I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 33

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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 33
Lander had known from the start that waiting for the carriage was itself part of the plan.
Yet even Lander had nearly fallen for Caesar’s performance—the way he scooped up the collapsed child and rushed desperately to find a doctor.
If Lander had been deceived, the others must have swallowed the act completely.
“A child’s eyes are too transparent to miss the truth of things.”
Caesar rose from his seat and moved toward the window, offering this reply.
Standing at an odd angle before the tall window, he drew out a cigarette; Lander approached with practiced ease and lit it for him.
Caesar inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs, then let out a soft laugh.
“You can’t deceive anyone—not even yourself—unless you become sincere enough to believe it.”
As he exhaled, Caesar’s thoughts drifted to something that had happened not long ago.
When he heard that Siegmund had set out for the Hermetic Kingdom, rage had blinded him—or so he’d believed.
What grand discovery had he made? How much praise would he receive for it?
Alchemy was a closed discipline, with its own cryptic system known as the Green Language.
Ashilonia had clung to Magic too long, investing in Alchemy only belatedly, so its achievements in that field were sparse.
Of late, Sophia had bolstered their efforts somewhat, but her departure from the household had brought new difficulties.
Yet according to the rumors circulating, the true architect of this revelation was not Siegmund at all.
It was Mabel—his daughter—who had solved the very problem that had defeated Siegmund.
‘Blood will tell, after all. Is that it……?’
Caesar, who moments before had called Mabel “my daughter” with tender affection, now smiled coldly.
He still believed Mabel to be Siegmund’s child.
‘But it doesn’t matter. The name she bears is Ashilonia.’
So long as Mabel belonged to Ashilonia, she belonged to Caesar.
Her genius, her life—all of it.
“The coachman mentioned that the young lady seems to have grown quite attached to the people of the Grand Duchy.”
“Regardless, her true home is here. Now that I have her back, all I need do is win her over—make her feel this place is genuinely hers.”
So she would dedicate herself, of her own accord, to Alchemy research for Ashilonia.
“Now that I have the child, there’s no need to pursue Sophia any longer.”
“Indeed. With the young lady Mabel—far more valuable than the research materials Escleride’s Grand Duke had—we have no need for her, my lord.”
In truth, Caesar had learned long ago that Mabel had vanished.
That Siegmund had taken her—he’d known that too.
Yet he had done nothing, waiting to see if Sophia would appear at Escleride.
‘After all, my daughter is there, and so is my mistress.’
From the beginning, Mabel had been nothing more to Caesar than a bargaining chip to bring Sophia home.
Had Sophia returned, he would not have cared if Siegmund kept the child forever.
Until very recently, that was all Mabel had meant to him.
‘Yet she turns out to be a goose that lays golden eggs.’
As Caesar exhaled the last of his smoke, his lips twisted into a bitter smile.
Lost in thought while gazing out the window, he stubbed out the cigarette.
“I should give up smoking after all.”
At the sight of the cigarette still half-full, Lander asked in puzzlement.
“Sir? You’re quitting altogether?”
“Well, shouldn’t I? If I’m to win that child’s affection.”
Caesar clicked his tongue, as if the matter had become tedious.
Watching him, Lander conceived of a clever stratagem.
“Then use that very thing, my lord.”
“Use tobacco?”
“Yes. Smoke deliberately in front of the young lady, then appear to suffer from it. That’s when you quit. Since she was raised in a dust-laden place, she’ll surely cough. Then you’ll seem to her as though you’re making sacrifices for her sake.”
“Hmm…….”
“It will plant the impression that you’re working hard for her benefit, my lord.”
Caesar’s interest was piqued by Lander’s suggestion.
“Yes. That’s a fine notion.”
Caesar accepted the proposal readily and headed toward his desk.
He had much to arrange if he was to show Mabel a picture of “remorse and a father striving to become better.”
“Adjust my schedule. I need to spend as much time with the child as possible.”
Those crimson eyes—so unmistakably Siegmund’s—made his skin crawl whenever he had to meet them, but for the sake of the house, he could endure it.
“At last…… we may yet surpass Escleride.”
As he spoke, Caesar already seemed intoxicated by the taste of victory.
