I Don’t Need a Dad Like This! - Chapter 81
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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 81>
However, he was so anxious that he ended up making a fatal mistake.
“Where is this place?”
He was definitely standing in the middle of a giant clock.
But to call this Emilia’s subspace…
“How childish.”
That’s right. It was far too childish.
The space surrounding all four sides was filled with clumsy drawings that looked like a child had drawn them with crayons.
First, it seemed he needed to confirm who the owner of this subspace was.
Casselik walked across the clock face and checked the second hand and hour hand below.
Between numbers 1 and 2, he could see past Rie walking down a corridor.
This was Rie’s subspace.
“…Damn. I entered the wrong place.”
In fact, subspaces weren’t familiar territory even for time ability users, so it was easy to get lost.
‘But I definitely used Emilia’s contract, so why did Rie’s subspace appear?’
When using time abilities to view the past or enter subspaces, an object with the scent of the target person was needed.
That’s why he had used the contract that Emilia had touched to enter her subspace.
But Casselik didn’t know.
The book wrapping that contract was none other than volume 1 of <Gu.Gul.Do> that Rie had read many times.
It was a book that Emilia had used without much thought when they divided up the contract.
Anyway, he needed to move to a different subspace.
He was about to turn around without much consideration when something caught his eye.
Rie had quickly hidden in the bathroom and was hastily eating a cream bread.
“…Why is she eating bread in a place like that?”
The absurd hygiene concept made him unconsciously furrow his brow.
* * *
Casselik’s questions echoed one after another in Rie’s quiet subspace.
“Why isn’t she wiping her mouth? She’s got cream all over it.”
“She’s not planning to leave without washing her hands after being in the bathroom, is she?”
“Rie. If you run around like that…!”
With a frustrated sigh, past Rie visible between the numbers fell down.
“That’s why I… Ha, stop it.”
He covered his face with his hands, feeling like watching more would only make him angry.
“What were the head maid and tutor doing? Neglecting the child like that.”
The tutor had transferred elsewhere when Rie moved to the Birdwell Barony, but the head maid was still working at the duke’s castle.
“…What a mess.”
His posture with hands clasped behind his back looked exactly like a typical boss.
He looked for the time period before the scene where Rie was eating bread with such a sharp gaze.
“…”
His tightly closed lips parted slightly.
The reason Rie had to eat cream bread in the bathroom.
It wasn’t because the child lacked hygiene awareness, but because that was the only place she could eat.
“That kid’s a non-ability user. So what happens then?”
“She gets kicked out, obviously.”
“Honestly, I didn’t like it. I struggled so hard to finally get employed at the duke’s house, but I’m just taking care of some viscount family woman’s daughter. Especially if she’s a non-ability user, she’s basically just a supporting character.”
The maids whispered behind Rie as she studied while reading the room.
If someone was chattering during class, the tutor should have given a warning, but she left them alone.
However.
“Rie. Stop shaking your leg.”
“Yes…”
She interfered with and commanded even the child’s trivial actions.
Even though Rie was a princess of Theodore, she didn’t even use honorifics with the child.
“How dare that woman…”
But before Casselik could spit out curses, the tutor disappeared.
The head maid appeared in her place.
“Rie, I heard you were judged to be a non-ability user. So you’ll move to a country house with your mother? You won’t be able to eat delicious food anymore?”
“Yes. But, the chef said today was cream bread day…!”
“You can’t eat it. You won’t be able to eat it anyway from now on, so if you spoil your palate, it’ll be useless. And you haven’t done anything good but want to eat delicious food? You’re a non-ability user, aren’t you?”
The head maid giggled.
Rie’s head drooped dejectedly.
The child’s eyes were red as if she was about to cry, but she was swallowing her tears while clutching her dress hem.
That’s when the chef appeared in front of Rie as she walked down the corridor.
“Rie.”
“Ch-Chef mister?”
“Shh. I definitely asked them to give you cream bread but they didn’t, right? Here it is. But since I’m giving it to you secretly from the maids, you have to eat it where no one is around. Got it?”
“Wow! Thank you!”
The child stuffed the bread into her pocket and ran down the corridor.
Avoiding the maids, avoiding the tutor. Avoiding the sharp gazes that shot at her like arrows.
The place she arrived at was the bathroom.
“Mmm. Delicious! The cream is so soft!”
In a place without a proper dining table or chair, the child hastily ate the cream bread.
“…”
Finally, Casselik’s gaze dropped.
How angry he had been seeing Rie sitting in a chair without even a cup of water.
Just recalling that image engraved like a portrait made him furious.
But that small child had been receiving terrible treatment as if it were natural since birth.
However, he didn’t even have the right to be angry.
Because he himself was the one who had created all this trouble.
Casselik, drained of strength from shock, barely managed to take a step.
His long legs moved unsteadily over the minute hand.
He needed to find Rie first.
He walked endlessly like a person who had lost his mind.
The atmosphere of the subspace had changed at some point.
This was his own subspace.
A black silhouette appeared on the rocky ground that rose and fell steeply like a treacherous ravine.
“…Rie?”
His eyes that had been wandering in the air discovered someone who had arrived there before him.
* * *
Meanwhile, Rie, who had finally arrived at 15 o’clock on Emilia’s clock, realized that the space between 1 and 5 was farther apart than the other numbers.
“Connect them!”
Using all her strength, she pushed the 5, and finally a perfect 15 o’clock was completed.
“Hmm, but where is Kami?”
Rie, who had climbed back onto the minute hand with difficulty, looked around like a meerkat.
They were supposed to meet here, but only Rie was in Emilia’s subspace.
‘Should I look somewhere else?’
Rie hummed as she exited the space.
* * *
Back in Casselik’s subspace.
“Rie my ass. Why are you here? Don’t tell me you came looking for Rie?”
Unfortunately, the person Casselik found wasn’t Rie but Kami.
Kami opened his fierce eyes and spread his wings threateningly.
“This is my subspace. Why don’t you get lost?”
Kami, who had been enjoying his own space that he was seeing for the first time since birth, didn’t hide his displeasure.
However, there was no way a crow’s threat would work on Casselik.
“Your subspace? This is my subspace.”
“What are you talking about? The light of time guided me here. Don’t you see this steep ravine? It’s the perfect backdrop for a magnificent crow soaring through the sky!”
“What are you saying. The reason this space is a steep ravine is because I had an accident while riding in a carriage and fell down into the ravine.”
“What?”
That couldn’t be right.
Flustered, Kami looked around.
“H-here, do you see this tree branch hand? It’s a representation of where I, a crow, perch!”
“That’s not a tree branch, it’s a log.”
Casselik let out a troubled sigh as if asking whether he really had to explain this too.
“…The place where Emilia brought me when I collapsed was a small log cabin.”
“What? Then… what on earth…”
The crow’s face turned pale at the flowing explanation.
The light of time had definitely guided him to this place.
It had also said that this was indeed his subspace.
Then that meant—
The fact that the place Kami, who had been a ‘collection of lost time,’ thought was his subspace actually belonged to Casselik meant…
‘No way. Am I that guy’s lost time?’
At the thought that struck like lightning, his black beak gaped open.
If the emotions he felt were Casselik’s, then all the points that had been puzzling until now were resolved.
The reason he had hated Casselik since birth. The reason he had devotedly helped Rie. The reason he had particularly empathized with Casselik’s sadness.
It was all because he was a being that originated from his regret and anger.
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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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