I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 39

39. I Will Save People My Way

Gabrielle, who had been waiting for Ted’s answer, was taken aback. She hadn’t anticipated Ted’s reaction, assuming he would naturally assist her alongside Acid.

The frosty demeanor she encountered was unprecedented, something she swore she had never witnessed before.

As Gabrielle, looking bewildered, began to speak, Ted cut her off.

“If you knew, why did you specifically ask me to escort you to the tea party that day, and why did you linger there for so long? Were you trying to prevent Acid and me from meeting?”

She was caught completely off guard.

Gabrielle, wiping her dry lips with the back of her hand, mumbled,

“Well, I didn’t really… I didn’t think that little kid, Acid, was important. Had I known he was a healer, I would have thought differently, but anyway, it’s more important for me to have you as my escort at my tea party, isn’t it?”

Ted’s face hardened as he watched Gabrielle stammer and mumble.

The ugly aspects of the priestess were becoming increasingly apparent.

“Whether Acid is a healer or not, he is my precious brother.”

“Even if he’s a beggar?”

“Yes. It doesn’t matter what he is.”

A sharp anger flashed across Gabrielle’s face.

“More than me?”

Ted felt it was a waste of time to spend any more time on Gabrielle.

Ted’s gaze turned as cold as ice.

“Do I really have to spell it out?”

“That’s…”

“I have never once considered you, Gabrielle, as the master I serve.”

Until now, he had overlooked things, thinking of her as a young girl, but now he completely shut her out of his heart.

Gabrielle bit her lip, shocked.

“That’s a lie! How dare you speak to me like that…!”

“It’s the truth. If you truly thought of me as a knight, you wouldn’t have acted so selfishly.”

The clear face of Ciel came to Ted’s mind as he looked at Gabrielle.

Even though she had found Acid for him and bestowed unparalleled grace upon him, she had given him a choice.

And…

Ted spoke, reaffirming his decision to serve Ciel.

“I am now leaving the temple.”

“That can’t be…!”

Gabrielle’s face paled as if she realized something was wrong.

“I’m going to leave the temple and join Acid.”

“Ted!”

Gabrielle shouted, her voice a desperate cry.

“If you leave like this, I’ll never see you again!”

Ted smiled coldly at her words.

“That would be an honor.”

Bang.

The door slammed shut.

It was a complete severance.

***

After Ted left, his expression coldly hardened, Gabrielle was left alone.

She bit her nails until they bled, then abruptly stopped.

She couldn’t afford to be weak.

Like Melodia, the strong woman from the streets who had raised her…

She had reached out to Gabrielle, the insignificant third young lady of a fallen noble family, and told her that she possessed divine power.

‘Go to the Senoa Temple, Gabrielle.’

‘Yes…?’

‘Get the people of the temple in your hands, like a future saintess.’

‘A, a future saintess?’

What flashed through Gabrielle’s mind, which was filled with inferiority, at that moment was…

A splendid debutante.

All sorts of fancy carriages.

Elegant noble knights and people who only admired her.

‘In our empire, if you become a saintess, you can have everything. The position of the flower of high society is also within reach.’

Melodia told her to wait at the Senoa Temple.

She said that if she dominated the Senoa Temple, the world would call out to Gabrielle, saying that the whole world was arranged for Gabrielle.

Soon Melodia would become a saintess, and Gabrielle could become the next saintess after her…

But why did things turn out this way?

Gabrielle bit her lip tightly, recalling what Melodia had said.

‘You have to win Ted’s heart. You have to act like a lovely girl.’

‘Yes…’

‘You must never try to physically subdue a holy knight. You have to open his heart because that’s when his true skills are revealed.’

But the holy knight’s heart was going to be opened to Ciel Mirmord, that damned brat.

Ted, whom Melodia had told her to get her hands on no matter what, was about to leave the temple.

According to the Vatican’s policy, a holy knight undergoing defrocking [formal removal from the priesthood] procedures could leave the temple immediately, even if there was a deliberation period.

Even if she used tricks to forcibly hold him back, the words ‘a being whose true skills are revealed when his heart is opened’ bothered her.

How did the situation become like this? She clearly thought it would be a smooth road to becoming a saintess.

‘…This doesn’t make sense.’

The things she could have had were falling apart one by one.

And finally, Melodia’s words floated into Gabrielle’s mind.

‘It’s unlikely, but if there’s a problem, call me. I’ll save you.’

She remembered Melodia smiling brightly.

She had gone somewhere with the Pope, but she would be able to receive letters.

Yes. Lady Melodia couldn’t be wrong.

She was a very precious daughter of God.

Unlike that stupid and dull child named Ciel.

That child was just lucky, but Gabrielle herself was going to pioneer the world.

Finally, Gabrielle began to write a letter.

***

After eating lunch that day, I yawned.

Since I’m destroying the contents of the original story, it was time to reorganize the timeline of [the novel].’

If it hasn’t changed much, Melodia is probably building up her power to become a saintess.

Her power grew to the point where it overwhelmed the Pope.

And… after falling in love with the Crown Prince, she joined hands with him and annihilated the Mirmord family.

