How to Replace Your Dad - Chapter 75

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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 75

 

The arrow came flying from the direction of the slope.

 

The bandits weren’t just the men in front of us.

 

They came swarming from the slope, behind us, and even from both sides.

 

We were surrounded by dozens of bandits.

 

Yuise stood close to me and let out a sigh.

 

It was because of Stella.

 

‘She secretly came when we told her not to, and now she’s been captured.’

 

Onel hardened his face and glared at the bandit who had grabbed Stella’s neck with one arm.

 

“If you release her quietly, I’ll at least let you keep your lives.”

 

Then the bandit leader burst into loud laughter.

 

With dozens of armed men against just four people, only two of whom carried weapons.

 

It was understandable that he’d find it ridiculous.

 

“Capture them!”

 

A one-eyed man who seemed to be the leader of the bandit group shouted.

 

The bandits approached stealthily, pointing chipped axes, old crossbows, and swords with partially corroded blades.

 

However, Onel made the first attack.

 

Onel lowered his center of gravity and lunged at the bandit who came forward first, slashing his throat.

 

In an instant, one man fell.

 

The bandits who saw their comrade collapse while clutching his throat flinched.

 

Most of the bandits focused on their fallen comrade with hardened faces, or seemed about to rush over.

 

‘What? They’re just a ragtag bunch?’

 

The bandit leader shouted.

 

“What are you doing!”

 

“B-but Coni is…”

 

A massive bandit who looked like he could easily exceed 2 meters spoke haltingly.

 

The bandit leader roared.

 

“Stop thinking useless thoughts and capture them!”

 

It was the moment when the bandits rushed toward us.

 

“Wait.”

 

I lightly raised my hand.

 

The bandit who was about to swing his axe at Onel hesitated.

 

The other bandits also looked at me.

 

“Let’s make a deal.”

 

At my words, Yuise, Onel, and even Stella looked at me with surprised faces.

 

“You won’t make much money capturing us. At best, you’d get labor exploitation or human trafficking. But if you help us, you can earn more money peacefully.”

 

Then the bandit leader let out a hollow laugh.

 

“I can see you’re desperate. You sure know how to run your mouth.”

 

“I wasn’t asking you. My conversation partners are all of you, excluding that one-eyed man.”

 

“What?!”

 

Sparks flew from the bandit leader’s eyes.

 

I ignored him and looked around at the bandits.

 

“Even you can see that man over there is skilled, right?”

 

Then Onel, the man I pointed at, furrowed his brow.

 

I continued speaking regardless.

 

“If you charge, some of you will definitely die. Can you follow a leader who pushes forward despite that?”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

The bandits glanced at their leader.

 

‘That’s right.’

 

They really were a ragtag bunch.

 

From what I could see, there seemed to be few real bandits here.

 

Probably just the leader and those surrounding Stella.

 

Their presence and the weapons they carried made it clear.

 

The other bandits were people who didn’t even know how to maintain weapons.

 

Chipped axes, old crossbows, swords with partially corroded blades.

 

Weapons are lifelines. There’s no way they would have maintained them like that.

 

It seemed like estate residents who had been struggling to make ends meet had joined them.

 

Originally, there are plenty of common people who live hand to mouth.

 

But with this contamination occurring, they probably had to dispose of what they had rather than earn daily wages.

 

“It’s very simple. Just put down your weapons. Then I’ll save the fallen one and give you money.”

 

When I spoke, the bandit leader shouted angrily.

 

“Don’t be fooled by nonsense and attack…!”

 

“Will you really save Coni?”

 

A bandit with old weapons asked.

 

The bandit leader flinched.

 

I smiled.

 

“Of course.”

 

At that moment.

 

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud…

 

Old weapons fell to the ground.

 

The real bandits’ faces turned pale.

 

* * *

 

We tied up the real bandits with Yuise’s rope and threw them near the rocks.

 

Onel supported Stella.

 

“What happened?”

 

“I heard that animals are the source. Also that purification wouldn’t be easy unless we caught all the sources.”

 

“And so.”

 

“When I heard that even our soldiers were contaminated, I was worried about you, brother, and couldn’t just sit still.”

 

“How did you get here?”

 

“When I was troubled because it was sealed off and I couldn’t enter, a child from Namia Domain told me. They said there was a secret path from Namia Domain to here.”

 

“A secret path?”

 

“A secret path that follows the river.”

 

Onel sighed.

 

“Don’t ever do that again.”

 

“I’m sorry, brother…”

 

Yuise, who was watching this scene, whispered to me.

 

“Is that it?”

 

“Probably?”

 

I answered nonchalantly and asked the fake bandits.

 

“You became bandits because of your families?”

 

“Yes, my sick old mother was starving…”

 

“The children were contaminated but I couldn’t afford medicine…”

 

“My teacher…”

 

“My wife…”

 

I nodded and turned my eyes to the man called Coniran who had been struck by Onel’s sword.

