I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 13

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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 13
So he was saying that he didn’t give her one, but he gave one to Dane……?
It was true—it had been Siegmund who taught her the letters for an entire hour.
So it made sense that she’d feel disappointed when Dane received one but she didn’t.
Now understanding his point, Mabel set down the choux she’d already bitten into and held another out to Siegmund.
There were two.
Siegmund lifted one eyebrow slightly.
“You’re giving me both?”
“Yes!”
Mabel answered with an emphatic nod.
“So please don’t be angry……!”
At her words, Siegmund let out an involuntary chuckle.
“Fine. I can’t tease you properly at all.”
He took just one, as though admitting it had been a joke.
Mabel blinked and looked up at him.
“That’s enough—one is plenty for me. You eat that one.”
With that, Siegmund popped the miniature choux made specially for Mabel into his mouth.
“We’ll rest next time, so once you finish your snack, you can go outside and play.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You got a perfect score.”
Even with breaks scattered throughout, it was difficult for a child to sit still for such a long stretch.
Besides, this was Mabel’s first time studying at all, so he’d decided to keep things within reasonable limits.
While the child enjoyed her snack time, Siegmund picked up his own manuscripts.
The playfulness vanished from his downcast crimson eyes, replaced by gravity.
Mabel, who had settled onto the sofa, munched on her choux while unable to tear her gaze from Siegmund.
“Miss, do have some milk with it,” Dane said.
“Mm-hmm!”
As Mabel drank the fragrant milk with contented gulps, a white ring formed around her mouth.
While Dane was struck down yet again by the sight of her cuteness, Siegmund opened his mouth.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“Ah—h-how did you know?”
She’d been keeping her head down the whole time!
Like last time, did he really have eyes in the back of his head or something?
As the startled Mabel stammered, Dane—now regaining his composure—gently wiped around her mouth with a soft handkerchief.
“You stare so hard it’s like you’re trying to bore a hole through my head.”
“Ah, I—I’m not really……!”
“Is that so? Well, that’s a relief.”
Siegmund chuckled softly.
“If you’re curious, you can come closer and look.”
“But I thought I might get in your way…….”
“Not at all.”
Well then, maybe she could just take a quick peek……!
Unable to resist her curiosity, Mabel set down her cup, and Dane promptly carried it before helping her down from the sofa.
Pitter-patter—as she approached the desk, Siegmund turned the manuscripts he’d been reading toward Mabel.
Thanks to memorizing the alphabetic vowels and consonants, she could now decipher the squiggly-looking letters fairly well.
Of course, she hadn’t learned any actual words yet, so she didn’t understand what it said.
“These are materials for the presentation on the Horned Spirit Summoning Ritual you resolved.”
Siegmund explained for Mabel’s benefit.
“I can’t take you this time, but next time we’ll go together.”
“Really?”
“To manage that, you’ll need to eat well and grow strong. Can’t have you hidden behind the podium.”
As expected, teasing followed, but Mabel didn’t respond.
Or rather, she couldn’t respond.
Next time.
At those words, her chest thrummed with a peculiar vibration.
Feeling her heart leap in rhythm, Mabel spun around.
“Where are you going?”
Pitter-patter-patter—Mabel dashed back to the desk and cried out:
“Please lift me up!”
“To study? I said you could go play instead.”
“I’m going to review.”
For what comes next!
Mabel’s face gleamed at the thought.
“My goodness, how admirable you are……!”
Dane was so moved that he covered his mouth with both hands, drew a sharp breath, and his eyes glistened with tears.
Siegmund, who’d had no intention of encouraging the child, let out a soft laugh and shook his head.
How could he refuse a child whose eyes sparkled as she reached up, begging to be lifted?
He hoisted Mabel onto the chair, and when Siegmund—who had been using the distant murmur of Mabel and Dane’s voices as white noise to concentrate—lifted his head.
Soft breathing, soft breathing.
Mabel was fast asleep, sprawled across the desk.
“For heaven’s sake, go sleep in your room where it’s comfortable.”
“I suggested the same thing, but she was so stubborn I couldn’t talk her out of it.”
Dane gestured toward Mabel’s hand as Siegmund approached with careful, silent steps.
“Look at how red her hands have gotten from gripping the pen so tightly while she studied.”
“She’ll have calluses soon enough.”
