How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 227

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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 227
The Prince of Ilfarm, Terriars, had said it plainly.
That a nun from the Terretsa Church was on pilgrimage.
Since Ilfarm and the Empire shared the same faith, an Imperial pilgrimage was nothing unusual.
And if she were on pilgrimage, she would surely find her way to this temple where a god had descended.
Yustea’s brow furrowed.
“She ought to come, but no matter how much I look, she doesn’t appear.”
It was already the second week since I’d entered the temple disguised as a novice priest.
‘The nun from Terretsa doesn’t show up, and only Gaspard keeps coming and going all the time.’
I need to meet the nun from Terretsa and hear her story about the Channel in detail.
Yustea exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
* * *
Jedo Temple.
In a small kitchen used only for brewing tea, I was furiously whipping foam with a whisk.
To make the “white and fluffy cookie” that Gaspard had ordered yesterday.
A meringue cookie.
‘If I don’t make it and Gaspard throws a fit, I’m done for.’
I was already drawing the world’s attention on myself.
If I walked around in my true form, people would start asking why I’d sought out this place.
Word might spread about my secret demon stone trading with Ilfarm.
That’s why, troublesome as it is, I’m disguised and playing the role of a novice priest with Luciano’s help.
But if Gaspard causes a scene, my disguise will be for nothing and my identity might be exposed.
“I wish she’d show up before that happens….”
I was muttering this when—
“Maria.”
A priest’s voice came from behind me.
Maria was my alias as a priest.
“Yes?”
I set down the bowl of meringue and turned around.
A female priest with a gentle expression was looking at me.
“You work so hard. Is there nothing I can help you with?”
“It’s all right.”
The female priest took my hand.
“You’ve only recently entered the path of divine grace, yet before you can even adjust, you’re busy attending the Imperial Family. I’m troubled. If you need help, please tell me.”
Such was the backstory for “Maria.”
—A woman who became a priest late in life.
—Fortunately caught the eye of the High Priest and entered the Central Temple.
—Has severe burn scars on her face. (A cover for wearing a veil twenty-four hours a day.)
Her expression was pitying.
‘Her name was Yuri, wasn’t it?’
She was also a novice priest, but she had solid standing among her peers.
I bowed my head in thanks.
“Then I’ll see you at the three o’clock service.”
“Yes.”
Yuri smiled softly and left.
I finished the meringue cookies and stored them carefully.
Then I started tidying the kitchen.
After cleaning for a while, I checked the clock: 2:30.
‘I need to go before the three o’clock service.’
The prayer services held twice daily—at nine in the morning and three in the afternoon—were my most important schedule.
Since visitors to the temple came in time for the services, it was when I searched for the nun from Terretsa.
So I headed toward the main chapel for the service.
But something was wrong.
‘…What’s this?’
Instead of people entering the main chapel for the three o’clock service, they were actually leaving.
“Benix’s prayer recitation is always eloquent, isn’t it?”
“That one’s future looks promising. Ha ha.”
There were people chattering about how good the prayer recitation had been.
‘Surely not….’
I rushed into the main chapel.
And my body stiffened.
The priests inside the main chapel were finishing the service.
All eyes turned toward me.
Priest Benix, who had supposedly recited the prayer today, stared at me with a cold expression.
“How pathetic, Maria.”
The other priests also looked at me with disdain.
I quickly looked around to assess the situation.
The novice priests standing behind the priests were silently laughing.
Among them was Yuri, who had come to see me in the kitchen.
I immediately understood what had happened.
‘The service time was changed. The novice priests didn’t tell me about the change.’
The priests had no idea the novice priests were excluding me.
Well, they wouldn’t.
What fool would tell his superiors that they were shunning me?
Priest Benix approached me.
“Maria, you were not selected through the usual process—you came to Jedo Temple through the grace of the High Priest.
“…Yes.”
“The divine grace that led you to this path is rendered meaningless. It’s pathetic beyond measure!”
A ringing reprimand echoed through the chapel.
All the priests looked at me with furrowed brows.
“I order you to perform a prayer of penance. You are suspended from all duties until you have atoned.”
I quietly lowered my head.
Benix passed me coldly.
The other priests also left the chapel without a word.
Only after the novice priests remained did I hear the sound of snickering.
“In the end, the world turns according to nature’s course. Those who rely on cunning alone are destined to self-destruct.”
“Absolutely.”
“Let’s go, Yuri. Since Maria has been suspended from duties, we should take over attending to the Prince, shouldn’t we?”