But in his triumph, he failed to notice one thing.
Outside the window where he had just been standing, a black serpent with white eyes had heard every word.
* * *
Mabel lay bedridden for a full two days.
She drifted in and out of consciousness, only to swallow the medicine the maid offered before sinking back into sleep.
The maid rarely met her eyes.
It wasn’t the dismissal she’d known from the old household staff.
Rather…
‘She looks frightened of me.’
She couldn’t fathom why.
The maid entered only at the appointed hours for medicine, then left the moment Mabel had swallowed the last drop.
‘If it were Ella, she’d have stayed right beside me.’
Yet Mabel didn’t mind drifting off alone.
Not when she dreamed of those she longed for.
In her dreams, Mabel picnicked with Ella and the Grand Duchy family, shared meals with her two older brothers.
So vivid were these visions that she could taste the rich, savory broth Aselt had spooned into her mouth.
And once, Siegmund appeared in her dream.
That was a dream she truly didn’t want to wake from—until she sensed a presence.
‘It doesn’t help…’
Opening her blurred eyes, Mabel stirred to consciousness with that thought.
Someone stood beside her bed.
Backlit by the window, their face was indistinct, and Mabel murmured without thinking.
“Father…?”
“Yes, it’s Father. I’m your father, Mabel.”
But it wasn’t Siegmund’s voice.
Realizing it was Caesar, Mabel felt a stab of disappointment.
‘For a moment… I thought it was the Head of House…’
How foolish—she’d called for father herself, only to hope for someone else.
‘It’s all because of that strange dream I had before.’
That dream where she’d held Aselt’s hand, walked toward Kelic, and called Siegmund ‘Father.’
A senseless dream that had led to this mistake.
‘How stupid…’
As Mabel closed her eyes again, Caesar grasped her limp hand.
“Forgive me. Forgive me, Mabel. I didn’t know you’d grown so weak. This father is so sorry…”
Caesar’s voice drifted through her feverish haze, catching her attention in fragments.
“You must resent me for leaving you alone so long. Truly, truly, I’m sorry.”
Most of his words blurred beyond understanding, but the words “resent” and “sorry” rang clear.
Each time she heard them, something twisted in her chest.
She wanted to speak.
Of course she resented him—bitterly, deeply, though she hadn’t even known resentment’s name while she felt it.
But her voice wouldn’t come, and all those unspoken words piled up inside her.
Fever-bright and unfocused, Mabel’s gaze rose to meet Caesar’s.
Her eyes barely managed to tell him something.
Do you know?
Resentment always wears the shadow of self-blame beside it.
So you can never resent someone freely.
Because in the end, it feels like your own fault—like you brought it all on yourself.
The blame suffocates the resentment.
She wanted to ask him: Do you understand that?
But she had no strength for it.
All she could manage was a slow, labored blink.
Her body, heavy as waterlogged cloth, finally sank beneath the deep waters of sleep.
* * *
Caesar stepped out of Mabel’s room, and Lander approached him.
“Still no sign of it?”
“I apologize, sir. But during my investigation of the grounds, I discovered this.”
Lander held out a long vine, tangled and wound upon itself.
“It was wrapped around a tree just outside the room we assigned to Miss Mabel.”
“A vine…? Then what I saw was a vine…?”
Earlier, while in his study, Caesar had glimpsed something moving beyond the window.
Specifically, from the direction of Mabel’s room’s terrace.
The Ashilonia Duchy was built in a ‘ㄷ’ configuration, and Caesar had deliberately chosen a room with a direct view from his study for Mabel.
So he could watch her without missing anything.
Caesar had caught sight of an oddly moving vine while keeping watch over Mabel, and had hurried over mere moments ago.
Thanks to that, he’d been reduced to humoring a child’s complaints about a trifling ailment.
‘Carrying on like that over a little body ache.’
The irritation of having wasted time swelled up sharply.
Yet not all his questions had been answered.
“Was it truly just a vine?”
Because the vine Caesar had seen had moved.
‘It looked like a snake, I could swear……’
It had slithered smoothly, peering through the window into the interior of Mabel’s room.
As though concerned for whoever lay within.

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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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