I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 32

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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 32

“Young Master Reytan, we’ve reached the stream. Wouldn’t it be wise to rest for a moment?”
A Knight from the 2nd Knight Order who had come as escort walked his horse alongside the carriage window.
After sitting in the carriage for so long, my restless legs were beginning to protest.
“Very well.”
With Father’s permission, the carriage came to a halt by the stream.
Our party consisted of fifteen people in total. Ten Knights on horseback, Father, Theon, myself, Anne, and the Coachman.
There were two carriages in all. The one we rode in, and a supply wagon laden with provisions for the journey.
Theon, who had stepped out of the carriage, grabbed a pebble and began skipping stones across the water. The stone bounced in perfect circles about five times before sinking beneath the surface. Had the stream been wider, it surely would have gone further.
“Wow. Well done! Five skips!”
“Want to try?”
“Should we wager? I’m actually quite good at this!”
I had just rolled up my sleeves, determined to outdo Theon, when a commotion erupted from the supply wagon.
“Let go of me!”
In that same instant, someone rushed past Theon and me. It was Anne.
Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, Theon and I exchanged glances.
“Let’s go see what’s happening.”
I gestured to Theon. An astonishing sight awaited us before the supply wagon.
“My sincerest apologies, Young Master Reytan. This child was apparently hiding in the supply wagon the entire time, and we failed to notice….”
Father stood there, and before him, a Knight was holding a young boy firmly at his side.
“Let me go!”
The boy continued to struggle and thrash in the Knight’s grip. Between his reddish-brown hair protruded pointed, thick ears.
“…I think I know who that is.”
“Yeah.”
I gripped Theon’s arm and muttered under my breath. Why is he here? Though I’m relieved to see he looks healthy.
Anne seemed equally bewildered by the situation.
“I-I’m so sorry! That’s my little brother…! Good heavens, Jeffrey! How did you get here?! What about the person Lord Reytan assigned to you!”
“Sister?”
Jeffrey’s ears perked up at Anne’s voice, and he snapped his head around. Then his gaze locked directly with mine, and strangely, he didn’t look away.
“Huh?”
“….”
Everyone’s attention shifted to Jeffrey’s tail. The young Wolf Tribe hybrid’s full reddish-brown tail, which he couldn’t conceal, was wagging vigorously.
When Theon quietly stepped in front of me, Jeffrey’s tail ceased its movement.
Jeffrey, facing Theon, wrinkled his nose bridge and let out a low growl.
“Liar. I told you my nose doesn’t lie, didn’t I?”
“Your nose doesn’t lie?”
“….”
I tilted my head in confusion, and Theon remained silent.
“You! You!”
Anne struck Jeffrey’s head with a sharp tap as he growled at Theon.
“Why did you hit me!”
“Young Master Theon is your sister’s benefactor!”
“I know!”
Jeffrey spoke sharply to Anne before turning his head back toward Theon and me.
“He’s my benefactor too!”
Then why was he still growling?
Faced with Jeffrey’s contradictory words and actions, Anne was left speechless, and Father rubbed his temples.
“Anne.”
“Yes, yes! Young Master Reytan!”
“…Bring your brother and come with me for a moment.”
A private conversation.
When Jeffrey’s eyes met Father’s, his ears flattened back as if he’d forgotten his earlier tantrum.
As the Knight gently set the now-docile Jeffrey on the ground, he immediately clung to Anne’s legs.
“Sister….”
“Be quiet. When did you hide in the carriage?”
“When we passed through Hisport Town.”
“You really-.”
Father gestured as he walked toward the large tree by the stream. Anne and Jeffrey hurried after him.

***

The meeting ended not long after.
It seemed Father had sent a Knight to the Moonflower Inn to protect Jeffrey, but now that he’d run away like this, it was awkward to send him back to Hisport Town.
“He says he’ll run away again…”
Anne conveyed her brother’s resolve with a weary expression.
“Father, then should we take Jeffrey with us?”
“There’s no other choice.”
With Father’s permission, Jeffrey decided to join us on this journey.
Once that was settled, the adults gathered briefly to discuss the upcoming schedule.
Since Jeffrey was just a child, he couldn’t join in their conversation, so he shuffled over to where Theon and I were.
“Is it okay if I stay with you?”
Either Father’s intimidating presence had cowed him, or Anne had scolded him thoroughly.
The Jeffrey who’d been growling at Theon was nowhere to be found.
“Of course!”
“Yeah.”
We don’t turn away children with nowhere else to go.
Theon and I were in complete agreement.
We found a wide, flat rock by the stream and sat down. Jeffrey was quite the chatterbox.
“How did you manage to hide in the carriage?”
At my question, Jeffrey began proudly recounting his experience.
“The person Reytan sent turned out to be a Knight! So I ran away outside, and then I happened to see Reytan’s carriage! So I jumped up and got in.”
“Hmm. If Father sent that Knight, he was supposed to protect you. Why did you run away?”
“I didn’t want to be alone with a Knight.”
Jeffrey shuddered at my words.

