The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 8

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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 8
“Don’t touch it.”
“Huh?”
“I know it looks pretty, but… it’s poisonous.”
Leviathan pulled me away at arm’s length, his eyes narrowing sharply.
“Sibelita herb.”
“Oh, this is…”
I started to correct him but thought better of it.
Abelita and Sibelita.
The two herbs, similar even in name, appeared nearly identical at first glance. Yet upon closer inspection, everything about them differed—
‘To the untrained eye, they must look the same.’
The most striking difference was the azure mana shimmering around the flower’s petals.
Mages would never confuse them because of it, but for non-mages, it was a different story.
Unless they were exceptionally knowledgeable about herbs, that is.
“Don’t go touching things carelessly. You’ll regret it.”
I withdrew my hand and nodded obediently.
Well, I didn’t particularly need it right now anyway…
“Your Excellency, the Barracks preparations are complete!”
“Let’s go.”
He extended his hand. I grasped it and turned.
“Wow.”
Before me stretched an impressive array of neatly arranged tents.
“That was incredibly fast.”
Knights moved between them with perfect coordination.
“Hup, two!”
Displays of rippling muscle were happening everywhere.
They looked like ordinary muscular men, but these were seasoned high-ranking knights who’d made names for themselves in war.
“Northern men really are something else…”
I murmured in admiration, bobbing my head slightly.
“You’ll become like them soon enough.”
“Uh… what?”
“Zebert is a knight’s house. If you’re to remain with House Zebert, you must naturally become a knight. You’re no exception.”
Oh, what terrible luck.
“You’d do well to build your strength here in the Northern Region.”
If only I didn’t have to hide my power—I’m actually quite a formidable mage…
I imagined my future for a moment.
My paper-thin frame running through the training grounds and retching, swinging a sword hundreds of times and retching, firing arrows a million times and retching…
‘An ending of nausea…’
How is that any different from ruin?
“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but your expression is quite the sight.”
“Well, yes. I’m a fragile child who wears my emotions on my face. I’m not good at handling difficult things like that.”
“Only at times like this.”
“I’m not good at——”
“I told you, being cute won’t work.”
The man pinched my earlobe lightly.
“Don’t worry.”
As he hoisted me up effortlessly, my limbs dangled like a doll’s.
Within those neatly arched eyes, violet irises gleamed—and locked directly with mine.
“First, I’m thinking of doing something about those pathetically scrawny limbs of yours.”
It sounded like a witch’s whisper about fattening something up before devouring it.
“I’ll train you properly in the Northern Region.”
“Please don’t say things like that while smiling so wickedly….”
I seemed to have followed a villain wearing a hero’s mask.
* * *
While the villain was away checking on the campsite, I fled to Leon’s side.
“Sir, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Leon was sitting on a rock, in the process of removing his shirt.
Even in this situation, the way he maintained his composure and folded his clothes so neatly…. Well, there was something about it that was rather tiresome.
“You say you’re fine, yet your entire body is a rainbow of colors.”
Red, yellow, blue….
How had he endured all of that?
The worst of it was his shoulder, which looked like it had taken a severe impact.
“How on earth did you manage horseback riding with that shoulder? And I insisted on riding without even knowing….”
I exhaled a worried sigh as I looked at the swollen wound.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Leon seemed flustered and fumbled slightly.
“This…is my own carelessness. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“But.”
“Don’t make that expression. Honestly, I could carry someone like you for a whole month without issue.”
“I’d rather you didn’t…. Wait! Hold on!”
A suddenly overwhelming stench hit me, and I pinched my nose shut. It came from something Leon had pulled out.
“What in the world is that?!”
“…? It’s ointment.”
“That smell is absolutely vile!”
“The smell isn’t bad.”
Leviathan, who had approached without my noticing, laughed while ruffling my hair.
This is absurd!
Using such an outdated bruise ointment!
These days there are plenty of ointments with no smell and better effects. Of course, that’s only in the Mage Kingdom!
