How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 259

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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
259
Ignis cleared his throat.
“Next time… show me… your face.”
His curiosity about the face hidden behind the veil resembled that of a certain hot-blooded prince all too well.
* * *
I received the Hexagram Badge from Ignis.
He said that with this badge alone, I could prove myself to be among the Pope’s personal attendants.
I drank tea in the Tea Preparation Room, then hurried toward the World Tree Corridor.
A Holy Knight standing guard at the corridor entrance looked me over.
I held out the badge at the doorway.
“I’ve been ordered to prepare tea in the corridor.”
After verifying the badge, the Holy Knight let me pass without hesitation.
‘It worked…!’
I set the tray on the table and gazed at the World Tree inside the enormous Vacuum Chamber.
I understood now why they stationed guards so thickly at the entrance despite the Vacuum Chamber being enchanted with high-level magic.
Even from outside the chamber, I could sense a refreshing, crystalline energy.
‘It’s extraordinary.’
This would be enough.
I pulled over a chair and examined the Mana Stone affixed to the top of the Vacuum Chamber.
‘Yes, it’s a Mana Stone.’
Among the Mana Stones I’d received after fulfilling the divine task, none were this large or potent.
With this Mana Stone alone and the power leaking from outside the Vacuum Chamber, I felt we could easily return to our own time period.
‘If it’s not enough, I’ll blend in my mana and Luciano’s as well. Let me prepare.’
Soon it would be dusk.
Luciano would come.
I unfolded the large sheet of formula paper I’d hidden inside my skirt.
“I’ve brought the formula.”
All I had to do now was calculate the distance between the Mana Stone and the World Tree, the concentration of holy power in this chamber, and modify the formula accordingly.
And the moment Luciano arrives, I’ll deploy the formula and….
“Based on the Epsilon Formula?”
Someone suddenly thrust their face over my shoulder.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
I forced my stiffened neck to turn and look at the intruder.
A thin man in a white coat stood there, wearing large, thick glasses.
He pushed the glasses up with his knuckle and examined the formula paper intently.
“Trying to escape the timestream, are you? Heh-heh, that’s wasteful. You should use the Parguest-style instead.”
“I….”
I swallowed dryly and tried to speak, but the man kept his eyes fixed on the paper.
He moved directly in front of me and held the sheet up to scrutinize it.
“Wait—you’re not trying to escape the timestream. Ah, you’re aiming to negate existing magic, aren’t you? Then this is what you need.”
“….”
I clutched my skirt and stepped back.
He’d deciphered the formula in an instant.
‘It’s impossible.’
My ability to interpret this formula came from Andres’s instruction.
I could do it only because I had received advanced training from Andres, who had created and studied the Epsilon Formula.
The Epsilon Formula was Andres’s own creation.
It wasn’t something a stranger could interpret at a glance.
Which meant….
‘He’s quite capable.’
And very dangerous at that.
Even as I retreated, the man continued to study the paper.
“But that’s odd. It doesn’t look like just one young lady is trying to leave.”
The man lowered the paper and looked at me.
When I didn’t answer, he shrugged.
“Why so frightened? I am….”
“Your Highness.”
At my words, the man broke into laughter.
He pushed his glasses up.
Sharp eyes, hidden beneath the thick frames, were laid bare.
“Few people in the Imperial Palace Temple know my face.”
That made sense.
He had always been reluctant to show himself in public.
Even at official gatherings, he wore a veil to conceal his features.
His reticence had spawned endless rumors.
Some whispered he bore terrible scars on his face.
Others claimed the Pope didn’t exist at all—that the Senior Priests merely impersonated him.
A few insisted the Emperor had murdered the Pope and installed a puppet in his place.
Only after he stepped down from the papal office did the truth emerge: he had hidden his face to move more freely.
‘To move as he pleased.’
He was a dangerous man who delighted in conducting alchemical experiments and eliminating threats with his own hands.
And now he had caught me.
