One Day, My Dad Disappeared - Chapter 39

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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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Episode 39
“Master…….”
“Enough with that look. If I’m moping around, I can’t concentrate on work, and efficiency drops. That’s the only reason I’m doing this.”
He turned his gaze back to the documents with a curt tone, though the tips of his ears had flushed a delicate red.
“Yes, I’ll work really hard! I’ll find the remaining three Cores no matter what!”
Aidan said nothing in response to my answer, but that was enough.
His silence felt like trust in me.
“So, how is Star doing?”
“Probably fine.”
“Probably?”
“Well, he won’t listen to a word I say.”
He answered flatly.
“I haven’t built much of a rapport with him, you see. Even a dumb beast is supposed to be clever, so perhaps he instinctively knows he’ll never run again. He refuses food and refuses treatment. His temperament was honestly rather difficult to begin with.”
I had nothing to say—he was absolutely right.
I could easily imagine how Star was faring in Aidan’s stables: surrounding himself with strangers, biting, just as he had refused my touch at first. People became irritable when hurt, after all.
Much more so for Star, who was injured and suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar place, so of course he’d be even more on edge.
“Um, Master, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”
“I already know.”
“What? But I haven’t said anything yet.”
“It’s obvious enough. You want me to bring Meliot here for the injured Star, don’t you?”
How on earth did he know?
“It’s plain to see. You felt responsible for Star’s injury, so you’d naturally want a groom who could handle the irritable horse better than most.”
“That’s right…….”
“And if my carefully purchased horse dies, I’ll be out a great deal. Do you have any idea how much I spent to bring him to the Capital? Beyond the purchase price itself, there were employees hired for transport, a veterinarian…….”
As he ticked off on his fingers just how much money he’d invested, I couldn’t help but laugh aloud.
“What, why are you laughing?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“Look, if you have time to laugh, why not get back to reading those reports? There might be a third Core among them, after all.”
“Right, I should.”
Embarrassed at being caught, I changed the subject.
While attending the Academy, I’d never realized Aidan had this side to him, but it seemed he was actually rather tender-hearted after all.
In any case, just as Aidan had said, while we held the equestrian competition in the Western Region, reports on Core candidates came pouring in from across the Empire. If a genuine Core was among them, it would be fortunate, but last time too, I’d read thousands upon thousands of documents and searched out suspicious locations, only to find nothing.
But I couldn’t simply ignore them, either.
No matter how many there were, if one of them held a clue to meeting Father, I would find it by any means necessary.
I sat down in the chair and began reading from the nearest document. So far, I’d found only two Cores.
The blue one from the East and the transparent one from the West—that was all.
So I needed to focus on reports concerning the red Core from the South, the black Core from the North, and finally, the yellow Core from the Capital.
I could skip any reports related to other colors entirely.
‘This one’s blue, this one’s sky blue, maybe.’
Then I’d move on without hesitation.
‘Pink? And this one’s purple, apparently.’
It could be the red Core and I’d just misread it due to lighting. Similarly, a cubic specimen described as orange might just as easily be a red or yellow Core depending on the angle.
I lifted my head, my neck stiff from scanning documents so rapidly to categorize the colors.
‘Ugh, there’s still this much left?’
It was already evening, yet I hadn’t even made it through half.
Sleep was creeping in. But my superior Aidan hadn’t left yet, so I couldn’t very well be the first to go. He was reviewing just as many documents as I was, if not more.
I had to do my part. Reviewing all this in a single day was impossible, certainly, but I’d leave after Aidan did.
I was cupping my mouth to stifle an escaping yawn when I forced my eyes wide open to concentrate.
“Are you tired?”
“I’m… sorry?”
Did he catch me yawning?
“Not tired at all, sir. I’m completely fine!”
I tried to play it off nonchalantly, but Aidan wasn’t fooled.
“If you keep dozing off like that, I’ll get drowsy too. Go wash your face or something. Hit the staff room and get some sugar in you. Or go get some fresh air.”
He turned the page on his documents without even looking at me as he spoke.
“R-right, I’ll just step out for a moment then.”
The screech of the chair being pulled back made him furrow his brow.
Before any lectures could land, I hurried out and closed the door behind me.
“Phew, what a stubborn man indeed.”
Why wouldn’t he go home already? I glanced out the window. It had, of course, been dark for quite a while now.
She’d always stayed late at the Academy studying, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d do the same at work—but somehow it did.
“I suppose you’ve never heard that a superior’s virtue is arriving on time and leaving on time.”
She clicked her tongue and stretched languidly. Her back ached from sitting so long.
Maybe I should wash my face, like Aidan suggested.
“Oh my, Cynthia, you’re still here?”
“Oh, hello!”
She’d run into a Ministry of Foreign Affairs colleague in the washroom—someone she would have worked with under different circumstances.
“The Special Audit Department keeps you busy, doesn’t it? His Majesty really does assign some peculiar tasks—asking Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff to handle what ought to be the Ministry of Finance’s work.”
“Ha, well, there’s no helping it. But it looks like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is swamped too, staying this late.”
The woman, whose dark circles were just as pronounced as her own, let out a heavy sigh before answering.
“The Crown Prince’s Birthday Celebration is coming up.”
“Oh, has it really come around already?”
The Crown Prince’s Birthday Celebration was always a grand affair. It spanned a full week—three days before and three days after his actual birthday—and the Academy would close for the entire duration. Every noble child attending the Academy participated in the celebration.
Of course, since I wasn’t truly nobility, I’d simply studied in my Academy dormitory those years.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gets busy a month ahead during this season, and this time the Crown Prince is coming of age too. With the Coming of Age Ceremony overlapping, the workload is absolutely massive.”
“Goodness.”
She reached out and patted the woman’s shoulder sympathetically. Normally, the Crown Prince’s birthday alone brought many foreign guests; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would naturally be overwhelmed. Add a Coming of Age Ceremony to that, and the work would be at least double, if not triple the usual amount.
“But honestly, we’re managing because of Lord Aidan.”
“Lord Aidan? What do you mean?”
“He told the Ministry to focus only on the Crown Prince’s Coming of Age Ceremony and took over all the existing Ministry work himself. There were so many complications with the Raitos Kingdom and that counterfeit Ruby causing headaches everywhere—but he took it all off our hands. We’re alive because of him, really.”
“…What?”
“You didn’t know? He took it the moment he returned.”
“I had no idea.”
“I thought you two were working together based on how much work he took on…”
Why hadn’t he mentioned it? Did he not trust her?
No—she knew better than that now. Aidan simply wasn’t the type.
He’d meant for her to concentrate on the Core investigation without distractions.
“I should get going.”
“Sure, good luck out there.”
She hurried toward the audit office. Aidan sat alone at his desk, rubbing the back of his neck as if exhausted, his eyes never leaving the documents before him.
How did anyone work so relentlessly without rest?
No matter how much he despised wasting time, surely working without pause like that was less efficient, not more?
“What are you doing standing there?”
“I—yes?”
“You’ve woken up, so shouldn’t you get back to work? Why are you just standing there gawking? The superior is working while the subordinate shirks—is that the idea?”
“Oh, no, I’m sorry. I’ll start right away.”
There was nothing for it. If the superior refused to rest, the only way was for her to work faster and force him to take a break.

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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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