Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: I Taught Dad How to Become the Black Curtain
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Matthias's acting was incredibly skilled.
For the past five years, he'd been pretending to be an ordinary farmer for Sien's education.
It was a double life he'd started so that Sien wouldn't be tainted by the wicked Mirmod family and could grow up purely, innocently, and happily like a child should.
In other words, he was a pro in this field.
‘Acting kind is a piece of cake.’
But unfortunately, Matthias didn't know exactly what a kind person looked like. Even after devouring textbooks on morality and interviewing good people, he couldn't perfectly fix the habits ingrained in his body.
‘When I acted as kind as possible, our daughter would say such reliable and cute things.’
Thinking of Sien's sparkling eyes as she vowed to protect her good daddy brought a wave of emotion. His educational policy would work this time too.
Matthias had heard Sien slightly opening the door, and in an instant, he put on an innocent face.
The black mage gasped and lowered his voice.
“Why the sudden scary expression... Is there a spy?”
Only Sien thought his expression was ‘innocent and simple,’ huh.
Letting out a half-genuine awkward laugh, Matthias said shamelessly.
“I'm thinking of growing potatoes under the spire.”
“Pardon? Suddenly, potatoes?”
“Yeah. How's the market price?”
“Well, per acre, maybe around ten thousand gold? Hmm.”
Matthias replied leisurely.
“Ten thousand gold? That's really cheap.”
He'd only said things like ten thousand gold, cheap. But Sien, who'd been peeking cautiously from outside, seemed oddly encouraged.
The door burst open, and Sien ran in.
“Daaaaddy!”
Seeing his daughter's rhino-like ferocity, Matthias regretted it for a moment.
He'd only been working to show her the image of an ordinary farmer dad growing crops, not plotting to seize power... So why was Sien mad?
.
.
.
I clenched my chickpea-sized fist tight and pounded my chest, thump thump.
“Mister, you're a scammer!”
Aigoo, my liver's bursting.
Ten thousand gold!
The mister in all black clothes opened his mouth with an aggrieved expression.
“A, a scammer?”
Th-that...
Look at that insane acting!
In these times, do you have to go that far to be a scammer? Is the world that rough?!
“Potato prices are at rock bottom these days! Ten gold is plenty!”
Thanks to Dad, I knew crop prices inside out.
“No, I-”
He looked kinda pitifully teary-eyed, like a pretty clumsy villain. Judging I could take him out quick, I planned to yell even louder on purpose.
But right then.
“Sien...”
Dad's voice, half flustered and half sighing, came from behind me.
“...A scammer? What are you talking about. You can't suspect people, Sien.”
It was a frail, delicate voice.
Dad had been tricked by trusting people, yet he still saw the world as kind!
Aigoo, my head!
“No, Dad! He's taking ten thousand gold for potatoes! He's a scammer! This scammer!”
I grabbed the back of my neck with my Doraemon-round hand. My nape was tingling; I could feel the risk of high blood pressure and acute myocardial infarction.
Not even five yet and already high blood pressure. This was all because of my sucker dad for sure.
“There are so many bad people in the world!”
Dad shook his head as he said to me.
“Sien, maybe one in a million is a bad person... But this guy's not!”
“Nuuuh! He really is a scammer!”
Aigoo, so frustrating! I clenched my fist again and thumped my chest, thump thump.
Having a conman right in front of him and still not losing faith in people—such an innocent dad...
“Pardon?”
The mage, looking back and forth between me and Dad, finally seemed to grasp the situation.
His eyes widened hugely, and he yelled passionately.
“Lord Matthias, that's cowardly... ha, despicable!”
Calling my dad cowardly!
“Why's my dad cowardly! Scammers are the most cowardly!”
But...
Looking closely, that scammer somehow looked super aggrieved.
He looked more like the type to get scammed.
The moment I paused, Dad cleared his throat urgently.
“Ahem, ahem... Please leave for now.”
“Ah, y-yes... I'll, I'll contact you again.”
The scammer jumped up and bolted.
“Mister, if you show up in front of my dad again, you're dead!”
So... happy ending anyway?
Covering my mouth with my hand, I giggled watching the scammer flee like a shot.
‘Phew, successfully chased off another villain today.’
