Black-Haired Dad Isn’t Something You Reap - Chapter 180

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 180. Where Is Kirke? (1)
Nanakda’s move was beginning in earnest. Father had taken to gazing listlessly out the window lately, lost in thought. He must never have imagined that even with a lifetime of youth ahead, one careless night of drinking could lead to such a reckless decision.
That cunning Nanakda made sure Father signed the contract right then and there, leaving no room for him to change his mind later. For someone who’d never made a mistake with a contract in his entire life, the self-reproach must be crushing.
“Oh, what should we do, Pisha? I went to the office fully prepared to be shot over that moving business, but Father just sighed deeply and sent me back?”
“You made the mess yourself. What do you expect me to do about it?”
“But I was furious that day too, so I just acted on impulse!”
Men really are emotional creatures. I’d come to report on work and ran into Croa, and we both just stared at the Emperor’s Office door. Whether Father was deeply disheartened or not, he hadn’t come to the Temporary Office at the Princess Palace and had instead barricaded himself here. I wasn’t sure how to deliver the reports coming up from the subordinates.
“If Nanakda’s move is already causing this much trouble, and now I have to tell him there’s been no progress on searching for Kirke, Father’s going to be bedridden.”
“Huh! Kirke isn’t on that island?”
“Right.”
“Didn’t he lie? Then we can void the contract!”
“There were traces of someone living there. Strangely, there were a lot of pigs on the island.”
“Why would there be pigs on an island?”
“Who knows?”
Now that I think about it, if he said he’d confined her, there should have been guards on the island, so why weren’t there any? It seems connected to why there were so many pigs, but it’s too frightening to think about further.
“How much longer are you going to stand out there? Come inside.”
“Oh.”
We’d been caught staring at the door. Well, Choco would naturally sense how many people were outside. I suppose my perception has developed lately too—I can tell when someone’s nearby now.
“I’m going in. What about you, Croa?”
“Actually, I also have something I need to tell Father…”
He’d come to confess something while being scolded, but now that he’s being told to leave, he’s too scared to stay. I can’t help it. I’ll hold his hand so he won’t be frightened.
I gripped Croa’s hand firmly and entered the Emperor’s Office. Father was gazing out the window again, sighing forlornly.
“How much longer are you going to mope like that? People make mistakes when they’ve been drinking!”
“For a princess who makes nothing but mistakes, I suppose you wouldn’t understand…”
“Why are you suddenly insulting me again!”
He seems to have recovered quite a bit, making jokes like that. I was about to tell Father the report from the Air Force when he beat me to it.
“Astiages is demanding that the Princess take responsibility.”
“What? Why?”
The only ones with evidence left are Nanakda’s family, so there’s no reason we should be exposed, right? Is it because of me? Did they find a connection between a blonde ghost girl and a blonde beauty?
“A woman presumed to be the Princess’s personal companion infiltrated the Astiages Imperial Palace.”
“…”
Hmm. When I let my hair down, apparently no one can recognize me. But is it really that unrecognizable? We’re both blonde boys, after all.
“Deny it.”
“That’s what I intend to do. More importantly, bring me Nanakda’s head—he was quite angry about it.”
“What? Tell him to handle his own affairs.”
Are we his vassal state? If the Astiages Empire tells us to do something, do we just do it? That’s a really unpleasant way to put it.
“Understood. I’ll relay that the Princess said so.”
“Ah, why! Why are you pushing the blame onto me again!”
“Well, technically, you warped here and caused this trouble…”
“Even so, the Emperor should take responsibility! If the daughter causes trouble, it’s the father’s responsibility! I’m a minor!”
“Tsk.”
Phew, thank goodness he’s still a minor. Once he grows up, this will probably come back as a debt in full, but I suspect Father will handle this matter quietly. So I decided to deliver my report instead.
“Kirke wasn’t on the island. Instead, there were just pigs everywhere.”
“Did the Cult Leader lie to us?”
Father says the same thing as Croa. Maybe Croa just resembles Father more as he’s grown older?
“There were traces of someone living there. The pigs still had divine power lingering in them.”
“Hmm, divine power, you say.”
Father thought for a moment, then checked my subordinates’ work.
“You brought back samples, didn’t you? If divine power still lingers, we could try tracking them.”
