How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 129
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Replace Your Dad
Chapter 129
I stared intently at the Bandaged Man.
Though no one here had spoken about him, I could guess his identity.
Just as the Bandaged Man was about to withdraw.
I grabbed his wrist.
“Could you unwrap those bandages?”
A flat voice flowed from my mouth.
“…!”
Stella, who had been walking while leaning on Gaspard, flinched and looked at me.
She spoke sharply to me.
“What are you doing? Let him go.”
“Unwrap the bandages.”
“Didn’t you hear me tell you to let go?! He’s Andres’s person. You have no right to command him…!”
“Yuise—!!”
When I shouted, Yuise approached in an instant.
Sensing that the atmosphere was far from normal, Yuise looked at me intently.
I said while still keeping my gaze fixed on the Bandaged Man.
“Restrain him.”
Character strings rapidly poured from Yuise’s fingertips.
They soon took the form of chains and bound the Bandaged Man.
“Ah, Young Lady…!”
“Yustea!”
Kurno and Stella looked at me in bewilderment.
However, I never turned my gaze to them.
I only focused on the Bandaged Man who had become like he was caught in a spider’s web.
I untied the knot of bandages positioned at the end of his jawline.
The bandages loosened and fell with a rustling sound.
“Just where exactly are these burn scars supposed to be?”
I muttered fiercely.
Where the bandages had been unwrapped, there was smooth skin without even a single scar, let alone burns.
His violet eyes boasted languid curves like a well-fed beast, but held a mysterious heterochromatic hue.
I had seen these eyes before.
This hair too, which appeared dim and ashen, but would surely be grayish-purple under the sun.
Yes, I had seen this man in my dreams.
[Finally, we meet. My beloved Yustea.]
“That must have been a nightmare. …GM.”
“…!”
Stella’s shoulders jerked upward.
‘So you knew too.’
No, there was no way she wouldn’t know.
It must have been Stella who brought him into this Second House.
“Did you create a body for him?”
“That’s… that’s….”
Stella’s lips trembled.
Her gaze toward the Bandaged Man, no, toward GM, was extremely anxious.
Stella, who had been at a loss, shouted.
“What are you doing, old man! Are you just going to let someone who committed such rudeness go? Throw her out immediately!”
“Well….”
The old man looked back and forth between me and Stella with a perplexed expression.
Even during this, I was maintaining eye contact with GM.
“Did you follow me using a body obtained with Stella’s help?”
“….”
“Well, if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. If I tear off your limbs, the problem will be solved whether you answer or not.”
“….”
“Yuise.”
As I spoke, Yuise’s character strings grew taut.
As if they would tear off his limbs at any moment.
Stella shrieked.
“Yuste…!”
That was the moment.
Rumble….
A strange vibration was felt.
Yuise narrowing her brow and turning to look at me appeared terribly slow.
It wasn’t just Yuise.
Everyone’s movements had slowed to a bizarre degree.
Among them, the only ones moving properly were me and….
Crack…!
Only GM, who had literally shattered Yuise’s spell and planted his feet on the ground.
GM approached me while rubbing his shoulder.
“How foolish, Yustea.”
“….”
“You should have run the moment you realized I had gained a physical body.”
“….”
When I stepped back, he brought his face close to mine.
His eyes curved languidly.
“I liked that expression of yours.”
I stepped back one more step.
GM chuckled and stroked my cheek.
“That face full of wariness with nowhere to lean on. Whenever you made that expression, you would always become gentle with me afterward.”
His fingertips rubbed against my lips.
His gaze touching the edge of my lips was tender.
“I hope you’ll become gentle again now.”
“….”
“So that I won’t have to be cruel to you.”
“Ugh….”
I felt sharp pain on my lips.
Soon, fresh blood flowed down GM’s finger.
He whispered softly as if coaxing a child.
“If you don’t antagonize me, I can be gentle with you.”
“….”
“I’ll give you all kinds of noble and sweet things, and stroke your head more tenderly than anything else in the world.”
“….”
“I love you like that, Yustea.”
“….”
“I love you the most.”
“…You want to play with dolls, don’t you.”
Chomp!
I bit down on his finger.
