I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 183

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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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Side Story 3

Calips possessed the height of an average adult man, yet his natural proportions and meticulous self-care gave him the appearance of a stylishly handsome gentleman.
Calips answered while gazing down at the closing cargo hatch of the ship.
“Yes.”
“We’ve completed the loading.”
“Did you load what I told you to?”
“That large crate of yours, sir! We placed it deep inside the cargo hold! Right at the very back! It’s secured well.”
Calips frowned at those words.
In the shadow cast by the sunlight, his already sharp, upturned eyes appeared even more fierce.
“How am I supposed to access it if you put it that far back in the hold?”
“W-what do you mean, sir?”
The Captain was flustered.
While all the direct descendants of the Trabel Family were difficult to deal with, if one had to name the most difficult among Count Trabel’s grandsons, it would undoubtedly be Calips—excluding Berry Quartz, who had married out.
His meticulous nature regarding practical matters was beyond description.
For a Captain whose hobby had been pocketing blind money, Calips was someone to be genuinely feared.
“Since you said not to let it tilt to one side or flip the crate, I thought it must be precious cargo to you, so I loaded it safely….”
In fact, the order to load it urgently had come down just an hour ago, and he had even rearranged the existing cargo to accommodate it.
The rough-looking Captain’s eyes glistened with grievance.
“If you wish, I can rearrange….”
“Ah, no. Never mind.”
Calips waved his hand dismissively.
“Just leave it alone. Don’t touch it at all.”
The Captain was perceptive enough.
As irritation crept into Calips’s voice, he hastily departed.
Soon the sounds of busy departure preparations echoed through the ship, and it began to drift away from the harbor.
“….”
Left alone, Calips slowly made his way down to the cargo hold.
“There’s a ridiculous amount of cargo.”
Shining a luminescent stone lantern here and there to examine the crates, Calips finally discovered a large rectangular wooden box deep within, exactly where the Captain had mentioned.

[Calips and others—
Do not open this under any circumstances]

When Calips first saw the note, he tried to pretend he hadn’t and turn away, but then he sighed and tapped the box with his foot.
The interior of the box remained silent.
“Hey, come out.”
“….”
“What is this? Do I look like a ten-year-old brat who can’t help but claim ownership of everything I see?”
As Calips’ murmuring grew longer, a rustling sound finally came from inside, followed by the noise of an internal lock being undone.
When the lid opened, it wasn’t one person who emerged from the box—it was two.
“Calips, the sound doesn’t carry well in here.”
“Hello.”
Calips was left speechless at the sight of Theon cradling Berry in his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The Crown Prince, crammed inside a box because he couldn’t bear to let his wife go alone.
‘What a waste of that height and face.’
If he was going to use it like that, he might as well have given it to me….
‘No, why am I even envying that.’
But the truly absurd part was something else entirely.
The Crown Prince and his consort’s illegal passage. And himself, playing a role in it.
“…Your Highness, why are you here?”
“Because Berry is here.”
There was no point in continuing this conversation.
Calips gave up trying to talk to Theon, who answered so matter-of-factly.
Instead, he asked his younger cousin as she was helped out of the box by Theon’s escort.
“Won’t a missing persons report be filed? If both the Crown Prince and Crown Princess disappear at once?”
“It’s fine. I’ve arranged for substitutes for a week.”
“Substitutes?”
“Jeffrey and Zena Chaser.”
“So you used that appearance-changing potion again.”
Calips grumbled.
Through all the training he’d endured at Berry’s hands, he’d come to learn about her various collaborators and the items she frequently used.
“…Wait. Jeffrey? That Wolf Clan member?”
“Yes.”
“…He’s playing the Crown Prince’s substitute?”
“Yes. He’s done it a few times before, and he does it well.”
“….”
Calips, unaware of how useful Jeffrey’s usual indifference to nobility was for playing the Crown Prince, closed his gaping mouth without finding anything to say.
He decided there was no need to step forward and worry when the Crown Prince was damaging his own reputation anyway.
Instead, he glanced into the box.
The interior of the box, large enough for two people to lie down in, was furnished like a bed.
“What is this.”
He’d suspected as much when they called it illegal passage.
Were they really planning to stay in a place like this?
…The Trabel name has its dignity.
“Here.”
Calips tossed something toward Berry Quartz.
It was an unexpected motion, but Theon caught it effortlessly.
“Stay there.”
“What is it?”
“Guest room key.”

