One Day, My Dad Disappeared - Chapter 6

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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 6
He strode toward me without waiting for an invitation, as though the place belonged to him.
“……Young Master Winslow?”
“Young Master, what brings you here……?”
The mercenaries recognized him at once—naturally enough, since this village lay within Winslow Family Territory, and its sole heir was impossible not to know.
Aidan tapped my startled shoulder, then thrust a sheet of paper toward Derek.
“As you’re aware, we’ve been containing the Gate with Neodymium, but we’ve received several reports of Gate-like phenomena appearing in this region. Something may have gone wrong.”
“A Gate?”
“Good God. Not that horror again!”
Everyone murmured in alarm. I was startled too—this was the first I’d heard of such a possibility. A Gate might open.
For those who remembered the catastrophe of eighteen years past, no threat could be more terrifying. Aidan nodded gracefully and pressed the commander hard.
“This is Winslow Family Territory. We cannot afford damage here. Of course, whether it’s our land or not, we must prevent that calamity from visiting the Empire again.”
Everyone nodded, swayed by the gravity in his voice.
“We cannot return to those terrible times.”
“For reasons unknown, investigation has shown the Magnetic Field Reading at Robang Village fluctuating. Mercenary units patrol many uncharted areas—perhaps you’ve recorded anomalies we haven’t yet discovered.”
“But our unit isn’t particularly large. How much help could we be?”
“Anything. Right now we’re collecting every scrap that might be a lead.”
Perhaps it was his earnest expression. Derek nodded as though entranced and called for Helena—an excellent field physician whose crude tongue clashed with her delicate features.
“Our unit only keeps records going back ten years. Anything older is destroyed. How many years do you need?”
“All of it.”
“All of it? That’s a massive volume.”
“It’s fine. Preventing another Gate outbreak is more important, isn’t it?”
Soon Helena returned with an enormous stack of notebooks.
“Are these the originals?”
“No. As you can imagine, these mercenary fools have no idea how to keep proper records—they just scribble haphazardly and half forget, scrawling things days later. The order’s a complete mess. So Helena, our brightest, organizes a month’s worth of entries at a time into chronological order.”
A compilation, then. I flipped through the topmost notebook at random and found neat handwriting organized by date. With such careful arrangement, it shouldn’t take long to review.
“This is the most recent?”
“Yes. Oh, here’s our graduation ceremony date too.”
I recalled Father’s diary and its contents. The most recent assignment recorded there had been in the Western Region—a merchant escort, if I remembered correctly.

[Nathan and —, Western Region Perache Village, Blash Merchant Guild escort. Advance payment 500 gold, remainder 500 gold. (Remainder received)]

