I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 2

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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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Episode 2
At some point, a large carriage had come to a stop before Maybelle.
When she lifted her head, her gaze met that of the man seated inside.
His silver hair gleamed like crushed pearls, and his crimson eyes were the very image of a prince from a storybook.
‘This person….’
If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, he truly was a prince.
Maybelle recognized him at once.
Siegmund Eschlid, the Grand Duke.
Sophia’s childhood friend and the Sub Male Lead of this novel.
‘But just now, what did that Sub Male Lead call me?’
She wanted to ask, but her heart was pounding so violently that no words would come.
It was primal fear.
‘If I misheard….’
She was terrified that she might discover her existence had remained hidden from the outside world.
As Maybelle, trembling with fear and tears glistening at the corners of her eyes, only gazed upward, Siegmund tilted his head and asked again.
“Maybelle… isn’t it? You?”
She hadn’t misheard. She’d heard it correctly!
Her eyes, wet with tears, sparkled.
‘My name. He said my name!’
In that moment, an indescribable joy welled up from the depths of her chest.
Maybelle’s lips trembled as she spoke.
“Can you… can you see me…?”
“What…?”
Siegmund echoed back, as if uncertain what he’d heard.
It was a response.
They were talking. Right now, they were having a conversation!
“Can you see me… can you really see me?!”
At the child’s repeated question, Siegmund furrowed his brow for a moment as if baffled, then opened his mouth.
“I see you. Very clearly.”
“Ah….”
In that instant, Maybelle felt as though the anxiety that had clung to her like mud for so long had peeled away, layer by layer.
And Siegmund was still looking at her.
For eight years, everyone had turned their heads away whenever their eyes met, as though they’d seen something they shouldn’t.
But this was the first time in her life that someone’s gaze had lingered on her like this.
Meeting those crimson eyes sent a warmth and tickle through her.
She felt alive.
‘So this is what it feels like to exist in this world.’
An emotion welling up from deep within touched the wellspring of her tears.
A drop fell from Maybelle’s wide eyes.
It was the beginning.
“Hn… hic….”
Her face flushed crimson from holding her breath, Maybelle began to weep openly.
“Hey, hey! Look here!”
Thud!
The startled Siegmund descended from the carriage.
His face was bewildered, unable to fathom why the child was crying.
Yet even so, he carefully extended his hand and gently patted the trembling child’s shoulders as she wept soundlessly.
The highest-ranking man in the Greenthurst Empire aside from the imperial family, now kneeling on one knee on the ground.
“Hic… hic….”
“You’ll hurt yourself that way.”
Siegmund took hold of Maybelle’s hand, which was rubbing at her eyes haphazardly, and lowered it.
The small child’s palm was cracked and raw all over.
Gazing at Maybelle’s hand for a moment, Siegmund asked gently.
“Maybelle… that’s right, isn’t it?”
She had never known that having someone call her by her name could bring such joy.
She had never known that having someone answer and continue a conversation could bring such happiness!
With her face streaked with tears, Maybelle broke into a radiant smile and cried out with all her strength.
“Yes, yes! I’m Maybelle!”
I am here. I exist in this world.
* * *
Once the storm of emotion had passed and her mind had settled, reason returned.
‘Ah, this is mortifying…….’
She’d wept so openly—how humiliating that must have looked.
Maybelle glanced sidelong at Siegmund Eschlid, who had taken her into his carriage.
Seated across from her, lost in thought as he gazed out the window, Siegmund was every inch the Sub Male Lead—strikingly beautiful.
His lovely silver hair caught the breeze and swayed gently; long lashes framed soft, gentle eyes…….
The very picture of the perfect handsome man, and yet also the youngest Aura Manifestation user and supreme authority on Alchemy.
If Caesar embodied the regretful lover who treats the heroine coldly, then Siegmund was the archetype of the Pure-hearted Lover—a Sub Male Lead hopelessly devoted to an unrequited love.
‘I never expected to meet him like this.’
The novel had explained why Siegmund Eschlid happened to be passing near the Achelonia Duke’s Mansion.
For Sophia’s sake, he was genuine enough to write dissertations in her stead—a true Pure-hearted Lover.
After Sophia vanished, he’d made a habit of passing near the Achelonia Duke’s Mansion every few months.
In case Sophia had returned.
In hopes of hearing any news of her.
It seemed today was one of those occasions.
‘Seeing him in person only makes it worse. Sophia must be…….’
Wait.
Maybelle’s eyes went wide as the thought struck her.
She knew where Sophia was—the sister who had vanished one day without warning!
