One Day, My Dad Disappeared - Chapter 8

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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 8
“Here it is.”
I thrust forward the materials I’d organized through the night, and Aidan looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“You didn’t sleep?”
“You told me to finish it.”
I pouted, and he folded his arms across his chest before speaking.
“Did you really need to lose sleep over this? It didn’t seem like such a massive amount of work.”
“I cross-referenced ten years of records with Father’s diary!”
“And did you find anything?”
My gaze dropped. The truth was, I hadn’t.
“Nothing except that the missing name belonged to my father. But… there was a region he visited unusually often.”
“Visited often?”
“Yes. He showed up there repeatedly. Not just one place, but multiple locations…”
I handed over the documents I’d given Aidan earlier and searched for the map.
“See here—I marked them roughly.”
On the continent map, I’d marked the regions Father visited in red and written dates beside each one.
“They’re not tourist attractions, and I don’t think he had any acquaintances there. Visiting the same places over ten times seems odd, doesn’t it?”
…
Aidan’s brow furrowed.
“Why? Did you notice something?”
Was there something I was missing?
“…Your drawings.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your drawings are atrociously bad.”
“What’s wrong with my drawings!”
Though admittedly, they were terrible.
“I’m pretty sure something I drew when I was five would be better than this.”
He said that much while pulling the map closer to examine it.
“Since we’re on the subject, did you find anything at the Gate Research Institute?”
“…The name Ashford Violeta had vanished from the institute’s records as well. The discovery of Magnetite was listed only as being made by a ‘passing mercenary.'”
Even as he said this, his gaze remained fixed on my map.
“These regions. Don’t they match the locations of Central Neodymium?”
“Oh? Now that you mention it…”
Central Neodymium.
Every town has Neodymium installed, but in the eastern, western, southern, and northern regions—and in the Capital—there exist Central Neodymium installations with far stronger magnetic properties.
They possess a different magnetic characteristic than the Neodymium found in ordinary towns, and they attract one another, forming a massive magnetic field that covers the entire continent.
Even if something were to happen to the Neodymium in one town, as long as Central Neodymium existed, Gates would never open.
“Why would Father visit Central Neodymium so frequently? Could it be that Aclo was trying to destroy Central Neodymium?”
There was also the possibility that Father had learned of this and tried to stop it alone.
“Alone? That’s strange. If that were the case, your father would have to be nothing but arrogant. But from what I’ve heard of Ashford Violeta, he doesn’t strike me as an arrogant man.”
“That’s right. My father was rather humble, and if anything, lacked confidence.”
I lived with him before attending the Academy, yet I never even knew he visited Central Neodymium so often.
“What was at Central Neodymium?”
Could Father’s disappearance have been connected to that?
What exactly did he do there?
“From what I observed at the Neodymium facility yesterday, there were no special reports filed.”
Aidan stood up from his seat.
“In any case, all of this is mere speculation now. The only way to find out is to see for ourselves.”
“Right. We still can’t even confirm who’s involved in all this.”
“This weekend. Eleven o’clock.”
I was thinking how I should have applied to work at a Neodymium management facility instead of becoming a bureaucrat in the Imperial Palace, when Aidan’s voice cut through. Saturday at eleven?
I stared blankly without answering, and he sighed before opening his mouth again.
“What, are you going to sleep in because it’s the weekend? Fine, then. Two o’clock in the afternoon.”
“I’m sorry?”
Still confused, I asked again, and he gestured at the map with exasperation, pointing with one finger.
“We have to go look. At Central Neodymium. The nearest one is in the Capital, so we start there.”
“You’re coming with me?”
“You’re being too stupid to go alone, so I’ll have to.”
“Stupid? Really.”
He’d never beaten me once during my time at the Academy, so hearing such a thing from him wasn’t exactly welcome—but the truth was, I had just been stupid.
Of course I meant to go. I thought I had to check it out.
But why did I have to go with Aidan again? Didn’t you trust that I was in my right mind now?
“A Gate is a national-level disaster. Even if it’s connected to Aclo’s activities, this isn’t something you should solve alone.”
He spoke thus while organizing the papers on his desk as though issuing me a decree.
“Besides, the Neodymium in the Capital is located on Imperial Palace private grounds. If you suddenly visit there and say, ‘I’d like to take a look inside,’ do you really think the knights guarding the Neodymium will say, ‘Yes, understood,’ and step aside?”
“Well. Of course they wouldn’t.”
It was something entirely beyond my station.
But for the young master of the Winslow Family, they’d quickly say yes and make way.
Setting aside the family itself, he was currently an aide to the Imperial Palace’s accounting bureau.
In any case, he had more authority than a junior bureaucrat like me, so he could come up with some excuse for anything.
“Now you understand, I see.”
Aidan made no attempt to hide his look of disappointment as he gestured for me to leave.
Instead of giving in to the urge to bite those long fingers thrashing through the air, I slammed the door with a bang.
“That wasn’t me! The wind! The wind was blowing hard!”
After that I timidly opened the door again and blamed it on the breeze.

