The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 318

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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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Special Side Story, Chapter 2
* * *
Several days before the incident.
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Buaaah!”
Kalid blinked quietly.
‘What is this chaos?’
A memory from the future surfaced in my mind.
A burly young man being made to run circles in the Training Ground during the dead of winter….
That wasn’t this memory.
“Ack! You lot! No charging!”
“Uwgyaaaa!”
“Nom nom.”
“Baby? Ptooey! Ptooey! Hair, you’re not supposed to eat hair, you know?”
‘Ah, so this was it.’
Kalid pressed his forehead and exhaled in exasperation.
Two squirrels dangling from Rubian’s arms, just as I had seen in the future.
“Kaaaal, save meeeee….”
Indeed, exactly as witnessed.
Though.
“Pufufu. The twins must take after Lord Obron, they’re so spirited~”
…they weren’t my children, but someone else’s.
“They’re going to grow into quite the troublemakers.”
“Let me take them. At this rate, our young lady will collapse first~”
Rubian handed the babies she was holding over to Hazel.
The twins were children born recently to Obron, who had been the Deputy Commander of the Zebert Knight Order, after his marriage.
They were energetic. It wasn’t enough that they had torn through the entire Reception Room; their plump little bottoms rolled about in all directions.
“Babies! It’s time for magical soap bubbles!”
Rubian moved her mana and created transparent bubbles—pop, pop, pop!—floating through the air.
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Abu!”
Boing, boing, boing….
They were promptly stored away in the Playroom.
“Wow, this is really exhausting.”
Rubian collapsed onto the sofa, her energy completely drained. She wiped the drool from her silver hair in bewilderment.
“Why do they eat other people’s hair?! And I’m not even their father….”
“….”
“Hmm, wait. Was Father on the same level as the babies?”
“….”
“…Hello? Are you there? Anyone home?”
“Oh.”
Kalid’s mind snapped back into focus.
“Why have you been so quiet since earlier? Is something bothering you?”
“No, nothing at all.”
I thought you and I were going to have twins together….
I couldn’t possibly say that out loud.
Embarrassed by my own blunder, I simply answered by sitting down quietly beside Rubian.
Rubian rolled her eyes.
“Don’t tell me… was something off about how I was caring for the baby? Did I do something wrong?”
“No. Not at all.”
It’s not like I know anything about it anyway.
“The children seemed to adore you. But turn around for a moment.”
I gently turned Rubian’s shoulders, carefully combing through her tousled silver hair and retying it neatly. It had become second nature to me by now.
‘The baby wasn’t mine and Rubian’s after all.’
Recognizing that fact, I felt a peculiar emotion wash over me.
What is this feeling?
I tilted my chin slightly.
Could it be that I’m actually….
‘A bit relieved…?’
It was strange.
“But you didn’t even hold the baby once. Didn’t you?”
“Do I really need to?”
“Wow. You’re completely cold-hearted.”
For some reason, that assessment made sweat bead on the back of my neck.
Should I have held the baby? Was she disappointed?
In that moment, Rubian spun around and opened her arms wide.
“Then what about holding me?”
“Huh?”
“Is that… not necessary either?”
I let out a soft laugh and gently pulled her into my embrace.
“Not a chance.”
A sense of peace washed over me, dispelling every anxious thought.
Whenever her small, soft form nestled against me, I felt a completeness like no other. With just this warmth and weight, I needed nothing else in the world.
“Hehe. This is nice. So warm.”
“Do you want something to eat? You barely had lunch while watching the children.”
“I’ll eat after seeing the babies off. Besides, Obron will probably be leaving soon anyway, right? He said there wasn’t much to discuss with Father. Wow! Senior taking parental leave!”
“…Tsk, why did he have to bring the child to the Main Fortress in the first place.”
“Why? The baby’s adorable. Don’t you think so?”
I gazed down at Rubian looking up at me and replied indifferently.
“In my eyes, you were always the cutest.”
“Oh my goodness.”
A shocking truth.
Someone who actually beat a newborn baby in cuteness.
Of course, limited to a fiancé with thick rose-tinted glasses.
“You really are something~”
I patted Kalid’s firm chest, indulging myself, then glanced at him cautiously.
“…But you know, Kalid. I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while.”
Kalid’s expression turned genuinely hurt.
