The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 323

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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 7
When Kalid entered the Study.
Leviathan paused.
“You… did your memory return?”
“No.”
“Your expression is exactly the same though?”
The slightly pouty expression was no different from usual.
“…It’s nothing.”
He called himself her fiancé.
Yet why did he neglect her?
“So… what did you call me for?”
“Hmm.”
The man leaned back against his chair.
In truth, Kalid had asked nonchalantly, but he was somewhat tense.
This was the master of the Duchy itself.
The highest-ranking person he had ever met.
The man sat reclined in his Study chair.
His posture appeared loose and almost negligent, but true predators always wore their composure like the very air around them.
Surely, beneath that exterior lay tremendous power or ruthless schemes hidden away….
“Look here, puppet.”
It was indeed tremendous.
“…Yes?”
In several senses, that is….
Leviathan brazenly laughed and pulled out a strange ball of fur from his desk.
“Made from yarn. Twelve years old.”
“…Forgive me, but it looks like poorly twisted laundry,”
“Ah, I omitted the subject. Rubian made it.”
“It looks fluffy. I like it.”
“I think so too. A rabbit, you see. Isn’t it cute?”
Kalid tilted his head.
“A lion… isn’t it?”
“…This?”
Leviathan turned the ball of fur around in disbelief.
“Now that I think about it… why are there so many ears?”
He laughed helplessly.
“Ha, so you made a lion instead.”
Another ball of fur appeared on the desk. This time it was a rather well-made lion figurine.
“Well, there’s no way you’d make something different from Rubian.”
“….”
“Then what about this one?”
The Duke’s other drawer slid open with a soft creak.
His expression carried an unmistakable note of pride.
“Rubian’s Academy certificate of achievement. Age sixteen. And look—perfect attendance.”
“…I see.”
“Unfortunately, you didn’t receive one. You were too busy skipping classes and causing trouble. Best you managed was an academic excellence award, I believe?”
This place clearly valued diligence and integrity more highly. That was commendable.
The Duke’s eccentricities continued unabated.
“Look at this—a farm with animals, drawn by Rubian at age eleven. All the essential elements of abstract art are present. Quite different from your realistic style….”
“That family portrait… it looks like a copy. The one sitting on your desk right now, sir.”
“….”
Leviathan fixed Kalid with a sharp stare.
“You really don’t remember anything? How do you even know this?”
If I said intuition, would he accuse me of being presumptuous?
“…So why are you showing me all this?”
“Does nothing ring a bell?”
Kalid blinked. Now he understood what the Duke was doing.
He was making an effort to help me recover my memories. The Duke himself—a nobleman among nobles—was doing this personally.
The feeling was strange. Kalid gazed quietly at the miscellaneous items arranged on the desk.
Objects placed in pairs, side by side.
Looking at them, my lips suddenly moved of their own accord.
“…But.”
“Hmm?”
“Have you… been keeping the things I made all this time?”
Honestly, I had no memory of making anything, so it was possible he had fabricated them.
“Should I throw them away?”
The matter-of-fact reply made my heart flutter strangely.
Only then did the entire Study come into focus. Traces of the children were scattered throughout—everywhere I looked.
Rubian’s first crooked drawing, Void’s first poem, Liam’s first certificate, Kalid’s first swordsmanship record….
‘If what he says is true, then I… seem to have lived quite well here.’
Encountering traces of myself treated like an ordinary child stirred something peculiar within me.
I had always known it, in truth.
The Duchess, Old Master, both young lords—all of them.
Though each possessed a strong personality, none harbored malice.
They genuinely wished for me to recover my memories.
Retracing the memories they held of ‘Kalid.’
‘Can I… trust them?’
In truth, I wanted to trust them.
‘How did I end up here in the first place?’
Rubian… what memories do I share with that woman?
She made dolls, drew pictures, attended the Academy… so how did we end up engaged?
Kalid was curious about his past self for the first time.
He wanted to know what had happened.
“Ugh.”
“Kalid?”
In that moment, a sharp throb pulsed through his head.
But unfortunately, it wasn’t strong enough to bring back his memories.
“I… I’ll go check upstairs.”
He fled the Study like a man escaping.
And he didn’t hesitate any longer.
As he heightened his senses, his own mana became acutely perceptible—something that had been nagging at him since earlier.
And that mana…
seemed to be connected to somewhere.
“…”
A faint thrill coursed through him.
At the end of this blue thread, you must surely be waiting.
Kalid immediately made his way to Rubian’s Bedroom.
But that proved to be his misfortune.
He found her alone, sipping tea with some man who looked like a parasitic older brother…
The moment he saw that sight, all the emotions he’d carefully stacked up suddenly burst—
exploded.