“Oh! Of course we brought back the pigs!”
Our people aren’t stupid. When I heard divine power remained, I also checked if they’d captured pigs, and the captain confidently reported bringing back two pairs—male and female. If divine power still lingers, we can ask Media to attempt tracking through curses, or use Genie Teacher’s mystical divination to at least determine direction. Options will present themselves.
“I let you live, so why have you come back again?”
“Ah, well…”
Father has become much more lenient. He didn’t even hit me, just asked why I returned after being spared. I watched Croa with quiet satisfaction as he reported. Croa had gone to search the Golden Temple but couldn’t penetrate deeper due to security measures, then said he’d discovered some suspicious documents and notes. He pulled them out from his tunic like magic.
…Father has a spatial pouch, but how in the world does Croa manage this magic trick?
“It appears to be a memo from the Cult Leader, and it seems to be related to me.”
Huh? Nanakda was investigating Croa’s background too? He really digs into everything. Or did he stumble upon this while doing something else?
I examined the documents together with Father. They contained the birth and death dates and biographical information of Media’s previous legitimate heirs, as well as Croa’s childhood records.
“They say Media’s legitimate heirs die young, and the previous one died quite early too.”
“The cause of death is somewhat peculiar.”
What’s peculiar about it? Death by suffocation from total paralysis? If the entire body is paralyzed, respiratory distress naturally follows, doesn’t it? If it wasn’t murder, it must have been curse backlash.
“According to the records, the previous heir died when Croa was three years old.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And Croa first used a curse when he was four years old.”
“Yes. The previous King of Media accidentally fell down the stairs and broke his leg, and Croa transferred that curse to himself… Wait, what kind of bastard does this?!”
Let your own broken leg heal on its own! Just because you were inconvenienced for a few months, you dump it on a child? This bastard—I can’t even drag him out of his coffin to beat him again!
“And here, in the Cult Leader’s memo. It says ‘hereditary curse,’ doesn’t it?”
“Hmm?”
Hereditary curse? Something suddenly occurred to me, so I examined Croa’s records from when he was confined in the Media Royal Palace until age ten. Curses were performed two to five times per year, and the backlash from each was also documented. Loss of sight for a year, inability to eat anything but vegetables, and so on.
But there was no record of him becoming unable to walk.
“Croa, when did you become unable to walk?”
“Huh? Well… I was so young that I don’t remember…”
“Before you transferred the broken leg?”
“I’m not sure. It seems like I just couldn’t walk from childhood.”
But wait, if it was a curse to transfer a broken leg, shouldn’t he have been able to walk once it healed? And it’s strange that he still can’t walk just because of that. Media always adjusts the backlash to minimize harm to the legitimate heirs, doesn’t she?
And according to the records, he killed people several times, yet the backlash was surprisingly minimal. What kind of curse did he use that left him unable to walk until adulthood?
“Could ‘hereditary curse’ mean that after the previous heir died, the backlash remained and settled in Croa’s body?”
When I voiced my speculation, Father nodded as if he’d been thinking the same thing.
“I can’t think of anything else either. The previous heir experienced total paralysis, and the remaining backlash must have settled in your legs.”
What exactly happened? If I knew what curse the previous heir performed, I’d have a better sense of it, but Nanakda couldn’t find that either—it’s not in the records.
“I suppose I have no choice but to ask Media about this?”
After all, she’s the one who shared her divine power with me. If I’m going to control the backlash, I’d need to understand the curse’s origin anyway.
“I’ll contact her immediately.”
Another elephant’s foot will be consumed. The poachers hunting for ivory haven’t dried up the supply, but ever since the Kisomalos Imperial Palace became a buyer, they’ve jacked up the prices astronomically. I’ll have to hunt them down and deal with them properly one of these days.
In any case, we relocated to the Media Shrine situated within the Princess Palace. Croa called out to Media with that ghostly face of his, making those strange “kweek kieek” sounds, but even after a long while, there was no sign of the deity descending.
“…Sigh.”
“What? Is she busy right now?”
When Croa stopped the ritual of driving the stake into the elephant’s foot, I asked if something had gone wrong, and the man answered me with a reluctant expression.
“There’s no response at all.”
This woman had gone silent.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————