I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 11

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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 11

“It’s just… a stone!”
A perfectly smooth pebble.
I had received a stone from Laksek Iron Trabel, one of the greatest magnates of the Heishal Empire!
I would have to keep it carefully, prepared to face severe punishment if I lost it!
Was this… some kind of elaborate prank…?!
The image of Grandfather’s smug smile flashed through my mind.
My spirits sank. I lay back on the sofa with my arm as a pillow and brought the stone I held between my fingers up to my eyes.
“Then why was Callet so surprised?”
An opaque pebble the color of milk mixed with blue paint. It was certainly pretty, but unless it was raw ore, it couldn’t be worth more than ten thousand cona.
Surely not.
“Is Callet also being subjected to workplace harassment, having to play along with his superior’s jokes…?!”
Huh? It was noisy outside.
I tilted my head upward, my arm still supporting it. The murmur of people outside the building drifted through the window.
“Did Grandfather come back…?”
Feeling uneasy, I pocketed the stone, climbed down from the sofa, and walked to the window. The window was high again, but fortunately there was a small stool nearby.
The moment I stepped on the stool and looked out through the window, I couldn’t help but smile broadly.
“Oh, Dad!”
It was pure survival instinct.
My father was standing outside the building. Behind him were knights.
‘Ugh. Dad’s already here. I guess I spent more time with Grandfather than I thought.’
My plan to return to Stone House before Father arrived had fallen apart.
And that wasn’t all.
The knights looked like dejected puppies with their tails between their legs.
Even Commander Rex, standing beside Father, had his shoulders hunched.
Even though the Commander was clearly larger than Father, the overwhelming presence came not from Rex but from my father.
‘That spot next to him will soon be mine….’
First, I should greet Father warmly.
Waving my hands enthusiastically with all my survival instincts, Father slowly raised his right hand and waved back toward me.
“Berry.”
Father called my name. The window was so transparent that I could see the shape of his lips clearly even from the third floor.
Being able to see his lips clearly meant I could also see the rest of his face well.
Cold sweat began to trickle down.
Beneath his wheat-colored hair, his blue eyes were narrower than usual.
‘That, that’s…’
Father’s eyes when he was angry.
“Berry, stay there. I’m coming up.”

***

Father arrived at the Commander’s Office with Rex and several knights.
“I told you to stay put and behave.”
“I apologize.”
I took a position beside Rex and offered my apologies to Father.
“Even if you went out with Anne, didn’t it occur to you that Father would worry?”
“…I was thoughtless. I apologize.”
I had planned not to get caught, after all.
Yet caught I was.
All I could offer Father, who had been made to worry because of me, was an apology.
Leaving Stone House and coming to the Training Grounds wasn’t the problem. Within Trabel, there were no places the direct line couldn’t freely access except for the spaces of other branches.
The problem was that Father knew I had been caught by Count Trabel trying to steal candy from the Commander’s Office and had been scolded.
“Young Master, as I mentioned, the young lady bears no fault. I was the one who told her about the refreshments in the Commander’s Office in the first place, and it is largely my failure for not anticipating that the head of the household would arrive. And look at the young lady’s face! How severely must the Count have scolded her for her eyes to be so red from crying?”
Rex spread both his palms as if cradling my face, defending me to Father.
My eyes were red because I had rubbed them while nodding along to Count Trabel’s words, but…
Still, there was no reason to refuse Rex’s help. I looked up at Father.
A perfectly timed sniffle—even my nose itched.
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“Berry, you shouldn’t tell lies, should you?”
“What? It’s not a lie, Young Master!”
“…Not you, Commander.”
I had been caught not crying. Father knows me far too well, which is troublesome.
Father’s gaze shifted to the glass jar of candy I held in my arms.
“That candy—”
He seemed about to ask why I was holding it, but Father stopped himself. He must have noticed the knights around us perking up their ears.
There are far too many listening ears. Besides Rex, there’s no one I can truly trust.
“Father, there’s something I’d like to discuss with just the two of us.”
“Rex.”
“Yes. You heard the young lady? Everyone out.”
“You too.”
“…Yes.”
Once all the knights had left and the door closed, Father asked me.
“What is it?”
I explained to Father the full account of what had happened today.
I wanted to see the rabbit, so I asked Anne to come with me, but my leg hurt, and while Anne told me to wait, I heard the sound of swords and found it interesting, so I wandered around and became friendly with the knights through Father’s stories, and so on.
As Father listened to my excuses, his expression began to soften.
I seized the moment and clarified what had happened in the Commander’s Office as well.
Leaving out the part about receiving the pebble. I didn’t want him to know I had been teased by Count Trabel.
“You didn’t get scolded by Grandfather?”
“Nope! Look, look—I even got candy!”
“Then why were your eyes red?”
“Well, that’s… Grandfather told me to cry.”
“…Could you explain that in a bit more detail?”
“Grandfather gave me candy as a homecoming gift, you see?”
I explained the situation to Father with a slight embellishment. If I revealed that I’d seen through Grandfather’s act of anger and pretended to cry on my own, it would expose my competence—and Father would only worry. Better to keep that part hidden.
“He said that if only I received candy, the other relatives might get jealous, so he’d pretend to scold me and I should act remorseful. I’m not sure why, but we had to be in sync, so—”
Father gently ruffled my hair.
“Very well. You don’t need to be in sync when you don’t understand something.”
Father had called me by my pet name. It meant his anger had subsided considerably.
Though his lips remained taut, as if a new concern had taken root.
‘Father must be bothered by Grandfather’s act of scolding too, right? It means he was taking my side. That’s why he’s pondering Grandfather’s true intention.’
Sigh. I still couldn’t fathom Grandfather’s real motives.
I grabbed Father’s hand resting on my head and playfully asked, “By the way, didn’t you see Anne? She was in the Corridor when I went into the Commander’s Office earlier. Did she leave first?”
“She went to the Main Estate. Countess Trabel came looking for her while you were with Grandfather.”
“Grandmother did?”
Then the news of my scolding must have already reached Aunt Mariane.
Aunt and Grandmother were allies. Since maid management fell under their jurisdiction, Anne would bear no particular responsibility in this matter.
If anything, she’d probably receive payment as a reward for her spy work.
…Either way, the atmosphere seems to have lightened a bit, hasn’t it?
“But, Father.”
I finally had the chance to ask what I’d been curious about since earlier.
“What were you and Theon talking about just now?”
“What were you talking about with Theon earlier?”

