How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 264

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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
264
A sigh escaped me, but keeping him alive came first.
‘I can’t use Rewind while his body is pierced like that.’
I shouted.
“Luciano!”
Luciano immediately deployed Space Breaking toward Idel.
In the moment Idel’s body tensed, soldiers dragged Gaspard out.
While Luciano and the soldiers held Idel at bay, I used Rewind to heal Gaspard.
Rewind is the superior form of healing.
It restores the body to its most robust state.
The same applied to stamina and mana.
Which meant Gaspard regained consciousness immediately.
He clenched his teeth and searched for his fallen blade.
“What were you thinking?”
At my question, Gaspard’s face twisted with displeasure.
Picking up his sword, he spoke without taking his eyes off Idel.
“What?”
His tone was sharp.
I furrowed my brow.
“Even regular dragon-subjugation units operate with large-scale forces and meticulous preparation when facing a dragon. Yet you brought an unpracticed guard unit to hunt one down?”
“Are you blind with ambition for the crown prince, thinking we ground through the guards like expendable tools?!”
Gaspard burst out indignantly, his glare fixed on me.
I blinked.
“That’s not what happened?”
“No. That monster attacked first!”
“What?”
“He suddenly dragged Ludvico inside—tried to swallow him whole!”
“…!”
What?
I glanced at Idel in shock.
‘Why did Idel attack Ludvico?’
Idel had agreed to our bargain.
He’d promised to give us the Reverse Scale if we brought him the Unicorn Horn—so why would he suddenly do something like that?
Even as these thoughts raced through my mind, Luciano and his soldiers were locked in desperate combat with Idel.
Luciano shouted.
“Out of the cave!”
At his command, the princes and soldiers fled with urgency.
“Your Holiness!”
Luciano’s adjutant hoisted me onto his shoulder and bolted from the cavern.
The moment we burst outside—
Boom-crash!
A deafening explosion erupted.
The ground trembled, and with a thunderous rumble, the cave began to collapse.
Raaaaagh—!
A bone-chilling roar echoed through the air.
“Lu, Luciano…!”
Calipso, who had reached the cave entrance, went deathly pale.
She turned to Luciano’s adjutant and demanded.
“Where’s Luciano?”
“He detonated the cave, my lady.”
“Then… that means….”
Without another word, she rushed toward the collapsed entrance.
With bare hands, she frantically clawed through the rubble.
Her hands bled, staining red, but she didn’t stop.
Yohaël pulled her back.
“Stop. You’re hurt.”
“Luciano… no, Luciano….”
His restraint fell on deaf ears.
Ashen-faced, she only continued moving her blood-soaked hands.
Luciano’s soldiers stared at her with trembling eyes.
Even the priests swallowed hard.
That she had lost her reason for Luciano’s sake struck them as both touching and tragic.
The same was surely true of the citizens watching this scene through the broadcast.
“Oh… Luciano, please….”
Tears streamed without pause from Calipso’s wide eyes.
* * *
[Oh… Luciano, please….]
Plaza of Justice.
Calipso’s sobs echoed from the Mirror World.
The citizens in the square gaped at the sudden catastrophe unfolding before them.
“What is to be done….”
“Your Highness….”
Luciano had remained alone in the cave and triggered the explosion.
Everyone knew it was a sacrifice to save his brothers and his soldiers.
Calipso’s fragile tears made his sacrifice all the more poignant.
Even as her hands grew slicked with blood, she did not stop clawing through the cave’s rubble.
Her fingernails tore and split, yet she never paused.
Her devotion was so raw that everyone in the Mirror World fell silent, watching in awe.
The sorrowful notes in her voice moved the softhearted to tears.
Yet some in the crowd found her actions strange—after all, she was Yohaël’s partner.
“Did Calipso have such a deep connection to Prince Luciano?”
“That’s what I’m wondering.”
“Come to think of it, it was Prince Luciano who brought her here in the first place.”
A murmur of recognition rippled through the assembly.
“Ah, so they had a bond. That explains it….”
“But all this time, hasn’t Calipso been helping Prince Yohaël? If their bond ran so deep, why did she do that?”
“She must have been thinking of Prince Luciano’s position.”
“Yes. Since Prince Luciano was betrothed to the Saint, revealing her connection carelessly might have created a rift between them.”
A girl who had to survive in the Imperial Palace, unable to reveal her heart for Luciano and the Saint.
