How to Replace Dad 14
The duke's office.
I tilted my head, looking at Antonio who was holding a thick catalog.
He had eyes full of anticipation.
“What is all this?”
“Dresses.”
You can tell just by looking at the cover.
The name of the dress shop was stamped boldly on the cover.
“Fashion in the empire changes every month, they say. Kids are sensitive to that kind of thing.”
“There are kids like that.”
“The dresses the duke gave you are probably already out of fashion.”
“Probably.”
Maria's design was bursting with excitement, but in the empire, it was starting to be a bit passé.
Antonio smiled with a grin and handed over the catalog.
“So, choose.”
“Dresses?”
“Yeah. I'll buy you one set.”
Ah.
It means he'll buy clothes to wear for the selection.
“But...”
I groaned and looked at the cover of the catalog.
Catalogs from shops particularly popular even in the empire.
“Lord Antonio, you complained the other day about buying potatoes from the market, saying they were really expensive.”
“Yeah.”
“How much was it?”
“4 cooper.”
I took the catalog Antonio gave me and flipped to the back.
And I poked my fingertip at a small ribbon that could be selected as dress material.
“This ribbon is 2,200 potatoes.”
“What?!”
Antonio shouted.
His eyes were about to pop out.
In the empire, a t-shirt with a luxury logo costs over a million won.
How expensive must a dress be, where the designer personally raises apprentices and they work on it by hand?
It wasn't for nothing that people said they were going bankrupt to debut their children in high society.
In other words, it meant it was ridiculously expensive to buy with Antonio's salary.
Antonio looked at the duke with a sad face.
“Please raise my salary.”
“Remember how much money you spend every month to clean up the mess you caused.”
It was an expression saying to stop if you want to eat even one potato.
Thinking about it, he had said the other day that he had destroyed the square and spent a lot on repairs.
Antonio was really lucky to be receiving a salary.
The duke sighed and looked at me.
“Please choose. I'll buy the one that matches your taste.”
“It's really fine. The clothes I have now are comfortable and good.”
After confiscating the late duke's property, Marina's clothes, accessories, and shoes became mine.
So, I really don't lack clothes.
“More importantly, about lifting the curse stone barrier.”
The curse stone barrier requires human blood.
I was using my own blood to lift the barrier.
I couldn't do it while unconscious, and right after waking up, I tried again...
“The duke took it back.”
He said not to think about it until I recover.
“It’s already been a week. The bones have been healed thanks to the healer, and it’s been a long time. So, can you return the curse stone?”
“That’s what I was going to discuss with you. Must it be the blood of one person?”
Then Antonio jumped in.
“Pure girl's blood. That's not it, right? If the impure old man's blood is okay, the duke... Ouch!”
Antonio got kicked on the shin.
The duke glared at Antonio.
“I’m still in my twenties.”
“Why exclude the latter half? Ouch! How can you hit the same person twice!”
Leaving Antonio grumbling, the duke approached me.
“If possible, I’ll go with you.”
“It should be done by now?”
“...Yes?”
“I fed it blood for more than two weeks, so the barrier should have melted completely. What I mean is, shall we hurry up and lift it...?”
The duke also hated the curse stone and had eaten it for a week.
From a few days ago, he was annoyed by the smell of the old man rather than the blood, frowning.
His complexion had improved a lot, and it was time to move on to the next step.
I smiled faintly.
“The duke is about to be freed from the curse.”
“...!”
The duke and Antonio's faces brightened.
***
Inside the abandoned building without a ceiling.
I glanced at the duke.
The curse pattern was visible even on the duke's collarbone.
“If I had wasted just a few days, it would have been a big problem.”
The curse was being suppressed with the curse stone, so it was lucky that it was suppressed, but in fact, in that state, he should have been moving in pain normally.
I folded and unfolded my hands, sat and stood, checking my body condition.
“Good. I’m ready too.”
At a time when every day was precious, I hadn't just quietly waited a week for nothing.
It was also a task that required sufficient preparation for me, the curse stone activator.
There was more...
“Are you all ready to start?”
“Yes. All members of my squad are ready.”
“Mine too.”
It wasn't necessary to have just one or two people.
First, I placed the duke in the center of the densely written ritual on the floor.
And positioned Antonio and the duke respectively on the east and west sides.
There, the squad members surrounded the abandoned building densely.
Antonio asked.
“What’s the reason for calling all the squad members in the castle?”
