How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 216

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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
Episode 216
Instinct took over, and I swung my palm at his face.
Slap!
“Ah, my mistake.”
Rafael’s head snapped to the side from the blow, and he froze in that position.
The men he’d brought with him stared with eyes wide as saucers.
Anne, who’d been clinging to me, gaped just as wide as she stared at me.
Rafael touched his reddening cheek with trembling fingers.
His expression suggested he couldn’t tell if this was real.
“A mistake.”
He repeated my words as if tasting them.
I nodded.
“Punching someone in the nose is supposed to be—”
The timing had been perfect.
I made a sad face, disappointed that I hadn’t managed to break his nose.
Rafael let out a hollow laugh.
“You are the first woman to strike my face.”
“And you’re the first person to actually say that line to me in real life.”
His expression was one of disbelief.
But the real disbelief was mine.
He’d come so close with clear intention to kiss me, yet he hadn’t prepared himself to get his face slapped.
Apparently, he was rather confident in his seduction skills.
With such a polished face, he’d probably never been rejected—which filled him with arrogance. That part genuinely frustrated me.
This is why people need to weather life’s storms; only then do wrinkles form in the brain, and only then does common sense take root.
As my frustration deepened, Rafael’s expression twisted further.
Grrr.
The sound of grinding teeth echoed.
In that instant, I shoved Rafael’s shoulders hard.
As he stumbled and nearly fell, I grabbed Anne’s hand and bolted like an arrow.
Anne startled and looked at me, but she offered no resistance.
Silently watching her hand tremble from mana depletion, we ran together.
“Acting tough when you’re just a kid.”
I gasped out the words as we fled, and Anne’s lips pressed into a tight line.
“Do you think you can escape? Rafael and his subordinates can generate Advanced Barriers—they’re capable mages. And barriers are your weakness.”
That’s true.
Attacks don’t get through to me.
Because I have the domain of Nullification.
I’d nullify every attack, just like that nameless smoke monster they were holding.
But barriers are different.
I’m even more vulnerable to them than to the smoke monster.
Because I have no proper means of attack against them.
“They’re maintaining an Advanced Barrier while restraining the monster. As long as they don’t abandon it, they can’t trap me inside.”
“…”
“And they can’t even dismantle the barrier and give up the monster. The monster’s already worked up—it’ll attack the moment they lower it.”
“…Your mind really does work fast.”
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Rafael and his subordinates were nowhere in sight.
Normally, I shouldn’t be able to shake trained adult men so easily.
But they were casting an Advanced Barrier on the monster.
If the distance between them and the monster widened, the incantation would break, creating serious danger—so they couldn’t move too far away.
‘They probably also calculated that I can’t easily escape the forest.’
Thanks to that, Anne and I were able to hide in the brush.
[What’s happening.]
A message came from Oscar.
He’d sensed something was wrong.
‘I’m going to get an earful….’
I braced myself for a proper scolding and explained the situation.
How I’d found Anne about to be attacked by the monster.
How I couldn’t just leave her to die, so I intervened.
How Rafael discovered us.
Once I finished, this message appeared on the window:
[You’re insane.]
I laughed awkwardly and sent a reply.
[I’ve heard that a lot….]
[Is that supposed to be praise?]
Oscar’s message felt ominous.
I quickly sent another response.
[I apologize. Saying it was unavoidable would be an excuse, wouldn’t it? That I’ve disrupted the plan and can no longer guarantee my own safety—there’s no excuse that covers that… (cont.)….]
I apologized hastily, but Oscar didn’t respond.
The silence felt incredulous.
But then, shortly after:
[Location.]
—came this message.
“Where are we?”
I asked Anne.
Anne watched as my expression shifted moment by moment while I stared into empty air.
“It’s a system message. The Game Master’s characteristic.”
“…!”
You know about that?
My eyes widened, and Anne turned her gaze away with an impassive face.
“The Game Master was always frustrated by it. That characteristic.”
She must have learned about this characteristic from the Game Master.
Anne spoke briskly after a moment.
“OH7-1.”
“OH7-1?”
“Coordinates. Oscar will know.”
My eyes widened again.
My heart shrank at the realization that she knew about my conversation with Oscar.
If he’s exposed as being on our side, he’ll be in danger.
