How to Replace Dad 53
“Nonsense. Do you think I’d believe that?”
“The Duchess’s belief isn’t necessary. What matters is that I revealed my true identity to the Duchess.”
“What kind of nonsense is that.”
“Even if I revealed my identity, if you still try to lay a hand on me, this isn’t a family matter.”
“Hah.”
The Duchess let out a laugh.
But I didn’t miss the confusion in her eyes.
It was probably strange.
Why she adopted me, who was only a weakness.
The healing power she saw with her own eyes.
That I couldn’t be a saint without going mad.
As evidence, I took a step closer, and she flinched.
“The name of Duchess, and the status of Saintess, I won’t protect them either.”
“…”
One more step back.
“So don’t even think about touching me.”
“…”
Another step.
“Also not to Dad.”
“…”
One more.
“If you don’t want to become the perpetrator who caused the Empire to lose its Saintess, remember this well.”
One last step.
I stopped walking and smiled wryly.
“The exit is over there.”
Go away.
The Duchess gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
But she couldn’t attack me.
The Duchess glared at me with a smile, then stormed out.
After kicking out the Duchess, I turned my head.
“Since the Duchess is gone, now… huh?”
The expressions on the faces of the people looking at me were strange.
It seemed like a question mark was floating above Antonio’s head.
“Saint… what?”
The employees and knights were staring at me with blank faces.
Even Yuis let out a… chuckle.
Yuis probably thought I was ridiculous for blurting out the name of the Saintess I was trying to hide.
And Dad is…
“I said I’d protect you, and you were protected.”
He muttered in a sinister tone.
Emma was walking around among the maids, her face full of excitement.
“Bring more coats. Stella catches a cold easily. Also, bring the tea leaves she likes… No, no. How good the food will be at the palace.”
Her voice rose as if it was when her spirit was crushed.
“Wow. A saintess? I’m the mother of a saintess…!”
She repeated that over and over.
Emma, hugging Stella’s clothes, let out an ecstatic sigh.
“All the hardship I went through wasn’t in vain.”
It was a miserable life.
A life where I couldn’t become the wife of the man I loved.
Everyone thought I fell in love with Rohan because I was a maid of the Andres family after his first marriage failed, but that was wrong.
“Dia, it was all because of that woman’s pride.”
Dia was born as the daughter of the Nerovan Baron.
The Nerovan Baron was a poor family with a tiny territory.
The baron and baroness loved their only daughter Dia dearly but couldn’t stay by her side for long.
Originally frail mother passed away, and the father who loved his mother more than anyone else suffered and closed his eyes.
Dia became an orphan at a young age.
From childhood, she was quick with calculations, so she immediately sold the territory.
And with that money, she built the Baul Merchant Guild.
Emma was a worker in the Baul Merchant Guild.
Emma, who was about to be sold because of poor parents and a gambling-obsessed brother, was bought by Dia.
“W-would it be okay to buy someone like me for such a large sum…?”
“I’m a bit crazy too.”
“P-please forgive me…”
“But people sometimes do crazy things. Besides, you’re a special child to me.”
“Miss…”
Dia and Emma were born on the same day, at similar times.
Emma’s mother also breastfed Dia in place of the frail Dia’s mother.
Dia cherished and loved Emma as her milk sister.
Dia was intelligent.
The guild grew in size, becoming a target guild owning 16 mana stone mines.
But it wasn’t easy.
“Miss Dia, the inspector has come!”
“Tax evasion investigation…!”
“The mine lord has filed a lawsuit.”
Without backing, the rich become targets.
Despite being called one of the three major merchant guilds in the Empire, they couldn’t participate in any national projects.
Dia thought of the Baul Merchant Guild as a large glass ball.
It would shatter if hit properly.
“Then I need to raise the hardness.”
So she chose a marriage alliance with the Andres Duke.
At the time, the Andres Duke had failed his first marriage and was a widower.
The Andres Duchess opposed it, but the Duke valued Dia’s abilities highly, so the marriage progressed.
“Emma, go into the Andres first.”
“I?”
“Yes, you have a young brother. Can you take good care of the child?”
