How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 280

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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 280
I wasn’t the only one caught off guard.
The eyes of the Irregular Elite widened.
The elite exchanged glances, their faces turning in various directions.
Some stifled laughter, others shrugged their shoulders, and still others looked away with expressions of boredom.
Oscar paid it no mind at all.
He simply pressed his lips to the back of my hand….
“Take responsibility for keeping me alive. My young lady.”
“I… ”
I hesitated, uncertain what to say.
A sharp gaze cut through the air from the entrance.
It was Luciano, standing with arms crossed in an acerbic pose.
I stiffened again, and Oscar’s eyes turned toward him.
Oscar’s lips curled into a lazy smile.
Luciano returned it with a sneer of his own.
Luciano spoke.
“Let him die.”
Oscar replied at once.
“How coldly you speak, sir.”
Luciano’s and Oscar’s gazes clashed fiercely.
* * *
As the sun descended.
After finishing our meal and preparations, we followed Oscar’s lead toward the dungeon entrance.
All the while, I kept watch for Luciano’s reaction.
“So here’s how this all came about….”
Before we left, I’d been embraced by Gaspard, and today I’d received a declaration of rivalry from Oscar—I felt like a criminal caught red-handed.
‘This is a disaster.’
Even if Luciano breathed fire, I had no defense.
I walked beside him, braced for a thorough scolding.
But then I failed to notice a loose stone in the path.
The moment my foot caught on it.
“Careful.”
Luciano wrapped a gentle hand around my waist.
I flinched and looked up at him.
His face wasn’t angry, his voice wasn’t cold.
“You’re… not upset?”
He answered my question softly.
“How could I risk fracturing our bond and giving a rival the space to slip through the cracks?”
“What?”
He pressed his lips lightly to the back of my hand.
“I need to make sure you think of nothing but me.”
“…!”
I gasped, eyes flying to his face.
Luciano cast a sideways glance behind us.
Oscar’s eyes, visible among the elite, narrowed to slits.
Regardless, Luciano continued, still holding my hand.
“The barking of a stupid dog that mistook where to snap his jaws is merely seasoning that makes our bond all the sweeter.”
He wasn’t speaking to me.
Those words were meant to turn Oscar’s insides out.
Oscar’s brow shot up.
He was still smiling, but he was definitely stung.
I let out a small laugh.
“You’re shameless.”
“…Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is.”
Luciano’s gaze had grown soft.
I squeezed his hand tightly.
We were in the midst of our hushed laughter when.
“Damn it….”
“Care to take a look?”
“Well, it’s certainly eye-catching, but….”
The Irregular Elite shook their heads with expressions of utter exhaustion.
Luciano looked like he’d swallowed a particularly bitter pill.
I, by contrast, felt my cheeks flush.
I cleared my throat and asked.
“The dungeon entrance is here?”
At that, Oscar fixed Luciano with a look of obvious displeasure before answering.
“That’s right.”
“Truly?”
Oscar was so intent on glaring at Luciano that I didn’t think he’d heard my first question—hence the second.
I simply couldn’t believe that *this* was the entrance.
It was just a billboard.
☆★
Amazing in-season radishes here!
☆★
Sweet! Delicious! Super crisp!
Perfect for pickling, stews, and more~!!
※Lowest◆Prices♪Here※
!!The owner’s lost it!!
→100 meters southwest
It looked like a billboard that had been left standing for an impossibly long time.
Thick dust clung to every surface, of course….
‘And that bit about in-season radishes, too.’
We were well past spring now, drifting into summer.
But the radish season was autumn through winter.
Summer radishes, unlike their autumn and winter cousins, are crisp and mild—not at all the type to be called sweet.
Oscar crouched down before the billboard without ceremony.
Then he channeled mana into each symbol emblazoned on it.
And then….
Do you wish to enter the dungeon?
Y/N
[Quest Time Remaining] D-9
[Entrants] 0/10
A window materialized before the billboard.
It wasn’t a window visible only to System-holders.
Irregulars without a System, and soldiers alike, stared at it with startled faces.
“Enter?”
Oscar asked.
Luciano nodded.
Oscar pressed the ‘Y’ in the window.
“Head 100 meters southwest. That’s all you need to do.”
At that, Yuise flinched and checked her map.
