The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 65

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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 65
“Acoco. My back. The brush has grown so thick, I can’t use this shortcut anymore.”
The woman who announced her presence with an unexpected tumble wore a blue training uniform.
“Hehe. You never imagined I’d arrive home first through the hot spring route, did you?”
I froze like a statue. I was certainly surprised to learn an unknown shortcut existed here, but more than that—
‘That voice…’
The soft voice was painfully familiar to my ears.
The woman brushed dust from her clothes and stood, gathering her cascading hair into a bundle as she squealed.
“Oh my. I’m so looking forward to seeing Levi’s face all twisted with irritation!”
Did she get caught cleaning up Ipson criminals? She must have started noticing the demon cleanup by now?
Incomprehensible words came pouring down like a storm. I murmured as if entranced.
“The… Gravedigger?”
That familiar auburn hair.
It really was… her?
Only then did the woman notice another presence and slowly turned her body. Her hand reached toward the bow on her back.
“Hic.”
Thin raindrops had begun to fall, tap, tap.
“Hm?”
The moment our blue eyes met, the Gravedigger froze mid-motion of drawing her bow.
The woman’s eyelids flickered before her eyes widened.
“Huh? Huuuh? You’re the child I met at the Memorial Garden.”
Our eyes locked, and roughly three seconds passed—or perhaps three thousand years.
“Why are you here?”
“Why is the Gravedigger here?”
Our words overlapped simultaneously.
“What?”
“Hm?”
“…What?”
“…Hm?”
…What is this situation?
Then, something strange caught my eye.
With each thin strand of rain, the Gravedigger’s hair began to dissolve slightly.
The luscious chocolate curls were peeling away like a shell…
‘Hair… dye?’
Her hair was rapidly returning to its true color.
The unevenly revealed hair color was…
A vivid pink.
“Oh dear. The color’s washing out. As expected, it’s vulnerable to moisture.”
A woman who knew the hidden shortcut of Zebert Hot Spring.
A beautiful woman with pink hair.
‘Now that I think about it….’
I realized far too late that the Zebert Family didn’t possess even a single family portrait.
That’s why I hadn’t known.
“Rosetta… Zebert?”
The fact that I’d met her long ago.
“Yeah. You know me?”
“Weren’t you the Gravedigger?”
“Sorry. I had my reasons back then.”
I shot to my feet. The dizziness hit me, and I stumbled—but Rosetta caught me instantly.
“Whoa there, little lady. That’s dangerous. More importantly, won’t you tell your big sister your name? I forgot to ask back then, you know.”
…What?
I gazed down as if entranced. The cloth I was gripping like a lifeline still clung to my body like armor plating.
“Come on, stand up straight. You’ll slip.”
Rosetta lifted me out of the water and set me down in the shade where the rain couldn’t reach.
“Get dressed quickly.”
“W-wait. Just now, what did you….”
“I said get dressed.”
“Before that….”
“You’ll slip?”
As I stood there dazed, Rosetta’s expression grew troubled with a soft groan.
“Don’t tell me it’s because of ‘big sister’? She really hates being called an old lady. Her heart’s still eighteen, after all.”
Rosetta handed me dry clothes with such natural ease that she looked ready to dress me herself. I quickly hid behind a tree.
“Shy, are we? What’s the big deal between girls.”
As I mechanically dressed, my eyes began searching for an escape route. It was instinctive.
“So? Did you come all the way to Ipson following Father? That’s strange. He rarely brings anyone to foreign lands.”
All her words sounded muffled, as if underwater. My breathing grew ragged, and my head spun.
“Oh, could it be… you became friends with that girl Rubian? Is that why you came together?”
“….”
“Hmm. That’s odd. Why is my little darling so quiet today….”
…?
The final syllable came much later.
Her bright smile froze as our eyes met from behind the tree.
“Little one.”
Rosetta’s grip on my shoulder tightened, as if she’d sensed something.
“What’s your name?”
I couldn’t see a mirror, but I felt my pupils tremble violently at the question.
‘First, my expression…. Hide my expression first… and make an excuse….’
Did you think that would work?
In that moment, reality crashed down like a receding tide.
“Surely not.”
No, I can’t.
“It’s not Rubian, is it?”
No, I can’t!
I had no idea where such strength came from.