“The Knights grabbed that little thing and threw it hard on the ground…! I saw it clearly with my own eyes!”

The Innkeeper Woman definitely said so.
‘Is your body feeling any better?’
I examined Jeffrey’s complexion.
A scab had formed where his lips were wounded, and while the bruising hadn’t completely vanished, it had faded considerably.
However, he would need to consume more Moonflower leaves for several more days before the symptoms of the twenty-day illness completely disappeared.
Perhaps because Wolf Tribe blood ran through his veins, Jeffrey reacted immediately to my gaze. He stared at me with amber eyes, then grinned mischievously, flashing his fangs.
“I ate it today too?”
“What?”
“The herb you and your brother brought.”
“Oh no.”
So that’s what Theon meant when he said his nose couldn’t be fooled. Theon had visited the Moonflower Inn to bring Anne here.
“Did he catch on the day before yesterday?”
I whispered to Theon sitting beside me, even covering my mouth with my hand to keep Jeffrey from reading my lips.
Jeffrey giggled.
“I can hear everything you say.”
“…Did he catch on the day before yesterday? Theon? Did I eat the snack twice?”
Sweat poured down my face.
Jeffrey had figured out that we were the ones who brought him the Moonflower leaves, and telling Anne about it might not become a major problem.
After all, Father was now seen by Anne as the benefactor who cured Jeffrey’s illness.
The real problem was that bringing the leaves was an incident Father knew nothing about, and the fact that Anne had received a strange note while she was in the Punishment Room.
‘I can’t let Father find out, no matter what…!’
At merely seven years old, I knew the cure for a rare disease not widely known to the world, and having been in Trabel for less than two weeks, I knew an escape route that even direct family members didn’t know about.
‘No matter what excuse I make, Father will find it suspicious.’
It would be troublesome if Father started suspecting my actions. After all, my plan was to secretly build up Father’s accomplishments using the future only I knew about in the second Separate House competition, making him my top priority.
“Ugh.”
My expression crumpled without my realizing it.
Theon seemed to have misunderstood my expression. Thinking I was making that face because of Jeffrey, he told Jeffrey:
“Not ‘you.’ Berry is seven years old, so you should call her ‘sister.'”
“Really?! But you’re so small? Seven-year-olds should be bigger! I thought we were the same age.”
Oh. An attack aimed at my height had landed.
Whether it was comparing acorns or not, I was definitely taller than Jeffrey. By about one centimeter.
I straightened my upper body slightly to increase my sitting height and told Jeffrey:
“I’m seven years old, so call me sister like Theon said.”
Besides, there was also the difference in status between nobility and commoners. Jeffrey was still six years old, and I had been raised as a commoner until now.
Among children, this was easier.
Jeffrey nodded.
“Okay. Sister Berry. Then is Theon also seven years old? You call him Theon even though he’s your brother.”
“We’re friends, so it’s fine.”
Theon answered immediately, but I was startled by Jeffrey’s words.
Now that I thought about it, Theon was three years older than me. When we first met, he was an apprentice knight, so I had simply called him Theon. I turned to look at Theon.
Ever since I learned that Theon had secretly taken revenge on my behalf using that bullfrogs, he seemed oddly dependable.
“Should I call you big brother?”
“…That would feel strange.”
“Oh…really!”
Rejected outright.
Did Theon perhaps think I was terribly presumptuous?
“Ha. That’s funny.”
Jeffrey’s tail wagged with delight at something.
Though I was slightly taken aback, I’d been calling him Theon from the very beginning until now.
I consoled myself by thinking that calling him big brother would indeed feel odd.
Theon glanced at the adults still conversing, then lowered his voice as he spoke to Jeffrey.
“You didn’t mention the herbs to anyone else, did you?”

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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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