I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 73

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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 73

An ordinary Great Tit would have no reason to understand telegraph signals.

“I’ll assign you a temporary proxy. No one in the Trabel Family knows of this one’s existence except for me.”

Could it be that the temporary proxy Grandfather mentioned was…!
I hurried outside. The Great Tit flew up and perched on my arm as if it had been waiting.
“Hello, Berry Quartz Trabel.”
“Y-you can… talk…!”
I nearly cried out in surprise, but quickly glanced around the surroundings.
The Education Hall stood directly behind the Main Estate. Though no one was visible in my line of sight, there could be eyes watching from anywhere. I shielded the Great Tit with my hand and slipped into an empty classroom in the Education Hall.
“Wow. That startled me.”
Even as I closed the door, the Great Tit remained perched calmly on my arm. When I lowered my hand, the fluffy little bird stared at me with beady black eyes. How adorable.
“Hi!”
“Hello.”
It really can talk?! Actual words were flowing from between that tiny beak.
“I’m Jack Jack. I usually move about like a bird, but I’m a Great Tit beastkin.”
“You’re a beastkin…! Why did you come looking for me?”
“Your grandfather, who is more impressive than the High Priest, sent me.”
“So Jack Jack is my temporary proxy?”
But Grandfather had said the proxy would act on my behalf outside the estate.
‘Is it even smaller than Akum…?’
I had only ever seen beastkin without human blood in the Wild Dog Tribe. Jeffrey was half-breed, but he was stronger than most of his peers. Deep down, I had always imagined beastkin as a powerful race, yet Jack Jack was simply… cute.
“You’re too small to be a proxy-.”
“Too small?!”
Flutter flutter.
Jack Jack flapped his wings rapidly.
“I’ve lived for twenty years, you know! If you underestimate little Jack Jack, you’ll have a bad time!”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I thought you were younger than me because you look so young.”
He was far older than I was. Fearing the matter might escalate into an inter-species discrimination issue, I quickly apologized.
“Hmph. At least you understand what rudeness is. I’m your liaison. Your actual temporary proxy is waiting outside the Trabel Estate.”
“Oh!”
My eyes lit up.
I had once asked Grandfather about the proxy’s identity, but he said he would tell me only when it was no longer “temporary.”
Yet a proxy who had a Great Tit beastkin as a liaison…
They must be quite an extraordinary person…!
“So if I tell Jack Jack something, my temporary proxy will handle it for me?”
“Yes. Is there something you want?”
I nodded.
Ever since Grandfather mentioned reconciliation with the Dwarves, I had been thinking of a method right away.
“Just deliver one letter to Bonwell Village for me!”

