The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 73

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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 73
* * *
I slowly opened my eyes.
The first thing I saw was cotton candy-like, voluminous pink hair.
“Hello?”
Rosetta Zebert greeted me with a smile.
I only moved my eyelids and mumbled into the bedsheet, burying my nose.
“Hello….”
Wow, this is reality.
I felt as though I’d wandered through a dream for quite a long time.
But it was such a filthy nightmare.
‘Tsk. It’s rare to see a past life in a dream.’
Perhaps my body had weakened. The worst memories surfaced first. The determination to never fall ill again came naturally—it had been that horrific.
‘But at the very end, that was….’
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, thanks to dreaming of my past life, I could glimpse the original story’s memories I’d been missing all this time.
I bit the inside of my lip discreetly. The suddenly recalled original story was still vivid.
“Let me see….”
While I remained lost in thought, a cool hand descended upon my forehead.
“Mm, the fever’s completely gone.”
At the sight of her tender voice and beautifully curved eyes, the dream evaporated in an instant.
A softly spreading smile. I gazed at that warm, spring-blossom-like face as though enchanted.
“Is anything uncomfortable?”
“No, nothing….”
“Good, that’s a relief.”
I rolled my eyes about, surveying the interior.
My bedroom in the Zebert Duke’s Mansion in Ipson.
Small braziers, damp cloths, and medicinal herbs lay scattered about nearby.
‘Now that I think about it….’
I swallowed hard once.
‘My secret’s been exposed.’
“….”
“….”
Then, my gaze and Rosetta Zebert’s met in the air.
Rosetta Zebert as the Duchess—not the Gravedigger, not the tomboyish girl holding her breath—was an elegant noblewoman befitting her reputation.
I hesitated briefly before parting my lips.
“Um.”
“Um.”
Our voices overlapped as though by fate.
“Yes?”
“Huh?”
Rosetta smiled slightly, wrinkling her brow.
“Do you want to tell me first?”
I nodded and asked softly.
“What about Father?”
“Handling the aftermath. His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”
The Emperor? Here?
“But why is Father handling the aftermath?”
“He made threats to punish the culprits himself.”
I started to ask why, then closed my mouth.
Why else? It must be because of me.
Perhaps sensing my hesitation, Rosetta smiled, pulling her lips taut. Her hand brushing the hair from my forehead felt wonderfully cool.
“Blood demands blood.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s an ancient family motto of Zebert.”
…What a villainous motto that is.
“You don’t like it?”
Rosetta said something almost rational for once.
“They should have specified what kind of blood. Arterial or venous? Enough to cause anemia, or enough to take a life, or perhaps….”
“Ah, that does sound right.”
“What does?”
“The people of Zebert….”
As I murmured this, Rosetta’s expression became both puzzled and satisfied.
‘Perhaps the Duchess really is the most frightening person of all….’
She’s skilled at disguise, and somehow I suspect she’d be quite good with a bow too….
I swallowed the words I truly wanted to say and hid back under the blanket.
“Ow.”
I unconsciously applied pressure, and a sharp sting shot through my wrists. When I carefully rolled up my sleeves, I found white bandages wrapped around both wrists.
‘Ah, right. The rope was tied too tightly….’
Rosetta grinned.
“Yes, I should have told them to send me your wrists first.”
“….”
The Duchess is terrifying….
As I slowly pulled myself up, Rosetta helped support me. She sat at the edge of the bed and gently caressed my wrists.
“Rubian, I’m sorry.”
Her voice came carefully.
“Sorry? For what?”
“For not telling you my true identity at the Memorial Garden. I think I frightened you terribly.”
Her gentle voice reached my ears through the air. I quickly shook my head.
“I’m… fine. Back then, I got to eat delicious things too…. And my speech condition improved…. Besides, I was keeping secrets of my own.”
Though I was absolutely shocked when we met at the Open-air Bath.
Rosetta gently stroked my head. She hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth with utmost care.
“Rubian, may I ask why you didn’t tell us you were a girl?”
“….”
Her sky-blue eyes gazed at me with crystalline clarity.
The reflection of my face in those eyes looked terrified and anxious. Rosetta smiled reassuringly at such a sight.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“…Yes.”
“Hmm?”
My lips trembled silently as I squeezed my eyes shut and cried out.
“I was afraid you’d abandon me if I said I was a girl!”
“….”
Creak, click.
My head snapped up suddenly.
“Hah.”
The man filling the doorway exhaled a long sigh. Zebert Duke, holding a tray in one hand, closed the door himself and strode toward us with purposeful steps.
“What on earth made you think such a thing….”
