I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 14

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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 14
‘The Hermetic Kingdom.’
A century ago, when magic weakened across the world and many nations fell into chaos, it had emerged like a comet.
From the start, they spared no national resources in their support for Alchemy, and by now they were known as ‘the holy land of alchemists.’
Had it not been for House Eschlide, even the Greenhurst Empire might have had to tread carefully around the Hermetic Kingdom.
“I hope it goes well.”
Mabel waved toward the carriage receding into the distance.
She hoped that Siegmund and Dain, who had departed with bright faces, would return wearing the same expression.
“Miss~ shall we go eat lunch~?”
“Yes~”
Holding Ella’s hand tightly, they arrived at the dining hall where chef Jacques was waiting.
And once again today, chef Jacques had brought back meals for two people uneaten.
By this point, Mabel had grown a little curious.
To not show one’s face even on the day the master of the house departed.
Just who was this person with such audacity?
‘Is there someone I haven’t thought of?’
But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure it out.
‘No, maybe I’m just forgetting something.’
Mabel couldn’t even remember what sort of person she had been in her previous life.
So there could be omissions in the novel’s contents as well.
‘Only modern common sense keeps coming to mind…….’
“Hmm…….”
It was as Mabel let out a troubled sound, staring at the empty dining table.
“Miss~ shall we have our dessert in the Garden~?”
Ella approached carefully, knelt beside the chair, and looked up at Mabel.
Mabel’s eyebrows drooped downward as if she felt sorry for something.
“In the Garden…… yes, let’s invite lots of people and eat together~ like a picnic~”
It seemed Ella must have thought I was lonely, staring blankly at the empty table.
After all, I’d eaten alone today without Siegmund.
‘That’s not it at all!’
But playing noisily with others was enjoyable.
So much so that my stomach hurt from laughing too much, and I couldn’t sleep at night.
“Yes, I’d love to!”
When Mabel broke into a wide smile, Ella too seemed relieved and offered a gentle grin.
* * *
“A picnic with Miss, a picnic!”
“Get everything ready!”
“What gifts should we bring?!”
An untimely tempest had swept through the elegant old castle boasting centuries of history, and it showed no signs of subsiding for days.
Just as Ella had predicted, it was the Butterfly Effect stirred by an eight-year-old girl’s breath.
Yet there was one person who paid no mind to that chaotic commotion.
“Aselth, how can you keep reading in all this noise?”
“Chaos is something heard by the ears.”
Rustle.
A white hand with reddish joints turned the page of the book.
Aselth, sitting by the open window reading, was as peaceful as someone enjoying a quiet holiday.
The peculiar thing was that his eyes, which were actually reading, were covered with a black Eye Covering Mask.
Through the open window, wind swept in and brushed Aselth’s black hair.
“They’re all definitely bewitched by that woman’s daughter.”
Kellic spoke curtly, watching the leisurely Aselth.
Kellic, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, brought to mind a red fox because of his short crimson hair and amber eyes.
His vertically slit pupils made him seem even more so.
“Now even Dain’s completely smitten.”
“……Even Dain?”
Finally, Aselth’s gaze, which had paid no attention to Kellic’s words until then, lifted from the book.
Behind the Eye Covering Mask, vertically slit black pupils gleamed coldly, but Kellic didn’t notice.
“Yeah. Something about her being the saint of Alchemy or whatever—looks like everyone leaves their brains at home. How’s such a tiny girl supposed to know anything about Alchemy? By the look of her, she’s only five or six years old.”
Kellic let out a scoff.
“She probably just memorized a few things her mother taught her to gather information. I don’t see why they’d even bother teaching a kid like that letters.”
“……Sophia Achillonia.”
“Yeah, that woman. If this keeps up, won’t Master’s research materials end up stripped bare again?”
Kellic, who had been muttering to himself that he needed to get his act together, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“But how’d you manage to remember? You’re not usually interested in people.”
Aselth’s mouth twisted at one corner as he rubbed the edge of the bookshelf with his fingertip.
“How could I forget? And it’s not just anyone—it’s her.”
Chirp, chirp, chirp—
Just then, a small yellow bird alighted on the windowsill, singing away.
“Oh, a canary.”
The instant Kellic pointed at the bird with his finger—
“Squeak!”
Flap-flap!
