I Don’t Need a Dad Like This! - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 17】

“Well, not bad. Fold this and tie it to my leg.”

“You like the letter that much?!”

Rie clasped her hands together, looking proud.

Then Kami was startled and snapped back in unnecessary embarrassment.

“I’m a crow who only handles shiny things! Your drawing doesn’t even sparkle, so I can’t store such a thing in my nest!”

“Huh? Th-that’s what you meant?”

“That’s right. But I can’t just throw it away considering your sincerity, so I’ll have to tie it to my ankle and carry it around. Got it?”

“…Mmm. I understand.”

The dejected Rie folded the paper and tied it to Kami’s ankle, thinking she should add glitter powder to her drawings later.

“Hmm. Hmm, hmm. I’ll have to cover it with my wing when it rains.”

Regardless, Kami was pleased with the letter tied to his ankle and looked down at it for a long time.

“Ah, this isn’t the time for this.”

Then he suddenly came to his senses and fluttered his wings as he climbed onto the desk.

“Kid. Where’s that guy’s notebook?”

“Mmm, I kept it safe!”

“Then open it. Since you’ve been using your time ability a lot recently, the contents might have been translated.”

“Huh? Then the contents written in the notebook… Rie can read them too?!”

“Just a few sentences.”

Kami emphasized his last answer as if not to get her hopes up, but Rie was already hopping around and hurriedly opened the drawer.

Even when moving to this house, she had secretly brought the notebook, hiding it preciously in her arms.

‘What did Father write?’

The child, curious about the poop carriage’s inner thoughts, quickly opened the first page of the notebook.

Then-

“…Huh?! F-Father…?!”

Rie’s mouth fell wide open after reading the few sentences translated into Imperial language.

* * *

“I’ve been observing Lady Rie’s behavior for several days, but no strange actions like teleportation were detected.”

“Then what was she mostly doing?”

“Having meals with the Duchess, no. Ahem! With Lady Emilia and the Viscount Couple, eating snacks. Then playing hide-and-seek…”

“My prediction was right. She went down to the countryside village and threw education to the dogs.”

Casselik snorted at Shadow’s answer.

It was exactly as he had expected.

“The living conditions are terrible, right?”

“Yes. But… Lady Rie was smiling all day long there, unlike here.”

However, he closed his smiling mouth at the words that followed.

Come to think of it, the child seemed to be smiling when he wasn’t around.

He had never questioned it before, but now that he heard Rie, who had gone off to some rural backwater, was smiling every day, he suddenly felt curious.

Why did the child insist on going to that place?

Here, she could have done anything she wanted. Of course, she would have had to receive thorough education as the young lady of a ducal house.

“…What was Emilia doing?”

At this point, he was also curious about what that woman was doing with the child.

But it wasn’t Shadow who answered his question—it was Serena, who had quietly opened the door and entered.

“She got a job at a nearby embroidery shop. How pitiful it is that a baron’s daughter is so busy making ends meet that she has to work… Is this what happens when you harbor ambitions that don’t match your station?”

30 minutes earlier.

Serena, who had been walking down the corridor, happened to encounter Shadow.

Nameless. Nicknamed Shadow. One of Casselik’s guard knights and a warrior skilled in stealth techniques.

‘Though for reasons unknown, he seems to be in the position of chasing after Rie’s tail right now.’

Serena had been in very low spirits lately.

Just when she had rejoiced at finally driving Emilia away, Casselik had become sensitive starting from exactly that day.

Moreover, Rie, whom she had tried to embrace as her own child and raise well, had somehow secretly escaped the duke’s mansion and led the trial to victory herself.

Even though both of them had disappeared, it was hard to think this was actually a good thing.

It was because she had learned that Casselik was investigating them behind the scenes.

Serena approached Shadow with a knowing, worried expression on her face.

‘Were you about to report to Duke Casselik? Did something happen to Lady Emilia?’

‘Nothing in particular. Just news that Emilia… Lady Emilia got a job at a nearby embroidery shop.’

‘An embroidery shop? Ah, I see. How desperate for money must she have been for a noble to roll up her sleeves and try to earn money…’

Upon hearing news about Emilia, Serena almost let out a scream of joy without realizing it.

Of course, outwardly she was pretending to be pitiful, lowering her eyebrows sadly.

Honestly, she disliked both Rie and Emilia.

She also resented Casselik, who was indifferent to her.

Such emotions were unfamiliar to Serena, who was accustomed to a life of receiving only love.

So now.

Her butterfly wing-like eyelashes fluttered over her transparent light green eyes that were clear like midsummer.

Serena was blatantly seducing Casselik.

“…Actually, if it were me, I would have handed over custody for Rie’s future. It was specified in the contract from the beginning anyway.”

Her gentle and pure expression was an imitation of Emilia.

Her white, long fingers touched the desk. She was about to subtly move them to the man’s shoulder.

“Right. If she truly cared about the child, she would have handed custody over to me. Emilia lacks the qualifications to be a guardian.”

Whether he deliberately avoided her touch or not, Casselik suddenly stood up from his seat, put his hands in his pants pockets, and sighed.

Just when she thought it was another failure, his gaze, which had been tensely hardened, was slightly relaxed.

Serena had met many people in high society.

She finally seemed to understand what Casselik wanted.

“By the way, knocking when entering someone else’s room is basic etiquette. Be careful next time. What business brought you to see me?”

Casselik turned away from Serena and asked while looking out the window. His mind was completely filled with thoughts of Rie and Emilia.

However, at Serena’s following words, his gaze finally turned to the woman.

“…Now that the divorce is all finished, I think we should start preparing for the wedding. What scale should it be, what atmosphere should we go for – I’ve prepared everything by category. Would you like to take a look?”

“Marriage? Shouldn’t we start with an engagement first?”

“Duke, you… want to quickly obtain an ability user, don’t you? Since this is a contract marriage, I want to accommodate your demands as much as possible.”

She placed a bundle of papers that looked like a report on the desk and pointed to it with her hand.

“To produce a time ability user right away. If we want to create an ability user child as quickly as possible, wouldn’t it be better to skip procedures like engagement?”

Had she always been such a rational woman?

Finding her reasoning not bad, Casselik skimmed through her report placed on the desk.

The report contained plans to decorate the Abia Grand Cathedral, said to be the largest in the Empire, with gorgeous white-toned diamonds, befitting a wedding of the Casselik Ducal House.

What about Emilia, that woman?

She had said she didn’t want to be extravagant and suggested proceeding quietly.

That modesty had instead cracked Casselik’s pride.

He sighed, squinting one eye slightly due to the irritation creeping up on him.

“And for the wedding, Rie should attend since she’s blood-related, right? When she sees the scale of the wedding, she might realize something. That she could receive much more toys if she returns to Father.”

At Serena’s continued opinion, his eyes slowly widened.

“Actually, I felt very sorry for Rie. She’s still young and made that choice without knowing better… Duke, you showed mercy for the child’s sake, didn’t you?”

Serena asked Casselik with sparkling eyes. Couldn’t he bring her back anytime he wanted?

Yes, those were the right words.

Then this marriage needed to be pushed forward as quickly as possible.

For the sake of his daughter who still knew nothing and was stuck in some rural backwater.

And to thoroughly make Emilia, who had been excessively greedy, regret her choices.

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