I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 25

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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 25

“…Bidder Number 4…?”
The auctioneer, whose voice had grown heated as he drove the price higher, glanced toward Mariane and sought her confirmation.
Mariane drew a deep breath. She fanned herself to regain composure, but the connecting joint had come loose, and the fan’s ribs and feathers scattered ungracefully.
“Dear, perhaps we should stop….”
Her husband retrieved the fan, watching her carefully. Having married into the family as a live-in son-in-law, he was always anxious about offending Mariane’s sensibilities.
“….”
A counterfeit pearl earring—one worth perhaps not even a million cona, let alone the original hundred million—had sold for a billion cona.
‘What fool would pay that price for such a thing!’
It could only be Reytan Quartz Trabel. Then who would bear responsibility for the counterfeit?

“At this rate, in four years my sister’s Separate House will be mine.”

Beneath the table, her hidden hand trembled violently. Her nails dug into her skin, drawing blood.
Mariane clenched her teeth and moved her lips.
“1.2 billion.”
At her words, every eye in the room fixed upon one man.
The elegantly dressed man from head to toe maintained his composure effortlessly, even in this suffocating moment.
Reytan Quartz Trabel’s lips twisted. A brief laugh escaped him, but it was swallowed by the words that followed, and no one noticed.
“I concede. The price is too steep.”
Reytan Quartz Trabel set down the bidding paddle he held.
“…Bidder Number 4 has won the pearl earrings from the Shusubia Archipelago for 1.2 billion cona!”
The auctioneer’s gavel struck the wooden block three times.
Thud.
Yosel excused himself, claiming an urgent need for the restroom.
Thud.
Reytan Quartz Trabel shrugged at Priest Holte’s words of consolation.
Thud.
Mariane sat motionless, suppressing the fury rising to the crown of her head, her gaze fixed upon the platform where the auction item had been raised.
‘This isn’t over yet…!’
The counterfeit earring had fallen into Mariane’s hands, and 1.2 billion cona had vanished.
Reytan Quartz Trabel and Yosel.
Her rage was directed at both men, but the fury churning toward Reytan Quartz Trabel burned hotter. Now, she simply had to see that composed face of his twist in anguish.
Only then would her heart find even a modicum of relief.
‘Soon now!’
The maidservant she had deliberately allowed to escape from the Punishment Room would emerge onto that stage and plead her grievances about what Reytan Quartz Trabel had done to her.
And those words would reach the ears of Priest Holte, a high priest of the Aubaut Order.
Mariane steadied her breathing and waited for the maid to emerge.
But—
“She’s not coming out…?”
Even as the auctioned item was moved off the platform and the sound signaling the end of the auction rang out, the stage remained silent.
The bidding paddle slipped from Mariane’s hand and fell uselessly to the floor.

***

“I will drive back the Knights and have the Attendant open the door for you. No one will stop you as you make your way to the Auction House.”

Just as Mariane had promised, as late afternoon arrived, the door to the Punishment Room slowly swung open.
Anne was hiding behind the door. If she played dead, the Attendant would enter to search for her.
Anne held her breath, terrified even the sound of her breathing might be heard. Her grip tightened on the tin kettle she held.

“Come out. Anne.”
“….”
“Why don’t you answer? …Tsk. These days the maids have it easy. They sleep in the Punishment Room instead of reflecting on their sins.”

The Attendant walked toward the rusted bed. Straw had been stuffed beneath the blanket to make it look like someone was sleeping. Just as the Attendant reached out toward the blanket—

“Wake up. The Madam—”

Thwack!
Anne, seizing her moment, brought the kettle down hard against the Attendant’s unguarded back.
The Attendant collapsed face-first onto the bed, and Anne stood gasping, staring at his motionless form.

“…Madam?”

He had said “Madam,” not “Miss.” In the Trabel Family, only the Countess could be addressed as Madam.
Confusion flickered through her mind, but there was no time to dwell on it. Anne slipped out of the Punishment Room and fled the Main Estate.

Sunset was approaching.
Whoooosh.
The leaves around her rustled in the wind like falling rain, and the cries of crows echoed through the air in the distance.
Anne hesitated for a moment in front of the Main Estate.
To the right lay the Banquet Hall where the auction was underway. To the left lay the passage through which she could slip away from the Trabel Family undetected.
‘…I have no choice but to trust her.’
Anne recalled the contents of the note she had torn up and swallowed the night before.

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Plan: Do nothing if Mariane instructs you to do something.
※If you wish to escape the Trabel Estate, do so. Your younger brother is at the Moonflower Inn in Hisport Town.
(IMPORTANT) Bury the Kona coin beneath the statue of the urinating cherub in the Inn Backyard.
(IMPORTANT) Tell no one about this note. Chew and swallow it so the contents cannot be read.

(Escape Route Map from Count Trabel’s Residence)
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Gold coins promised by Mariane were merely gold coins.
No amount of money could cure Jeffrey’s illness. What Anne needed was a miracle—and yesterday, she glimpsed a fragment of that miracle.

“Eek…! The blanket is fluttering…!”
“The straw is dancing…!”
“…Are you…the Aubaut Order?”

It was certainly a room with no one else inside.
Inanimate objects moving as if alive. It evoked the power of Aubaut, the god who creates life.
She had never witnessed anything like it before.
If following the instructions in that note could cure Jeffrey’s illness—
‘I would gladly give not just the Kona coin, but my own life.’
Anne turned sharply to the right and bolted forward.
She ran until her breath came in gasps, her lungs burning. The entrance to the deserted Hunting Grounds came into view.
Beyond that lay a secret passage that would let her slip past the inner walls of Trabel.
“….”
The sun had completely set. Massive trees clustered desolately at the entrance to the Hunting Grounds.
As Anne raced toward it, something moving entered her field of vision.
She thought it might be a tree’s shadow, but as she drew closer, the form became clearer. It was a person.
I can’t be discovered. I have to run.
Anne turned back. She tried to dash away, but her feet would not move.
‘Where can I go?’
Before her eyes lay the vast expanse of the Trabel Estate she had just fled across. From the sloping hillside, she could see two long, high walls encircling Trabel. They stretched beyond sight. To Anne, they felt like a cage imprisoning her.

“Don’t go. You don’t need medicine.”

Jeffrey. I—
The Hunting Grounds and its surroundings were silent and dark. Even the smallest sound carried with crystalline clarity in the night.
Anne heard her own ragged breathing and the footsteps of someone approaching. And then.
Clink.
‘God help me.’
Anne despaired at the sound emanating from whoever was descending into the Hunting Grounds. She recognized it instantly—she’d heard it far too often these past days. The occasional metallic ring that accompanied the movements of the Knights guarding the Punishment Room.
It was the sound of a sword striking against the metal rings of a belt.
“….”
The footsteps halted directly behind her. Anne bit the inside of her lips hard. If she didn’t, a sob would escape.
Please, let the Aubaut Order accept my life in exchange for Jeffrey’s salvation.
Sensing the end, Anne slowly turned around.

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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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