How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 122

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

How to Replace Your Dad

Chapter 122

There’s only one case when you can’t check affection levels in the game.

‘When you’ve been cursed.’

I hurriedly asked Ain.

“Your Highness, you’ve been cursed.”

“What are you talking about now.”

Ain had an incredulous expression.

‘He doesn’t know.’

But it’s certain.

There’s only one case when affection reading doesn’t work.

Luciano narrowed his brow and looked at me.

He seemed to sense something from my words too.

Luciano quickly grabbed Ain.

And rolled up his sleeves, or checked inside his mouth.

He was checking for curse marks.

“What are you doing…!”

Ain struggled with an annoyed face.

Luciano didn’t mind and looked at me.

He shook his head.

“There are no curse marks. But there are curses without marks too.”

“What the hell are you talking about.”

“Curses without marks are mostly curse magic.”

“…What?”

“I’m saying you’ve been hit with curse magic.”

Ain’s expression hardened completely.

Looking at his palm, he frowned and said.

“Then we need to examine it. Can you do it?”

“I can, but I’d have to use mana. Then I’d get caught by the Imperial Palace barrier.”

“That won’t do. If we can’t clarify when the curse magic manifested, it’ll be blamed on Regina Palace.”

“I think so too.”

Unauthorized mana use within the palace is prohibited by national law.

If I use it, I’ll become a lawbreaker.

If the situation turns for the worst, they might use the mana usage as an excuse to force something on me.

Then Father and Grandfather would step in, and Esgaroth would face a great crisis.

Luciano, who had been quietly thinking about something, swept through the air.

Letters appeared.

There’s a place where we can examine without risk of triggering the barrier.

“There’s no way such a place exists…!”

Ain said with a bewildered expression.

The Imperial Palace was protected by the most powerful advanced barriers.

He had no choice but to not believe Luciano’s words.

But I gasped.

“‘That place’.”

Right.

That place where Mother is hidden.

A secret area of the Imperial Palace that even the current Emperor, as well as all past emperors except the founder, don’t know about.

That space with the temple and twin World Trees.

“Let’s move.”

When I spoke, Luciano and Ain nodded.

* * *

We immediately moved secretly.

And entered the secret space inside the tower.

Ain let out a hollow laugh.

“So a place like this existed.”

He said while tapping the wall.

“If it’s for lodging, this place would be fine too. No one would know I’m here, so there’d be no danger.”

If you want to starve to death.

I won’t stop you.

“You’re not going to bring me food either? How cruel.”

Ain replied jokingly.

We entered the World Tree’s room.

Mother was sleeping beneath the World Tree.

I greeted Mother, whom I was seeing after a long time.

Mother’s condition was perfect.

Better than when I had left her with the neighborhood auntie.

There were no bedsores at all, and the musty smell typical of long-term unconscious patients was minimal.

“You’ve taken good care of her.”

I’d like to take credit, but unfortunately, it’s the World Tree’s power.

Luciano chuckled, but I knew.

It was something he said to put my mind at ease.

How easy could it have been to secretly bring in medicine and caregivers?

It would have been impossible without his attention.

While I was examining Mother, Ain approached.

“Is this your mother?”

“Yes.”

“You look alike.”

“Really?!”

When I smiled brightly, Ain had an incredulous expression.

“What are you so happy about?”

“I’ve only heard that I’m the spitting image of Count Andres. Ah, but Father did say I resembled Mother.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Maybe I’ll look more similar when she opens her eyes…!”

When I spoke with a bright face, Luciano chuckled.

Ain also let out a small laugh.

“She must have been a good person. Seeing how you want to resemble her.”

I said while tucking Mother’s hand under the blanket.

“Not really though?”

“What?”

“The Trading Post Alliance always said they’d pool money to hire assassins to send after Mother. There was even a clan leader who said Mother was the first piece of trash in 90 years of life who didn’t know business ethics.”

“…”

“Hoarding, illegal trading… she committed countless crimes.”