***

Stone House. The underground wine cellar.
“Edward’s equation… I did my best….”
“Of course! You did your best, Callet!”
Callet, sitting on one side of the square wooden table, muttered with his head bowed, and Sherry, seated across from him, chimed in agreement.
“….”
Reytan Quartz Trabel, sitting between them, sipped his wine while observing the two drunkards on either side.
Reytan was regretting his answer from two hours ago.
He shouldn’t have fallen for the expensive wine Callet brought.
If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be down in the underground wine cellar now, drinking in the afternoon with his childhood friends over the excuse of running out of wine.
“Am I… incompetent?”
“No. You’re overflowing with ability.”
Reytan answered promptly. Callet didn’t normally drink and never got drunk, but that made it all the more frightening when he did.
Reytan still vividly remembered the twenty-year-old Callet repeating the same words endlessly in his ear until dawn.
“You’re both drunk. You should head back. Callet, shouldn’t you check on the Count?”
“I already told you. The Count said he had no afternoon schedule and told me to leave early.”
“If that makes you anxious, then you’re a workaholic. Why can’t you rest? Go home and pursue a hobby or something.”
“Young master, really. Would Callet even have a hobby? He just follows the Count around all day. He’s so devoted to the Count. Last time I asked the head butler for some seasoning, he didn’t even pretend to listen.”
“That’s within Head Butler Serber’s authority. And I… the one who solved Edward’s equation… The Count must think I’m incompetent.”
“Ugh, you’ve been saying the same thing since earlier. But acting like this, it feels like old times, doesn’t it? We used to play around so carelessly back then-.”
“I’m going up first.”
“Where are you going! There’s still wine left. Sit down.”
Sherry blocked Reytan’s escape attempt. She couldn’t let this sweet indulgence, which hadn’t happened in years, end so quickly.
Sherry held up her wine glass, reflecting Reytan’s displeased face. The curved surface of the glass made his face appear smaller.
Ha, this man. Even looking at him like this, he’s handsome.
“You must have had an easy life thanks to your looks, young master.”
Then, saddened by her own words, she furrowed her brows and began to sniffle with her head lowered.
“No, it was hard. There’s no one whose life has been as difficult as our young master’s. Sob.”
A drunkard’s emotional swings were hard to keep up with.
“…Not really.”
Reytan answered flatly to the sudden sympathy.
Callet, across from Sherry, was also muttering something with his head bowed.
What a scene too good to witness alone. Reytan took another sip of wine.
“But young master, tell me honestly.”
Sherry, who had been lamenting Reytan’s life, suddenly lifted her head.
“Who is Miss Berry Quartz Trabel’s mother?”
“….”
Reytan Quartz Trabel furrowed his brow, and Callet looked at him.
“How did our adorable Miss Berry Quartz Trabel come from the Young Master’s features? Does she take after her mother’s looks?”
“Absolutely not.”
My precious daughter resembling that detestable woman? Impossible.
The reflexive answer tumbled out before I could stop it. Sherry’s eyes gleamed.
“My goodness. What brings you to answer? Let’s see, you said last time she wasn’t deceased…. Callet, do you know anything?”
“I don’t. Never heard a word. Reytan blames me for being incompetent-.”
“Callet, enough. But…. Can you contact her? I was wondering if there might be custody issues, or if there’s any possibility she could take Miss Berry Quartz Trabel away from Young Master Reytan.”
Sherry asked worriedly. Reytan traced the rim of his wine glass, which rested on the wooden table, with his fingertips.

[When you dared to abandon me, that woman came to the Grand Temple to see me.]
[Only you can hear my voice. Did she think I was merely a sword and just spill her secrets?]
[She said she needed to find her daughter.]

It was what Windis had said the last time I went to the Grand Temple to retrieve premium recovery potions.
A cool breeze swept through the wine cellar. Sherry shivered, rubbing her arms.
“Brrr. It’s cold. Since the Young Master looks angry, there’s a possibility?”
“…It’s not entirely impossible.”
“Absolutely not!”
Sherry shot up from her seat and cried out in protest.
“Miss Berry Quartz Trabel cannot be sent anywhere. I swear, if Young Master Reytan loses Miss Berry Quartz Trabel, I won’t let it slide.”
“She can’t be taken away. Miss Berry Quartz Trabel cannot leave the Trabel Estate.”
“What. Callet. Are you taking the Stone House’s side? Your opinions finally align after so long.”
Reytan filled his wine glass while listening to his drunken friends’ conversation.
There was one good thing about drinking with childhood friends. Unlike Brown in the photograph, they actually listened and responded to what I said.
I had already emptied two and a half bottles on my own. A pleasant buzz was beginning to settle in.
“All of you.”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Did I mention? When Berry was one year old, her hand was this big….”

***

A few days later, a letter from the Dwarves arrived at Count Trabel’s residence. Grandfather was so startled that he secretly summoned me through Jack Jack.
“What have you done?”
“Hehe. I hired a mail courier!”
I had drafted a letter to send to the Dwarves, acting as the legal representative of the Trabel Family.
The letter contained an apology for the Trabel Family’s wrongdoings, an offer of compensation and a request for reconciliation, and an expression of my desire to establish a good cooperative relationship once more.
The letter itself was flawless, though Grandfather had certainly written many letters to the Dwarves over the years that were far more eloquent than mine.
‘But a letter alone wouldn’t suffice.’
This was a relationship where trust had already been shattered. No matter how much sincerity I displayed, the mere fact that it came from the Trabel Family would have closed the Dwarves’ eyes and ears.
So what truly mattered was—
‘Connections!’
It was a network that Grandfather didn’t possess, but I did.

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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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