Black-Haired Dad Isn’t Something You Reap - Chapter 252

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 252. Why Pomegranate Seeds, of All Things? (5)
Could it be that? Since the timeline is thirty years in the past, Father only has memories from thirty years ago?
“It’s me, it’s me, Pisha. Your father’s own choice of daughter.”
“A new variant of the ‘it’s me’ scam.”
“That’s not it!”
I gestured frantically at Jacob to do something, anything. The man snapped his right fingers sharply and manipulated something. He seemed to be looking at something that appeared in the empty air… He really does seem like a mage, doesn’t he?
“…Oh no.”
Bewilderment flickered across my teenage father’s eyes. Wait, does he recognize me now?
“Why are you here?”
But he looked absolutely furious—like he might grab Jacob by the collar and shake him senseless any second. I hurried to explain the situation.
“Father, I’m not dead! I’m alive and well! I came to the Underworld on my own two feet!”
“You’re having fun without me again…”
Yes, that’s my father. He used to scold me whenever I said things like this, saying I was obsessed with having fun. Now it sounds almost endearing.
“I kept your body warm so it wouldn’t decay, and I returned your death’s fate to Yupi Grandmother! The backstory up to now is incredibly long, but anyway, all I need is for you to come with me, so let’s hurry back!”
I extended my hand, suggesting he abandon his solitary Underworld existence and come with me. But for some reason, Father took a step back from me.
“No, I won’t be resurrected.”
“Huh?”
Father wouldn’t say something like that. Is there some constraint I don’t know about? Whatever it is, I’ll solve it for you, so just come with me! Or… is this father a fake?
Suspicion welling up, I glared at Jacob, and the man quickly shook his head, insisting that this Chiron was the real Chiron.
“Why not? Father loves fun. There’s something fun here!”
For some reason, Father let out a scoff as if dismissing me, then spoke with confidence.
“There is! Two of them!”
“What?!”
Two? I was startled and looked toward where Father was pointing. There, in the shade of a tree, were Helga and a teenage version of Helbatro—my accursed biological father—enjoying tea time together.
“Wait, those people are drinking tea in the shade of that tree, so what’s Father doing out here in the blazing sun? Standing as punishment?”
“The Crown Prince’s illegitimate child ranks differently from the Imperial Family, so they can’t share a table, or so I’ve heard.”
“That’s correct by court etiquette!”
But still, how could you leave a child standing in the blazing sun like that! More importantly, Father finds this fun? To the point of choosing them over me, you enjoy suffering like this?
“You enjoy this? You find being with them more fun than living with me?!”
“Watch closely.”
Father smiled in an uncharacteristic way and told me to observe carefully, then explained the state of Grandmother and my Adoptive Father.
“Both of them keep fidgeting and watching my every move. The joke about ranks being different so we can’t share a table—they’ve missed their chance to tell me it was a joke.”
“…”
“If I insist on sitting with them, they’ll pretend to give in. Yet they’re agonizing over why I haven’t said a word.”
Father really does have a terrible personality… And truly, as long as there’s fun to be had, whether his body suffers or not doesn’t matter at all? He’s been like that since I was little…
“Still, you said watching me was fun too…”
“If I go back, there’s one—Kisomalos. If I stay here, there are two. Isn’t my choice obvious?”
“Ugh…”
I’d never imagined Father wouldn’t want to come back. What do I do? With my Adoptive Father here and Helga too, Father’s Underworld life seems to be at maximum satisfaction.
“Damn it.”
Still, Father should come with me. He should say he’ll go. How hard did I work to get here? I used Alchemy, hunted for radioactive material, did everything under the sun to reach this point.
“Come with me, Father. I’ll make it more fun. Watching just me would be far more entertaining than both of them combined, wouldn’t it?”
I needed to keep my wits about me and convince Father, but tears kept streaming down, making it impossible to continue speaking. Why was I crying? One thing was certain—I was furious and felt deeply wronged.
“Wahhhhh, waaahhhhh!”
“Hey, you there. My daughter’s got a runny nose. Bring a handkerchief.”
“My name is Jacob, as I’ve mentioned several times….”
No, if I’m crying with snot running down my face, shouldn’t Father be the one to wipe my nose?! Why is he ordering Jacob?! That injustice made me wail even harder, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Wahhhhh! Father, you bastard! Let’s go home! Come home with me, will you?!”
“This is maddening.”
Jacob handed me a handkerchief, and I blew my nose loudly before crying for a long while more. Father still hadn’t lifted a single finger toward me. Furious, I tried to kick his shin the way I usually did, but Father smoothly dodged out of the way.
“What? Why are you dodging?”
“It hurts when you hit me.”
“Damn it….”
Now he won’t even let me hit him. Bastard. Father, you bastard. Technically he’s a horse, but this time I’m cursing, so he’s a real bastard.
“Sniff….”
Has he really lost interest in me? Is watching those two Kisomalos putting on a show more stimulating? I pouted my lips and looked at Grandmother and Helbatro, when a sudden doubt crossed my mind.
“But Grandmother aside, why is Helbatro even in the Underworld? He hasn’t achieved anything.”
Wasn’t this place where they gathered deities and spirits? Helbatro hasn’t done anything—there’s no way he should be here.