Aselth’s shadow, cast across the floor, transformed into a serpent in a heartbeat and chased the canary away.
Kellic, watching the spectacle through the shadow, narrowed his eyes.
“I seriously don’t understand why you hate yellow so much.”
“Kellic.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you know what color Sophia Achillonia’s hair is?”
As though he’d never turned into a serpent at all, Aselth picked up a stray canary feather drifting down and spoke.
“It’s yellow.”
With that, Aselth closed his book and stood.
“What? My eyes are yellow too, and—wait, where are you going?”
Kellic called after him, muttering at Aselth’s retreating back.
Already gripping the door handle, Aselth turned to regard his younger brother—whether foolish or merely innocent, he couldn’t quite decide.
Then, his red lips curved into a smile.
“To watch the baby canary.”
* * *
At that same moment, Mabel was utterly absorbed in Ella’s extraordinary tales of valor.
“I warned that man: if you disrespect me as a woman one more time, I’ll make sure you’re neither man nor woman anymore. That’s what I told him.”
Ella mimed grasping at empty air, as though plucking something away.
“And then he threw himself prostrate before me and begged forgiveness, then scrambled off like his life depended on it. His Grace the Grand Duke was so moved by the sight that he offered me a commission in the Knight Order, but I declined—seemed like too much trouble, you know? So he offered me a position as a lady’s maid instead. The salary was quite generous, so I mulled it over and accepted. Lucky for me I did~”
Ella finished her story and returned to her usual manner of speech, dabbing away a smudge of cream from the corner of Mabel’s mouth.
“I nearly missed the chance to serve such a precious young lady, after all~”
“Hehe.”
Mabel, still unaccustomed to praise, laughed shyly.
“And that concludes my tale of seventeen-against-one—how I saved His Grace~ Now, please, finish eating~”
Only then did Mabel realize she’d abandoned her cake entirely, lost in Ella’s narrative.
Ella’s gift for storytelling was truly exceptional—and utterly captivating.
Climbing the highest tree in the mountains at age three, felling a great bear at seven, fighting seventeen-to-one to save Siegmund at thirteen, and subduing a cocky band of mercenaries at fifteen to earn them a commission with the Knight Order!
However preposterous the tales were, she spun them with such vivid detail that they felt absolutely real.
“But… it does seem like everyone’s running late.”
Mabel spoke uncertainly as she lifted a large forkful of cake to her mouth.
They’d been inside the glass greenhouse in the Garden for over an hour already.
Even if they were making extra desserts for the expanded guest list, surely someone would have arrived by now.
“You’re right, aren’t you? Time has just flown by~”
Ella, who’d been finding it strange herself, rose from her seat at once.
“I’ll go check on things~ Just wait for me a moment~”
Ella left the glass greenhouse, muttering that something was indeed off.
And then…
‘Ella still hasn’t come back.’
At first, Mabel assumed Ella was simply running behind.
But as ten minutes, then twenty minutes elapsed, Mabel found she couldn’t sit still.
More than that, the surroundings had become far too quiet.
No voices of people—and not even the chirping of the small birds that had been singing all along.
As if a predator were lurking nearby.
A sudden chill ran through her, and Mabel’s shoulders shuddered.
“I… I should go too…”
Uneasy at being alone, Mabel deliberately spoke aloud to herself and was just rising from her seat when—
“Hmm, that’s not yellow.”
A languid young voice came from directly behind her.
Mabel spun around in shock, and there stood a boy.
A strange beautiful boy with hair as dark as pitch, his eyes covered with cloth the same color.
“Oh, since when…?”
She hadn’t noticed him even though he was sitting right behind her.
“You’re only just noticing? I’ve been waiting and got so bored.”
Unlike Mabel, who was frozen solid in shock, the boy radiated an easy confidence.
“I heard you spent your life locked in a cage, but you really can’t survive in the wild.”
He spoke in riddles and laughed softly.
“Nice to meet you.”
The boy seemed genuinely friendly, but Mabel found herself backing away in hesitant steps.
It was almost instinctive.
A trickle of cold sweat ran down her spine like ice water.
By then, Mabel had even forgotten to breathe.
But the boy paid no mind and merely extended his hand further.
“My name is Aselth.”
She already knew.
Aselth Elapid.
Mabel screamed silently inside.
Because this boy was the villain she’d been trying to seek out!

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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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