‘Could I sell that information to Siegmund?’
She’d been worried sick about wandering the streets alone without a guardian, only to be abducted out of nowhere!
Maybelle gripped the edge of the carriage seat.
‘Let me just ask him to take me partway there.’
“Um, excuse me, sir!”
“……Sir?”
At the sound of her voice breaking the carriage’s silence, Siegmund turned his head slowly.
His usually composed brows twitched, but Maybelle, concentrating on choosing her words carefully, didn’t notice.
“You were looking for my mother, weren’t you?”
“……What?”
“I know where my mother is, and I’ll tell you—but only you.”
“…….”
“But, well, I have to go pretty far.”
“…….”
“So if you could just take me there, I’ll tell you everything. You can even lend me the carriage—I can go by myself if you’d rather!”
“Why? Your home is right here.”
“Well, that’s…….”
Maybelle hesitated for a moment, wondering how to explain, then decided on honesty.
“I’ve run away from home.”
“……Hmm?”
Did I mishear?
Siegmund unceremoniously dug at his ear and asked again.
“You’re going far because……?”
“Because I’ve run away from home!”
But Maybelle gave him the same answer again.
Siegmund felt his mind drift away for a moment.
Maybelle remained as she was—gaunt and hollow-eyed, her round red eyes wide as a rabbit’s.
‘Come to think of it…….’
In truth, taking Maybelle into the carriage had been an impulse.
He’d worried she might collapse, unable even to cry properly.
The child he’d lifted into the carriage was…… exactly as he’d feared—neglected.
With dried tears crusted on her face and a small, thin frame that made her appear far younger than her years, she looked worn.
Her shabby one-piece dress and shoes were entirely unfit for the appearance of a duke’s daughter.
One look at her hands—torn and scabbed—told the whole story.
‘It seems no one has looked after her since Sophia vanished. Not even Caesar.’
Siegmund thought of Caesar.
As Sophia’s childhood friend, he knew Caesar well enough.
‘I thought Caesar, having endured neglect in his own unhappy childhood, would never abandon a child to the same fate…….’
As confusion hardened Siegmund’s expression, a small hand came into his view, fidgeting.
“I’m not lying, sir. I really do know.”
Pat, pat.
Though her cuticles tore away in long strips and blood began to seep through, Maybelle showed no sign of pain—her hands continued their restless motions.
“Stop. Just stop.”
Siegmund Eschlid, who had been watching in silence, finally caught her hand.
The skin was raw and chapped from constant picking, the bones beneath visible enough to count.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Oh, yes. I know. I can feel the sting.”
“Then you should have stopped.”
Siegmund drew a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around her fingers as he spoke.
“It hurts.”
“Oh, I’m fine. I actually like pain.”
“What……?”
“Pain means I’m alive. Bleeding means I’m alive!”
At Maybelle’s cheerful response, Siegmund’s expression hardened like stone.
‘What in the world is this……’
The longer he conversed with the child, the more his throat tightened, his head growing heavy with a dull throb.
Siegmund drew his gaunt hand across his face, and when he opened his mouth, his voice emerged thick and weary.
“Let’s go home.”
“Home? But I ran away……”
Was he taking her back to the Duke’s Mansion?
Maybelle’s body went stiff, and she began to rise cautiously from her seat.
At that, Siegmund placed a reassuring hand on the child’s shoulder.
“Not your home. My home.”
“Your home……? But why would I go there?”
“Because it seems you have much to tell me.”
“Huh? No, I was trying to go——”
But before Maybelle could finish, Siegmund rapped against the carriage wall.
Thump.
The wheels, which had been still, began to turn.
Through the window, Maybelle watched the Achelonia Duke’s Mansion recede into the distance, and her eyes went wide.
Her small mouth opened and closed like a fish as she cried out.
“Wait! This is kidnapping!”
“Surprising you know such a word.”
“Ugh! I’m getting out!”
“It’s dangerous to stand in a moving carriage. Stay seated.”
“Then just stop it!”
“We’ll stop when we reach home.”
He was answering. The conversation continued. But nothing was getting through!
‘Is this really the kind Sub Male Lead from the novel?! This isn’t just character collapse—this is complete destruction!’
To kidnap a child and carry on so brazenly!
Yet while Maybelle descended into chaos, Siegmund remained perfectly composed.
“It’s quite a distance, so get some rest.”
And so Maybelle found herself kidnapped by the Sub Male Lead she’d believed to be such a virtuous man, forced to taste the bitter cup of her failed plans.
“Want a cookie? Or some chocolate?”
Though it was a rather sweet bitterness.

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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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