I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 31

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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 31
* * *
At that very moment.
Mabel was lost in deep sleep.
“Ha! Look at this! Mabel! A mullet!”
Kellik, his sleeves and trouser cuffs rolled up, shouted from the riverbank where he’d been splashing about.
In his hands he clutched a fish as large as Mabel’s torso.
“Oh, quite a catch! Should we go have a look?”
Aselt, seated in the shade to escape the scorching sun, posed the question.
Beneath the summer glare, the Sunglasses Mabel had given him suited him perfectly.
“Yes! Let’s go!”
Mabel, dressed in a short-sleeved sundress and plump pumpkin-colored trousers, answered with delight.
She was clasping Aselt’s hand and carefully treading across the pebbly ground when—
“Watch your step along the water’s edge. There’s no telling what might be there.”
“The moss-covered stones are slippery, so look carefully!”
Siegmund and Dain, who had rolled up their sleeves to gather firewood for a campfire, called out their warnings.
Mabel held fast to Aselt’s hand, turned back with a radiant smile.
“Yes, Father!”
Father?
In that instant, Mabel’s eyes snapped open.
“Gasp—”
Startled awake, her heart was racing, pounding wildly in her chest.
Whether it was because she’d been playing joyfully in the dream, or because of that last word she’d cried out, she couldn’t say.
‘What kind of dream was that…’
Why had I called him Father?
As Mabel pressed her palm to her chest, trying to calm her still-racing heart—
“Miss, are you awake?”
She spun around to find Ella kneeling by her bedside, gazing down at her with concern.
It seemed she had witnessed Mabel’s restless sleep.
“Yes…”
But what could be happening in the middle of the night?
She wondered if morning had come, but the sky beyond the window was still pitch-black.
Mabel tilted her head in confusion.
Then she noticed, by the faint moonlight seeping through, that tears glistened at the corners of Ella’s eyes.
“Ella… are you crying?”
Mabel reached out in alarm, and Ella seized her small hand, pressing her cheek against it.
“Ella…?”
Ella buried her face in Mabel’s palm and wept silently for a long time.
She felt her hand grow damp beneath the tears.
Unable to fathom why Ella was acting this way, Mabel could only move her eyes about helplessly.
Yet perhaps, somewhere deep within, she sensed something.
Ella, clutching Mabel’s hand tightly and stifling her sobs, spoke in a hoarse, wet voice.
“Someone has come from Ashilonia…”
“…”
“They’ve come to take you away…”
While Ella, as if she had spoken words she shouldn’t have, bowed her head again, Mabel’s expression remained calm.
* * *
“Well… thank you for everything.”
Before the Ashilonia carriage that had arrived in the Garden, Mabel bowed her head respectfully.
Not only the servants on duty, but even those roused from deep sleep, had all come outside.
“Miss…”
“Miss, to leave like this…”
“It’s far too late tonight. Please, rest one more day and go tomorrow, won’t you?”
The servants pleaded, but the Coachman was resolute.
“That I cannot allow. The Grand Duke of Ashilonia is most deeply concerned for Miss’s welfare.”
“But you must travel such a distance! If you set out without proper rest, it will surely be a burden on Miss!”
“That’s right! And it’s late at night now, and she hasn’t even eaten…”
The servants protested, but the Coachman remained firm.
“She can sleep in the carriage. Provisions have been prepared, so there is no need for such worry!”
“But…”
“Enough of this! Why are you so fixated on our young mistress? Are you planning to spirit her away in the dead of night?!”
The Coachman didn’t stop at refusal—he went further, practically rebuking the servants’ concerns.
The servants fell silent, their worry turning to quiet distress.
Mabel didn’t want to trouble them further and forced a smile.
“It’s fine! Please don’t worry yourselves! I’m simply…….”
Something caught in her throat like a fist, and the words wouldn’t come.
It was strange.
Ashilonia was home—her name was Mabel Ashilonia, after all, so it should be natural.
Why couldn’t she say the word “home”?
As Mabel trailed off, the faces of the Grand Duke’s Estate servants grew even gloomier.
