How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 195

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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
Chapter 195
“This is absurd—!”
The Marquise cried out.
Of course she didn’t want to believe it.
She had wielded the Great Drought like a Divine Artifact.
She stood above the law itself, even oppressing and dominating the Emperor.
But the moment rain fell, her artifact lost its power.
She had become just an ordinary human again.
Javid and his vassals, who had grown arrogant alongside the Marquise’s authority, all went pale.
“H-how is this….”
“What… what is the meaning of this….”
The Marquise turned to me, her face rigid with shock.
“What have you done?”
“Your question is framed incorrectly.”
“…What?”
“What matters to the Marquise isn’t ‘why has this happened.'”
I walked forward lightly and stepped close to her.
Then I thrust my face toward hers.
“It’s ‘what happens now.'”
I shouted.
“Arrest these traitors who dared to usurp the Emperor!”
“…?!!”
The Marquise flinched.
It was only natural that Javid and his vassals recoiled.
Javid’s voice rose in panic.
“My mother is the daughter of the late Emperor and a member of the Imperial Family. No one can lay hands upon her without His Majesty’s approval!”
“Don’t worry.”
I pointed at myself with my index finger and smiled broadly.
“His Majesty the Emperor granted me full authority, you fool.”
Which is why I could march straight into even the Menod family’s lands like the Border Earl they were.
Soldiers from Cuaron rushed toward the Marquise and her entourage.
“Release me! Let go of me—!”
Her screams echoed through the courtyard.
But there was no stopping her humiliation of being dragged away.
* * *
Rain fell across the entire Empire.
It was only natural that the people suffering from the Great Drought cheered.
The nobility were equally delighted—their heads had been spinning from relief efforts, after all.
As soon as the rain came, I received contact from the Emperor.
The communication stone showed the Emperor with narrowed eyes.
[So you stormed the Border Earl’s castle. Without any proper justification.]
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
At my bright reply, the Emperor grabbed his forehead.
[Full authority must have been necessary for something this enormous.]
The Emperor looked troubled.
The Border Earl was the commander of the frontier defenses.
Certain privileges are granted to the Border Earl to maintain the border.
One of them is this.
No territory can be invaded except by Imperial Decree.
The chief of the frontier defense line must never waver, even for a moment.
“The Border Earl possessed the Key of Water, a sacred relic that calls forth rain.”
[Yet the entire Empire suffered from the Great Drought while pretending ignorance.]
“It wasn’t pretense, Your Majesty.”
[No?]
“They truly didn’t know. If they had, they would have quickly negotiated with the Marquise or with you.”
[How did you come to know of the Key of Water’s existence?]
‘Because I played the game….’
But I couldn’t say that.
I might be seen as mad, or the Emperor might exploit me thoroughly.
I spoke with shameless composure.
“If something as powerful as the Great Drought exists, I thought the ancestors must have created a countermeasure.”
[Hmm….]
“So I searched the records of sacred relics and found something peculiar—a relic with such a grand name as the Key of Water, yet with no usage instructions recorded.”
[A reasonable deduction.]
“But Your Majesty.”
I looked at the Emperor seriously.
“The Key of Water is single-use.”
[…What did you say?]
“It means once used, it can no longer call forth rain. But the Imperial Family’s power….”
Could bring about another Great Drought.
The Emperor understood my meaning and fell silent for a moment.
Then he let out a small laugh.
[I see what you mean.]
“So then….”
[You remain my proxy.]
The Emperor winked at me.
He was telling me to act as I saw fit.
I grinned widely.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
* * *
Rain fell for three days and nights.
The sound of rain seeped into the prison cell for all three days.
The Marquise and Javid’s vassals, who had hoped for only a brief shower, had lost all hope.
The game had been completely overturned.
Now the Marquise’s power would be of no use.
“The question now is the severity of punishment… surely they won’t execute her?”
One of Javid’s vassals asked with a gloomy face.
Another vassal then forced on an arrogant expression.
“On what grounds would they execute us?”
“Well, she caused the Great Drought….”
“The Emperor can’t reveal that the Marquise caused the Great Drought!”
If that happened, it would be revealed that the late Emperor entrusted the power to the Marquise, not to the current Emperor.
It would mean the Imperial Family failed to manage the power properly, and people died.
Imperial authority would collapse entirely.
“If it’s revealed that Esgaroth committed these acts, the house will have to pay enormous compensation. The entire family will be destroyed.”
“R-really?”
“Well, we’ll certainly be pushed out.”
“If that’s all… ha ha. As long as we keep our lives, we can plot our future again. As long as Lord Javid remains, we can rebuild.”
“Yes.”
Javid, listening to his vassals’ chatter, nodded his head.
Javid looked at the Marquise.
“Yes, Mother. It’s not completely over yet.”
“….”
“For now, please appeal to His Majesty the Emperor. I’ll plead with Father as well. Would they really abandon us completely?”
“…You’re right. Blood ties cannot be ignored.”
It was the moment the Marquise clenched her fists.
Tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps came from a distance.
The Marquise and her group straightened at the sight of those approaching the iron bars.
“Darling…!”
The Marquise’s face brightened.
The Marquis of Esgaroth and Marquis Sintus had come.
Yustea, though odious, was with them—but that the Marquis had come was what mattered.
The Marquise, gripping the bars, asked with relief in her voice.
“Has the sentence been decided?”
“….”
“Whatever it is, transfer me to Esgaroth Castle. How long must I stay in Cuaron?”
“….”
“How could the mistress of a manor be kept in the prison of a subordinate castle, not our citadel? How depraved those two are…!”
