I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 36

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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 36
Why was Kellik at the Ashilonia estate?
The story had to wind back several days.
* * *
Several days prior, as dawn was just breaking.
Kellik, who had collapsed into oblivious sleep, jolted awake at the commotion.
“Ugh… What on earth…?”
He was exhausted from catching up on lessons he’d missed while traveling, back-to-back sessions that had drained him completely.
On days like this, a person ought to sleep in luxuriously long.
So Kellik pressed his pillow over his ears and tried to drift back under.
But not long after, came a sharp rapping—Bang, bang, bang!
“Young Master! Young Master!”
“Are you in here? Aselt, Young Master!”
At the sound of people frantically pounding on Aselt’s door, Kellik’s eyes flew open again.
Since Kellik’s room was right next to Aselt’s, there was no hope of sleep with all this noise.
“Haagh… What could possibly be happening at this hour…?”
Unable to bear it any longer, Kellik dragged himself out of bed with a wide yawn and stepped into the corridor.
The moment Rundwell saw him, his face went slack as though his heart had dropped into his stomach.
“Oh, thank the gods! You were asleep after all!”
“Of course I was—what time is it anyway… Haagh.”
So relieved was he that Rundwell suddenly pulled Kellik into an embrace.
“Wh—why are you…?”
Rundwell normally berated Kellik for causing trouble, so being held by him was something that hadn’t happened in years.
Kellik felt his awkwardness dissolve as his mind sharpened.
Only then did the wider picture come into focus.
“Why is everyone out here? What’s going on?”
“Well, the thing is…”
Rundwell hesitated in a way that was unlike him.
At Kellik’s question, his face darkened in an instant.
But looking around now, it wasn’t only Rundwell’s expression that was grim.
Ella, who should have been in Mabel’s room, stood nearby with a grave expression.
And Kellik could see the dried tracks of tears beneath her gently closed eyes.
“What is this…?”
“Young Master, perhaps you should return to your room—”
“Something’s happened. Or rather—it has.”
Kellik shook off Rundwell’s grip on his shoulders and immediately threw open Aselt’s door.
Aselt was nowhere in the room.
“Where’s he gone?”
As Kellik turned back to ask, the others hesitated.
Something felt very wrong.
It suddenly struck him how many people had gathered here.
“Wait—why isn’t anyone checking on Mabel? She would’ve woken up from all this noise.”
The commotion had been that loud.
Mabel should have come out to see what was happening, and yet the people of Grand Duke’s Castle weren’t attending to her—which made no sense.
“…Don’t tell me.”
“Oh, Young Master!”
A terrible thought flashed through Kellik’s mind, and before Rundwell could grab him, he bolted toward Mabel’s room.
In the distance, Mabel’s door hung wide open.
Through the gap, the interior was in complete disarray.
It looked as though someone had hastily packed and left.
Kellik’s headlong sprint came to an abrupt halt.
“I…”
Mabel’s room was right before him, and Mabel should have been inside.
Yet his legs would not move forward.
Sometimes the body knows truths the mind cannot yet accept.
“Where’s Mabel.”
“…”
“Where is Mabel?”
Kellik’s harsh cry echoed through the corridor.
The raw ferocity of it made even the adults flinch.
Scritch, scritch…..
Kellik’s fingernails sharpened into bestial claws, and the sound of his fangs grinding together sent a chill through the air.
Barely able to maintain human form through the fury consuming him, Kellik reached out and seized Rundwell by the collar.
His jagged nails tore through fabric and raked raw lines across skin.
But Rundwell barely felt the lacerations—his heart ached far more seeing Kellik standing there, eyes wide with tears, a creature barely holding onto himself.
The injustice of having to deliver such news twisted in his chest.
Rundwell bit the inside of his cheek, forcing the words out with tremendous effort.
“She’s returned to Ashilonia.”
In that instant, Kellik’s legs gave way and he collapsed.
“Young Master!”
Rundwell caught him, steadying him as best he could, but Kellik could barely stand.
“Why…?”
The shock of words he’d never anticipated struck him like a blow; his eyes trembled uncontrollably.
“Mabel’s home is here. I’m her family! So why…?”
He’d known Mabel was a princess and successor of House Ashilonia, but he couldn’t fathom why she would leave.
He’d thought that since Siegmund had brought her here, they would continue on together for years to come.
After all, they’d lived without real difficulty alongside Aselt, despite their different races.
So why?
“…Did Mabel want to go?”
There was a shadow of betrayal in the question, and Rundwell hesitated for a moment.
