Young Master, Please Put Some Pants On! - Chapter 5
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 5
“Kyaaah! I can’t breathe!”
Garulus, who had squirmed free from her embrace, shook his head vigorously from side to side as he spoke.
“Oh, right! I prepared a gift for Mellis!”
“A gift?”
Garulus extended his clenched fist. Come to think of it, Garulus had been keeping his hand tightly closed for a while now. She had thought it was because he was holding onto the tree leaves, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
‘Did he pick a flower or something?’
Hearing that he had prepared a gift for her with those tiny fern-like hands, Mellis found Garulus absolutely adorable.
“What did our Garulus prepare?”
Mellis smiled with anticipation and tilted her head as she extended her hand.
“It’s a frog.”
“Kyaaaah!”
The moment Garulus opened his hand, a small frog leaped onto Mellis’s forehead. At the cold sensation, goosebumps rose all over her body as she screamed and shook her head frantically.
“Kyaaaah! Garulus!”
“S-sorry! I didn’t know you disliked frogs!”
“Aah! First, please get this thing off me! Please!”
“Ah, don’t move!”
“Aaaaah!”
She couldn’t see the frog, but she could still hear it. Just as Mellis was struggling and her foot caught on a stone,
“Huh? What’s wrong? Why are you like this?”
Vivian appeared from somewhere and grabbed Mellis by the collar. At that moment, the frog that had been launched flew toward Garulus. Only then did she calm down and steady herself while staggering.
“S-senior. Thank you. It would have been better if it wasn’t by the collar, but, ah, anyway.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Well, Garulus brought a frog from somewhere…”
As she unconsciously turned her head, something caught her eye. The two tree leaves that Garulus had placed on his head earlier were lying alone on the ground.
‘Don’t they look just like rabbit beastkin ears?’
At the same time, Garulus’s words flashed through her mind. Perhaps, if it was this, it might be possible to live within the duchy—this thought shook Mellis.
* * *
At Duke Severus’s mansion in the Aizen Empire, a heavy silence had been lingering for two days. Knock knock. The office door opened with a short knocking sound.
“Your Grace…”
The atmosphere in the office was so murderous that even he, the duke’s longtime aide, felt his mouth go dry. The very person who had made the manor’s atmosphere so cold, Kermanomon von Severus, swept over him with cold eyes.
“How did it go?”
The duke’s condition was clearly not good. Having spent two days without a wink of sleep searching throughout the duchy, he was considerably exhausted and on edge.
“They couldn’t find him in the northern region either. We’ve thoroughly searched the entire duchy, but there’s not even a trace of the young master.”
The fact that he had to deliver such bad news to Kermanomon made him uncomfortable.
“Is there still no word from the Magic Tower?”
“Yes, the formula of the magic tool you sent is too complex, so tracking it will take at least a week…”
“A week? Are you joking right now? How can that young child survive a week!”
Bang- The solid wood desk shook slightly from his fierce punch. Kerman, who was about to add something, soon bit his lips deeply and pressed his eyes with one hand.
“Send a cooperation request to the Imperial Palace and expand the search range to thoroughly comb through the entire Empire. He couldn’t have gone that far.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Only after the aide left the office did he lean back against his chair with a faint sigh, as if collapsing.
It happened just yesterday. Garulus, the only young child in this manor, had played hide-and-seek with the servants as usual.
Since he was naturally mischievous and small and agile, there had often been times before when he would hide in completely unexpected places and not show himself for an hour or two. Because of this, the servants didn’t even realize that Garulus wasn’t in the manor for several hours.
However, when the child didn’t appear even as three hours approached, the servants who felt something was wrong began to thoroughly search the manor.
But no matter how much they searched inside the house, Garulus was nowhere to be seen. Then someone came in panic, bringing something from Kerman’s study. It was a magic tool that Kerman had recently received from the Imperial Palace, an object inscribed with teleportation magic.
The magic tool that had been red in color had turned gray. That meant someone had used the magic tool’s magical power.
“Hah…”
He had stored it on a shelf thinking there would be no need to use it, but somehow Garulus seemed to have discovered it. He had clearly told him not to enter the study since it contained many relatively dangerous items. Yet it seemed he had ended up touching the magic tool.