“It has been a very long wait.”
The Marquis opened his mouth.
His voice was flat, his words incomprehensible.
“Yes…?”
“When you ultimately murdered Camellia—Aslan’s mother—I decided to marry you.”
“What….”
“I knew that given your nature, you would inevitably cause a Great Drought someday.”
The Marquis laughed, a hollow sound.
But his face was expressionless.
The Marquise’s face grew increasingly rigid.
“What are you saying, darling….”
“I couldn’t let a Great Drought arise from another house. The punishment had to occur within Esgaroth.”
“….”
“So I endured all those long years.”
The Marquise’s face turned deathly pale.
‘…He married me to dispose of me with his own hands.’
The veins stood out on the Marquise’s hands as she gripped the bars.
“You’re lying….”
“Do you still wish to believe that?”
“I lived for you. Do you think it pleased me to kill people? I didn’t even want to cause the Great Drought. For Esgaroth… for Javid I…!”
The Marquis let out a cold laugh.
He gazed steadily at the Marquise, trembling with pale, clenched hands.
“It would be less repugnant if you were honest, Aurellia.”
“Darling….”
“All for your sake, you say. That you have a vile nature and will stop at nothing to gain what you desire.”
“Please, listen to me. Darling, I beg you….”
“I have never forgotten a woman so honest. Not once.”
“…!”
The Marquise’s face went rigid.
The Marquis, hands clasped behind his back, spoke.
“I will spare your life. But I will seal your Dantian and you must take medicine regularly—to ensure you never regain clarity of mind.”
“See? You won’t kill me. You must have felt some affection for me. You loved me….”
The Marquise’s mouth twisted grotesquely.
The Marquis spoke.
“I will report to the Emperor that an even harsher punishment will be carried out.”
The Marquise flinched.
‘He’ll inflict an even worse punishment?’
Really?
I looked at the Marquis, but his expression never changed.
Those watching the exchange between the Marquis and Marquise were frozen stiff.
Unbearable dread gripped their throats.
The Marquise crumpled to the ground.
The Marquis did not look back at her. Nor did he spare a glance for Javid.
As the Marquis turned to leave, Javid cried out.
“F-Father! Father! This was all Mother’s doing! I had nothing to do with it. I…! Father!”
But the Marquis did not pause in his stride.
A small communication stone glimmered in Yustea’s hand.
* * *
Aslan’s Office.
[All for your sake, you say. That you have a vile nature and will stop at nothing to gain what you desire.]
[Please, listen to me. Darling, I beg you….]
[I have never forgotten a woman so honest. Not once.]
Aslan listened to the voices flowing from the communication stone, his face expressionless.
Clan Leader Lorenzo glanced at him.
“Clan Leader….”
“I was wondering what she’d say. So she wanted me to hear this. …That girl.”
Yustea had been unusually insistent.
No matter how busy, she’d asked him to take the call.
To listen to it.
“I see it wasn’t about her own story.”
Aslan ended the communication.
He stood and gazed out the window.
“I have never forgotten a woman so honest. Not once.”
He looked at the Camellia tree standing beneath the pale moon.
Clan Leader Lorenzo asked.
“Are your thoughts troubled, Clan Leader?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“The old man is no longer as contemptible as before.”
He hasn’t forgotten.
That pitiful woman.
‘That must have been what she hoped for.’
That gentle child, Yustea.
He smiled softly.
And so time passed.
Deep into the night.
In the prison cell, Javid’s faction trembled in anxiety and fear.
The soldiers began moving them.
“W-where are you taking us!”
“Stop! Let go!”
Javid watched his vassals being dragged away, his face deathly pale.
He seized his mother’s arm.
“W-where are they taking them? Are we being dragged away too?”
“The vassals will have an arm or two cut off and be sent to the mines. But we’re different.”
“W-we’ll live, won’t we? Surely Father won’t really kill us, right? Yes?”
“Yes. They’ll let us live. As long as we live.”
The Marquise clutched her son with trembling hands.
She wouldn’t abandon the Imperial bloodline like this.
No matter how degraded their circumstances became, as long as they lived, escape would be possible.
Once all the vassals were dragged away, what remained in the cell were the Marquise, Javid, and the Border Earl Fauvel Menod and his son.
It was when silence had fallen.
A sound echoed.
Javid and Fauvel Menod, seized by terror, flinched.
Fauvel Menod asked.
“W-who….”
The figure appearing beyond the iron bars handled a key.
“Getting this key was such a pain in the ass.”
It was Yustea’s Mother, Dia.
Those remaining in the cell looked up at her in shock.
‘A key…?’
Seeing her move to unlock the iron bars with the key, the Marquise’s brow furrowed.
“What are you doing?”
Click.
The sound of the lock being undone.
Dia spoke.
“I told you. You crossed the line.”
“…What?”
“And those bastards behind you did too.”
Dia, stepping into the cell, drew something from her waist.
A short sword with a wickedly gleaming blade.
* * *
The next day.
Upon waking, I rubbed my ears.
It seemed I hadn’t fully woken from sleep, as my hearing felt off.
“I must have misheard. Could you say that again?”
“They’re… dead.”
“…Who?”
“The Marquise, Javid, and Fauvel Menod!”
“What?!”
I sat bolt upright.
Charlie, who had brought me this news, shouted in a panic.
“The Border Earl Fauvel Menod has completely lost his mind. Well, wouldn’t he? After witnessing such horrors!”
“…Why are they dead?”
“I don’t know. But….”
“But?”
“They say Fauvel Menod’s… was cut off…”
Cut off where?!

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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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