How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 252

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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 252
Hair golden as scattered threads of silk, gleaming in the light.
Eyes blue as a lake holding the full force of the summer sun.
A tall frame, broad-shouldered.
A bearing so elegant it made all of it shine brighter still.
And a face that bore an unmistakable resemblance to Yustea.
Yujina cried out.
“Count Andres!”
She sprinted toward him without hesitation.
The frozen expression Ludovico had worn since the divorce mention shattered in an instant.
‘It’s Count Andres. I found Count Andres first!’
Fear evaporated. Nothing remained but joy.
The first lord of the Eastern Region.
The Crown Prince’s first trial had been to quell the Eastern disturbances.
The territorial war in the East—the greatest problem and the Crown Princess Mother’s own objective—had been solved by Yustea.
But Count Andres’s abduction was surely one of those Eastern disturbances as well.
If she brought him back safely, Ludovico could also pass the first trial.
‘Once that’s done, Ludovico’s heart will soften.’
The divorce talk would fade. He could begin to dream of the Crown Prince’s seat again.
Yujina turned back to Ludovico, beaming.
“We found the Marquis. We were first!”
“….”
“Heavens, fate truly favors us after all.”
“….”
“How could this be? Look, Ludovico—we could never be torn apart…!”
“Step back.”
“What?”
Yujina let out a bewildered laugh.
“What do you—”
It happened in an instant.
Her throat seized. Her body lifted from the ground.
“Ahhh!”
Worse than being hoisted was the agony of strangulation.
“W-what… urgh…”
Clinging to Count Andres’s arm, her face turned ashen as she thrashed.
“I’m… I’m carrying the Imperial heir… Ludovico!”
Her eyes pleaded toward him for help.
But Ludovico stood rigid, motionless.
As if frozen solid.
“W-what… Lud… gack…!”
Though she reached out, Ludovico merely shook his head, his face drained of all color.
Only after Count Andres hurled Yujina away did he begin to back up, faltering.
Ludovico knew what this was.
His eyes were like the sea before a storm—utterly still.
Eyes devoid of any light.
A face from which all expression had fled, as if the very muscles had withered.
Breath rising from deep in his throat, roughened by a metallic rasp.
A secret of the Imperial Family and the Seven Families alone.
A Berserk state.
The blessing granted by the Imperial Court to the Seven Families had run wild.
He shouted.
“B-Berserk—!!”
A scream that tore through the air echoed across the grounds.
* * *
“B-Berserk—!!”
At the distant cry, birds scattered upward in a flutter of wings.
Soldiers who had been checking weapons or returning from patrol stiffened.
The Imperial Family and I felt it too.
“It’s Ludovico’s voice. Bi!”
Ain was the first to speak.
He had found the Deatservant Eppy—or rather, Bi.
He snapped into alert immediately.
The Imperial Family and I exchanged glances rapidly.
‘Berserk. He said Berserk.’
The Imperial princesses nodded, fear etched across their faces.
Berserk.
It was a secret known only to the Imperial Family and the Seven Families.
A state in which the Imperial Court’s Blessing had spiraled into violent excess.
We who shared this hidden knowledge understood it well.
How dangerous a Blessing in Berserk truly was.
“Where is Prince Ludovico?”
As I shouted, Yuise answered.
“By the lakeside.”
“Move quickly!”
We needed to identify the target and stage of the Berserk.
‘If we waste time, this entire area could detonate.’
We rushed toward the lakeside.
The scene that unfolded there was staggering.
Ludovico lay sprawled on the ground, convulsing violently, his body soaked with filth.
“No, no… don’t come… don’t come…!”
His skin was mangled as though burned away, as though struck by lightning itself, twisted grotesquely out of shape.
Yujina stood trembling with terror, her back pressed against a tree, gasping for breath.
And standing between them was….
“Count Andres….”
I murmured the words.
My hands clenched around my garment.
I had suspected as much.
Among those who possessed a Blessing, only he would be in this place.
He had been kidnapped by the Reconstruction Society—he should have been nearby.
The Marquis’s eyes held no light whatsoever.