As I swallowed hard, Anne rested her chin on her hand.
“You think only you noticed?”
“…How?”
“Every time we tried to move against Esgaroth or the Second Prince, we got blocked. Someone inside the Restoration Council had to be feeding them information. There’s only one person who makes sense.”
“…”
“Oscar, who used to be an Irregular.”
Anne’s voice carried no emotion.
“Besides, I saw Oscar at the headquarters last time—saw him struggling with confusion because of you two. That confirmed it.”
“Who else knows?”
“A few officers. Rafael’s side seems close to certain as well. But without evidence, they haven’t reported it hastily.”
Anne stood and brushed dust from her clothes.
“Go.”
She glanced at me sidelong.
“I’ll repay the debt of you saving me with silence. You don’t need to worry.”
“What about you?”
I grabbed the tip of Anne’s hand.
The fingers that had been smooth and soft at the headquarters near the Ghost Castle Dungeon now bore calluses like sandpaper.
“If I just disappear like this, they’ll think you helped me escape.”
“I’m used to torture.”
With those words, Anne stepped into the darkness.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her even after she vanished.
Oscar arrived shortly after.
“You…!”
“…”
He started to shout but stopped short.
Seeing my blank expression, he seemed to understand something had happened.
“Yustea.”
“I’m sorry. The plan’s about to get more complicated.”
His eyes glinted sharply in the darkness.
* * *
The Monster’s Forest at the Restoration Council headquarters.
Crack—!
Startled birds scattered at the sharp sound of impact.
Rafael, who’d just struck Anne’s cheek, snarled viciously.
“You let the Saint escape?”
“I did.”
“Should I believe you?”
“What difference does it make if I’m not believed?”
“Re-education seems necessary.”
Rafael made a gesture with his chin.
His subordinates roughly forced Anne to her knees.
Rafael received Black Cloth from one of his men.
Anne’s eyes flickered narrowly.
The moment the Black Cloth covered her eyes, Anne lost her composure and thrashed violently.
“No, no…!”
Rafael’s ‘education’ had left her with deep trauma.
He’d locked her in a Nailed Box and starved her for ten days.
More than the hunger, the deep loneliness of no one searching for her had seared fear into her soul.
Gasping painfully—wheeze, gasp, choke—she convulsed in claustrophobic panic.
Rafael regarded her with an indifferent expression and spoke.
“Deploy the soldiers. The Saint must not escape the Castle under any circumstances.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
After the subordinates left, Rafael clicked his tongue.
This had become troublesome.
There was a reason even Narvan’s persuasion had failed.
Yustea’s stubbornness was extraordinary.
Perhaps it would be better to stick to the original plan—duplicate her characteristic and create a new Saint.
As he mulled this over, his brow furrowed.
The Restoration Council and Game Master’s intended new Saint, Calypso, was an easy woman to handle.
‘But her quality falls short.’
Having spent her whole life locked in a Tower, she lacked common sense and refinement.
A Saint should be a symbol of dawn.
Bowing before someone like Calypso—his pride would not allow it.
But Yustea….
“This curtain fabric—it’s called Pasedh Cloth. It was developed not long ago on a distant continent across the sea. It hasn’t been distributed in the Empire yet.”
“Did your family oversee rites in the Old Kingdom?”
Those eyes that saw several moves ahead.
The grace overflowing with refinement.
The dignity that revealed her noble birth.
‘That is truly worthy of our Saint.’
At that moment, he ran the tip of his tongue across his dry lips.
Whshhhh—!
A rope shot through the air.
Rafael flinched and looked around.
On both sides, Yustea and Oscar held the rope’s ends, binding Rafael.
The rope flashed golden.
They’d poured mana into it.
The rope held firm as if it were chain.
Oscar shouted.
“Binding Technique. Didn’t you learn that from the Irregular?”
“I did. I did, but…!”
“Then why is your form so sloppy?”
“I’m low on mana!”
Yustea spoke with frustration written all over her face.
She’d already consumed considerable mana fighting the monster and healing Anne.
Attempting the Binding Technique on top of that made her joints shake with exhaustion.
Oscar spoke.
“How do you plan to restrain Rafael in that state?”
Rafael let out a soft chuckle.
