How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 64
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Replace Your Dad
Chapter 64
I’ve never heard such a thing.
Did she perhaps hide it?
I fell silent, pondering what could be going on.
Taking my silence as shock from learning Carmen’s identity, the children giggled.
“You must be surprised. Yes, Cuaron is where the Saint resides.”
“Carmen’s father is said to be the one who witnessed that divinity up close when the Saint revealed her true identity.”
At that moment, I realized.
‘Carmen is a braggart.’
The Clan Leader didn’t go to the archipelago.
He stayed to protect Cuaron in Father’s place.
But how would children who don’t even live in Esgaroth know who’s protecting Cuaron?
They just assumed he must have followed along to the archipelago.
Then, the girl with straight black hair spoke.
“Um… I think you understand well enough by now. Shouldn’t we leave quickly?”
She glanced toward the door.
It meant someone seemed to be coming.
The children reluctantly let me go roughly.
“Be careful from now on. Don’t upset Carmen any further.”
The children who said this looked down at me arrogantly as I sat slumped.
Carmen was the first to leave through the door.
The children chased after her, calling Carmen’s name in cute voices.
After that, the girl with straight black hair approached me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks for helping.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m Rene.”
“Yushiya.”
I said while getting up.
Rene spoke hesitantly.
“Um, we have to clean the chapel.”
The chapel?
The chapel in the basement was enormously large.
When I looked at her with an expression asking if we had to clean such a place by ourselves, Rene touched her chin.
“Originally all the kids should do it together… hmm.”
They dumped it on us.
For just the two of us to do.
I brushed the dust off my skirt and said.
“Let’s go.”
“Sorry. Usually we don’t make people clean on their first day…”
“It’s fine. I’m good at cleaning.”
When I smiled brightly while saying this, Rene’s expression brightened.
* * *
While cleaning the chapel, I heard various stories from Rene.
Rene tied up a sack containing trash at the doorway and said.
“Yusi, you know those people you were in the same group with during faith sharing?”
“Yeah.”
“They also work in Cuaron. Carmen was too shy to approach them, but she seemed upset that you appeared close to them.”
I thought to myself.
‘That’s probably not it.’
I had lied about being the Cuaron Knightmaster’s illegitimate child, but soldiers from Cuaron came in.
From Carmen’s perspective, it must have been nerve-wracking.
She would have preferred no one approach them, but seeing me seem comfortable with them must have worried her.
‘So she tried to establish dominance.’
So I would obey if Carmen ordered me not to associate with them.
Rene continued.
“Originally the leader of the kids’ group was Alice. You know, the short curly-haired one you saw earlier.”
“What about Carmen?”
“She hated the kids. Said they kept pushing work onto her. She often complained to me about it.”
Some groups have hierarchies.
Especially among immature children.
If she had to do the work the kids pushed off, Carmen’s rank must have been very low.
“But why did Carmen become the leader? By revealing she’s the Cuaron Knightmaster’s illegitimate child?”
“Right. Two months ago. At first, no one believed it.”
Carmen had said she’d been here for six years.
If she had such a great father, he should have come to get her, but there was no sign of him coming.
“But then Carmen started going in and out of the High Priest’s room.”
“…High Priest?”
“Yeah. He’s a great person, second only to the Cult Leader.”
“I see.”
“She even brought back various gifts from the High Priest.”
The children seemed confused by Carmen gaining the High Priest’s favor.
Could Carmen really be the Cuaron Knightmaster’s daughter?
That’s why the High Priest is showing interest too.
Such thoughts made them believe Carmen.
“The kids can’t see the High Priest?”
“Of course not. The High Priest oversees the entire cult on behalf of the Cult Leader who protects the world. Ordinary believers like us can’t meet him.”
I see.
Overseeing the entire cult.
‘Then the keys to both the subjugation and the warehouse must be in his hands?’
I could work through Carmen.
Having organized my thoughts, I dusted off my hands and said.
“Rene, let’s go now.”
Rene, who was tying up the trash sack at the doorway, looked back at me.
“But the cleaning isn’t finished yet… huh?”
Rene looked shocked.
Because the messy chapel had been organized in no time.
When I worked as a maid at the miserly old man’s manor, there were few staff so I handled all the cleaning alone.
So I was confident in cleaning.