“But what is that?”
“Hey now, if you say it like that…”
Kalid, standing at the doorway, hung his head.
“…I said something awful yesterday, and you didn’t even come find me.”
“Kalid?”
“Were you having fun with that man instead?”
Huh?
Rubian blinked her eyes.
‘What is this?’
The boy who’d been rough as sandpaper until yesterday—what sudden change of heart was this?
Kalid bit his lip and looked down at Rubian’s widened eyes.
“You said he was your fiancé.”
That you made dolls together, drew pictures together, attended the Academy together.
Somehow, something hot surged up his throat.
“Because I lost my memories… because I became someone who knows nothing…
“Kalid?! Are you… crying?”
“Are you abandoning me now?”
He staggered, covering his face with his large hands.
Rubian, startled, grabbed his forearm, and as if he’d been waiting for it, his firm hand caught hers.
“Don’t abandon me.”
“….”
“…Sister.”
Hup.
The eternal youngest had his mouth sealed shut.
* * *
For some reason, Kalid had grown noticeably fragile in just a single day.
Rubian decided to stay by his side to comfort him.
Licht shook his head as if he’d expected this all along, finished his tea, bid Rubian farewell, and returned to Ipson.
“…Hmm, what a shame.”
He left behind those cryptic words.
Rubian’s eyes rolled about in bewilderment.
Left alone together in the Reception Room, an inexplicable silence descended upon them.
Kalid sat gazing at me like a well-behaved puppy.
‘Does he not find me burdensome anymore?’
I thought that was fortunate.
But… wasn’t he staring a bit too intently? I felt like my face might burn through.
Unable to bear it any longer, I clapped my hands together.
“Oh, it’s lunchtime already! Shall we eat? Is there anything you’d like?”
“Well, I’m not particularly hungry….”
“Goodness. I ate breakfast hastily, and my stomach’s growling. Did you hear it?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Thank goodness!”
Rubian smiled brightly. Kalid quietly took in the sight of her lips curving upward with satisfaction.
The two of them moved to the Dining Room.
Somehow already prepared, an abundance of magnificent dishes lay spread before them—the likes of which I’d never seen or heard of before.
“Kalid, eat plenty.”
Rubian heaped all manner of food onto Kalid’s plate, which had gone rigid. She was like a sparrow bringing seeds to its nest.
“Come to think of it, you were always so busy looking after my meals that you couldn’t eat much yourself.”
“….”
“What are you doing? Eat quickly! It’ll get cold!”
“…Yes.”
Kalid forced the fork to move, stealing another glance at Rubian.
It was the most exquisite feast I’d ever laid eyes upon. Yet somehow, my gaze lingered more on the flutter of her eyelashes than on the food itself.
‘I was busy feeding that woman?’
I couldn’t quite imagine myself taking care of someone like that.
But on the other hand, it made sense.
‘Of course.’
She was so small.
‘Naturally I’d want to feed her more.’
Even now, I wished she’d take bigger, heartier bites of her food.
‘Small hands. Small mouth.’
This won’t do.
“Stop bringing me food. Why don’t you eat more carefully yourself?”
“Why? Oh, was I being a burden again?”
“No….”
Kalid hastily added to his words.
“It’s not that. If you keep giving me everything, there’s nothing left for you to eat.”
He spoke curtly as he began transferring food from his plate to Rubian’s.
At that moment, Rubian, who had been quietly watching, suddenly jumped to her feet.
“You!”
“…What?”
“D-did your memory come back?”
“…?”
“No… you’re picking out only the bell peppers and putting them on my plate. You even removed the roasted peppers from the sandwich just now….”
Was I?
Kalid compared his plate with Rubian’s and let out a soft chuckle.
At that familiar smile, Rubian’s heart suddenly raced.
“Whether it shows or not.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been carefully avoiding bell peppers and forking around them since earlier. Wouldn’t it be stupid not to notice?”
Rubian blinked.
‘Most people don’t notice.’
After working in society, I realized something: people care far less about others than you’d think.
‘Even among the Mage Tower researchers I eat with almost every day, most don’t know I dislike bell peppers.’
Kalid figured it out within five minutes of starting the meal.
It felt as though he was devoting all his attention to me.
‘Could this be a positive sign?’
But Mother had a hunch that Kalid would desperately want to recover his memories only if he stayed close to Rubian.
Mother’s words are always true….
‘But….’
Rubian pondered while holding her fork.
‘What about Kalid should I stimulate, how much, and in what way to make him desperately want to recover his memories?’
There was only one method that came to mind.

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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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