 

Although I had healed his wound, he was panting as if he couldn’t recover his stamina.

 

It seemed the problem was more from starving and being overworked under the real bandits than from being struck by the sword.

 

“Yuise, share our emergency rations with them.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Then Onel frowned and looked at me.

 

“You’re going to share food with them too?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Whatever their reasons, they’re people who broke the rules set by the Citadel.”

 

“That’s for Andres to punish as they see fit. For now, I need to work them, so I have to restore their strength.”

 

Yuise, Onel, and Stella looked at me as if asking what I was talking about.

 

I looked at the fake bandits.

 

The fake bandits who were either devouring the emergency rations Yuise gave them or carefully storing them in pouches glanced at me nervously.

 

“You know this mountain well, right?”

 

When I asked, the man called Coni spoke.

 

“Well, yeah. We’ve lived in the village below since before we became bandits.”

 

“Beasts with black bodies and miasma seeping around them. Have you seen any?”

 

“We have.”

 

“Do you know where they are too?”

 

“We do. We’re the ones who drove them there.”

 

When I smiled with an ‘I knew it’ expression, Onel and Yuise flinched.

 

Well, wasn’t it strange?

 

This Newtree Mountain was where the epicenter boar had made its lair.

 

The contamination should be more severe than anywhere else, yet these people had been doing bandit work just fine.

 

Looking at their bodies, they were emaciated from severe malnutrition, but they weren’t contaminated.

 

“Will you take us there?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“But aren’t you going to eat the food?”

 

“The kids are starving…”

 

It would be dangerous to make them climb the mountain with their stamina dropped to that level.

 

I looked at Yuise.

 

Yuise flinched and narrowed her brow.

 

“Why… do you ask.”

 

“Give it.”

 

“…”

 

“You brought it, didn’t you.”

 

“…”

 

Yuise clicked her tongue and pulled out a pouch from her chest.

 

Inside the pouch were sweets like chocolate.

 

Their eyes widened at the expensive sweets that ordinary people couldn’t commonly see.

 

The bandits excitedly stuffed the sweets into their pouches haphazardly.

 

“Don’t think about taking them away, eat them now. You’ll need sugar to climb the mountain.”

 

“The kids would love these…”

 

“Mother would…”

 

“My wife would…”

 

“Eat.”

 

When I spoke firmly, the fake bandits looked dejected.

 

However, they soon ate the sweets and had blissful expressions.

 

After confirming they were eating the sweets, I got up.

 

Then, guided by the fake bandits, I headed to where the animals were said to be.

 

The place we arrived at was a cave.

 

In front of the cave, Onel said.

 

“This is really where you drove the animals?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

Even after hearing the fake bandits’ words, Onel had a suspicious expression.

 

Because he couldn’t feel any miasma coming from the contaminated animals at all.

 

We went straight into the cave.

 

I didn’t realize because the entrance was small, but once inside, it was an incredibly vast space.

 

There was a stream flowing inside. It seemed river water seeped all the way here.

 

We crossed the ground made of sharp rocks and headed deeper inside.

 

Then we reached a cliff-like area.

 

Water was falling below the cliff, passing through strangely glittering stones.

 

“Over there.”

 

The bandit pointed below the cliff.

 

Water had pooled below the cliff, and animals were scattered there.

 

There were many animals of different species besides the boar.

 

They were all quiet as if dead.

 

But it was strange.

 

Their skin wasn’t black like the boar’s.

 

Others must have thought it strange too, as they looked back at the bandits.

 

Onel asked.

 

“These aren’t epicenters.”

 

“Epicen…? Oh, because they’re not black? When we drive them here, they soon become like that.”

 

“…What?”

 

Yuise, Onel, and I looked at each other and exchanged glances.

 

‘They’ve been purified?’

 

Yuise and Onel immediately went down the cliff.

 

The cliff was too steep and high for Stella and me to go down.

 

If those two got contaminated, I could immediately escape and purify them, so it wasn’t a big problem.

 

The two examined the dead animals.

 

Even when their hands touched them, they didn’t get contaminated.

 

“…!”

 

“…!!”

 

They had definitely been purified.

 

The fake bandits shouted.

 

“How is it? Any problems?”

 

“Can we eat them by any chance? We couldn’t eat them because it felt unsettling!”

 

Meanwhile, I approached Stella’s side.

 

And watching Onel and Yuise thoroughly examining the animals below the cliff, I said quietly.

 

“You didn’t come here because you were worried about Onel.”

 

Stella flinched and looked at me.

 

I glanced toward that child.

 

“You came to find purification stones.”

 

“What…”

 

“Did GM tell you?”

 

“…!”

 

Stella’s face hardened.

 

‘So it was with Stella after all.’

 

That damn thing called GM.

 

* * *

 

Stella looked at Yustea with trembling eyes.

