I’Ll Protect My Tyrant Dad! [EN]: Chapter 64

Tyrant Dad, I’ll Protect You! Episode 64. Turning Crisis into Opportunity (64/140)

64. Turning Crisis into Opportunity

2023.07.11.

I shook my head.

I didn’t know how Dad was going to solve it, but the situation didn’t seem to be turning in our favor.

‘The atmosphere is not good.’

This place was the plaza located in the very center of the massive Mirmode mansion.

It was a place where countless knights and servants, and even maids from other mansions, came and went.

In other words, even if he publicly kicked them out today, there might be household members who believed the princess’s words and were filled with distrust towards me.

Even if Dad steeled his fragile heart and kicked out the ‘real daughter,’ those people would whisper.

They would keep talking about my bloodline and lineage.

So, we had to do a paternity test somehow.

Of course, there was something to do before that.

“No, Dad. I’ll do it.”

……I had to nip the problem in the bud for sure.

I’ll be the one to determine whether that daughter is real or not.

Not with Dad’s muscular hands, but with my powerful, soft marshmallow hands!

I put strength in my eyes.

Very fiercely.

And then, I put strength in my chubby belly and let out a lion’s roar.

“Baby, come here!”

Perhaps it was too powerful, but everyone looked this way.

It was right then, as I was diligently pushing my chubby belly.

Dad smiled kindly and gently pulled me up by the scruff of my neck into his arms.

“Cienne.”

Wriggle, wriggle.

I tried to move my arms and legs diligently, but I was trapped in Dad’s solid muscles.

I drooped my eyebrows and asked Dad.

“Ung?” [Sound of questioning]

“It’s dangerous.”

I looked at Dad with sparkling eyes.

I was about to say, ‘It’s dangerous, so the strong daughter should do it, not the weak Dad! I’ll protect you!’ but.

Dad’s eyes became sharp. Dad is very stubborn at times like that. I can’t stop him separately.

Besides…….

“Cienne, don’t you trust Dad?”

“Ung!”

“Then you have to let Dad talk to the Princess and Count Yoter, right?”

“Uh-oh……? I can’t!”

I rolled my short legs in Dad’s arms.

Then Dad smiled eerily and stroked my head.

“It’ll only be a moment. Ten minutes.”

“……Ten minutes?”

Dad had rarely spoken so firmly.

Except when he took me to the etiquette academy.

Besides…… I looked around.

‘Dad also has his pride. If he shows that he’s being pushed around by me, the Duke’s authority won’t stand. This is an evil family, so the logic of power dominates…….’

Even carriages with the seals of other families were lined up.

Although he had the weakness of a tender heart, Dad was now the one who ruled this entire family. If he showed that he was being refuted by a small child like me, Dad’s authority would definitely be damaged.

‘Should I…… trust Dad?’

……I was a little worried.

I fixed my trembling eyes on Dad.

He was pretending to be cold right now, but I knew Dad’s tender heart very well.

‘Cienne, don’t you feel sorry for that homeless person on the street?’

‘Dad. That ajosshi [older man/uncle] is wearing a gold necklace.’

‘Uh-oh……?’

‘That’s expensive! Dad, you knew it too, but you’ve become weak-hearted again!’

……The incident in the rural village flashed through my mind.

As soon as I remembered the good deeds that my kind Dad had done so far, I became anxious.

‘Can Dad handle those vicious and viper-like people?’

But…… this time, Dad’s mouth was firmly shut. As if to say, trust him this time.

My heart became uneasy, like a flower floating on the surface of the water without roots.

But, despite that…….

……He was my dad.

I decided to trust Dad just once.

If Dad couldn’t break through the situation, I could just try a little harder.

That’s what family is all about.

“Dad.”

“Yeah?”

“If anyone says anything, call me right away. I’ll be over there. And…….”

Of course, I decided to take out one insurance policy because I was worried.

“I’ll take that baby with me!”

Adults with adults.

Babies with babies.

Even if Dad failed, I could just find a loophole in the baby.

“Ah.”

It was an unlike Dad attitude.

Dad swept back my hair with an eerie expression.

“If you want that, you can take it.”

I stared intently at the trembling child.

“Ung!”

Adults with adults, children with children.

It wasn’t a bad setup.

I only got half of what I wanted, but I still felt relieved.

Since I decided to trust Dad just once…… strangely, my shoulders felt a little less heavy.

***

Cienne entered a small mansion for receptions next to the central square.

She was accompanied by the child who claimed to be ‘Matthias Mirmode’s real daughter.’

Cienne Mirmode was the only being who could control Matthias.

Therefore, there was no one left who could control Matthias in the central outdoor square of this huge family.

He walked slowly and leisurely right in front of the Princess and Count Yoter.

It was a graceful gesture, like a hunter hunting wild beasts.

“I have a bad personality.”

“……That’s.”

Matthias moved closer to the Princess.

The Princess quietly held her breath.

Matthias Mirmode’s piercing gaze looked down at her.

A cold, chilling look.

It was the gaze of a higher predator who could tear her to pieces at any moment, but didn’t…….

The gentle appearance he had shown in front of Cienne was nowhere to be found. He looked down at her as if a ferocious beast were looking at its prey.

