Translator: Nox

Chapter 7

I Will Save My Father

I Will Save My Father, Episode 8

Episode 8

It was easy to tell that Theon was lost. A trainee knight—especially one still in his probationary period—would never have any reason to meet the Head Commander.

He probably doesn’t even know where the Head Commander’s office is, right?

“Are we lost?”

“…Yes.”

Theon confessed honestly.

Looking up at him, I saw that his neck, visible above his shirt collar, had turned a deep red.

‘Oops, I can’t let things get awkward before we even become friends.’

This wasn’t Theon’s fault. They had given him the order to ‘escort her to the Head Commander’s office’ without even checking if he knew the way, tossing him out like a lion cub being dropped off a cliff!

I took Theon’s hand, which I was still holding, and led the way.

“Don’t worry! In times like this, you just have to keep walking forward.”

I knew exactly where the Head Commander’s office was.

Feeling the tug on his arm, Theon took a couple of quick steps to catch up and matched my pace.

“We shouldn’t just go blindly.”

Theon added as an afterthought, as if realizing his mistake.

“…Miss.”

“I’m younger than you, Theon, so you can speak comfortably to me!”

“You are a lady of the Travel family. I am just a trainee in the knights order belonging to the House of Travel.”

“Oh. Is that stuff important to nobles?”

“Nobles…?”

“I don’t really know about things like that. I lived alone with my dad in a rural village.”

I felt Theon’s gaze shift toward me.

For some reason, it felt like he was staring only at my forehead, but maybe I was just imagining it?

‘Anyway, to become friends, I need to find some common ground!’

When Theon was announced as the Crown Prince, the newspapers were the ones most excited.

The appearance of a Crown Prince whose existence had been unknown until then.

Reporters weren’t about to ignore such a gold mine of stories.

Moreover, since the Crown Prince was handsome, articles about Theon occupied the front page every day along with his photographs.

—Is this a newspaper or a pictorial?

In my past life, I had clicked my tongue at the newspapers’ blatant lookism.

But thanks to those memories, I knew a bit about Theon’s childhood.

‘I heard Baron Boltman’s family finances took a turn for the worse after he retired from the knights, right?’

The grandson raised by a poor baronial couple in the countryside.

He showed exceptional talent in swordsmanship, but their financial situation was so poor they couldn’t even afford a single instructor for him.

Lamenting his grandson’s wasted talent, Baron Boltman had used his old connections to send Theon to the Travel family as a trainee knight.

‘Well, that’s not the important part.’

The important thing was that both Theon and I were from rural villages.

It mattered that we had something in common.

“So I don’t really know complicated things like status. I don’t mind, so if you want to speak casually, go ahead! If you’re worried about getting in trouble with the adults, we can just do it when it’s the two of us.”

“…Why did you live alone with Sir Raytan? What about your other family?”

It seemed the commonality Theon was focused on was something else.

“Aha.”

Theon only knew that my dad was a Grand Master; he didn’t know anything else, did he?

“I don’t have a mom.”

Oh, the Head Commander’s office is just up those stairs.

I continued speaking as I led Theon forward without hesitation.

But Theon didn’t follow.

“Theon?”

When I turned back, Theon had stopped walking and was wearing a look of shock.

---

I never had a mother to begin with.

I was an infant my father had brought from the outside, and no one in Travel knew who my mother was.

—Aren’t we quite generous for taking in someone like you, whose bloodline is unknown? Remember that even after your father died, Travel did not cast you out. Live with a heart full of gratitude.

After my father’s death, Aunt Marian often said those things to me.

It was pressure to bring them results.

From the age of sixteen, I had volunteered to be the hunting dog that brought them achievements.

That was how I survived the scrutiny of my relatives—to uncover the truth behind my father’s death.

‘Hmph.’

I might have been like that back then, but it won’t be the same this time.

Because I’m going to give all those achievements to my dad.

‘Heehee. What should I bring him first~’

I wanted to hum a tune, but I couldn’t.

“I’m sorry. For asking such a thoughtless question.”

Theon was pitying my motherless situation.

Thanks to that, we ended up sitting side by side on the stairs, with our destination—the Head Commander’s office—just one floor above.

“I didn’t know it was like that.”

Theon’s mood had plummeted so low it felt like it was drilling through the floor.

“You’re younger than me…”

“Oh, you spoke casually.”

“…Even though you are young…”

“It’s confusing, so why don’t you just speak comfortably?”

“……”

“How about we just be friends? Then we can speak casually to each other! We’ll only use formal speech in front of adults.”

Theon pondered my words for a moment before nodding.

This was all thanks to meeting Theon early.

If he had been more adjusted to life as a knight, he would have jumped in surprise, saying my proposal was absurd.

‘Hooray! I’m friends with the Crown Prince!’

“Nice to meet you! Theon!”

“…Yeah. Me too.”

Unlike me, who was internally celebrating my success, Theon’s mood didn’t improve at all.