‘No, no. I can’t keep worrying them like this.’
Mabel shook her head hard inside her mind to steady herself, then forced her lips upward again.
“I’m only going back home!”
Her smile was brittle, her mouth trembling despite the brightness she summoned.
Everyone saw it, but no one could bring themselves to hold her back.
This child was trying so hard for their sake.
They were on the verge of speaking when Aselt, who had been silent until now, stepped forward to Mabel’s side.
In the next moment, he took her hand—its nails ragged from worry—and held it firmly while whispering low.
“Hold on just a little longer, Mabel. As soon as my teacher returns, I’ll come fetch you.”
……!”
“You understand?”
At his gentle words, hope kindled in Mabel’s eyes, which had been so hollow just moments before.
Her small hand fidgeted in Aselt’s grip as she whispered.
“Can I…… come back here?”
“Of course.”
Aselt spoke as though it were the simplest truth, and he squeezed her hand again for emphasis.
“Home is where your family is. And your family is me. Where am I?”
She had been holding back her tears so carefully.
But each word Aselt spoke shook the dam she’d built against them.
Through the dark lenses of her Sunglasses, Mabel gazed into his warm eyes, then squeezed hers shut.
She gripped his hand in return and answered.
“Here…… here, home…….”
Large tears rolled down her cheeks, but only that—they fell and stopped.
Aselt had said he would come back with Siegmund to collect her. This wasn’t goodbye.
If she waited just a little longer, she would see them all again.
There was no need to weep.
Mabel swallowed her sobs and looked up at Aselt.
His expression had been strained with worry, but he quickly shifted it, as if catching himself.
He made himself look as reassuring and steady as he could, and spoke with the force of an oath.
“So hold on just a little longer. I’ll be back soon.”
It was a promise to himself as much as to her.
* * *
Shortly after, the carriage carrying Mabel departed from the Garden of the Grand Duke’s Estate.
Those who had seen her off lingered long after the door closed behind her.
“She came to collect our young mistress, but there wasn’t a single cushion or Blanket in that carriage…….”
“Not to mention there was no child’s belt visible either.”
“As for provisions, surely he didn’t just pack dried meat or preserved fruit?”
“I slipped some food into the young mistress’s bag just to be safe……. Sigh.”
Knowing how Mabel had been treated in House of Ashilonia, their worry didn’t ease.
Some of the servants still believed she was Siegmund’s hidden Illegitimate Child, and that only deepened their reluctance to leave.
But in Siegmund’s absence, there was nothing they could do.
The servants exchanged words of concern and filed into the manor one by one.
Only Ella remained.
Though she’d heard the Drawbridge had been closed some time ago, her feet wouldn’t carry her away.
The image of Mabel’s face as she’d packed lingered in her mind, refusing to fade.
The child’s eyes had been hollow, as though the light had drained from them entirely.
Ella had never seen Mabel like that before.
‘Young mistress…… please, stay well…….’
The helplessness of being unable to do anything weighed on her heart.

All Ella could do was watch the path Mabel had taken and offer up prayers for her wellbeing.
“Don’t worry yourself so. The Grand Duke will return soon enough, and there will be a way forward.”
Rundwell, unable to bear it any longer, approached and draped a shawl across Ella’s shoulders, chilled by the dawn air.
But Rundwell knew the truth as well.
Even if Siegmund were here, nothing would change.
And he knew there was nothing to be done even when he returned.
Mabel was the Duke’s Daughter of House of Ashilonia—a stranger to Siegmund, a third party.
It was possible they would never meet again.
So Rundwell did not urge Ella back inside. Instead, he stood beside her.
As dawn began to break, a terrible thought suddenly struck Rundwell’s mind.
“But then… where has Aselt gone?”
At the tremor in Rundwell’s voice, Ella’s eyes, which had been quietly fixed on the horizon, snapped wide open.

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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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