I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 26

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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 26

10. The Illiterate and His Subordinates

The moment I caught sight of the Twins’ backs as they crouched in the Auction House, a memory from Serber’s journal flashed through my mind like lightning—the incident of the stolen pearl earrings.
The Twins had taken the Countess Trabel’s earrings from the Main Estate, thinking them beautiful, only to have them snatched away by a raven.
Uncle had attempted to manage the situation by creating counterfeit earrings and secretly placing them back, but the Countess discovered the loss, and the matter spiraled beyond control.
The auction proceeded thanks to Aunt Mariane’s efforts, and Uncle won the bid.
The affair seemed to have concluded, but the genuine pearl earrings were discovered in a raven’s nest at the Hunting Grounds, revealing that what had been auctioned was a forgery.
The journal didn’t record it, but there must have been complications involving Father and Anne as well.
‘So that’s why they kept Anne away—they planned to drop a note from the second floor saying the pearl earrings were fake?’

Moments earlier.
I had left my original seat in the spectators’ gallery and walked toward the section where the Twins were hiding. The door connecting to the Corridor stood wide open.
Careless of them. Though I appreciated being spared the effort of opening it myself.
Slipping through the door, I quietly parted the curtain that concealed the gallery. I could see the Twins’ backs as they lay prone on the floor, peering over the railing to spy on the hall below.

“Bidder number seventeen, twenty million cona!”

On the First Floor, the auction was in full swing.
Uncle held up his bidding paddle to secure the pearl earrings, while the Twins watched his every move with visible anxiety.

“Mati, what if Father doesn’t win the bid?”
“Don’t say such things. Father promised he would definitely get it.”
“If it’s exposed that those are fake earrings, we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we? I don’t want to go to the Stone House.”
“Tch. Neither do I. That place is where all the riffraff live. We shouldn’t have taken Grandmother’s earrings in the first place. We should have just asked Father to buy us some. If only that raven hadn’t stolen them…”

Ah?
So they were secretly watching, worried that the forgery would be discovered.
I couldn’t ignore what they’d just said. I crept closer behind the Twins.
All the while, they remained absorbed in watching the First Floor below.

“Ribbit, ribbit.”
“…!!”

The Twins turned around slowly, so startled they couldn’t even scream, their mouths gaping open.
As someone who prided myself on being a cultured individual with proper manners, I smiled and waved at my relatives whom I hadn’t seen in half a day.

“Hello, Hati, Mati.”
“…You, you….”
“Why are you…?”
“Are those fake earrings? Did you and your brother lose the Countess’s earrings to a crow?”

Whoosh.
At my words, the Twins sprang to their feet and each grabbed one of my arms, dragging me into the space behind the curtain.
Intimidation was the Twins’ specialty.
But I had no intention of losing to them either, and I was already plotting my counterattack.

“…Please.”
“Huh?”

When Mati’s eyes met mine, he slowly released the grip on my arm like a frightened person, then hesitantly spoke.
Then, together with Hati, he pleaded with me to pretend I hadn’t heard what they’d just said, so I made them a proposal.

“…Lot 4, 4 has been sold to the bidder for 1.2 billion! The Shusubia Archipelago pearl earrings!”

Aunt Mariane, my target for revenge, had lost 1.2 billion Cona to Father.
[Mariane! You bought that for 1.2 billion~~!]
Though the pearl earrings had been sold, Akum was still delighted, gripping the railing and mocking my aunt.
Well, since Aunt Mariane was pitiful, maybe I’d let it slide this time?
Because rather than revealing that those earrings were fake—
“Sister and brother, you said you’d do anything if I kept your secret, right?”
It would be more fun to create two new subordinates.
Smirk.
When I spoke, the Twins froze in terror.
“…Eek.”
“Ugh….”
I never knew those blondes could look so adorable.
I spread paper on the floor and smiled kindly at the Twins, who held a pen.
“Now, write down everything I say, will you?”

***

Among the Wolf Tribe, there existed a legendary tale passed down through generations.
A black wolf spirit in human form guarded the forest, or so the story went.

It was the moment Anne, having resolved to meet her end, turned to face the one approaching from behind.
In that instant, Anne was startled twice over—first by the realization that this was not a Knight, but a young boy, and second by the thought that he might be the forest guardian spirit itself.

“….”

Black hair tousled in the wind. Clear, dark eyes fixed upon me.
Bathed in moonlight, the boy’s appearance seemed unreal. I had never seen anyone so beautiful.
Though I soon realized he was neither spirit nor beast, but human.

“You’re Anne, aren’t you? I followed you coming out of the Main Estate.”
“Ah, yes. But I—”
“Not this way. Come with me.”

