The Baby Sprout Who Bloomed in the Villain Duke’s Family
Chapter 24
“No, Your Grace! It’s a misunderstanding! You are misunderstanding the situation right now!”
“What misunderstanding?”
“I was just standing still when the youngest lady suddenly popped out of nowhere and…”
“Popped out and?”
“Popped out and…”
The gazes of Count Sidu and Khalid shifted simultaneously toward the deep furrow left in the ground.
Anyone could see that it was a mark left from ‘mercilessly dragging’ a four-year-old child.
And the end of that trail led directly to where Clover had been sitting moments ago. Khalid tilted his head.
“I’ll ask again. What, exactly, is a misunderstanding?”
“I-it truly wasn’t me! The young lady suddenly appeared like that! As if she had been dragged from somewhere…!”
“Clover, is that true?”
Trembling, Clover buried her head deeply into Khalid’s embrace.
“Daddy, I’m scared.”
“I know.”
At Khalid’s gesture, Claudian knights appeared out of nowhere.
Noticing that things were taking an ominous turn, Count Sidu hastily scrambled backward.
“Y-Your Grace! This is truly a misunderstanding! It really isn’t what it looks like! Youngest Lady, please say something! Tell him it wasn’t me!”
“Convenient, as there were matters regarding you I needed to investigate anyway. Drag him away.”
The Claudian knights seized both of Count Sidu’s arms.
“Your Grace!”
Ignoring Count Sidu’s desperate cries, they dragged him away and vanished.
Having had Count Sidu removed from Clover’s sight, Khalid looked down at the tiny daughter nestled in his arms.
Her face was a mess, truly as though she had been dragged around by someone. And her clothes—the fresh dress she had just been put in was covered in dirt and would need to be changed.
“Daddy.”
Clover looked up at Khalid and asked,
“Is that mister gone?”
She looked utterly grubby, as if she had been buried in the dirt.
“Yes.”
“Is he not coming back?”
“Right. You won’t see him anymore.”
Clover stared blankly at the spot where Count Sidu had been dragged off and murmured,
“What a relief.”
Clover knew Count Sidu.
She had seen his face from afar a few times back when she was at Count Demper’s estate.
Every time, Count Sidu had approached Clover pretending to be kind and gentle, but in truth—
‘Hm, the Duke puts on quite a show of caring for her, but that can’t really be the case. Would even a duke find a youngest daughter dear when she doesn’t resemble him in the slightest? Especially one who can’t even use the Authority of the Storm.’
‘Claiming he’ll come get her when she turns ten? We’ll be fortunate if he doesn’t just saddle us with her permanently.’
He was a very bad person.
In cahoots with her aunt.
A villain who hated Clover.
That was why Clover hated the days Count Sidu came to Demper. On those days, she never crept out to the garden, staying holed up inside her room instead.
Yet to see him here again!
And on top of that.
“Ugh, whoa!”
[Clover!]
A black hand emerging from Count Sidu had grabbed Clover by the ankle, dragging her across the ground right before him.
Clover had been horrified to see that ‘amorphous hand’ connected to Count Sidu’s body.
It resembled the ‘smoke’ that came from her daddy’s body, but it was distinctly different. It was far more aggressive and vicious.
Yet.
“Could it be… the youngest lady?”
Why was he acting like he didn’t know, when he was the one who had dragged her over?
Moreover, Daddy didn’t seem to see the black hand extending from Count Sidu’s body either.
Could it be that it wasn’t visible to them?
Her hair still stood on end whenever she thought of that black hand. Even remembering Count Sidu frightened her. But if neither of them could see it…
‘Why am I the only one who can see it?’
She didn’t want to see scary things.
Besides, the moment her ankle was seized by that black hand, Clover had felt a terrifying, helpless powerlessness.
It was an emotion she had never experienced before in her short life.
The moment the trowel slipped from her grip, the moment she was dragged away unable to even grab hold of the grass, Clover had felt profoundly sad.
