubian murmured knowingly.
“You held an engagement party with me and nearly couldn’t get married.”
In that instant, Kalid’s eyes transformed.
“Now that I think about it, I wonder how all those things happened in the first place.”
“….”
“No, we even set the wedding date, and now my husband has amnesia~”
Rubian sighed. The more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and her lament continued.
“Ugh… telling me not to touch his body, not to marry him, blah blah blah… oof.”
Kalid, looking flustered, kissed Rubian’s lips.
“Please. Let’s forget such terrible memories.”
“Well? Unlike you, I have a good memory… Hey, stop kissing me!”
“What else would I do but kiss my wife?”
Kalid, having regained his composure, sat diagonally on the edge of the bed, pulled Rubian into his arms, and began earnestly teasing her.
“Mmm. Let’s really cut ties for just one day. My wish. Or even just thirty minutes….”
“No, I said that won’t work.”
He smiled languidly and rubbed the wedding ring on Rubian’s finger.
“If I’ve taken you as my wife, I must take responsibility to the end, Rubian. Did you forget your marriage vows?”
“Hmph. Back then, when I said I’d cut ties, you’d pout so cutely….”
“That was when I was an ignorant fool.”
“Siiigh….”
Kalid fell silent for a moment, then asked carefully.
“…So, am I not cute to you anymore?”
Rubian glanced at Kalid with fresh eyes.
Though she pretended to dislike it, Rubian truly enjoyed sharing body heat with him like this.
She wrapped her arms around Kalid’s neck and whispered.
“You’re absolutely adorable….”
The daily life of a happy newlywed couple.
* * *
‘My heart almost burst.’
Meanwhile, the current Kalid—the young fool—used the time-warp device to move to the next scene.
Honestly, he had planned to end the time-warp right there, but perhaps because he was so startled by the previous scene.
He accidentally jumped to yet another point in the future.
There, Kalid saw something.
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Squeak!”
Two squirrels clinging to Rubian.
“Baby? Ptooey! Ptooey! Hair, you’re not supposed to eat hair, okay?”
Though he had only glimpsed it through the window.
‘What in the world.’
He had inadvertently spoiled his own future…?
Kalid returned to reality, engulfed in confusion.
It had been an incredibly stimulating journey.
Perhaps because of that.
He experienced some aftereffects from this time-warp journey….
“Kalid!”
Every time Rubian nestled against me or sought physical affection.
“…Wait. Rubian.”
“Ugh! What is this iron wall?!”
“I’m… in a rather difficult situation right now.”
Visions of the future surfaced, leaving my body burning with residual heat.
“So… I’m just running very hot…”
“But it’s a blizzard outside?”
“I’m in a heatwave.”
“…?”
“I’m going to the Training Ground… to run it off.”
I turned the Training Ground into a blur of motion, my entire body flushed crimson, destroying roughly five thousand straw dummies in my frenzy.
But then again.
They say time heals all wounds.
As my body grew more defined with each passing day, the memory itself began to fade incrementally.
Above all, what Rubian said sharpened my focus.
“You can’t be certain that the future you witnessed through the time-warp device will definitely come to pass, can you?”
“…What?”
“Think about it… If we saw a future where you and I share coffee together, but right now I suddenly change my mind and order tea instead… then that coffee-sharing future never happens, right?”
“…”
“In other words, the future is just a chaotic mass of variables that can shift with the smallest trigger.”
“…”
“So viewing the future through a time-warp device is pretty meaningless. It just wastes mana for nothing.”
“Ah.”
“…Um, but why are you suddenly asking about this?”
“…It’s… nothing.”
I simply decided to treat it as having had a vivid, perverted dream.
And instead of relying on that uncertain future, I resolved to make a promise to keep Rubian by my side for the rest of my life as soon as possible.
And so, on a clear and beautiful day.
Kalid proposed to Rubian, my heart threatening to burst from my chest.
“Yes!”
The radiant smile Rubian showed me in that moment was truly…
A blissful instant that would never come twice in this world.
And that autumn, the two of us held a party to commemorate our engagement.
Though Rubian’s intention was for a modest engagement celebration, it ballooned into an enormous affair thanks to Rosetta and Ballock’s tendency to add more and more.
Following Rosetta’s opinion that the wedding required sufficient preparation time, we promised to hold it the following autumn. From Rubian’s perspective, there was much to prepare if we were to invite dignitaries from the Mage Kingdom all the way to the Casalia Kingdom.
From my perspective, it simply sounded like an excuse from a mother who wanted to hold her daughter a little longer.
Time flowed peacefully and serenely.
I had nearly stopped recalling those future visions.
In truth, the ‘present’ I shared with Rubian was so overwhelmingly sweet and stimulating in every way that the memories naturally faded from my mind.
It was a relief.
That I had forgotten that memory.
Of course….
“Are you alright?”
“….”
“…Kalid? Why are your eyes so wide?”
“Don’t touch my body.”
“….”
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”
Beyond that, the real problem was that I had forgotten far too much.
So what had happened to him was….

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————