In any case, Mabel would likely never return to the Grand Duke’s Castle.
Perhaps a kind lie for Kellik’s sake would be best.
But before Rundwell could speak, Ella stepped forward.
“No. The young lady wanted to stay here!”
Even for Kellik’s sake, she couldn’t shroud Mabel’s true feelings in falsehood.
Realizing Ella’s resolve, Rundwell felt a tremor of recognition pass through him.
He’d nearly done Mabel a grave disservice.
“Ella is right. But…there was no choice.”
Rundwell carefully explained to Kellik the tangled history binding the two houses.
“I believe Miss Mabel understood that there was no way around it, which is why she went without complaint.”
As Kellik listened, he gradually grew calm.
His sharp fangs and claws receded; the short hair that had bristled up settled back down.
“I see…I understand.”
He answered quietly, his voice hollow.
Rundwell believed then that Kellik had accepted it.
He never imagined the boy would slip away without a trace.
* * *
The moment Kellik left the Grand Duke’s Castle, he shifted into the form of a fox.
As a canid, the fox possessed a keen sense of smell—keen enough to track Mabel by her scent alone.
After all, Kellik had no idea where the Ashilonian ducal estate was located.
So for days on end, he followed nothing but Mabel’s scent.
And the moment he arrived, he walked straight into a trap.
“Let go! I won’t let go!”
Grabbed by the scruff of his neck by Lander, Kellik shifted back into human form and thrashed about.
Lander staggered from the sheer force of the boy’s struggles.
Wrenching free, Kellik landed on his feet and immediately lunged at Caesar.
“Where’s Mabel!”
But no matter how superhuman his strength, he was still just a child.
“Damn brat!”
Lander grabbed hold of him again.
“Get him! Hold him!”
“Keep him away from the mistress!”
Now adults from the surrounding area converged, and they bound even his legs.
“Let me go! I said let me go!”
But Kellik didn’t tire; he thrashed and snarled toward Caesar.
“Where’s my sister! Tell me, you kidnapper!”
“Ha—your sister?”
Caesar’s scornful laugh made Kellik’s face flush crimson with rage.
“You! You laid a hand on my sister! I swear I won’t forgive you!”
Yip, yip!
Kellik roared with all his strength, but Caesar didn’t spare him so much as a glance.
Caesar brushed away from Kellik with disdain as dust and leaves scattered about him, then asked tersely.
“This brazen one—is he the only one? Were there no others?”
What Caesar had seen was not a beast.
Which meant there had to be another.
“Yes, my lord. It’s possible he may be hiding somewhere in the manor.”
Lander, his cheek torn and bleeding from Kellik’s claws, answered while wiping the wound.
Caesar clicked his tongue with displeasure at Lander’s bowed apology.
“Tsk. Throw that beast in the Underground Prison and conduct a thorough search of the manor. If he discovers we’re aware of his presence, things will become troublesome—give Mabel the Sleeping Draught.”
“Yes, understood.”
Lander bowed again, accepting Caesar’s orders.
Kellik’s yellow eyes snapped wide open.
“The Sleeping Draught?”
That was a potent drug that even adults like Siegmund delayed taking as long as possible!
To give such a thing to a child like Mabel—
“Stop! What are you doing to Mabel!”
Kellik thrashed again, but the adults had already moved in with a gag and ropes, subduing him.
“Mmph, mmph!”
“Lock him in the Underground Prison.”
Caesar gave the order coldly as Kellik continued to cry out even through the gag.
Meanwhile, Mabel stood on her toes, watching the entire scene unfold.
“What do I do? Kellik’s been caught!”
“Well, Kellik is caught, then.”
Unlike a flustered Mabel, Aselt remained composed.
“Then I suppose I’ll go now—alone.”
“What? What about Kellik!”
“Well. But since that beast is here, shouldn’t someone inform the Grand Duke’s Castle?”
Mabel turned to him as if to say he shouldn’t joke, but Aselt was entirely serious.
“Let’s meet at the Grand Duke’s Castle.”
“Wait, just a moment!”
Mabel tried desperately to grab Aselt, but it was too late.
The transformed Aselt slipped through the window crack like a snake and vanished.
‘He’s lying!’
She rushed to the window, but Aselt was already nowhere to be seen.
What was he doing—really! Was this actually happening?!
So bewildered was Mabel that her breath came in gasps.
But there was no time to panic.
Knock, knock.
“Miss, it’s time to take your medicine.”
A maid had come to find her.

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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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