I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 11

Protecting the Tyrant Father! Episode 11. It’s More Thrilling to Win with an Unexpected Twist (1/14)

Episode 11. It’s More Thrilling to Win with an Unexpected Twist

2023.01.06.

In truth, the Head Instructor’s message was simple.

It was to put Cien Mirmode through a ‘test’ to see if she was suitable to be a child of the Mirmode family.

I had been expecting it, but the development was faster than I thought. I was inwardly flustered but steeled my resolve.

‘I was expecting it. Don’t be too surprised.’

I soon blinked my beady eyes and answered energetically.

“Okay!”

“Pardon?”

“I mean I’ll take the test!”

The assassins stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.

I raised my chin, acting all high and mighty.

They had already decided to test me. They were going to make me take the test no matter what excuse they had, planning to crush my spirit when Dad wasn’t around.

“If you want to catch a tiger, you have to go into the tiger’s den. Don’t you even know that!”

The maids now clapped their hands on their own whenever I said something.

“Oh, my, you’re so brilliant!”

“Truly our muscle pillar.”

The assassins sent by the Head Instructor were still lying face down on the floor, rolling their eyes with awkward expressions.

“Ah, and.”

“Yes?”

“Get rid of those guys!”

Proceed!

At my tough words, the maids beat the masked men a few more times and chased them out. Of course, I also told them to dig a hole in the back with a shovel, so they might bury them alive for a day or two.

‘Maid unnies [older sisters/female friends], is it okay to live so recklessly?’

…I wondered if they had something to rely on.

We’re just alienated people without any power in the North Spire. This is the Mirmode world where the strong survive, so it would be dangerous to live recklessly without any backing.

‘That’s not what’s important. First, I have to face the Head Instructor.’

I packed a few supplies into the rabbit-shaped bag Dad bought me.

Me, Cien Mirmode, with the bag slung firmly over my shoulder!

I also carefully packed the mirror artifact that I had coaxed the maids into getting for me in advance. This low-grade artifact won’t be of much help, but….

Anyway, I’m fully prepared.

Finally, I entered the Education Center with vigor.

As I entered the large room, Instructor Lilmi, who hated me, and a gray-haired grandfather were sitting there. I glared at Lilmi with narrowed eyes.

I didn’t expect him to be so wary of a little kid like me.

The thought of showing him how hot things could get bubbled up from deep within.

“You’ve come.”

“Hello!”

I bowed and stood before them.

As soon as the door was completely closed, he asked with a glint in his eye, like a true villain.

“Did you say a proper farewell to your arrogant exile father?”

At the words ‘arrogant exile father,’ I clenched my well-shaped, plump fist.

How dare he call my dad an arrogant exile father?!

If our kind dad heard that harsh expression, he would have fainted.

I’m glad I heard it. Because I can steel my heart and take revenge.

I froze my heart as cold and hard as corn ice cream, then opened my mouth.

“My dad is not an exile. Grandma said he isn’t.”

The Head Instructor’s expression twisted when I mentioned the Duchess.

“……That impudent little thing. So, you ordered all my subordinates to be killed?”

This is a bit unfair.

‘No, it wasn’t me who beat the spies, it was the maids….’

“To think you would brazenly kill all the spies I sent.”

He clicked his tongue.

No matter how I looked at it, the misunderstanding was gradually deepening.

However, I didn’t bother to clear up his misunderstanding.

‘I can’t be bothered to clear up misunderstandings anymore.’

When I didn’t answer and just pursed my lips, he arrogantly placed the mana stone he was holding roughly on the desk and said.

“I’m going to give you the .”

“What’s that?”

As expected, it was the .

I pretended not to know, but I already knew about it thanks to Leonhardt.

The Head Instructor sneered at me.

“You’re foolish.”

“Because she’s the daughter of an exile. Just a country bumpkin.”

Instructor Lilmi chimed in from the side. He was constantly flattering him for the sake of his career, his eyes sparkling.

‘It’s going according to Leonhardt’s and my expectations. They’re trying to kill me. Everyone here kills and gets killed.’

I stared at him blankly, pretending not to know anything.

“To put it simply, it’s a test to escape the maze.”

“A maze? How do I escape?”

“Stand on this glass plate. The method is up to you to find. You talk too much, kid.”

A cold look that hoped I would be scared.

Looking at the Head Instructor, who was an extremely unkind teacher, I opened my mouth.

“Even if Cien doesn’t want to, she has to do it, right?”