“It’s cold, so stop playing and head into the tent.”
The man draped a thick cloak around my shoulders.
“Ugh… okay.”
I scrambled to my feet quickly.
Leon was writhing like a pig rolling in mud, frantically smearing ointment all over his body.
He said it didn’t hurt.
Clearly, it hurt quite a lot.
“I need to check the area around you for monsters. Stay here and rest quietly in the meantime. Don’t cause any trouble.”
“Yes, sir!”
After placing me directly in the barracks, the man disappeared on horseback with the dark-armored knights. The roaring brazier made the interior somewhat warmer.
‘Hmm.’
I deliberated without removing my cloak, then moved cautiously.
Toward where the Abelita herb grew.
“I never thought I’d need this so soon.”
I gathered some of the herb and tucked it into my cloak’s pocket.
Returning to the barracks, I rinsed it in clean water, then separated the stems, leaves, and flowers. I ground them finely using flint I found nearby.
‘This amount of ointment… was this the ratio?’
I examined the contusion salve I’d found in the man’s supplies, gauging the proportions.
Herbalism was one of the fundamental disciplines of a mage.
I intended to enhance the ointment’s efficacy with this herb.
‘If I infused it with mana, it would be even better…’
But that would look suspicious, wouldn’t it? Offering an ointment that heals wounds in a single day would raise too many questions.
I carefully gathered only the herb powder and mixed it in.
That’s when it happened.
A crackling, static-like noise came from somewhere.
[ …there? ]
Like the frequency static of a modern radio.
I stopped stirring the ointment and lifted my head sharply.
“…”
The surroundings were silent. Only the sound of the tent fluttering in the desolate wind.
What was that? An illusion?
I tilted my head curiously and refocused on making the ointment.
[ …! …! ]
The static returned, louder than before.
“Could it be…”
I carefully touched the tip of my ear. Behind my right earlobe was a small magic circle.
At first glance, it appeared no larger than a mole or scar.
A oath mark.
But I hadn’t sworn the oath.
I had been the one to receive the oath.
“Kalid?”
I pressed the symbol lightly, my voice barely a whisper.
The static ceased. The frequency aligned, and a clear, crystalline voice emerged.
[ Master! ]
‘Kalid, is that you?’
I closed my eyes, focusing my consciousness inward to communicate.
Kalid was a child I’d met on the battlefield.
I’d saved him once, and ever since, he’d called me master and followed me around like a shadow.
But we’d parted ways when I journeyed to Canalan Gorge.
[ Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been, unable to sense your mana all this time? ]
Kalid’s words carried an edge of reproach.
[ I couldn’t feel you anywhere. Nowhere at all. ]
Mages’ oaths were extreme in nature—once sworn, their mana intertwined like rope, binding them together.
This made simple communication like now, or even confirming each other’s life or death, relatively effortless.
But that also meant carrying an eternally bothersome tether for the rest of one’s life.
[ Where exactly are you? ]
‘I’m….’
[ Ah, Babylon. ]
Kalid didn’t even give me a chance to answer.
[ Wait right there. I’ll be coming soon. ]
‘What? How are you planning to get here? It’s far!’
[ How adorable, your surprise. ]
‘What did you say?’
[ Press your ear. Press it harder. I can’t hear you. ]
I pressed my earlobe again, firmly.
‘How do you plan to get here? Weren’t you at the Southern Continent Edge?’
Kalid merely laughed softly.
[ There’s nowhere a fugitive mage cannot reach. ]
Ah, that’s right.
Before me, he was the mage who’d fled the Mage Kingdom. More precisely, Kalid’s Mother had fled the kingdom while hiding her pregnancy.
And she’d given birth to Kalid in secret somewhere on the continent.
So Kalid was an unregistered mage of the Mage Kingdom.
[ See you soon. ]
‘No, wait—if you get caught, I’ll be implicated too…. Hey, hello? Kalid!’
The connection had already severed.
No matter how much I called, there was no response.
‘Kalid? Kalid!’
