21 - The Youngest is Hiding a Lot
Chapter 21
"Void, hyung!"”
I stormed into Void’s room right away.
“Ugh! You startled me!”
Void was sitting at his desk, scribbling something.
“Oh, uh?”
Void hurriedly covered his notebook. A diary… or something else.
“Do you have a map here?”
“A map?”
“Yeah!”
“Of course, I do….”
Void rummaged through his bookshelf and easily pulled out a map of the territory. It was covered with markings for shops, convenience stores, lodging, and more.
“Wow, thanks!”
“But why do you need a map?”
“Ah, Old Duke asked me to go out with him tomorrow. I’m trying to study up beforehand.”
“Grandfather… asked? You met Grandfather?”
Void turned his head like a creaky, broken machine.
“You look pale. What’s wrong?”
“Grandfather is… a bit much….”
“What? He seems quite spry… no, a very healthy person.”
“…He took Liam and me to the northern mountains in the middle of the night to train us….”
Ahhh. Void slumped onto his desk, looking like someone recalling a nightmare.
What did they do in the northern mountains…?
I’m curious, but it’s like a box that shouldn’t be opened, so I shouldn’t ask….
“Anyway, be careful.”
Void advised with an uncharacteristically serious face.
Then he opened the books on his desk again.
“If you’re going to look at the map, sit there and look. I’m not done studying yet….”
“But what were you writing so diligently just now?”
“Just now? Oh, a diary.”
Void answered seriously.
I burst out laughing. A diary! I thought he was always scheming about card games!
“A diary? I didn’t know you were such a diligent type, brother.”
“…Don’t even think about peeking.”
It’s human nature to want to do what you’re told not to.
As I slithered closer, Void hugged his diary with both arms.
“But I think I saw the name Ruby earlier. What did you write?”
“Ah, don’t look!”
“Just tell me what you wrote!”
“I’m not going to tell you!”
“You swore!”
“No! I didn’t!”
“You did!”
“I didn’t… Okay, I did!”
“Wow. I’m definitely going to see it.”
Bickering.
The evening deepened.
\ \ \
In the end, I couldn’t peek at the diary.
I’ll have to try again next time….
“Ugh, so fluffy.”
Late at night.
After a clean shower, I dove into bed. A clean body, a clean bed. The best!
Hazel chuckled and drew the curtains.
“You shouldn’t sleep too late, okay?”
“Okay!”
“If you need anything, just ring the bell anytime.”
“I will! Good night, Hazel.”
“Eee.”
Unable to resist, Hazel hugged me tightly. Hehe. It’s a little awkward, but warm.
“You’re going out tomorrow, right? I should pack some snacks.”
“Thanks!”
Hazel smiled and left the bedroom.
I lay on the sun-scented bedding and looked at the map.
After a long time of doing so.
The tightly closed door slid open.
“…What, why aren’t you asleep?”
Uncle stopped dead in his tracks, having been trying to sneak in quietly. He straightened his hunched back.
Uncle smelled of the incense that had been coming from Void’s room. It seemed he had stopped by that room first.
A father returning home at dawn and checking on his children’s rooms. How touching.
“I heard you had a stomachache?”
“Huh?”
“I heard you were cooped up in your room all day.”
Uncle closed the door with a click and walked straight over.
Ah, that’s right. I forgot.
“You don’t look like you do, judging by your expression.”
One side of the bed sank heavily.
“So, you’re sulking.”
Uncle smiled as he brushed my forehead.
His loosely unbuttoned shirt carried the cool air of the outside.
“Did someone bully you? Tell me.”
“No one bullied me…. Ah.”
Oops.
I belatedly remembered what happened with Old Duke. Come to think of it… I just ran out like that, and that was it?
Actually, what was really bothering me was the news of the Archmage Kingdom that Khalid had told me, but there was no way I could tell him the truth.
Instead, I brought up a smokescreen worry.
“Does Old Duke dislike me?”
“Yeah. It was Father, after all.”
“What if he keeps opposing me being here? Will he kick me out?”
“I guess I should get rid of the passage leading to the north annex.”
“Stop joking.”
I thumped Uncle’s arm.
Uncle brushed the hair that was stuck to my forehead. A hand that felt rough with calluses.
“I told you, right? No one can force you to do something you don’t want to do.”
“……”
“Do what you want to do. If you want to stay, then stay.”
It’s strange. Whenever Uncle says things like this, I become speechless.
My toes keep twitching… and my chest tickles like I’m about to sneeze.
I liked it when Uncle said things like this to me.
His gruff and rough, but the way he treated me as if I were something precious warmed my heart.
But on the other hand….
‘I feel guilty for some reason.’
I was a liar.
I hadn’t told Uncle the truth about anything.
If my secret were to be revealed… would Uncle still be able to say these things to me then?
The tickling feeling in my heart now stung.
\ \ \
Leviathan listened to the servants’ reports as soon as he returned from the northern outpost.
Most of them were about Void and Rubian.
He looked at Void’s sleeping face once and headed straight for Rubian’s bedroom. He had been worried about leaving the castle with that crazy old man alone.
Of course, Rubian was being protected by capable mercenary maids, and Duke Maurice, Old Duke’s aide, was not an easy person to deal with either.
Anyway.
“What, why aren’t you asleep?”
He had expected her to be asleep, but Rubian was rolling around on the bed.
Her clear eyes turned to him.
Soon, a happy expression spread across her face.
‘She looks okay.’
He had been worried because she had suddenly run up to her room during the day and hadn’t come out for a while.
But he couldn’t let his guard down. Rubian was used to hiding her emotions.
“Does Old Duke dislike me? What if he keeps opposing me being here? Will he kick me out?”
That old man, as expected.
Leviathan clenched his fist tightly without showing it.
He had roughly seen during the day that the old man already had a crush on Rubian. He just had to act stubborn like that.
Because of that stubbornness, Void and Liam had also gotten a bad first impression of him, and they still didn’t get along….
‘Not that I’m one to talk.’
Damn it. This is why family education is important.
Leviathan stroked Rubian’s forehead as she looked up at him. He could feel her warm body temperature.
Her blue eyes were shaking uneasily. He felt a pang of anxiety for no reason.
“I told you, right? No one can force you to do something you don’t want to do. Do what you want to do. If you want to leave….”
He stopped there and closed his lips. Words that he had almost blurted out without realizing it.
If you want to leave?
Then is it okay to leave?
…That’s right.
If that’s what Rubian wants.
“……”
But for some reason, the words didn’t come out easily.
If the downy silver hair that touched his fingertips were to disappear before his eyes….
For some reason, he felt like his heart was dropping all the way to his toes.
He kept getting anxious when he saw Rubian.
It felt like he was seeing a mirage.
It felt like she would suddenly abandon him and disappear somewhere.
It was strange. She was the child who had insisted on sticking by his side and had stubbornly followed him all the way to the north.
“Uncle?”
A clear voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Are you okay?”
The child had half-raised herself and was looking at him with worried eyes.