Sadder than having a cake she was eating taken away. Even sadder than dropping the single large strawberry on top of the cake onto the floor before she could take a single bite.
[Clover.]
Floating before Clover as she hung her head in dejection, Lucky spoke:
[You should tell your father about what you saw.]
“Mm…”
Clover had actually been thinking she ought to tell Daddy anyway.
Because Lucky had told her that when something happens to a child, stepping forward is what a ‘guardian’ is for. And right now was precisely a moment when ‘something’ had happened.
But what should she say? That a black hand suddenly reached out and snatched Clover?
And that the black hand was connected to Count Sidu?
Clover’s knuckles turned slightly pale as she tightly gripped the hem of her skirt.
‘What if he doesn’t believe me?’
It seemed like no one else could see that ‘hand’ except her.
What if he called her a liar?
Bad memories from Count Demper’s estate were slithering back out like snakes to torment Clover once more.
[Clover!]
Just then, Lucky cut in.
[If you can’t trust yourself, trust me. Your father will listen to you calmly. Just like I always listen calmly to everything you say to the very end.]
Golden light glittered and poured forth from Lucky’s body.
[Little one, speak up. This is something you must talk about. In my opinion, what came from his body seemed to be… ‘malice.’]
“Baby?”
[…Not a baby. …Anyway, hurry and tell your father, Clover.]
It was then.
Khalid, who had been looking down at Clover the whole time, met her eyes.
Golden eyes, warmer and more brilliant than the sun in the sky, shone down on Clover with gentle warmth.
Captivated by those eyes, Clover gazed blankly at Khalid as his handkerchief reached toward her cheek.
Rub.
And as if wiping something immensely precious, he gently cleaned the dirt from Clover’s cheek.
“Clover.”
“…Yeah.”
“May I ask what happened?”
“Yes.”
Clover nodded cautiously.
And inside, she turned Lucky’s words over and over in her mind.
Daddy will listen to me calmly.
Just like Lucky always listened to me to the end.
Without ignoring me like the others at Demper did…
Just then, Khalid muttered under his breath,
“Because I need to hear what you say before deciding whether to — that man in half or fold him up and — him…”
“!!”
Clover jumped in shock.
Hearing about the ‘black hand’ from Clover, Khalid’s expression grew serious.
‘Such a thing grabbed her?’
Count Sidu’s Authority was the ‘Authority of the Tailwind,’ which shared the same nature as the Claudian family’s Authority.
There was no reason for something like a black hand to appear, nor did he possess the power to produce one.
Yet Clover did not seem to be lying. Furthermore,
‘Those drag marks.’
And the dirt-covered child.
Those were undeniably marks from a child being dragged. Circumstantially, it was clear evidence that someone had dragged the child right in front of Count Sidu.
“You don’t believe me?”
Freshly washed and squeaky clean, Clover squirmed.
“I believe you.”
Khalid answered immediately without a moment’s hesitation.
He felt her small body deflate. She seemed to have let out a sigh of relief.
“Lucky said it looked like a baby. Said Daddy had to know too.”
“…A baby?”
“Ba-by.”
“……”
What could look like a baby?
Having raised four children including Clover, Khalid was well-versed in toddler pronunciation, but this puzzle was quite difficult.
Growing slightly frustrated when Khalid didn’t quite understand, Clover explained again.
“Baby, bad thoughts.”
“Bad thou… Ah.”
Baby,
bad thoughts.
Deducing intently from the clues Clover provided, Khalid finally inferred the true identity of the ‘baby.’
“You meant ‘malice,’ didn’t you?”
“Uh-huh, baby!”
“Yes, baby.”
Khalid gently stroked Clover’s hair. However, the more they talked, the more a certain curiosity arose.
What on earth was the true identity of Clover’s summon?
Summons usually grew alongside their Authority wielders, so Clover’s summon should reasonably have the intelligence of a four-year-old.
Yet listening to the child, the golden four-leaf clover that followed her everywhere seemed less like a four-year-old and more like a sage. A mature adult privy to the secrets of the world.
‘Just what is Clover’s summon…?’
