Youngest on Top - Chapter 154

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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 154

* * *

My breath came in ragged gasps, rising all the way to my throat.
In my long existence, I had never been chased away in such a manner.

‘When the Brothers hunted me in the Celestial Realm, I counterattacked and hid.’

Enrik: It was far more than just a counterattack.
Enrik: Do you know how many buildings you destroyed while causing chaos and fleeing?!
Kailros: Those are precious memories between me and my beloved youngest brother.
Enrik: …You call that a memory?

I was desperately anxious, yet Enrik and Kailros were simply chattering away.

Kailros: It was a game of affectionate tag, wasn’t it?
Kailros: When my little brother laughed and said “Catch me if you can~!” it was truly endearing.
Enrik: ….

‘When did I ever do that?!’

Enrik: You must have serious trauma. You remember it that way?

While listening to this nonsense, the adults drew closer.
The thought of using Sacred Power to escape flickered through my mind, but I quickly abandoned it.

‘If I use Sacred Power to flee and they take offense, the aftermath will be unbearable.’

If they began to grieve, asking whether I hated them that much, a greater calamity would follow.

‘I need to hide for now.’

I glanced around frantically, but there was nowhere to hide.
Then, footsteps and a voice reached my ears.

“Apple, where are you?”
“Why do you keep looking for someone else’s child?”
“Someone else’s child? Apple is my apple.”

There was no time to waste.
I dove hastily between the flower beds and curled myself up like a cream puff.

.
.

Meanwhile.
The adults who had been bickering while chasing Saelika came to a halt.
The child who had been heading this way was nowhere to be seen.
Instead—.

“Ahem, where on earth could our apple be?”
“How swift, like a tiger! I simply can’t find her!”
“Hmm, our precious little treasure doesn’t seem to be here~?”

The adults called out in loud voices with beaming smiles on their faces.
Each time, a small yellow head popped up between the flower beds, tilting this way and that.

‘Kekeke! Whose child is this? She’s absolutely adorable!’
‘Perhaps I should make Apple my own daughter after all….’

The adults slowed their steps and approached the flower beds.

“I really can’t find her.”
“Should we look somewhere else~?”

Feigning such indifference.
And the moment they drew close to the flower beds.

“Got you!”

Debon Elder cried out loudly and peered into the flower beds.
However.

“…?!”

The flower garden was empty.
Only the lush, fully bloomed flowers greeted me.

“What? They’re not here?”
“Where did they go?”

Just moments ago, I had seen that yellow head tilting in confusion right here.

“My little treasure….”
“My bundle of joy….”
“My apple….”
“My tiger….”
“My rabbit….”

In an instant, the adults’ faces became like raccoons who had just washed away their cotton candy.

* * *

I was startled by the hand suddenly covering my mouth.
Even though my attention was entirely on the adults, I hadn’t sensed any presence.
My opponent was incredibly skilled!

‘What? Could Parmanase be making a move?’

I was about to kick out, but my leg was blocked.

‘They’re stopping me?!’

“Don’t you think it would be good to break the habit of throwing punches first?”

A soft voice resonated near my ear.
At the same time, the hand covering my mouth released me.

“Shu— Your Highness the Crown Prince?”

When I turned around, Shuri chuckled softly.

“Come to think of it, my habit of throwing punches first doesn’t seem so bad after all. Next time something like this happens, make sure to knock me down.”
“…Are you hinting at something?”
“I’m serious.”
“I don’t exactly have bad hand habits. In a situation like this, anyone would—.”
“Why are you making excuses? Who said you had bad hand habits?”

Then what did he mean by that?!
But pressing the matter further would only put me at a disadvantage.
Still, it felt like I was losing if I just let it go, so I spoke with a sullen tone.

“It was my foot.”
“…?”
“My fist didn’t come out first. It was my foot that came out.”

Shuri laughed.
So I became even more sullen.

Just then, a voice came from beyond the flower bed.

“Hmm, our little treasure doesn’t seem to be here~?”
“I really have no idea.”
“Should we look somewhere else~?”

Do they think I’m a child?
They think I’ll fall for it if they say things like that while approaching?

“Come this way for now.”

Shuri pulled me toward the rose bushes in the back.
I thought it would be densely packed, but surprisingly there was space underneath.
We passed through and hid.

“It’s a bit cramped.”
“Would you rather have gotten caught?”
“You used to at least pretend to be polite before, but now you don’t even do that.”
“Why? There are few people I speak formally to. I think I’m being quite the gentleman with you.”