The assembly, grasping her pitiable circumstances, heaved sorrowful sighs.
“Listening to this, one might think she was Prince Luciano’s lover.”
“Her devotion runs that deep….”
“But what, pray, is the Saint doing?”
An old man with silver hair clicked his tongue and tapped his walking stick against the ground.
Yustea, reflected in the Mirror World, was simply watching the entrance of the cave.
The Irregulars watching the Mirror World in the square muttered among themselves.
Charlie let out a low groan.
“She seems to be brooding over something.”
Yuise nodded.
Those who had known Yustea for a long time could sense at once that she was lost in thought.
But those unfamiliar with her….
“Even now she finds Calipso displeasing.”
“Really, what is this Saint doing?”
“She ought to use that vaunted healing of hers to save her betrothed.”
Bitter murmurs spilled out.
Yustea’s hardened expression left room for those interpreting it to twist her intent.
Of course, some voices rose in Yustea’s defense as well.
“The problem is that the one making a scene is his fiancée and lover both—not the Saint herself.”
“It’s no fault of the Saint’s if she doesn’t appear more pitiful.”
“She must be scheming something. That’s always how it is with her!”
Those defending Yustea and those moved by Calipso’s display raised their voices against each other.
“And where is that famous Nullification Field of hers? She abandoned it and ran.”
“The Saint didn’t flee—Prince Luciano’s knight brought her out.”
“Still, she should have stood firm and protected the prince. That’s what Calipso would have done.”
“Would standing firm solve anything? It would only waste her mana.”
The square descended into chaos.
The Irregulars frowned.
“The mood has shifted into a rivalry between the young lady and Calipso….”
“Excessively so….”
Unit Members of Miliano’s unit muttered among themselves.
The Unit Members of Yustea’s team, who had been watching the atmosphere with furrowed brows, flinched.
“That bastard!”
The Unit Members of Yustea’s team pointed at someone.
It was a man who had sprung to his feet, passionately defending Calipso’s noble character.
“Think about it—Yustea Esgaroth hasn’t really lived up to being a Saint, has she? When the Empire faced disasters or major crises, when it mattered most, she never left a mark of sacrifice.”
According to him, Calipso was the true possessor of a beautiful, saintly character.
Yustea, he claimed, had merely profited from the Empire’s crises to line her own pockets.
Comparisons between Calipso and Yustea poured endlessly from the man’s mouth.
The Unit Members of Yustea’s team clenched their teeth.
“He’s a Guild Member from the Information Guild—someone Prince Yohael uses frequently.”
“What?”
The faces of the Irregulars darkened visibly.
‘He’s manipulating public opinion.’
Yohael was already preparing for the third trial.
The greatest difference between Yohael and Luciano was their standing with the masses.
Yohael was a prince who had once committed a grave wrong.
He had used Luciano after his Chimerification, attempting to take his life.
It was a fundamental failure of moral character.
But Luciano was a prince against whom no wrongdoing had ever been proven.
From childhood, he had led every battle to victory and was called a hero by the people.
“If Calipso stands with Yohael now, it could offset his moral failings.”
Yustea murmured coldly.
Cesar clenched his teeth at this.
“They’re canonizing Calipso and dragging down Yustea’s moral standing.”
“Damn it….”
The masses are easily swayed.
Once an image takes hold, they judge everything else by the frame they’ve constructed.
‘If a problem arises here, we’re finished.’
“If the third trial requires the people’s judgment or aid, we’ve already lost before it begins.”
At Cesar’s words, the Unit Members spoke with anxious faces.
“But Prince Luciano has to survive to even take the third trial, doesn’t he?”
“If the Prince actually dies….”
Yustea spoke.
“She’s not moving. She’s decided not to protect Luciano. Which means….”
The moment he murmured this.
Crash—!
A black dragon soared from the wreckage of the collapsed cave.
And what appeared before it was….
[Luciano—!]
Calipso’s cry erupted.
The sphere was a small barrier formed by condensed Mana.
The people who saw Luciano alive broke into cheers.
“Hooray—!”
“Hooray!”
The plaza trembled.
But the expressions of the Irregulars did not brighten.
“She seems to have expended considerable Mana.”
“Will she have enough to fight the dragon?”
“Even if the young lady uses Rewind, it seems impossible for her alone.”
“This will be a war of attrition. Either her Mana runs out or the dragon falls—one or the other.”
