I’m Not Doing This With A Friend – Chapter 179 – Side Story 18 ~ END

Author: Nikss

“…This is bad.”

Lione had instinctively created layers of shields and was unharmed by the huge explosion.

However, the collapsed buildings and burned papers were beyond the power of his magic.

No, with such a loud explosion, it would have been impossible to hide them.

Left to his thoughts, Lione muttered to himself amidst the wreckage.

“I didn’t mean for things to get so out of hand…”

He’d only been trying to see what his father was hiding. He’d known his father had gotten into trouble when he was younger.

Whenever his mother saw him, she would insist that he not dabble in magic like his father.

Lione didn’t want to do anything to make his mom worry.

So, until now, he’d kept himself out of trouble.

Until, one day, his curiosity got the better of him.

“That’s right, a picture…!”

Suddenly realizing this, Lione quickly looked toward the painting, where Carson had hidden something.

The painting, hanging closest to where the explosion had occurred, was untouched.

Worse, there was no sign of anything inside, either, whether it had been burned by the blast or blown away somewhere else.

“Uh, ugh…”

Lione’s mind went blank, knowing how much his father had loved him.

Then it happened.

“Oh, my gosh, Lione!”

The former Duke and Duchess heard the explosion and rushed over, nearly fainting when they saw their grandson in the center of the room.

Sylvia rushed to him and checked on him.

“I never thought you would be in the center of the explosion, but what happened, are you okay, Lione, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Grandma…”

Lione clutched the hem of Sylvia’s dress hard.

“I’m not hurt, but…”

“It’s okay, the important thing is that you’re okay.”

Leonian, the former Duke, also reassured the startled Lione.

“The furniture can be bought back. The buildings can be restored with magic. Besides, I’ve made copies of all the important documents, so don’t worry too much.”

But that didn’t calm Lione’s fears.

That wasn’t the only thing he had destroyed.

Just then, behind Sylvia, who was carrying Lione, Carson slowly walked in.

Tap, tap, tap—

Standing in the center of the wreckage, Carson stared at Lione in disbelief.

“What the hell happened?”

“Oh, Dad…”

Although Lione followed his mother a lot, he was actually very fond of his father, Carson.

He was afraid of being hated, and the look on Carson’s stern face was terrifying.

Lione answered Carson’s question with an uncharacteristic sob.

“I’m sorry, I… I… I made this happen.”

“Lione, if you did it, stop crying and tell us what happened.”

“Well, I was curious to see what Dad had hidden behind the painting, so I went to open it and…”

Carson squeezed his eyes shut as he felt his mind go blank.

Alas, he hoped it wasn’t that. It had a protective spell on it, so if it hadn’t been broken, it should have survived the blast outside.

Judging by the size of the explosion, it must have been caused by an unstable concentration of mana.

No doubt, Lione poured mana into the painting to break the security enchantment.

At the same time that the security spell was broken, the remaining mana from his foolhardy blast had nowhere to go and exploded.

Carson’s languidly closed eyelids lifted.

His gaze fell on a small piece of cloth lying near his feet.

As he realizes that it is indeed gone, though he had expected it, his face contorts into a pitiful grimace.

“Dad, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s wrong to touch someone else’s things without permission, especially if they’re precious to them.”

Lione nodded mechanically, shuddering at the fear that coursed through his body.

“You’re, you’re right, I was wrong.”

As much as he wanted to shout and lash out, Carson couldn’t bring himself to do that to the whimpering child.

He forced himself to speak, holding back his simmering anger.

“… Leave this place to the adults to clean up.”

“I, I’ll help.”

“Lione.”

Carson’s cold gaze fell on Lione.

“I don’t want to see you right now.”

Thud—

The cold look and tone of his voice, as if he would never see him again, made Lione’s heart drop.

He wasn’t the only one surprised by Carson’s behavior. The former Duke and Sylvia both narrowed their eyes and lashed out at him.