Shuri smiled with his eyes narrowed to slits.
Each time he whispered, his breath tickled my forehead, and from the rose bushes I leaned against came a fragrance so thick it was nearly suffocating.
Shuri among the roses was remarkably fitting.

‘…That formal speech is just because he dislikes me.’

It had been that way since we first met at the coronation.
I wondered why he disliked me.

“Your body.”
“My body?”
“You were injured back then.”
“Ah, right.”

Shuri nodded as if he had just remembered.

“It still hurts a bit.”

I regarded Shuri with a skeptical gaze.
His response seemed somewhat like malingering.
Wasn’t it that he was never injured in the first place?

“I don’t feel pain well.”
“…I see.”

Why he couldn’t feel pain well was obvious.
Because of the curse.

“You’re worried.”
“….”
“It’s strange. Why do you look so pitiful when I say I don’t feel pain well?”
“What am I doing.”
“Here.”

Shuri’s fingertips pressed firmly against the corner of my eye and slid away.
This time he pressed the corner of my lips.

“And this trembled.”
“….”

Shuri’s eyes held an unreadable light.
I stared at him before blurting out my words.

“Your Highness, you seem to dislike me quite a lot?”
“Me?”
“Here.”

I poked the space between his brows with my fingertip.
Then his lips.

“And it’s written here. That you dislike me.”
“…That can’t be right.”

Shuri chuckled softly.
As he moved, my fingertip pressing against his lips trembled.

“Why did Your Highness suddenly come looking for me?”
“Just good intentions. You seemed to be hiding, so I thought I’d help.”
“The real reason you came looking.”

Shuri regarded me with a very intrigued expression.

“I heard there was an incident in the Kingdom of Bennayser.”

Ah.
Now I understand why he came looking for me.

“Two princes proposed to you, I heard.”
“If it’s about the Caston trade agreement, His Imperial Majesty—”

I stopped mid-sentence.
What did I just hear?

“Pardon?”
“They proposed to you, I heard.”
“….”
“Or not?”
“No! What do you mean I received a proposal….”

Well, Habid is just a child, and there’s talk of concubines and queens and all that, but.

“Something seems to be bothering you.”
“Bothering me? Over a child’s joke?”
“So it happened.”

Shuri’s eyes narrowed.
His gaze—a mixture of blue, red, and gold—gleamed with a chilling light.

“Then King Bennayser really did propose a marriage arrangement.”
“No, what marriage proposal are you talking about…”

I was just being overly grateful to my savior.
Shuri examined my face and spoke.

“Really?”

A chill ran down my spine.
Goosebumps rose across my skin.

The next moment, Shuri smiled. Playfully.

“Don’t tell me you’ve already become a married woman? The way we’re lying here together in the rose bushes—isn’t your husband getting jealous?”
“That’s not it!!”

I burst out shouting.

“Found it!”
“The apple was growing on the rose tree?”

The adults came rushing over.
I looked to the side in surprise, but Shuri had already vanished.

‘Why did he even come here?’

Did he really come just to ask me that?
The more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

‘Whether I received a proposal or not—what does it have to do with him!’

Even that was difficult to manage with such vigor.

“Mmm-mmm! I thought I’d die not seeing our little blessing all this time.”
“Come here! I must give those soft cheeks a kiss!”

The Elders wouldn’t let go of me.

“Please, stop. The child’s cheeks will wear away.”
“Then you don’t do it.”
“…! How cruel!”

I sighed in defeat, exhaling a long breath.
The sky was unusually blue.

* * *

While Saelika was internally screaming, wedged between the temple family members.
Shuri was watching from above.

“He almost made me run away.”

The Retainers who had been hiding their bodies nodded at those words.

“Phew, I was really startled. I almost ran away from the master myself. Suddenly my skin crawled….”
“Why did you react like that all of a sudden? You’re usually not one to be shaken.”
“….”

Shuri gave no answer.
Since his master wasn’t normally talkative, the Retainers didn’t pay it much mind.

“But master, why did you come to see the little Sacred Maiden today?”
“It wasn’t because of the proposal, was it?”

At his subordinates’ words, Shuri let out a hollow laugh.

“That’s impossible.”

With that dismissal, Shuri left the place.
The remaining Retainers tilted their heads in confusion.

“Then why did you only ask the Sacred Maiden that question?”
“Our master must have had his reasons.”
“True, why would our master take such interest in someone else’s marriage?”
“He watches the Sacred Maiden because something seemed suspicious about it. He must have discovered something we don’t know.”

The retainers nodded in understanding, convinced by their own logic.

“If it weren’t for our master, I would’ve thought some adolescent boy was just hovering around a girl he likes without even realizing his own feelings!”
“But since it’s our master, that can’t be it.”
“Absolutely not.”

