The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 165

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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 165
While we continued our conversation, unfolding one topic after another,
my mother and grandfather were locked in a heated dispute elsewhere.
After explaining everything that had transpired, my grandfather fidgeted nervously and tried to reason with my mother.
“Arana, please come to your senses…. Yes? I have no face to show Namia…. And you are currently under arrest….”
“Arr-r-r-r-est?”
My mother’s eyes rolled back in shock.
“Father! You’re not seriously going to let me do hard labor, are you? Get me out of here right now! Yes?”
At those words, the Empress struck my mother’s back once more.
“Making even your own father a criminal! You’re the worst kind of adult—a disaster to your parents and a nightmare to your children! Everything about your way of thinking is absolutely garbage!”
“Ahhhhh!”
My mother leaped to her feet.
“Arrest? Hard labor? Why should any of that fall on me? What?”
Then she glared at Kiaros and shouted.
“Isn’t it because of me that the Crown Prince survived? Yes? I’m the one who revealed the future to Namia, so the Crown Prince lived and everyone turned out fine! Instead of thanking me, what exactly are you all doing right now?”
Then Kiaros spoke calmly.
“While I will take that into consideration, your intentions were impure, so it will have little bearing. Regardless, you must face the consequences of your crimes justly….”
“What? That’s absurd!”
My mother’s face was genuinely incredulous. Then she looked at me and declared boldly.
“You, you… thanks to me, you reclaimed your position as Crown Princess and became a powerful mage. Why are you staying silent? Ask the Crown Prince for a favor right now.”
Watching her still-arrogant demeanor, I could only gape.
[Your mother probably thought she had nothing to lose, no matter what.]
The Empress was right. My mother seemed never to have considered the possibility of losing something in life.
Steadying my dizzy mind, I answered calmly.
“First, I’m not going to be a powerful mage anymore. The experiments connecting me to you can all be nullified. You didn’t hear that because you were throwing a tantrum at Grandfather.”
“What?”
My mother then turned to my grandfather in panic.
“Father, what are you doing? Why aren’t you telling me not to worry? I hate being locked up and doing hard labor. I hate it!”
“…Arana, my heart is breaking too…. But only if you face your punishment justly will Namia’s future be safe….”
My grandfather spoke hesitantly.
“You and I have been far too lacking for Namia, truly worse than useless as blood relations…. Hearing your story, I cannot even lift my head. For my granddaughter’s sake, I cannot take your side here.”
In the end, he meant he couldn’t defend my mother because he felt sorry for me, his innocent blood relative. If I hadn’t existed, my grandfather would have found some way to smuggle my mother out.
My mother’s lips trembled, then slowly her gaze turned to my father, who stood with his back to Kiaros at my feet.
“…Cedric.”
As my mother spoke my father’s name, he flinched.
“You owe your life to me. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Good heavens, she was truly shameless. She was a woman who lived in a world where everyone granted her every demand.
“Namia listens to everything you say. Don’t you have anything to say about my punishment? Yes? I haven’t really done everything wrong, and everything turned out well because of me!”
My father tried to speak, but his eyes met Kiaros’s, and he immediately lowered his head.
Watching this, my mother let out a piercing shriek.
“Father! Cedric! You’re really going to do this? You’re really going to do this?!”
Namia’s Mother stomped her foot indignantly.
She seemed ready to lash out violently, swinging her arms, but caught sight of the Empress’s gaze and stopped herself.
Then she immediately spun around and grabbed something from inside the Prison.
[What is this? What is this thing? Ugh, there’s so much I don’t understand. Why are there so many strange devices in a prison?]
It was one of the strange instruments the Empress had tilted her head at earlier, saying she didn’t recognize it.
“I’m going to use this! I’m going to use this!”
Namia’s Mother held the oddly-shaped device to her own head and screamed.
“My connection with Namia is severed? Then it applies to me too? You know what this is, don’t you, Cedric? If you don’t listen to me, I’m using this on myself!”
It seemed Mother had misunderstood what I’d said earlier—that all the experiments connecting her that way could be nullified—as simply “the connection is severed.”
