I Don't Need a Family - Chapter 34

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

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◈ I Don't Need a Family ◈

Episode 34

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“So House Ashwilt is just baggage to you. Wait. Head steward!”

After glaring at me for a moment, the Duke felt around his desk and summoned the head steward.

Greg, the head steward whose very soul Lady Fadde had wrung dry a few days ago.

But Greg did not come alone. Gillian followed close behind like a tail.

“You summoned me, Your Grace?”

The Duke paid no heed to his son following him into this tense confrontation and slumped heavily back in his chair.

“Head steward. Make this child understand. Ashwilts can never sever ties with one another. Tell her that her fantasy of being expelled by me is nothing but a futile dream.”

Gillian frowned and questioned him sharply.

“Father, what does that mean? Has she declared that she intends to sever ties with us?”

The Duke did not answer. He simply fixed his eyes on Greg and gave Greg an order with a jerk of his chin.

Greg wore an expression that seemed to say, So that woman has really gone and caused trouble again, then quickly turned to the task at hand.

“My lady. Let me explain. The Ashwilt family...”

While the head steward talked, I kept my unflinching gaze on the Duke.

Our eyes clashed. His blue eyes, so much like my own, were deeply unpleasant.

“...which is why you alone would suffer from severing ties with the family. The moment you are expelled, you will no longer receive the family’s mana. Then your mana system will steadily collapse, and eventually...”

“You will die.”

The Duke’s chilling voice seemed to brush against the back of my neck.

“If you wish to die, I will not stop you. Do as you please. But know this. The more you act this way, the more we will come to despise you.”

“My lady.”

The head steward looked down at me without blinking, their gaze as grim as a vampire’s.

“Please give in, even now. If you value your life.”

Why did that sound like a threat rather than advice?

Still, a threat like that would never work on me.

“Do you all think I am an idiot?”

One corner of my mouth curled high in a sneer.

“I know everything. I will not die even if I sever ties with you. I am a ‘black line’ on the family tree.”

A black line.

The people gathered here surely knew better than anyone what that meant in House Ashwilt.

The color of an uncertain relationship, one that could be formed or severed at will.

Once the special connection of mages who used the same mana was erased, we were merely in an ordinary noble family’s parent-child relationship.

In that case, the ties could be cut. Easily.

From time to time, word spread through Plaford that some noble family’s child had been expelled.

Who was to say I could not be one of them?

It was nothing compared to the decades of life I had left.

The disgrace of being expelled would last only a moment, while I would enjoy freedom for the rest of my life.

There was no reason to hesitate. None at all.

The Duke was greatly flustered.

But Gillian was even more shaken. He did not even try to hide it.

“Vivette is a black line...?”

That showed just how thoroughly the Duke had kept it hidden.

He had concealed it even from me, the person concerned, and from his own son, the heir.

His thoughts must be in utter chaos.

Had the younger sister he had lived with his entire life actually been adopted? Was she not the Duke’s biological daughter?

He must have been thinking the same things I had thought when I first saw the family tree.

Of course, Gillian was smart, so he would not dwell on it for long.

“Hah. What nonsense are you talking about?”

The Duke regained his composure more easily than expected.

“You are a black line? How amusing. You underwent baptism, however inadequately. You are undeniably an Ashwilt.”

His attitude was as firm as before.

If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I might have been fooled.

“Haha, Your Grace. Lying is not a good look. There is no need to pretend otherwise. I came here knowing everything.”

“...So it seems.”

The Duke stared at me, then seemed to realize that there was no use denying it. He growled low in a threatening voice.

“Fine. Even if that is true, it does not mean you can sever ties with House Ashwilt.”

“Why not?”

“What can you do if I refuse?”

Duke Ashwilt smiled leisurely, like a demon tempered in the fires of hell.

Yet unlike his composed expression, his eyes were filled with venom.

His oppressive aura was so intense that it seemed to grow harsher and harsher until it finally took visible form.

Pale blue flames, nearly white, seemed to surge around him.

‘Not venom. Toxic mana.’

I had let it slide last time, yet he was once again leaking harmful mana before me.

‘Does he intend to crush me with force again?’

Not only was he impossible to reason with, he was violent as well.