The boy’s hand rested on his sword hilt—a mere habit, though Anne could not have known that. Her mind filled instead with the assumption that the blade might cut her down.
‘So I followed him, but….’
Anne watched the boy’s retreating figure as he walked ahead.
Though I was grateful simply to be alive and continued following, my mind churned with confusion.
‘Does Trabel have a Knight this young?’
With a sword at his waist, perhaps he was an apprentice knight. His appearance suggested nobility. He might be a young nobleman who came with the charity auction.
But where was this young master taking me? In this direction lay the main gate.
Unable to bear her anxiety and unease any longer, Anne called out to the boy.
“Excuse me, young master!”
“….”
“I’m not sure how much you know of my situation, but I have somewhere I must go…! Couldn’t I at least know the destination before following? Where are we headed?”
At her urgent question, the boy stopped in his tracks and turned around. He opened his mouth to address Anne, who stood frozen before him.
“Moonflower Inn.”
At that answer, Anne’s breath caught. The Moonflower Inn—wasn’t that the place written on the note? The inn where Jeffrey was, and how did this young master know of it?
Could it be.
“Did the divine one send you, young master?”
Anne clasped her hands together, her voice trembling with emotion. Her eyes held the reverence of one beholding something sacred.
What a strange person, Theon thought, stepping back slightly as he spoke to Anne.
“My master said he’d be waiting at the inn.”

***

That night.
After the auction concluded, Reytan returned to Stone House as though nothing had happened.
Berry, who had arrived first, greeted him with composure, and Theon, who had pretended to come from training, arrived around the same time as Reytan.
“I trust the auction went well, Young Master Reytan?”
“No. I came away empty-handed.”
Reytan raised both hands to play along with Berry’s performance.
“Oh? Father didn’t buy anything?”
“I yielded to her. Aunt Mariane seemed to want it so desperately.”
It was the sort of thing that would send Mariane into fits if she heard it.
“Father has no greed, after all.”
Reytan stroked his daughter’s head sympathetically. His eyes met Theon’s as he drew near.
When Theon nodded, Reytan’s lips curved upward—a sign that he had left the maidservant at the location Theon had specified.
“Then you children should head upstairs and rest. It’s already late.”
“Father? Where are you going?”
“I have some business to attend to. Don’t forget to brush your teeth and wash your face, Sherry.”
“Yes, I’ll make sure you do it properly.”
“…Yeah.”
Sherry giggled, and Berry answered with indifference.
“You too, Theon.”
“Yes.”
After seeing to Theon as well, Reytan left Stone House not long after.
He had matters to discuss with the Countess, Priscilla.
‘…It would be better to remain inconspicuous.’
Not much time had passed since the guests who had attended the auction had departed. The Main Estate was in disarray with servants tidying up and Knights patrolling the surroundings.
Reytan chose a path where no one lingered and made his way toward the Main Estate. In the distance ahead, the brightly lit Sapphire House and Emerald House came into view.
I could easily picture Mariane causing a commotion in her separate quarters and Yosel fretting nervously in his.
‘How pathetic.’
Reytan let out a derisive snort.
It was they who had exposed their vulnerable nape to me, when I had merely intended to observe this game from the sidelines.
To live among beasts, one must occasionally become a threat to them. Should I not warn them that I am not a prey to be trampled upon so easily?

“Reytan, merely baring your fangs isn’t particularly effective. Sometimes you must grasp a hand you find distasteful.”
“Grasp the hand of those beasts? I’d sooner hold the corpse of an enemy on the battlefield.”
“Ha. Corpses have no strength. But Trabel does. If there’s something you wish to protect, you must know how to wield that strength.”

Reytan began taking Brown’s earlier words seriously after Berry met her father.
Merely concealing his strength to avoid suspicion would not suffice. To protect Berry, he needed more decisive measures.
Even if it meant grasping hands he’d rather not touch. He had to accept that he could no longer live as he had six years ago.
What of it, shaking hands with a beast?
‘Berry’s safety comes first.’
So I was playing the role of a father now. If Brown saw this, he’d laugh until tears streamed down his face.
Before long, I reached the second floor corridor of the Main Estate.
The facial muscles that had relaxed as I recalled Brown immediately tensed again at the sight of the firmly closed door.
I stared at the door with subdued blue eyes, then raised my hand and knocked.
“Come in.”
A noblewoman’s voice drifted from within.
Upon opening the door, I saw Priscilla seated on the sofa, sipping warm tea in her loungewear. She smiled faintly upon seeing me enter.
It was entirely different from the demeanor Aunt Mariane would display, fuming at the Sapphire House.
“Did things go as you wished?”
I smiled at the beast who had betrayed my daughter.
“It is thanks to you, Mother.”

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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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