Due to the nature of the magic tool, they couldn’t know the exact location he had moved to, so they were blindly searching the vicinity. Even though a full day had passed since issuing the search order, there was no news.
“It’s my fault. If only I had been a little more careful.”
He said self-reproachfully, running one hand through his hair. He was in such a state of guilt and anxiety that he couldn’t do anything. Although it was said to be early spring, the days were still cold. Most importantly, there were several mountains with rough terrain within the duchy, and magical beasts occasionally appeared.
The thought that the small baby monkey might have encountered a magical beast made his vision seem to darken. He vowed again and again that he would do anything to get Garulus back.
* * *
Mellis, holding Garulus in her arms, carefully walked down the stairs. Underground here was Vivian’s secret laboratory that others didn’t know about. The spacious laboratory, which had been converted from an entire floor, was filled with all kinds of magic tools and unknown chemicals.
“Heee…”
Garulus couldn’t take his eyes off the bubbling chemicals, as if the objects he was seeing for the first time in his life were fascinating. Vivian, passing by Garulus, tapped his crown and said.
“Young master, you’ll drool at this rate.”
“Slurp, but I didn’t know you were a mage, Vivian! I heard there are many mages among humans, so that was true!”
Garulus, who had quickly wiped his saliva on his sleeve, asked in a somewhat excited voice. Mellis nodded slightly at the sight of the child being amazed by the mage.
Most magical power manifested in humans after all. Of course, there were mages among beastkin too, but their numbers were significantly fewer compared to humans. Especially healing arts, also called white magic, manifested only in humans.
At Garulus’s excessive interest, Mellis glanced at Vivian with worried eyes. However, contrary to her concerns, Vivian asked Garulus with a calm face.
“Really? Want me to show you something more fascinating?”
“Ooh, what is it?”
Instead of answering, Vivian showed his forked tongue that split into two at the end. His thin tongue flicked, catching Garulus’s attention.
“I’m not human.”
“Huh? Are you also a beastkin, Vivian? This is my first time seeing a snake beastkin!”
“I’m not a beastkin either.”
Garulus tilted his head at Vivian’s ambiguous answer.
“If you’re neither human nor beastkin, then what are you?”
“Good question. What am I?”
Mellis, noticing that his voice had become subtly lower, lifted Garulus up and said.
“Vivian is mixed-blood. Snake mixed-blood.”
“Mixed-blood? What is mixed-blood?”
Garulus, who clearly had no knowledge of the existence of mixed-bloods, looked at Vivian with a face full of curiosity.
“My mother is a snake beastkin, and my father is human. Those born between beastkin and humans like me are called mixed-bloods.”
“Ooh! So you’re both beastkin and human? That’s really cool!”
“Well, it’s actually the opposite.”
Despite his indifferent tone, Mellis briefly observed his mood. Vivian’s words meant that mixed-bloods were neither beastkin nor human.
Mellis, who had been watching over him for several years, knew well what kind of life Vivian had lived until now. Mixed-bloods were beings unwelcome by either humans or beastkin.
While the continent legally prohibited humans and beastkin from discriminating against each other, mixed-bloods didn’t belong to either category.
“Young master, but you can’t tell other people that I’m a mixed-blood. As you can see, it’s not particularly obvious from my appearance.”
“Why is it a secret?”
“That’s…”
Would it be alright to tell a child who didn’t even know mixed-bloods existed about the harsh reality they faced? Vivian seemed to have the same concerns as her, his brow slightly furrowed.
“Actually, other people…”
“Ah! You’re worried that others might be jealous of you?”
At Garulus’s innocent answer, Vivian’s lips curved into a faint arc.
“Hmm, let’s say that’s it.”
“I understand. I’ll keep the secret!”
Garulus nodded firmly and held up his pinky finger toward Vivian. Vivian let out a chuckle and extended his finger to meet it, muttering.
“I picked up quite an interesting young master.”
He then opened the Cabinet and rummaged through it for quite some time. The amount was considerable at first glance, showing how long he had been collecting.
“It should be around here somewhere…”
Before long, Vivian’s movements came to a subtle halt as he discovered something.
“Found it. I’m glad I didn’t throw it away back then.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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