How to Replace Dad - Chapter 54: The Mother's Secret
“No, I will meet her.”
“That woman is capable of anything. She poisoned your mother, so she might throw acid on you too.”
Aslan’s eyebrows twitched at the mention of acid.
I shook my head.
“She won’t be able to do that. She’s powerless in front of others.”
It was the same even in the Andres mansion.
After Stella entered the mansion, Emma frequently came to the Andres mansion under the pretext of meeting Stella.
Mother told Emma, “I won’t stop you from meeting Stella. But you must meet her discreetly outside the mansion.”
“Ah, of course. I’m grateful to my lady just for allowing me to meet Stella...”
Emma promised with teary eyes like chicken pox.
Then, as soon as she left, she took the medicine.
She said she had no reason to live if she was only hindering her daughter’s life.
'Drinking ten heat-relief pills is not quite a suicide attempt.'
Stella was in an uproar.
She packed her bags immediately, saying she wouldn’t live in the Andres if she lost her mother.
People who loved Stella couldn’t stay still.
They knew her mother’s weakness.
When they grabbed me and caused a commotion, Mother had no choice but to back down.
Thus, Emma came and went to my house as if it were her own.
“I want to meet her.”
When I was firm, the Irregulars had no choice but to retreat.
I told the butler to bring Emma and headed to the reception room.
After a while, there was a knock.
The butler had brought Emma.
“So this is where you live.”
Emma was dressed in a luxurious manner comparable to a duchess from a great noble family.
She wore a dress embroidered with delicate patterns in gold thread and a white fox fur shawl, and a large-brimmed hat on her head.
Removing her hat, Emma sat opposite me with a relaxed smile.
“How have you been?”
“Fine.”
“Still no manners.”
“Were you someone I should have manners for?”
She was poking at the fact that I was just the mistress’s lover, a concubine of my biological father who was a maid.
Emma’s expression twisted.
But soon she said with a smile again.
“Seeing that you’re so worked up, it seems you’ve heard the news about Stella.”
“So?”
“I don’t know how proud she is of Stella. Seeing that, I felt grateful to your mother.”
Mother?
Why is mother talking here?
When I frowned as if asking what she meant, Emma’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh, my mother didn’t tell you everything? The one who made me meet her was your mother.”
“...What are you saying?”
“You see, I was a wet nurse to your mother.”
“...What?”
“Because of that connection, when your mother established the Baul Merchant Guild, I was hired as a worker. I was able to enter the Andres because your mother helped me.”
Even as a child, I thought it strange.
How could Emma work in the Andres mansion?
As a nurse maid caring for a young uncle.
In great noble families, they hire talented people with nursing school diplomas.
But Emma had never even received proper education, let alone nursing school.
“Your mother and I were close like sisters when we were young. Your mother saved me from being sold, and I was the only support for your mother’s lonely life without parents.”
“...”
“But now, having given birth to a child of the same man, and those children being real sisters, how twisted life is.”
“...”
“I understand why your mother was asking about my past. She didn’t want to see her daughter’s face like this. It must have hurt her pride that as a woman, she was deprived of her husband by me.”
While saying this, Emma was smiling brightly.
I twisted the hem of my skirt, thinking it was amusing.
“So when your mother and you are pitiful─”
“Are you proud of being a goldfish that doesn’t know favors?”
“What?”
“Is it happy that taking the husband of someone who received favors is the greatest achievement in life?”
Emma’s expression hardened.
She glared at me fiercely, then burst into a mocking laugh.
“You’re just like your mother. Wanting to protect your pride like that?”
“What Mother was trying to protect wasn’t pride.”
Until now, I thought my mother was a strong person.
A person who doesn’t fear frontal breakthrough when something happens.
A cheerful and bright person.
A person who laughs that the wounds are like medals for enduring pain.
But now I realized.
'Mother wasn’t a strong person, but a person who had to be strong.'
To protect me.
“That’s me. I didn’t want to waste my life wishing for my mother’s revenge.”
“...Trying to act so superior, in the end your mother and you will lose to our mother and be driven out...”
“But I finally found out!”
When I shouted fiercely, Emma flinched and looked at me.
I looked straight at Emma and said.
“You’re dead.”
“What do you mean by that...”
“Throw this woman out!”
