I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 1

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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 1

Prologue

The Trabel Estate—one of the wealthiest noble houses in the Heishal Empire.
It was the day the second son, who had abandoned his family six years ago, returned with a young daughter.
Before the palace-like mansion, crowds gathered to welcome the father and child, yet not a trace of celebration hung in the air.
In the suffocating silence, the frightened wails of a small child pierced through the atmosphere.
Those cries were mine.
‘I’m scared…!’
The golden eyes of the Trabel patriarch—blessed with the fortune of immense wealth—fixed upon me.
He stood like a predator perched upon a towering cliff face. It was an aura no seven-year-old could withstand.
At first, that terror alone had torn the sobs from my throat—

– Berry, you must be careful of your relatives. The Trabel succession is a den of beasts clawing for the position of family head.

But my fear now stemmed from something far deeper than my grandfather’s presence.

– Miss Berry! Lord Reytan Quartz Trabel has… fallen in battle….

Strange images flooded my mind like a torrential downpour.

– Father, you said a Grand Master doesn’t fall in some minor skirmish. Someone murdered you, didn’t they? …I’ll uncover the truth.

Seven years old, ten years old, sixteen years old, ….
All of them were me, yet memories I didn’t possess.
My head throbbed relentlessly. I prided myself on not crying when in pain, but this time was different. I had never felt such terror, such dread.
On that day, a cold gleam flickered across the golden eyes that looked down upon me.
“A coward, then. You won’t accomplish anything of consequence.”
Having finished his assessment of me, Grandfather turned without hesitation and entered the mansion. My father’s grip on my hand tightened with a sharp squeeze.
The relatives lingering on the broad entrance steps watched me wail and sneered.
“Pathetic. Is this really a Trabel? That noise—it’s like a frog croaking.”
“A frog? Then we’ll only see him until autumn. Come winter, he’ll crawl into a hole and disappear.”
“Raised without a mother—it shows. Reytan, there’s no way that pitiful wretch raised the boy properly alone. No governess either? Look at him crying without even knowing shame….”
“Sister understands. The boy thought he was a commoner, after all.”
“Ugh. Hati. Did you hear what Father said? A commoner.”
Though they cultivated an air of contempt, the wariness glinting in their eyes could not be entirely concealed.
To them, we were new rivals. Every person bearing the Trabel name gathered here was a candidate for the next family head.
And.
‘They’re all here.’
My uncle, my aunt, my younger uncle, their spouses and children. Among them—.
‘The one who killed Father…!’
My eyes burned with heat. I stared at them through my blurred vision.
The blurred silhouettes wavered as if speaking to me. Run, Sherry Quartz. Otherwise, I’ll devour you whole.
As memories continued surfacing, one scene suddenly illuminated with striking clarity.
Grandfather’s study, the safe standing open, and before it—myself at twenty-four years old.

– …Found it. The letter the conspirator sent to the culprit.
– One shouldn’t read another’s letters carelessly. Sherry Quartz.

‘Who?!’
My large self jolted in surprise. I too lurched as if I had become this larger version of myself.
In that instant, the torrent of memories ceased. At twenty-four years old, I had been run through by a blade wielded by a man whose face I could not place, and I died.
Though I felt no pain, merely witnessing the scene of my own death suffocated me.
As I gasped for breath in ragged, desperate pulls, Father seized me urgently.
“Berry!”
When I blinked, tears cascaded down my cheeks. As my vision sharpened, the features of a single face came into focus.
Sharp blue eyes. Eyes brimming with anxiety and concern—my father’s eyes.
The reality that Father was alive. And I was seven years old.
Upon grasping this simple truth, all tension drained from me in a wave of relief.
With trembling hands, I grasped Father’s arm.
“F-Father.”
“Berry, you’re all right. Can you take a deep breath with me? Yes? You can follow Father’s lead, can’t you?”
My first day at the Trabel Estate.
“I’m… sorry.”
“Berry…?!”
I, the youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel, had made a terrible first impression before my grandfather and his relatives whom I was meeting for the first time, and then I fainted.