He felt a twinge of sympathy, yet at the same time, a quiet pride swelled in his chest.
The child slept on, oblivious to the world, her small cheeks still faintly pressed by the desk.
“If I pick her up, she’ll wake.”
“Likely so. That’s why I haven’t been able to move her to the sofa.”
What was to be done?
Siegmund and Dane were huddling together in thought when it happened.
Knock, knock.
“!!!”
“!!!”
A sharp intake of breath!
The knock that cut through the silence sent Siegmund and Dane into a panic.
While Dane rushed to the door and opened it silently to check, Siegmund watched Mabel with anxious eyes.
“Mmgh…….”
The child shifted briefly, then mercifully fell back asleep.
Siegmund seized the moment to gently slip the heavy pen from her reddened hand.
The thoughtless visitor was none other than Rundwell.
“I came to bring you word…….”
Rundwell, flustered by Dane’s silent but blazing fury, instinctively lowered his voice.
The reason was the child’s soft, snuffling breaths threading through the hushed tumult of the adults.
Rundwell approached on tiptoe, and a tender smile bloomed across his face.
“She fell asleep while studying.”
Good heavens, how commendable.
Rundwell’s gaze lingered on Mabel’s sleeping face, lost in memory.
“It reminds me so much of the Grand Duke when he was small.”
“Hmm?”
“The Grand Duke often fell asleep like this while studying as a child. Your Highness’s sleeping face then and the young lady’s now—they’re as alike as if struck from the same mold.”
It was a curious thing indeed.
Unlike the other servants, Rundwell had never believed Mabel to be Siegmund’s illegitimate child.
The two were clearly unrelated, yet in Mabel he could glimpse traces of Siegmund’s childhood.
“If anyone saw them, they’d swear you were father and daughter.”
“The servants won’t believe me when I deny it either. They say the resemblance is uncanny.”
Rundwell and Dane chuckled softly, speaking in hushed tones.
Siegmund looked at the sleeping child and stroked his jaw thoughtfully.
“Is that so? Do we really resemble each other?”
Mabel did possess all the distinctive features of Escride’s direct line, that much was true.
Siegmund glanced back at Rundwell and Dane as he spoke.
“Am I that cute?”
At his brazen comment, Dane and Rundwell quickly set the record straight.
“Ah, Your Highness, that’s not what we meant at all.”
“No, certainly not now.”
Their tone made it clear: entertain no such misunderstanding.
Siegmund’s mood shifted oddly at their swift rebuttal, though he couldn’t quite say why.
* * *
A few days later, morning arrived.
Today Siegmund and Dane were to depart for the Hermetic Kingdom.
It was to present the ‘Horned Spirit Summoning Ritual’ that Mabel had discovered.
And while Siegmund worked to organize his thesis, Mabel had studied diligently until she’d reached the point of memorizing individual words.
As a result, her fingers would go numb every evening, forcing Ella to massage them gently for her.
“Then I’ll be off.”
“Yes, do be careful! I’ll keep studying hard!”
“No, Mabel.”
Siegmund shook his head as if to correct her.
“You’ve worked hard enough—what you need now is proper rest.”
“But…”
“Rest well, sleep well, eat well. That’s how you’ll grow strong.”
In just a few days, Mabel’s appearance had changed beyond recognition.
The grimy, hollow-cheeked child he’d brought here at first was gone.
Under Ella and the servants’ care, her skin and hair now gleamed with vitality, and with Zac’s varied confections at every meal,
her cheeks had filled out beautifully.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Just as Siegmund smiled at Mabel’s reply and began to climb into the carriage,
“Your Grace, must I really go as well?” Dane asked, his shoulders slumped.
……
“This Dane! To be parted from you for days at a time!”
……
“Not to behold your precious face for days—the very thought is unbearable already!”
Dane cried out as though genuinely afflicted, like a man of tragic fate.
Siegmund sighed and shook his head at his outburst.
“Mabel, say goodbye to him too.”
“Uncle Dane, do travel safely!”
“Well, since I’ve received my farewell, let’s go.”
“Ah, Miss—!”
Just as Siegmund, already in the carriage, began to close the door as if he truly meant to leave without him, Dane scrambled to follow.
“Miss—I, Dane, shall return with good tidings—!”
Mabel waved her small hand in farewell as the carriage drew away toward the Drawbridge.

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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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