“…”

Ain, who had been silent, looked at Luciano.

“Should I say that’s too bad?”

Luciano shrugged with a smiling face.

I laughed cheerfully.

“Still, she was the best mother to me.”

“…I’m envious.”

“I’m also envious of something about Prince Ain.”

“You don’t need to mention being handsome since I’m tired of hearing it.”

I made an incredulous expression.

But soon I smiled and waved my index finger back and forth between Luciano and Ain.

“What close brothers.”

“…What?”

“You know how things are between Stella and me, right? My relationship with Onel isn’t very good either.”

“Well….”

“This is Prince Luciano’s precious secret space. But Prince Ain gave it up for the alchemy examination. It would be impossible unless he found Prince Ain adorable.”

“….”

Ain quietly looked at Luciano.

Luciano looked at him with an arrogant expression.

It was exactly a ‘So what. What of it.’ kind of face.

But he didn’t deny it.

“Stop saying disgusting things and just examine my body.”

He leaned against the World Tree and extended his hand.

Though his tone was blunt, his earlobes were red.

He seemed embarrassed.

Luciano and I looked at Ain like that and giggled.

And soon we began the examination.

I used a method similar to when I had lifted the alchemy curse, the Dark Mirror’s curse, that Father had suffered from the Restoration Council.

I completed the calculation formula and made Ain the center.

And when I sent mana flowing….

Flash—.

The area around Ain glowed in the form of formulas.

What eventually appeared in the air were formulas similar to barriers.

I interpreted the formulas.

‘He has a lot of mana, which is good to see.’

He was fine even after I poured mana into him.

As I was interpreting the formulas, I soon frowned.

“These bastards….”

When I muttered, Ain asked.

“Why?”

“…The formulas are similar to ones I know.”

Too similar.

It was an ancient curse modified to taste, showing the user’s particular habits.

Indra Formula.

It was truly a unique formula.

It was an old-fashioned style rarely used after the founding of the nation, so I remembered keeping an eye on its user.

The user’s name was….

‘Oscar.’

I spoke with a cold expression.

“It seems the Restoration Council has infiltrated the castle.”

Ain and Luciano’s expressions hardened.

* * *

Luciano handed cups to Ain and me.

The cups contained sweet apple juice.

It would help me, who had used mana, and Ain, who had been exposed to my mana.

While I was drinking the apple juice, Ain spoke.

“How they infiltrated is obvious.”

“I suppose so.”

“It must be the Empress or the Empress’s father. Whichever it was, the Empress’s hand must have reached here.”

“The target seems to be Prince Luciano, doesn’t it?”

“Right. Mother knew that if she targeted me, I would ask my brother for help.”

I nodded.

To make it seem like Luciano’s doing and completely ruin him.

Luciano was quietly thinking about something.

Ain asked me.

“Then hurry up and purify it. You can do it, can’t you.”

“That’s possible, but….”

It was when I was speaking.

Just leave it.

Seeing the words floating in the air, Ain narrowed his brow.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to dispose of me according to the Empress’s wishes? What’s so threatening about a pitiful mad prince that you’d go so far as to dispose of me?”

It was a sarcastic tone.

He’d be angry too, being told not to purify when he’d been hit with alchemy.

But I didn’t take anyone’s side.

I just looked at Luciano and spoke.

“You’re planning to create a backlash to bring down the Empress.”

Luciano looked at me with surprised eyes.

Ain had an expression asking what that meant.

“You’re going to expose that it was the Empress’s doing to reorganize the palace power structure.”

“…Do you two share some kind of telepathy?”

Then Luciano smiled brightly.

That’s why I kept getting caught up in that potato’s schemes.

Isn’t that right, sister-in-law?

I flinched.

When it came to stories from when I was Yohaël’s fiancée, I really had nothing to say.

“…I’m truly sorry about that.”

Luciano raised an eyebrow slightly.

If we just catch a member of the Restoration Council, it’s our victory.

“Will you include me too?”

Ain asked.