It was only a very brief moment, but GM’s eyes narrowed.
He felt pain.
I smiled coldly and yanked his hand away.
“You talk like you leveled up. When you’ve actually devolved.”
“…What?”
“Don’t you know why you’ve existed only as a spirit until now when you could have had a physical body?”
The expression disappeared from GM’s face.
I snorted dismissively.
“You can’t attack the system. But someone with a physical body is different. You’re now in a position where you can be attacked.”
“….”
“I guess Stella wasn’t enough to fill your castle. Seeing how you devolved despite the risks.”
“….”
“I may fear you as a system, but I’m not afraid of you as a human!”
Crack—!
I slammed my forehead hard against his jaw.
GM staggered back.
His lip must have hit his teeth because the corner of his mouth split open.
GM wiped the bleeding corner of his mouth and let out a hollow laugh.
“…I really do like you.”
“What’s this pervert saying. I’m fifteen, a minor!”
I clenched my fist tightly.
I recalled the self-defense techniques I learned as a child and the street fighting rules the Irregulars taught me.
Tighten the waist, support the body with the core.
Move the shoulder, not the elbow.
Sharply position the knuckles and…!
Whoosh!
I threw my punch.
But GM caught my fist.
“Didn’t the Irregulars teach you that it’s wise to run away rather than fight the opposite sex when possible?”
“They did. But when there’s no choice….”
I quickly kicked his knee with my foot.
His center of gravity, which had shifted forward to catch my punch, instantly collapsed.
I seized that moment.
I grabbed his neck and drove my knee up into his abdomen.
GM groaned and clutched his stomach.
“I also heard to give bait and strike the bone.”
‘Now’s the time. System!’
I planned to activate the system in this gap to eliminate a candidate.
But something was wrong.
Error!Error!Error!Error!
Error!Error!Error!Error!Error!Error!
The damn error window appeared again.
‘GM himself is an error in the scenario, so errors keep occurring.’
Hadn’t error windows been popping up like crazy even before checking affection levels?
GM narrowed his brow and straightened his posture.
This level of attack hadn’t caused him much harm.
The wound on his mouth that I had inflicted healed instantly.
“This kind of opportunity won’t come again, what a shame, Yustea.”
“You think there won’t be?”
“The pain was the first in hundreds of years, so there was just a brief opening. I’ve engraved it in my mind, so neither you nor your Irregulars will be able to affect me anymore.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll somehow create an opening and stick a knife in your disgusting throat.”
He laughed heartily.
“Why are you being so mean to me?”
“You don’t know why you’re asking?”
“The matter with your mother? If she hadn’t interfered between you and me, it wouldn’t have happened. I was always kind to you. I fulfilled everything you wanted.”
“For your own purposes, I’m sure.”
“My purpose is nothing bad for you.”
I flinched while glaring at him coldly.
‘Purpose….’
Right.
What exactly is it.
GM’s so-called purpose.
“…What is it?”
“The Great Return.”
“What?”
“Everything in this land returning together to the time when I was most glorious.”
“…!”
I looked at him in shock.
“You… were you originally human?”
GM approached me.
He looked at me with a sad expression.
His large hand wrapped around my back, pulling me into his embrace.
“You must be by my side, standing on the land of the Great Return.”
“….”
“My chosen, my □□□.”
The ground shakes.
I looked up in surprise.
He slowly crumbled and scattered as dust.
“Yu… Young Lady…!”
It was then that I heard Yuise’s voice.
I unconsciously looked at Yuise, then hurriedly turned my head.
GM had disappeared.
“What happened…?”
When I asked, Yuise frowned.
“I should be asking that. You froze for a moment, then that person disappeared.”
That person must refer to GM.
Stella was holding her forehead with one hand.
She seemed relieved that GM had disappeared.
Yuise asked.
“What should we do?”
“…Let’s go back for now. It’ll be midnight soon.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Stella.
“You must have committed a terrible sin by giving your body to GM?”
“Wh, what…?”
“I can see your relief.”
“…!”
“If you don’t want to be exposed, live as quietly as possible. It would be wise to accept whatever demands I make. I have no reason to look out for you anymore.”
Stella’s complexion turned pale.