“You’ve been wanting to ask for a while, so why ask now? You’re making me feel lonely.”
“Well….”
“Don’t overthink it. Just tell me right away from now on.”
“Okay, got it! So… what’s your plan for having children?”
“Cough.”
He choked even though he hadn’t been drinking anything.
“How can you just ask something like that so casually….”
“You said not to overthink and just speak.”
“Even so, that’s not it. You’re asking like it’s someone else’s business…!”
“I wouldn’t ask other men something like that. It would be rude.”
That was fair. Kalid’s eyes darted around.
I stared at him intently.
Then, as if struck by a thought, his blue eyes trembled slightly.
“Why…? You don’t want to have a baby with me?”
“…Cough!”
Are you joking right now?
* * *
“…I do. Absolutely.”
“Oh?”
“Making a baby, that, I’ve been….”
How long have I been waiting for that….
Kalid burned so intensely he was nearly reduced to ash.
‘It was good up to that point.’
I lay sprawled on the sofa in my room, thinking.
The problem came next.
Kalid, who had been quietly retracing his own words, glanced at me and said this.
“But making one is one thing… I don’t think I really want to give birth to a baby with you.”
“Are you trash?”
The statement was cut off abruptly, leaving room for misunderstanding, but to clarify, it was this.
“I don’t see why we need a baby. Honestly, I prefer just having you. It’s enough, more than enough.”
“….”
“…Isn’t it the same for you? Do you really need something like a baby to be satisfied?”
“No, well. I’m satisfied enough just having you.”
“Right?”
“Mm.”
There was something oddly desperate in that expression.
So I glossed over it vaguely.
But honestly, I was a bit surprised that Kalid had gently refused the talk of a second child.
‘He worked so hard and even became a nobleman.’
Doesn’t he think about an heir?
Above all….
‘Honestly, seeing those twins made me even more curious.’
Little ones who look just like me and Kalid. When you talk about getting married, you naturally start imagining such things!
‘It felt like there was some other reason he hadn’t told me everything about….’
After that, he subtly avoided the subject, so I couldn’t dig any further.
“Well, we can talk about it again when he comes back!”
I stretched with a long groan, and my entire body felt refreshed.
I was currently on an extended leave from the Mage Tower, lounging around like a lazy bum at Northern Zebert Castle.
“Kalid’s not here, and I’m bored….”
Kalid was temporarily away from the Northern Region attending to his domain.
“Oh, right! I had plans with my brothers!”
Suddenly remembering the appointment, I sprang up and rushed off to the Training Ground.
‘Yeah, why overthink it? When Kalid comes back, I’ll just sit him down next to me and shake the truth out of him!’
Outside, the sun blazed brilliantly! The weather was gorgeous!
It was the height of summer!
* * *
A shocking truth, the second one.
People who catch colds in summer actually exist.
“Ugh, ugh, ugh…. I overdid it.”
I trembled and clutched the blanket tightly around myself.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Not really….”
“Let me see.”
Liam pressed his hand to my forehead. With his characteristic cold expression and glasses, he looked like a competent doctor.
“Doctor, is there any hope for me? Seriously, I feel like I’m going to drop dead at this rate.”
“…? That won’t happen, so don’t worry.”
“I’m serious. My head hurts, I’m cold, my stomach feels off, and my throat is so sore….”
“Typical cold symptoms. Mixed with a bit of —…. Hmm, according to my data, you fairy….”
“Cough, cough! I’m dying!”
“You’re not listening at all.”
“…? Or are you pretending not to hear because you’re worried I’ll make fun of how you talk?”
“…?!”
Liam turned back to look at Void, who was sitting far away staring at the wall with a shocked expression. He was like a ghost. How did he know?
‘Sigh. I was so startled this morning when my body wouldn’t move.’
This morning, when the two of them discovered me languishing in bed, they both turned deathly pale.
They hurriedly summoned Borbel for a medical examination, and only after seeing me drink the medicine did they finally calm down.
‘It’s fortunate that Kalid isn’t here.’
If that boy, who worried about my body even more than I did, had learned of this, he would have surely thrown a fit and turned the entire Northern Region upside down.
“Oh dear. My head… I really should have avoided going all the way to the Ice Lake.”
At that, Void, who had been sitting in contemplation, muttered dejectedly.
“I’m sorry, really…”
That was right. Void was the one who had started this whole mess.

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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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