There was no emotion in that expression.

Only the desire to punish.

Only then did the Princess realize what she had done, and her hands trembled slightly.

She realized with her senses that she had touched someone she shouldn’t have.

Matthias Mirmode…… has no intention of taking in a wife. Especially not a princess.

And Matthias’s weak spot is Cienne.

But she had touched Cienne Mirmode. Without knowing that fact.

Her whole body trembled.

But Matthias had little mercy.

“Get out of here on all fours.”

“…….”

“Or die and become my hunting trophy. Decide.”

At those words, the Mirmode family’s retainers shuddered.

Matthias was serious, and he had the power to kill the Princess.

Other families might have worried about Matthias’s remarks.

But the evil Mirmode family worshiped power. In other words, the thick murderous intent that Matthias Mirmode exuded seemed to them to be something to be worshiped.

Matthias was leisurely, not bound by the gazes of others.

He took out the sword from his waist and aimed it at the Princess’s neck.

“S, sword…….”

“Withdraw it?”

“……I, I said so.”

There were many spectators and many outsiders.

But he had no interest in the chatter of such people.

“If you don’t want your head cut off, you have to declare it here.”

His mocking voice echoed coldly in the square.

A situation where no one could speak except for Matthias.

“Cienne Mirmode is my daughter. Right?”

Those words meant that even if Cienne Mirmode wasn’t his daughter, his only daughter was Cienne.

From the beginning, Count Yoter’s paternity test was meaningless.

‘That man’s attachment to Cienne, that little girl, is excessively strong.’

It was when the Princess, who still couldn’t bend her pride, bit her lip tightly.

Matthias’s gaze tilted sideways. And at the end of that gaze was Count Yoter, who had come with her to assist the Princess. Poorly, he was trembling like an aspen.

“Answer.”

Count Yoter, who was looking at the tip of the sword aimed at the Princess, looked as if he was about to wet himself.

The sharpened sword reached the Princess’s neck. A faint amount of blood was flowing from the slightly scratched neck.

A faint aura flowed from Matthias’s sword.

But the Princess raised the corners of her lips without panicking.

That’s because the aura didn’t work on the sacred imperial family.

But Matthias’s aura didn’t reach the Princess.

The place where his sword’s aura was directed…….

It was towards Count Yoter, who was gasping for breath.

His aura didn’t work on the imperial family, but it was enough to subdue Count Yoter, who was extremely weak.

Soon, a black aura surrounded the Count’s body.

“The reason I’m going to keep someone like you alive for the time being is simple.”

“Keheuk!”

Count Yoter twisted his body and collapsed to the floor.

He looked down without emotion at Count Yoter, who had dared to claim to have discovered his own child.

He didn’t want to be suspected of being a ‘bad dad’ by Cienne.

And he had no intention of easily killing those who dared to hurt Cienne.

A predator does not hunt only for food.

At that moment, a red light turned on in Count Yoter’s head.

That man could really kill him. He had to get away with it in this place.

In a panic, Count Yoter suddenly fell to the ground and pleaded.

“Y, y, you’re right! Cienne is definitely your daughter.”

The tip of the sword was not withdrawn.

Instead, the corners of Matthias’s lips went up.

“If you came to this place saying you were going to do a paternity test, you must have prepared something.”

“Th, th, that’s…….”

His cold gaze was fixed on the Princess.

“Princess.”

“……Are you going to, save…… me.”

She was calmer than expected.

If she only lived, it was obvious that she would create new schemes beyond this place.

But Matthias didn’t say he would save her.

But he was going to play with her for a while.

Matthias saw his precious daughter’s eyes shaking.

An ominous atmosphere that seemed to say to that fragile child, ‘You are a fake daughter.’

Cienne’s small scratches and the lives of others.

If Matthias had to weigh those two, it would definitely be the former.

Therefore…….

He couldn’t easily kill those who dared to hurt Cienne’s heart.

Of course, he was planning to completely eradicate the source.

“Well. Count Yoter said he would do the paternity test.”

“……Th, that’s.”

All kinds of tests, including paternity tests, were Count Yoter’s and, furthermore, the Crown Prince’s source of money.

What if the reliability of the tests they were carrying out fell to the bottom?

The source of money they had would dry up first.

And then it would be the turn of the Crown Prince and the Princess, who were in collusion with Count Yoter.

The corners of Matthias’s mouth turned up wickedly.

Pure joy boiled over at the thought of drying up the enemies’ blood first.

Turning a crisis into an opportunity wasn’t something only Cienne could do.

How could that blood go anywhere?

“I didn’t like you running wild anyway…… good.”

“……Th, that means.”

“Participate, in the paternity test.”

Clearly, things were going according to their intentions.

But why were they suddenly saying they would do a paternity test?

When Count Yoter and the Princess’s faces turned white at the same time at those meaningless words.

He took out the pocket watch from his arms and smiled leisurely.

Like someone plotting something.

The sword was withdrawn, but the Princess and Count Yoter knelt down.

Exactly ten minutes had passed.

He had spent it with the child who claimed to be his daughter and his hunting dogs, so Cienne would probably be comfortable and safe.

And at that time, Cienne was ‘comfortable and safe.’

That’s because she was thinking the same thing as Matthias.