I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 155

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 155

———-
21. Belesa Valenhardt (Confirmed)
———-

I closed my notebook, where I’d written the list of suspects.
The First Princess of Edencia Kingdom.
The moment Sir Shylo uttered those words, my mind snapped into crystalline clarity, as if doused with ice water.
‘Belesa Valenhardt is involved in a plot to kill Father?’
My thoughts spiraled in a direction I’d never once considered before.
‘Why?’
The war had occurred in the Heishal Empire. A minor conflict, at that.
There was nothing to gain for her as a foreign princess.
‘What connection exists between Father and Belesa? The only link I can think of is me.’
It couldn’t be a custody dispute over a child. If that were the case, Edencia Kingdom would have approached me after Father’s death.
Besides, when I’d met Belesa Valenhardt weeks ago, she’d shown no particular interest in me.
‘She acts purely according to profit. She prioritizes social standing over emotional relationships.’
Father, the Grand Master. The First Princess of Edencia Kingdom.
‘What happened in Edencia Kingdom around that time? The Jewel of the Sun was discovered, the Second Prince was executed, there were issues with other races… and they declared the Aubaut Religion as the state religion, didn’t they? I’m certain the High Priest’s photograph was in the newspapers…’
I understood.
‘The Aubaut Order.’
In my other memories, Belesa Valenhardt was a devout believer of the Aubaut Religion, receiving wholehearted support from those who shared her faith.
The connection between Father and the First Princess wasn’t me—it was the Order.
‘But why did she advise that the timing be now?’
I settled my half-raised body back against the sofa. I was in a powder room-like space between the bathroom and bedroom, complete with a window.
‘The war occurred in spring.’
That was far too early.
‘…Has Belesa Valenhardt experienced a change of heart?’
Tap. Tap.
The glass window beside the sofa rattled. I hurried to open it.
Jack Jack had arrived with the telegram I’d requested from Sir Shylo.
As I retrieved the pebble I’d left on the outer windowsill to mark my location, Jack Jack slipped inside.
“I received the telegram. Zena has contacted Baron Voltman, so the Wild Dog Tribe will move.”
A telegram requesting that lemon candies be placed in a basket with a red ribbon and sent to the Trabel Estate.
The telegram I’d sent to Zena was in cipher.
Red ribbon meant emergency, basket meant Wild Dog Tribe, lemon candy meant Father.
“Good.”
I nodded. Jack Jack had come to hear the details of what I’d asked him to do.
“He needs to be brought back before Father arrives at the battlefield. Since he departed from the Trabel Estate, we should be able to meet him at the Batz Mountain Range.”
“Understood. But I have a question.”
“Yes?”
“How do we bring Reytan Quartz Trabel back?”
Jack Jack fluttered his wings in place. It was his way of saying the task I’d entrusted him with wouldn’t be easy.
“Even if the Wild Dog Tribe goes, your father doesn’t seem like he’d turn back.”
“Is that so?”
I smiled at Jack Jack as I spoke.
“That’s the easiest part.”

***

That afternoon.
A tip with significant implications arrived at the Daily Sunrise newspaper office.

———-
Tomorrow. The Igselona Royal Family to announce an engagement with the Trabel Family.
The other party is presumed to be the youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel.
Will the Emperor’s eleventh wedding come to pass?
———-

“…Am I insane?”
Izra, the president of Daily Sunrise, muttered while furrowing his brow.
The youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel was a child he knew well.
She was the granddaughter that Marshall, the pharmacist of Bonwell Village and an early investor in the newspaper, cherished dearly.
“Berry is only fifteen this year.”
In contrast, the Emperor was in his mid-forties. Unless the Emperor had lost his mind, this tip was nothing but a poorly crafted false report.
“Why on earth are you showing me such an offensive fabrication? Is His Imperial Majesty planning to play house with a child? Should I run an article like this? Hmm?”
As Izra’s voice rose, the employee who had brought the tip shrank back.
“No matter how sensational the content, this isn’t it. Do you want to watch our newspaper close its doors?”
“N-no, sir.”
“Take it. Tear it up. Burn it.”
Izra waved the tip paper he held between his fingertips dismissively. At the editor’s attitude, as if handling something filthy, the employee’s face fell.
“I understand the content is strange, sir. However….”
“However?”
“The informant is ‘Circle’….”
Crunch.
At those words, Izra crumpled the paper in his fist, then hastily placed it on his desk and carefully unfolded it with both hands.
“Phew, it didn’t tear. Why didn’t you mention that sooner?”
“I was trying to tell you….”
“Never mind. Stop making excuses.”
Circle.
The tip paper he had just received was transmitted via telegraph from a Daily Sunrise branch, so it wasn’t the original.
The original had a small circle drawn on the back of the envelope.
That anonymous tip, which had been arriving steadily for several years, had never once been wrong.
“Which branch submitted this tip?”
“The second branch in the Imperial Capital.”
“The Imperial Capital…. Trustworthy. Information about the Trabel Family is Circle’s specialty.”
“But sir, we don’t have much time to publish the article by the day after tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“We’d need to infiltrate the Trabel Family and the Igselona Royal Family to verify the facts-.”
“Just publish it.”
“Sir?”
Izra spoke while keeping his gaze fixed on the tip’s contents. Beads of sweat formed on his palms.
His experience was telling him something.
This was a dangerous golden egg. If it wasn’t true, he’d have a knife at his throat-.
“We’ll be the first to report it.”
Otherwise, Daily Sunrise could report the engagement-related article that was about to break ahead of all other newspapers.
The engagement announcement, the engagement ceremony, statements from both families, the wedding….
“Extended special coverage. We can’t let this slip away.”
Izra smiled, harboring dark intentions.
“Um, boss.”
“What.”
“So… is that tip actually true? That information?”
“Didn’t you hear everything I just said?”
“Ten million Cona.”
“….”
Izra’s hand trembled as he withdrew his checkbook from the desk drawer.

***

“Belesa Valenhardt is in the Heishal Empire.”
Theon, who had said he would investigate further into matters of war, returned to the Separate Palace just as I finished preparing to leave.
Theon and I rendezvoused at the Separate Palace Warehouse, where we had arranged to meet.
“If we depart today, will we be able to meet her?”
Belesa Valenhardt, the Aubaut Order, and the direct line of the Trabel Family.
The collective of those who had participated in my father’s death had begun to take shape, yet only Belesa Valenhardt had been identified with certainty.
“She’s boarding a ship departing for Edencia Kingdom tomorrow. It takes about four days by carriage.”
“Even by horse, we’ll be late.”
My brow furrowed.
Now was the best time to extract the names of her accomplices from the First Princess of Edentia Kingdom, the prime suspect.
They would be in the process of tightening the net to capture my father. If the plan failed, they would likely abandon the net and scatter into hiding.
But four days by carriage. When traveling by horse, one typically expected half that time.
A day and a half.
Even if we departed now, by the time we reached the harbor, Belesa Valenhardt would already be gone.
I asked Theon.
“What if we ride without rest, changing horses along the way?”
“Then we’d arrive tomorrow, but there would be many variables. The ship could depart first, or Berry might struggle along the way.”
“I don’t mind if I struggle. Let’s depart at this hour. Are the horses ready? Can we go now?”
“…Tell me if it becomes too much.”
Theon nodded, as if acknowledging there was no other option. It was I who needed to meet Belesa—something Theon could not do in my stead.
It was just as Theon reached for the warehouse door handle to open it.
“Sister, brother.”
Jeffrey, who had been keeping watch outside the warehouse, spoke up.
“Have you ever seen a Wolf Tribe member?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————