I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 112

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 112
“But separate from my apology, when I realized you had talent for Alchemy… honestly, I started thinking I wanted to use it.”
“Use it… me?”
Mabel, who had been stealing glances at Zigmund all along, found herself echoing the words before she could stop.
Zigmund, catching sight of Mabel’s wavering eyes, smiled bitterly.
“That’s right. As you know, I have no heir. The Elders keep obstinately blocking Aselt and Kellic from succession because they’re Beastmen. But you’re not.”
Rumors had spread through society that Mabel might actually be Zigmund’s true daughter.
More recently, the rumor had become nearly accepted as fact.
Either way, Mabel was a princess of Asilonia or a grand duchess of Eschlide.
If the matter of parentage could be resolved, there was nothing for the Elders to object to.
“Dain intended from that point forward to take you in as my adopted daughter. Well, he probably felt more strongly that the Saint of Alchemy should be received in Eschlide, at any rate.”
This was all new to Mabel.
Mabel hesitated, then asked carefully.
“…Did the family head feel the same way?”
“I can’t deny it. I wanted to take you as my adopted daughter and make you my successor.”
Zigmund answered frankly.
“If I’m being completely honest, back then that was all it was. I was the teacher. You were my assistant. But when I heard you’d gone back to Asilonia… my mind went blank.”
Zigmund fell silent, then exhaled a deep breath through his nose.
His expression looked pained, as if recalling something he’d never wanted to think about again.
Mabel waited silently, and Zigmund spoke as if sighing.
“It’s ridiculous. In a way, you were just going home, and by your own account, I was truly the one who kidnapped you. The thought that you’d been abducted… I thought I’d go mad.”
Zigmund continued to pat Mabel’s back while gazing toward the Pond.
Occasionally ripples formed on the water’s surface as fish rose up from below.
Like those ripples, many changes had stirred within Zigmund’s heart since that incident.
Mabel, returned to Duke’s Castle. Mabel, who now thought of it as home… had become so precious and endearing to him.
If he didn’t see her for even a moment, it felt as though thorns were growing in his mouth.
Even while hurrying through his work, he found himself wondering what Mabel was doing, and the research he’d clung to like a madman fell by the wayside.
When he watched her chewing rice quietly, he felt full without having eaten; when he watched her sleeping peacefully, his eyes grew hot with joy.
That she tried so hard to keep up with his lectures despite their difficulty moved him, and when she spoke of concepts he’d never anticipated, his shoulders swelled with pride as if they were his own achievements.
There were countless moments like this.
There was something different about the way he felt toward Mabel compared to how he looked at Aselt and Kellic.
“Back then, I didn’t understand why I felt that way… but now, looking back, I think I’m beginning to see it.”
Zigmund, speaking of the feelings he’d experienced, asked a question.
“Mabel, do you… believe in love at first sight?”
“…Pardon?”
Mabel, whose nose had stung with overwhelming emotion, suddenly went rigid.
Love at first sight?
Wait.
…At me?
“Huh…?”
I’m nine now, I was eight then, uh… uh?
Mabel’s eyes wavered as if caught in an earthquake.
She jerked her upper body away from Zigmund, against whom she’d been leaning.
“No, wait. I misspoke. Well, actually that was the right word, but—”
“What?! It was the right word?!”
Mabel cried out in shock, her voice shrill.
Now she was pushing at Zigmund’s shoulders with both hands, pulling herself away from him.
“No! No! Absolutely not—whatever you’re thinking right now, it’s absolutely, absolutely not that!”
Zigmund, belatedly realizing what had gone wrong, shook his head frantically.
His face had gone pale with alarm.
He’d simply spoken what came to his mind, letting the thought spill out unfiltered, raw and unguarded.
Even now, he kept Mabel from falling backward, supporting her firmly as he began to explain.
“What I mean is, maybe I’ve felt a kind of paternal affection toward you from the very start.”
“…Paternal… affection?”
Paternal affection—as in the feeling a father has for his child?
Reading the suspicion that flooded Mabel’s eyes, Zigmund clutched at his hair.
