I Don’t Need a Dad Like This! - Chapter 70

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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 70>

 

‘This isn’t easy.’

 

Ethan eventually closed the menu.

 

It seemed like it would be fine if he just didn’t eat the food.

 

“Uncle’s stomach suddenly doesn’t feel good. Rie, you eat by yourself.”

 

“I want to eat T-bone!”

 

But Rie cruelly reminded him of Verdick.

 

The more this happened, the more Ethan forced strength into the corners of his mouth.

 

“Right. You should eat what you want. Let’s have T-bone.”

 

“Yeah. And Uncle, Rie wants to go to the bathroom with the staff sister for a moment!”

 

“Can you go carefully?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Alright, go ahead.”

 

Ethan, who had maintained his smile until the end, sighed.

 

“…It’s difficult, but it’s better than I thought?”

 

Covering his eyes. Covering his ears. Covering his mouth made it more bearable than expected.

 

If he kept muddling through like this, he even saw hope that he might be able to forget Verdick.

 

That’s when it happened.

 

“Uncle. I went to the bathroom and… Rie found something pretty!”

 

The child who came running toward him suddenly held out her hand.

 

“It’s pretty, so I’ll give it to Uncle!”

 

“Wow. You’re giving Uncle something you picked up on the street? Let’s see how dirty it is.”

 

What did she pick up from the bathroom?

 

The moment he mechanically raised the corners of his mouth and looked at the child’s hand.

 

“…”

 

Ethan stared silently at what the child held out as if he’d been hit on the back of the head.

 

It was the ring Verdick had given him when he proposed.

 

“Please enjoy your meal.”

 

Just then, a staff member appeared, placed a food plate on the dining table and disappeared, leaving Ethan suddenly faced with T-bone steak and a ring.

 

‘Once this sweep is over, let’s go to that steak restaurant. If you refuse there too, know that there won’t be any more proposals.’

 

Things that originally should have been shared with Verdick.

 

His gaze shook violently.

 

The truth hidden beneath the surface was about to burst out like lava.

 

“Rie, Uncle needs to go to the bathroom for a moment…”

 

Ethan hurriedly tried to get up to leave, but his trembling legs made him collapse back down.

 

His smile, which had seemed nailed in place, gradually faded.

 

“Ah. Uncle can’t go to the bathroom. Or would you go to the bathroom instead of Uncle? Uncle wants to be alone for a moment…”

 

In the end, he couldn’t finish his words.

 

Tears that wouldn’t obey his will ran down his cheeks and wet his lips.

 

Ethan hung his head and swallowed his sobs.

 

* * *

 

“Sniff!”

 

After bursting into tears for a while, he blew his nose with a somewhat relieved heart.

 

Eventually, Ethan came out of the dining room with Rie, his eyes puffy from crying.

 

“Mill.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You did that on purpose.”

 

Of course, that couldn’t be true.

 

He was just being petulant because he was embarrassed about crying in front of a four-year-old child.

 

But why was the small hand holding his pinky finger flinching?

 

‘What’s this. She doesn’t even know my past, so why does she look guilty.’

 

“Mill. Answer me.”

 

When he pressed for an answer out of suspicion, the child raised her eyebrows as if she’d made up her mind.

 

“Yeah. Rie did it on purpose.”

 

“…What did you do on purpose?”

 

“Uncle, you love the commander, right?”

 

“Huh?”

 

Flustered, he quickly looked around.

 

Fortunately, there was no one around, but just in case, he held out his palm to cover the child’s mouth.

 

“Rie, please keep your mouth…”

 

Shake shake shake.

 

But the nimble child shook her head and dodged like an eel.

 

“Uncle was so so sad because of the commander, so I wanted to comfort you. That’s why Rie found the commander’s ring.”

 

“Stop shaking your head. I got it, I got it. Shh.”

 

“Huh, shhh-!”

 

Fortunately, Rie wasn’t a naturally mischievous child.

 

She immediately closed her mouth at the shushing sound.