I smiled brightly and said.
“When is mealtime?”
“We can go to the restaurant now. It’s at the end of the west corridor on the 1st floor.”
Rene said she would report to the priest that the cleaning was finished and told me to go ahead first.
I went up the stairs to the 1st floor.
And just as I entered the west corridor as Rene had told me.
Someone suddenly pulled me behind a deserted corner.
“Young Lady, we’re in big trouble.”
It was the Unit Members.
I was startled and asked.
“What’s wrong?”
What happened to Antonio?
Could the religious order have some tremendous secret?
His face had hardened, so the unit members gulped and swallowed their dry saliva before speaking.
“The Clan Leader has a child…!”
“….”
The nanny, I must definitely save her.
* * *
Restaurant.
Carmen bit her lips tightly and stared at the table in the corner.
Yusi, that damn brat was with Cuaron’s soldiers again.
She had deliberately assigned Rene to her to make her guess her uncomfortable feelings.
‘Didn’t Rene tell her?’
That couldn’t be.
Rene was a hypocrite who pretended to be nice to everyone.
So she definitely would have told her about her feelings and warned her to be careful.
“Carmen, don’t you like the meal?”
“Then do you want to eat my egg?”
The children chattered and placed popular food on her plate.
Carmen pushed the plate away with a smack.
“No thanks.”
The children rolled their eyes and watched Carmen’s mood.
“More importantly, did you hear what that girl was talking about?”
Then a big boy nodded his head vigorously.
“Yeah. I eavesdropped while pretending to look for a table.”
“What did she say?”
Could she be asking about the Knightmaster?
Carmen gripped her collar under the table.
The big boy said.
“As long as you’re healthy, that’s fine. Please eat.”
“…What?”
“That’s what that girl said.”
She didn’t know what it meant, but it didn’t seem like they were talking about the Knightmaster.
Carmen frowned.
‘Of all places, a Saint had to come from Cuaron.’
This was all because of Rene.
Most children had entered Yemyeongoe with their parents.
Carmen was the same.
She had entered Yemyeongoe holding her mother’s hand.
Though they lived apart according to the doctrine that didn’t keep parents and children together.
But only Rene was different.
“I came in because I had nowhere to go.”
“Why didn’t you have anywhere to go?”
“I lived alone with my dad, but one day we got separated when I let go of his hand on the street.”
“You could have gone to an orphanage.”
“They said if you enter an orphanage, you get sold to places like mountain villages, so I wanted to stay here until I found my dad.”
Carmen smiled, saying she was telling her because she was her closest friend and it was a secret.
After that, she often heard stories about Rene’s father.
She didn’t remember because she was young, but her father seemed to have been a captain.
So he had given her a ship anchor-shaped badge.
Every time she saw the silver badge, she felt furious.
It annoyed her because it seemed like showing off.
That’s why it happened.
Two months ago, while cleaning the chapel, she said those words….
“I’m only telling you this, but my dad is Cuaron’s Knightmaster. I’m illegitimate, so my mother raised me.”
At that time, Cuaron was definitely a hot topic region.
The region where the utterly humble San Miguel and Balboa, the territory of the expelled Three Elders, had been merged.
They said the lord and his soldiers were very impressive.
One of the kids overheard what she said in anger.
After that, she was lucky enough to help the High Priest with his work, and because of that, the kids believed the story about being the illegitimate child of Cuaron’s Knightmaster.
The kids’ attitudes changed completely.
Moreover, very recently….
“Oh my, Carmen. You can’t eat your meal.”
“You need to stay healthy. Your father would worry.”
Adults passing by smiled and spoke to her.
Priests also slipped her things like fruit.
Since they were people who had joined a heretical sect, their walls of suspicion were low.
An elderly woman with a bent back approached hesitantly.
“Carmen, you can’t eat your meal?”
She placed a sweet potato she had been holding preciously in her wrinkled hands onto Carmen’s plate.
“Tomorrow is the day I go out to proselytize, shall I buy you something?”
“Whatever grandma buys would be shabby anyway.”
Carmen replied coldly.
The elderly woman shrank her neck, deflated.
However, she couldn’t leave and hesitantly said.
“Is there no news from your father? Grandma’s wish is to see the Saint before she dies.”