It seemed he’d deliberately cut the mana circuit. Which meant.
He’d blocked me!
That presumptuous Kalid Liork!
“Just come.”
I ground my teeth audibly. When I see him next, I’ll bite the back of his hand!
* * *
Late into the night.
Leon Shujerke had just finished his patrol around the Campsite and was heading toward the Barracks.
“Sir, sir.”
Leon stopped in his tracks.
A tiny hand stretched out from the left side of the tent, waving gently—and without thinking, his feet moved toward it.
“….”
There stood a child barely reaching his waist, grinning widely with hands clasped behind her back.
Her blue eyes gleamed brilliantly in the moonlight, and her fluffy silver hair caught his attention.
Her back hair was terribly uneven, as if cut haphazardly, but….
‘It looks incredibly soft….’
Leon recalled the small head that had swayed before his chest earlier that day.
He remembered being struck by the sensation of a white lark’s breast feathers when he’d encountered one in the Forest long ago.
‘Would it feel like that?’
He had to stiffen his body multiple times to resist his hand from reaching out without his awareness.
“Are you doing okay?”
The child asked suddenly. Her cheeks were flushed and slightly puffed.
As he was choosing his words, Rubian suddenly pulled out something she’d been hiding behind her back.
“A gift!”
“…What is it?”
Leon accepted it without thinking. When he opened it, he found a translucent salve with powder embedded throughout.
“Salve?”
“Yeah. It smelled so awful that I ground up some flowers nearby and mixed them in.”
Leon burst out laughing.
Was this what childlike thinking was?
If salve smelled bad, just cover it with flower scent—simple as that.
‘Though somehow it does smell a bit fragrant?’
He’d used the bruise salve so often that he’d grown accustomed to its foul odor.
But he couldn’t understand why she was giving this to him.
Leon looked down at Rubian.
“Why are you giving me….”
“Thank you for letting me ride the horse earlier.”
Her clear voice spoke each word distinctly.
Leon Shujerke knew little about children.
Yet he sensed that this child before him was somehow different from the children he’d seen in the Capital.
The children in the Capital were simply innocent.
The laughter of children running through the central plaza sounded like bells.
That was his pride.
The pride of having protected that smile.
Rubian appeared before my eyes once more.
“I won’t become a burden. Don’t worry.”
There was no small child who spoke with such unwavering resolve.
At least, not in my experience.
Leon regretted what he had said during the day.
He reflected on whether his words had been somewhat harsh. But he had never learned how to choose his words carefully, nor how to soften them with gentle phrasing.
He had wandered battlefields for ten years.
It was only natural that his way of communicating had changed.
‘Despite saying something so cruel….’
To hear words of gratitude.
“You know, the war is over.”
How did she know I was still clinging to the war?
Leon’s mouth suddenly went dry.
He felt he needed to make up for his earlier mistake.
This time, more gently, more carefully.
“I… that is to say.”
“…?”
“I didn’t think you would become a burden.”
A burden? Something as soft as down?
What I really wanted to say was… that a small, gentle child like you should be in the peaceful Capital, laughing and running through the squares like the other children,
“What I mean is….”
I wished you could smile like that.
“Sigh… This is difficult.”
But the words simply wouldn’t come. Leon decided to just say it plainly.
“I’m sorry, and thank you.”
Rubian’s face seemed to understand everything.
“Okay!”
Without thinking, Leon reached out and gently stroked her round head.
At his clumsy touch, Rubian pursed her lips like a small bird and laughed.
A warm breeze seemed to blow from somewhere.
Indeed, it was an incredibly soft sensation, just as expected.
* * *
After Leon had recovered somewhat, the journey resumed.
The resumed procession moved without obstruction.
The knights had procured a new carriage from somewhere. It was a carriage with enormous windows, open on all sides.
I gradually grew accustomed to riding in the carriage.
The longer I spent time in the carriage, the more Leon seemed to wear a reluctant expression… but surely not.
In any case, after several more weeks of travel, we arrived.
At the Zebert Duchy!

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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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