Though truthfully, what he wanted to clutch was his own mouth.
Zigmund spoke with his eyes squeezed shut.
“I mean paternal love. A father’s… a father’s affection. What I’m trying to say is, maybe from the moment I first saw you, I thought of you as a daughter, and—”
However much he owed Mabel an apology, was it right to impulsively bring a child along like this?
And the fact that I agreed when Dain said, “Let’s take her in as an adopted daughter!” and bristled when Lundwell asked, “You’re not actually going to adopt her, are you?”
All of it was behavior entirely unlike my usual self.
What’s more, I’d engaged in outright war with Asilonia after leaving it untouched all this time, and even made an enemy of the Empress.
And just moments ago, Zigmund had felt genuine murderous intent toward Dain.
Such things would have been impossible if he hadn’t come to regard Mabel as his own daughter.
So it was with such feelings that I spoke…….
‘Madness.’
Zigmund truly wanted to weep.
Fortunately, the misunderstanding was cleared up quickly.
“Is it because of my eyes?”
Mabel, who had drawn back some distance, approached Zigmund once more and asked.
“I don’t know. I’m at a loss. This is my first time feeling anything like this.”
It could very well be that the child possessed those same red eyes she had inherited from him, just as Mabel suggested.
The violet hair, the symbol of the Eschlide Grand Duchy, may have played its part as well.
“But no matter what you looked like, I would have brought you home. Why? I honestly have no idea. It just felt right.”
Zigmund spoke with complete candor.
“That’s why I wanted to be careful. Until you could genuinely feel that you wanted to live with us. Until you saw me not just as a guardian or a fond adult, but as something closer.”
I wanted you to feel toward me as a true father, the way I felt toward you as a true daughter.
If someone were to say I’m being presumptuous—being neither a real parent nor someone who has ever borne a child—I’d have no defense.
Never even having dated, much less married, yet feeling paternal love for a child.
It was beyond words.
But Zigmund meant every word he said.
“If the day comes when I hear the word ‘father’ from your lips, I hope it’s me you’re calling.”
Zigmund’s story had come to an end.
So now it was Mabel’s turn to speak.
But Mabel had nothing particularly to say.
“I…… I was thinking the same thing.”
If someday she could choose her parents, she had hoped it would be Zigmund.
What had begun as a casual jest at their first meeting had gradually become sincere.
The accidental slip of calling him “father” had been answered by Caesar instead, and she’d felt regret.
When Zigmund used the words “aide” and “ward,” she’d felt disappointment.
Mabel looked at Zigmund with a slight smile.
“Perhaps we’ve been thinking the same thing from the very beginning.”
For a moment, Zigmund’s eyes widened slightly as he listened quietly to Mabel’s words.
And there in his red eyes, his own reflection smiled back at him.
‘Goodness, what a sight I must be!’
Startled, Mabel leaned in, and Zigmund instinctively supported the nape of her neck, drawing her close.
Still warm from the fever, she was hot to the touch.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Did something get in your eye?”
“No, it’s not that…….”
Mabel, burying her face against Zigmund’s shoulder once more, whispered very softly.
“It’s just…… I’m too ugly right now…….”
“……What?”
I thought something terrible had happened.
Zigmund, who had been fully focused on Mabel, felt his strength drain away.
“Ah, why would you worry about a thing like that.”
Zigmund spoke tenderly as he stroked the crown of her head.
Then, as if encouraging her to lift her head slightly, he gently rubbed his jaw against her cheek.
“No matter what you look like, you’re always beautiful to your father’s eyes.”
At those words, Mabel, who had been leaning against him, suddenly burst out in a breathless laugh.
“How would you even know? You don’t actually have a child.”
As Mabel giggled, the corners of Zigmund’s mouth curled up slightly.
“Don’t real fathers act this way?”
“I…… wouldn’t know?”
“Then a fatherless father acts this way.”
“Really? Where does anyone say such a thing?”
Mabel protested in bewilderment, but Zigmund’s stubbornness refused to bend so easily.
“So watch me. Watch your father.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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