How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 190

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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
Episode 190
It was rare for Yuise to be this flabbergasted, regardless of Antonio’s usual dramatics.
I rose from the bench and asked.
“Tell me in detail.”
Antonio gesticulated wildly, beside himself with excitement.
“Candidates! Husband candidates, and that lunatic Marquise—!”
I couldn’t make out a single word.
I turned my attention to Yuise.
As if sensing Antonio’s state, Yuise took a breath to collect herself.
“The Marquise seems intent on arranging your marriage. She’s soliciting marriage proposals on a grand scale, narrowing down candidates. Some of them have even come to the Citadel directly to present their proposals. And what’s more….”
“There’s more?”
“She’s put Esgaroth’s succession right on the table as a bargaining chip.”
I fell silent.
‘So she’s going to play it this way.’
This was taking me hostage to strip Father of his succession.
In the process, she’d also be courting the support of families who wanted a Saint as their daughter-in-law.
‘This is going to be difficult.’
The mistress of the house is the one who presides over family marriages.
She was wielding her undisputed right, so I had no direct means to stop her.
I blinked slowly, keeping my composure.
Yuise and Antonio were more urgent than I was, pressing the matter insistently.
“This isn’t someone else’s problem, miss!”
“This idiot has a point. The Marquise might very well saddle you with some worthless wretch.”
I nodded.
“She won’t just might—she definitely will.”
She’d give the great families the illusion of opportunity, then pick the most insignificant and incompetent among them.
Because afterward, he’d be useless to Father.
“And you’re this calm about it….”
Antonio stared at me in exasperation.
I was grateful for their concern.
But what good would anger do in a situation like this?
What mattered was finding a way out.
‘Father holds firm, establishes the first line of defense, and then… wait, Father?’
When it comes to my affairs, Father gets a little… honestly, quite emotional.
With an ominous feeling, I turned toward where he stood and flinched.
The problem wasn’t Father alone.
Both Mother and Father had their faces frozen like ice, their fists clenched so hard their veins bulged terrifyingly.
“You pathetic little creatures….”
“If you’d just gone mad nicely, you’d have at least kept your lives.”
I, who had been composure and calm and collected, suddenly roared.
“Seize them—!”
At my cry that rang through the Castle, the Irregulars lurched into motion.
Mother and Father, held by a swarm of people, snarled.
“Don’t you dare let go! I’ll tear her limb from limb, you old hag—!”
“Release me!”
I gripped both of them by their clothing for dear life and shouted.
“Don’t let go! Never!”
A storm was coming.
* * *
I sat Father and Mother side by side on the sofa.
Thirty Clan Members each had been deployed to achieve this.
The Irregulars, myself—everyone looked a complete mess.
Because Father and Mother’s momentum had been catastrophic, like a riot.
I stood before the two of them and narrowed my eyes.
“Don’t move.”
The two, who looked ready to bolt any second, flinched.
“First, you cannot kill people.”
“But that old woman—.”
Mother tried to spring up in protest, so I made a sharp sound and shook my head.
“Second, you cannot call her an old woman.”
“That wench….”
“That’s also forbidden.”
“….”
Mother quieted down with a disgruntled look.
Now I turned to Father.
“Third, the Irregulars are currently under probation. Please keep things as quiet as possible.”
“….”
At least Father was more rational than Mother.
Though equally disgruntled, he stayed silent without protest.
I clapped my hands together sharply and spoke.
“Fourth, we are not beasts. We must find solutions within the rules that the public watches over.”
Then came the sound of arms being raised behind me in quick succession.
It was Antonio.
“If you can’t find a solution within the rules? Then the miss will marry the worthless wretch?”
“That won’t happen. I’ll make sure of it.”
I answered firmly.
‘All right, then I need to move.’
Fortunately, the urgent matters have been resolved.
The facility and supply issues are settled, so I have time to act.
“I need to go to the Citadel.”
When I told the Clan Leader this, he nodded.
I warned Mother and Father absolutely, without fail, to not come after me no matter what happened.
After that, I boarded the carriage the Clan Leader had prepared and set out for the Citadel.
Upon arrival, the Carriage Waiting Area was teeming with carriages of all kinds.
The existing waiting area couldn’t accommodate them all, so a temporary one had been set up to one side of the Castle.
As I stepped down from the carriage, Marquis Sintus approached.
He wore a troubled smile.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to inform you of this beforehand.”
“That’s not Marquis Sintus’s responsibility. But it does seem we need to tighten the Citadel’s Intelligence Division.”
The Marquise had moved before Marquis Sintus could even grasp the situation.
It meant the Marquise had her people in the Intelligence Division.
“It seems the Marquise received quite a shock when Aslan returned to Esgaroth. Ha, that she would even reach into the Marquis’s personal Intelligence Division….”
Though he spoke with a gentle expression, his eyes were as sharp as those of a snowy wasteland.
He was the head of the Marquis’s personal Intelligence Division.
His pride had been deeply wounded.
I walked alongside Marquis Sintus and spoke.
“It must mean she was that desperate.”
“Pardon?”
“She likely could have planted someone in the Intelligence Division before, but didn’t. If it was possible now, it would have been possible then.”
Yet she hadn’t easily placed a spy there, and that was probably because of Marquis Sintus.
He was the Marquis of Esgaroth’s closest confidant and a great pillar of the Manor.
She wouldn’t have wanted to make him an enemy.
But making a reckless move meant, appearances aside, she was very anxious.
‘Because Father is gathering more power.’
Even the High Nobles—something Javid could never obtain.
I followed the Marquis to the room where those claiming to have brought marriage proposals had gathered.
Inside the room were Javid and the Marquise as well.
“You’ve come, Yustea.”
The Marquise greeted me.