The moment I heard those words, I wrenched my hand free from Rosetta’s grip and bolted.
Her urgent voice faded into the distance behind me.
I couldn’t even tell if I was running, rolling, or using magic.
“Hiding your identity and sneaking in like a rat!”
No. No. That’s not it!
“This seems like the worst offense, Father! You exploited our trust!”
If I could just establish the barrier… Once everything was ready… I was planning to tell you then…
“I see.”
A sharp cracking sound echoed from somewhere.
It was the sound of the mass I’d so carefully compressed beginning to fracture.
* * *
This isn’t good.
“Ugh…”
Running away won’t solve this, Rubian!
“I know. I know, but…!”
I crouched in a corner of the Dark Alley and drew patterns on the ground.
At least I was grateful I hadn’t fled naked.
Actually, I might as well have been. I felt completely exposed right now!
“Are you an idiot? Were you an idiot! You fool! You utter disgrace!”
I banged my head against the wall repeatedly.
How could I not have noticed? The Gravedigger was clearly suspicious from the start!
This is driving me insane. And then I just ran like that.
It was as good as admitting with my entire body that I was a girl.
“What was I thinking running away?”
I should have denied it… but I panicked like an idiot…
But Rosetta’s eyes held not a shred of doubt. If I’d denied it, she might have insisted on checking my body herself.
“Argh.”
Stop digging yourself deeper. Go handle this maturely…
“I don’t know what to do.”
I was in complete panic mode.
I’d decided long ago that I would eventually reveal all my secrets. But not like this—not at a time like this!
“What should I do first…?”
At that moment, a powerful surge of magical energy seared my earlobes.
“Huh?”
Only then did I realize what that crackling sound had been all along.
“Right, Kalid!”
Oh no, I left her behind too!
By now, Kalid was surely searching for me.
Ever since I’d vanished unilaterally in Canalan Gorge, he’d grown to absolutely despise my sudden disappearances.
A complete catastrophe. Perfect chaos.
‘What do I do? How do I fix this?’
I anxiously picked at my fingertips.
There was a world of difference between confessing a lie yourself and being forced to have it exposed.
“Say, people hate lies, don’t they?”
“Generally speaking, yes?”
That was true. People hated lies.
My Guardian might appear casual and loose, but he had an unexpectedly upright side—he couldn’t be an exception.
And the person I’d confided this worry to was none other than Rosetta Zebert.
“What am I going to do…”
I’d known deception was wrong, yet I’d kept my mouth shut the whole time—I might even face an additional charge of contempt.
‘Should I run away with Kalid?’
I lifted my limp, drooping arms back up.
Should I just leave Ipson as it is?
‘But what about the original story?’
My Guardian?
This ending?
Everything was a tangled mess.
‘I should have just helped from the shadows…’
Like I did on that battlefield. In secret.
Fear rushed in alongside regret.
I’d always thought of this affection as something that wasn’t truly mine, but now that I faced losing it, I was absurdly terrified.
I crouched down in the Dark Alley. The black box in my heart rattled and trembled.
‘I don’t want to go back.’
I buried my head and questioned myself.
Go back where?
‘To the Orphanage…’
To that distant battlefield where I’d been desperate just to survive…
I wished I’d never felt this way.
Like a child who’d carelessly let slip a handful of colorful balloons, I sobbed. It was desolate and hopeless.
‘Greedy…’
Right. I shouldn’t have wanted balloons in the first place.
I bumped my forehead against the ground again with a dull thud.
Even as I did, the crackling static grew louder, and I found myself reaching up to my ear, thinking I needed to contact Kalid.
And in that moment.
A familiar silhouette appeared in my line of sight from the far end of the Dark Alley.
‘…Huh?’
I blinked slowly, tears pooling in my eyes.
‘That’s… Olivia and Titi?’
Two young ladies strolling past with cotton candy nearly as large as their own heads. Their commoner’s attire made it clear they’d slipped out on a secret outing.
I rubbed my eyes roughly with the back of my hand and instinctively scanned the surrounding area.
‘Why without escorts… how reckless…’
In that instant, my body shot upright of its own accord.
“Gasp!”
I’d spotted another shadow trailing silently behind them.
Abduction!
The two syllables struck my mind with searing intensity.

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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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