The retainers laughed heartily, as if the very idea was absurd.

* * *

“Wow… that’s quite something.”

Ilay marveled as he looked at me.

“Your appearance… it looks like you’ve been through a war.”
“I’d rather have gone through a war.”

After the adults found out, all hell broke loose.
It wasn’t some passionate reunion greeting.
It was a baptism of kisses from hell itself.

“Didn’t you say only Edmund and one Elder would come? Why did everyone show up?”
“I didn’t expect everyone to come either.”
“You didn’t expect it?”
“The communication cut out at the end.”
“Ah.”

I was nodding in acknowledgment when—

“…You only called Edmund?”

When I turned my head, Dmitri stood there with a shocked expression.

“I’m not calling you that.”
“Dmitri….”
“That’s disappointing.”

Dmitri approached and bowed at the waist.
One eyebrow raised in a slanted, leisurely smirk.
Dmitri tilted his head.

“You like that guy more than me?”
“Of course.”

The answer didn’t come from me, but from somewhere else.
Edmund lifted his chin with arrogance.

“The youngest prefers refined people like me over a brute like you.”
“So now they call being insufferable ‘refined’?”

Sparks flew between Dmitri and Edmund.
I watched their display with clouded eyes, then shook my head.

“If you’re going to fight, take it outside.”
“Fine, Sae will stay with me anyway.”

The two young men glared at Ilay simultaneously.
But gratefully, they didn’t fight further and quietly approached my side.

“Don’t send me away. I missed you so much.”

At Dmitri’s words, I finally smiled.

“I missed you too.”
“Did you hear that? The youngest missed this Dmitri—.”
“What I asked for?”

At my words, Edmund grinned widely.

“Of course I prepared it.”

* * *

The next day.
I invited Grizelda Princess to visit.
Grizelda sipped her tea with elegant grace before speaking.

“You could have given me some warning. I was shocked. I even heard rumors that you’d died.”
“I didn’t expect such talk to spread. But naturally, I wouldn’t have told the Princess everything.”
“….”
“Because the Princess is testing me as well.”
“…I won’t deny it. I know you have considerable talent. But—.”
“What the Princess truly desires isn’t that, is it?”

There was only one thing Grizelda Princess wanted.
To save her younger brother, who had locked himself away from the world behind sealed doors.

“…I trust that the Sacred Maiden, with her outstanding abilities, will surely keep her promise.”
“I can repay that trust.”
“…?”

Grizelda’s face, which had been regarding me with confusion, gradually lit up with understanding.

“Have you found it?”

Instead of answering, I turned my gaze away.
At my signal, Dmitri removed the cloth that had been covering the sculpture.

“This is….”

Grizelda’s eyes trembled.

“The three angel sculptures that the Princess has been searching for so desperately.”
“…!”

Grizelda reached out with trembling hands to touch the sculpture.
After caressing the sculpture for a long moment and composing herself, Grizelda looked at me.

“From now on, you need not hold back your words from me.”
“….”
“From this moment forward, I will always stand by your side.”

Grizelda, who wielded considerable influence in high society among the Emperor’s children.
The moment she fell into my hands.
I smiled wickedly.

“Before that, I should take this sculpture to the Prince.”

* * *

Roiland Prince, Grizelda’s full brother.
He was confined to a remote corner of the imperial palace.

“…Roi.”

Grizelda touched Roiland Prince’s cheek gently.

“I’ll help you, brother. So you can face the world again. So you can remember happy moments and want to live once more.”

Grizelda grasped Roiland Prince’s hand and brought it to the three angel sculpture.
Roiland Prince showed no reaction, his eyes vacant and hollow.

‘…Well, I’ve kept my promise, so it’s not really my concern anymore.’

Watching such a young child in this state left me with an unpleasant feeling.

‘I’ll just strengthen Enrik’s blessing a bit more.’

I cannot heal a prince whose heart has closed itself off.
But I can amplify Enrik’s blessing that dwells within the sculpture.

I placed my hand upon the three angel sculpture.
And—.

“…!”

My vision darkened, then brightened.
A hazy image flashed through my mind.
I immediately understood what was happening.

‘This is the sight that Roiland Prince is seeing…!’

The scene that Enrik was now witnessing through his blessing became visible to my eyes as well.
The three angel statues we held together and my sacred power served as the medium.
And the image revealed was—.

‘…Shuri?’

It was Shuri’s appearance from childhood.
A form so impossibly young and soft-looking that I couldn’t have imagined it.

‘Could it be that Shuri was involved in what happened to Roiland Prince?!’

—————
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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