I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 26

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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 26
Kellik spoke through his Handkerchief, his voice choked with sobs.
“Don’t ever say such things so casually—that she shouldn’t have been born, that she’s a mistake. Don’t.”
Beside Kellik, who was muttering about stuffing caterpillars into the clothes of wicked adults, Aseltre stood with a slightly dazed expression.
His gaze was fixed on Mabel.
‘She was treated that way……?’
Though he kept his composure outwardly, Aseltre was reeling from the shock himself.
When Mabel first arrived at the Grand Duke’s Residence, he’d heard through the servants’ gossip that the child had been in a poor state.
But because he hadn’t witnessed it himself, he never knew how severe it had been.
How much hardship could the only Ghost Princess have truly endured?
Knowing the Black Market’s wretched conditions as he did, Aseltre had dismissed the servants’ fussing as exaggeration.
After all, Sophia had stolen all of Siegmund’s research.
She must have lived quite luxuriously with that.
And the Mabel he’d actually met, despite being small and delicate for her age, had seemed endearingly soft and cute.
That’s precisely why he’d hated her and tried to torment her—calling her Sophia’s daughter.
‘What have I done…….’
It felt as if his breath had caught in his chest.
Even today, he wore the Sunglasses Mabel had made for him.
Since that day, even the Grand Duke’s Residence servants had begun treating him with kindness.
Some had even apologized to him.
It was all thanks to Mabel, yet he’d done nothing for the child in return.
Unlike Mabel, who had acknowledged him, Aseltre hadn’t even known how she’d lived until she told him herself.
He hadn’t wanted to know.
Behind the Sunglasses, Aseltre’s eyes darkened.
“I’ve……never heard such a thing before…….”
With her hand clasped in Kellik’s, Mabel opened her mouth.
The child’s voice trembled.
Aseltre’s eyes widened as he watched her.
Kellik, who had been crying into his Handkerchief, lifted his head and opened his eyes wide.
Mabel was smiling, and at the same time, she was crying.
Her large, round red eyes were brimming with tears.
“This is the first time since I was born—the first time I’ve ever heard such a thing!”
Fat tears streamed down the corners of her prettily shaped eyes.
“Hehe, thank you……!”
Mabel’s beaming smile seemed so genuinely happy.
The brothers couldn’t tear their eyes from her face.
And in that instant, both Aseltre and Kellik felt their hearts plummet with a sickening thud.
How could he describe it?
She was so beautiful, so lovely—and yet they never wanted to see her in pain again.
They wanted to ensure that Mabel would never cry like this, that she would never shed tears.
Gripped by an inexplicable Protective Instinct, Aseltre clenched his fist against his chest.
No, wait.
This feeling—Aseltre knew it.
He’d felt it once before, long ago.
It had been—
“You, you! I’ll protect you from now on! Never again, I promise!”
“Wha—what? Whoa!”
Kellik suddenly burst out loud and rushed toward Mabel with open arms.
“Careful!”
As Mabel staggered backward, Aseltre lunged forward and caught both children as they stumbled.
His back slammed into the ground as he cradled them, and the sutured wound throbbed painfully—but it didn’t matter.
“Oof, brother!”
“Young Master!”
“Oh my! Young Master Aseltre!”
“What do we do!”
Ella and Sheila hurried over and helped the three to their feet.
But Kellik and Mabel clung to Aseltre once more.
“Are you alright, brother? I’m sorry—because of me…….”
“Are you hurt? I’m so sorry—it was my fault.”
Aseltre squinted against the sharp throb of pain.
Through Aseltre’s tear-blurred vision, a face wet with crying came into focus.
The tear-streaked features of the two small children resembled each other so closely that Aseltre let out a soft laugh.
Aseltre stretched out both arms and drew Kellik and Mabel into an embrace.
“Wh—brother?”
“Young Master…?”
As they drew near, the clean scent of soap grew more pronounced.
Yes, Aseltre had felt this inexplicable protective instinct before—long ago.
The first time he’d met Kellik, trembling and curled into a tight ball in that filthy, freezing cage.
Kellik had been badly hurt and terrified, yet he’d approached Aseltre first.
When the sun fell and the cold crept in, offering warmth to a predator who might devour him instead.