At the moment I shouted, the door burst open.
But the person who appeared was not the expected face.
“When were you calling? ...Miss.”
“There’s filth flowing from your mouth. Aunty.”
Yuis and Antonio looked at Emma with fierce eyes.
Emma, startled by the aura of the Irregular elite, fled with her tail between her legs.
Emma, who ran out of the Esgard second floor, glared at the door with a grudge.
“Still acting high and mighty.”
She resembled my mother.
But that appearance wouldn’t last long.
It seemed she was recognized favorably in Esgard, but if she learns that this girl is outside the saintess’s eyes, the situation will change in an instant.
Emma sitting in the carriage said.
“Let’s go.”
I have to watch my daughter’s most honorable moment with my own eyes.
Today, in the validation ceremony, Stella would stand at the highest position than anyone.
The carriage soon started moving.
The destination was the imperial palace.
No one blocked the carriage with the Andres crest engraved on it.
Passing through the palace gates into the carriage waiting room, Stella greeted her mother with a bright face.
“Mother!”
“Oh my, Stella...”
Emma looked at Stella with a touched face.
Stella, wearing a white dress with gold embroidery for the himation, was like a goddess appearing in a myth.
“Beautiful. So beautiful.”
“Please come this way. Father and grandmother are in the conference hall.”
Stella led her to the validation ceremony hall with a bright smile.
In the hall were the Emperor, the Pope, the lords of the 7 families, the senior priests, and the nobles chosen by lottery.
When the Duchess of the previous duke saw Emma, her eyebrows twitched.
She whispered to the previous duke’s wife.
“How did that person come to the validation meeting.”
“She said Stella begged her gently.”
A tearful request to share the honor with her mother.
The validation meeting was just a formality. Stella was already like the saintess had been decided.
The temple that had been waiting for the saintess all along would not refuse her request.
Emma quickly approached the two.
“A beautiful day, Mother.”
“What on earth is your appearance...”
She was dressed in all sorts of flashy things hanging down, looking shabby.
The Duchess of the previous duke turned her head with an annoyed expression.
Soon the validation began.
The validation method was purification of an egg contaminated with ancient poison.
In the early days of the founding, even the first Pope had sealed it without solving the contamination.
How powerful the contamination was, even outside the cage with the egg, black shapes flickered.
The cage was placed in front of Stella.
The Pope extended his hand with a smiling face.
“Begin the purification.”
The surrounding people focused on Stella reaching her hand into the cage.
“Can you solve the contamination?”
“It’s not even been long since it hatched, so how can it solve that deadly poison? Even partial purification is a great achievement.”
Emma looked at Stella on the stage with a thrilled face.
'Ah, finally.'
Finally, her daughter would become the saintess.
Stella’s fingertips touched the cage.
With white and fine fingertips, light like fireflies gathered.
Soon they turned into flickering curves and wrapped around the cage.
“Ooh...”
“Waaah...”
Emanations flowed from among the nobles.
Great mana.
High purity and powerful mana that could be felt from afar.
The mana penetrated into the cage.
It was then that the sound was heard.
Thud.
It sounded like a dull falling sound, or like a drum crying.
The sound continued intermittently.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
One of the youngest men among the 7 family lords muttered.
“Is it like a heartbeat...?”
Then someone muttered.
“No way. Who has such a huge heartbeat...”
A noble who was tilting his head with a strange expression suddenly looked at the cage.
The cage.
It was the cage.
This heartbeat was coming from the cage.
The thoughts of those who realized it followed one after another.
'What is the true nature of the egg being purified.'
The first to find the answer was the Pope.
The Pope’s expression hardened while sitting on the chair prepared at the closest place to the stage.
The Pope stood up abruptly.
“Stop! Gather the senior priests and seal the cage!”
What?
The nobles’ eyes widened as they wondered what was happening, and the senior priests hurriedly ran to the stage.
But it was too late.
Crash!
The cage shattered and what appeared was...
[Grrrr...!]
Stella flew towards the wall as the cage broke.
“Ugh...”
She groaned and barely lifted her head.
It was a huge monster covered entirely in black, like it had rolled in mud.
Monster?
No, that’s a monster.
Its beak opened in a cross shape.
Full of teeth inside the beak.
Its claws were sharp like spears, and its red eyes flashed with madness.