A pained murmur escaped like a sigh. I stared blankly at Father’s wet black hair.
‘I naturally assumed he wasn’t home.’
Water droplets clung to his hair as if he’d just bathed and rushed over.
Rosetta rose and scanned Father from head to toe. A soft whisper followed.
“…Blood.”
“I’ve washed it all off.”
It was a quiet exchange I couldn’t hear.
“Rubian.”
Father set the soup on the table and pressed his hand to my forehead. The two of them placed chairs beside me and sat down.
“You hid your gender because of me?”
His voice carried a hint of anger.
“No, it’s not just because of you….”
“Because of my past… you thought I wouldn’t accept you?”
I fidgeted with my fingertips as I chose my words, and Father exhaled another deep sigh.
“That’s the answer, then.”
One side of the bed dipped slightly.
His violet eyes, gazing directly at me, came into close view.
“Rubian, I’m telling you this because you seem to be mistaken.”
“….”
“There is no reason—none—that would make me abandon you. Whether you’re a boy or a girl, whatever past you carry, it doesn’t matter.”
I stopped fidgeting with my fingertips.
“You are already enough just as you are…. Hah.”
“….”
“…I’m the biggest fool for saying this only now.”
Even in that Cave, it was the same. Who I was didn’t matter at all. And yet, I was still his precious little one.
“Sniff….”
My eyes stung again for some reason, and I lowered my head. Father gently pulled me close and held me in his arms.
“…I’m sorry, Rubian. For not understanding all this time.”
Until now, I’d been prepared to grovel and apologize profusely if my secret were ever exposed.
Yet instead, I was the one receiving an apology.
I’m sorry for not understanding. I’m sorry for leaving you trembling in anxiety alone. I’m sorry for not reassuring you sooner.
In those words, I felt a profound affection and steadfast security. It was something I could never have imagined in my past life.
“Your words are so perfectly right that I have nothing more to add.”
Rosetta, who had been watching, gave a light shrug of her shoulders.
“When did my husband become so eloquent?”
I sat on Father’s lap and breathed in deeply. As I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, Rosetta gently wiped my face with a soft handkerchief.
“Sniff, he wasn’t like this before?”
“A wind-up doll would’ve been better. Creak, creak, thud, thud.”
“…Rose.”
Father furrowed his brow in embarrassment.
“It wasn’t quite that bad.”
But his voice of protest carried no real conviction whatsoever.
“Sigh. I wish I had a wind-up doll.”
For some reason, tears burst forth again with a whimper. I sobbed like a child, spouting nonsense.
Father was somewhat flustered, and Rosetta hurried about as if to make me drink water.
Perhaps.
Perhaps I’d always wanted to cry like this.
Even if I threw unreasonable tantrums and wept, I’d always wished for people who would tenderly wipe away my pathetic tears…
“Now you’ve become a complete crybaby daughter.”
Father didn’t leave me alone. He didn’t look at me with disgust or contempt.
“Daughter….”
I drank warm water and tried to calm my hiccupping sobs.
“Are you going to make me your daughter?”
“Ha, what else was I planning to do?”
A laugh of absurdity escaped him. Father crinkled his brows and gently pinched my cheeks, shaking them softly.
“How could I not have seen this? That’s right. There were so many strange things….”
Thump. This time, it was the Duke’s usually rigid neck that sagged with the weight of realization.
“I’m truly an idiot.”
His muttered words, spoken as if to himself, finally reached my ears clearly this time.
I smacked Father’s shoulder in retaliation.
“Don’t insult our father…!”
Rosetta laughed softly at the sight. She wrinkled her nose and joined in against him.
“That’s right! Don’t insult my husband!”
Father suddenly found himself on the receiving end of two women’s fists, laughing like a sigh.
“That’s right. I’m the guilty one.”
I laughed with tears hanging from my eyes as I watched my father, caught between two impossible choices.
Once I let out the laughter I’d been holding back, something that had been knotted in my heart suddenly dissolved away.
And in that empty space, something new began to grow.
Like a tender seedling gently lifting its head, it was affection that would flourish from this moment forward.
* * *
After eating soup and medicine in bed, drowsiness washed over me again.
Father and Rosetta Zebert told me to rest more, then kissed my forehead in turn before leaving.
‘They really are like my true parents….’
I rubbed my forehead where their warmth still lingered.
As I gazed quietly at the ceiling, the dream’s contents naturally came to mind.
The sweet, cotton-candy-like feeling rapidly sank away.
“…It was a mage.”
Not a monster.
In the original story, Leviathan dies at the hands of a mage.
On a dark night, beneath the pale moonlight.

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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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