***

The ship was on its second day of voyage.
It seemed Calips had done something, as the crew members never ventured near the section where our guest room was located.
Meals were simply placed in front of our room at the appointed times.
“Berry, look over there.”
“Oh.”
I sat on the bed and gazed beyond the guest room window as Theon drew back the curtains.
Land was beginning to appear in the distance.
“It’s the Edencia Kingdom.”
A nation that, true to its affinity with the demi-humans, had developed with a harmonious balance between nature and civilization.
Theon, dressed in sailor’s garb, pressed down a wide-brimmed hat as he spoke.
“I’ll go take a look at the situation outside before we disembark.”
“Okay.”
After Theon left the guest room, I rose from the bed, dressed myself, and sat at the small desk in the room to open my notebook.
I wanted to organize the situation before we arrived.

——
Roxie’s Report:
1) K Research Institute is an abbreviation for Camilla Research Institute.
2) The leaked test results were not tampered with.
——

Roxie had investigated the research institute mentioned in the article.
I had contacted the High Priest to understand the true meaning behind the Fourth Concubine’s words that “the Grand Temple had commissioned it.”
It turned out that another newspaper company’s journalist had been caught attempting an undercover investigation into the Aubaut Order, which caused “that newspaper incident” to become a problem within the Order.
The High Priest showed a deeply apologetic response, saying he had been meaning to contact me anyway.
The reason being….

——
High Priest’s Testimony:
1) It was the work of a high-ranking priest who followed Yuraha, not the Church itself.
2) The high-ranking priest testified that when Yuraha was trapped in the Gorge Tower in the past, he claimed that Berry Quartz was not Reytan’s biological daughter.
3) The blood that the high-ranking priest requested from the Camilla Research Institute was confirmed to be mine and Father’s.
——

Yuraha again.
There was a reason the High Priest’s expression had been so grim when he came to see me.
Ever since the commotion Yuraha caused at the Imperial Palace, the High Priest had been carrying a heavy burden of guilt, willing to grant Father and me any request we made.
In any case, discovering that K Research Institute was the Camilla Research Institute turned out to be unexpected fortune.
Baron Oldman’s regular research facility.
For over a decade, spending hundreds of millions of cona annually, the influence of such a long-term client was immense.
The research institute that had never granted interviews to any journalist opened its main gates wide at the visit of Zena Chaser, Baron Oldman’s representative.
Obtaining information proved effortless.

——
Director of Camilla Research Institute’s Testimony:
1) The culprit was a third-day recruit at the research institute, hired hastily due to labor shortage.
2) While deliberating whether to fire him for doing terrible work, the “problematic request” came in, and the recruit disappeared with the test results.
3) The recruit is presumed to be a spy for the First Herald.
——

The results that were leaked to the First Herald eventually reached the Fourth Concubine’s ears through the Director…
It appeared the Fourth Concubine had coaxed the Director into escalating the matter, promising to back him up.
It was certain—Akum had overheard me muttering to myself in my room after I returned.
“I escalated things without any real plan.”
I pressed my forehead and tapped my pen.
The biggest problem was that Count Trabel had also uncovered the mastermind. And faster than I had.

——
Count Trabel:
1) He requested analysis of Count Trabel’s and my blood from research institutes under the Trabel Estate and those directly under the Heishal Empire. (Second-degree relatives don’t yield immediate results, requiring over a week)
2) He was furious…
3) Once the results confirm I’m his biological granddaughter, he will formally lodge a complaint with the Imperial Palace, holding the Fourth Concubine accountable for the fake knight’s actions.
——

The problem lay in the phrase “formal protest.”
If I knew my grandfather at all, he was meticulously constructing irrefutable evidence that would leave not only the newspaper company’s president but even the Fourth Concubine unable to escape responsibility.
The inspection period was merely a grace period granted to the Fourth Concubine.
‘It’s not particularly ideal.’
It could become a catalyst for the relationship between the Igselona Royal Family and the Trabel Estate to gradually fracture.
In truth, the direct line of the Trabel Family consisted only of people who believed themselves and their house were exceptional, so there was no one who would lament the loss of royal connections. It was foolish.
‘Powerful people are always worth keeping close!’
Of course, I had Theon.
But Theon was my accomplished husband, not a business tool.
In any case, it was to prevent such misfortunes that Theon and I had come all the way to the Edencia Kingdom.

——
Father:
——

“….”
I wrote down “Father” and then stopped my pen.
After a moment of deliberation, I moved my hand again.

——
1) Missing
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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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