1. What on earth are these memories?

The God Aubaut once proclaimed it.
Four Holy Swords would save humanity.
Indeed, the Holy Swords found their masters among swordsmen who had reached a certain pinnacle, and they flourished for three thousand years.
And four Grand Masters.
The masters of the Holy Swords, the apex of Sword Masters, sacred knights of God revered by all….
“Sacred?”
Serber, the head butler of the Trabel Estate, muttered while gazing at the bounty notice in his hand.
Alongside a reward of one billion konas, there was a portrait of a handsome man with sharp features.
It was Reytan Quartz Trabel—a former Grand Master and the second son of Count Trabel.
The bounty had been distributed across the entire region a month ago when the wealthy Count Trabel sought to find his wayward second son.
True to his status as a former Grand Master, Reytan had remained hidden for six years, but no one could resist the allure of such wealth.
Eventually, witnesses began appearing one after another, and Reytan returned home. That was yesterday.
‘Can “sacred” and “young master” truly coexist as descriptors?’
Such a term hardly seemed fitting for one whose gaze alone could intimidate others.
The butler carefully folded the bounty notice and tucked it into his breast pocket, then lifted his gaze.
Above the black front door, an eagle statue symbolizing the Trabel name gazed down upon him.
Unlike the statues in other annexes with jewels embedded in their eyes, this one possessed cold gray eyes.
‘Even the annex resembles its master.’
The annex given to the lowest-ranked heir among the Count’s children—commonly known as Stone House.
The butler had come here on the eldest son’s orders to scout the place.

“Serber, as you well know, Father would never waste money on frivolous matters.”

One billion konas. Enough to purchase three mansions in the Capital.
So why would Count Trabel offer such an enormous sum to find Reytan?
After treating him as a dead son for six years?
The Trabel family selected their household heir based on merit. The reappearance of a rival thought long gone naturally put the direct line on edge.

“Reytan has no need to participate in the succession struggle now. Watch his every move—and his daughter’s as well. Find out why Father summoned Reytan.”

The head butler swallowed a sigh and opened the door to the Stone House.
Just then, the maids emerged into the lobby, chattering away.
“Miss Berry was absolutely adorable, wasn’t she?”
“Did you see? The way she furrowed that tiny brow so seriously and asked, ‘…Sister, are you eighteen?’ Ah, I had to restrain myself from scooping her up in my arms.”
One maid, her face flushed with excitement, clutched the laundry bundle in her arms tightly. The maid walking beside her leaned in closer and asked warmly.
“Isn’t it remarkable? How did she manage to memorize all our names and ages? She’s so clever for her age—”
“Anne, what’s so remarkable about that.”
The brown-haired maid following behind spoke up after hearing Anne’s words.
“Young Master Reytan asked her those questions, and she simply overheard and repeated what she heard. A seven-year-old is perfectly capable of doing that.”
“Sherry, did you think I wouldn’t understand that?”
As a subtle tension sparked between Anne and Sherry, the maid holding the laundry wedged herself between them.
“But about Miss Berry—she’s even cuter when she’s listening to answers than when she’s asking questions. They say she pouts when someone confirms her question was right. Why is that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Eek!”
The maid, who had been mimicking the young lady’s pouting expression, let out a shriek at the unexpected voice of a middle-aged man. It was the head butler from the Main Estate, notorious for being difficult to communicate with.
“H-Head Butler? When did you arrive?”
“I came to see Young Master Reytan and the young lady. But what happened to the young lady?”
At the head butler’s question, the maids glanced toward Sherry in the back. She was the most senior maid among those at the Stone House.
Sherry, receiving the gazes of all three, smiled with practiced ease.
“You’ll see when you go upstairs.”