“Are you telling me to call my busy father just to fulfill grandma’s one wish?”
“….”
“Why are people so shameless?”
Carmen stood up, banging the table.
The elderly woman lowered her head with a haggard complexion.
The believers looked at the woman pitifully, but couldn’t reproach Carmen.
The nameplate of being Cuaron Knightmaster’s daughter was that good.
They granted any tantrum she threw.
All sorts of precious things came into her hands.
‘With this much commotion, it must have reached the High Priests’ ears too.’
But seeing there was no restraint, perhaps the High Priest had ordered silence.
So she just needed to deal with that annoying girl named Yusi and Cuaron’s soldiers.
‘This time I’ll become a priest.’
If she became a priest and succeeded, the believers wouldn’t be able to say much even if they discovered her lies.
She just needed to endure until then.
* * *
“Does the Clan Leader really not have a child?”
“Really.”
“He’s not a promiscuous person who fathers bastards?”
“No. The Clan Leader is virtuous.”
I answered the 31st question with a benevolent expression.
When I suggested we do what they wanted to ask in the restaurant somewhere private, I received a barrage of questions in the backyard.
‘I even told them the Clan Leader was watching through the Mirror World.’
I guess satisfying their curiosity comes first.
The Clan Leader must be holding the back of his neck.
“Anyway, did you find out the cult leader’s location and return date?”
That was what I had the clan members do.
“The priests don’t seem to know the cult leader’s location either, and the return date is four days from now.”
Four days.
Thank goodness.
There’s still plenty of time.
‘I would have been screwed if they returned tomorrow.’
I must never encounter the cult leader.
Yemyeongoe is a group that appears in the game episodes.
Yet there’s a reason I couldn’t grasp the number and location of believers.
‘Because only the cult leader appears in the episodes.’
That one cult leader steps forward and devastates nearby manors.
If they’re that kind of person, I must never encounter them.
“Please keep tracking the cult leader’s movements. And let me know if you find out anything.”
“Yes.”
“But what about Antonio?”
I couldn’t find him anywhere in the restaurant.
“The women dragged him away.”
“What?”
“They were shouting about deltoids, biceps, and forearms while breathing heavily?”
“What?!”
Something similar happened in the archipelago too…
I tilted my head in confusion, but soon organized my thoughts.
If they took Antonio because they liked him, they’d probably feed him well.
I stood up.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Yes.”
After hearing the response, I left the backyard.
It was to prepare for the afternoon activities.
When I was cleaning the chapel, Rene told me that the kids gather to study in the afternoon.
I had also noted the location of the study room.
When I found and entered the study room, there were already kids inside.
Rene and Carmen too.
Rene said with a pale face.
“Run away!”
At that moment, the door slammed shut and two big kids blocked the doorway.
I was trapped inside the room in an instant.
“Carmen, please don’t do this… That kid isn’t that bad.”
“Rene, you need to think. You’re not the one who decides what’s good or bad.”
“What…?”
“Those things are always decided by those above.”
Carmen, who was sitting on the windowsill, gestured toward me.
Then the kids approached.
Their eyes were fierce, as if they intended to make me kneel like before.
It was the moment when the boy’s hand was about to touch me.
I twisted my body to avoid his hand and immediately kicked off the ground.
And the place I headed for was the window.
Where Carmen was.
“What are you…!”
Carmen couldn’t finish her words.
Because I grabbed her hair just like that.
“Kyah!”
“Carmen!”
The kids shouted in surprise.
“You…!”
Just as the boys were about to rush at me again, I spoke first.
“Come any closer and I’ll drop this.”
“…?!”
I opened the window and pulled Carmen’s hair.
Carmen flinched in surprise and looked up at me.
“You…!”
“Listen. I only tolerate things once.”
“What?”
“But this is your second time.”
I looked down at Carmen and said.
“How about you tell me the name of that great father of yours?”
“Wh, what…?”
“Why? Don’t know?”
“…!”
She wouldn’t know.
Not a noble, but a commoner.
Not even a resident of Esgaroth Estate.
The Clan Leader wasn’t a famous noble known to everyone.
There’s no way she would know the name.
Carmen glanced at the kids and stammered.
“Go, Gonzalez…”
“Wrong. It’s Lorenzo.”
Smack!
I slapped Carmen’s cheek.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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