“And in that gap, if the princes seize the Reverse Scale, all this effort will be for nothing.”
The Irregulars clicked their tongues.
Antonio was outraged.
“Why the hell is that dragon acting up all of a sudden!”
Miliano exhaled heavily.
“What’s already happened can’t be undone. But one thing is certain—unless the young lady achieves a perfect victory, the true prize of this trial will go to Calipso.”
The Unit Members looked helpless with frustration.
The agents Yohael had planted in the plaza smiled knowingly.
‘This is our victory.’
‘In the end, all the gains from this game will go to Calipso.’
But then it happened.
[…Magic. Holy magic is being deployed. Maemuljin!]
Yustea cried out.
The priests that Gaspard had brought flinched.
Maemuljin was a considerably high-tier spell.
It resembled Meteor, which drops a massive meteorite from the sky, except that instead of stone, Condensed Holy Essence rained down.
[B-but that dragon possesses fairly considerable intellect.]
Ignis, the representative of the priests, nodded as well.
[If it calculates where the Condensed Holy Essence will fall and dodges, only Holy Power will be consumed.]
[It can’t calculate. It’s lost its sanity—!]
[…What did you say?]
[Quickly!]
Yustea shouted.
The priests wore bewildered expressions.
The people too blinked in confusion.
“It’s lost its sanity?”
“Suddenly?”
“Wasn’t it able to communicate just an hour ago?”
While they stood bewildered, Yustea called out.
[The reason why the dragon made its nest here. Why there was only a single unicorn in the forest. Why it suddenly tried to drag away and devour Prince Ludvico. It all points to one thing.]
[What….]
[It’s losing its sanity from the pain. It’s been suppressing the agony using the Unicorn Horn!]
It had barely endured by preying on the unicorns that lived in the forest.
Now that it had reached a state where it could no longer make the journey to the forest on its own, it must have made that proposal: ‘Bring me the Unicorn Horn.’
And there was one more thing.
Yustea knew something others did not.
‘Idel has undergone repeated modifications to his body—chimerification.’
Had she not witnessed it in that ‘impossible world’?
His entire body, corrupted and twisted black.
[Then just use the Unicorn Horn!]
Ludvico spoke through ragged breaths.
At that, Gaspard roared aloud.
[Fool! Ten minutes have passed since the horn was severed! All the Holy Power must be exhausted!]
[Then… then we have to rely on Maemuljin? Can you be certain it will end things with that?]
[….]
Gaspard’s face twisted.
He too could not be certain.
In fact, it seemed nearly impossible.
Ludvico had felt it while being dragged into the cave and facing the dragon.
That creature existed in a realm beyond what those they’d brought could handle.
A monster?
No—closer to a natural disaster.
Neither the Mana Stone Sword nor the two-handed spear could pierce those scales.
And the tentacles that burst from the shadows contaminated everyone they touched.
[We’ll have to hold it off somehow and hope for reinforcements….]
Gaspard was muttering this when—
The preparation of Maemuljin was complete.
[Deploying.]
Ignis asked.
Yustea nodded.
Enormous spear-like shafts of Condensed Holy Essence poured down from the sky.
Shreeeeek—!
The black dragon, unable to evade the cascading Holy Essence, let out a bone-chilling shriek.
“What?!”
“What, what is that?!”
Those watching from the Mirror World cried out.
Yustea charged toward the dragon as it tumbled down from the barrage of Essence.
In her hand, she gripped the Unicorn Horn.
[You fool! The Unicorn Horn has lost its efficacy!]
Yustea—!
Gaspard and Luciano cried out in unison.
But in that instant, a strange shimmer of light converged upon Yustea’s hand.
The Unicorn Horn, drained of all its Holy Power and extinguished, blazed with radiance once more.
The Elite of the Irregulars, who had been concentrating on the Mirror World, stiffened upright.
“Rewind!”
“Rewind…!”
It was Rewind.
She had reversed the Holy Power of the Unicorn Horn itself.
That was the moment Yustea drove the Unicorn Horn into the scales of the black dragon.
“Wh—?”
“U… Uaaaah—!”
“Uaaaaaaah—!!”
The town square turned inside out.
Yohael’s elite guard flinched.
Cesar and Yuise stepped forward and draped their arms across the men’s shoulders.
“The mark of a hero. It isn’t merely a noble heart.”
“It’s an unbroken string of perfect victories.”
Our Saint was exactly that kind of person.

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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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