I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 46

46. Could All of This Really Be a Coincidence?

Having left the mansion where Leonhardt was staying, they headed towards Duchess Lucella’s private residence, chatting along the way.

What else would they talk about?

Once again, the topic was Sien Mirmord. Their expressions were incredibly bright as they spoke about Sien.

Starting with what Sien liked and what she ate, they delved into devoted fandom, so much so that they didn’t feel tired even after walking for so long.

After walking for several dozen minutes, as they approached the outskirts of the mansion where the Duchess resided, they encountered Duchess Lucella, who was taking a stroll.

Just as Acid was shrinking back in response to the unexpected situation, the Duchess spoke to Leonhardt with a cold expression.

“What stories were you all so happily sharing?”

“Ah… It’s nothing.”

Duchess Lucella shook her head at the stiff Leonhardt.

‘I know very well that the corners of his lips turn up when he talks about Sien, only to return to a blank expression when he talks about anything else.’

She pretended not to notice and continued.

“If you’re talking about Honey Bread, I’ll arrange a meeting for the three of you soon. We also need to have the poison lesson.”

Leonhardt immediately replied.

“That would be wonderful.”

He tried to hide his excited feelings, but a smile was already forming on his lips.

“Then we can have five lessons before Axel Mirmord returns.”

Normally, Duchess Lucella, who manages the household affairs in anticipation of Axel’s return, should have been very busy.

However, she had cleared her schedule for Sien, feeling proud of her ability to adjust her own schedule.

Just then, someone eagerly cut in from behind.

“Oh, how about I join too?”

That someone was Delphia Mirmord. The Duchess openly frowned at Delphia.

“What nonsense are you spouting? Why are you even at this mansion, Delphia?”

Come to think of it, why was Delphia at Duchess Lucella’s mansion? Weren’t the two of them usually distant?

For a moment, question marks appeared in both Acid’s and Leonhardt’s minds.

Then, Delphia sighed dramatically and replied.

“Aww… Our baby master seems to have forgotten about me these days, not even inviting me to the mansion, and that cruel Matthias ignores my letters.”

Duchess Lucella still looked indifferent. She gestured lightly with her chin and said to Delphia.

“Whether you see our Honey Bread or not is none of my business. You’re an uninvited guest.”

“Aww, I miss our cutie pie. I want to teach her too. Please?”

Delphia sighed as if she were lovesick. Leonhardt glanced at her and thought.

‘How unfortunate. I can see Chestnut Genius often. If I weren’t so busy, I’d go to Chestnut’s mansion and meet Chestnut right away.’

Until now, he had only thought of Delphia as a dangerous person.

But seeing her call Honey Bread ‘baby master’ and desperately seek her out, he felt sorry for her.

Moreover, a strange sense of superiority arose towards Delphia.

But then again…

‘Acid lives in the same house as Chestnut, doesn’t he?’

…Seeing Acid shattered his strange sense of superiority.

‘I want to live in the same house as Chestnut too. Maybe some of that genius will rub off on me?’

Acid, who actually lived in the same house, simply blinked and watched the Sien tug-of-war between Duchess Lucella and Delphia.

Thus, without Sien’s knowledge, the three of them continued their affection offensive towards Chestnut, Baby Master, and Honey Bread.

***

Only me, Captain, and Dad were left.

The brown-haired boy was taken to the training grounds by Deadri Unnie [older sister/female honorific] to be reformed… so I probably didn’t have to worry about him for the time being.

I whispered, clutching Dad’s sleeve tightly.

“Dadda.”

“Yes?”

“You know, I think someone is talking about me!”

My ear was a little itchy.

I clenched my fist and frowned, wondering if someone was badmouthing me. Dad chuckled as he looked at me.

“Sien, you look scary when you make that face.”

I nodded and put a faint smile on my face.

“No! I’m nice!”

As I talked with Dad, one thought came to mind.

There was one more person here besides me and Dad.

It was Captain, whom I had brought to introduce to Dad.

“Captain is nice too! Can I put him in the room next to Acid?”

“Yes, I’ll prepare a room if Sien wants.”

I decided to try harder to introduce Captain to Dad.

“Um, Dadda. Should we sponsor Captain’s orphanage too? You don’t have to sponsor a lot.”

Of course, I would work and repay Dad for the sponsorship money. Dad would need funds as the heir too. Especially since we are now heirs to a very small territory, every penny would be precious.

But Dad, unaware of this fact, or perhaps aware but happy to be sponsoring, simply smiled brightly at me.

“Okay, then.”

As expected, Dad must have been swayed by the word ‘sponsorship’ because he was such a kind person. I buried my face in Dad’s arms and muttered.

“It would be nice if you could find Captain’s mom too. I’ll help you find her too… Captain’s mom is a gypsy in the Merci region. She might be a sorceress. Or not.”

“I’ll look for her. I was already investigating him… no, I was going to look for her carefully.”

“Huh?”

When I tilted my head at the words ‘I was already going to look for her,’ Dad smiled awkwardly.

“Since he’s Sien’s friend, I should meet his mother to see what kind of person she is.”

