I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 28

The Sweet Potato, How Much Is It?

I sent the maids and the cat away and sat down on a bench in the garden.

Then, I had a few conversations with Acid.

‘Your name is Cien, is it?’

‘Yeah! Call me that.’

‘…I’m a street kid, so I don’t have a name.’

I paused, about to ask if he didn’t have the name Acid. It seemed his antipathy toward his brother was deeper than I thought.

‘Ah…’

‘Plea, please don’t go anywhere.’

Based on what he said during the conversation, I realized.

Acid’s anger towards his brother, who abandoned him, was deeper than expected, and he was showing some separation anxiety.

‘Maybe because he lived alone for so long, Acid seems to be having a hard time.’

“Um… Do you hate your brother a lot?”

“…Yes, because he abandoned me.”

I paused.

Ted didn’t abandon Acid, but Acid firmly believed that Ted had abandoned him.

Maybe it’s Acid’s defense mechanism.

Is this a problem I can just touch?

I carefully tapped the ground with my foot and answered quietly.

“I see…”

However, Acid was quick-witted, as expected of a child who lived in the slums.

He fidgeted with his hands and opened his mouth.

“…You want to give me a chance to make excuses, don’t you?”

“No, kids don’t have to do things they don’t like. Think about hard things later.”

“…I thought you brought me here to give Ted a chance to make excuses.”

I shook my head vigorously.

“That’s not it! I just!”

Acid’s gentle eyes were staring at me. I bit my lip and quietly murmured.

“I just want you to be happy. Like me. If it’s hard to accept Ted as family… I don’t think you have to force yourself to accept Ted.”

The boy’s blue eyes stared at me.

The sparkling eyes, resembling sapphire jewels, were shaking.

“Happiness…”

Listening to him quietly murmuring, I carefully looked at his face. After being washed and fed well, Acid looked quite handsome.

“Yeah!”

“…To think there’s someone in the world who wants me to be happy…”

I stared at him as his eyes gradually turned red and emphasized again.

“No tears allowed! Let’s eat something warm first and think about good things!”

He smiled slightly and looked at me.

“You talk just like an adult.”

Seeing him change the subject, it seemed he needed a little more time to think.

I nodded, pretending not to notice. Then, the pigtails tied on both sides shook.

“Okay. Let’s not think bad thoughts anymore and play ‘getting stronger’!”

‘When you’re feeling sentimental, there’s nothing like ‘getting stronger’!’

At the sudden change of topic, Acid bit his lip and asked.

“Pardon?”

I took out a large water balloon from my pocket.

“Tada! The person who is slow gets hit with a water balloon!”

There are no goblins, but a chicken instead of a pheasant! [A substitution, implying something similar but not quite the same.]

Shouldn’t you be able to get stronger with this much?

Like a villain, I revealed my sharp fangs.

“Yes. I’ll play that game and think about it more.”

Acid smiled gently.

“It’s a scary game that can build courage, are you okay with it?”

“Yes. If I’m with Cien… anything is fine.”

Looking at Acid, who seemed determined, I took out a water balloon from my pocket.

***

Matthias looked down from the window, watching Acid and Cien running around. Fortunately, they seemed to have lost interest in the goblins.

Well, pure and innocent Cien would never like goblins.

It’s just curiosity to see them again.

“Waaaaa!”

At the sound of the excited boy’s voice, Matthias’s expression momentarily distorted before regaining composure.

…So it doesn’t matter.

I expected such a sound. My daughter has a cute ability to disarm anyone.

Matthias looked down at his subordinate kneeling before him and whispered languidly.

“Tell me what you’ve investigated.”

…The ‘real’ knight Cien mentioned must be the same.

Before the dinner with Cien, he sent an assassin to receive a report on Cien’s actions.

Cien met Ted, an ordinary paladin from the temple, he said.

Worrying that he might have charmed Cien, he was thinking of sending an ordinary spy to put him down.

“The paladin subdued the spy I sent in an instant.”

“He must be more skilled than you, at least.”

“Yes. I have no face…” [I am ashamed.]

Unexpectedly, the ‘real knight’ Cien chose seemed to be quite skilled.

Matthias frowned as his mood soured, and the person who sent the spy quietly prostrated himself.

“He asked me to deliver this letter.”

Matthias looked at his aide with cold eyes and snatched the letter.

[If you sent an assassin without a trace, it must be Matthias, the father of Cien Mirmode. I hope you are not displeased.]

I am very displeased.

Matthias lowered his gaze.

[I am a humble paladin, but I have no intention of harming Cien Mirmode. Rather, I want to be helpful. I can swear to God that this much is true.]

Far from helping, he is causing great harm now. To Matthias’s mood, that is.

But….

‘He mentions the oath of truth.’

For a paladin, the oath of truth was an act of guaranteeing that what he said was true, risking his life. He wants to be helpful to Cien, whom he has only met once?

[I think I can take the knight’s oath.]

The handwriting seemed to have been thought over a lot.

Matthias rested his chin on his hand and pondered. A paladin makes a knight’s oath to the daughter of Mirmode, a family known as a villain?

‘He’s talking nonsense.’

But the content of the letter ended there.

Matthias crumpled the letter in one hand and asked his aide.

“Ted, a paladin from the temple?”