“We need a huge amount of mana.”
“The duke’s mana is used too, right?”
“It’s even more than that, to the point where even that is insufficient.”
The duke had a worried expression.
“Human bodies cannot mix with others’ mana. It can cause poisoning and put everyone’s lives at risk.”
“We will send the mana to the curse stone. Since it’s not a human body, don’t worry.”
Antonio and the duke nodded.
The duke also quietly looked at me from inside the ritual.
I sat down facing the duke and touched the ritual.
“I can’t cast great magic, but this much...”
The ritual drawn on the floor would replace the magician’s spell, and the duke and other squad members would support with their mana, each grain of it.
I only needed to stir their mana a little.
“I’ll start.”
I activated the ritual after saying that.
Light rushed in from where people were standing, filling the ritual inside the building.
Finally, it changed into an indescribable color and rushed quickly towards the duke.
Then...
“Around the duke...!”
“What is that?”
The duke and Antonio shouted.
Of course, because red characters were floating in the empty air.
“The curse ritual.”
The ancient curse called the Curse of the Dark Mirror, which is said to be an ancient curse, was incomparably higher and more precise than any ritual I knew.
And the rituals surrounding the duke began to break one by one with a cracking sound.
“It’s working.”
I had expected it to work, but seeing it really work was a different feeling.
It was the first time for me, the curse stone... no, using magic itself.
The mana was little and the outlets were narrow.
In other words, I had no talent for magic.
“Still, it’s fortunate that I learned the ritual calculation method without giving up... Wait a minute.”
But it was strange.
The amount of mana was not normal.
At first, the mana that was moving as directed suddenly began to increase.
“What... eh?”
“Miss?”
“Why?”
I didn’t have time to answer the duke and Antonio’s words.
I was panicking and looking for the point where the mana was rapidly increasing.
“Where did the calculation go wrong?”
I was hurriedly looking up the formula with my eyes when I stopped.
Duke.
Mana was spreading insanely from Aslan the duke.
“The Curse of the Dark Mirror is slowly breaking, and the suppressed mana of the duke is returning.”
It was far beyond my expectations.
I had said that it was a huge amount that even the duke’s mana was insufficient?
“No. One duke is overflowing!”
I pushed the mana that was circulating clockwise in the opposite direction.
If I did this, the ritual would break.
“How should I...!”
If the ritual breaks, not only the duke and I would be in danger.
The curse stone would split.
I couldn’t lose the precious curse stone that the duke had barely obtained.
People recover, but things don’t.
“If this happens, there’s no choice. Ah!”
With the resolve to die rather than faint, I poured the wildly increasing mana into my body.
As I said, I had a narrow outlet worse than a grain of sand, being a normal human.
The mana that entered me couldn’t be properly released, and the ritual would find stability.
“I just need to hold on until the curse is lifted.”
However, soon after, a pain that felt like the whole body was expanding like a balloon covered my body.
“Miss, is it working properly?!”
“It’s strange. First, I need to stop the ritual...!”
Antonio and the duke tried to move their bodies as if approaching me.
I shouted urgently.
“Don’t move!”
Looking at the curse ritual spread around the duke, it was 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes, it would end.
I endured the mana with the will to die.
“My head... seems like it’s going to break...!”
2 minutes left.
“Ah, u... aa...!”
1 minute.
“I can’t breathe...”
“Miss!”
The moment it was really the limit.
Antonio shouted.
“The curse ritual has broken!”
I hurriedly raised my head.
The ritual that densely filled the area around the duke disappeared without a trace, and the duke was slowly opening his eyes.
Only then could I sit down slowly.
Drip.
Hot blood flowed down from my nose.
“Ah, even if it’s this much, it’s a million lucky...”
Just as I was thinking that.
Kwa kwa kwa kwa gwang ─!!
The heavens and earth shook madly.
“What, what is it!”
“What happened?!”
The squad members shouted in alarm, and Antonio and the duke inside the building looked around with surprised expressions.
But I didn’t have the time for that.
Because...
Second Job Change Successful! [Purifier] ※ This system has been reconfigured based on a familiar interface for user convenience.
What is this.
***
The ground is shaking.
A flock of birds covered the sky, and the wind shook the heavens and earth.
Stained glass shattered, and everyone in the cathedral screamed.
“Saint!”
A man in the priest’s robe rushed into the cathedral urgently.