I smiled brightly with eyes full of trust towards Dad.

***

After putting Sien to bed, Matthias entered his office.

Unbeknownst to Sien, he too was gradually preparing to welcome Axel Mirmord.

However, Matthias’s preparations differed from Sien’s in that…

“Axel Mirmord’s weakness is that he keeps sorcerers close.”

“Yes, and he is said to be quite sensitive to jinxes.”

Matthias’s information network was quite outstanding.

He looked down at the information guild leader and put his pipe in his mouth. As a blank expression settled on his cold face, the subordinate, already frightened, opened his mouth.

“As you know, he is dissolute and mentally weak. It would be good to attack his mental state.”

As he said, Axel Mirmord’s only weakness was his mental fragility.

Despite possessing great power and being ferocious, Axel couldn’t properly endure without relying on alcohol or magical potions.

Perhaps that was why.

He was quite obsessed with the supernatural, and this time was no different.

“He has a sorceress by his side in this war. Her identity has not yet been revealed in detail, but there is a story that she is a gypsy woman. She is about thirty or forty years old. He relies on her fortune-telling to some extent, though not much. He is determined to kill her after this war, though.”

The words ‘gypsy woman’ instantly reminded him of what Sien had said earlier.

Captain’s mom. The words about finding a female gypsy sorceress in the Merci region.

‘…Could all of this really be a coincidence?’

But he swallowed a groan between his teeth.

Even if it wasn’t a coincidence, he would make it a coincidence.

If little Sien stepped into the dirty power struggles of the Mirmord family, it would surely crumble quickly.

He hoped that his beloved Sien would only see good things and have only happy experiences.

“Go and find the gypsy sorceress in the Merci region right away.”

First, he had to find that woman.

He intended to find out if she was the same person Sien had mentioned. And then, if they were the same person.

“I’ll have to kidnap her, here.”

He was prepared to do anything if his little daughter Sien wanted it.

***

At the time Matthias obtained the information and moved to the Merci region at dawn.

Sien was in the dirtiest money-laundering den of this dirty family: the casino.

‘In the original story, this was where the most money moved.’

The reason for coming here was simple.

For our dad, who was sure to be poor despite being the heir to a noble family, I would become the head of the household and earn money, and ask the information guild to find Captain’s mom.

‘There should be a pretty good dealer here…’

After wrapping her very small body tightly in a cloth and revealing only her eyes, Sien walked briskly.

Muscular maids over 180cm tall followed her ominously.

The maids looked very embarrassed.

As this matter had to be handled quietly, they had carefully selected only the most essential elite personnel to bring along. They had asked for their assistance in advance, but they could be embarrassed as this place was so dangerous.

‘Besides, this casino isn’t just a money-laundering den.’

A place where children could never enter through official channels.

It wouldn’t be good for Captain and Acid’s education, but they were absolutely necessary, so I had no choice but to bring them along.

‘After finding the dealer inside, there’s something we need to do together.’

If you ask what I plan to do after finding the dealer, I can answer very specifically.

This casino was not just a casino, and the dealer was not an ordinary dealer.

The casino owner, of course, may seem like a casino that simply plays poker and spins roulette. But what only a few people know is that this place is actually a passage to the black market auction house.

.

A place where so many dangerous items come and go that it is said that everything people want in the world is there.

A space whose owner no one knows exactly.

However, whoever the owner is, auctions are held on special days, captivating people’s attention.

The auction items could be people, magical tools, or land.

Of course, similar to other auction houses, the probability of a proper item appearing is about 10%. Useless junk was bid on with a 90% probability.

Items that were not properly bid on were always re-bid at the next auction. But people didn’t pay attention to such junk. They always came to this auction house to get the 10% of great items.

Melodia was the same.

As the heroine of the novel, Melodia bought many good items here. She also used those items to punish the villainous Mirmord family.

In particular, she bought a small, beautiful rosewood land with an endless amount of gold buried in it, which I wanted to buy, and became rich!

People only knew the roses on it, and no one knew that there was gold buried in the ground.

They showed a lukewarm reaction, saying that it was pathetic that such a trivial land was put up for auction at this auction house, and that it would be embarrassing to buy such a thing after coming all the way here, and coldly bought only other seemingly great items.

Melodia was just lucky, she didn’t know that there was gold in that land.

And I’m going to buy that land now.

To get the gold mine buried inside into my hands.

Moreover, if you pass the test to enter the once, you can enter it repeatedly in the future. So that means that on a day when another good item comes out later, you can enter the auction house and buy items.

Perhaps, according to the flow of the original story, the land would have been bid on by now. I thought it would have been around the 5th failed bid.

If my prediction is correct, now was a good time for me to buy the land before Melodia.

First of all, I had to find the casino dealer who sells tickets to enter the .

That ticket couldn’t be bought with money. You had to pass the dealer’s test.

Today, I carefully selected my close aides, the maid unnies [older sisters/female honorifics], Acid, and Captain, etc., to come with me for that test.

‘Before the test, let’s look as impressive, cool, and capable as possible!’

So I was going to enter the casino very confidently, as coolly as in a noir movie.

But there was a problem…