I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 103

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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 103

Theon held his breath. From the moment he’d squeezed behind the trolley, he’d felt the claustrophobia of the narrow space, but he hadn’t let it show on his face.
But now.
“We can’t leave it here anymore—it’s become too dangerous. Damn it, where else can I hide this thing?”
*Creak.*
Each time the man’s muttering grew closer, Berry’s arms tightened incrementally around Theon’s head.
Holding hands was nothing—that was necessary to keep Berry from stumbling.
‘But what about this?’
What was this? Berry’s arms were wrapped around his head.
Theon carefully tried to move his forearm, but his elbow touched the trolley and he couldn’t bend it.
‘Master would…’
Reytan’s face came to mind. Except for that first day when he’d set the condition that they couldn’t enter each other’s rooms in the afternoon, Reytan hadn’t explicitly regulated any distance between Theon and Berry.
But Theon could sense it instinctively. If he touched Berry any further than this, he wouldn’t be able to look his master in the face.
*Thud. Thud.*
Just then, he heard the man leaving the storage room. Theon squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head.
His hunched back bumped slightly against the trolley, and the wheels creaked—but it was a small sound that wouldn’t reach outside the storage room.
Only then did Berry look down at her own arms. Theon’s back of his head rested against her chest as he’d slipped free by angling his body slightly. Since she always looked up at Theon, seeing him from this angle felt novel.
“….”
Uncle Edgar would still be inside the greenhouse. It was too risky to make a sound, so Berry carefully moved her hand.
She understood why adults wanted to pat children’s heads. This was the kind of head that stirred an irresistible urge to pat.
‘Wow. Such nice hair.’
But after a couple of pats, she stopped. Theon’s head kept lowering with each pat.
Around then, she heard Uncle Edgar leaving the greenhouse. Berry asked Theon apologetically.
“Sorry, Theon. Did I squeeze you too hard earlier?”
“…Yeah.”
“Huh. Really? I’ll be more careful from now on…!”
Theon nodded and pushed the trolley with his back to widen the space. Berry climbed out from the shelf first, and Theon followed.
“Ugh.”
Berry crouched in front of the shelf where the box had been and made a dejected face. Julia’s box, which should have been behind the flowerpot, was nowhere to be found.
“Uncle Edgar took it.”
“Should we look for it?”
“No… Well, there’s nothing we can do. It’s not mine anyway.”
Berry shook her head at Theon and stood up.
She was deliberately letting go of her attachment.
Julia’s box wasn’t hers. To cling to something that wasn’t hers would be the mindset of a thief.
But—
‘It’s not Uncle Edgar’s either, is it?’
I turned to glance at the warehouse entrance, and the corners of Berry’s mouth lifted ever so slightly.
Edgar’s behavior was deeply suspicious. He looked like someone who couldn’t afford to be caught carrying that box.
‘Julia is Father’s biological mother. I need to find out why Uncle by Marriage is hiding her belongings.’
There was no need to worry about where the box Edgar carried would end up. Akum, far more enthusiastic than I was, pursued him closely.

[Aunt Mariane’s husband took Julia’s box! I’m going after him!]