6. A New Family Member

So, it was when Father announced from outside the building that he would come up to the Commander’s Office.
Theon, who had been hidden behind Rex, finally revealed himself. Father spoke with Rex while Theon stood there.
They talked for quite a while, so I was curious what they discussed—
“Theon is my escort?”
Back at Stone House, I listened to Father’s explanation while eating the strawberry cake he’d bought.
Together with Theon, the person in question.
“….”
When I was younger, I needed a lot of attention, so Father and I naturally sat side by side even now. Since Theon was a guest, I made room for him between Father and me.
Father, sitting on the left side of the long sofa, answered.
“Not an official escort, exactly.”
Right, the direct line of Stone House didn’t receive personal guard knights.
More precisely, we didn’t receive support from the Trabel Family. Everything—the knight’s salary, food, clothing, lodging—would come from Father’s own pocket.
“When I’m away, his role is to watch over you—no, to keep you company.”
“Father, you just said ‘watch over.'”
“Did you mishear?”
“Oh. I’ll let it slide.”
But I understood. Trabel was vast enough that there was plenty of opportunity for something to happen to me beyond Father’s sight.
Besides, the fact that Father brought Theon must have been decisive because of what happened today.
“But Theon agreed to this too? Father, you can’t force him into things just because we’re nobility now.”
“…Berry, you seem to be forgetting something. Father and you were already nobility.”
“I’m not being forced. I agreed to it. Commander Rex said I could leave the Red Eagle Knights.”
“Leave the Red Eagle Knights? Why?”
“Because I’ll be staying in Trabel as the grandson of Baron Voltman, who receives your sponsorship. Is it okay if Berry spends time with me?”
“Yes! I love it! Because Theon and I are friends!”
More than okay—I was internally cheering with joy.
Now that I could grow closer to Theon, I wouldn’t face any resistance from relatives.
Even if there was some, a little background check on Theon would make them lose interest.
The only noteworthy information about Theon right now was that he was an apprentice knight and the grandson of a poor baron.
So I was happy, but…
“Wait. Theon shouldn’t leave the Red Eagle Knights, should he? Baron Voltman sent you to Trabel to learn swordsmanship.”
At my words, Theon looked at me in surprise.
“How did you know?”
“The knight uncles were talking about it.”
I placed a strawberry from the cake’s decoration onto Theon’s plate. Since he was a guest, after all.
Oh, this cake is delicious.
Father also placed a strawberry on Theon’s plate as he spoke.
“I can teach you instead.”
Theon stared at his plate, now with three strawberries, looking utterly bewildered.
“So Father becomes Theon’s master?”
Whoosh. At my words, Theon’s head snapped toward me.

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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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