‘Looking at this, it seems like Saintess Melodia isn’t necessarily a good person.’

Maybe I’m thinking too much from the perspective of the Mirmord family.

Although it’s a minor detail, the evil deeds of the villainous Mirmord family were described in relatively great detail. It was as if the Mirmord family had to be destroyed, and Melodia’s massacre of the villainous family was taken for granted.

‘But there are definitely many people in this family who haven’t done anything wrong, like my dad or the muscular maid unnies [term of endearment for older sisters or female friends]… they’re still nice. There’s no need to annihilate them.’

Maybe it’s because I’m empathizing with the victim’s position, but no matter how I think about it, I don’t think Melodia’s actions are good.

‘I’m not going to live according to the original story. I’m just going to save my people my way.’

I sighed and counted Melodia’s actions.

Right now, she’s outside the empire, in the Eastern Continent, spreading the word about the temple’s good deeds with the Pope, and sweeping up valuable talents and magical tools from the Eastern Continent. Among those talents was someone who stole the power of others.

If I were to face Melodia, that person who steals the power of others would be a big variable.

‘Later, when Ted comes, I need to find out more about the temple and the saintess. And about their power.’

Now that it’s confirmed that my idiot dad is a member of the Mirmord family, I had to be careful when dealing with the main character in the original story.

I had to make thorough plans in preparation for meeting them in the future.

‘First, I’ll take a nap…’

I clutched my tired head and sighed.

If I let my mind go, my thoughts would turn childish again.

It was similar today. In particular, I kept dozing off.

But it was at that moment.

The muscular maid unnies knocked on the door and came in.

“Ciel-nim!”

“I was gonna sweep…”

Because I was sleepy, my speech became more slurred, and the ends of my words became more blurred. Unless it was really important news, I just wanted to lie down and sleep today.

But then, the maid, holding my soft hand as if she were holding white rice cake, said.

“A person named Holy Knight Ted has arrived.”

“What?”

My eyes widened at the word Ted.

This was the realm of superhumanity that even physical abilities that lagged behind others could not interfere with.

***

At the same time, Acid also heard that Ted had arrived.

Acid, who was wondering whether to go down to meet his brother, finally made a decision after hearing the maids whispering.

‘I’ll be able to see Ciel again while meeting my brother.’

He wasn’t properly aware of his principles of action, but he was following Ciel like a baby bird looking at its mother bird.

‘…I should act aloof with my brother.’

Perhaps it was because he hadn’t had a proper conversation yet. The anger towards his brother, who hadn’t looked for him, hadn’t completely subsided.

Of course, he knows very well in his head that his brother would never have abandoned him.

Because he saw his brother’s desperate expression when they first met.

‘But my brother wasn’t there on the day of the divine power test either….’

With complicated feelings, Acid came down the stairwell and finally arrived in front of the reception room where Ciel and his brother were.

The door to the reception room was slightly open.

The muscular maids guarding the front gestured to Acid and whispered with their mouths.

Saying, ‘Hey kid, go in quickly.’

Acid, encouraged by their casual words, opened the door slightly.

He came to face a somewhat strange scene.

His brother, Ted, was kneeling reverently on one knee like a knight, holding someone’s hand.

It might have looked a little ridiculous because the person standing in front of him wasn’t an elegant lady, but a very small cotton candy-like girl…

Perhaps it was because he was wearing the clothes of a holy knight.

His brother’s oath seemed very reverent.

And a mid-bass voice flowed from Ted’s mouth.

“I want to make a knight’s oath to Ciel-nim right now.”

It was definitely his brother.

He hated him, but his heart was slowly softening…

The moment his brother said he would make a knight’s oath to Ciel, it felt like his heart would freeze.

‘My brother is making a knight’s oath to Ciel….’

A knight’s oath.

Every knight has only one lady in his life.

That his brother, Ted’s, lady would be Ciel meant… that there would be someone to protect Ciel.

Ciel, he wanted to protect her.

Acid, who was standing in the doorway, quietly drooped his shoulders.

Unlike himself, who was not yet an adult and had no knowledge of healers… his brother was a perfect adult and in a position to make an oath to Ciel.

It would be a good thing for Ciel. Since the little girl could survive the evil Matthias Mirmord, he should congratulate her.

Strangely…

Why did his heart ache at the fact that there were many people who could protect Ciel even if it wasn’t him?

It was at that moment.

Today, Ciel found him standing quietly in the doorway first.

“Uh? Baby?”

And she greeted him as if it were natural, smiling brightly.

“Come here!”

Acid followed Ciel’s orders as if it were natural, as if it were a lie that he had stopped earlier. Even then, Ted was still holding Ciel’s hand.

His eyelashes were lowered as if he was about to make an oath.

“I, me too.”

A hot flame flickered in Acid’s eyes as he looked at the scene.

“I want to do it too.”

He didn’t even stutter.

Ciel tilted her head with a puzzled expression.

“Huh? What do you want to do?”

It was an expression that said, what do you want to do?

Acid scraped together the courage from within and opened his mouth.

“I want to make an oath of allegiance too!”