How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 174

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Replace a Father
Chapter 174
Terius stared at me intently.
His gaze met mine after a long silence.
I slipped free from Luciano’s embrace and bowed first.
“Your Highness, it’s an honor to see you.”
“….”
“Is there anything you require?”
Looking at someone like that wasn’t proper manners, was it?
That’s what I meant.
Terius, catching the meaning, laughed. “Ah.”
“My apologies. I was simply taken aback.”
He regarded me with a measured gaze as he spoke.
“A child grows in a week, and a woman becomes someone different in a month. That’s a saying from Ilfarm.”
“…?”
“A child who is also a woman—after four years, such remarkable change indeed.”
“…I’m not sure I follow, Your Highness.”
“It’s a compliment. You look more at ease than before.”
Luciano let out a dry laugh.
“This will only become more troublesome.”
His tone was openly irritated, so I quickly tugged at his sleeve.
He didn’t seem particularly bothered by it.
Terius had nothing more to say on the matter.
And Stella, who had been leaning against Terius all this while….
‘Mm.’
I exhaled inwardly.
After watching her for a moment, I spoke to her.
“Can we talk somewhere else?”
“I want to rest right now.”
“This is something we really need to discuss.”
“Can’t it wait? You know my situation—how can you possibly—!”
Stella bit her lip.
Tears streamed down her large eyes.
Her face had already gone pale, devoid of any vitality.
Stella soon buried her face in her hands and wept, and even passersby looked at her with pity.
Terius wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders.
“Stella, if you’re suffering, it’s best to rest in your room.”
“Yes….”
Just as Stella and Terius were turning to leave.
“Your uncle’s condition isn’t good. If things continue like this, he may die.”
Stella’s footsteps stopped abruptly.
“What exactly are you trying to say to me?”
“Congratulations. Everything turned out the way you wanted.”
Stella’s face hardened.
I turned to look at her with an expressionless face.
Stella trembled and glared at me.
“How much more do you want to torment me? Even if my mother and I were unpleasant memories for you, there’s no need to mock me today.”
“….”
“How much longer will you keep this up? In the end, I left Andres just as you wished, and Mother became a criminal who couldn’t even receive a proper funeral. Can’t you stop now?”
“….”
“I simply… I was simply born. I didn’t want to be born as a concubine’s daughter and become your enemy—!”
“Stella, I’ve always told you.”
“What?”
“When you get excited, your fear shows through.”
“…!”
Terius and Luciano’s gazes turned toward me.
I approached her quietly.
“Father has a special person among his subordinates. Someone who can recognize traces of Mana.”
“What… what do you mean….”
“My words may not carry much weight. In the end, Emma is dead, and you’re a pitiable girl left alone. Even if your Mana remained on Emma, who lay there in such disarray, you’d have no shortage of excuses, would you?”
Stella grasped the hem of her skirt with trembling hands.
Terius watched Stella intently.
“I didn’t. I—!”
“That may be true. But—”
I stepped closer to Stella.
“If your making such an obvious spectacle is an attempt to entangle my mother or me in your mother’s death, that would be a poor decision.”
“….”
“My silence isn’t because I pity you or lack the means to respond.”
Let’s not create needless trouble for each other.
I leaned in and whispered close to her ear.
“That’s why I suggested we talk elsewhere.”
Stella swallowed dryly.
I shrugged and turned to leave.
* * *
Back in her quarters at Yingbin Palace, Stella slammed the door shut and sank to the floor.
‘Yustea, Yustea, Yustea, Yustea—!!’
Her head felt like it would burst from rage and anxiety.
She gnawed at her fingernails until they bled, unaware of it.
‘What do you know.’
You know nothing of what I’ve endured, what pain I’ve carried all these years…!
‘Mother’s plan was destined to fail.’
That plan to destroy the Spiral Coffin with help from Count Claren.
Merely securing a Mana Stone first wouldn’t destroy a Sacred Object.
The Crafting Workshop was the Count’s financial lifeline.
Mana Stones were needed to revitalize the workshop itself.
So there was no way a merchant would destroy a client’s entrusted sacred goods and ruin the workshop’s reputation.
‘If I had seized Mother’s proposal as leverage from the start, I could have accomplished my purpose risk-free.’