“I can, but…”
“The Andres Duke has a young son. From the looks of it, the Duchess is too strict, so he has no place to attach. Please go first and take care of him.”
“Why so much?”
“What?”
“W-well, it’s just a political marriage anyway. But is it necessary to be so enthusiastic about a child who doesn’t share blood…?”
Then Dia said with an embarrassed expression.
“Let’s work hard together.”
“Eh?”
“If we’re getting married, let’s make a proper family. So, he said the man isn’t bad.”
“…”
“So I’ll try my best.”
“Ah…”
“I sent you without letting it slip. The Duchess will be in a panic saying I plotted to give bad water to my grandchild. Damn it…”
That’s how she entered the Duke’s residence.
And finally, she met the Andres Duke, Rohan.
He had beautiful blonde hair and jewel-like blue eyes.
A man like a masterpiece completed by a master painter over a lifetime.
He had a good scent, and the noble atmosphere took your breath away.
He always smiled, but people said they felt an unreachable wall from him.
But to herself, it was an exception.
“Dia has a deep connection?”
“W-well, the guild master and I are milk sisters… born on the same day, similar time, and the guild master treated me like a twin and was affectionate…”
That’s how he would talk to her.
When the maids looked at her with envious eyes, her shoulders would puff up.
To such a beautiful man, an exception was nice, and she tried hard to talk to him even one word.
“P-people think the Baul Merchant Guild has 9 mana stone mines, but actually 16. I think the Duke should know, so…”
After clearing her mind, she was handing over Dia’s information.
“So this was also the fault of that woman.”
Why did she bring me close to such a handsome man?
Why didn’t she warn me at all?
She thought I didn’t need to be warned?
If you hadn’t ignored me, this wouldn’t have happened.
Dia was so busy with guild operations that she rarely came to the Andres residence before marriage.
“I hope she keeps coming.”
She thought that.
I wish we could be alone forever.
She wished and wished.
But eventually, the wedding came, and Dia became his wife.
On the nights when Rohan and Dia spent the night together, she couldn’t sleep.
It felt like a fire was crawling in her veins.
When Dia finally became pregnant with his child, she couldn’t bear it.
She threw everything in the dormitory room in tears.
“Why, why, why! Why only you…!”
Why were you born noble?
If I were noble like you.
If I had eight territories.
Then I would have built the guild and earned a lot of money, and my place next to him could be mine.
The atmosphere between Rohan and Dia wasn’t bad.
The employees, seeing only the two of them, laughed heartily thinking it was a political marriage.
They ate together once a day, and even though Dia was blunt and flipped the Duchess’s stomach, he just chuckled.
Every day was painful.
One day, it happened.
It was when Dia was full term, but for some reason, Rohan and Dia had a big fight.
The cold war that started that way continued.
When it was two weeks before childbirth, they even shouted at each other.
Emma approached Rohan alone on the terrace at night.
She handed him tea and sobbed.
Rohan asked her while seeing Emma sobbing.
“Why are you crying.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“What.”
“I resent Dia for treating the most precious thing to me carelessly, but I can’t pour out this resentment…”
She jumped into his arms.
“Even for one night, please. I want to comfort the Duke…”
That night was blissful.
To be able to sleep in the arms of such a beautiful man.
She was full of joy and happiness.
But misfortune came the next morning.
A maid saw her in Rohan’s bed and screamed, informing the Duchess.
“How dare…! You little—”
The Duchess, holding a flower of anger, mercilessly struck herself.
Sobbing, lying on the floor, Dia looked at her with a pale face.
“Miss Dia… Miss Dia, please help. Miss Dia…!”
She begged, but Dia didn’t move.
Even when the Duchess threw her out.
Only when she was thrown out the door with her luggage did Dia approach her.
“D-Dia, don’t send me away. I have to take care of O’Neil. When the madam’s child is born, I’ll take care of that child too, so please…!”
“Shut up, Emma.”
“D-Dia…”
“I won’t let my children know that I cherished and loved you like family.”
Dia said it crushingly.
“I won’t raise you as a child who can’t trust people because of betrayal. So shut your mouth.”
“…”
“And don’t show your face to me again.”
She was still acting superior till the end.