“Carson!”

“I know he’s in the wrong, and I know he needs to be reprimanded.”

“But I don’t think it’s fair to say you don’t want to see him like that.”

“Yes, I do. Lione didn’t mean to do it, and I’m sure he was surprised by the outburst, but he’s trembling and apologizing and deeply regretting his actions.”

Carson spoke slowly, watching as the former Duke and Duchess wrapped their arms around Lione.

“Then, what do you expect me to do here?”

He held himself together.

“It doesn’t matter that the building exploded, I could have shrugged it off.”

But he couldn’t.

“…What was behind the painting was a doll. Leen’s first gift to me.”

“You think that doll is more important than your son?”

At his father’s dismissive remark about the doll, anger welled up inside Carson.

“How can you make such a comparison?”

Comparing Lione to a doll was, without a doubt, my son.

But it wasn’t an either/or situation, but rather a situation where the doll was lost due to Lione’s fault.

Using that comparison, he shouldn’t be angry with Lione for killing everyone in Lysianthus except Leen.

When I found Lione shivering in the ruined office, my first concern was for his safety, not the doll.

Only once he was certain that he was safe did he slowly take stock of the situation, and then he became enraged at what Lione had done.

Carson glared at his father with vicious intent, and eventually teleported away.

🍼

“So this new medicine we developed is cheaper…”

Poof!

I, who was in the middle of a conversation with Hans about distribution, squinted at the sudden appearance of Carson.

His face looked exhausted. The corners of his eyes were red, as if he was about to burst into tears.

He strode over and hugged me tightly.

“Leen, comfort me.”

Without speaking another word, I fell into Carson’s arms and patted his back.

“Caon, what happened to you to make you look like that?”

He hadn’t shown much of his childlike side since giving birth to Lione and ascending to the Duke’s position.

After giving Hans an apology, I led Carson by the hand out of the top.

We sat down at the fountain in the center of the grounds and calmly asked him questions.

By the time I had finished listening to his explanation, the sunset was long gone.

I looked up at the crimson sky and reminisced about the memories of the doll.

A doll I’d won as a prize on a date with Carson during a festival.

It was a crude doll, but Carson had blushed and loved it.

But after the festival, when I realized that Carson had used Jane as a watchdog over me, I tore it in two before his eyes.

Time passed, and by the time I had forgotten about that fight, we were on our graduation trip.

I thought it was a chance to make one last memory with Carson.

But when I saw him in the snowy mountains, under the countless stars, clutching his clumsily stitched doll, I realized I couldn’t give it up.

At that moment, I realized that even if I died, I couldn’t give up Carson.

The doll contained all our memories.

That’s why it must have meant so much to him.

“It’s as precious to me as it is to you. No one else will ever know what it means to us.”

Carson gazed at me with reddened eyes. He seemed grateful that I was the only one who was taking his side.

“But you weren’t angry because Lione was more important to you, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Well, then, thank you for being a good dad.”

I smiled sheepishly and stroked his cheek.

“Now that you seem to have calmed down a bit, why don’t we head back home? Lione will be waiting for us.”

🍼

After returning to the Ducal Residence of Lysianthus with Carson, I smirked when I spotted Lione and the former Duke and Duchess standing right in front of the door.

Clearly, Carson’s disappearance was weighing on their minds.

Lione shook his head deeply and spoke helplessly.

“Dad…”

As Lione stalked toward him, I jabbed him in the back with my elbow.

Carson moved slowly, pulling Lione into his arms.

“…I just needed a moment to cool off. You’re more important to me than a doll.”

‘I love you…’

Then, after holding it together for so long, Lione burst into sobs and snuggled into Carson’s arms.

Just looking at him made me want to cry.

‘Mom and Dad, are you watching?’

I’m not alone anymore, and I wanted to have the family you showed me, the tight-knit family that we had.

A family that would never be broken, a family that I could lean on in times of trouble.