He was someone I felt I could never grow close to.

Was it not only natural that I would want to cut someone like that from my family register?

“Vivette Ashwilt, parents may cast off their children, but children do not cast off their parents. Are you planning to defy the natural order?”

“But Your Grace cut ties first.”

“Who did? Me?”

“Yes. Your Grace effectively abandoned Lady Fadde, the mother listed in your family register.”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“Of course it does. Father abandoned his own mother, so why can I not abandon my father? Try putting yourself in my shoes.”

Bang!

The Duke slammed a file down on the desk.

“Nothing good will come of provoking me. Do you know what I might do to you?”

When he was cornered by logic, he resorted to violence. When words failed him, he resorted to threats.

If he knew they would not work, he would not waste his energy like that.

“Do you even know how the law works between parents and children? Then again, a simple-minded child like you, who knows nothing of the world, could not possibly know.”

The Duke snorted as though he were about to graciously explain it to me.

“Even if a child wants to be removed from the family register, it is impossible without an agreement with the parents. You may file a suit, but I doubt you could defeat me.”

“That is true. If it went to trial.”

The Duke was a figure of immense influence, even in Plaford.

Without his protection, I was merely an ordinary civilian.

Moreover, if the case involved severing family ties, the court would never rule in my favor.

What court wanted to see a family torn apart?

Whether someone in that family was hurt was none of the court’s concern.

‘And they say the Duke is famous in Plaford for cherishing his daughter. The court would paint me as an ungrateful woman and condemn me.’

So I absolutely could not let it go to trial.

I had to obtain his agreement somehow.

Of course, that did not seem very likely either.

The Duke was glaring at me as though he would never let me go, no matter what I did.

“You will not have your way. Your existence alone is already an embarrassment to this family. I do not wish to add an expulsion scandal on top of that.”

Discord with his daughter might not be fatal to him, but it would certainly become a weakness.

People might pretend not to care to his face, but they would laugh behind his back. That must have worried him terribly.

The Duke had never cared whether Vivette was bullied at the Academy or gossiped about behind her back by servants.

Yet his own reputation seemed precious enough that he was willing to keep a daughter who hated him close by.

“Vivette, do not go out into the world and shame our family. Even if you are useless, be useless within this house.”

‘Is that really something to say to your daughter?’

The Duke, who chose only the most absurd things to say, continued to insist with complete confidence.

“So do nothing and stay quietly shut up in this house. Like before.”

That was when lightly armed knights burst in.

Without permission, they threw open the office doors so loudly they seemed ready to come off their hinges. They lined up behind me, only a few steps away.

“What are you doing?”

The Duke did not answer. He merely gave a short laugh.

“Do you think I remained still all this time because I could not use force? Subduing you and keeping you here would be nothing.”

“Is this a threat? Are you saying you will imprison me?”

“Imprison you?”

The Duke clicked his tongue, making no effort to hide how hurt he supposedly was.

“I am showing you the kindness of allowing you to return to your room in the annex and live quietly with the new maids I will select.”

“By force.”

“What choice do I have? If I leave you as you are, you will shame this family all over the place.”

It felt as though the knights behind me had stepped closer.

For a moment, it seemed like the cold hilt of a sword lingered against my back.

“Vivette, do you think expelling you would be the end of it? If something like that happened in a ducal house, especially House Ashwilt, scandal would spread throughout the Empire in no time. Can I allow the family prestige built over nearly a thousand years to hit rock bottom because of a single person like you?”

“So you intend to silence me.”

“Why bother asking? Stop pretending you do not know.”

The knights slowly approached me.

Watching the Duke for his reaction, they carefully took hold of my arm.

“What are you doing? Escort the young lady away at once.”

Only after the Duke’s stern command did the knight on my left give me a light tug backward, as though leading a dog out for a walk.

But I did not allow myself to be dragged away so easily.

My feet were rooted firmly to the office floor, as though they had grown roots there.

The knight, apparently expecting to drag me away helplessly, frowned in confusion.

I looked at the knight calmly and asked,

“Are you going to drag me all the way to my bedroom in the annex like this?”

Perhaps uncomfortable with the implication, the knight replied with some embarrassment.