‘It’s all right. He hasn’t seen my face yet.’
I had to escape.
I was inching backward when—
Thud!
His shadow lashed out like a tentacle, pinning me against the wall.
“…!”
“If you ask a question, you should answer it.”
I clenched my teeth.
Edel approached me slowly.
“This formula is meant for at least two people moving together. Who were you planning to go with?”
“….”
“Let me think. You’re not someone who possesses Holy Power.”
He tilted his head lightly and leaned in close.
Lifting my chin, he spoke softly.
“That formula protects mana so it won’t be crushed beneath Holy Power, you see.”
“….”
“Hmm? Who were you trying to leave with?”
“That is….”
“Among those who can enter the Central Temple, someone with mana. Someone whose mana is powerful enough to resist Holy Power… Could it be Prince Luciano?”
“No!”
I let out a startled breath.
Edel laughed softly.
“When your answer comes too quickly, it’s as good as an admission.”
“No, truly….”
I had to buy time.
I spoke hesitantly.
“How did you come here? At this hour….”
“When everyone thinks I’m holding services with the Senior Priests?”
“Yes.”
“That’s just what people outside believe. I don’t conduct the services—Asunta does. I’m rather lazy, you see.”
“Rather seems an understatement.”
Pfft!
Edel burst into laughter.
His eyes curved into soft crescents.
“You’re an amusing one, aren’t you?”
He tapped my cheek lightly.
His expression was entirely cheerful.
“Not many dare to be so cheeky in front of me.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“What a waste that would be.”
The shadow tentacles coiled around me, twisting cruelly.
A cry of pain tore from my lips.
“Good experimental subjects are always in short supply. The Senior Priests talk too much, you see.”
He clicked his tongue with regret.
“Now, let me examine what we have here and see where it might be useful.”
He reached toward my veil to pull it down—
“Release her, if you please.”
A familiar voice echoed from the doorway.
It wasn’t Luciano.
That person was….
I drew a sharp breath, and Edel’s eyes lit with something strange.
A delight beyond measure.
“Count Andres!”
He grinned down at me, his smile crooked.
Beneath the brightness of his face, madness glimmered.
“Count Andres has come. To rescue a little girl. Then this young lady must be….”
He tore the veil from my face.
Edel laughed when he saw who I was, a high, reedy sound.
“Yustea Andres!”
I clenched my teeth.
* * *
“I told you to let go of her hand.”
Count Andres stepped forward.
Edel turned to face him.
“I’m not holding her with my hand.”
“I apologize for the rudeness my daughter has committed. I promise sufficient compensation.”
“But how can I simply let go a child who’s entered the World Tree Corridor without my permission? I’ll have to dismiss the men who let the Count in as well.”
Edel polished his glasses on his collar as he spoke.
The Count replied.
“I offer you experimental subjects and untraceable funds.”
“Hmm. Right now I’m more curious about whose magic this young lady was trying to break than subjects or money.”
….
“If I dig deep enough, I might find something far greater than a few experimental subjects and some loose change, wouldn’t you say?”
The Count’s lips curved upward slowly.
Lightning surged beneath his feet.
Edel’s glasses flew from his hands.
Edel raised an eyebrow.
Yet without any real resistance, he stepped to pick them up.
In that moment, the Count severed the Shadow Tentacles and lifted me by the ribs.
“Your problem is this: you think I’m beneath you.”
He whispered to me.
“Did you never suspect that I regressed alongside you?”
My eyes flew open wide.
I bit my lip hard.
“Since when….”
“From the beginning, perhaps.”
He set me down and stroked my head.
“I kept silent all this time because your earnest performance delighted me greatly.”
….
He met my gaze and smiled, eyes wide with amusement.
“Keep doing your best. Admire me genuinely if you can, love me sincerely. Only then will I feel inclined to let your mother and Aslan live longer.”
I couldn’t endure it any longer.
My bloodshot eyes fixed on him in fury.
“You….”