Javid stood behind her, grinning widely.
I glanced briefly around the room.
I understood why Javid was in such a good mood.
The men who’d brought the marriage proposals were quite the collection.
An old man with his face pocked with scars.
The eldest son of some Marquis House notorious for pushing poison.
Quite a few of Esgaroth’s vassals’ sons as well.
And even among them….
“It’s an honor to meet you, Saint. I am Megrot Sol.”
The son of Marquis Sol was here too.
The forces at Esgaroth Mansion could be broadly divided into three.
1. The Pro-Javid Faction, centered on Marquis Dennis.
2. The Neutral Faction, centered on Marquis Sol.
3. The Pro-Marquis Faction, centered on Marquis Sintus.
‘She intends to absorb the Neutral Faction using marriage to the Saint as bait?’
I looked at the Marquise.
The Marquise smiled with her eyes closed.
“I cannot hide my joy at the outpouring of proposals from such distinguished gentlemen.”
Yuise and Cesar, who’d come as guards, immediately hardened their expressions.
The candidates were appallingly unsuitable as husbands for a Saint.
Though they claimed to belong to Esgaroth, there was a single great family’s minor house.
A baronial family with no lands.
Even among the Marquis Houses, there were men over sixty or those in dire straits.
The worst were those with respectable houses but were garbage as individuals.
“Ha, you’re even more beautiful than I expected. I am Pawel Menod of the Menod County House.”
The Menod County House was a border count with vast holdings.
But Pawel himself was a thirty-two-year-old with four illegitimate half-brothers and—
Seventeen years older than me.
Yet he could be so brazen because the other candidates’ houses were far beneath his own.
“Since we’ve met like this, might I suggest a stroll through the garden? To see if our conversation flows well, as it were.”
Pawel Menod smiled with a leer.
“No. I came to meet the Marquise today.”
“Please don’t disregard the gentleman’s sincerity. Ha.”
At that, Cesar let out a hollow laugh and muttered.
“Sincerity?”
Pawel Menod heard it and frowned.
Yet seeing me, he shrugged as if he’d magnanimously withdraw.
“When a man initiates conversation, you see, it means he wishes to share his accumulated wisdom.”
“….”
“A deep intention to teach the world to a lady who’s been delicately raised in a garden.”
This time even Yuise couldn’t restrain herself and frowned.
I gently raised my hand to stop Yuise and Cesar.
‘The Irregulars can’t cause trouble.’
At that look, the two clicked their tongues and turned away.
I spoke to Pawel Menod.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I find little charm in receiving the wisdom of a young gentleman.”
“What, what did you say?!”
Pawel Menod’s face flushed red.
Regardless, I turned to the Marquise and spoke.
“Make time for me.”
“Oh dear, how inconvenient. I have so many visitors today, it’s hard to find a moment.”
“It’s urgent business.”
“Receiving guests is also important work.”
And with that, she gently placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Learn this while you can: the role of mistress of the house entails far more than soothing a petulant child.”
It was a barbed remark.
Everything I’d done so far was being dismissed as stubbornness or childish tantrums.
Javid lowered his head and chuckled.
I looked at the Marquise with a cold gaze.
“You’ll regret this.”
“You need to learn proper ladylike speech before marriage.”
“Marquise.”
“If you entertain the gentlemen for a bit, perhaps I can find some time. Show them the garden, won’t you? I’ll arrange somewhere for you.”
“….”
She leaned in close to my ear and whispered.
“You’ll have to choose the least objectionable among them. There’s no way around it, is there?”
Hearing the Marquise’s words, Cesar and Yuise’s faces went utterly cold.
I stared at her for a moment, then spoke.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“Now you understand the situation.”
The Marquise laughed and moved past me toward the door.
Javid, following her, turned to look at me.
He smiled with a grin and opened his mouth.
Congratulations on the marriage.
—he said.
* * *
I led the men who’d brought their marriage proposals through the garden.
Yuise and Cesar clung close to me, their faces twisted in displeasure.
Yuise spoke.
“You’re just going to let the Marquise get away with that?”
Cesar added with a strained expression.
“Just give the signal. I’ll knock every one of these bastards unconscious. The Marquise will have to take responsibility.”
I laughed lightly.
“What do you think the Esgaroth Barrier is?”
The moment you activate mana, it will locate the caster and bind them.
The one in trouble wouldn’t be the Marquise—it would be the Irregulars.
“Enough.”
“But—.”
Just as Cesar was about to speak—
Pawel Menod shouted.
“How much longer will you converse with your guards?!”
The men, along with him, stared at me with resentful expressions.
Pawel Menod strode forward and spoke.
“It may be premature to say such a thing….”
“Then it’s best you don’t say it.”
When I cut him off sharply, Pawel Menod’s face turned red then purple.
There were several reasons Pawel Menod was being so arrogant.
1. Among them, the Menod County House was the most powerful.
And there was another reason….
“No. I think it’s best I do speak. You trust in your status and forget the basics of being a lady.”
“The basics of being a lady?”
“Listen to your superiors, remember kindness, be devoted.”
“….”
“Such things are ladylike manners.”
Pawel Menod declared this with great authority.
Yes, this was the other reason.
2. Stuck in the borderlands, he knew nothing of current trends.
He thought the power dynamics between men and women from a hundred years ago still applied today.
That I was a Saint mattered little. That I was a daughter of a succession candidate for Esgaroth mattered little.
He believed women were the ones chosen by men.
Several other men seemed to share this view.
“Come now. Let us have that conversation.”
As he reached out his hand to me as if offering consideration—
“We’ll join that conversation too.”
“I would also like to join, if I may.”
“Me as well.”
A group of men entered the garden.
‘…They’ve come.’

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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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