“Yes.”

“……I will do it, then.”

Lilmi handed me the mana stone as if he had been waiting for it.

A warm mana stone was placed on my hand.

“Not knowing they’re walking into their own death, kids are all so stupid.”

I didn’t respond to his words.

He smirked with one corner of his mouth raised.

Cien lowered her head and smiled contentedly at his expression, which already seemed certain of victory.

So that it wouldn’t be noticed, so that the corners of her mouth wouldn’t go up too much!

You can’t be so hasty when you don’t know how things will turn out.

He didn’t seem to have heard the saying that being hasty leads to failure.

I puffed up my cheeks. When I gently squished my soft cheeks, a long breath escaped from my mouth, phoo-oo.

The game has begun.

Maybe I’ll suffer like ‘those kids’ who have been tormented by them….

‘I have to do it.’

And I can do it.

When I stood on the glass plate and held the mana stone tightly in my hand.

The Head Instructor glared at me and said.

“In our family, the weak are devoured, you foolish little thing.”

But you don’t know who the real weak one is yet.

Do you?

***

How many seconds had passed?

A cool breeze blew for a moment.

I instinctively felt that the place I was standing had changed.

‘I’ve arrived inside the maze.’

I slowly opened my eyes and swallowed hard at the unexpectedly huge illusion maze, seeing the huge walls that were three or four times taller than me.

An eerie atmosphere, a cold place where white breath obscured my vision when I sighed.

Tense, I tried taking a step, then another.

The width of the maze gradually narrowed as I walked. It looked like my body would be crushed if I took even a slightly wider stride. No matter how I looked at it, there was a limit to my range of movement. I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t walk fast either.

I took a slow, deep breath.

The exit was visible in the distance, but it wouldn’t be easy to escape.

‘If things go as expected, the illusion should definitely start now.’

The [Mind Maze Test] was a vicious type of illusion magic.

This maze was a place that scraped away at the most terrifying inner parts of a person, dragging out painful memories.

The moment I recognized the situation, I began to hear a cold voice full of malice and even familiar to my eyes.

“You stupid X.”

“Someone like you will never be loved. Don’t be pathetic.”

“Everything you do is clumsy.”

Abusive words towards me began to pour into my ears.

With each word, my heart pounded. The trauma I had forgotten was revived.

Those words were all words I had heard in my past life.

Before my eyes, memories from my past life began to replay slowly, like an old film coming out of a projector.

I saw myself, eight years old, drinking water in the kitchen.

I heard my parents arguing in the living room. It was the voice of them saying they were going to get a divorce. I was very intimidated, holding the cup still with my head bowed and holding my breath.

Voices full of hatred dug into my ears.

‘Let’s get a divorce by mutual consent, and you take her.’

‘I don’t like her because her eyes are gloomy. She’s quiet and stupid. It doesn’t seem like she’s the child I gave birth to.’

‘Then what should we do? Send her to an orphanage?’

‘She looks like you, so you can do whatever you want with her.’

I was a gloomy little kid with bangs that covered my eyes as if they would cover them because no one did my hair. But I was quick-witted.

Mom and Dad were serious.

They were annoyed and hated me, who was born from a loveless relationship.

‘If you don’t take care of her, send her away, then!’

In the end, I’m being abandoned.

Useless and stupid….

Momentarily, the strength in my hand was released.

And, crash!

The glass fell to the floor because the strength in my hand was released.

Looking at the shattered remains of the glass, which were like my heart, I froze. The shattered pieces seemed like my heart, and the way my parents hated me made me unable to move.

My mom ran out of the living room towards me, who was frozen.

I looked at my mom and walked awkwardly. My foot stepped on the glass and bled, but it was important to apologize to my mom.

‘I, I’m sorry.’

Because the glass was broken anyway. B, because my foot is bleeding.

It’ll be okay. They’ll understand. Maybe, maybe they’ll worry about me.

With tears welling up in my eyes, I begged my mom. I was sorry for breaking the glass, I lowered my eyes and thought.

But Mom, Dad. Can’t you just forgive me for getting hurt once….

I’m in pain.

My feet are bleeding and it’s so painful.

Tears are coming out….

Can’t you hug me?

However, my mom betrayed my expectations as if it were natural.

‘How can you only do such terrible things? Are you protesting now?’

‘……N, no.’

I looked at my mom, trembling.

‘Do you know how much this costs?’

I realized my mistake.

