How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 179

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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 Father
179
“W-who…?”
Guinevere’s face flushed crimson in an instant, and her movements became oddly stilted.
Clunky was the only word for it.
“I mean, it’s not personal curiosity, but rather—when faced with such a situation, the survival instinct of a human being kicks in, a natural reaction, you could say. So, like, a sneeze kind of…!”
“…No one asked whether your question was personal, Guinevere.”
I cut her off quietly.
Left to her own devices, she’d still be stammering away when the enemy broke down the door.
Roji frowned in disbelief.
I decided to get back to business.
“There’s something I’m looking for. I’d like you to come with me.”
“You understand the difficult position you’d be in. The Reconstruction Council will mark you as a traitor.”
“Even better.”
As my face brightened, Oscar turned away with a troubled expression.
“If I refuse.”
“Oscar of the Reconstruction Council of the Former Empire is a traitor who revealed my location to Prince Luciano—!”
I bolted toward the door, about to shout it out, when Oscar clamped his hand over my mouth.
He spoke.
“You’d repay kindness with betrayal?”
“That’s how the world works, Oscar.”
“Shameless…”
Oscar muttered and heaved a deep sigh.
“Fine, I’ll stretch it to help you look for whatever it is. But do I really need to go with you? Just tell me the location.”
“If the Reconstruction Council attacks us, I’ll use you as a human shield!”
I said it cheerfully, and Oscar’s brow twitched.
“…You really are something.”
I laughed brightly.
“Help me. We’re family, aren’t we?”
“…”
“Oscar.”
“…I won’t harm the Reconstruction Council soldiers. They’re my comrades too, after all.”
That’s enough for me.
Oscar released me and asked, “So what are we looking for?”
I whispered it to him.
“What I’m looking for is…”
When I told him the target, Oscar’s face went rigid.
I left him there and moved back toward Roji and Guinevere.
Roji wore the same cautious expression she’d had from the start regarding Oscar.
“Can we trust him?”
“Yes.”
“How can you be sure? I hear he’s part of the Reconstruction Council.”
“Oscar’s like a cloth merchant named Jin.”
“A cloth…what?”
“He’s dating Jimmy from the Vegetable Shop, but he’s fallen in love with Hans from the General Store. But because he’s been with Jimmy for so long, he can’t switch, and he can’t abandon his feelings for Hans either. It’s a pathetic state, really.”
I invoked the two-timer incident from two years ago that had upended the Market, affecting a wistful expression.
Roji’s face went cold.
“What is that stupid state?”
Oscar looked bewildered.
And Guinevere…
“W-well, it’s pathetic, but I suppose that’s fine? I mean, just by looking at his face—no wait, what I mean is, there are people like me too, so even garbage still has some… some competitive value left…!”
With those words, she managed to twist Oscar’s expression into something even more pained.
* * *
Prince Terius’s situation was not good.
With the Ilfarm envoy and Prime Minister holding his legs, he couldn’t move freely.
The Prime Minister shouted, “Go!”
“You’re disrupting my concentration. Would you mind shutting your mouth?”
Terius was the only one who could face the enemy.
But their numbers exceeded his tenfold, and as soon as one fell, another took its place.
“We understand your Mana is nearly depleted.”
“Ha, since when is revealing your own side’s condition to the enemy called support?”
“Your Highness’s body is not your own! We who hold your legs must remain—please preserve your strength—!”
“Quiet!”
Terius snapped sharply.
The Prime Minister and envoy looked at him in surprise.
“I’ve made excuses for the nation’s tomorrow and turned away countless times from what I truly should have done.”
“…”
“If I abandon even those who believed in me and survived alone, I would remain a mere excuse-maker forever.”
“…”
“Is such a pathetic king needed for Ilfarm’s tomorrow?”
“Your Highness…”
What could be pathetic about him?
No matter what rags he wore, no matter how shabby his appearance, his brilliant essence remained unchanged.
It had been true since that childhood, when he returned to his country in tatters, fleeing assassins in a foreign land.
Young Terius had sought out the Prime Minister’s estate in exactly that condition.
“This is a bargain, Prime Minister. If you give me a dream, I’ll make your dream come true.”