“Your Majesty!”
“Holy!”
Soldiers and knights hurriedly protected the Emperor and the Pope.
The Emperor shouted at the Pope.
“Did you prepare a monster’s egg for the validation?”
“It’s not a monster. It’s holy water. A white egg!”
“Then what is that appearance!”
“It hatched without purifying. The holy water was born contaminated with poison!”
What?
The nobles were in shock.
It didn’t purify?
Then it’s not the saintess?
'No, more than that...!'
The contaminated holy water gradually increased in size.
It grew as if it would break the tower and the guardian’s room.
The knights and senior priests blocked it, but it was futile.
The knights’ swords and spears melted as if they had hit lava, and the sanctity of the senior priests was canceled by the creepy wailing sound.
“Reinforcements! Bring reinforcements!”
“Uwaaaaaah─!”
The tower became a hell in an instant.
The nobles ran in terror towards the exit.
The contaminated white egg flew towards the Emperor.
At the moment the white egg’s claws were about to touch the Emperor.
Chak!
A sharp friction sound rang out.
Thud.
The severed foot of the white egg rolled on the floor.
“...!”
“...!!”
Those who were surprised looked at one place simultaneously.
Three men running towards the Emperor.
A man with golden blonde hair so beautiful that his gender was unclear.
A man with red hair who jumped on the contaminated white egg.
And the black-haired man guarding in front of the Emperor was...
“Aslan.”
The Duke of Esgard called his name.
Aslan quietly looked at the contaminated white egg while holding the sword.
His fierce aura was enough to make the enemy specific to the beast.
[Kyaaaaah─!]
The white egg, which let out a sharp cry, rushed at Aslan.
Clang!
But it hit Aslan’s barrier.
At the moment the beak was burning, Antonio, who was riding on the contaminated white egg, stabbed his sword hard into the nape of the neck.
With a thud, the white egg fell.
When Yuis spread his hand, a web-like thing made of strange letters covered the contaminated white egg.
[Krrruuk! Kyaah─!]
The resistance of the contaminated white egg was tremendous.
With wing flapping, buildings were destroyed, and people close to the contaminated white egg started having blood vessels burst.
“Agh...”
“Kruuu...”
People covered their ears and collapsed.
But he couldn’t stop Aslan.
He ran straight towards the contaminated white egg and swung his neck.
Thuduk.
With a creepy sound of bones and joints breaking, the neck of the white egg bent with a thud.
“Is it... done?”
Thinking it was finally resolved, people started moving their bodies.
But it froze as is.
Because the cross-section of the contaminated white egg’s neck was sloshing, and soon a head was being generated.
“Aaah... Aaaaaah...”
People, frightened, started pushing their bodies by stepping on the ground with their palms.
Sweat poured down Yuis’s temples.
“I can’t hold it any longer.”
At that moment, a girl appeared.
Even in the middle of the contaminated white egg crying miserably, the girl strode across the conference hall.
“...Eh?”
The lords of the 7 families, the senior priests, and other nobles looked at the girl.
Emma muttered.
“Y... Yustea?”
Yes, that girl.
Blonde hair fluttered in the rough wind that entered through the broken outer wall.
Her pupils had noble eyes.
One of the nobles shouted.
“Ah, no! If you approach the white egg...”
Then the girl said.
“It’s okay. It’s been weakened enough.”
The girl’s hand touched the white egg.
Gooouung...
With a strange vibration, a golden light gathered at the fingertips.
“Be calm.”
From the part where the hand touched, the contaminated lumps fell with a thud, thud, as if it were pus.
The hideous body started to return.
And what was revealed was pure white feathers.
“Let go, Yuis.”
When Yustea said that, Yuis asked with a flat voice.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
The curse was removed from Yuis’s hand.
And the released white egg was...
[Kiiik....]
Yustea wiped her eyes with her hand.
“...!”
“...!!”
“...?”
The people cheered.
They opened their mouths wide, so no sound came out.
The first to speak were the senior priests.
“Holy...”
“Holy, this is...”
The Pope stared blankly at one place.
At that girl stroking the white egg that had escaped from the contamination.
In the silent hall, the Pope shouted.
“The appearance of the saintess─!”
The moment Yustea Andres, no, Yustea Esgard Quaron, obtained the title of saintess.