I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 30

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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 30
“Family?”
Siegmund echoed the word with a puzzled frown, and Dain burst into delighted laughter.
“Yes, the young lady sent a letter. Well, technically it’s a journal entry.”
“Why would she send a journal as a letter?”
Siegmund quickly opened the envelope Dain handed him.
Since they were away from the city, Dain had already examined the contents for safety, so the envelope was already unsealed.
He skimmed through it quickly—it really was a journal entry.
“No, this is less a journal and more… a log?”
Memory flickered back to his academy days.
Siegmund had entered as top of his class and never once relinquished his position as highest-ranked student across all four years, so naturally he’d been elected class leader.
Back then, he’d submitted a Class Leader’s Log to the supervising professor each day—and this from Mabel looked remarkably similar.
“Exactly. She wrote down in impressive detail what she studied that day, which parts needed review, and what to prepare for tomorrow’s lessons.”
Since she’d only recently learned to write, the sentences were simple and scattered with errors.
The letters were crooked enough that he had to infer meaning from context in places.
Yet with each entry, her improvement was visible.
‘She was told to rest, and yet she studies…’
Was this what a parent felt receiving their child’s class log?
Pride and affection swelled in his chest until it ached.
Then a word caught his attention.
“Sunglasses? What’s this?”
“Ah, that. Ella submitted a separate report about it. Apparently something happened.”
Dain handed over a report from the Grand Duke’s Residence.
It detailed everything from Mabel’s visit to Craftsmen’s District through her development of something called Sunglasses, which she then gifted to Aselt.
“She conducted New Material Research, developed a product, and brought it to market—all on her own! Truly remarkable, isn’t it? Ah, what a shame I wasn’t there to see it!”
Dain even rolled across the floor in his lament.
Siegmund shared the sentiment entirely.
“This is exactly the sort of thing she should be doing when I’m around. The girl really does act on impulse…”
For all his eagerness to attend this presentation, he found himself eager now only to leave.
He wanted to return and see the Sunglasses that Mabel had developed.
And more than anything, he was worried about Aselt and Mabel, who’d apparently faced serious trouble.
The fact that she’d been injured—his heart sank and wouldn’t settle.
“But what do you mean by family?”
In the log Dain had given him, Mabel still referred to Siegmund’s disciples as “young master.”
“The young lady’s hasty nature—she must have inherited it from His Grace the Grand Duke.”
In response to Siegmund’s question, Dain gestured for him to finish reading the log.
“That can’t be right.”
Siegmund brushed off Dain’s remark and flipped to the last page of the journal.
When he reached it, his expression hardened almost imperceptibly.
[Kellic said there was a reason and that a child born shouldnt be left alone. And he said he would treasure me. I am not a child who should not have been born. My brothers are my family now.]
Several sentences bore noticeably heavier pen strokes than the rest.
As she wrote that she was not a child who should never have been born, it seemed she’d pressed the words into the page again and again, embedding them in her own heart.
With each forcefully written stroke, the sorrow and loneliness Mabel had felt seemed to pale slightly.
Kellic and Aselt’s words had clearly soothed her wounded heart.
‘Come to think of it… have I ever told her such a thing?’
Siegmund knew what Mabel’s circumstances had been in Ashilonia, and it tormented him.
Yet her heart had long since boiled over, hardened, and turned to ash.
Worse, he’d pressured this child with absurd demands to research together with him.
No matter how blinded he’d been by her genius, it was inexcusable.
‘At this rate, even if I wanted to adopt Mabel formally, she’d reject me.’
A bitter, self-recriminating smile twisted Siegmund’s firm mouth.
But if he apologized to the child, there would surely be chances ahead to draw near her wounded heart.
As long as he was with Mabel.
After reading Mabel’s log twice through, Siegmund set it aside carefully and spoke.
“Contact Ella. Ask if there’s anywhere Mabel would like to go.”
“Anywhere she’d like to go?”
“Yes. It might be nice to take the children on a picnic to celebrate our return home.”
The first outing from the Grand Duke’s Residence had been claimed by Ella and Hisin, and the suggestion of becoming a family had come from Aselt and Kellic, who’d touched Mabel’s heart. So he had to move quickly to claim what remained.
There was no time to waste.