Yuri giggled and brushed past me.
Left alone, I lifted my head.
“Ah….”
After years of living as a Saint and a Noble Lady of Esgaroth, I’d momentarily forgotten.
That every profession has its turf wars.
My eyes, looking at the stained glass of the chapel, gleamed with intent.
* * *
At sunset.
Yuri offered tea and a meringue cookie to Gaspard with an affectionate expression.
Gaspard’s brow narrowed.
“Where is that girl?”
“If you mean Maria, she’s attending to other matters.”
“Other matters?”
Gaspard’s expression turned ugly.
He ground his teeth, muttering, “I come and she’s busy with other things.”
Yuri looked up at him with apparent difficulty.
“Please don’t blame her too much. It’s not that she lacks devotion to you—she simply has much to attend to.”
She subtly implied to the Prince that Maria lacked devotion.
It was only natural that simple Gaspard grew indignant.
He pushed away the meringue cookie and tea that Yuri had brought.
With a crash, the tray and plate clattered to the ground.
Yuri pretended to be startled and lowered her head.
“Do as you like, damn it!”
As he turned to leave the temple, Yuri quickly followed.
She handed him an umbrella and said,
“It’s started to rain outside.”
She shrank her shoulders as if at a loss.
“I worry your noble person might be damaged by the rain….”
Gaspard’s brow was still furrowed, but he snatched the umbrella from Yuri’s hand.
As Gaspard left, a satisfied smile crossed Yuri’s face.
After that, Yuri returned to the novice priests’ dormitory.
The novice priests crowded around Yuri.
“How did it go?”
“Did Prince Gaspard take a liking to you?”
“Why ask the obvious? Of course he did, with Yuri around.”
Yuri smiled gently and took her seat.
“I only offered him an umbrella because it was raining. I’m glad he took it.”
“My goodness.”
The novice priests laughed merrily.
Among the princes, Luciano was the greatest, but to the novice priests, even Gaspard was far above them in status.
They longed just to exchange a word with Imperial royalty.
The novice priests clustered around Yuri and chattered away.
“No matter how I think about it, Maria’s luck is astounding. How could someone be blessed with such fortune?”
“Unlike us, who struggled through selection and were chosen, she caught the eye of the High Priest and entered the Central Temple—that alone is incredible. And on top of that, she’s close to Prince Gaspard.”
“Standing out usually invites stones to be thrown at you. Why would anyone want such attention?”
“How foolish.”
Yuri chuckled softly.
The High Priests were the twenty-one priests possessing the most formidable sacred power in the Terretsa Church.
They held power second only to the Pope.
A child brought by such a High Priest.
She was bound to draw attention.
At first, they wondered if she might be some great family’s illegitimate child.
So they treated her well initially, but….
‘Some great family, my foot.’
Her hands were so deft, it was unbelievable.
Cleaning, chores—anything she did.
She was practically a godsend of a worker.
‘Someone who was scrounging on the streets grabbed luck by the throat.’
That such a person would catch a prince’s eye was bound to breed jealousy.
Yuri smiled gently.
“Don’t be like that. She’s learned the lesson that cunning alone can’t carry you through everything, so she’ll calm down.”
“That’s right. Heh heh.”
The novice priests giggled.
“She’s even been suspended from duties. With the priests’ eyes on her like that, she won’t last long here.”
How could she recover when she’d fallen so far out of favor?
She wouldn’t even enter the services—she’d be stuck in some corner of the temple and quietly leave.
But then it happened.
One of the novice priests burst into the dormitory, shouting,
“Outside… outside…!”
The novice priest’s face was pale as she ran inside.
Yuri and the other novice priests looked at her, wondering what was wrong.
Yuri asked,
“What is it?”
“You, you have to come see it!”
Yuri and the novice priests emerged from the dormitory with puzzled expressions.
Following the pale novice priest, they arrived at the Third Prayer Hall, where individuals came to pray.
The novice priests’ faces hardened as they saw the Third Prayer Hall.
Because, well—fire was burning!
“H-how did this happen!”
“F-fire…!”
The novice priest whose face had gone pale speaking said,
“The fire is being extinguished. But more than that…!”
More than that?
Yuri, anxiety crossing her face, led the novice priests toward the entrance of the prayer hall.
The entrance was already crowded with people.
Not only priests, but the High Priest of the Temple himself was present.
Including Benix, who had scolded Maria so harshly today.
And visible among them was that veil….
‘Maria?’
It was Maria.