She’d been too busy arguing with Grandfather to properly hear my conversation with Kiaros.
‘That’s—!’
I swallowed hard. I thought I knew what it was.
[Recently, she seemed most serious about erasing my memories. Aran could access the Laboratory, after all. She even prepared something in my Prison.]
[Preparation to undergo an experiment that erases memories. Apparently it’s surprisingly simple if I decide to do it. She said Aran alone could conduct it without the other Researchers, so I should tell her anytime.]
I’m ready to undergo the memory-erasing experiment. Apparently, it’s surprisingly simple if I make up my mind. Aran said I can tell her anytime since she can conduct it alone without the other researchers.
It appeared to be a device prepared in Father’s Prison—one that could strip away memories.
As Kiaros and the Raven Servant moved toward Mother, I shook my head. Don’t interfere. I wanted to see how far this would go.
Sure enough, Mother bellowed.
“I’m going to use this! And I’m going to erase all my memories! You said I’m not connected to Namia anyway!”
She was literally threatening Father and Grandfather. And using her own memories as collateral, no less.
She hoped to persuade me—who would become the Crown Prince’s bride—to eliminate Father’s sentence, and to convince Grandfather to use the Magic Tower’s authority to remove her from the criminal registry.
“You cried like the world was ending when I got just a scrape on my knee! But now my brain gets damaged? I won’t remember anything? What?”
Mother shouted with triumphant confidence. But then….
Silence fell.
Neither Grandfather nor Father moved.
After a long pause, Grandfather spoke slowly.
“…Perhaps starting fresh from the beginning would be better…. Education is necessary anyway….”
Then Father sighed and nodded.
“That might be for the best.”
At their response, Mother’s face went pale, her breathing ragged. Her hands trembled as she gripped the experimental device so confidently.
Grandfather looked at Mother with tears glistening in his eyes and spoke.
“I feel the same desire to start all of this anew…. Arana, if you’ll feel more at peace that way, then let’s do it…. Let’s try to do better over our remaining forty years together.”
“Father? Father? Are you in your right mind? All those memories we shared together, and you’re okay with me forgetting them all now?”
Mother couldn’t control her trembling hands. She seemed profoundly shocked that her threat hadn’t worked.
“Cedric? Are you in your right mind too? You… you always liked me, didn’t you? That’s why you treated me that way even after knowing who I was, right? What?”
Good heavens. I exchanged glances with Kiaros and whispered.
“Wow, exposing the husband’s unrequited love right in front of the father and daughter. Impressive.”
“It’s not easy to do in front of blood relatives, true.”
While I was murmuring with Kiaros, Father stared intently at Mother. Then he spoke quietly.
“That’s right. I love you. I couldn’t say it to Namia because I felt sorry, but I still care for you.”
At that, my Grandfather, the Empress, and the Raven Servants all gasped in astonishment. Kiaros and I huddled close together and whispered.
“Your Majesty, I should tell you this in advance. If you were to saddle me with loan shark debt, abandon your child, disappear for fifteen years, and then lock me away, I don’t think I could ever care for you. Please don’t expect that kind of love from me.”
“If I ever suddenly ask for that kind of love one day, have the Imperial Palace Physician conduct an intelligence test immediately. The Empire’s future is too precious for that.”
Even so, Father continued speaking.
“Even if worse things happen, I will love you for the rest of my life. But….”
Father and Namia’s Mother’s eyes met.
“The memories with you aren’t precious to me….”
I exchanged a silent look with Kiaros.
If Mother tried to conduct that experiment on me now, the results would come back to me, and Jayden could nullify it either way.
Even if Mother didn’t grasp the situation, Father, who stood between us, couldn’t possibly have missed our conversation.
“That’s probably true for everyone.”
At Father’s words, Mother’s expression froze as if time had stopped. Kiaros and I whispered as we watched.
“That’s a one-two punch. Both a confession and a criticism.”
“And both the confession and the criticism are heartfelt. That’s the most devastating attack I’ve seen today.”

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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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