“There’s a cliff just 80 meters to the southwest. 100 meters out is empty sky.”
“The dungeon entrance portal will be open in the air above.”
Oscar’s words proved true.
As we reached the cliff’s edge, a spindle-shaped beam of light blazed roughly twenty meters ahead.
“Pass through that, and you’re in the dungeon.”
Oscar said so.
I asked.
“You said only ten people can enter. What about the rest of the soldiers?”
“Once we complete the quest, we can grant entry passes to others. Ten of us enter and finish the quest, then we issue the passes so the rest can come through the portal.”
I nodded and turned to Luciano.
“Who do you think should enter?”
“…You’ll come no matter what I say, won’t you?”
“Of course I will!”
He sighed and reached up, placing a hand gently atop my head.
“This time, we’re moving with flesh and blood, not as spirits. Be especially careful.”
“I will.”
We settled on the ten entrants in a brief meeting.
Me.
Six elite Irregulars including Oscar.
Luciano.
Two of Luciano’s adjutants.
Ten of us in total.
Abel had placed a Condensed Mana in the air above us.
Using the Condensed Mana as a stepping stone, we leaped into the spindle-shaped pillar of light.
The moment we leaped in, darkness swallowed everything.
The descent into the Dungeon had begun.
* * *
“…Young Lady.”
“Young Lady!”
Miliano’s and Antonio’s voices pierced through my ears.
I jolted awake, my eyes flying open.
My blurred vision cleared, and the faces of the Irregulars came into focus.
“…What? Where is this place?”
“It’s a Dungeon, obviously.”
Yuise let out a sigh as she spoke.
I pushed myself upright, groaning as I did.
“I know it’s a Dungeon. I mean the timeframe—the spatial location. You said this was either the past or the future, didn’t you? Could this be… the Old Empire period?”
If so, that would be deeply troublesome.
The Restoration Council, which possesses intimate knowledge of the Old Empire, would have the advantage.
‘The Restoration Council might complete the Quest far faster than we do.’
By the time we finished and made our escape, they would already be long gone.
Seeing the anxiety in my expression, Yuise shook her head.
“It’s not the Old Empire. It’s the Avalon Empire.”
“Thank goodness. What about the timeframe?”
“It seems to be the future.”
“Well, that’s not so bad then. If it’s ten years from now, we can seek help from the ‘us’ living in this era. …But why do you all look so grim?”
Yuise’s expression was far from reassuring.
The other Irregulars wore the same troubled look.
Antonio spoke, his breath coming in gasps.
“Ah, Young Lady, don’t be startled, but listen…!”
“What is it…?”
They looked so anxious that dread began to curl in my chest.
I narrowed my brow, fixing Antonio with a hard stare.
Antonio cried out.
“Prince Luciano has been captured!”
“…What?”
“That’s why we just woke up—there were horses and knights! Or maybe someone saw us and reported us…!”
Antonio was speaking in frantic, stammering bursts.
I couldn’t make sense of any of it.
I turned to Yuise.
Yuise pushed Antonio’s face aside and spoke.
“We all opened our eyes in this place. It was apparently the Quest’s starting point. Just as we were trying to gather our bearings, Imperial Soldiers came pouring in. The moment they saw Luciano, they shouted ‘We’ve found the traitor!’ and dragged him away.”
“A traitor…? Then, could it be…”
Yuise nodded.
“In this future, Luciano is neither Crown Prince nor Emperor. He is a traitor.”
“…!”
My jaw went slack.
All this effort to make him Crown Prince, to place him on the throne—and he’s supposed to be a traitor?
Then who in blazes becomes Emperor to turn Luciano into a traitor?
In that dumbfounded moment, still gaping like a fish out of water.
Miliano and Oscar came running from a distance.
Miliano was clutching a newspaper in his hand.
He thrust it toward me.
‘That’s right—if I read the newspaper, I’ll know who the Emperor is.’
I quickly unfolded the newspaper and looked it over.
A headline dominated the front page, sprawling across the top.
The Era of Conflict Draws to a Close… A New Age of Harmony Between Emperor Yohaël and the Restoration Council Begins.
“…What?!”
Yohaël as Emperor?
“This is absolute nonsense—!”
How could Yohaël, who hadn’t even participated in the final contest, have become Emperor?
