I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 56

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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 56

A single sheet of paper that looked like an instruction guide, and several sheets filled with theoretical subject problems.
There were traces of being folded three times over.
‘Who did this? Was it the Twins? Or Ciel?’
Though they appeared to move about together, there existed a subtle tension between them. After all, they were rivals who ultimately fought over the money and power of the Trabel Family.
However, I couldn’t easily identify the culprit.
The Twins lacked the skill to create such an exam. And Ciel didn’t seem like the type to pull such a childish prank.
Then, what remained—
“No, it’s not.”
It wasn’t her.
Berry Quartz Trabel didn’t even have the ability to compete with me. What would be the point against a child who couldn’t even read until recently?
“Are you resorting to such petty tactics?”
In any case, it was clear that someone among the other direct line members was trying to obstruct me. Even the adults could be suspects.
It seemed I was going to perform well on this month-end evaluation, so the interference was already beginning.
“How pathetic.”
Calips let out a scoff. Then he crumpled the papers and tossed them into the waste bin.

And that afternoon.
It was after I had finished my riding practice to escape Mariane’s nagging.
The papers I had thrown away that morning were now sitting on my desk again, still crumpled.
“What is this now.”
And in front of them, a single sheet of paper that looked brand new.

———-
Don’t you have the skill to solve the problems?
Should I change them to easier ones?
———-

Snap.
Calips sat at his desk and picked up his pen.
“You think I can’t solve something like this?”

***

Dinner time.
“Berry, what’s got you so amused?”
“Hm? Why?”
Father, seated across from me, struck up a conversation.
“Because you’ve been grinning to yourself this whole time! What’s going on? Tell me too!”
Jeffrey, sitting to my left, reacted to his words. Theon, seated to my right, turned his gaze toward me.
“Well, it’s—”
Jeffrey had ultimately decided to stay at Stone House.
Anne, being Father’s personal maid, couldn’t reside in the quarters between the walls where the Trabel Estate’s other servants lived, and we couldn’t have her staying at Moonflower Inn without worrying she’d run away again.
“Ugh! Jeffrey!”
Anne, carrying food to the dining table, let out a startled cry upon discovering Jeffrey confidently occupying a seat.
“How can you be sitting here!”
“But it’s the seat next to Berry! We used to eat together all the time before! Why can’t I?”
“You can’t. You’re employed by Reytan now.”
Anne hoisted Jeffrey up and set him down from his chair, repeatedly apologizing to Father as she left the dining room.
“Berry—”
“Call me Miss! From now on!”
We watched as Anne dragged Jeffrey away.
Though it was pitiful, Anne was right this time. We could have lived together as we did in Leaf Village, but Stone House had other servants belonging to the Trabel Count Family.
“It’s been quite lively, hasn’t it?”
Sherry, coming to my left side, filled my water glass as she spoke.
While Father was away, I’d worried Aunt Mariane might torment the remaining people at Stone House, but it seemed that hadn’t happened.
Perhaps she’d been mindful of Priscilla’s presence? In any case, I was grateful.
“Still, he’s adorable, isn’t he? Jeffrey is younger than me. Six years old!”
I showed Sherry three fingers on each hand, making six total.
Sherry gazed quietly at my hands and face, then wore an aggrieved expression.
“I feel like I’ve wasted my life.”
“Huh?”
“I never got to see Miss Berry’s first six years. I’m sure Reytan did. I’m so envious—would you share some memories of when you had Miss Berry all to yourself?”
At Sherry’s question, Father’s lips began to move slowly.
“Berry was…”
Suddenly, the room fell silent. The maid entering with a tray froze under Sherry’s piercing gaze.
What… what is this?
“When she was little…”
Gulp.
I heard the sound of someone swallowing nervously. Did that just come from Theon?
Looking to my right, Theon was intently watching Father’s lips.
Father glanced around the quiet room before continuing.
“She was adorable. So much so I wanted to keep it to myself.”
Ah. Hm.
Sighs of disappointment echoed from various corners of the room.
“Still, I’m envious.”
“….”
Sherry murmured, and Theon nodded in agreement.
Father turned his gaze toward me and asked.
“So, you’ve had that smile on your face since earlier—did something fun happen?”
“Nothing fun happened, but~ there is something I’m looking forward to! Starting next week, we have exams for a whole week.”
“Don’t tell me you actually enjoy taking exams, Berry?”
Theon asked in a tone of disbelief. I shook my head so as not to disappoint his expectations.
“I don’t like exams~ but next week, because of the exams, classes end early every single day! If it’s exam week, Madam Frea won’t assign homework, right?”
After returning from the field study, when I stumbled through reading sentences as if I had just learned the alphabet, Madam Frea seemed delighted.
The sentences I had to copy were gradually shifting toward more moralistic content.