Like a broken machine, he creaked and turned his neck to stare at me.
“What is that?”
Antonio’s brow furrowed.
As the Marquis began to approach, Antonio stepped forward to block him.
“You seem to be in an unusual state.”
“….”
“Move, and I’ll cut you down.”
The Marquis moved.
Antonio launched himself forward to intercept him.
“No!”
I cried out.
Not out of concern for the Marquis.
‘What I’m afraid of is—!’
Crack-crack-crack!
The earth screamed; electricity coursed through my entire body.
Rohan Andres. The Blessing he received as Head of the Seven Families.
Lightning Strike.
Antonio took the full brunt of the Lightning Strike.
His body convulsed violently as he collapsed.
“Yuise!”
String Weaving spilled forth from Yuise’s fingertips.
Interwoven strings wrapped around Antonio and yanked him free.
“Antonio!”
The Unit Members rushed to examine him.
Antonio panted heavily. At least he wasn’t completely immobilized like Ludovico.
Antonio let out a groan. And in the next moment….
“…What?”
He gasped in confusion, breathing hard.
He seemed to be trying to stand, but only his head tilted backward instead.
“It’s because of the Lightning Strike. Her nervous system is twisted.”
I know this state.
When Father and the Marquis were at each other’s throats at Andres Estate.
The Marquis used Lightning Strike, and because of it, Father’s nervous system became twisted just like Antonio’s.
If you try to move your right hand, your left foot moves instead; if you try to lift your waist, your head will snap backward.
Father is a genius whose battle sense appears once in a century, if that.
He adapted and responded immediately, but it would be impossible for anyone else.
Even the Irregular Elite couldn’t manage it.
‘And back then, once the fight ended, I healed him right away. But now it’s impossible.’
Cesar shouted.
“Isn’t a Blessing supposed to be something like the power or nature of a Pattern? You said we can’t use our nature because of the Mana-Sealing Stone!”
“A Blessing is different….”
What began as the power or nature of a Pattern has been refined over centuries.
So that the Heads of the Seven Families could pass it down generation after generation.
It seemed that in the refinement process, special conditions were met, allowing the power of the Mana-Sealing Stone to have no effect whatsoever.
Crack-crack-crack!
Another Lightning Strike erupted.
Abel immediately deployed a Barrier to block it, but the force was strong enough to push him back.
I spoke up.
“Can you contain it with a Barrier?”
“At that level, even if I contain it, it won’t hold for long. We’d need to drain his strength.”
I shouted.
“Contain it no matter what! If he expends all his mana like this, he’ll cause an explosion!”
That was why I’d run all the way to the lakeside despite knowing the danger.
Not only the Irregulars, but even the Imperial Palace knights came rushing in.
But it was futile.
“Damn it, that’s broken…!”
“Ugh….”
Lightning Strike can deal area damage in a single burst.
Moreover, those hit by it have their nervous systems scrambled and can’t move.
The Imperial Palace knights and the regular Clan Members of the Irregulars collapsed like straw.
The Elite were taking cover by clinging to trees or escaping skyward through Barriers when the Lightning Strike began, but there was no knowing when they’d fall.
The unconscious make no calculations.
Neither of mana nor of life.
It was as good as having accepted death.
A person with a Blessing like Lightning Strike, unafraid of death itself.
The most troublesome type to face.
The Imperial Family members who had withdrawn beyond Lightning Strike’s range spoke.
“W-we need to… run….”
“Where, exactly?”
“But we’ll die like this!”
“If he explodes in here, we’re all dead anyway. Don’t you know how wide the blast radius is?! With a Barrier already in place, where exactly are you going to go?!”
“B-but even if he doesn’t explode, the Marquis will kill us!”
The princesses were in complete panic.
‘So that’s why they locked us in here.’
The Restoration Council had no intention of stepping in themselves to wage a war of attrition and kill us.
They meant to slaughter all the Imperial Family and soldiers through the Marquis’s rampage!
That’s when it happened.
The Marquis’s gaze turned toward Abel.
‘No, not Abel!’
If not him, there’s no one else who can deploy a Barrier and contain the Marquis!
