The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 69

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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 69
[ Damn it, finally… ]
‘Kalid!’
[ Where are you, Rubian. ]
His voice was tightly restrained, yet it trembled on the precipice of eruption. I answered quickly.
‘I’m here on Ipson Mountain!’
I closed my eyes, fumbling at my ear lobe. I could feel Licht’s gaze upon me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I could only hope it looked like I was merely dizzy.
‘Honestly, I’m not entirely sure where. Licht and Miss Titi are injured, and we’ve captured the criminals….’
[ You. ]
‘Huh?’
[ Are you hurt? ]
‘I’m fine.’
Then came a very deep, prolonged sigh.
[ Stay right there for now. Don’t cut the connection. I’m coming right away. ]
Hearing his voice—which sent inexplicable chills down my spine—I nodded. For some reason, my nose stung.
[ Don’t do anything reckless, and don’t use your magic. Understood? ]
‘Yeah. I understand.’
I had no idea how he would find me, but I didn’t bother asking. Kalid always appeared before me through some extraordinary method, no matter where I was hiding.
After my brief conversation with Kalid ended, the tension that had been rigidly holding my shoulders finally drained away. Apparently, I had been wound up far more tightly than I realized.
“Rubian, your complexion is terrible right now. Come here and rest.”
Licht pulled me toward him. I leaned against Licht’s side.
‘Come quickly, you’re my backup battery….’
I was about to draw up my knees and bury my face when something tumbled from my pocket with a soft thud.
“Rubian, this.”
Titi picked something up wrapped in a handkerchief and handed it to me.
“A bell…? Is it a small chime?”
Ah.
I took it blankly. I had forgotten that I’d wrapped it in a handkerchief and tucked it away in my pocket to muffle its sound.
Licht watched me intently as I froze, holding the bell.
“Did the Duke of Zebert give it to you?”
I nodded faintly, my head moving in small, hesitant motions.
At that, Titi—who had been holding back her tears until now—covered her face again.
“I miss Father…. And Mother too.”
“Sob…. Me too….”
Olivia bit her lip and pulled Titi into an embrace.
“If you cry any more, you’ll lose your strength. Stop crying, you two.”
Licht soothed the two of them.
These nobly-born children had been thrust into the depths of a dark forest without warning… they must be terrified.
“I hope someone comes soon….”
I hugged my knees, clutching the bell in one hand, and stared blankly ahead as I listened to the crackling sparks of the fire.
‘Father….’
The homework I’d postponed amid the chaos of the kidnapping came crashing down on me belatedly.
‘How worried must he be?’
By now, he would have heard the news. He might be searching for me desperately.
And Rosetta Zebert… would they have met?
If so, then the fact that I’m a girl would have been exposed.
‘How am I supposed to face him now….’
I turned my head and buried my forehead in my hands.
‘If I borrowed magical power from Kalid, I could erase the memories….’
No, no. I couldn’t tamper with the memories of everyone in Zebert.
As I shook my head, my skull throbbed painfully. Only when I wrapped my arms around my shoulders did I realize I was trembling slightly.
‘What can I do. I’ll just have to beg for forgiveness.’
I already knew the truth.
There was no way out.
The beating I was meant to receive later came early, but… I couldn’t avoid it any longer.
He wouldn’t know about the mage secret, so he’d be furious about why I hid my gender. Of course, that anger would be justified.
All I could do was apologize, beg, and ask him to let me stay by his side anyway.
“Father would… never come to this cemetery.”
And yet, what if.
What if he said he never intended to raise a daughter?
‘Is he regretting it now.’
Telling me to call him Father….
The voices of Titi and Lib crying out for their parents echoed in my ears.
I was the one who truly wanted to cry my heart out, but not knowing who to call for, I simply remained silent.
* * *
“Old Master!”
The Knight came running. The elderly man, who had been radiating fierce energy, suddenly turned his head.
“Did you find her? Did you find her?!”
“We discovered carriage wheel marks! But the rain has washed away the traces….”
Crack. The pin he’d been holding in one hand crumbled to dust. It had been found in the dark alley where Rubian had disappeared.
“I’ll kill them all… just kill every last one of them….”
“Please, please calm yourself!”
Black energy seeped upward in wisps.
The elderly man, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles had gone white, wore an expression of utter devastation.
“What in the world is this absurdity?!”
The child had disappeared.
And what?
Apparently, that child wasn’t a boy but a girl.
He couldn’t quite understand what had happened. Where had things gone wrong?
No, more than that.
Rubian had fled in terror the moment her identity as a girl was exposed.
Ballock swallowed a groan of anguish, squeezing his eyes shut.
‘No, no. My child.’
That wasn’t what mattered.
You are already something precious that cannot be changed, simply by existing as you are.
What use was any of that?
“Seal off Ipson completely and dispatch knights to Ipson Mountain! Relay the same orders to Camelan Margery and Olson Margery!”
“Yes, yes!”
“What of Leviathan?”
“He’s already searching Ipson Mountain!”
“Let’s go!”
With a metallic clang, Ballock hurled his shattered blade to the ground. Men bearing the grotesque marks of violence lay scattered across the Underground Prison, bleeding profusely.
They were criminals who had failed to escape.
“Treat their wounds. Keep them conscious.”
The beast-like old man gazed down at them with the contempt one reserves for insects, foam flecking their lips.
“From this moment forward, I will show you true hell.”
The carriage wheel tracks that had led into the Forest abruptly ceased midway.
Leviathan tore through Ipson Mountain without a moment’s rest. The knights who had followed fell behind at some point, but it was inconsequential.
When even his mount collapsed from exhaustion, he abandoned the horse without hesitation and scoured the Forest on foot.
As he overturned thorny brambles and the carcasses of beasts, he wondered if all of this might be nothing but a dream.
“Leviathan!”
Rosetta came galloping toward him from the distance on horseback.
Upon seeing Leviathan’s face, Rosetta faltered for a moment.
An expression so devoid of emotion it was chilling. Those inorganic eyes, bereft of any human feeling, belonged to something far more dangerous than any man.
‘Like the days of war….’
Rosetta bit her lip and gripped Leviathan’s hand firmly.
“You need to calm down. You’re not even breathing properly.”
“Rose, I….”
His voice emerged fractured and hoarse.
“I truly don’t understand. What have I done, why didn’t Rubian tell me the truth….”
Regardless of anything else.
“It’s my fault.”
When all was said and done, the child had endured such hardship because of my own stupidity.
If I could, I would tear myself to shreds.
I had never understood what tormented the child, yet I had been content merely hearing myself called father—and now that past pierced through me like a spear.
“Damn it. I….”
That was when it happened.
Ting—
“…!”
Leviathan’s head snapped upward.
“Leviathan?”
“Wait a moment, Rose.”
Ding—ding—
A faint jingling sound piercing through the downpour.
“If you want to call for Uncle, shake the bell. I’ll make sure he hears it.”
His gaze turned toward the Northern Ridge.
No…
Someone blocked Leviathan’s path just as he was about to bolt forward, eyes wide with urgency.
It was a young boy, drenched from having fallen out of a tree into the rain.
“Duke.”
Kalid steadied his breathing and delivered his message without a shred of hesitation.
A cave. The Northern Ridge.

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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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