The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 57

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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 57
Leviathan furrowed his brow deeply, his arms crossed.
Every night, the voice of the one he yearned for so achingly echoed in his mind like a promise.
“Levi! I haven’t changed anything, have I?”
It was one of the phrases he feared most in the world—he who knew no fear. After all, he hadn’t even noticed when his girlfriend’s long hair was cut short.
“I thought it was tied up as usual.”
That was the excuse he offered.
Later, Rosetta had found his clumsy response amusing and had done it on purpose to tease him, though Leviathan never knew.
‘Why does that memory come to mind now?’
He struggled with how to process the sudden sense of crisis welling up inside him.
Strangely, the image of a broken cigarette came to mind.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
The Count tidied his seat and hurried away.
Leviathan pondered for a moment, then turned to Adolf, who had been standing quietly in the corner.
“Have you made contact with Borbel yet?”
“No, sir.”
Adolf added, observing Leviathan’s expression crease with displeasure.
“Rest assured, I have instructed them to send any letters arriving from Iosia directly here.”
Leviathan nodded and fidgeted with the half-empty teacup.
“It’s strange… I’m afraid.”
Adolf doubted his ears. This was the first time he had heard Leviathan admit to fearing something.
Yet he showed no sign of surprise, his composed face asking carefully.
“What troubles you, sir?”
“It’s just… seeing that child makes me oddly anxious.”
His clumsy attempt to be called father was both poignant and pitiful.
But did he truly deserve to hear himself called that?
Rubian, who had fallen into his life one day and remained at his side.
It was fortune beyond measure, yet precisely because of that, he feared she might vanish suddenly like the wind after a brief stay.
‘If I were truly his real father, would things be different?’
Leviathan had never felt his own inadequacy as keenly as he did now. Perhaps parenthood was nothing but enduring endless anguish and self-reflection.
* * *
“Now, if you tie it like this… voilà!”
Sortie was quite skilled.
“Wow.”
I gazed at the knot she had tied for me and let out a short exclamation of admiration.
Since our first meeting in the Reception Room, we had grown rather close.
The young lady visited the Count and the Duke’s Mansion almost every day.
The Zebert Duke’s Mansion in Ipson was always bustling with people.
Uncle had to carve out his schedule to meet with nobles, and those who found it burdensome to venture to the dangerous Zelocks had gathered here instead.
Today was particularly crowded with guests.
“Olivia Olson!”
Sortie sprang up from the bench and waved her hand toward the garden entrance. Turning my head, I spotted a girl in an elegant, voluminous dress approaching with quick steps.
“Oh, it’s Olson?”
Void, who had been swinging a wooden sword at the garden trees beside me, remarked flatly.
“You know her?”
“Yeah. She’s annoying with all that chatter. Girls are like that.”
“Ugh, that’s mean. You should get along better with your friends.”
Void grunted and tapped his wooden sword against his palm.
Sortie scurried off toward her.
“How have you been? It’s been so long!”
“Yes. Hello, Sortie. And Prince Zebert as well….”
Olivia Olson, the Count’s daughter, spoke shyly. A faint blush colored her cheeks as she glanced toward Void.
“Hello. It’s been a while. …I couldn’t wait until the Academy reopened, so I came.”
“D-don’t go thinking I asked you to wait for me!”
Void kicked at the ground and grumbled as he always did.
‘What’s this? Could this really be…that cliché?!’
My heart raced as I observed the shy emotions of the young boy and girl.
Olivia Olson approached with her hands clasped behind her back, smiling.
“Do you remember what I told you before the break?”
Wait! What did she say before the break?
The young lady smiled serenely and took another step closer. What emerged from behind her back was not a confession bouquet—
—but a crisp demerit notebook.
“You destroyed the fence with that wooden sword, didn’t you? Five demerits! Five points!”
Void Zebert / Property Damage / -5 points
※ Effect takes place upon notification completion
“Ah, so you came to give me demerits! Is that all the Student Council president does?!”
“For the Prince of Zebert to flee from demerits…how cowardly!”
“Ugh! This doesn’t work at all! We’re completely incompatible!”
Void turned every color imaginable and fled.
“Phew. That felt satisfying.”
