I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 134

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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 134

“Berry, wait a moment.”
It was Theon.
He seemed to need something from the bag I’d placed beside me, but it was positioned against the wall. His profile came inches from my face as he stretched his arm to search through the bag’s contents. Not figuratively—literally inches away.
Without thinking, I held my breath. I’m not sure why, but once I stopped breathing, I couldn’t seem to start again.
‘Why is this so awkward? It’s not like he’s a stranger—it’s Theon. I should just breathe naturally.’
‘But how do I do that?’
It felt like two versions of myself were arguing inside my head. Even as my mind churned with noise, my body remained frozen.
Theon pulled a receipt from the bag and looked at my rigid form with a puzzled expression.
“What?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
The moment Theon straightened his upper body, I rose from my seat as well. It was a reflexive action born from my desperate desire to escape this awkwardness, but once I came to my senses, I realized my posture looked strange.
I should have stayed seated.
“Ah—I think I’ve been sitting too long. My back hurts. Let’s go quickly.”
Embarrassed for no good reason, I grabbed my bag and left the spot. Theon took the bag from my hands and walked beside me. By then, the priests had disappeared somewhere, and the lone mercenary remaining at the counter was grumbling as he filled out documents.

***

I was bothered by the Priest’s glance in my direction, but it must have been my imagination.
Nothing happened after that—we went upstairs to unpack, came back down for dinner, and even when Theon and I discussed our next operation, everything remained normal.
We returned to the guest quarters with two rooms and spread a map across the table in the living room between them.
“Just as I said before. The swindlers pretended to head for the Papper Kingdom but switched ships during the voyage.”
I moved the flag across the sea on the map, dragging it toward the Heishal Empire. Theon nodded in agreement with my words, and I continued.
“Because—”
“They thought they needed to strike that hard to evade the Trabel Family.”
Theon gazed at the map with cold eyes. Then he pointed at it with his fingertip and spoke.
“They’d make everyone think they’re hiding in the Papper Kingdom, then lie low in the Heishal Empire and return to the Papper Kingdom once the pursuit loosens. They’d aim for right after the Annex Succession War ends, and for Hevanth’s forces to catch the swindlers, they’d need to deploy people to these waters by then. But we’ll catch them before that, won’t we?”
“Right.”
I was impressed. His analysis matched exactly how Victor had caught the swindlers in my other memories.
‘Could Theon have seen the future too?’
That couldn’t be. It simply meant that Theon’s analytical and predictive abilities, honed through experience, had become more precise.
“That’s why we came all the way to Belodia, just as the Blue Company’s merchant master said.”
In my other memories, the swindlers hid in the Heishal Empire, waiting for Uncle’s encirclement to loosen. It was Victor who discovered their hideout by gathering information in advance.
Because of that, before departing from the Trabel Family, I’d been planning how to persuade Victor, but unexpectedly, the Blue Company provided the information first—along with a request to catch the swindlers.

“Miss, this is an opportunity. I’m well aware of how you’ve been narrowly undermining Reytan’s accomplishments. I’ve watched you crumble the achievements he worked so hard to build like a sandcastle.”

Victor’s eyes gleamed with unmistakable desire.

“I’ll keep Reytan in check with my own words. All you need to do is build up your accomplishments this time. We should at least reach the Emerald House in this succession war, shouldn’t we?”

Victor built up his accomplishments, and I tore them down.
Though I never spoke it aloud, my actions—predatory as a natural enemy—had caused him extreme stress. And it was through relentless investigation, even more obsessive than Father’s, that he had discovered it.
That we were allies targeting the Diamond House.
“Yeah. I made contact with an informant from the Blue Company at the shop we visited earlier. Apparently, the con artists reached out to a fence in this city at dawn today. That fence is definitely an accomplice.”
Kane had loaded the requested items onto the ship that the con artists believed to be a legitimate trading vessel, and among them were quite a few small, expensive objects. The con artists had removed them from the middle of the sea, then escaped the ship themselves.
The ship was a large cruise liner. It arrived in the Papper Kingdom without anyone noticing that a few passengers had vanished, and it was only afterward that the Grand Temple sent word about the gold coin fraud. That’s why everyone assumed the con artists’ last known location was the Papper Kingdom.
“Word must have spread that Berry came to this city. Do you think they’re still here?”
“Probably. They’re not in a position where they can afford to change hideouts in just one day.”
Still, we had to hurry.
These were people bold enough to defraud Kane, but they wouldn’t be foolish enough to remain in a city where a direct descendant of the Trabel Family had been sent to capture them.
“Let’s go.”
Theon and I drank the Chameleon Humanoid potion simultaneously. Theon’s form in front of me gradually faded from view, and at some point, his presence became dim.
Wow. This works great.
“Theon, are you here?”
And therein lay the problem. The camouflage ability persisted regardless of will, and because it worked so well, it was difficult to locate each other. I moved around searching for Theon, when my foot caught on a raised edge in the floor and I tumbled forward.
“Oof.”
I expected to crash against the hard floor, but something firm yet yielding was beneath me. Though I couldn’t see it, I had fallen directly onto Theon.
Looking closely, the boundaries between Theon’s form and the surrounding objects were blurred. Fortunately, Theon had fallen onto a soft carpet.
“Oh no, Theon.”
I gasped in alarm and placed both hands on what I assumed to be Theon’s face, checking to see if he was hurt.
“I’m sorry.”
Because of the Chameleon Humanoid’s camouflage ability, I couldn’t rely on sight—only my sense of touch remained.
I felt contours, soft and supple. His earlobe and cheek, perhaps. The warmth of Theon’s body transmitted through my palms was comforting.
“Are you okay?”
“….”
“You’re not hurt because of me, are you?”
A soft touch. Theon’s hand brushed my arm, and then he slowly spoke. Only then did I realize why Theon had been silent until now.
“Berry.”
Beneath my palm, Theon’s lips moved. My trusted sense of touch transmitted the movement of his lips directly to me. Wait…?
“….”
Again, two versions of myself seemed to clash in my mind. My head was loud, but my body wouldn’t move. Theon spoke again.

***

“I’m not hurt. I’m fine.”

There was definitely something in the special effects potion. An adolescence activation function, perhaps.
‘Oh no, this is bad.’
It was clear that I was experiencing one of the symptoms of puberty: ‘increased interest in the opposite sex.’
The evidence was undeniable—rapid heartbeat from nervous system changes, increased blood flow, rising body temperature.
The problem was that the object of this interest was Theon.
“When did this start?”
I muttered to myself, staring at the dirt ground. Behind me stood a darkened building—presumably where the swindlers were hiding.
Theon had gone inside to investigate, while I maintained the chameleon potion’s effect and kept watch.
It was something that happened to anyone growing up. From a rational perspective, there was no one among my peers more impressive than Theon.
“This is troublesome. Puberty.”

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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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