If you don’t like it, you can drop out.

“I never said I didn’t like it. You’ll share the credit, right?”

Of course.

But I’ll need Eppy for this.

“Bi, huh. But what will you use her for?”

Use Bi?

Don’t tell me….

When I widened my eyes, Luciano approached me.

And he lifted the corners of his mouth in a grin.

It was a terrifying expression.

‘Come to think of it, Luciano was merciless when paying back his opponents.’

I smiled awkwardly.

The Empress is in big trouble.

—I thought that.

* * *

Night.

The maids who had brought news from within the Imperial Palace knelt before the Empress.

The Empress, who was washing her hands in a silver bowl, spoke in a cold tone.

“Even after Marquis Cuaron left the palace, she’s still clinging to Luciano?”

“Yes.”

A young maid dried the moisture from the Empress’s hands and put rings on her fingers.

At that moment.

“Ah…!”

The sharp part of the ring-shaped seal grazed the Empress’s hand.

The startled maid hurriedly bowed her head.

“I-I’m so sorry…”

“Take her away.”

“…!”

The maid hastily fell to her knees and pleaded.

“I was wrong. I-I was wrong… Your Majesty…!”

But the Empress never took back her words.

The maid was dragged away by the attendants.

Screams echoed through the corridor.

The maids who had been kneeling and reporting news from within the castle squeezed their eyes shut.

The Empress had been on edge all along.

Even after Luciano had been ruined, continuously so.

A prince who would fall from grace with just one misstep was still standing strong.

That anxiety was what made the Empress’s mood so foul.

“Why did such an obedient child become so unable to distinguish right from wrong?”

The Empress muttered.

The Empress, who had put on the ring with her own hands, looked at the maids.

“What do you think?”

“Since the young Saint has gained power, it’s only natural that she would have confused thoughts. She’ll surely reflect and return soon…”

“No.”

The Empress, sitting in her chair, crossed her legs.

“No. I’ve been watching that child for a long time. She’s not the type to cause such trouble out of youthful folly.”

“…”

The maid flinched and bowed her head.

Her voice was utterly cold.

“That child thinks Luciano is closer to the throne than Yohaël.”

“Surely she’s not so ignorant…”

“Because His Majesty cherished Luciano, that child.”

“…”

“Because he cherished not my Yohaël, but the son of that insufferably insolent girl—!”

An angry shout rang through the Empress’s chambers.

The maids bowed their heads with pale faces.

Though the Empress was regarded as a refined person by outsiders, in truth, an indelible inferiority complex resided within her heart.

What the Emperor had wanted as his Empress was Regina.

That thunderbolt of a girl.

That stupid girl whose only occupation was staring at jewels!

The Empress ran her hands through her hair.

“What do you think is the difference between Regina and me?”

“R-Regina Palace lacks both grace and wisdom, but Your Majesty possesses the grace and wisdom befitting the pinnacle of all ladies.”

“Then why did His Majesty the Emperor desire that girl?”

The Empress and Empress Regina were of the same age and both daughters of the Seven Families.

They were compared in every aspect.

Though Empress Regina possessed jewel-like beauty, in her youth, she had never once considered herself inferior to her.

Not until the Emperor chose her.

The Empress’s eyes glinted sharply.

“What do you think was the reason? Hmm?”

“That’s… that is…”

While the maids were mumbling.

The Empress let out a sigh.

There was no one who could give her a satisfactory answer.

Except for that child alone.

“Your Majesty, it’s because Empress Regina doesn’t think about the country as much as Your Majesty does.”

That’s why the Emperor wanted Regina.

Because she had no interest in power and only wished to govern the Inner Palace.

That’s what she had told her.

“But now to stab me in the back. She’s even more disagreeable than Stella.”

In that case, she’d have to be re-educated.

So she’d never make such foolish judgments again.

The Empress’s eyes flashed.

It was at that moment.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“The Saint… the Saint has been devoured by a Death Servant!”

Tremendous screams came from outside the window.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————