***

A room decorated for the youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel.
A man occupying the sofa instead of the room’s owner fixed his gaze upon the butler.
“You wish to meet Berry?”
His blue eyes stretched wide and refreshing across his face, yet the light within them gleamed sharp as a winter wind’s cruel edge.
Reytan Quartz Trabel.
Even with that expressionless gaze, my heart shriveled like a mouse before a serpent.
“Before that, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
Reytan shifted his upper body slightly and rested both hands upon his knees. A brief exclamation escaped the butler’s lips.
Honestly, setting aside his inherently ominous aura, he was an extraordinarily aristocratic beauty.
Perfectly styled wheat-colored hair, mahogany shoes gleaming without a speck of dust, tailored clothing that appeared neat yet possessed refined details.
A swordsman’s disciplined physique combined with an innate sense of fashion—admiration was inevitable.
‘Born into the wrong house.’
Reytan occupied a peculiar position within the Trabel Estate.
Though he had reached the highest pinnacle in swordsmanship, his hand was decidedly minus when it came to commerce.
Had he been born into a knightly house, he would have shone brilliantly, but unfortunately, Trabel was a family that had prospered through mineral industries and trade.
Consequently, Reytan’s performance consistently hit rock bottom, and his ranking among successors remained perpetually last.
‘Had he maintained the Grand Master’s position, he would have lived comfortably within the Holy Temple for life. The unfavorable rumors didn’t arise without reason.’
Six years ago, he had retired from childcare and returned his holy sword to the Central Holy Temple, leaving him with nothing but the evaluation of ‘the deficient Trabel.’
“Serber.”
“Yes, sir.”
The butler, wondering if his unspoken criticisms had been heard, answered hastily.
“You’re forty-three this year, aren’t you?”
“That is correct.”
“You have a son as a child, work as a butler at the Main Estate, and… what else is there?”
“Yes…?”
The butler was flustered by this sudden interrogation, but seeing those narrowed brows, he felt compelled to say something.
“M-my gray hair has been increasing.”
“A pity.”
Reytan rose and gestured with his chin toward one direction, as if to follow. Not far away lay a bed, and beneath the slightly raised blanket, something wriggled.
…Could it be?
As the two men reached the bedside, Reytan suddenly threw back the blanket.
“Say hello. This is Inspector Berry, everyone.”
Pink hair standing on end from static electricity, a round head, long and voluminous eyelashes, and green eyes with double eyelids—a cute little girl who bore no resemblance to her father looked up at the butler.
She resembled something.
A poodle? A Maltese?
Ah, a young Bichon.
“Serber?”
The bright-eyed little inspector blinked her green eyes and asked the butler.
“Yes?”
“Are you forty-three this year?”
The head butler blinked at what felt like a question he’d heard before. Reytan Quartz Trabel, arms crossed, offered a hint.
“Inspector Very-Very knows everything, after all.”
“Ah, yes. I see.”
The head butler grasped the situation.
So the young lady overheard the conversation between Young Master Reytan Quartz Trabel from beneath her blankets and is simply repeating what she heard?
Humoring the child’s whims was no difficult task for him.
The Trabel Estate had other young ladies and young masters besides Berry Quartz, after all.
“What remarkable insight for such a young inspector. I’m almost worried you’ll deduce the number of my own children next.”
The head butler smiled with practiced warmth. If he could win the favor of this small child, monitoring Stone House would become far easier.
He could already predict what would come next. One child at home, and then from the Main Estate—
“Did you recently purchase a large quantity of stock in that ink company that’s about to collapse?”
“That absolutely won’t collapse—Baron Mont assured me of that…. What? How did you know I bought stock?”
“How would I know? I’m just repeating something I overheard somewhere.”
Reytan Quartz Trabel interjected, covering his daughter’s mouth.
“Serber, that will be all for now.”
At the dismissal, the head butler retreated without even a chance to shake off his unease. Watching Serber’s receding figure, Berry’s face fell.
‘Ugh. That one was right too.’

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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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