Staring at the villain's somehow lonely retreating back, I said to Dad.
“Never contact him!”
“Got it. Thanks, Sien.”
I stared at Dad.
He looked kinda flustered. Well, yeah, he'd almost gotten ripped off right in front of his eyes—must be upsetting!
‘Trying to scam my good dad?’
“You were like that before too.”
“Hm?”
“You donated to the grass bread seller mister! 'Cause he's poor!”
“Ah... Yeah, Sien, that happened.”
“You bought like a hundred grass breads at super high prices... Aigoo, my head hurts.”
Dad couldn't not know grass bread prices.
He was just too kind, giving endlessly to people. Grinding my teeth at my innocent dad, I glared.
Protecting my good dad was gonna make all my cotton candy-pink hair and baby teeth fall out!
‘Looks like I have something to do before saying I'm going to the library.’
I said seriously to Dad.
“Okay. Dad, I need to sit up here.”
“On the desk?”
Dad made a briefly puzzled face, then cleared the books off the desk to the side. He reached out, scooped me up, and sat me on the desk.
‘My dad's got some real strength!’
As expected of a farmer-blooded dad. Our eye levels still didn't match perfectly... but I grinned wide and fiddled with Dad's hair.
“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Make your eyes like this. Triangular.”
“Eyes... triangular?”
Dad's checkers-piece black eyes, looking endlessly kind and pure, were the problem.
No, wait—was it the perfectly neat black hair slicked back without a single strand out of place?
Or maybe the always gentle smile around his eyes and mouth?!
Overall, Dad looked super duper kind and innocent. Meaning he naturally attracted scammers!
‘People see him as an easy mark 'cause he looks so innocent, those bad guys...’
If a guy like Axel showed up like this, they'd see my good dad as a pushover and beat him down to assert dominance.
So before the family's black curtains started the heir competition in earnest!
Before scammers swarmed Dad!
I, Sien Mirmod, had to toughen up Dad with some education!
“Ung! Copy me!”
I dropped my chin long and rolled my eyes up hard.
Dad's eyes went round watching my expert instructor demo.
“Showing Dad something cute to cheer him up, Sien?”
“......”
My dad's blinders were too thick—that was the problem.
Okay, fail...
But I had another straight-ball method!
‘Our village had some punk brothers, but they disappeared... I learned something fun from them too!’
I pursed my lips. And made a sound out of my mouth.
*Ptooey.*
“What's that, Sien...”
“Pretend to spit.”
First step to becoming a fearsome villain.
Threaten public order!
Dad tilted his head in confusion.
But this wasn't the end.
I stood up on the desk. Dad watched with anxious eyes, lips twitching.
“Si, Sien?”
I put hands on hips delinquently and started swinging my tiny feet back and forth on the desk.
“This too!”
“Dancing... right?”
Dad's delicate-hearted eyes shook.
Like grains of sand in a desert before a storm.
“Nope. Kicking legs. Totally threatening, right? Do it like this, Dad too!”
But Dad just averted his eyes with a bewildered look and dry-washed his face.
‘Oh no... Did I teach something too scary from the start?’
I grinned as slyly as I could.
“Wh-who... taught you that, Sien?”
“Ung?”
“How does our pure daughter know stuff like that.”
He already knew.
But before I could speak, Dad stood, scooped me up, and hugged me tight to his chest.
Then he whispered chillingly in my ear.
“...This family's the problem. They turned the kindest girl in the world into this. Right?”
It felt creepy somehow, and I shivered.
It felt a bit off. My dad was super kind, but sometimes he had a really scary voice.
And right then, Dad murmured slowly.
“Gotta purge them all...”
Did I hear wrong?
Our frail dad wouldn't say ‘purge.’ So...
“Purge?”
What purge...?
I tilted my head puzzled, and Dad made a short sound.
“Ah.”
Smiling softly at me, Dad continued.
“Yuja cheong.”
“...?”
“Gotta make yuja cheong, my daughter. So why'd you come?”
Suddenly talking about yuja cheong—who knows why. Shocked from almost getting scammed, Dad was acting a bit weird.
‘Dad is good at making all sorts of tasty food.’
But the context was off. I gave Dad a wry smile.
