I Don’t Need a Dad Like This! - Chapter 82
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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 82>
“Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up… Lost Time?”
“Caaaaw-!”
Though he heard a voice calling him from behind, Kami hurriedly escaped from the subspace.
“Caw, caw!”
After realizing the truth, he couldn’t even breathe properly due to the overwhelming self-loathing that surged within him.
“I was Casselik…”
He had hated him so much.
“I was part of that bastard…”
Hot tears welled up in his black eyes.
He didn’t have the confidence to face Rie like this.
He had been waiting for the time to empathize with the child and flatten that bastard’s nose.
But if he revealed that his true identity was part of Casselik, how disappointed would Rie be?
“…If I’m going to disappoint the Little One, it’s better to disappear.”
Kami’s tear-soaked eyes suddenly turned fierce.
He suddenly changed direction.
His destination was the Valley of Memories.
He had decided to erase his own existence.
But just then.
Tap tap tap-
Behind Kami as he flew urgently, someone’s hurried footsteps followed.
He instinctively thought.
Is it Casselik?
“Hah, as if you could catch me.”
Using the strength from eating bread crumbs to perform dangerous acrobatics, he soon began to see the waterfall.
It was the waterfall flowing in the Valley of Memories.
“Rather than being devoured by Casselik, it’s better to die-!”
Kami made his final declaration, squeezed his eyes shut, and fell.
Or rather, tried to fall.
“Got you-!”
“…?”
A sudden childish shout.
And he felt small warmth grasping his body.
‘Rie?’
When he opened his closed eyes, crystal-clear blue eyes filled his vision.
He was now trapped in Rie’s embrace.
The one who had been chasing him was Rie.
“Kami, you said the Valley of Memories is dangerous. But why did you fly there! Kami, bad Kami!”
The child’s round eyes suddenly turned triangular.
“But… I’m sorry, Little One. You’ll be disappointed, but… I’m part of Casselik.”
“Huh?”
“Remember when I first introduced myself as a collection of lost time? That lost time belonged to Casselik. I’m part of that vermin!”
Kami’s body shook pitifully as he confessed everything.
“Huh…?”
As expected, Rie’s eyes wavered instantly.
She would surely be disappointed.
Maybe she would even drive him out of the Birdwell Barony.
Rie hated Casselik so much that she wouldn’t want to live with him even knowing his past.
“…Then is Kami Father?”
But Rie just tilted her head.
She didn’t quite understand Kami’s explanation.
“You could say that.”
“Oh.”
Since he couldn’t hide it anyway, when he nodded, the child finally seemed to grasp it and flinched.
“…Then does Father love Rie a lot?”
‘Wait. This kid still doesn’t understand?’
Kami was flustered by the unexpected words.
“That’s not it, I’m part of that guy! Little One, don’t I look like a terrifying villain now?”
“But Kami loves Rie.”
“What? That’s…”
“Don’t you?”
Tears like chicken droppings instantly formed in the child’s eyes.
Kami hurriedly shook his head.
“…Of course I love you! Otherwise, why would I have helped you.”
“Then, Father loves Rie too?”
“…”
But at the repetitive question, his black beak closed like a clam.
Kami still disliked Casselik.
When he couldn’t even understand himself, how could he answer?
Looking up at the child’s teary eyes made guilt wash over him, but he was about to shake his head.
“I don’t know. Even I don’t understand these feelings…”
“I love you.”
But then, a heavy bass voice resonated from behind.
“…Father?”
When surprised Rie turned her head, Casselik was standing there.
Having hurriedly chased after Kami, his breathing was rough as he slowly moved his long legs forward.
He could roughly understand the situation.
If that black bird was part of his memories, wouldn’t his pre-regression memories return if he absorbed it?
Then he could also understand the emotions of Casselik who truly loved Rie and Emilia in the notebook.
But-
Even without hearing any explanation, he could see the overflowing love for Rie in the crow’s expression.
He instinctively felt that emotion was surely his own.
Therefore, he too could make such a confession.
“Rie, I love you.”
It was a careful confession.
One filled with sincerity the moment it was spoken.
But Rie couldn’t give any answer.
“If you can’t believe it, don’t. It’s natural given what I’ve done until now. But I’ll try from now on until you can believe it.”
Saying that, he knelt on one knee in front of the child.
“This is what I’m saying to Rie, but it’s also what I’m saying to you, Lost Time.”
Kami, who had been fluttering in Rie’s embrace, flinched.
“I’ll try.”
* * *
The quiet subspace.
After the sound of footsteps, Rie’s sorrowful crying echoed.
Casselik and Rie entered Casselik’s subspace while holding Kami in their arms.
“Kami, sob…, are we separating now? Hic! Can’t we meet anymore?”
She had finally gotten Kami to say he loved her, but she didn’t know the end would be separation.
Kami, nestled in the child’s embrace, had become quite withered.
The pure white feathers revealed on his chest were gradually spreading throughout his body.
“What are you talking about. I’m… I’m part of Casselik. It’s not dying, it’s just going back.”
Kami put strength into his half-closed eyes.
He too had instinctively known from some point on.
Even without falling into the Valley of Memories, he would disappear.
Because he had been physically separated from his main body for far too long.
“But, sniff… Kami said he’s going into Father. Then Kami will disappear. Sob! Rie can’t live without Kami!”
“What do you mean can’t live!”
Startled, Kami fluttered about.
“You have to eat lots of delicious food and live for a hundred years! And I’m just going into Casselik’s body! As long as Casselik is alive, I’m alive too.”
Then Rie stubbornly pressed her lips together.
On the surface, she puffed out her cheeks as if sulking, but in truth, Rie knew too.
That she had to let Kami go.
It was the second farewell she was facing since parting with Mother a year ago.
But if there was a difference, it was that she could say goodbye to Kami directly.
Rie recalled when she heard the news of Mother’s death at the Duke’s Castle.
‘…If I could go back to that time, Rie would tell Mother that she loves her.’
So she had to tell Kami too.
She had to let him know completely how much Rie cherished Kami.
The child lowered her head and hugged the withering crow tightly.
“…I love you, Kami.”
If Kami couldn’t hug Rie, then Rie would hug him.
Close enough to feel his fading small heartbeat.
So she could touch Kami’s slowing breath.
“I love you too, Rie.”
Then from within Rie’s embrace came a voice faint as candlelight.
“…I love you. Rie.”
As if one goodbye wasn’t enough, Kami spoke once more with all his strength, then soon faded into blue light.
And after circling around the child once as if saying goodbye, he was absorbed into Casselik’s body.
It was the farewell with Kami.
* * *
“Cough…!”
Meanwhile, Casselik collapsed right there and coughed up blood.
The moment the blue light entered his body, countless memories he couldn’t handle crashed over him like waves.
The blue eyes that had saved him when he was being chased by Dark Mages and lost his memory.
The potato soup she first gave him when he woke up.
‘I can’t just leave a sick person alone, so I won’t kick you out. But when sleeping, you can’t cross this line. If you do, you’re out that very day.’
The line crudely made with a scarf made him laugh involuntarily, but he curled up his body as Emilia said and never crossed the line even if it killed him.
Because that would put Emilia at ease.
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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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Floopy
My screen is so dang blurry 🥹 noooooo I need Kami to continue existing in this story!