Youngest 220

Episode 220

Kal furrowed his brow, tilting his head.

What was that supposed to mean? Wasn’t he planning to head to the Mage Kingdom without Ruby?

“Don’t check on anything ahead of time. Just… just stay where you are.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir.”

“I just can’t let her handle all this alone…”

At that moment, a short tremor ran from deeper within the cave.

“Duke?”

Shiiiiing. Boom! A hollow roar echoed down the stone walls.

There must have been a magical beast hiding inside the cave.

“Khalid.”

Leon gripped his sword tightly.

“There’s no time to lose. Let’s find another exit.”

The two of them hurriedly gathered the child and climbed up the cliff.

The girl, who had been sniveling, took a long while to recover from the shock that what she’d been handed had actually been a self-destruct artifact. At last, she managed to speak.

“Um, it’s a cave covered in illusion magic…”

“You don’t strike me as strong enough to cast magic over the whole cave.”

Khalid cut in coldly. The girl shrank back but spoke again.

“There’s a high-level magical beast sleeping in that cave; it’s the one casting the illusion spell. I just lured it to the entrance… The deeper you go, the thicker the magic becomes.”

Leon, who had been quietly listening, finally stepped forward.

“They said illusion magic preys on a person’s weaknesses.”

“Yeah… Most people realize it’s fake and can overcome it once they do… but if the beast attacks in the meantime…”

“Then His Grace will never fall victim, will he.”

“Really…?”

“He is not weak.”

Leon spoke firmly.

---

Leviathan cut through the swarming magical beasts as if he’d rehearsed it.

“So there were beasts like this lying dormant.”

If I’d made a mistake, the children could have been hurt.

With a chill running down his spine, he strode through the mist-laced cave.

“Sigh…”

He desperately wanted to escape this place, to see Rubyian or Rosetta, to confirm it himself.

Crack. The note in his hand was crushed without care.

…It hurts…

Fleeting illusions appeared and vanished, trying to snare his steps.

Little Rubyian, crying after a fall, for example.

Ah, Father…

Or the face of young Void, frightened and running from him.

So you really don’t understand me.

Or the back of Liam, who shut himself up and wouldn’t speak to him after being scolded for touching books without permission.

Rosetta turning away from him, his once-strong father now frail and ailing, his mother passing away after a long illness—all images that prodded places deep inside him. Each was a memory fraught with pain, fear, or regret.

“So this is illusion magic.”

Leviathan swept away the fakes with his blade.

“…Hah.”

Beating the vision of little, battle-hardened Rubyian looking up at him from the trenches was the hardest.

But regardless, he pressed on, hacking away the darkness clutching at his feet.

Chirp, chirp—a squirrel, Khalid’s familiar, wriggled excitedly on his shoulder as if in encouragement.

At a fork in the path, it scampered ahead and pointed left.

“You’re the best-behaved of all the children here.”

Leviathan followed the squirrel down the left path. The aura of the magical beast grew ever stronger.

Defeating the high-level beast guarding the cave would likely reveal the exit as well.

< How does it feel to have lost something without even knowing it? >

The message from the note spun endlessly in his mind.

“Lost…”

There was only one thing that had ever truly been stolen from him in his life.

Breathing hard, he clutched at his left chest—where he carried a locket with baby Rubyian’s portrait, and another with a family photo.

A chill foreboding clawed up Leviathan’s spine.

He no longer knew what to hope for.

Should he pray his child was alive? Or hope it was not so, for that truth would be too cruel?

He didn’t know.

“For now… just keep going.”

His steps would not falter.

“Chirp!”

Just then, a low rumble echoed down the tunnel. The squirrel bolted off somewhere in a flash.

Leviathan’s eyes flashed.

A magical beast.

The moment he tightened his grip on his sword—

Drip.

Water fell from the ceiling above.

His eyelids reflexively fluttered.

“…Huh.”

Suddenly, an inviting dining room stretched before his eyes.

“I’m pregnant.”

A woman with sumptuous pink hair spoke. The moment was hauntingly familiar.

Leviathan furrowed his brow, glancing down.

Why am I holding a fork and knife? Where’s my sword?

“I said I’m having a baby.”

“…”

“A child. Yours and mine.”

Clatter! He pushed back his chair and stood.

“Damnable illusion magic…”

Apparently, this must be forcing him through past memories.

Looking around, it seemed to be the time Rosetta first told him she was pregnant.

Maybe because he was now in the lair of the high-level beast, it all felt uncannily real.

“I love you, Leviathan.”

Drip.

Again, a bead of water fell.

Like the blink of an eye, the scene changed in an instant.

“I’m going to visit my family for a bit. My father’s fallen ill.”

Rosetta was packing.

Her gently rounded belly filled him with awe and tenderness.

Leviathan looked down at his hands; they were empty now.

But the sensation of that first flutter of life was vivid and crisp.