 

‘How… how does she know about my friend?’

 

Her friend was an existence only she knew about.

 

Stella swallowed dry saliva.

 

“What… I don’t know who GM is…”

 

“If you really didn’t know, you should have said ‘what is it’ instead of ‘who is it.’ I never said it was a person.”

 

“…!”

 

GM: Don’t act stupid and calm down.

 

‘How do you know about you?’

 

What the hell is this…!

 

Yustea had a calm expression.

 

She had suspected early on that GM was with Stella.

 

The future of Yustea and Dia that Aslan had seen.

 

GM was there.

 

From the circumstances, it was clear that it had been dwelling within Yustea.

 

‘Because of Mother, GM couldn’t dwell within me in this life.’

 

Then there’s only one place to go.

 

Stella, the protagonist of the game.

 

“You were trying to find the purification stone so you could purify it, right?”

 

“…”

 

“Because then you could lower the Saint’s authority.”

 

“I am…”

 

“But I’m sorry.”

 

Yustea moved forward with large steps.

 

And she stepped onto the strange stone between the streams of water falling down the cliff.

 

Stella cried out in surprise.

 

“What are you doing…!”

 

That was the moment.

 

Yustea kicked the stone, sending it tumbling down the cliff.

 

Thud!

 

“…!!!”

 

With a dull sound, crack, the stone shattered.

 

Stella’s face turned pale.

 

“No! Do you know what that was when you did such a thing?”

 

“A purification stone, what else.”

 

A black almond-shaped stone that narrowed at the top and bottom. It sparkled with five colors.

 

It was exactly identical to the purification stone she had seen in the game.

 

“That was humanity’s treasure!”

 

“A weapon to pressure me.”

 

“You did such a thing for yourself alone?”

 

“You also came looking for the purification stone for yourself alone, so let’s call ourselves the same trash.”

 

“That’s…!”

 

“And that shouldn’t be brought out into the world. You idiot.”

 

“What?”

 

“Go ask your father.”

 

Yustea shouted.

 

“Onel, that’s a purification stone.”

 

“…What?”

 

Onel looked up with a frozen expression.

 

Yustea sighed.

 

“Stella came to find the purification stone, so you two talk for the exact details.”

 

Onel’s gaze turned to Stella.

 

Stella had a face that couldn’t grasp the situation.

 

Yustea looked down the cliff.

 

“Even broken, it should be usable for five days. Since purifying the source will be possible even without me, I’m leaving. Yuise, come up.”

 

Yuise immediately climbed up the cliff.

 

Yustea left the cave as she was.

 

Stella and Onel’s gazes collided.

 

Stella spoke with trembling eyes.

 

“Why… Brother, why are you looking at me with such eyes…”

 

Onel squeezed his eyes shut.

 

* * *

 

Inside the barracks.

 

As Onel entered the barracks, Stella hurriedly followed after him.

 

“Brother, why are you acting like this? Hm?”

 

“What were you going to do after finding the purification stone?”

 

Onel’s atmosphere was strange.

 

His voice, his eyes, everything.

 

Stella said.

 

“I wanted to help with the contamination…”

 

“Please just stay still.”

 

“…”

 

“Do you know what would have happened if it was revealed that the purification stone was in Andres?”

 

“You need to explain for me to…”

 

“That’s evidence that the first head of Andres stole the sanctity of the Imperial Family and the Temple.”

 

“What does that…”

 

Then, Marquis Yopis and Marquis Rochette rushed into the barracks.

 

Marquis Yopis asked.

 

“Is it true that the purification stone exists?”

 

Marquis Rochette also said with a stern face.

 

“Are there others who have learned of the purification stone’s existence?”

 

Stella listened to everyone’s conversation with a bewildered face throughout.

 

Onel squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head.

 

Realizing from his attitude that the story of the purification stone was true, Marquis Yopis and Marquis Rochette frowned.

 

“Why are you acting like this…?”

 

When Stella asked, Marquis Rochette said.

 

“That’s evidence that the first heads of the Seven Families stole the sanctity of the Imperial Family and the Temple.”

 

“What…?”

 

“The purification stone doesn’t only purify contamination. It purifies magic power and divine power as well.”

 

“Then…”

 

“Yes, it means you become unable to use magic.”

 

The first heads of the Seven Families were wary that the Imperial Family and Temple might conspire to erase magic power and divine power from the world.

 

So they stole the purification stones owned by the Imperial Family and Temple.

 

It was tantamount to evidence of treason.

 

If it became known, the Seven Families would lose their status as meritorious subjects.

 

Having heard the explanation, Stella gasped.

 

“I didn’t know…”

 

Marquis Yopis said in a cold voice.

 

“If you had studied even a little history, this wouldn’t have happened. The story has also reached the Marquis’s ears.”

 

“What?”

 

At that moment, the communication stone rang.

 

The caller was Count Andres.

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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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