The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 278

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Chapter 278

Translator: Yonnee

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It was her father, Zade Tilrod.

He was a man who moved between exactly three places, like a clock with its hands frozen in three positions.

The Tilrod family estate.

The house of his mistress, Flora.

And the one old tavern in the village.

What Radis saw was the clock hand shifting from the tavern to Flora’s house.

Without realizing it, she called out to him.

“Father…”

But Zade didn’t recognize his own daughter’s voice.

His limping steps carried a drunken lightness, and in his hand was a small bundle that likely contained gifts for his mistress and the children she had borne him.

Radis frowned slightly. She believed she was long past the age of being hurt by such trivial and insignificant things. It would have been easy to just pass by.

But she didn’t want to.

‘There’s no need to either.’

Radis pulled on the reins, blocking his path.

Zade, suddenly obstructed, frowned in displeasure and looked up.

“What’s this? Who do you think you’re blocking…!”

Radis didn’t dismount but cast a cold gaze at her father.

Zade’s eyes widened as he recognized her.

Radis could feel his gaze linger on the official uniform of the Black Lion Knights she was wearing, as well as the formal knight’s insignia made of jewels that Yves had insisted she wear.

His eyes also took in the scabbard, adorned with gold, a design she and Regia had finally agreed upon after countless negotiations, compromises, complaints, and concessions.

The expression that eventually surfaced on her father’s face was a mix of disbelief and subtle displeasure.

Zade muttered grumpily,

“So you’re back.”

“…….”

Radis looked at Zade with a deepening gaze.

Her father, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time, seemed so small and pitiful.

Judging by his appearance, he had likely been rolling around in the tavern for quite some time, and he looked not much different from the last time she saw David.

Zade looked up at the horse, which carried nothing but simple baggage, and grumbled,

“You didn’t bring any gifts?”

“……”

“Your mother is very angry with you. If you want to appease her, you should have at least brought a cart full of gifts.”

Radis finally spoke.

“I’m not going to the Tilrod manor.”

“You’re not going home? Well then, why did you come here?”

“……”

Zade frowned and shook his head.

“If you left home to live well on your own and abandoned your family, then you should just keep living that way. Why are you loitering around here now?”

Radis responded coldly.

“How much did you receive back then?”

“What?”

“When you sent me to the Marquis’ estate, didn’t you receive money?”

“……!”

“If I had truly left home and abandoned my family to live well on my own, I wouldn’t feel any resentment hearing such words.”

Zade’s face twisted as he sighed deeply and muttered,

“This household ended up like this because you’ve always been so ungrateful… Never mind, forget it.”

Radis looked at Zade with newfound clarity.

She finally understood where David had inherited his habit of blaming others.

She scanned her father with cold eyes.

There was a time when she believed that he was a generally harmless person, perhaps even a good one.

Even at the end of her previous life, she had never completely lost faith in Zade. She believed that if he saw her in her miserable state, he would help her.

But Zade never showed up.

There was no way he didn’t know that his daughter was dying, yet he never appeared.

It was only after stepping back and viewing the Tilrod family from an objective perspective that she finally realized.

He was the most unjust of them all. He was the most cowardly.

Radis dismounted and grabbed Zade firmly by the shoulder.

“Why, what are you doing?”

Ignoring his resistance, she dragged him to Flora’s house. She positioned him in front of the horse and spoke.

“Stay here.”

Zade struggled and shouted,

“What’s the meaning of this? Why are you doing this?”

Realizing that he wouldn’t stay still, Radis drew Regia and struck her father’s forehead with the flat of the blade.

Under the spell, Zade instantly stiffened like a wooden block. Radis looked into his face and said,

“You don’t deserve to have anything. Look at the Tilrod family. Look at your wounded bloodline, trapped within the broken vessel that is you. Do you really think you can protect an even more insignificant household?”