In the end, it was just that her pride was hurt because she took away her husband.
But his heart was still hers.
Rohan came to her who was crying in front of the mansion.
He comforted her crying self and gave her money. It was a huge sum that even a commoner could live on for life.
And the world brought another good fortune to her arms.
A child was born.
Because of the fierce gazes of the Duchess and the Duke, she couldn’t come for a while, but as long as the child was there, she could come back.
She endured with that thought.
In the midst of hardship, the good news was that the relationship between Dia and the Duke was worse than anyone else’s.
“I made it that way.”
The Duke didn’t forget me.
He beat Dia.
Although a long time passed, he really came to find me.
“Mom, who is this man?”
“He’s your father, Stella.”
She could enter Andres with the child.
And finally became the mother of the saintess.
“Ah, the world was on my side.”
Look.
The true winner was herself.
If the imperial family and temple appoint Stella as the saintess, she would become the Duchess, not the lowly commoner status.
Emma, hugging Stella’s clothes, let out an ecstatic sigh.
The maids smiled cutely and said.
“If Yustea hears the news, how her heart will twist.”
“Yes. The young miss caused a ruckus in the mansion to prevent the Andres Duchess from becoming the wife of the Duke.”
Emma flinched.
“Yeah, that girl.”
That daughter Dia cherished like her life.
She was as arrogant as her mother.
“Yustea, where is that girl now?”
I couldn’t just leave it.
Emma’s lips twisted.
The Esgard Second Residence.
The Vice-Duke’s voice flowed from the communication stone.
[Nothing.]
“Yeah. I caught poison that day and got purified right away.”
[Jackpot.]
“So… after you performed the ancient curse ‘Amgyeong’ on the Duke, you got purified?”
“Yeah. I caught poison that day and got purified right away.”
“When the administrator of the Esgard Main Castle, Godin, came to look for the Saintess, the young lady realized she was the Saintess.”
“Yeah. Considering the holy fluctuation and the new ability, I think I’m the Saintess.”
“…”
The Vice-Duke became quiet.
Not only that.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Dad, Antonio, Yuis all fell silent.
Was he angry that they hid such an important thing?
I hesitated and spoke up.
“I didn’t intend to deceive on purpose. I-I’m bad at mana, so I was scared that if I used it here and there, I’d die…”
Just as I was mumbling.
Antonio said.
“So what should I call this. Amazing?”
“Nothing.”
“Jackpot.”
Antonio, the Vice-Duke, and Yuis said in flat voices.
[Kiyakho!]
[Hururari!]
[Kuaaaak─!]
The members of the Vice-Duke’s squad who were listening to the conversation with the Vice-Duke let out cheers.
“The Saintess! Our young lady is the Saintess!”
Even the Vice-Duke was in chaos.
Antonio punched the air happily.
Yuis chuckled.
“Everyone is happy. Good.”
It wasn’t just ordinary happiness.
“What’s going on, Vice-Duke.”
“Yes. The Saintess. We have someone greater than the Duke in our Kuaron.”
“Should we bring the Mana Stone? We need to inform the elite who are talking about the young lady’s qualifications to shut their mouths!”
“Since everyone is happy, it’s good.”
Now that it’s like this, it’s rather comfortable.
Now I can protect him until Dad becomes the Duke.
I was smiling and turning my head when Dad, sitting at the desk, frowned and looked at something.
Upon closer look, it was a book.
The Prince Who Protects His Daughter
Dad muttered.
“Is it a princess who is protected by her daughter?”
His voice was somehow flat.
I enthusiastically comforted Dad.
“How about the princess? I like princesses. Pretty, kind, doesn’t lose courage even if dragged away by the Demon King…!”
“…”
Yuis quickly shook his head at me.
“This isn’t it?”
“Leave out the princess talk.”
We exchanged glances with our eyes.
Just as I was trying to comfort Dad with other words.
The housekeeper entered with a knock.
“Emma from the Andres residence has come to see you.”
…What?
My aura became more fierce than Dad and Antonio and Yuis.
“The woman came?”
“You’re not going crazy? The young lady is here. I…!”
Antonio was about to rush out, so I quickly said.