The cup I took out to drink water was my mom’s precious cup that she cherished.

Someone like me shouldn’t have dared to use such a water cup.

I was so embarrassed, I just….

‘Sorry…….’

Before I could apologize, my mom ran right up to me.

Of course, my mom didn’t step on any glass thanks to wearing indoor slippers. She couldn’t suppress her rising anger and pressed her index finger hard on my forehead, shouting hysterically.

‘If you keep bothering me, I want to die. Shall we die together? Huh?’

When she pressed my forehead, the glass shards stepped on my feet again and hurt.

But it was more scary and painful that my mom said she was going to die.

Mom, you can’t, you can’t die. You’re a much more precious and valuable person than me.

In a voice that was getting smaller and smaller, I continued to speak with difficulty.

‘I’m sorry, M…….’

‘Who’s your mom? Who!’

My dad, with his hands behind his back, stopped her from behind.

With a cold gaze and an expressionless face, he said.

‘You, act useful.’

‘……Yes, sorry…….’

‘Clean up the cup yourself and come out. You should do that much, shouldn’t you. You have to pay for the cost of feeding and housing you in this house.’

I mumbled to my dad with an intimidated expression.

‘I, D, Dad. I’m bleeding…….’

‘Don’t even call me Dad. What are you crying about, you idiot?’

Looking down at me with a cold gaze, he disappeared from the kitchen. I couldn’t even make a sound and just shed tears.

It’s not because my heart hurts that I’m crying.

Mom and Dad are good people and they can treat me like that. Because they feed me and put me to sleep.

It’s just, just because I’m weak.

It’s because my little feet are bleeding from being stabbed by glass shards. That’s why…….

While brainwashing myself, I cleaned up the shattered cup on the floor with my bare hands.

I didn’t even know I had to use rubber gloves or something. Because no one told me.

Of course, when I cleaned the glass with my clumsy hands, my hands bled. I quietly looked down at my hands and thought.

It didn’t hurt at all that my hands were cut.

It’s just that my heart is stabbed and hurts.

After cleaning up all the glass and limping into the room, I quietly thought.

‘I wish I hadn’t been born in the first place.’

Should I really not have been born?

At the same time, I heard noisy voices in my ears again.

‘Then you shouldn’t have been born?’

‘Let’s die together here.’

‘It’ll be easier if you die.’

‘You’ll disappear forever.’

I bit my lip hard. It felt like I could taste blood from my already swollen lips. I quickly wiped the area around my lips with the back of my hand.

Really, am I a useless child?

I shrank my already small shoulders even smaller.

***

The [Mind Maze Test] could be viewed from the outside with a mana stone. The Head Instructor and Lilmi smiled when they saw Cien’s head lowered.

“In the end, she lowered her head.”

“Everyone dies like that.”

“It’s easier than I thought. I was worried because she was that devil’s daughter.”

They looked at each other and laughed for a long time. They even had a glass of rum.

The Head Instructor was satisfied as he watched Cien, who had been bowing her head for a long time and eventually knelt on the floor.

Cien would also face a similar future to the other children.

Either die like that. Or live like an empty shell, constantly tormented by the afterimages of the past.

In any case, both are no different from receiving a death sentence as a child of the Mirmode family.

“Young Master Matthias will be a little upset.”

“What can he do if he’s upset? He’s a kite with a broken string.”

Unlike what Lilmi thinks, Matthias is quite a great guy.

What can I do? It’s my specialty to kill young children who seem like they’re about to sprout while taking care of the cause.

The Head Instructor leaned his chin and smiled sarcastically.

What should I say……? Looking at the back of Cien’s head, which was bowed, and her knees, which were kneeling haphazardly with dirt on them, it felt good because it was like Matthias Mirmode was kneeling in front of me.

The Head Instructor, who had been laughing at Cien for a long time, turned his gaze to the rum.

In about thirty minutes, that child’s mind will be completely broken down.

But that was exactly when it happened.

“W, wait a minute.”

“What is it?”

At Lilmi’s flustered expression, the Head Instructor stopped as he brought the rum to his lips.

“T, that kid over there, she’s raising her head again?”

The Head Instructor’s face crumpled as he looked down at the .

Most of the kids who had knelt down and lowered their heads until now had knelt on the floor with empty eyes and cried powerlessly, trapped in the maze.

But it’s strange.

Cien was raising her head.

She seemed to have cried a little, but she still had sparkling eyes.