I flipped through the other newspapers frantically.
The information gleaned from the press yielded three key points.
1. The current Emperor is Yohaël. Luciano is a fugitive, branded a traitor under Yohaël’s reign.
2. The timeline is ten years into the future from our present day.
3. I remain the Saint of the Empire, still serving in the Temple.
“If I haven’t been marked a traitor myself, I might be able to get help. What about the Quest? What’s the Quest?”
Oscar spoke up then.
“The Quest only activates once you encounter something related to it. We haven’t received one yet.”
“Then I need to receive a Quest first….”
It was at that very moment.
A familiar voice carried from a distance.
“Young Lady—!”
“Young Lady!”
We spun around sharply.
Someone was riding toward us on horseback.
Those approaching on horseback dressed in maid’s uniforms were….
“Charlie, Roslin!”
It was Charlie from Antonio’s Unit and Roslin, the younger sister of the Ros siblings.
Behind them came an ornate carriage bearing the emblem of Esgaroth.
Charlie and Roslin dismounted before us.
“We heard word that you’d been spotted in this area, so we came to check—but my, what brings the squad leaders here…?”
Charlie scanned the Irregulars with a puzzled expression.
Roslin’s eyes widened too.
“Shouldn’t you be escorting the Young Lady toward the border to meet the diplomatic envoy? More than that… what is this extraordinary anti-aging magic…?”
“The Young Lady must have used Rewind on us.”
“Ah. How I envy that.”
Charlie and Roslin chattered away to themselves.
‘So my future self and the Elite went to the border…?’
“Who’s in that carriage? Father or Grandfather?”
“No, ma’am.”
“But that’s a carriage only the direct line rides in. Oh—could it be my brother?”
“The Young Master is at the Castle with the Clan Leader and the previous Marquis. The person in the carriage is….”
“Is…?”
“Miss Anataea, the Young Lady’s daughter.”
In that instant, a terrible silence fell.
A profound quiet that seemed to swallow all sound entirely.
I and the Elite Irregulars froze, eyes rolling toward the carriage.
The Coachman opened the carriage door.
And out came….
A small child barely reaching my shins.
That little one, with the same honey-brown hair and blue eyes as mine, tottered toward me.
And then wrapped her arms around my knees.
“Mama….”
In that moment.
Sound, which had vanished from this space, erupted simultaneously.
“What?!”
“WHAT—?!”
“What did you say?!!”
“Ha….”
The Elite let out shouts like thunder.
Even Miliano, always composed, let out a dumbfounded laugh.
Through it all, I remained frozen.
‘…My child?’
The child—no, Anataea—blinked up at me.
I was too stunned to speak.
Something I’d never imagined had suddenly appeared.
But then….
‘She really did extract the true me.’
It was as if I’d undergone cellular division—I’d been turned into my younger self, completely and utterly.
‘I can’t even see the child’s father’s face.’
The Elite stared at the child with startled expressions.
“Wow… so the Young Lady had a baby.”
“Well, it’s been ten years, after all.”
Antonio and Cesar opened their eyes wide, studying the child intently.
Miliano, who was fond of children, had already crouched down to meet the child’s gaze.
“How old might she be? She seems quite small.”
A smile bloomed across his face.
Yuise had her arms crossed, but she bent her head to look down at Anataea.
“She’s got your mother’s childhood features perfectly. Are you such a meek thing you can’t even say you need to use the restroom?”
Abel was blinking his eyes.
Yet there was interest in them; he tilted his head, trying to see Anataea past the Elite who were blocking her.
And Oscar….
“A child….”
His eyes had narrowed to slits.
As if searching for traces of the child’s father.
I jabbed Oscar in the ribs with my elbow.
‘Of course it’s Luciano.’
I glared at him with that expression.
Oscar shrugged his shoulders.
“You said Luciano was on the run. He made a child while fleeing?”
That was when it happened.
Anataea stretched her arms toward me and bounced on her feet.
“Hold me… pick me up….”
Anataea looked like she was about to cry, startled by the shout the Elite had let out.
Charlie and Roslin’s faces had gone pale.
They seemed worried the child had been frightened.
“Oh dear. She shouldn’t cry!”
“Little Young Lady…!”
It was at that moment.
[Quest]
Find the child’s biological father, and save the child.
‘…What?’

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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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