The Baby Villain Dreams of Conquering the World

Chapter 23

Episode 23

It was a fact she already knew from Daphne's explanation, so why did it keep making her feel so unpleasant?

Was it just her imagination that the burden seemed too heavy for a young lord to bear?

No matter how hard she tried to hide her expression, it must have shown, as Benio smiled bitterly.

"...I see you have a face that says you don't understand. Well, that's fair. These are stories too difficult for you to grasp yet. The day will come soon when you'll have to bear it too, and that worries me."

The sigh he let out contained genuine concern.

"It might be too harsh for you."

"Do I have to do it too?"

Flora pointed at herself with her finger and asked.

Her utterly curious gaze made Benio's eyes waver slightly.

He was silent for a moment, unable to say anything, then shook his head with sorrowful eyes.

"No."

Benio's hand moved towards Flora's plump, pinkish cheek but stopped before touching it, clenching into a tight fist instead.

The conclusion he had reached in the carriage had been too idealistic.

Given the situation, he should have shelved such thoughts and told Flora that the day would come for her to bear responsibility just like him, and that she should prepare herself mentally.

"You're too small and weak. I don't want to see someone like you fighting monsters. So..."

Benio barely stopped the words that spilled out contrary to his thoughts.

'Damn it, damn it...'

But no matter how much he pondered and thought, he still wondered why this child, too, had to shoulder the same burden as him.

However, his reason whispered that this was precisely the opportunity to properly educate Flora about the family's duties.

'I have to tell her. But how should I phrase it so the child doesn't get scared...?'

As he worried, Benio's forehead wrinkled slightly, making his expression naturally serious, which in turn made Flora look startled.

Seeing that, Benio quickly ended his deliberation.

"I don't want you to get hurt or suffer like I did."

All his previous pondering was rendered laughable as emotion overcame reason.

"Because I'm too young? Then when I'm bigger, do I fight too?"

"......"

Benio was startled by his own involuntary words, and then, faced with Flora's direct question again, found himself unable to answer easily, just like before.

Because he needed to give a serious answer, Benio fell into deep thought.

'Could Flora do it?'

He recalled the first day he met Flora.

When his father, Athanas, was away from the castle, protecting this territory fell to Benio.

Even without Athanas, he had to get up unfailingly at dawn to train, study for territory management, and work with the knight order to maintain the territory's security.

And when monster reports came in, he would go with the knights and some mercenaries to subjugate the monsters near the town.

Sometimes, requests to subjugate monsters would come from neighboring territories, and he would go there, kill all the monsters, and earn money based on the headcount.

Ordinary Executors possessed the 'Hero's Pearl,' an ancient artifact that aided them in battle against monsters, allowing them to face monsters relatively safely. But the Lucifers had no Executors and no ancient artifacts, so Benio had to face monsters using only martial prowess, no matter how dangerous it was.

Some might find that strange, but for the Lucifers, it was normal.

His father Athanas had lived the same life, his grandfather had, and all the Lucifers before them had, so Benio had never once thought his own life was strange.

The first day he met Flora was no different from a normal day.

A monster subjugation request had come from a nearby territory, and he had simply gone into the forest with the mercenaries who had accepted the request to deal with the monsters.

Being covered in blood was for that reason, and since he often appeared like that, the people of the territory had begun to fear the young boy.

His newly met younger sister, Flora, was no exception.

Having been born and raised in Lucifer Castle, it was natural for Benio to be wary upon seeing the faint light of a lantern.

After all, the servants in Lucifer Castle didn't carry lanterns recklessly even in the dark of night, for fear of demons.

Unless they were intruders!

Though he was wary thinking it might be an intruder, what Benio encountered was a small, pink figure who had fainted. Subsequently, the head butler, coming to check on Benio's return, saw Flora collapsed and was horrified, causing an uproar in the castle.

After treating the unconscious Flora, Athanas took her to a bedroom and, guarding the spot beside her, said:

〈We've finally found your sibling.〉

The word 'sibling' made Benio's heart churn strangely intensely.

After his mother passed away, Benio's family consisted solely of Athanas, so he couldn't believe a new family member had appeared between them.

At first, more than the joy and happiness of meeting his lost sibling, he was wary of the sibling who resembled his mother.

A child who, just by being nearby, made him sink into longing memories.

'She grew up outside, so she must have heard of the Lucifer's ill repute. She'll definitely dislike me, so I should keep my distance.'

