I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 15

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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 15

The direct heirs never visited Stone House.
The reason was simple.
They feared that drawing near would bring misfortune.
It was a superstition—that the lowest aura would cling to them and affect their accomplishments—but it also revealed how desperately they all clawed for position in the succession hierarchy.
‘But why did they come all the way here?’
I pressed myself behind the Arborvitae Trees, peering through the branches and leaves toward the other side.
I heard the sound of their giggling conversation.
“If he cries again this time, Grandfather will chase him out, won’t he?”
“Father said so himself. The frog cried again yesterday after Grandfather scolded him. A whimpering crybaby has no place in Trabel.”
Two children with identical faces stood before me. They were Hati and Mati, Uncle’s fraternal twins. Both nine years old this year.
They possessed golden hair with a slight curl and angelic features, but they were demons.

— Teacher! The lowest one dropped the textbook in the pond!
— Really? That’s the textbook Father bought with his own money. Uncle Reytan has no ability, so he can’t even earn money!
— Go fish it out. If he has any shame, he won’t dare ask for a new textbook.

Suddenly, a different memory from my childhood surfaced.
Most of the bullying I endured during lessons came from them and Calips, my aunt’s ten-year-old son.
‘Calips stopped acknowledging the other me entirely after entering the Academy, but those twins couldn’t help but provoke the other me even into adulthood. …How much did they torment him that he still trembled with disgust at the thought of them?’
I couldn’t let them look down on me.
My instincts were screaming this truth.
“And Hati, the frog was punished for trying to steal Grandfather’s candy. He deserved the beating for thievery.”
Mati, the male of the twins, shook the sack he was holding back and forth.
‘…Are they calling me a frog?’
Now that I thought about it, they had mocked me when they saw me crying on my first day at Trabel, hadn’t they?

“Pathetic. Is that really a Trabel? So loud, just like a frog.”
“A frog? Then we’ll only have to tolerate him until autumn. Come winter, he’ll crawl into a hole and disappear.”

I fixed my gaze on the sack Mati held. It was the kind hunters used to catch birds or small animals—the opening cinched tight with cord.
It seemed the servants had caught something bird-like. The sack twitched slightly, so it was alive? Were they planning to throw it at me?
‘Hmm.’
I narrowed my eyes and crouched low. The twins were too busy talking to notice my presence nearby.
Target acquired ahead. Commencing attack.
“Just throw the thing already. It’s disgusting.”
“When the frog comes this way… when is it coming? I saw it go outside earlier… aaahhhhh!!”
“Eek! Why, why, why are you—?!”
“My leg…! Something’s biting my leg!”
The twins’ faces went pale in an instant as they shrieked.
That’s what happens when you try to do something mean. I was holding it in my hand.
“Ribbit, ribbit.”
“…”
Hati and Mati looked down at me. With my face poking out from between the bases of two Arborvitae Trees, I looked up at the twins and grinned wickedly.
“Did you find the frog?”
“Kyaaahhh!”
“What, what is it?!”
The twins bolted from their spot as if they’d seen a ghost.
Thud. The sack slipped from Mati’s hand as he ran, hitting the ground.
“Hmph. Nothing special.”
Cowards.
I crawled out from between the trees and dusted off my hands. Starting tomorrow, I’d have to attend lessons with those two. A sigh escaped me.
“What were you trying to throw?”
Just as I bent down to grab the writhing sack, a hand reached it before mine. It was Theon.
“Don’t touch it.”
“Huh? Theon. Are you done training with Father?”
Theon nodded and silently turned to look behind him. It was the direction the twins had fled.
His dark eyes sank low as he watched the empty path, but they regained their usual light when they turned toward me.
“I’ll handle this.”
“What is it?”
“A bullfrong.”
Splash, splash. With each external stimulus, something thrashed violently inside the sack Theon held.
My stomach turned sour.
I glanced around Theon and asked.
“Didn’t Father come with you? How was your first lesson? Father teaches really well, doesn’t he?”
I had expected him to light up again and gush about the lesson, but instead Theon spoke with his characteristic expressionless face tinged with concern.
“The training ended early.”
“Why?”
“The Countess sent someone to say she had something to tell the Master.”