“Me? As if.”
Yustea pulled the rope taut and spoke.
“You talk a lot for someone who’s bound.”
The same tone Rafael had used was now echoed back at him.
As Rafael’s face crumpled, Oscar burst out laughing.
“You won’t win with words.”
He’d convinced himself of this fact while pursuing Rafael—even as he acknowledged that Rafael had gotten the better of him through pure talk.
Rafael twisted his body violently.
Fortresses materialized in all directions around him as his focal point.
He was attempting to use magic.
Oscar drove his sword into the ground and bound the rope in place in an instant.
He lowered himself and drove a mana-reinforced fist into Rafael’s abdomen.
Oscar’s mana flowed through Rafael’s body.
He was trying to create a calculation error in Rafael’s incantation.
The strategy worked.
The characters of the Fortress Rafael had conjured began to distort.
In that opening, Yustea hurriedly tied the rope around a tree.
Then she rushed to Anne, who still had the Black Cloth over her head.
As she pulled it away, Anne’s face was revealed—eyes rolled back, foam at her lips.
“Anne….”
“N-no… no… don’t lock me away… no, don’t….”
Anne muttered incoherently, as if her spirit had left her body.
Yustea’s face hardened as she glared at Rafael.
“…How could anyone do this to another person.”
Rafael, pinned down by Oscar’s arm and shoulder against his throat, had his lip corners curl upward.
‘Excited.’
Lightning-like mana burst from Rafael’s feet.
Toward Yustea.
Zzzzt—!
With a sharp sound, Yustea was knocked backward.
A gash tore across her face as blood poured freely.
“Yustea!”
In that moment, Oscar lost his opening.
Rafael didn’t miss it.
He erupted with mana at its limit, shoving Oscar away.
Thrown back, Oscar crashed into a tree and sprawled on the ground.
The rope binding Rafael snapped.
He massaged his throat as he approached Yustea.
“How lovely.”
He gazed with satisfaction at blood-soaked Yustea, then reached out his hand.
Within Rafael’s striking range.
Oscar couldn’t move.
If he attacked recklessly, there was no telling what Rafael would do to Yustea.
“You should have cooperated willingly.”
“…”
“Then I would have had no reason to be cruel.”
“…You think you’ve won?”
“I don’t seem to be losing.”
His fingertips moved slowly toward Yustea’s cheek, the intent to mock unmistakable.
It was then that Yustea smiled.
‘She’s smiling?’
An ominous feeling crept over him.
Grrrraaaaaaaa—.
A bizarre sound—whether the cry of a beast or the wail of wind—assaulted his ears.
He jerked his head up.
‘The monster.’
He turned toward the monster that nearly killed Anne and had been locked away by Rafael and his subordinates’ barrier.
When he’d sent the subordinates away, Rafael had taken over maintaining the barrier.
But with all the attacks—the giving and taking of blows—gaps had formed.
Especially when he’d unleashed mana violently to attack Yustea.
“Deliberately…!”
He spun back to Yustea with a pale face.
The thoroughly enraged monster lunged at Rafael.
“Gahhk—!”
As the black smoke that formed the monster’s body engulfed Rafael, he let out a sharp gasp.
It was then that Yustea raised her voice.
“I offer up a Servant Demon!”
‘A Servant Demon?’
That was the Quest the Constellation had required.
To offer up a Servant Demon with three thousand mana and musical aptitude.
“Fool…! The monster can still move…!”
If he failed the Quest now, he would incur a Penalty.
The Goddess of Beauty’s Penalty was brutally harsh.
If he exploited the moment Yustea received the Penalty, he could drag her back to the Castle.
Oscar would be powerless to resist, forced to focus on her treatment.
‘If I just handle the monster….’
But Yustea’s expression was composed.
She spoke.
“The Servant Demon is you.”
‘…What?’
In that instant, a pillar of light crashed down upon Rafael.
“Impossible!”
He resisted violently, but it was futile.
[The Tamer of Eight Dogs has completed the Quest.]
[Rafael (Guardian of Old Kingdom Aesthetics) has been successfully converted to Servant status.]
And posts began appearing on the shared channel.
BearLover: What? Damn it.
BearLover: Is that even possible?
And another.
KindSpeaker: ???

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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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