“Run! It’s an earthquake.”
He quickly ran to the elderly woman.
But the elderly woman was looking only at the World Tree located in the central vacuum tube of the cathedral with trembling eyes.
“Saint!”
“Earthquake? No, this is a revelation.”
The priests who were in a panic stopped.
The woman spat out hot breath.
It was the first time I had seen her so excited, as she was always calm.
The priests who were prostrating quietly even in the commotion opened their mouths.
“Lower your heads. The World Tree is singing.”
Yes.
The branches and leaves of the World Tree, which had never been shaken by any disaster from the vacuum tube, were swaying.
It was the moment of the revelation recorded in the scriptures.
“Then...!”
Even the young priests stared at the World Tree with trembling eyes.
The elderly woman declared in a fervent voice.
“Convey the news to His Majesty and the believers. In the name of the first apostle of God, I declare. The Holy Saint has descended.”
Waaahaaa ─!
A commotion broke out in the holy site of the empire’s state religion, Therese.
Shifting the viewpoint to the imperial palace.
The white dove of Therese carried the World Tree’s branch and arrived at the emperor.
It was the signal of the Holy Saint’s descent.
The emperor Augusto, who read the pope’s letter tied to the white dove’s ankle, pressed his temple with his fingertips.
“Those who seek God at every turn are the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
The nobles of the 7 houses looked up at him.
The emperor burned the pope’s letter without hesitation and said.
“All that the gods send exists for us.”
He stood up and looked out the window.
The sky that was bright when the earthquake happened was now dark like night, covered by clouds.
“The Holy Saint is the one who protects the empire. She is a precious person to be welcomed in my castle, so hurry up and move.”
The dukes of the 7 houses bowed their heads.
So, the dukes of the 7 houses left the room.
One of the dukes said.
“The pope and the emperor will have fire in their eyes. If the search is delayed, we won’t be able to hear good words from the emperor.”
Then, the elderly duke who was carrying the rear laughed with a chuckle.
“Only the pope and the emperor will have eyes wide open in the search. In my eyes, your eyes are also sparkling enough.”
“The one who finds her will become her guardian, so it might be tempting. There might be someone with different thoughts, but.”
“...”
The dukes glanced back.
The cunning power’s face, which was always sweet, felt like an ice field today.
“Well.”
It was a soft voice, but the dukes swallowed their laughter.
The rumor that the Holy Saint grew up in that man’s mansion was rampant.
Amazing divine affinity, even healing power that makes small wounds disappear in the blink of an eye.
Thanks to that, had the state religion Therese and the imperial palace not received attention?
In the midst of that, the real Holy Saint appeared.
“That man who tried to harm that daughter and even kicked out his own daughter must be suffering.”
That Andres duke.
“Well, it’s not the time to worry about that side.”
“Anyway, finding her is the priority.”
At that moment, the dukes’ aides who had been waiting outside rushed in.
The dukes said to their respective aides.
“Move the intelligence department to the limit.”
“Find the old man of the Holy See. Money is no problem, so find the Holy Saint first.”
It was the moment when the search for the crazy Holy Saint to be recorded in history books began.
***
San Miguel Castle.
The duke, Antonio, and the squad members filled my front densely.
“Are you okay?”
“Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
I shook my head.
A while ago, I thought I was going to die, but now there was nothing wrong except for a nosebleed.
More importantly...
“I feel mana overflowing in my body.”
It wasn’t that I had too little mana, but my mana storage was larger than expected.
For example, like a water purifier with a little water pooling on the floor.
“This is all the duke’s mana? Amazing.”
Just as I was thinking that, I suddenly realized.
“Duke!”
I hurriedly stood up and pushed through the people to approach the duke.
The duke was staring blankly at the floor.
“Are you okay?”
I asked, and he slowly nodded.
I quickly grabbed his arm.
“Ah...!”
The pattern disappeared.
Where else?
The pattern started from the heart.
“I’ll be in your way for a moment.”
I unbuttoned the duke’s shirt with a crack.
“It’s not even in the heart.”
It was perfectly gone.
“Curse stone lifted successfully!”
“Yeah.”
The squad members who heard our conversation shouted at the same time.
“Waaahaaa ─!”
I sat down slowly again.
It was different from when I sat down from shock.
The strength had drained from joy and relief.
“How was it possible to block the mana in my body like that...?”
Normally, receiving someone else’s mana is impossible.
Was it because of that?