What should he do with these hands?

“I was wrong.”

He needed to apologize.

He hugged Rosetta from behind, and she shot him a short glare.

“So you know? I told you—Del is just a friend. He came to congratulate us and so I treated him to dinner, that’s all… Did you have to rag on me over it all night long?”

“You’re pregnant; I wasn’t that harsh… Okay. Fine.”

Surrendering, Leviathan gently ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek.

“Then why keep calling me pet names?”

“Hah.”

“You have a long, respectable name—Delivius.”

Rosetta let out a dry laugh.

“There’s your answer, isn’t it? It’s too long!”

“…”

“See? No remorse at all. Go on, get out.”

As Rosetta tried to wave him away, Leviathan pulled her into a tight embrace again.

“No, I mean it. I’m sorry.”

“Maybe you’d rather just lock me up in your chamber? Change all the staff to women while you’re at it.”

“I never expected it would work out that way…”

“You’re impossible.”

Rosetta snapped her trunk closed with her foot. Outside, her maid appeared to heft the mountain of luggage.

“I’m off, then. Make sure you get those beasts wiped out… and don’t get hurt.”

Already she was climbing into the carriage.

With the magical beasts appearing so often in the north, she had woken many nights in terror. Her belly had started to tighten from the constant strain.

Leviathan had advanced the spring subjugation and Rosetta had decided to recover in an outlying estate for a while.

Her foster father’s illness had recently been reported, giving her an excuse to visit the western region as well.

“…Alright.”

He nodded, and the carriage departed.

Leviathan stared numbly after her.

Don’t go.

Someone seemed to cry out in his mind.

Don’t let her leave!

With a thunderous shout in his head, he dashed outside to stop the carriage.

“Rose—Rosetta!”

“Leviathan?”

“Don’t go. Please. Please, don’t go.”

“What’s wrong? You’re… you’re sweating.”

Rosetta opened the door, startled.

“Send your father a letter instead. This isn’t right. No matter what, I’ll handle all the beasts. You’ll be safe inside the castle. So please…”

“…”

“Don’t go.”

“Leviathan.”

“Don’t go. I’m begging you.”

Please.

Leviathan fell to his knees in front of the carriage. Rosetta, startled, stepped down using a footstool brought by the attendants.

“O…okay, I won’t go. So please get up. What are you doing?”

As he felt her soft arms enfold him, Leviathan squeezed his eyes shut.

Thank goodness.

Thank the gods…

Drip.

Somewhere, water fell. He never noticed.

Childbirth was agony.

He would rather have tumbled down a flight of stairs, bitten by a magical beast, or beaten black and blue with a club than gone through that pain.

He was so tense and anxious he thought his heart might jump from his chest. His body and mind were both tormented.

And if he felt that way—what must it be like for Rosetta?

Leviathan paced the waiting room, trembling.

Next to him, Balok sat in a daze on the floor, exhausted from raising a ruckus demanding his daughter-in-law be saved.

Surely, this can’t be right.

That my wife suffer so much—it seemed utterly unjust.

His mind hanging by a thread, Leviathan was about to leave the room, not knowing what to do.

“Y-y-y-your Grace!”

Adolf dashed over, hair a complete mess.

“She’s born! She’s here!”

“What!”

Balok sprang to his feet.

Then—

WAHHHHHHH!

As if on cue, a mighty newborn’s cry echoed through the entire ducal mansion.

“Ha…!”

Stumbling a little, Leviathan raced to the birthing chamber.

He gently soothed the sweat-drenched Rosetta, whispered his love, pressed his lips to hers, and stifled the tears that kept welling up.

Then he met the child, swaddled tight.

“See, my Lord? A beautiful young Lady.”

“Ah…”

A wrinkled little life lay there, barely able to open her eyes.

So small.

…and… ugly, he thought privately.

But how strange it was.

In the blink of an eye—or perhaps even less—he found himself loving someone so completely.

Such beings really do exist in this world.

At that moment, the baby’s eyelids fluttered.

“My, she has Lady Rosetta’s beautiful blue eyes.”

As the maid marveled at the child’s eyes, Rosetta, lying in bed, murmured from afar.

“Then, Ruby…”

“What was that?”

Leviathan quickly moved closer to catch her whisper.

“If we name her Ruby… you’ll be there, too.”

His wife smiled faintly, glancing at his purple eyes.

I see.

Then your name must inevitably be Ruby.

“Would you like to hold her, my Lord?”

“…Me?”

He checked if his hands were clean. Why did he feel as though they’d been soaked in blood?

“I wasn’t just battling magical beasts.”

Shaking his head, Leviathan carefully accepted the baby.

“Ruby…”

How overwhelming the warmth and weight of that tiny, fragile being.

“Our Ruby.”

Leviathan’s world was turned upside down.

If it was a dream, he never wanted to wake.