But Count Claren didn’t think that far ahead and eagerly shook hands.
There was no chance such a fool would handle things properly.
‘So I had no choice but to abandon Mother.’
Mother would have done anything to lay her hands on the Spiral Coffin.
I couldn’t let myself be ruined because of her.
‘If only Yustea and the Count’s family hadn’t kept Mother alive, I wouldn’t have had to dirty my own hands—!’
Her limbs trembled uncontrollably.
Yesterday’s events wouldn’t leave her mind.
“St-Stella, you came? Ah, are you here to help Mother?”
The way her mother, whom she’d met in the alley, had smiled brightly at the sight of her.
“Of course. I never believed you’d abandon me. Come, let’s go.”
“….”
“For goodness’ sake, dressed so thinly. Haven’t I told you countless times you need to be careful with your health?”
“….”
“Put this on, yes?”
The way she’d spoken worriedly while removing her own coat.
To such a mother….
“You should have been suspicious.”
“…What?”
“You get abandoned because you’re this stupid.”
Those were the words she’d spoken.
“You have nothing but are full of greed, and unlike Lady Dia, you can’t even help your own daughter—you’re just a nuisance.”
“St-Stella….”
“So now you understand. That you can’t find happiness with Mother.”
“Wh-what… what are you saying….”
Her mother, seeing the look in her eyes, froze.
She stumbled backward, blocked by the wall, trembling.
“Why are you doing this? N-no, how could you ever….”
“If I had been Lady Dia’s daughter, things would have been different. If Mother resembled her even a little, I wouldn’t have had to go this far.”
“Wh…?”
“If you love me, show me proof.”
“Stella….”
“If you love me, you should be able to do anything for me.”
Her mother, seeing eyes that rippled with darkness, finally understood she had truly been abandoned.
“I tried for you too. I did my best!”
“Be quiet. People will hear, and that would be inconvenient.”
“If I hadn’t stepped forward, how could you have enjoyed such a luxurious life from childhood? I raised you so carefully that you wouldn’t know the humiliation of serving under others!”
“If it had been Lady Dia, she would have raised her child with more wisdom.”
“Don’t speak that woman’s name—!!”
Even then she shrieked with ugly jealousy and rage.
“Though I may have been lacking, I did it all for you—!”
She pushed her shoulder in her excitement like that….
“Enough. I’ll handle this myself.”
She had fled as if about to do something terrible….
And so….
“Mother—!”
She had been furious.
Her Mana, poured out in the white haze before her eyes, couldn’t be properly controlled.
And so the alley wall collapsed, burying Emma.
Emma, covered in blood, gasped, but people were already rushing over from outside the alley at the sound of the crash.
‘I thought I mustn’t be discovered.’
It was Yustea who should have been involved in this.
If Terius found out she’d been with Mother, he might be disappointed….
“St-Stella… Stel… Hack!”
Yet even then, stupidly calling her name….
‘I did such a thing.’
After hearing that Mother had died, she’d actually thought it was for the best.
That no one would know what she had done.
If she made enough of a scene and showed how cruel Yustea truly was, then perhaps this suffering would have meaning.
But….
“If your making such an obvious spectacle is an attempt to entangle my mother or me in your mother’s death, that would be a poor decision.”
Stella swept her trembling fingers through her hair.
“What do I do? If His Highness misunderstands me… If Yustea reveals this incident… Ah, ah, ahh—!”
You have everything.
You’ve cornered me like this.
So why won’t you give up anything?
Stella, pressed to the floor, wept bitter tears.
* * *
“So it was Stella’s doing, as expected.”
Luciano spoke.
My eyes widened as I sipped the tea he’d offered.
“You knew?”
“I knew Stella had slipped out of the Imperial Palace late at night.”
“I see….”
I nodded and set down the teacup, and Luciano asked.
“Why not expose what happened?”
“Exposing it would serve no purpose. There’s no actual evidence.”
Saying ‘We read her Mana and saw it was her doing!’ would only damage her reputation.
And it could backfire on me as well.
That I’d provoked Stella and caused all this trouble.
“Besides….”
I rested my chin in my palm and gazed out the window at Yingbin Palace.
“A secret causes greater suffering when it remains hidden than when it’s exposed.”