* * *

Anyway, without obtaining any other leads, the weekend arrived.
“He said two o’clock, right?”
If I left now, I’d be a little early, but this was Aidan—it was better to go ahead and wait than to be late.
Still, shouldn’t I eat something before going? I rummaged through the kitchen, but with work being busy lately, I had nothing I’d stocked at home.
“I feel like I should eat something.”
Should I buy something on the way?
“Right, there’s a crepe shop, isn’t there?”
Crepes with unsweetened buckwheat batter generously filled with bitter dark chocolate and fresh strawberries.
It was a place I wanted to take Father to first whenever he came to the Capital, since it was a flavor he’d love. It was a place that only did business during the day, so I hadn’t been able to eat there in a while—why not try it today?
While waiting for the day I’d see Father again.
“You came out faster than I expected.”
But who would have thought Aidan would be waiting right in front of the door.
“Wha—Aidan, what are you doing here…?”
“We agreed to meet at two o’clock.”
“Wait, that was supposed to be at Central Neodymium, not in front of my house, wasn’t it?”
At my words, Aidan, who had been leaning against the carriage, straightened up.
“With your leg length, it’ll take you half a day to reach Central Neodymium anyway. Time is money for me.”
“It’s not quite half a day, though?”
“Either way, you came out early knowing it would take a while, didn’t you? From the time you left, it seems you never planned to take a carriage in the first place.”
“That’s just…”
Public carriages doubled their fares on weekends.
“The weather is nice, so I thought I’d walk slowly.”
And along the way, I could grab something to eat.
“Hmph, get in anyway.”
At Aidan’s gesture, the attendant who had been waiting opened the door.

“You rode in it just days ago—why are you hesitating? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly uncomfortable riding in a carriage alone with me?”
“No! Absolutely not!”
I didn’t want to become someone who was self-conscious around Aidan. I quickly climbed inside the carriage, and he followed after me.
“Here.”
The moment the door closed, he handed me a sheet of documents.
“What is this?”
“I visited the Gate Research Institute once more yesterday. I wanted to see if there was any material regarding Central Neodymium that I’d overlooked.”
What? He seems more concerned about this than I am.
“And what I found out was that Central Neodymium possessed something special, unlike the other Neodymiums.”
“Something special?”
“Read that.”
Following Aidan’s words, I quickly read through the document.
“This is…”

[Before we identified Magnetite, there were exactly five instances of unusually powerful individuals emerging from Gates. We called these entities Headrons.]

I’d learned about this from history books myself.

[When we killed the Headron in the Gate, a Core emerged from the Headrock.]

But I’d never heard anything about a “Core” before.

[Through research into the Headron’s Core, what we discovered was that this Core emitted a unique frequency. The waves emanating from the Core strengthened the magnetic field even further. We refined that Core and embedded it within Central Neodymium, amplifying the Neodymium’s power considerably. The Institute decided to call the Headron’s Core by the name “Core.”]

“A Core…….”
“But then a problem arose.”
Aidan sighed as he spoke.
“All five Cores disappeared.”

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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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