Regardless, I left the room.
Behind me as I entered the corridor, Gaspard squawked loudly.
“Did you threaten him? Huh?!”
I said to Yuise.
“Hire Kurno somewhere suitable in Esgaroth. Since he heard about GM, either Stella or GM might try to deal with him.”
“Right. But that bandaged guy, is he really GM?”
“Yeah. …He’s also a male lead candidate.”
“What?”
Yuise raised her voice in surprise.
But soon she looked around and whispered to me.
“How did he become a candidate? I thought the scenario only starts after meeting all the candidates. So you met GM before the scenario started?”
“It seems like he was following me.”
“Crazy bastard… So did you exclude him as a candidate?”
I became dejected.
“No. Errors keep popping up…”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“For now, I have no choice but to exclude the other candidates…”
That’s the only way the Emperor will wake up.
To think GM is included among the 2 remaining male lead candidates.
I groaned with a “ugh.”
I returned to the Esgaroth Estate and passed midnight.
The next morning, the Empire was turned upside down by news of the Emperor’s collapse.
* * *
I entered the palace at dawn.
It was thanks to Empress Regina.
Since the Empress gave me the qualification of a companion, I could enter the palace anytime.
The Imperial Palace was truly like walking on thin ice.
The same was true for Empress Regina’s Palace where I went.
The palace servants were gossiping, forgetting proper etiquette.
“What on earth happened for His Majesty to collapse?”
“Well. It’s frustrating that neither the court physicians, priests, nor mages know the reason.”
“If His Majesty has collapsed, there will be a regent, right? Then it would be the First Prince, wouldn’t it?”
“It would seem so. Since the Second Prince is in that condition, the Second Prince’s supporters won’t have much say.”
“Then what happens to us…?”
These were people working in Empress Regina’s Palace, who was the Second Prince’s mother.
If Empress Regina was attacked, the palace servants would also be affected.
Everyone had anxious expressions.
…Except for the Empress herself.
“You’re here. Sit down.”
Empress Regina laughed softly and pointed to the seat across from her.
To be precise, next to Luciano who was sitting across from her.
Luciano was also with the Empress.
The Empress still treated me with a face as bright as sunshine.
“Some good tea came in. I wanted you to taste it, so I waited for you to come.”
I sat down and looked at the Empress intently.
“Are you alright…?”
[I’m not alright.]
Luciano wrote on the notebook on the table.
“Your Highness, why…?”
Why are you writing directly instead of using magic?
Empress Regina put her hand to her cheek and sighed.
“The Privy Council just concluded on the First Prince’s regency. Luciano is being careful since we don’t know what fault the First Prince might find if he uses mana.”
“Ah…”
The Empress groaned with an “ahem” and muttered in her jade-like voice.
“Those damn bastards. Even after eating up all that money, they readily agreed to the First Prince’s regency.”
“…”
I remained silent after hearing profanity that was hard to hear from the Empress.
“Well, what can we do about what’s happened. It’s because His Majesty is weak despite eating all those good things.”
“…”
I continued to remain silent.
Luciano seemed accustomed to the Empress’s way of speaking and said nothing in particular.
I said to the Empress.
“Still, wouldn’t it be better to prepare for anything?”
“That would be right. Since the Empress might do something, thinking this is her chance.”
The Empress spoke elegantly while lifting her teacup.
I nodded.
‘Well, it’ll be resolved if I quickly exclude the other princes as candidates.’
In any case, I had to block the Empress’s incoming attacks before that.
‘By the way, the remaining candidate is indeed…’
I looked at Luciano.
Then the Empress’s eyes sparkled with an interesting expression.
“Oh my, come to think of it, I haven’t watered my lilies.”
And she hurriedly stood up.
It seemed she wanted to give me and Luciano time alone together.
The Empress said “Stay for a while. No, stay for a long time” and disappeared with a chuckle.
I took that opportunity to say to Luciano.
“Your Highness, would you perhaps become my male lead?”
“…”
Luciano flinched and looked at me.
I said “Ah” and began to explain.
“What I mean is.”
That’s when it happened.
“Subdue the criminal!”
The resounding voice of a palace official could be heard.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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