***

Whoooosh—
A colossal fountain stood before the Trabel Main House.
The fountain drew from a peculiar underground water vein that flowed beneath the estate, never running dry even during the most severe droughts.
“The water streams are so refreshing. Isn’t it magnificent every time you see it?”
Priscilla, Count Trabel’s first wife, gazed out at the garden embracing the fountain through the expansive windows of her beloved Tea Room, then turned away.
“It is the blessing of the Divine bestowed upon Trabel.”
In her line of sight appeared a handsome man with wheat-colored hair seated upon the sofa.
Though his expression was fierce, he possessed an inherent grace in all he did. He possessed an innate magnetism that drew people to him—so much so that I sometimes regretted not having borne him myself.
“A blessing indeed.”
Reytan sat with one leg crossed, his gaze fixed beyond the window.
Priscilla settled into the single-seat sofa to his right and asked.
“How have you been all this time? You haven’t contacted me once in six years, so I’ve heard nothing of you.”
“My apologies. Raising a child has kept me occupied.”
“I understand. I’ve raised quite a few children myself. These days, even Yosel keeps pestering me to look after his own.”
The Countess’s hands, though lined with age, were beautiful, adorned even with precious jewelry that must not touch water.
Click. Reytan set down the teacup he held and fixed his gaze upon her.
When Reytan had returned, Priscilla had briefly shown her face before retreating to the Main Estate with the excuse of a headache. She needed time alone to suppress the anger that threatened to overwhelm her at her stepson’s return.
Reytan was not the sort of son to make time to visit her separately, so this conversation between them was the first since his return to Trabel.
Whenever Priscilla met Reytan’s blue eyes, she always felt a sense of discomfort. A faint displeasure accompanied that feeling.
A swordsmanship prodigy who had risen to the rank of Grand Master.

“Would the second son not be a strong candidate?”

Many saw him as material for the next family head.
It had been long since such talk had been inserted into his consistently lowest rankings….
‘Men change when they become fathers.’
The Countess was troubled by Reytan’s return as a father.
What if he threatened the succession of her own children—
“You said to hold him accountable for collective responsibility. If that is your wish, then so be it. I shall place my belongings in the charity auction you are hosting as you suggested.”
“I’m sorry. What are mere pearl earrings? But what can be done? If we overlook the theft of the master’s possessions, the order of the household cannot be maintained.”
“It is no trouble.”
With his business concluded, Reytan rose with a brief greeting. Priscilla smiled inwardly as she watched his departing figure leave the Tea Room.
Even as a father, that boy remains pathetic.

Click.
Reytan Quartz Trabel’s blue eyes gleamed faintly as he exited the Tea Room. So the charity auction was a trap.
‘What should I do.’
Reytan Quartz Trabel pondered as he walked through the Corridor. He had several options before him.
Become the scoundrel of Trabel and ruin their plans, overturn them, or repay them in kind….

“How many more years do you think your daughter will live?”

Or endure.
If Berry’s illness was one that could only be cured in this place, I could not leave this land.
But this was a place where troublesome sprouts were trampled underfoot.
The carriage accident I suffered thirteen years ago and my brother’s death seven years ago were both connected to them.
I had to ensure that Berry lived beyond the reach of these beasts’ interference.
“Um, Young Master.”
“….”
“Young Master…?”
Reytan Quartz Trabel, lost in deep thought, turned at the sound of the voice calling him.
It was Serber, the head butler of the Main Estate.
“What is it?”
“Well, that is….”
Serber glanced around as if to confirm no one was nearby.
He knew that Reytan Quartz Trabel had not left the Countess’s presence on good terms, yet he still had something to ask.
“It’s about the Ink Company stocks that Miss Berry mentioned….”
He had inquired again with Baron Mont and even personally confirmed that there were no problems with the Ink Company. Yet he suffered from nightmares every night.
The story he had heard from that young lady at their first meeting simply would not leave his mind.
The reason he had extracted groceries from Sherry yesterday was because of this. Under normal circumstances, he would not have given them even after being pestered for half a day.
“The Ink Company?”
“Yes, yes…! The young lady said she had heard it from somewhere….”
What would a seven-year-old know. Young Master Reytan Quartz Trabel had been away until recently.
So it was unlikely that he was the source of that information. It was absurd to ask someone like Minus Hand about investment-related information, but with the house and entire fortune at stake—.
“Stop beating around the bush and just say what you want to say.”
“Should I dispose of it?”
Serber was nearly in tears. A middle-aged man pleading with him was something Reytan, who had lived on the battlefield, was accustomed to, so he felt little sympathy.
Ink Company stocks. What would I know.
“Dispose of it.”
“…Yes!”
At Reytan Quartz Trabel’s words, Serber’s face brightened as if he had received a divine revelation. Soon after, he changed his expression with an embarrassed cough.
Witnessing that momentary change, Reytan Quartz Trabel shook his head briefly and left Serber behind.

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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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