***

Akum returned the next morning.
He said he’d gone into Sapphire House and watched Uncle by Marriage all night.
[I kept watch in case he moved the box somewhere else! He hid it deep in the wardrobe!]
Akum, sitting on the bed, thrashed his tail against the blanket. He seemed furious that Uncle by Marriage had taken the box.
[I hate Priscilla’s children! After how terribly they treated Julia! And now Aunt Mariane’s husband has that box!]
At those words, my own lips pressed into a thin line. The way they’d treated Julia was no different from how they’d treated Father. After all, Father had lived here until he became an adult.
[Little Quartz, I need to bring Julia’s box back from that house.]
“Mm-hmm.”
[Will you help me?]
“Yes. If that’s what you want, I’ll help. We’re partners, after all!”
There were two things I needed to figure out.
Why Uncle by Marriage had the box. And whether anyone besides him knew of its existence. One must always be cautious about accomplices.
“Did Uncle by Marriage ever talk to anyone else about the box? What about Aunt Mariane?”
[No. Aunt Mariane didn’t seem to know about it. She came in while he was hiding it in the wardrobe, and Edgar got startled.]
Akum tilted his head.
‘Aunt Mariane doesn’t know?’
That struck me as odd.
In my other memories, Uncle by Marriage was always someone who stuck to Aunt Mariane’s side and did whatever she asked—a passive man.
‘No, wait.’
I dismissed the thought from my mind. Hasty judgments were dangerous.
‘Just like with Ciel, there might be sides of Uncle by Marriage that the other me never knew.’
Meanwhile, Akum seemed to remember something and spoke to me.
[Right, little Quartz. Aunt Mariane was talking about Baron Oldman.]
“Oh? What did she say?”
[She said revenge would feel satisfying. She’s planning to do something about it soon.]
“Oh….”
It seemed Aunt Mariane was planning to send me a challenge.

***

Reports on Baron Oldman’s affairs reached Count Trabel regularly.
The details were never included—it had been one of Berry’s conditions when officially appointing a proxy.

“So you only want to hear the results?”
“Well, it’s embarrassing if Grandfather knows everything.”
“Embarrassing? No—you just don’t want to watch yourself constantly, so you can’t do as you please.”

Laksek agreed. He had no intention of monitoring his granddaughter.
Berry was a child who could not be caged. With his golden eyes, Laksek wanted to see how far that child would soar. He had no need to know the process.
But now—.
“Heh heh….”
Laksek now itched to know that very process.
Seven years old. The age of his granddaughter.
Was this what genius looked like? The geniuses he had witnessed thus far seemed like common pebbles scattered across a beach.
No matter how hard he racked his mind, no matter how much he relied on his experience and intuition, no answer came.

“She employed Dwarves as laborers?”

All the recent reports from Baron Oldman were difficult to believe.
That stubborn blacksmith, Baltar the clan leader, was now working as manager of Crest Mine? All the laborers working in the mine were Dwarves?
And more than that.

“…She broke through a new vein at Crest Mine?”

Iron production had dwindled over time until the mine barely yielded enough ore to pay the laborers’ wages.
They had searched deeper for minerals, but it was like digging for a spring in the desert. It was no different from a mine the Trabel Family had abandoned.
Yet after appointing Baltar as manager, she broke through a new vein…. He was not content merely to marvel at the astounding result. He wanted to know the method, but Laksek could not discover it.

“I cannot disclose what Baron Oldman instructed, sir.”

Jena Chaser remained faithful to her contract terms. As long as she was bound by confidentiality obligations, no information Laksek desired would come from Jena and Jack Jack.

“I want the iron mine!”

Now that I think about it, that child wanted the iron mine from the very beginning. Even when I said I could give her a diamond mine later.
A trade with the Dwarves—the dream of my lifetime. At the time, the joy was so overwhelming that I overlooked the peculiarity of it all.
‘If she had chosen the iron mine because she loved iron, she would have asked for the mine with the best production output.’
I cannot even fathom how many moves ahead this choice was calculated. My granddaughter has made this Laksek Iron Trabel’s head ache like never before.
Every time I see her, she softens my heart and makes me careless. Truly, I have been foolish.
With that small head that fits so perfectly in my palm, she thinks and moves with such purpose. What adult could fail to find such a sight endearing?
Knock, knock.
The sound of someone knocking on the study door reached my ears. I grasped the doorknob and turned it. I had been standing right beside the study door.
“Oh?”
Startled that the door opened the moment she knocked, her round green eyes grew even rounder as she looked up at me.
I made a vow to myself. I would not let my guard down against that small head.
I steeled my resolve.
Firmly.
“Grandfather.”
“What can I do for you?”
“…Yes?”

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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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