When I pointed this out, Father closed his eyes slowly and laid bare the stark truth.
“I thought he was stupid enough to be deceived.”
“Huh?!”
What? Father knew too? So those two are fakes after all! I always thought it was strange that Grandmother Helga walks around freely instead of being a bundle of punishment. That grandmother has tens of thousands of deaths on her hands!
“Yap!”
Ever since earlier, he hasn’t touched my body, hasn’t let me hit him. Something felt off. So when I tried to grab Father, he annoyingly dodged away smoothly, refusing to be caught.
“What? I’m not even trying to hit you this time—why are you dodging!”
“Remember, this place is 3,000 Kilometers Underground, yes?”
As I kept trying to grab Father, Jacob, unable to bear it any longer, interjected. Well? I do remember that, don’t I?
“Of course, but anything that exists 3,000 Kilometers Underground is extremely hot.”
“Gasp!”
“The items you brought from above are safe because I’ve cast protective magic on them.”
But wait, the duck boat I rode and the moving walkway weren’t hot at all, were they? When I pointed out this plot hole, Jacob laughed and brought up the story of people from the past who had visited the Underworld.
“Without trials like these, anyone could bring back the dead, couldn’t they?”
“Nooooo!”
No, getting here was already such an ordeal—you’re telling me I have to endure pain to take him back too?!
“Well then, I suppose I just grab my hot Father and retrace the path we came, yes? Fifteen hours should be enough to endure?”
“But then there would be a gap between those who wish to stay in the past and those who wish to stay in recent times. That wouldn’t be fair, would it?”
Jacob snapped his right hand sharply, then pressed his fingers in the air, manipulating something. Suddenly, a staircase descended from the sky with a whoosh.
“Tada! The final attraction!”
The Underworld really does position itself as an amusement park all the way through. What on earth influenced this? Did this person’s mother or father run an amusement park or something?
“Father’s hand!”
“Hmm…”
“I can handle something hot! Give me your hand!”
“You won’t be able to bear it…”
Ugh! Father’s dismissing me again!
I insisted I was fine, grabbed my travel Carrier in one hand, and Father’s hand in the other.
“Aaaah! Aaaah!”
“Let go of my hand. Give up now.”
“Ugh! Aaaah!”
It’s so incredibly hot! Why is it this scorching?! My hand is burning, isn’t it?! Fear gripped me as I glanced down, but thankfully there were no flames on my skin.
“Haha, protective magic is in place. Only the pain is transmitted.”
“Ugh! I hate this! I hate the Underworld! Never coming back!”
“Most people never make it here even once.”
Even if I can’t bear it, I have to push through—what choice do I have? I’ll endure however I must, so stop complaining and let’s go home!
“Aaaah! It’s hot! It hurts! Going up the stairs faster will hurt less!”
“My.”
“You’ll understand once you leave the Underworld, but you can never become a spirit or deity again.”
Oh, is that so? Does Father have any desire to become a spirit or deity? But even if he did, what could we do? I need him right now.
“If you weren’t Vishnabel Lorowi Kisomalos, I doubt this would be worth witnessing.”
“Okay! Let’s hurry!”
Genuinely fearing my hand would burn away, I clung to Father and trudged up the stairs, dragging my travel Carrier behind me with a clatter. Jacob called out final warnings from behind.
“Don’t look back—that’s the traditional rule! Fighting spirit!”
“Aaaah! Yes!”
Now I just had to climb without turning around. The finish line was in sight. I continued ascending with a rhythmic clang-clang-clang. Ah, should I have left the travel Carrier in the Underworld? This is surprisingly bothersome.
“Why go this far?”
“Aaaah! What?!”
“Holding my hand, enduring this heat, trying to resurrect me—why?”
“Then why did you die instead of me?!”
“…”
See? You have nothing to say! I’m dying from pain and heat and exhaustion, so stop talking and just follow! I kept climbing, but Father kept speaking.
“As we near the surface, your hand really does seem to be burning.”
“We can amputate it! Prosthetics are good these days!”
“My form is crumbling too.”
“Once we get there, let’s use healing divine power right away!”
Whenever an unsolvable crisis erupts or circumstances spiral into catastrophe, there’s always some escape route. I learned that from the start—from Kisomalos and myself. The kingdom fell to ruin, Kisomalos lost his descendants and faced annihilation, yet somehow we regressed to the past, gathered divine power, and somehow managed to repay our debt to Tick-Tock. By simply surviving and moving forward, we’ve come this far.
So this time will be fine too! As long as we’re alive, we’ll find a way!
“…Why go this far?”
That question again? The pain had grown so intense that sensation was fading, and I finally had a moment to think. Gritting my teeth, searching for the right words, I recalled the most fundamental driving force that makes anything possible for humans.
“People usually call this!”
“…”
“Love! It’s called love!”
That’s right, it’s all because of love. Father trying to die in my place, me coming all the way to the Underworld and dragging Father up the stairs by his hair. It’s all because of love.
I pushed past my embarrassment and spoke with conviction, and I heard a soft chuckle from behind me. I almost turned around.
“Haha, perhaps you’re right.”
As Father laughed, the staircase finally came to an end. A brilliant light flashed before my eyes, and when I came to my senses, my right hand was ablaze.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
I called for a Physician in the middle of the Imperial Palace Garden.

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