I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 42

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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 42

Jeffrey was charging straight at me.
At that speed, one of two things would happen: either I’d be sent flying, or Jeffrey would be.
“J-Jeffrey! Watch out-!”
“Berry, danger!”
Fortunately, Theon stepped in front of me just in time, and Father caught Jeffrey with one arm, hoisting him up.
“You shouldn’t run around like that.”
“…I’m sorry…yelp.”
Jeffrey hung his tail in shame from Father’s side, but when he looked into the Study, he let out a shriek.
“A-a demon hag?!”
“What a mangy pup we have here.”
Countess Trabel clicked her tongue.
“Countess Trabel isn’t a demon hag. She’s a skilled apothecary,” I said, placing both hands on my hips as I corrected Jeffrey. Misinformation needed to be set straight immediately.
I put both hands on my hips and told Jeffrey, “Misinformation needs to be corrected right away.”
Theon asked Jeffrey, “What’s wrong? I thought you were sleeping in your room.”
“Oh, that’s-!”
Jeffrey stopped mid-sentence and turned his head toward me. His tail began wagging furiously.
‘Huh?’
He had something to say but couldn’t say it, and that desperate urge to show off…
I have things I want to say, but I can’t say them, and that desperate desire to boast about myself…
The reason Jeffrey had come running suddenly clicked in my mind.
‘He heard it!!’
The Wild Dog Tribe—that was it!
But there were too many eyes around us. I called out to Jeffrey urgently.
“You came because you wanted to see me, right!?”
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
At my words, Theon, Father, and Countess Trabel all looked at Jeffrey.
He woke up and came running because he wanted to see Berry?
Despite the three of them staring with bewilderment, we exchanged bright, knowing glances without a care.
“Yeah!”
Jeffrey exclaimed excitedly.

***

‘How troublesome.’
Beyond the wooden fence of the Log House, Baron Voltman pressed his forehead with his palm.
Two eyes gleaming in the dim outdoor darkness. Unmistakably the Wolf Tribe hybrid child who had come with Reytan Quartz Trabel.
The child in the Backyard hadn’t noticed me watching and darted into the house like an arrow. They had clearly heard what I just said.
“Baron Voltman, you’ve suddenly gone quiet?”
“It’s your fault.”
Baron Voltman cast a sidelong glance. I had been in conversation with Thomas and four other young men from the village.
Since the child heard it, there shouldn’t be any real problem. Though it left an uneasy feeling, Baron Voltman continued the interrupted conversation.
“What kind of courtesy is it to come rushing to someone else’s house at this late hour?”
“There’s no time for courtesy. This was the only hour to avoid that young master’s notice. But you pretended not to see earlier, didn’t you? It’s not just one or two people who witnessed Reytan Quartz Trabel arriving with young master Theon!”
“Keep your voice down…!”
Baron Voltman let out a sharp rebuke.
Though there was distance between us and the Log House, a loud voice would carry. Someone might think a commotion had started and come outside.
The young men who came with us also cautioned Thomas.
“That’s right, Thomas. Your voice is too loud. What if the young master of the Trabel Family hears and comes out?”
“But does anyone here know how to greet a Count’s son? The only nobleman I’ve ever met is Baron Voltman.”
“Just bow flat on the ground. Nobles don’t say much when you do that.”
….
At the pathetic conversation of these rural youths, Baron Voltman let out a sigh.
“Anyway, what I’m saying is they’ll attack soon.”
Thomas spoke to Baron Voltman pleadingly.
It had been five days since the Wild Dog Tribe, angered by Marquis Ash’s land development, began threatening the humans.
Two days remained. Tomorrow and the day after.
“The Wild Dog Tribe said it themselves. If the land development isn’t stopped within a week, they’ll slaughter all the humans in the nearby villages.”
They had co-opted the Environmental Group to stage protests. And they had gathered money to publish articles in the newspapers.
But Marquis Ash didn’t budge an inch.
“Lord Roslyn only says he’ll send troops if we pay taxes. Who is supposed to protect us?”
It was unbearably sorrowful to be nothing more than a rural village. The slightly more prosperous towns treated them like cargo.
Since it wasn’t they who were being threatened by the Wild Dog Tribe, their attitude was to solve it themselves.
Some even grumbled that this problem was lowering their land values.
Sillon Village, Leaf Village, and the small villages nearby were all anxious.
“That’s why we decided to fight among ourselves. I’ve heard enough complaints—now go home.”
“How can we win fighting just among ourselves? We need help from the young master of Trabel. A Grand Master should be more than capable of dealing with the Wild Dog Tribe.”
“Did you ask for help?”
“Not exactly… but it seems young master Theon and he know each other…”
“Tell me this. What obligation does Reytan Quartz Trabel have to help our village? And if he does help, can you pay the price? This is a village of paupers who can’t even pay proper taxes.”
At Baron Voltman’s words that laid bare reality, the young men’s mouths snapped shut.
They had no words to refute.
They had rushed here on the vague feeling that hope was within reach, but it was merely their wishful thinking.
Reytan Quartz Trabel was a nobleman in the sky, and they were insignificant commoners from a rural village.
‘There’s no way they’d help.’
‘If I were them, I’d ignore it too. The Wild Dog Tribe is that powerful.’
‘If they helped, they wouldn’t be human—they’d be saints….’
The young men’s shoulders sagged. Among them, one pair of shoulders trembled—Thomas.
Tears fell from Thomas’s eyes like drops of chicken droppings.
“I’m scared….”
Baron Voltman was taken aback by the tears streaming down the face of a youth who looked like he could chew through boulders.
“What, now? A man crying over something like this? Are you really that afraid of the Wild Dog Tribe?”
“Sophia said she’d break up with me if I lose to the Wild Dog beastmen….”
“….”
Baron Voltman’s eyes turned cold in an instant.
The village youths patted Thomas’s broad back to comfort him.
“Hey, Thomas. You might get dumped. Life’s not that big a deal anyway.”
“I haven’t been dumped yet.”
“Half the world is women.”
“I could introduce you to my younger sister…. No, wait. She prefers natural meetings.”
Thomas wept quietly.
A situation where their lives hung in the balance had transformed into relationship counseling.
It was growing rowdy. Baron Voltman gently persuaded the youths and sent them away.
“The Wild Dog Tribe won’t arrive for another two days. We should be able to find a solution by then. Let’s discuss this again tomorrow. It’s late tonight—everyone should head home.”
“Yes. Sleep well, Baron.”
They bowed.
The youths who had greeted Baron Voltman gradually disappeared into the distance. Concern etched itself across the face of the now-solitary Baron Voltman.
Baron Voltman was an exceptional knight. That much was true, but leading farmers into battle against the Wild Dog Tribe made no sense.
Only if trained soldiers arrived in organized units—and even then, it would be a struggle to stand against the Wild Dog Tribe.