Then something odd caught my eye. From the context, this seemed to be the job Father had taken on.
“Excuse me—here. Who went to Perache Village in the Western Region with Nathan?”
“Isn’t it written?”
“It’s written strangely.”
I pointed to the assignment listed just above.
“When someone went alone, it’s written like this: ‘Thomas, village watch patrol.’ But here it says ‘Nathan and —,’ which implies two people.”
At my words, Aidan glanced at the notebook too.
“I see. From the context, it seems two or more were assigned to that job.”
“Perache Village was a merchant escort, right? Merchant escorts are always two to a team.”
Derek, curious now, took the notebook from me.
“Huh? You’re right. Listen, Helena. Didn’t you organize this properly?”
“What, do you think I’m some paperwork clerk?! I’m a physician, for heaven’s sake! If you want proper record-keeping, hire an actual clerk!”
“Harrumph. Where would the unit find the coin for another person?”
“Ha, well, people make mistakes. Let me see—who did Nathan say he went with that day?”
“Just ask him.”
Helena grumbled and stomped off toward someone. Even in this commotion, she brought her hand down hard on the broad back of a sleeping figure.
“Hey, Nathan!!”
“Ghak!”
That must have hurt. At the thunderous slap, I found myself unconsciously rubbing my own back in sympathy.
“Christ, what is it? I was having a good sleep.”
“Wake up. Ugh, disgusting. Wipe that drool.”
“Tsk. What’s going on?”
His coarse brown hair hadn’t been washed in days—it hung thick with grease—and despite the cool weather, matted fur covered the space below his rolled sleeves.
‘Father mentioned he doesn’t bathe as much since the divorce.’
“Nathan, who did you go with on the Blash Merchant Guild escort?”
“Haaah, Blash Merchant Guild? Isn’t it written in the records?”
His thick fingers scratched through his matted hair, and an unlikely snow-white dust drifted down onto his shoulders. Aidan’s face twisted with undisguised revulsion as he spoke.
“That’s the problem—it clearly……”
“Wait, didn’t that person go with you back then?”
Thomas, sitting at the next table with a beer mug in hand, called out.
“Why, that golden-haired…….”
“Oh, that’s right! It was…….”
But neither Thomas nor Nathan could finish their thought.
The eyes of the two men, whose mouths hung slightly open, seemed to lose focus as though entranced by something, and began to darken.
And above them, a red mark flashed across their pupils before vanishing.
“…….”
What was that? Did I miss something?
But the mark that had appeared so clearly was unmistakably a goat’s face with five points and two horns between them.
……The very mark I’d read about in books, the one that appears every time a Gate opens.
“Listen, Cynthia.”
Aidan spoke, his back pressed against mine.
“Something’s wrong with all of them.”
True to his words, it wasn’t just these two who’d gone silent. Everyone in this space except Aidan and me had turned strange.
“Excuse me, is everyone all right?”
No one answered. I tugged gently at Helena’s sleeve.
“Helena?”
“……Oh, what? What did you say?”
Her glazed eyes suddenly returned to focus.
“By the way, Nathan! So who did you go with?”
“Uh, the Blash Merchant Guild, right?”
Nathan scratched his head just as he had before, answering.
“I went alone.”
“Oh, did you?”
“Isn’t the principle of escort duty always two to a pair?”
At Aidan’s question, Edmund also recognized him and shot to his feet, bowing his head as he spoke.
“Yes, yes. That’s correct, sir. However, at the time the Mercenary Unit was short-staffed, so I went alone. Even if you don’t think much of it, I am an A-rank Mercenary.”
“……Is that so?”
After his brief reply, Aidan picked up the stack of notebooks.
“Then deliver this once the investigation is finished.”
“Take your time reviewing it, sir, if it’s to eliminate the Gate.”
Derek seemed intoxicated by his own sense of patriotic pride. Aidan and I exchanged glances the moment we stepped out of the Mercenary Unit office.
“Did you see that mark just now?”
“Did you see that mark?”
And we cried out at the same time. It was clear we’d both seen it.
“Hah, I did forge documents using the Gate as an excuse, but I never imagined such a mark would actually appear.”
I ran my fingers wildly through my burning red hair. The situation seemed to be unfolding in a strange way.
“Could Father’s disappearance be connected to the Gate?”
“It’s entirely possible.”
Aidan nodded and boarded the carriage.
“What are you doing? Get in.”
“What?”
I asked in surprise.
“You’re going to take me?”
“We’re headed the same way anyway. No point going separately. It’s a waste of time.”
Aidan gestured toward the carriage with an impatient jerk of his chin.
There was no harm in it, so I quickly climbed aboard. As the carriage door closed and silence settled, my chest grew heavy with a belated weight.
Aidan had only made an excuse to retrieve the Mercenary Unit log, but what if Father’s disappearance truly was connected to the Gate?
“…….”
As the peaceful landscape blurred past the window, my stomach churned and I closed my eyes.
Even the Empire’s finest scientists hadn’t been able to uncover the truth about Gates, so how could I—barely graduated from the Academy—ever hope to discover the cause of Father’s disappearance?
“……I was thinking about it after seeing that mark.”
It was Aidan who broke the heavy silence.

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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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