Olivia Olson dusted off her hands with a pat-pat and turned around.
The satisfied young lady approached Sortie, who stood nearby.
“So Sortie, what were you doing here?”
“Oh! I was playing with Rubian.”
“Rubian…?”
Our eyes met directly. I gazed at them with genuine admiration.
‘Wow, both of them are incredibly beautiful….’
Olivia Olson with her long, wavy honey-colored hair and Sortie with her sky-blue hair braided in two pigtails. As befitted noble daughters, they wore elaborate dresses and carried a delicate fragrance about them.
‘They must have gone to the hot spring.’
I felt envious.
I was quietly lost in thought when the young lady from the Olson family approached and extended her hand.
“Father mentioned you. I’m Olivia Olson of the Olson Count Family.”
So she was the Student Council president. Indeed, she was a remarkably composed girl.
I gently took her hand.
“Yes, hello. I’m Rubian.”
“Hmm. You’re not very… Zebert-like, are you?”
Huh? What did she mean by that?
While I was trying to decipher whether it was an insult or a compliment, Sortie jumped in eagerly.
“Right? She’s incredibly round and small and so soft, isn’t she?”
“Yes. The new hope of Zebert. Quite the revolutionary change.”
For some reason, I felt like I’d become a symbol of a new era.
“To think someone like this would become Void’s sister… I offer my sincere condolences.”
“Ha ha.”
Olivia tilted her head with genuine sympathy.
What on earth are you doing at the Academy, Void…?
“Hm? Lib, shouldn’t condolences be sincere rather than insincere?”
“Oh my, Titi. Please make sure to enroll at our Academy as soon as possible.”
“Eh?”
“I’ll give you a proper education. Of course, you’ll need to become an exemplary student who follows our Academy’s rules well.”
“Sister really does love the Academy, doesn’t she?”
“It’s a most desirable place where rules and demerits abound.”
Olivia smiled while patting Sortie’s head.
“By the way, that’s a lovely bonnet. Did you just buy it?”
“Yes. Mother bought it for me.”
“I purchased a ribbon for the new semester myself. Both the specifications and color follow the regulations exactly.”
“Oh. Is it from Harzen Boutique?”
“Mollip. I saw Bolden there too.”
“Wow, that young lady with such distinctive fashion sense? Actually, I was there not long ago myself…”
I listened to the ping-pong conversation between the two young ladies while feeling like my head was spinning.
‘Something…’
There was no opening to join in!
Now that I thought about it, it had been far too long since I’d talked with girls my own age…!
“Well, the conversation seems like it’ll go on for a while. Would you like to go have some cake with us? I heard Jake’s Tea Salon recently opened in Ipson.”
“Yay! I’d love to!”
I hesitated and started to back away.
“Hm? Rubian, where are you going? Void is unpleasant, but you’re welcome to come with us.”
“Hehe. I’m going to play with Void… and I have wooden sword training…”
As I spoke awkwardly and turned away, Sortie grabbed the hem of my clothes.
“Oh, I haven’t taught you all the knots yet!”
“Tell me next time!”
I left the Garden, turning my back on the two who stared at me in bewilderment.
This place didn’t feel like where I belonged….
I thought living in the Duke’s Mansion had made me somewhat ordinary.
I was wrong! The path to normalcy was far longer and more treacherous than I’d imagined!
I returned from the Garden and practiced tying knots quietly in my room.
‘If I embed a small barrier stone here, I could use it as a sword ornament, couldn’t I?’
A satisfied smile bloomed naturally on my face.
I was planning to process the barrier stone from my window frame into a portable ornament.
It wouldn’t produce effects as powerful as magical artifacts, but since it was an activated mana stone, it would still prove useful in an emergency.
‘Father will depart for the spring subjugation once the New Leaf Festival ends.’
Honestly, I wanted to follow him, but of course he would never permit it. So this was all I could do.
“It’s still rather crude, so practice, and more practice!”
The guests who had flooded the Zebert Mansion had all ebbed away like the tide. Was Father still buried under mountains of documents?
“Alas, a working man on vacation who still must labor.”
How pitiful. Truly pitiful.
I was sighing softly when a knock sounded—tap tap.

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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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