“What is lacking? I will be a tender father to you, and all you need do is love me sincerely as you did before. We will be the perfect father and daughter.”
“That’s not love.”
“No, this is love.”
The hand stroking my head was impossibly gentle.
“I abandoned everything. Only to bring you back.”
….
He gazed at me with tender eyes.
“Regret proved useless. You chose not to return. So I decided to build a new world for our family.”
….
“It will be a beautiful world. I will do everything for you. All you need do is forget.”
….
“My mistake.”
That was the moment.
Clang-clang-clang—!
Edel’s Shadow Tentacles shot toward me and the Marquis.
“Sorry to interrupt the conversation, but it’d be a problem if you forgot about me. I suffer from attention deficit, you know.”
Edel smiled brightly.
But the Shadow Tentacles never reached either me or the Marquis.
The Marquis had already burned them away with Lightning Strike.
Edel clicked his tongue in frustration.
He severed the charred tentacle. A fresh one sprouted from where it had been cut.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment.
‘This is going smoothly.’
There were two lunatics here.
Edel and the Marquis’s momentum clashed ferociously.
Edel’s eyes narrowed.
“Surely you’re not thinking you can beat me in my own domain. You know that Holy Knights would come pouring in the moment I snap my fingers. So why do you look so unbothered?”
“Did you really think I came to the Imperial Palace Temple without any preparation?”
“What kind of preparation could you have made?”
The Marquis smiled.
“Even if you cry out for help, no one will come to your aid. The Senior Priests have already been summoned to the Imperial Palace, and the Holy Knights are being held down by the Imperial Palace guards.”
“…What have you done?”
“What have I done? Your Highness is the one who committed all those crimes in the Pope’s body.”
“Tsk.”
Edel laughed loudly.
I caught on immediately.
‘He used information from before the Regression to expose Edel.’
Edel scratched his head.
“Well, what can I do? If I’m going to be driven out anyway, I might as well take a couple of good experimental subjects with me!”
Edel’s body began to turn black.
Scales sprouted along his forearms.
“Insane…!”
I cried out.
‘Chimerization!’
This madman had used even his own body as an experimental subject in the Pope’s form.
‘How did he even endure it? Any normal person would have gone mad.’
But then I faltered at the thought.
Wait.
Had he gone mad from experimenting, or had he been experimenting to reverse the madness?
Because of that Chimerization.
What if all those experiments had been an attempt to undo the Chimerization…?
‘I’ve gained tremendous information.’
Rumble-rumble-rumble….
The ground shook.
Edel’s body was expanding, growing monstrous.
That was when it happened.
“Yustea!”
Luciano’s voice rang out.
As Edel was about to launch himself skyward, Luciano pulled me into his arms and twisted his body to shield me.
Count Andres clicked his tongue sharply.
He released a torrent of Lightning Strike.
Even in that moment, I quickly glanced at one spot.
‘The formula paper!’
It lay on the floor, having fallen from Edel’s hand.
“Luciano, grab Count Andres!”
“What? Not Edel?”
“Count Andres!”
Count Andres’s body was exposed while he held back Edel.
In that opening, I dashed toward the paper and channeled Holy Power into it.
Since this was a world without a GM, my mother hadn’t sealed my body, so I could use Holy Power.
Count Andres’s eyes widened in shock.
“What…!”
“Count, you’ve been mistaken about one thing. I’m exactly where you think I am—right above your head.”
What if the Marquis didn’t know he was coming?
In case I didn’t realize I’d regressed, I deliberately prepared an Apprentice Priest’s Robe and obtained an identity badge.
To give myself away as suspicious.
And I waited for the Marquis.
‘Edel was right.’
This is a Fortress that requires two or more people to operate.
‘There’s no way I’d abandon Count Andres in the past!’
I had no idea what the Marquis might do!
‘I even anticipated him breaking the barrier.’
The room flooded with golden light.
Now we return.
To our world.
To the timeline where I belong…!
Euphoria wrapped around my body.
Then darkness.

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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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