She stood among the priests, clutching something tightly to herself.
Priest Benix asked,
“That is… a statue, is it not?”
Maria, still holding the statue, murmured,
“I saw fire break out while I was saying my penance prayer, and without thinking, I just tore the statue down… I couldn’t bear to let it be consumed by the flame….”
“What?”
Benix and the priests’ jaws fell open.
If not for the rain, she might well have been caught in the fire and burned to death.
Yet she’d removed the statue and brought it out.
“Hah….”
“How extraordinary….”
The priests stared, their mouths hanging open in disbelief.
Benix also gazed at Maria intently, lost for words.
Then the High Priest, a man with white hair and a compassionate expression, grasped Maria’s hand.
“What remarkable devotion.”
“…Yes?”
As Maria responded in surprise, the High Priest laughed warmly.
“The penance is ours—for failing to recognize such a devoted child. Is that not so, Benix?”
Priest Benix smiled and nodded vigorously.
“Precisely well spoken.”
The other priests also found Maria admirable.
“How could one so devoted make such a mistake?”
Maria lowered her head, as if troubled.
It was an action that made everyone feel there was something more behind it.
Benix’s brow narrowed.
“Never mind that—speak freely.”
“It’s nothing….”
Her voice, as though protecting someone.
One of the priests murmured “Surely…” and suddenly turned sharply around.
Toward the novice priests.
“Did you tell Maria that the service time had changed?”
“I, that is… we….”
In that instant, the startled novice priests didn’t know what to do.
As a denial didn’t immediately come, the priests’ expressions turned savage.
Benix spoke coldly,
“It seems the truly guilty party was elsewhere after all.”
Yuri flinched.
“B-Benix!”
It was in that moment that her eyes met Maria’s, standing behind the priests.
Through the veil, Maria’s eyes gleamed like butterfly wings spreading.
“…!”
‘It was intentional.’
She set the fire on purpose.
Knowing that rain prevents fire from spreading, she’d removed the statue beforehand and set the fire.
How could anyone think of something like that!
“You….”
The moment Yuri murmured those words—
Benix spoke coldly and sharply,
“I deduct twenty points from every novice priest’s score except Maria’s.”
“B-but…!”
Yuri and the novice priests’ faces went pale.
They needed a score exceeding three hundred to take the advancement exam to become a priest.
Having lost twenty points, taking the exam this year was impossible.
“Benix…!”
But Benix and the other priests left without a backward glance.
The novice priests sank down into the wet grass, tears streaming.
“What do we do!”
Though a few novice priests even wept, Maria only shrugged her shoulders.
Maria.
Or rather, Yustea was skilled at breaking in-group hierarchies through every odd job she’d ever worked.
* * *
‘Good. I can attend services again.’
I hummed as I entered the prayer hall.
Without attending services, I couldn’t find the nun from Terretsa.
‘Yesterday’s three o’clock service attendance list had no foreigners, so the nun from Terretsa didn’t come.’
I hope she comes to today’s service.
I was thinking such thoughts while wiping a chair.
Heavy footsteps echoed in the empty prayer hall.
When I looked up, it was Yuri.
She approached me with a face flushed red and purple.
And she shoved my shoulder hard.
“Do you know what you did?”
“….”
“I could have taken the priest exam this year! But because of you…!”
“It’s your fault for not telling me the service time changed. Your fault for deceiving the priests.”
Yuri let out a hollow laugh.
Behind her, the novice priests poured in.
They all glared at me as if they’d tear me apart.
Yuri twisted her mouth and spoke,
“How far do you think you can go with what you are? I’m Count Evas’s niece. Central nobility.”
When I said nothing, Yuri’s eyes narrowed.
“Now do you understand the situation? Who exactly you’ve made an enemy of?”
I stared at the smirking Yuri and spoke,
“So what… what are you trying to say…?”
My voice sounded genuinely confused about what she wanted.
Yuri ground her teeth.
And she raised her hand toward me.
“I’m going to teach you a proper lesson. So you come to your senses.”
It was at that moment.
A tremendous commotion erupted from outside the door.
One of the novice priests looking out called out,
“T-the Empress’s Palace insignia!”
‘She’s arrived.’
While Yuri panicked, not knowing what was happening, I grabbed her wrist.
“Looks like you’re the one who needs to come to her senses.”
I didn’t mean to go this far, but if she came at me again without thinking, I needed to be ready to defend myself—so I’d taken precautions.
That is to say….
I’d informed my (future) mother-in-law.

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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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