When the rough, warm touch of fur had brushed against him, Aseltre had made a decision.
He would protect this gentle, fragile child.
Aseltre took a steadying breath and opened his mouth.
“Mabel, I too.”
“Y-yes…?”
“I will protect you.”
At Aseltre’s quiet, steady words, Mabel drew in a sharp breath.
“So you’ll never suffer such things again… In place of those people who treated you so cruelly… I’ll be your family.”
Family.
Those two words struck deep into Mabel’s chest.
She had never imagined such a thing, and now she didn’t know how to respond—hesitation seized her.
To that hesitation, Aseltre spoke again, his voice tender.
“So don’t say things like Kellik said—that you shouldn’t have been born. Not anymore.”
“Yes, yes. Don’t say it anymore.”
Kellik, still nestled in Aseltre’s embrace, turned his head to look at Mabel.
His tears had already stopped, but hers had not.
Her eyes, red as a rabbit’s, still brimmed with tears.
“Come on, don’t cry anymore.”
Kellik wriggled free from Aseltre’s narrow embrace and gently dabbed Mabel’s eyes with the handkerchief he’d buried his own face in.
“From today on, you’re my little sister. So I’m going to protect you.”
“No, Kellik. She’s our little sister. We’re both going to protect her.”
At their words, something inside Mabel seemed to crumble.
Looking closely at what was breaking, she saw it was the self-hatred that even Mabel herself had taken for granted.
A child who should never have been born.
A child who could never have been born.
A child destined to die in the end.
She had even run away, trying to survive, trying not to die, trying to prevent the protagonists’ happy ending.
Yet that unshakeable conviction—”I am a child who should never have been born”—the one Mabel herself could never abandon, was crumbling now.
I see.
So much has changed.
I am no longer the Ghost Princess of Ashilonia, the child who should never have existed.
Her chest swelled, and Mabel wept in silence.
Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks.
“Hic… sniff…”
“Oh no, Mabel, don’t cry!”
“Hush, it’s all right. Let her cry.”
As Kellik floundered in confusion, Aseltre stopped him.
Each tear that fell from Mabel’s eyes was just as painful to witness, but it was better than forcing her emotions down.
Instead, he occasionally raised his hand to wipe her tear-dampened cheeks and chin.
Ella and Sheila, who had quietly approached from behind, offered handkerchiefs soaked in cool water.
While Kellik carefully wiped away Mabel’s tears, Aseltre pressed a cool cloth to his own forehead, which had begun to burn with fever.
After a long time of weeping silently with her face flushed crimson, Mabel barely managed to open her mouth.
“Am I… really…?”
“Hmm?”
“Am I… truly allowed to become your family?”
Mabel coughed and asked the question.
Her eyes, red and swollen from tears, looked so pitiful.
To reassure Mabel, Aseltre curved his lips into a smile and answered.
“Of course.”
“But… cough… I’m not even a therianthrope, am I…?”
“Ugh! It doesn’t matter! He and I are siblings, but I’m a fox and he’s a basilisk!”
“But, but…….”
As Mabel kept sniffling and searching for reasons why they couldn’t be family, Kellik’s eyes rolled around until suddenly an idea struck him, and he spoke up.
“It’s fine. You tried to eat me in the beginning, remember?”
“……What?”
The shocking revelation that came out of nowhere dried Mabel’s tears in an instant.
Kellik merely laughed stupidly—hee-hee—pleased that Mabel had stopped crying.
“I was actually supposed to be food for you when I went into your enclosure!”
“Food……? What?”
Confronted with this unexpected blast from the past, Mabel’s mouth fell open.
What on earth was he talking about……? Was that actually true……?
Click-click, Mabel’s head turned like a broken doll’s, and she stared at Aseltre.
“Ah…….”
Aseltre, inwardly slapping his own forehead, managed an awkward smile.
“Well, you see, the thing is…….”
A long explanation from Aseltre began in earnest, meant to clean up the story Kellik had just blurted out.
But still, nothing had changed.
The brothers’ resolve to take Mabel as their sister and protect her going forward remained unshaken.
The wind that swept across the Garden, cresting the high hill, was wonderfully cool.
It was perfect weather for Mabel to welcome her new family.

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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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