Anxiety would give birth to terror.
Trapped in endless fear, she would live in her own personal hell.
Luciano laughed softly.
“That’s the right answer. So what are you going to do about your own secret?”
He meant the secret that Father was the Irregular Clan Leader.
At my glance, Luciano spoke.
“It seems they’ve obtained that information from Ilfarm.”
I nodded and said, “Ah.”
With all these nobles approaching for Mana Stones, it would be easy enough to gather information.
Luciano touched the wetness on my lips with his fingertip as he spoke.
“They’re expected to use that against you.”
The bomb dropped before I could even feel embarrassed.
Luciano also rested his chin in his palm, meeting my gaze.
“Ilfarm is gathering evidence.”
“Well, that’s irritating.”
“In multiple ways.”
Luciano and I laughed wickedly.
“Shall we join forces?”
“I’d like that.”
There’s one thing Ilfarm doesn’t know.
Luciano and I are equally matched in scheming.
* * *
Four days later.
At the point when Ilfarm’s delegation was just days away from returning home.
Ilfarm’s Prime Minister handed documents to Terius.
“Evidence that Aslan, the natural son of Marquis Esgaroth, is the Irregular Clan Leader.”
As Terius scanned through the documents, the Prime Minister smiled.
“With information of this caliber, there should be no escape.”
“Ah.”
Terius laughed with a troubled expression.
“The schedule went awry yesterday, so the protocol office must have had to rearrange everything….”
He set down the documents and looked at the Prime Minister.
“I’m sorry it’s happened again. The schedule will be disrupted once more.”
“Marquis Esgaroth and the Irregular Clan Leader are waiting.”
“Let’s depart.”
“Before that, Stella has requested an audience.”
Terius rose from his seat.
“The favor has been repaid. Besides, the meeting wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped.”
The Prime Minister let out a small laugh.
‘He’s not a man of purely good character.’
And so he’s well-suited for a position of power.
Terius and the Prime Minister headed toward the Reception Hall.
Marquis Esgaroth and Aslan, who had arrived early, bowed respectfully.
Terius, sitting across from them, smiled.
“That’s courtesy enough. Please, sit.”
The Marquis and Aslan took their seats.
Tea arrived moments later.
After offering tea to each, Terius spoke.
“This trip to the Empire has been deeply meaningful. There were lessons to be learned wherever we went. The military training observation in particular was—”
“Small talk is unnecessary here. We’re both busy, so let’s get to the point.”
At the Marquis’s words, Ilfarm’s Prime Minister’s brow furrowed.
“That’s rather discourteous language for a prince to hear.”
“Was summoning us under threat the height of courtesy?”
“Marquis Esgaroth!”
As the Prime Minister raised his voice, Aslan deliberately set his teacup down loudly on the saucer.
“…!”
The air turned ominous.
‘Like father, like son.’
The pressure emanating from just a look was enough to take someone’s breath away—they were strikingly alike.
‘Let’s see how much more confident you can be with your evidence of the Irregulars.’
The Prime Minister’s expression twisted.
Terius remained utterly composed.
“Then let me speak plainly.”
He placed documents on the table.
The Marquis’s eyebrow twitched as he examined them.
“You’ve been busy. Gathering evidence of this magnitude, I see.”
“The nobility of the Empire were kind enough to serve as eyes and ears. It seems Esgaroth isn’t held in particularly high regard here.”
“Is that so.”
“However, Ilfarm welcomes Esgaroth. Especially the Saint.”
“Is it my granddaughter you’re after?”
Ilfarm’s Prime Minister spoke with a chuckling laugh.
“She would be an excellent symbol for Ilfarm’s standing, wouldn’t she?”
“I see.”
“Exile to Ilfarm would be most desirable, but if the Emperor’s attention is a concern, marriage might serve as a way out.”
“Marriage, you say.”
“Arrange a suitable match. Have her married quickly and sent to Ilfarm.”
“What if I have no intention of binding an underage child through marriage?”
“Hah, surely the Marquis’s preference matters little?”
The Prime Minister’s expression changed.
“This is not a request. It’s a threat.”
It was then.
Thud, thud, thud, thud—!
A strange sound began echoing from outside the window.

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