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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: An Over-the-Top Rescue
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Suddenly, the mouse began to nod its head frantically.
Then it made another sound.
“Squeak!”
“Is something wrong with Kivrin?”
Kivrin had left the Coral Villa after telling me to rest.
Had he not returned yet?
As an ominous feeling began to creep over me, the mouse flopped onto its back with its belly up.
It then pointed at itself with its front paw, as if playing dead.
“Is that Kivrin’s condition right now?”
“Squeak.”
*Gasp!*
I’m going to find my little marshmallow right now!
I burst out of the storage room.
“Father! Father! I think we have to go!”
The auction house owner, who had been full of anticipation, looked openly disappointed.
“Are you not purchasing anything? I’ve shown you everything…”
I held out the blank check I always carried with me.
Since Menelik didn’t carry a sword, I figured he should at least have the one with the seashell on it.
“This, I’ll take this. Father, hurry!”
Menelik stood up, and the auction house owner’s face lit up as he accepted the blank check.
“So you meant to buy all the items scheduled for this auction! As expected of the Duchy!”
…Huh? I did?
But before I could deny it, Menelik spoke.
“Send them to the villa. They’ll all be under my daughter-in-law’s ownership.”
“As you command! Long live the Young Duchess!”
“Ah, no, that’s not what I…”
As I belatedly stammered, Menelik hurried me along.
“Didn’t you say we had to go quickly?”
From a distance, the mouse also chirped, urging me on.
In the end, I left the auction house.
Dozens of birds were waiting for us.
Since this was not a common sight, I immediately said,
“I think Kivrin is in danger.”
“Aren’t they just gathered here because they’re hungry?”
Even as he said that, Menelik dutifully followed the birds.
We arrived at a deserted stretch of coast alongside a cliff, where people rarely ventured.
Lifting my head in the direction the birds were flying, I saw a single ship heading toward the horizon.
“Modified for a quick escape. That sort of thing is usually illegal.”
Menelik held out his hand.
“Lend me that sword.”
Worried about Kivrin, I quickly handed it over.
Despite having been submerged in water for a long time, Menelik drew the sword from its sheath with one hand as if it were nothing.
The scabbard fell to the ground, and Menelik measured the distance.
The blade of the sword trembled.
My ears felt clogged as the atmospheric pressure changed.
“F-Father? Wait a minute?”
*I think your son is on that ship? What are you trying to do…?*
But there was no time to stop him.
Sensing the danger, I had barely scrambled back when Menelik swung the sword.
*BOOM!*
The explosion was deafening.
A wave thicker than any wall split apart. The current that collided head-on with the wave shot forward, struck its target with perfect accuracy, and vanished.
By the time I came to my senses after covering my ears, the ship was already tilting.
With just a single swing, the sword was riddled with cracks.
When Menelik dropped it without a second thought, it couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered completely.
“Now, let’s go after them.”
His voice was utterly composed.
I barely managed to close my triangularly agape mouth.
“Will Kivrin be okay? Wh-what if he was hurt by that attack…!”
“I’ll just say I didn’t do it.”
“…”
Who would believe that!
The air crackled as if it were charged with electricity.
My heart pounded, and the fine hairs all over my body stood on end.
But Menelik looked at me as if he were surprised.
“You seem to have more nerve than Marquis Ingram.”
“I’m… also very… surprised right now…!”
My legs are shaking!
“Usually, it doesn’t just end with being surprised. Though I did hold back.”
I had no idea what he was talking about.
I could only hope that Kivrin had heard the sound of Menelik’s attack in advance and dodged it.
Menelik picked me up and boarded another boat.
When we arrived, the people who should have been on the ship were already gone, having fled.
The deck was messily strewn with what appeared to be plundered goods.
As Menelik went aboard first, the fisherman who had brought us over asked timidly from the other boat.
“Miss Crab, is it all right if I wait on my own boat…?”
Puzzled by the unfamiliar address, I touched my head.
The crab headband was still there, albeit slightly crooked.
“…Yes. You don’t have to come aboard.”
Leaving the relieved fisherman behind, I followed Menelik.
The cabin was damp and smelled musty.
There were even traces of a gambling den, so I understood why Menelik had attacked without a second thought.
*They really made full, illegal use of this ship.*
I went in the opposite direction of Menelik and called out for Kivrin.
“Kivrin? Are you here?”
A broken liquor bottle rolled across the floor.
Worried Kivrin might get hurt, I used the toe of my shoe to push the shards into a corner.
Just then, I heard a reply.
“I’m over here.”
It’s Kivrin’s voice!
I sprinted at full speed.
Kivrin was emerging from a storage room piled with all sorts of junk.
He was perfectly fine, aside from being soaked from head to toe as if he had taken a dive into the sea.
Still, just in case, I looked him over from every angle.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Why are you here? Why did you go in the water? You must be cold, right?”
As I started to take off my outer coat, Kivrin shook his head back and forth.
“I-I’m not hurt. It’s not that c-cold, either. I came to get this…”
Kivrin opened his hand to show me something he had been clutching tightly.
It was a plant that grew underwater.
Kivrin’s eyes crinkled as he smiled.
“I thought it would be h-helpful for you, Cheria.”
“For me?”
Confused, I blinked.
Kivrin nodded three times in affirmation.
“It’s good for your health, but it’s hard to find.”
Yikes.
He took such a risk for me?
“I’m fine without things like this…!”
Kivrin didn’t even wait for me to finish.
“I-I thought you’d be happy…”
His clear golden eyes watched my reaction.
With his hair and eyelashes all wet, he looked like a rain-soaked kitten.
*I-I can’t let my heart soften now!*
My throat tightened, and I barely managed to squeeze out my voice.
“I am happy. I am, but!”
As if on cue, Kivrin changed the subject.
“H-how did you know to come here?”
Right! The mouse!
“My animal friends told me you were in danger! A mouse flopped onto its back and said that was your current state! And a whole flock of birds flew over, telling me to hurry and save you!”
I explained urgently.
Kivrin’s expression gradually turned peculiar.
“It’s just been a w-while since I’ve gone swimming. If anything, I was in more d-danger because of Father.”
“…”
I had no argument against that.
*I didn’t think my father-in-law would just attack like that either…*
As expected, Menelik was a man who could turn any situation into a tragedy with the slightest misstep.
The culprit who had thrown us into a brief silence walked over leisurely.
He asked Kivrin,
“What’s with that look? Are you moved that I came to rescue you?”
“…”
“…”
Kivrin and I fell silent in unison.
Menelik spread his arms as if inviting an embrace.
“Come here.”
Kivrin ignored him with a look of pure annoyance.
“Let’s go, Cheria.”
“…”
*What am I going to do with this father-son relationship…?*
Instead of healing over time, it was deteriorating at a frightening speed.
I had a feeling that if I left them like this, something terrible would happen.
On the way back in the fisherman’s boat, I watched the two of them closely.
Kivrin went into the cabin to dry his clothes, while Menelik stood on the deck, watching the scenery with his usual languid expression.
I approached Menelik.
“I’m so glad Kivrin is safe.”
Menelik let out a soft chuckle.
“If he takes after me and Winter, he ought to be.”
Hmm?
“Weren’t you worried?”
“I wasn’t. And as it turns out, there was no need to be.”
But Kivrin is only eleven…
Recalling something Menelik had said, I tilted my head.
*—What’s wrong with worrying? For the record, Winter worries about me the most. She says I’m less reliable than you or Kivrin.*
It was strange.
Menelik had even said such things, insisting it was only natural for me to be worried over by my parents-in-law.
But for some reason, it felt like he held Kivrin to a stricter standard.