 

But where should he start explaining?

 

He sighed and pressed his forehead.

 

“Rie, Uncle and the commander are both men, but… no. If you already know everything, there’s no need to explain. How did you find the ring?”

 

“Umm.”

 

At that question, Rie’s head spun round and round.

 

She had intended to hide how she found the ring until the end.

 

That’s why she deliberately went to Uncle’s regular dining room and pretended to discover the ring.

 

But seeing Uncle cry in the dining room, a great sense of guilt overwhelmed the child.

 

‘Uncle Ethan… must have really wanted to hide his secret, but Rie found out. So Rie should tell him her secret too.’

 

Rie swallowed her dry saliva.

 

Then she stood on tiptoe and cupped her hands around her mouth to whisper.

 

“Uncle. This is a secret, but… Rie is actually a time ability user.”

 

“What are you talking about? The temple said you were a non-ability user.”

 

“Shh! That was then, but not now. So I time traveled and saw the commander give Uncle the ring too.”

 

At those words, Ethan’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“So you saw my past and found the ring?”

 

Nod nod.

 

“Because you wanted to comfort me?”

 

Nod nod.

 

“…Ah. I see. So that’s how you noticed.”

 

Ethan’s head became complicated.

 

But there was something more worrying than that.

 

“Rie. Don’t you think Uncle is strange?”

 

“Yeah. You’re strange.”

 

His heart sank at the honest answer.

 

“Because Uncle is smiling when you should be crying.”

 

At the unexpected words that followed, Ethan finally took in the child’s face.

 

Rie looked dejected.

 

Her always round eye corners were drooping down.

 

Could it be that she had that expression the entire way to the dining room?

 

“…Mill.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m sorry. To think that as an adult, I didn’t even know how to cry properly. I learned because Rie taught me.”

 

Ethan said while scratching the back of his neck.

 

Then, as if he had made up his mind, his face became resolute.

 

“Still, thanks to Rie, I know what I need to do.”

 

“How? It’s not like the captain will come back from heaven…”

 

When Rie still looked tearful, Ethan smiled at the child.

 

“Even if I cry and make a fuss, life doesn’t stop, right? I need to face my emotions now. So, Mill. Before we go home, can we stop somewhere?”

 

“Ooh?”

 

A moment later.

 

After taking a deep breath, Ethan knocked on the front door of a manor.

 

“…Who is it?”

 

Then a tired-looking middle-aged woman opened the door.

 

This was Verdick’s house, and the woman was his mother.

 

“Good day. I’m a fellow knight from the Navy’s 1st Knight Order that Captain Verdick belonged to…”

 

“Ethan, right?”

 

The woman’s eyes widened as she asked before he could finish speaking.

 

How did she know his name?

 

Could she have found out about their relationship belatedly? At that thought, his lips went dry with nervousness.

 

“…Yes. That’s correct.”

 

“Why are you only coming now!”

 

But contrary to his worry that she might be angry, the woman suddenly embraced Ethan.

 

Startled, Ethan froze like a stone.

 

“Um, excuse me…”

 

“Do you know how much Verdick talked about you?! He said he’d spend his whole life with you after retirement, chattering to me about it every dinner. So I thought you’d come to my son’s funeral…”

 

“What?”

 

“You didn’t come to the funeral, didn’t come to the memorial service. I wondered if my son had died pitifully after falling for such a heartless bastard…!”

 

The woman, who had started crying heavily, shouted.

 

At the unexpected words of resentment, Ethan squeezed his eyes shut.

 

“…I was foolish. I should have come to see you sooner… I don’t know what I was so afraid of that I turned away… I’m sorry.”

 

“Sob, sob…”

 

“Mother…”

 

Thud. Thud.

 

The woman who had been hitting Ethan’s chest with weak fists sobbed.

 

The two of them cried quietly for a while.

 

It felt like cold winter had arrived.

 

Their shoulders shook like precarious tree branches, but they never collapsed.

 

Because they were supporting each other.

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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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