‘Theon lost his mother the year before last. Maybe he’s projecting his own sadness onto my situation. I’m actually fine, though.’

Grandmother Marshal said that memories create longing, but I have no mother in my memories.

I truly felt nothing about the fact that I didn’t have a mother.

‘Rather, it’s not having a dad that…’

…Ugh.

Suddenly, a sharp pain hit my chest, and I understood just how sad Theon must be. I’m an idiot.

Wanting to comfort Theon somehow, I rummaged through my pockets.

With a rustling sound, I caught hold of a piece of candy. It was the candy Sherry had given me to eat when I was bored.

“Theon, have this!”

I took the candy out of my pocket and placed it on Theon’s open palm.

Theon looked at me with a bewildered face.

“Why this…?”

I kicked my feet and gave a wide grin.

“They say sweets are the best when you’re feeling down.”

“I’m fine. You eat it.”

“You eat it, Theon.”

You eat it. No, you eat it.

The candy was passed back and forth, given but never received. In the process, the twisted ends of the wrapper began to unravel, and the candy started to peek out.

Gasp. The wrapper’s going to come off and it’ll fall.

‘I was saving that!’

It would be a catastrophe if it fell on the floor instead of going into Theon’s mouth. Dad rarely gave me candy because he said it wasn’t good for me.

‘Oh?’

Then a good idea struck me. There was no need to squabble over a single piece of candy.

I stood up from the stairs and spoke to Theon in a triumphant voice.

“Let’s go to the Head Commander’s office! There’s candy there!”

“You’re going to eat the candy in the Head Commander’s office…?”

“Yep!”

The Head Commander’s office at the knights’ training center was a place the owner used maybe once a year. Because of that, it was used like a lounge for direct descendants who visited the training center.

‘That’s why Rex told me to go to the Head Commander’s office.’

In my past life, I had often played there while waiting for my dad after he returned as a Grand Master.

Which meant I knew exactly what was inside that room!

“There are plenty of other snacks, too!”

I looked up at the stairs, imagining the Head Commander’s office on the floor above. And then, I froze.

“…….”

“Who gave you permission?”

My grandfather’s golden eyes were looking down at me. He looked like a tiger. A stern voice of reprimand flowed from his mouth.

“Who gave you permission to take candy from my room?”

“…Hic.”

---

A moment ago.

Callet watched the man standing silently before him. Despite his white hair, the old man was hale and hearty, possessing more vigor than a general on the battlefield.

Count Travel, the Head Commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Eagle Knights.

‘Of all times.’

To think Raytan’s daughter would be here.

It was an unfortunate coincidence. The day Count Travel visited the Head Commander’s office for the first time in a year happened to be the day Berry came to the training center.

‘There should be staff to look after the child at Pebble House. Why is Lady Berry here without even a maid?’

Beyond the corner, the sound of children’s voices coming from below the stairs made Callet sigh inwardly.

‘I wonder if Raytan could even imagine this situation.’

If that man, who was completely whipped by his daughter, saw this, how would he react?

There was something else bothering him. Callet had also been present last night when Raytan and the Count spoke.

The Count’s meaningful question had made it sound as if Berry were suffering from an incurable disease and had only a few years left to live.

Perhaps because of that, every time he heard Berry’s voice, Callet felt like he was watching a child playing near deep water.

Of course, unlike his complicated thoughts, his expression remained blunt as ever.

The same went for Laxek, Count Travel, whose thoughts were not reflected on his face.

Callet spoke quietly to the Count, who was standing as still as a boulder.

“It seems he is a boy belonging to the knights, yet he speaks so casually. I will instruct him to be mindful of using proper titles.”

“Leave it.”

“But, My Lord. Lady Berry is also a direct descendant—”

“Who gave you permission?”

Callet didn’t even have a chance to finish. Stepping forward, Laxek barked down at the children below the stairs.

“Who gave you permission to take candy from my room?”

The Count’s shout echoed through the stairwell that reached up to the building’s ceiling, sounding like a clap of thunder.

Stunned by the sight of her grandfather, Berry froze in the very position she had been in while looking up at him, and then she began to hiccup.

“…Hic.”

Laxek’s golden eyes turned toward the face of his small granddaughter. Bright green eyes filled with terror.

Those eyes that resembled Julia.

…Berry, he said.

“He even gave her a weak-sounding name.”

Laxek descended the stairs. As he drew closer, Berry’s body shrank back.

Theon had retreated from the stairs and bowed his head nearby at the Count’s appearance, but his toes were twitching.

He looked ready to shield the child immediately if anything dangerous happened to Berry.

“Seven years old, you say?”

“…Hic.”

“You look like a six-year-old.”

“Hic…”

Laxek’s hand came to rest on Berry’s head.

Berry’s mind went as white as her face. But then—

Pat.

“……?”

Pat, pat.

She sensed something strange.