“Yes, that’s right. According to the maids, the child Cien picked up is this paladin’s younger brother. I think he felt grateful for that.”

Matthias slowly closed and opened his eyes.

To deal with Axel Mirmode, Matthias needed someone with outstanding divine power.

But, coincidentally, Cien picked up a knight with divine power.

Is it a coincidence?

“According to the documents, he’s just an ordinary paladin, but how did he see through the assassin at once?”

“From my experience… he was a great master. He seemed to be specialized in divine power.”
The family that claimed to be the villain of the empire, Mirmode.

The family’s ability based on the power of demons or darkness was, of course, quite vulnerable to divine power.

‘I was looking for someone who would become a traitor to the temple among the paladins full of divine power anyway.’

I didn’t even think about trying to win them over because I didn’t think I could find a paladin who would properly be loyal to the villain family.

If we were to recruit a skilled paladin, it would be an effective tool to confront Axel Mirmode or Delphia Mirmode.

‘So a paladin rolls in like this?’

It was a strange feeling.

It felt like Cien, who doesn’t know anything, was paving a beautiful flower path for his future.

That couldn’t be.

And it shouldn’t be.

Matthias pushed away the subtle emotions that touched his heart and looked at him.

“Delphia Mirmode is returning tomorrow.”

He decided to deal with Delphia first.

A half-crazy woman with snow-white hair and clear blue eyes like the sea.

The protagonist of the succession structure who sent a spy to Cien.

He spoke lightly, as if announcing the dinner tomorrow.

“I’m going to hit her as soon as she arrives.”

He decided to strike Delphia and fully absorb her power.

If it’s a bloodless war, it would be better to save power.

But as everyone knows, family power struggles normally involve bloodshed.

‘I shouldn’t let Cien out tomorrow.’

Delphia might use Cien, so it was difficult to let them meet.

Matthias thought so and nodded his eyes.

It was a gesture to send his aide out. The aide bent down further, as if trying to show his loyalty to him.

But it was right then.

“Daddy!”

Cien, who seemed to have finished playing with water balloons, came in soaking wet.

“Cien is bored! Buy a goblin…! Huh?”

Cien tilted her head and looked at the aide kneeling on the floor once, and Matthias once.

“…Um?”

A question mark appeared in Cien’s eyes.

And cold sweat ran down Matthias’s spine.

A dark room without lights.

An aide kneeling and prostrating himself in front of me.

The aide’s face was full of scratches.

Objectively, Matthias, his current appearance, looked like a mastermind to anyone.

Matthias quietly swallowed a groan. He could see Cien staring at him with a bewildered expression.

“What is it? Why is this mister like this?”

It was Cien who grew up in a small rural village. She seemed to be thinking hard and had doubts.

“Maybe…”

Matthias, who had never been nervous in the face of silence, clenched his fist. Had Cien found out that he was not a simple farmer?

Cien glanced at the aide and ran to Matthias, whispering in his ear.

“Did that mister kneel down to ask you to buy him, potatoes?”

Fortunately, it seems that the concept of pretending to be a simple potato farmer still works.

He quietly opened his mouth. If I keep using potatoes, it’ll be a bit much….

“Yeah, that’s right. This time it’s not potatoes, it’s sweet potatoes.”

Cien’s expression turned sulky. It was the same expression she made when she said, ‘Daddy is such a pushover!’

“Sigh.”

Cien ground her small baby teeth and ran to the kneeling aide. The aide stared at Cien with a flustered expression.

“Hey, how much are the sweet potatoes!”

“Yes… yes?”

Cien asked with a solemn expression, sticking out her belly. Her chubby baby belly was slightly visible before disappearing.

“Cu, cute…”

It was when the aide unknowingly clenched his fist tightly. Cien puffed out her shoulders and asked arrogantly once more.

“Ahem. You have to say it’s scary!”

The aide, staring at the even more shiny, chubby, and lovely baby belly, muttered as if possessed.

“S, scary.”

“Okay. You did well. Keep that in mind for the future. Unlike Daddy, I’m very scary.”

Matthias crossed his arms over his chest and watched how far Cien would go.

As soon as he heard the aide’s ‘scary’ voice, Cien’s fluffy cheeks were tinged with a reddish glow. That was the expression Cien made when she was excited and happy.

‘She likes being called scary, huh…’

Gradually, the negative impact of this villain family on Cien became a reality.

Curses, goblins, change of taste.

It was a triple hit.

Matthias gritted his teeth.

Cien was staring intently at the aide, unaware that the air around her dad had dropped by at least 5 degrees.

“Okay. I asked how much those sweet potatoes are.”

The aide rolled his eyes. Cien pouted as if that appearance looked even more vicious. It was as if she was muttering, ‘He looks scary!’

Of course, the aide was 고민ing [agonizing] without even listening to Cien’s words. He didn’t know the price of sweet potatoes, but he wanted to look good to Cien, Matthias’s daughter.

The aide, facing Cien’s intense gaze, swallowed hard and answered with the utmost respect.

“Th, 100 pieces… about 1 silver?”

“What?”

Cien opened her eyes wide.

On the other hand, the aide smiled to look good to Cien. It looked threatening to anyone, but it was the best he could do.

Matthias quietly watched the confrontation between Cien and the aide.

It was a tense moment.

This family’s succession competition was incomparable to it….