“A former Grand Master would be more than capable of handling the Wild Dog Tribe.”

It was the right thing to say. I knew that well enough—why wouldn’t I? But I couldn’t borrow Reytan’s strength. I already owed him a great debt simply for taking my grandson on as his disciple.
Baron Voltman walked with his eyes on the ground. He circled the fence and opened the low wooden gate. And his old heart nearly gave out from the shock that followed.
“Grandfather?”
Theon and his companions stood outside the entrance, looking at me.
Theon asked Baron Voltman.
“That was Thomas, wasn’t it?”
“W-who?”
“It was Thomas’s voice.”
My grandson spoke with unwavering certainty.
There was no hiding that Thomas had come.
“Yes, I wanted to greet him since you’ve returned. But it’s hardly proper to visit at night, is it? So I sent him away.”
Baron Voltman wrapped an arm around his grandson’s shoulders as he approached, pretending to respond to Theon while subtly trying to slip inside the house.
Since I couldn’t know what the silent Reytan was thinking, it was best to get inside quickly.
“Old man.”
Reytan called out to me after all. Baron Voltman felt his heart clench with guilt.
“You said Wild Dog Tribe?”
“No.”
His instincts were infuriatingly sharp—even after all these years, that innate sense remained unchanged. But I still had the wisdom of age on my side.
“I said stray dogs, not the tribe.”
Baron Voltman fabricated an explanation for why Thomas had come.
A pack of strays had come down from the forest and kept ruining the fields. So the young men had asked me for a solution.
“These days the young folk are the problem. They won’t experience trial and error themselves—they just keep looking for the easy way out.”
Stray dogs or Wild Dog Tribe—just one character’s difference. A little obfuscation would suffice.
Reytan’s daughter, who had been staring at me intently, spoke up.
“You said Wild Dog Tribe! Berry heard it! It was the Wild Dog Tribe, wasn’t it?”
To have to lie even to a child looking at me with such innocent eyes.
Baron Voltman shook his head, feeling the pang of conscience.
“…No.”
“You said Wild Dog Tribe. My ears don’t deceive me.”
The little wolf-hybrid chimed in. The Baron shook his head again.
“…I didn’t say that.”
Deceiving Reytan with a lie was nothing to me. But being looked at by children with the eyes of someone watching a liar… that was different.
“Grandfather, are you really sure?”
Theon spoke.
“…”
Baron Voltman surrendered.

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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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