Youngest 069

Episode 69

[Damn it, finally—]

‘Kal!’

[Where are you, Ruby?]

Though he tried to keep his voice steady, I could hear it trembling on the verge of breaking. I answered at once.

‘I’m at Ipsen Mountain!’

Fumbling, I touched my earlobe and closed my eyes. I could feel Licht’s gaze on me, but I had no choice. I just hoped it looked like I was only dizzy.

‘Honestly, I’m not sure exactly where. Licht and Lady Titi are hurt, but I caught the bad guys…’

[And you.]

‘Huh?’

[Are you hurt anywhere?]

‘I’m fine.’

A deep, long sigh followed.

[Stay right there. Don’t cut off the circuit. I’ll be there right away.]

His voice sent a shiver down my spine. For some reason, my nose stung.

[Don’t do anything reckless, don’t use your mana. Understand?]

‘Mmhm. I understand.’

I had no idea how he’d find me, but I didn’t bother to ask. Kal had always found me by the most extraordinary means, no matter where I hid.

After finishing the brief exchange with Kal, the stiff tension in my shoulders finally melted away. I hadn’t realized how tightly I’d been wound.

“Rubian, you look the worst out of all of us. Come here, rest for a minute.”

Licht drew me over, and I leaned against him.

‘Hurry, my backup battery…’

Just as I was about to lower my head onto my knees, something tumbled out of my coat.

“Rubian, here.”

Titi picked it up—a small object wrapped in a handkerchief—and handed it to me.

“A bell…? Is it a small bell?”

Ah.

I blankly accepted it. I’d forgotten that I’d wrapped it in a handkerchief and tucked it away to keep it from making a sound.

Licht watched me silently as I held the bell in my hand.

“Did Lord Zevert give you that?”

I nodded, faintly.

At that, Titi, who had been fighting back tears, buried her face in her hands again.

“I miss my father… and my mother.”

“Hic… Me too…”

Olivia bit her lip and hugged Titi.

“If you keep crying, you’ll get even more tired, my ladies. That’s enough now.”

Licht soothed the two gently.

Thrown unexpectedly into the depths of the forest, the children of noble families were surely terrified.

“If only someone would just get here already…”

Clutching the bell in one hand, I drew my knees close and huddled. I stared blankly at the sparking fire.

‘Father…’

The task I’d postponed during the chaos of the kidnapping now pressed down upon me.

‘Is he worried sick about me?’

He must have heard by now. Maybe he was frantically looking for me this very moment.

Had he met Rosetta Zevert as well…?

If so, he would have learned I was a girl.

‘How am I supposed to face him now…?’

I turned my head and buried my brow in my knees.

‘If I borrowed some mana from Kal, I could… erase the memories…’

No, no. I couldn’t tamper with the memories of everyone in the Zevert family.

Shaking my head left me dizzy. Only when I hugged my shoulders did I realize I was trembling.

‘What else can I do…? All I can do is beg for forgiveness until he’s willing to give it.’

The truth was, I already knew.

There was no way out.

I’d just ended up taking the punishment now that I’d surely face sooner or later—and it couldn’t be avoided any longer.

He might not know my secret about being a magician, but he’d surely be angry about why I lied about my gender. And, of course, he’d have every right to be.

All I could do was apologize, plead, and ask if I could still stay by his side.

“Father… would never come to this graveyard.”

Still, if—if he said he could never raise a daughter, what would I do then?

‘Is he regretting it now?’

Regretting telling me to call him Father…

Titi and Liv’s teary voices, calling for their mother and father, rang in my ears.

What I really wanted to do was break down and cry myself, but I didn’t know whose name to cry out, so I just kept quiet.

---

“My lord!”

A knight raced over. The old man, exuding a fierce aura, whipped his head around.

“Have you found her? Did you find her?!”

“We found a trail—a carriage wheel track! But the rain’s washed out most of it…”

Crack! A pin he gripped in his hand crumbled to powder. It had been found in the alley where Rubian disappeared.

“I’ll kill them all… Just kill them all and…”

“Please, you must calm yourself!”

Black energy began to seep from him.

His fists were clenched so tightly they’d gone white, his face stricken with misery.

“What kind of absurd nonsense is this?!”

The child had vanished.

And what else?

Word was, the child wasn’t a boy but a girl.

He couldn’t even make sense of what had happened. Where had it all gone wrong?

No, more importantly—

He’d heard Rubian had fled, terrified, when her secret came to light.

Balok stifled a groan of anguish, clenching his eyes shut.

‘No, no. My child.’

That doesn’t matter at all.

You are something precious, irreplaceable, by your very existence.

Nothing else matters.

“Seal off Ipsen completely and send knights to Ipsen Mountain! Tell that idiot Camelan and that fool Olsen as well!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“What about Leviathan?”

“He’s already searching Ipsen Mountain!”

“Let’s go!”

Clatter. Balok threw his ruined sword to the ground. Men soaked in blood writhed in the underground prison.

They were the criminals who had failed to escape.

“Heal them. Don’t let them lose consciousness.”

The old man’s beast-like gaze looked down at the foam-flecked wretches as if they were insects.

“From now on, I’ll show you what real hell looks like.”

The tracks from the carriage disappeared midway into the forest.

Leviathan scoured Ipsen Mountain without rest for a single moment. The knights following soon fell behind, but that didn’t matter.

Even when his horse collapsed from exhaustion, he discarded his mount without hesitation and pressed on through the woods alone.

Barreling through brambles and overturning animal carcasses, he wondered if perhaps all of this was just a dream.

“Leviathan!”

From a distance, Rosetta came riding hard.

She paused for a moment when she saw Leviathan’s face.

His utter lack of expression was chilling. No emotion could be found in his blank, inorganic gaze; he seemed less a man than some dangerously wild creature.

‘Just like on the battlefield…’

Rosetta bit her lip and gripped Leviathan’s hand tightly.

“You need to calm down. You’re barely breathing.”

“Rose, I…”

His cracked voice barely made it out.

“I really don’t know. I don’t know what I’ve done, or why Ruby couldn’t tell the truth…”

Whatever it was—

“This is all my fault.”

In truth, every misfortune befalling the child was down to his own stupidity.

He wanted nothing more than to rip himself apart.

He hadn’t even known what had been troubling her, only basking in the joy of being called ‘Father.’ The memory stabbed him like a knife.

“Damn it. I…”

Just then.

Jingle—

“…!”

Leviathan jerked up his head.

“Levi?”

“Wait a moment, Rose.”

Jingle— Jingle—

A faint bell sound trickled through the falling rain.

“When you want to call me, just ring the bell. I’ll hear it.”

His gaze snapped northward.

No way.

Just as Leviathan, eyes wide, prepared to dash forward—someone blocked his path.

A rain-soaked boy had dropped from a tree before him.

“My lord.”

Khalid steadied his breath and, without a moment’s hesitation, spoke:

A cave. Northern slope.