The Youngest Member Filming a Parenting Show is Adorable - Chapter 96

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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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【096】
“Bleeegh!”
Freeing her from the shadow worm’s control was simple enough.
I just had to make her drink copious amounts of water until she vomited it all back up.
“Hah… haha, ahahaha!”
Finally able to move her body as she wished, Cecilia erupted into hysterical laughter.
A dead end.
A suffocating net with no escape in any direction.
Now that she was caught within it, she had lost all voice and authority within the Household.
‘If I were my true self, I would never have been so audacious as to turn Father to stone!’
Bernstein had been a spy.
And worse—a homunculus!
The man she had lived with, skin against skin, was not human at all. It was utterly horrifying.
Well, Father would never comprehend such things anyway.
“So, how did it feel turning your father to stone? Did it satisfy you?”
I despised the way he asked it so deliberately.
Despised it, despised it, despised it!
“That’s what I should be asking you. Are you finally satisfied now that you made me turn Father to stone?”
A spiteful, ill-tempered old man.
A rotten creature.
As I swallowed curses in silence, I trembled beneath the weight of all their gazes.
My brother only cared about his own children—his vacant expression betrayed his eagerness to settle this and put the child to bed.
Father wore an amused, entertained expression, and Lewiwood…
Though I had borne him myself, I could not fathom what he was thinking.
Violet?
Violet wasn’t even present.
As always, she would be sheltered by Father and standing back with her hands clasped!
Mother had been absent from home for ages, and I held no hope for her.
‘I have no one on my side… no one at all.’
Her face pallid from drinking and vomiting so much water, I wrapped my arms around myself and rubbed frantically as if possessed.
So cold.
Not from my hair being soaked and frozen, falling away in strands—but from the chill deep within my heart.
Even if I wanted to cry, I would need someone to receive those tears. Right now, I did not.
I wanted to hold my head high, but as the guilty party, I could not.
‘Ah… Bernstein. He was my only ally.’
Yet he had been a homunculus all along.
All those moments when he understood me, accepted me, and comforted me—they were all lies!
“Now I have nothing! Are you pleased to see me destroyed like this and sent to the Battlefield? You’re truly heartless, Father. No—you were never a father to me, not even once!!”
I knew the more I struggled, the more pathetic I became, but I could not stop.
All that returned to my frantic cries was a gaze that asked, ‘When will this end?’
At that, Cecilia’s strength drained away entirely.
‘Even in a moment like this….’
No one understands me.
No one listens to what I have to say.
Suddenly, she recalled her tenth birthday.
She had written down all the gifts she greedily wanted and given the list to the Butler, and she had been able to obtain every single one of them.
But no one had come to her birthday party.
‘Ah, no—only Nein had come, hesitantly.’
Diagon had gone out to play, and her parents showed no interest.
They had merely spent money to host the party, completely indifferent to whether anyone would attend or not.
And the few friends she had….
Had all been invited simultaneously to the Music Salon that Violet had opened, and they went there instead.
‘Ah, how pathetic.’
Throughout her entire life, she had been ugly.
She had to behave hideously just to scrape together a fragment of attention.
She wanted to be as composed and elegant as Violet.
She wanted to receive love, to be loved….
That was all she wanted.
‘Perhaps even that is too much for me, a Medusa.’
It was then.
She heard the splashing sound of footsteps approaching through a puddle.
Two tiny feet came into view, and when she barely managed to lift her head, there was—
Superti.
* * *
My aunt was crying.
Not a single tear fell from her eyes, yet to me it looked as though she were weeping profusely.
‘But why won’t Father or Grandfather comfort her?’
It was such a strange sight.
My heart was churning so much.
“Father, put me down.”
The Spirit Kings said there was someone who needed comfort.
I came following Father wondering who it could be, and now I see clearly.
I approached my aunt, who was kneeling, and nestled into her embrace.
“There, there. Feel better. Feel better.”
Pat, pat.
Just as I had comforted Angela, I now shared my warmth with Aunt Cecilia.
“But it won’t get better if you force her to feel better, to stop being sad.”
“….”
“Chuuu just… loves you, Aunt Cecilia.”
“What do you know. What could you possibly know….”
After a long while, a stifled sound finally escaped from my Aunt’s throat.
It was so sorrowful to hear that I found myself sniffling involuntarily.
I didn’t understand what my Aunt was feeling, why she remained drenched in water, or why none of the adults approached her…
I was ignorant of everything.
But there was one thing I knew for certain.
“I love you, Aunt. We’re family, aren’t we?”
I love you.
I love you.
Those words seeped into Cecilia’s shattered and broken heart.
Like raindrops falling upon a riverbed cracked and parched from drought, they fell upon the fissures within her.
Even if it were a lie, even if it were the innocent prattle of a four-year-old child.
For Cecilia, even that was desperately precious.
“You… when I disliked you so much.”
“But Mother loves Aunt Cecilia too.”
“Mother?”
The person who smiled without asking for anything in return.
Only Aurora had ever done that.
Whether Cecilia excelled at something or not, whether she tried or not, whether she made an effort or not.
The person who treated her the same even when she merely grumbled.
The one and only person who never judged her by ability or worth.
Yes, perhaps one could even call that friendship.
Remembering Aurora, who had been Cecilia’s first true friend and soon her only friend since she had been alone from childhood, Cecilia cried out desperately.
“Why, why did you die so young? Without you, I had nowhere to open my heart!”
“Mother says she’s sorry.”
“Sorry for what! What could possibly be sorry! Why are you so foolish? You should tell me I only know how to be angry with you!”
As she raged wildly, she suddenly noticed something strange.
Wasn’t this tiny creature babbling as if relaying her mother’s words?
“How could you possibly know what the dead Aurora is saying?”
From holding back tears for so long, her jaw had begun to ache.
Her own face reflected in those pale blue eyes.
It was such a mess that Cecilia hastily turned her head away.
She despised this imperfect appearance.
She could only be acknowledged if she were perfect, perfect, and perfect. To fall apart like this…!
As she swallowed her familiar self-loathing, the child slipped from her embrace and pointed a finger sharply at the Household Master.
“Grandfather is mean.”
“Hmm?”
“When a friend cries, you’re supposed to hug them and give them kisses. But why is everyone just sitting there?”
To actually dare tell the Household Master of House Fasayen that he was mean, right to his face!
No matter how ignorant a baby might be, this crossed the line.
He ought to scold her sharply.
Yet somehow, my heart felt lighter.
“Father, Nanny is here.”
“I see.”
“Aunt Cecilia, hold me.”
“…Very well.”
The grown youngest brother opened his arms toward her in a manner that was almost unsettling.
The fortress-like resolve in her steps crumbled at a single word from the youngest.
Pat, pat.
The gesture was terribly awkward, but Diagon patted Cecilia’s back nonetheless.
Then Mikard approached, followed by Elzen, each embracing her in turn.
“Grandfather too!”
“This youngest granddaughter frightens me, I tell you.”
Hold me. Aunt might cry.”
“Not a single tear in sight, yet you speak of crying.”
Even the Household Master himself relented, stepping forward with a grumble.
Cecilia gazed up at the towering elder before her, biting her lower lip.
‘Will he truly embrace me?’
Absurdly, even now, such thoughts occupied her mind.
Having just surrendered all hope, yet hope itself quietly raised its head once more.
This was her chronic affliction.
“Hmm. Yes, there is no reason I cannot.”
“…!”
“Shall this old man bend his back? Or will you rise to meet me?”
He did not embrace her first, but for Cecilia, even this was a profound permission.

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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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