“Merchants dress well, not merely for ostentation. It is to earn at least minimal trust from the other party. Your Highness has failed to earn even my minimum trust today, and so this bargain is regrettably impossible.”
“Trust earned from outward appearance is shallow. So I chose to show you myself instead.”
“…”
“This is my essence. Judge with your own eyes whether it can be polished and refined into a jewel. I trust myself; you trust yourself. That is the deal.”
“…”
And so the boy in rags asked, “What do you make of me, Prime Minister?”
So the old man replied, “Come in. I shall serve you.”
He had taught cunning and petty schemes, adorned him lavishly, but ultimately what had captivated him about Terius was his essence.
That dazzling strength.
And so, as when he had grasped those filthy hands then, his body moved first now.
Before the enemy’s blade could pierce Terius.
“Forgive me for departing first, a breach of loyalty.”
“Magrok—!”
Hearing his name called by Terius, he threw himself at the blade.
The Prime Minister closed his eyes.
Then came the moment.
“Playing around, are we.”
With a sharp crack, the blade flying toward the Prime Minister shattered.
Terius’s head jerked toward the voice.
It was Luciano.
Luciano and Romeban of House Olvera, who came with him, along with the guard captain, shot forward from the ground.
The strongest of the Ceremonial Guard Unit and the strongest of the guard corps.
Both unleashed Sword Strikes infused with Mana simultaneously.
Against ordinary soldiers like these, even with the mysterious man who appeared in mist, the attack was overwhelming.
Enemy soldiers fell like matchsticks.
Luciano spoke expressionlessly.
“Yustea seems to have escaped safely.”
Romeban nodded.
“Given that all the enemies concentrated on Prince Terius, it appears certain.”
Romeban flipped over a fallen enemy with his toe and picked up their blade to replace his tattered one.
“This enemy’s sword is in good condition. Should we take one for Your Highness as well?”
“Loot anything useful before reinforcements arrive.”
“Yes, sir.”
Luciano’s gaze turned to Terius.
“How much longer must I watch this embrace?”
The Prime Minister of Ilfarm had wrapped his arms around Terius in protection, leaving them in a tight embrace.
The Prime Minister cleared his throat and stepped back.
“I convey Ilfarm’s gratitude.”
“…”
Terius regarded Luciano silently.
“Fine. If Ilfarm’s prince is captured, it becomes troublesome, so I intervened—”
Mid-sentence, Terius suddenly pulled Luciano into an embrace.
“…!”
“…??”
Romeban and the guard captain, who had been systematically looting Reconstruction Council soldiers like bandits, flinched and looked at the prince and king.
Luciano immediately took a defensive stance.
“I didn’t know you wanted to die by my hand instead of the Reconstruction Council’s.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you truly want to die?”
“He was my father, my teacher. The first subject I ever chose.”
“…”
“Ilfarm repays enmity twofold and kindness tenfold. I swear it. I will not forget this debt, not ever.”
“…”
“Thank you.”
Luciano lifted his head.
The dazzling friendship between the prince closest to the imperial throne and the king closest to his own throne.
Romeban, the guard captain, and the envoy nodded with tears in their eyes, murmuring “Yes, yes.”
Luciano slowly opened his mouth.
“Get lost.”
Having pried Terius away, Luciano spoke in an irritated tone.
“Fall back—”
The moment he was about to order it.
[Finally, the main players have gathered.]
A chilling laugh echoed across the mental voice network.
[Though one is still missing.]
[If we capture those two, the Saint will have no choice but to reveal herself.]
[I’m not fond of that girl. Do we really need to bring her?]
[Don’t worry about the loss at the Family Tournament.]
Several different voices thrummed inside their heads.
Romeban startled and pressed close to Luciano.
The others too clustered around their prince and king, scanning the surroundings.
Black mist gathered at their feet and coalesced into human silhouettes.
“This is the same aura as the one with hands emerging from his neck,” Romeban observed.
The faces of Terius and the Ilfarm contingent hardened.
Terius had depleted his Mana fighting the Reconstruction Council soldiers because of this very entity—
He had poured advanced magic into repelling a single creature with hands emerging from its neck.
He hadn’t fully destroyed it, only torn it away.
And now there were five enemies with that same aura.
Two of them were faces he recognized.
The creature with hands emerging from its neck that Terius had desperately torn away.