Yuise unraveled a String Weaving and threw Abel outside the strike’s range.
But instead of Abel, Lightning Strike poured down upon Yuise.
“Aaaahhh!”
Yuise’s scream tore through the sky.
I remembered.
‘A Holy Point….’
The reason I returned to the Empire earlier than originally planned was because of the Holy Points.
Do not bury my father’s body.
The enemy waits for a moment of mourning.
‘It wasn’t Father. It was Count Andres.’
* * *
At the Reconstruction Society Headquarters.
In the darkened room, only the Mirror World glowed with light.
[Get Yuise here at once!]
[Damn it—!]
Inside the Mirror World, Yustea’s face had gone pale.
The executives who had repeatedly suffered at Yustea’s hands burst into hearty, booming laughter.
“Now we’re finally seeing something cute about her.”
An elderly man leering at the scene turned his gaze toward the seat of honor.
The man at the seat of honor watched the Mirror World in silence.
The leader of the Reconstruction Society.
An Archduke of the Old Empire.
Archduke Arcunterra raised his glass.
“A spectacle well worth the price I paid.”
A voice similar to Oscar’s drifted out with leisurely ease.
Four executives and an elite battalion had been lost to capture Count Andres.
Yet if he could eliminate all the troublesome elements at once, it was hardly an expensive bargain.
Inside the Mirror World, Yustea’s expression was desperate.
Their situation was spiraling toward the worst possible outcome.
Oscar, standing by the wall, clenched his fists.
“Have you forgotten our contract with the Game Master? The Saint is ‘material’ necessary for the Red Lunar Eclipse, Your Grace.”
“Ha ha.”
The Archduke let out a low laugh.
“There is no shortage of substitutes. We have Calypso, do we not?”
“Calypso remains incomplete. If we miss the deadline…”
“The Red Lunar Eclipse is for the Great Return. To transplant all things of the world back to the time when our Empire flourished.”
The wine in the glass swirled gently in the Archduke’s grip.
“Without the Great Return, if we can seize this land from the invaders, there would be no need to abide by our contract with the Game Master.”
“But—”
“Are you attached to that child?”
Every gaze in the room fixed on Oscar at once.
“…!”
Oscar gritted his teeth.
A smile played across the Archduke’s lips.
“Components are always replaceable, whether it be emotion or people. They are nothing but parts for the greater cause.”
“…”
The color drained from Oscar’s face.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Helplessness tightened around his throat.
The fact that he could do nothing while that child and his comrades were dying crushed his chest.
‘Yustea.’
Inside the Mirror World, Yustea and her comrades were in dire straits.
Yet they could not move.
Archduke Arcunterra extended complete trust to no one, not even his own son.
Oscar had learned of this situation only thirty minutes ago.
The moment he found out, he was dragged to this room.
It was all for surveillance.
If he made a move now, far from helping Yustea and the Irregulars, he would only allow the Reconstruction Society to exploit him and plunge Aslan into danger as well.
But then came that moment.
Clang—!
With a sharp, explosive sound, Count Andres was hurled backward violently.
It was Luciano.
One of the executives observing the Mirror World let out a low murmur.
“Luciano is stepping in.”
“But it’s futile.”
“Indeed. If he takes a Lightning Strike…”
True to their words, Count Andres unleashed a torrent of Lightning Strikes.
Luciano’s body convulsed under the barrage.
Agh!
Laughter burst out.
“His insides must be in ruins. He shouldn’t even be able to move, let alone attack….”
But something was wrong.
Luciano, who had stirred his limbs slightly, suddenly threw himself back at Count Andres.
Luciano’s blade slashed across Count Andres’ waist.
“Impressive, his sense of balance….”
The officers shook their heads in disbelief.
Even the Elite of the Irregulars had failed to adapt to a nervous system destroyed so thoroughly in such short time.
Yet however sluggish his body had grown, Luciano was moving.
“It’s only a matter of time, though.”
One of the officers muttered the words in a flat tone.
“Hold him just as he is!”
Yustea cried out.
‘What?’
The Archduke’s face twisted.
“You didn’t… use my lover as bait?”
What was she trying to do?

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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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