Maybe I taught something too intense from the start.
Today's ‘villain lesson’ ends here.
I grabbed Dad's arms tight with my tiny hands and said.
“Daaaad.”
“Yeah, Sien.”
“I wanna go to the library.”
Skipping the part about building power there, I looked up at Dad with bright eyes and grinned.
***
Dad took me to the library, but that day we had to return to the spire empty-handed.
Figuring out the necklace's healing power or researching the family's famous artifacts wouldn't happen in a day or two, obviously.
‘There's still time, so it's fine.’
But there was something I couldn't stand.
In classes with Leonhardt, the disciplinary instructor kept picking on me.
‘Calling me stupid and snarking, tripping me up. Why's the teacher so childish?’
A fruitless week passed with pointless annoyances and provocations.
My knee got scraped and nearly bruised, but luckily Leonhardt healed it with a potion, so no one found out.
Good thing—my idiot dad might've wailed loud enough to shake the spire if he knew.
After all classes ended, back in the library, I was peering into *How to Handle Advanced Artifacts* and sighing.
‘No matter how I look, no way to max out the fairy's necklace power.’
I sighed long, face serious.
‘Says only fairy's bloodline can draw max power.’
Fairy bloodlines were super special.
Fairy bloodlines were descendants blessed by gods. They start ordinary but awaken once to gain perfect beauty and infinite power. Especially the chief's daughter.
‘So a normal human like me can't use this necklace fully.’
Luckily, what Leonhardt gave me was one of the more accessible fairy necklaces.
Even normals could activate it somewhat.
“Phew.”
But still, such a shame!
“Why the sigh? That teacher's fault? He keeps bullying you.”
Leonhardt, who'd been sitting beside me watching, asked. Lately he followed me around muttering his curse-not-curse: ‘Still not dead, huh.’
He did give me the fairy necklace and bring me to the library...
But he kinda wasn't helping.
I gave him a prim look and said.
“Nope. But that teacher really hates Sien...”
“Hmm...”
Leonhardt glanced around, confirmed no one, and spoke cautiously.
“Lately, seems like they're plotting something.”
I blinked at Leonhardt.
‘Digging traps to take me out, huh?’
Bad guys. What's the gain in harming a tiny bean cake like me!
I bit my lip with my bunny front teeth.
Then Leonhardt said a bit curtly.
“Watch your back.”
Cancel saying Leonhardt doesn't help. He was my excellent eyes and ears.
‘I need power to fight those villains too.’
To me like that, Leonhardt said quietly.
“I quietly dug into the dean.”
“...Ung?”
“No kid who's gone under his hand has come out alive.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He's hostile to Lord Matthias too... He'll wanna break your spirit. Might even kill you to warn him.”
“Eek...”
Touching me to warn my good dad. So Mirmod family-like. I narrowed my eyes sharply and nodded.
“So what do I do?”
“Know how kids of those who defied the dean ended up dying?”
“Nope, dunno.”
He asked shortly, voice hesitant.
“Ever heard of the Illusion Maze?”
...Illusion Maze?
Illusion Maze. Having read the original story, I kinda knew what it was, but I had to say no. Normal kids wouldn't know that stuff.
Eyes round as saucers, I soon tilted my head and asked.
“Whasat?”
“The dean's method for killing kids he doesn't like.”
For some reason, he looked desperate. Nodding as I eyed his mask-obscured gaze.
“Probably using the same on you this time.”
“...Got it.”
Leonhardt started, emphasizing.
“Normal kids see the illusions and go mad, die.”
Leonhardt was a bit weird.
Not a second-life like me... How could he say dying so casually? Made me curious.
Shaking off the odd unease in my heart, I thought inwardly.
‘Not time for sentiment! Gotta prepare to not die. The dean's Illusion Maze!’
At least it was good I was the target.
Dad mustn't get caught in the Illusion Maze.
In this villain family as bad as can be, I should take Dad's place.
I pictured Dad's smile, innocent and heartbreaking.
Me, Sien Mirmod.
If someone dug a trap in me and Dad's path, I'd whack 'em with a shovel and stuff 'em in it.
Unlike my chubby steamed bun face, I cackled evilly with wicked thoughts.