And…
[You look even more charming up close than from a distance, Your Highness.]
The one laughing cheerfully was the woman who had served as the Headquarters Representative in the final round of the Family Tournament, replacing Stella.
Romeban also recognized her and went pale.
“Isn’t she the one who transforms humans into beasts?”
Once transformed by that woman, you were caught. There was no escape.
The others’ auras were equally terrifying.
None of them revealed what power they possessed.
Luciano and Terius tensed their bodies.
“Can we win?”
Terius asked, and Luciano, tightening his grip on his sword, replied, “I have no one to rely on and only people to protect.”
“I’ll remember this debt too. Ha.”
Luciano checked his status.
‘The Causal Rate hasn’t accumulated.’
Using the Pattern’s power was beyond reach.
[How rude. Ignoring a lady’s words.]
The woman smiled and approached.
The moment her gaze and the guard captain’s eyes met.
“Grrrrgh…”
A bestial sound escaped between the guard captain’s teeth.
“…!”
Romeban cried out in alarm.
“Captain Hilos!”
At that moment, Luciano struck the guard captain’s neck with the flat of his blade.
The guard captain collapsed.
But the woman laughed with ease.
[Excellent judgment. Wasting someone so fine on a mere girl is a shame.]
Tilting her eyes seductively, the woman spoke.
[Won’t you take me as your woman instead?]
“Unfortunately, my stomach is rather weak.”
[Pfft.]
[Kekeke…]
As laughter rang out, the woman’s face twisted.
[What a shame. I was trying to be kind.]
The sound of rustling foliage, and figures with partially transformed bodies stumbled forward.
Romeban startled.
“Klaren’s men…!”
They were allies.
Members of the Ceremonial Guard Unit, the envoy, and guards had all fallen victim to the woman.
[Don’t be too worried. They’re still alive. Unless they fall to your swords, that is.]
Romeban gritted his teeth.
“You contemptible—!”
Terius whispered to Luciano, “What if we surrender and plan an escape later?”
“If it were me, I’d keep them as beasts forever. Until escape becomes impossible.”
“Surrender is impossible then.”
Terius exhaled.
He checked his remaining Mana.
‘Three or four Space Ruptures, and I’m spent.’
Should he risk Mana Poison and borrow Luciano’s power?
No—if he miscalculated, Luciano would be in danger too.
He couldn’t risk the group’s strongest member becoming incapacitated on an uncertain gambit.
What if he exploited the transformed humans?
That was difficult too.
The woman’s casting speed was extraordinary.
Before he could break her transformations, he’d exhaust his Mana for nothing.
‘The situation is dire.’
No matter how he calculated, he saw no way out.
The same tension hung over everyone else.
[Since you show no intention of coming first, shall we take action?]
The creature with hands from its neck twisted its mouth.
The moment the imperial and Ilfarm forces gripped their weapons tightly.
[Combat halt, combat halt!]
“…?!”
“…!!!”
“…?!!!”
Another voice came through.
And it was a very familiar one…!
“The Saint…?”
The moment Romeban murmured it.
Familiar silhouettes appeared in the sky above.
Yustea, Roji, and Guinevere.
[I said halt! Are your ear holes blocked?!]
Roji shouted indignantly through Mental Voice Communication.
Then Guinevere said…
[Mental Voice Communication isn’t heard through ear holes, is it?]
[Does that matter now?]
At that moment, Yustea spoke.
[That’s right—what matters is this. Look here.]
Yustea swung her arm.
While clutching something with her other arm.
The figures emerging from the black mist cried out.
[Soldier Narbonne!]
[Sir—!!]
That was it.
Yustea had him by the throat, Roji had her blade aimed at him, and Guinevere had a firm grip on what little remained of his hair. The man they restrained was Soldier Narbonne of the Reconstruction Council.
[How on earth did you capture Soldier Narbonne…?!]
He was known as the King of Ghosts, a master of Ghost Magic.
A Ghost that ordinary humans cannot damage.
Yustea smiled wickedly.
“There’s something I’m looking for. I’d like you to come with me.”
She had never said the thing she was looking for was an object.
‘The matchup between Narbonne and me is the worst.’
The King of Ghosts had been utterly crushed by the one assigned to handle Ghosts.

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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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