Even a snail reaches the finish line if it keeps crawling.
Diligence is my weapon.
It’s not that I can’t do it—it’s that I won’t.

I think I’m beginning to understand Madam Frea’s taste in students.
Father chuckled and spoke to me.
“If classes end early, what are you planning to do in the afternoon?”
“Still thinking about it~”
Though truthfully, I’ve already decided!

That night.
[Partner, I brought it!]
Akum slipped through the open window. He had just returned from Sapphire House.
Slung across his back was the cloth bag he always carried when he was Stone House. I scooped up the approaching Akum and dashed into the Room of Contemplation.
“How was it? Did you solve it?”
[She was wracking her brains and suffering, but she solved it all! Little Quartz must have understood what she wrote on the paper. I waited until she fell asleep before bringing it.]
“Akum, you’re the best!”
[Right?]
Akum wagged his short tail proudly at the praise. His water droplet spines shimmered with delight.
I untied the drawstring of the bag Akum was carrying and pulled out the folded papers inside.
The answers, written with such force that the ink had smudged, were scrawled beneath the problems I had posed.
She must have really hated solving them.
“Now then.”
I had smuggled this red pencil out during art class for exactly this moment.
[What are you doing?]
Akum asked as he watched me holding the red pencil. My eyes gleamed as I looked at Calips’s test paper.
“Grading time.”

***

Five days later.
“As I mentioned beforehand, exams will proceed over the next week, two subjects per day.”
Madam Frea announced the start of the end-of-month assessment in her crisp tone.
On the first day, the first exam was Language Arts.
Based on what the direct descendants had learned over the month, individual test papers were prepared for each of them.
“Miss Berry, you can now read—”
“I can!”
“Indeed. Do your best to score above sixty points.”
“Yes!”
Berry in the front row answered spiritedly and received her test paper.
Calips in the back row watched her anxiously.
‘Damn. Lucky her. Since she was too stupid to even know how to read, her problems must be easy.’
At most, they would ask her to write the alphabet from beginning to end, or perhaps form simple sentences.
‘Of all times, Grandfather had to get involved during the difficult grammar section.’
Calips had received permission from his parents that it was fine to take it easy this year at age ten. After all, starting next year, he would have no time to play while preparing for the Academy entrance exam over the next four years.
But ever since learning that Laksek was involved in this exam, Mariane had been pressuring Calips relentlessly.
Whether his preparation was going well, what he was doing instead of studying, and threats that if he scored below the passing mark this time, she would hire a private tutor for him even at home.
‘Damn it. I still have five more months to play.’
Yet he couldn’t say such things—Mariane’s mood had been far too dark lately. Every night, the sound of breaking glass still echoed through the house.
“Young Master Calips, you may receive yours as well.”
Madam Frea handed the test paper to Calips.
Last month’s Korean language score was 52 points.
I needed to surpass 60 points. Could I possibly manage it through last-minute cramming?
“Let’s begin.”
As I worked through the problems, my fingers drifted toward my mouth. I chewed at my flesh absently while solving the test, but gradually my biting slowed, and my eyes widened as I held my pen suspended in the air, staring down at the paper.
‘What is this?’

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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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