He didn't want to see that face, so like his mother's, looking at him with dislike.

But contrary to his initial resolution, his gaze had unknowingly begun to follow Flora.

For someone inheriting Lucifer blood, Flora was very small.

Four years old, a smaller build than other children her age with pink hair like their mother, and an ordinary child who laughed a lot.

He tried to look at her objectively, but she was indeed small and weak.

'Could she possibly carry out the Lucifer duties?'

At some point, Benio found himself worrying about whether Flora would be able to learn the sword in the future, fight monsters, protect the people, and whether she could keep smiling brightly even under the harsh gazes of those around her.

The Lucifers were the Betrayers of Humanity, a family forsaken by the gods.

That's why none of them could manifest the divine power that all descendants of heroes should be able to wield, and no matter how hard the family members tried, they couldn't shake off the title of Betrayers of Humanity.

Benio was no different.

Seeing that he couldn't make the divine tree bloom no matter how hard he tried, it seemed the divine power would never come to him, no matter how long he waited.

His sense of frustration grew as he looked at the cheerful Flora.

Thinking that perhaps even her smile would soon vanish due to frustration.

'Yes, I certainly thought that...'

But if it's so obvious, why are the words so hard to say?

"But I want to fight."

Perhaps frustrated by Benio's long silence, Flora bluntly threw out her feelings.

"Do you like it, Oppa?"

"Of course, as a Lucifer, I..."

"No, not because you're a Lucifer. I'm asking if you, Oppa, like fighting monsters."

"......"

Like it, dislike it, dare he even voice an opinion?

Seeing the confusion on Benio's face, Flora let out a sigh, "Sigh."

"Never mind. I don't care."

Thinking that if she continued the conversation with Benio any longer, she might die of frustration, Flora hopped down from the chair.

Benio, who was already troubled by the difficult-to-answer question, secretly sighed with relief.

"...Leaving already?"

Despite that, his tone betrayed regret.

Unlike last time, seeing the clear disappointment in his eyes, Flora let out a teasing "Hmph" and smiled mischievously.

"Mm. So think about the answer to my question until I come next time."

"Huh?"

"I'll ask when I come next time."

Saying that, Flora scurried out of the room before Benio could stop her.

Closing the door behind her, leaving a wide-eyed, surprised Benio, Flora snorted triumphantly.

Benio's thoughts and opinions? She wasn't curious about such things in the first place.

'What do I care about the Lucifer mission or whatever? I have no intention of taking on such responsibilities.'

It was just a whim, thrown out because she was annoyed that he struggled with such a simple question and then looked relieved when she said she was leaving.

'Hmph. He's such a fool who doesn't even know his own feelings.'

The face of the young boy reciting his responsibilities while looking like he didn't want to do it wasn't a very pleasant sight.

'First, I need to learn more about the Lucifers.'

The information Flora had was too scarce.

At best, it was the level of common knowledge known by children, the stories Daphne told her, and the heavy sense of responsibility she saw in Benio today?

Even at the orphanage, they hadn't started history lessons for Flora due to her young age, and Rosaria had never talked about related matters, so she was inevitably ignorant about the Lucifers.

'I only heard that the Lucifers are Betrayers of Humanity and that they're fated to fight monsters after I met Athanas.'

Daphne praised the Lord and Young Lord fulfilling their duties as admirable actions, but if these actions weren't voluntary but forced, the story changes quite a bit.

'Thinking about it, isn't this a total scam?'

When Athanas brought her here, he only said life would be different from the orphanage; he didn't tell her these detailed stories.

He lured her in with an innocent face, all while hiding this massive bombshell.

Athanas was indeed a wicked Lucifer too.

Coming out into the corridor, Daphne was nowhere to be seen.

"Daphne?"

When Daphne didn't appear no matter how much she called, her already bad mood began to sink even lower.

Flora walked along, pointlessly kicking the floor.

Then, she bumped head-on into someone.

"Ouch!"

Her nose, which had taken the direct hit, throbbed painfully.

When Flora rubbed her nose and looked up, she saw a familiar maid's uniform.

"Oh my, dear. Are you okay?"

A beautiful maid with radiant blonde hair and blue eyes looked startled, then knelt down to meet her eye level.

"What's a young child doing wandering around the castle alone? Dear, it's dangerous for you to be wandering in a place like this alone."

The maid roughly brushed off her skirt and examined Flora's reddened nose.

"Luckily, it's not bleeding."

As she sighed in relief, her eyebrows shot upwards.