Yarra’s Adventure Notes -
Chapter 971 - 88: A Heavy Responsibility
Chapter 971: Chapter 88: A Heavy Responsibility
"What we are considering is responsibility—the responsibility toward our family, toward our friends, toward what is tangible, and toward ourselves," Catherine said with a serious and solemn expression, speaking in the tone of a knight’s declaration. "Whether as knights or nobles, since we are born human, we must shoulder the responsibilities we ought to bear. However, our family’s responsibility now is to amend our own mistakes and repay our family’s debts, whether you need it or not."
"But I have already said, your family has no responsibility for that matter," Snape shook his head. "There is really no need to be responsible."
"No, everyone, when they do what they wish to do, must be mentally prepared to be accountable for all consequences their actions cause," Catherine did not hide her opinion of her ancestors, speaking earnestly. "Grandpa Snape made a mistake, and his biggest error was allowing the dim hope of an experiment to cloud his judgment, leading him to do something whose consequences he could not bear. He was very aware that the success rate of synthesizing High-energy Crystals was extremely low, but a Mage’s and scholar’s greed for the unknown made him lose his senses. If he had kept a cooler head and spread those continuous experiments over the following ten years, neither he nor you would be where you are today, but unfortunately, he did not do that, and instead, he crazily invested more funds and energy. I do not know what Grandpa Snape was thinking at the time, but I know that when he woke from his greed for knowledge and realized what he had actually done, it was already too late. With his abilities, he could no longer bear those consequences, and even if he tried his best to make amends, he could not stop the development of the situation, nor could he prevent your fortune from falling to an even worse state than at the beginning. Indeed, you have never blamed Grandpa Snape, and you have always believed that it was not his fault, that he did nothing wrong, but actually, you do not understand his true intentions. He believed his mistake was not that the failed experiment caused your investments to go to waste, but that in his madness, he did something he could not be responsible for, affecting not only himself but also you, his best friend."
"Is that really why he insisted on repaying the debts?" Snape said with a wry smile. "I had never considered that before."
"Everyone is capable of making mistakes, and making mistakes is not a terrible thing, as long as one accepts punishment afterward and tries their best to amend their faults, they can cleanse themselves of the shame of their errors," Catherine nodded and said. "Grandpa Snape made a mistake, almost an irreparable one, so he sold almost all of his family’s assets to help you through the hardest time. After fortunately succeeding, his punishment for himself was to do his utmost to repay all the money you had wasted, not just to return the money to you, but more importantly, as a punishment to himself, to ensure that he and future generations would always remember this lesson, and never make a similar mistake again."
"Heh, so it is like that. He never explained these things to me, huh, of course, even if he had explained them at that time, I might not have been able to understand—actually, I still find it hard to comprehend now," Marquis Snape’s back was slightly stooped, and his eyes no longer showed sorrow but a deep sense of melancholy as he said softly, "So, his own choices ultimately led to his death, huh?"
"Yes, it was not your debts that caused his death, it was Grandpa Snape’s own choices that led to it. Moreover, death was just an accident; to Grandpa Snape, dying at that time was as disgraceful as escaping responsibility. If there had been any other possibility, he would definitely not have been willing to just die like that," Catherine gently supported the old man and said, "So you really do not need to blame yourself for Grandpa Snape’s death—truly, his death, my father’s death, the root cause is our family’s stubbornness, having nothing to do with your debts at all, and it is not fair for you to blame yourself."
"Then I’m willing too." Snape suddenly glared, speaking irrationally, "You allow your family to shoulder a responsibility that doesn’t exist, to punish yourselves for mistakes concocted out of nowhere, but you won’t allow me to blame myself for unfair reasons? I blame myself for Old Field’s death, and I blame myself for young Field’s death. How come I can’t control you, can’t stop you from secretly putting money into my house, but you think you can control what I think?"
"Alright, alright, you’re right, you’re right," Catherine said, soothing the grumpy old man with a laugh and a helpless gentle voice. "No one can influence what you think in your heart, after all, you are Grandpa Snape."
"Hmph, that’s more like it." The old man snorted heavily and muttered, "What about you and your father then? Neither of you did anything wrong, so why the nonsense? Old Field went senile so young, have you two gone senile too?"
"I guess my father and I think differently," Catherine said, ignoring Snape’s complaints and cheerfully moving closer to the old man. "Father is motivated by the honor of nobility, and I am motivated by a knight’s sense of duty. Whether as nobles or knights, or even just as ordinary citizens, keeping promises is an essential virtue. The promises our ancestors made, the responsibilities they had, the mistakes they made—they can no longer bear them, so as their descendants, it’s our duty and responsibility to take it upon ourselves. Only by fulfilling these can we truly lift our heads and live with dignity. So, what you said earlier was incorrect. This debt is not a shackle for us; on the contrary, it is the key that unlocks the chains of ancestral wrongdoing. Do you understand what I am saying?"
The old man closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before opening them again and snorting heavily, saying nastily, "If you’re willing to bear it, then bear it. But remember this, since you’re willing to continue bearing it, you still owe me forty million gold coins. You just said that facing responsibility, death is an escape, and you knights absolutely cannot escape. Therefore, to continue fulfilling your duty and to continue desperately earning money to repay the debt, make sure you come back alive, and absolutely do not die in the forest."
"Of course, Grandpa," Catherine said with a sigh of relief, her face breaking into a bright, confident smile, nodding, "I promise to do my utmost to come back alive. I won’t die in there, don’t worry. When I come back, I’ll work hard to repay all that I owe."
"Nonsense, utter nonsense," the old man suddenly got angry again, saying loudly, "Your great-grandfather said the same thing the last time he saw me, and then he never came back. Now you dare to say similar things. Do you know where he went that time?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to recommend, vote for it on QiDian (qidian.com), and your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
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