“Well then, let’s wrap this up. Dain! How many Mana Stones did we earn from this presentation?”
“Yes! The original offer was 1 Talant for a Lower Grade Mana Stone, but since we’ve verified success, we should be able to receive 1 Talant for a Middle Grade Mana Stone as well.”
“Good. Not bad at all.”
Moments before, exhaustion had sent Siegmund collapsing onto the sofa, yet now he sprang to his feet as though he’d never been tired at all.
He seemed to possess even more vigor than when he’d first arrived in Hermetic.
* * *
But Siegmund’s plan to take the children on a picnic upon his return home dissolved into nothing.
It was several nights after Mabel had returned from a secret outing with Aselt and Kellic.
Deep in the hours when even owls had fallen asleep.
The head butler Rundwell emerged into the corridor, candlestick in hand.
The reason being that beyond the Drawbridge was unusually bright this evening.
There was still some time before the watch change, and as far as he knew, no visitors were expected.
Rundwell gave an order to Pyeong, who was on duty that night.
“Find out what’s happening.”
“Yes, understood.”
Pyeong hurried toward the castle gate.
In the meantime, the light beyond the Drawbridge grew steadily brighter.
A flicker of unease crossed Rundwell’s weathered face.
‘I have a bad feeling about this.’
He sensed that trouble was brewing, whatever form it might take.
And Rundwell’s worries proved well-founded as the commotion descended upon the Grand Duke’s Residence.
“I am a coachman of the Ashilonian Duchy!”
When Pyeong arrived at the fortification, he heard the uninvited guest introducing himself.
Pyeong’s eyes, peering down from the castle wall, widened like saucers.
The carriage the coachman was driving truly belonged to the Ashilonian Duchy.
“I understand your station. However, it is far too late to open the gates this evening.”
“Please arrange an appointment for tomorrow. The gates open at ten o’clock in the morning.”
The guards stationed outside the Moat spoke politely, but it made no difference.
“Enough! Open the gates at once!”
The coachman was unreasonable.
“I’ve come because I heard that our young mistress is here! So inform the Grand Duke of my arrival immediately and lower the bridge!”
He even threatened that if they didn’t open the gates right now, Ashilonia would lodge an official protest.
Though it was the coachman who’d arrived without warning, he was right about one thing: Mabel was indeed at the Grand Duke’s Residence.
The only princess of Ashilonia.
The guards knew this fact well enough, which left them at an impasse.
“Oh! Butler!”
A guard at the fortification who recognized Pyeong hurried toward him with visible relief.
“We were just about to report this. What should we do?”
“Please wait a moment. I’ll report this directly to Head Butler Rundwell. Tell that coachman I’ve gone to inform those inside the castle of the situation.”
“Yes, understood.”
Pyeong rode swiftly back to the castle.
Upon hearing Pyeong’s report, Rundwell’s expression twisted at once.
‘I knew something felt wrong…….’
In truth, he’d always suspected a day like this would come.
Nearly three weeks had already passed since Mabel arrived at this castle.
‘It would have been stranger if no one had come looking for her until now.’
Whether Ashilonia had only just learned of Mabel’s disappearance, or had only now discovered her whereabouts, he couldn’t say.
But one thing was certain: if Ashilonia had come here confident that Mabel was present, he couldn’t simply turn the coachman away.
If Ashilonia made this matter public as the coachman threatened, Eschlid would have no chance of victory.
‘But can I truly send the young mistress back to Ashilonia like this…….’
The day Mabel had arrived at the Grand Duke’s Residence with Siegmund was still vivid in his memory.
Her face unwashed and blotched with dead skin and grime, her hands and skin covered in burst blisters and scabs, her hair matted with dust and filth.
A frame so emaciated it was a wonder she hadn’t collapsed from malnutrition, and a manner so cautious—always checking behind her, as if uncertain whether someone had actually spoken to her at all.
‘To send the young mistress back to such a place…….’
Though their interactions had been few, Rundwell held Mabel dear as if she were his own granddaughter, and he wrestled with the decision.
Yet the answer had already been decided.
Between Mabel and Eschlid—which one mattered more was no question at all.
At last, Rundwell opened his mouth, his expression as bitter as if bile had risen to his throat.
“Inform the young mistress.”

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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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