I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 4

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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 4
The servants, who ordinarily passed through the halls like ghosts, had gathered in a long queue, murmuring among themselves.
“The line forms here! No cutting in!”
“Don’t push! Keep your place!”
And on top of it all, they were bickering.
Siegmund approached one of the servants and seized him by the shoulder. “Tell me—what is this queue for?”
“What queue for, you ask? It’s to meet the young lady who just—” The servant’s eyes went wide. “Oh! Your Grace!”
He had answered casually, thinking he was speaking to a fellow servant, but the moment he recognized Siegmund, he leaped backward as if burned.
“Is this entire queue just to see Mabel?”
Indeed, the line snaked directly into the Reception Room.
When Siegmund reached the end and stepped inside, what greeted him was……
“I—I really can’t eat anymore, I’m so full……!”
Between tables laden with refreshments and the fussing maids, a pair of short, flailing limbs thrashed about desperately.
“But miss, you haven’t even tried the cake yet~!”
“That’s right, that’s right. The head chef prepared such a wonderful cake~ If you don’t taste even a bite, he’ll be heartbroken~”
In the corner of the half-emptied table sat a Five-Tiered Cake.
When had they managed to prepare that?
Faced with this unforeseen scene, Siegmund was taken aback, bewildered, and more than a little exasperated.
‘I thought everyone would resent her for being Ashilonian.’
He had made no secret of where Mabel came from.
He hadn’t sworn the servants to silence either.
Which meant those standing in line to catch a glimpse of the child, those who gathered around her—they all knew her origins and harbored no displeasure toward her.
‘But then why……?’
Siegmund’s puzzlement didn’t last long.
“My goodness, I’ve heard the stories, but she really does have violet hair and crimson eyes, doesn’t she?”
“Amazing! She has every hallmark of the Eschlid bloodline!”
“No wonder there were whispers she was born out of wedlock. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Who wouldn’t? Our lord hasn’t courted a single noblewoman, hasn’t even been known to associate with any eligible ladies. We were starting to wonder if he couldn’t father children at all. But look at this—the quiet cat leaps highest onto the kitchen shelf, as they say.”
The maids clustered near the doorway tittered among themselves, oblivious to Siegmund’s presence.
He chose not to dwell on their crude speculation, but the gist was clear enough.
‘So they don’t despise Ashilonia for her sake—they simply believe she’s truly my daughter.’
Still, the girl looked so pitiful and bedraggled that he couldn’t simply walk past and do nothing.
Fortunately, though Mabel seemed somewhat uncomfortable, she didn’t appear to dislike the attention they lavished on her.
Siegmund’s rushed step had been quite unnecessary.
“But I really am terribly full.”
“What a shame—we’ve barely begun!”
“Well then, shall we skip the sweets and save room for supper~?”
“S-supper……?”
Mabel’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
‘This isn’t—this isn’t a joke, is it……?’
She’d already eaten her fill of scones, madeleines, muffins—her belly was distended and swollen. And now they meant to make her eat again?
Were they trying to split her open and kill her?
‘Is this revenge for being Ashilonian?!’
Mabel squeezed her eyes shut with a small whimper and began to tremble.
“Oh my, she’s like a little hamster.”
No amount of adoration could push her any further.
Until now she’d been swept along by the maids’ overwhelming enthusiasm, but this was the moment she truly needed to escape.
Mabel scanned the room for an exit.
Her gaze found Siegmund standing by the doorway, quietly observing the chaos unfolding before him.
‘I’m saved!’
Mabel threw both arms up high and cried out:
“Sir! Please help me!”
Over here! Over here!
She waved her short, thin arms about wildly, and the maids collapsed in a heap at the sight.
For someone so small, her charm was devastatingly potent.
Even Siegmund, observing the scene with detached amusement, found himself laughing.
“Come here, then. I’ll rescue you.”
He strode forward and scooped Mabel up from among the maids in one smooth motion.

In that short span, the child had put on considerable weight.
Moreover, Mabel hadn’t washed since stepping out of the carriage—her clothes were exactly as they’d been then.
It was good that she ate well and adapted quickly, but if this continued, she’d surely end up with an upset stomach.
“Everyone, that’s enough. She’s only just arrived. Don’t bathe her, don’t let her rest—what are you all doing?”
At Siegmund’s rebuke, the servants hung their heads in dejection.
“Oh, oh, you didn’t have to go that far…….”
Mabel, who had inadvertently gotten the servants scolded, fumbled for words.
But Siegmund was unyielding.
“If she falls ill, you’re the one who loses. She’ll be living here from now on—what good is she to me if she’s sick on the first day?”
Mabel’s eyes widened.
Living here? Me? From now on?
Mabel was about to respond to Siegmund’s words, which had emerged so naturally, when—
“Please don’t scold the servants too harshly.”
A measured voice came from the doorway.
“They were merely enchanted by how adorable the young lady is.”
A man with striking deep-green hair and black-framed spectacles was smiling gently.
‘Oh, that person is…….’
Mabel’s eyes rounded as she recognized a character from the novel.
“Come now, let me take the young lady to her guest room. I shall show her the way.”
Dain, Siegmund’s adjutant, gestured for her to come.
“Yes, it’s best she rest before dinner.”
‘But I can’t eat anymore after this…….’
At any rate, thanks to that, Mabel was able to escape the commotion at last.
‘Ugh, so full…….’
When she touched her upper belly, it bulged noticeably.
If she’d eaten even a little more, she might truly have gotten an upset stomach.
But still, her mood was good.
‘They all knew I was from Ashilonia.’
Rather, they had told her not to worry about the affairs between houses—what business did a child have with such things.
They had stroked her gently and held her hand even though she was unwashed, filthy, and surely reeked.
“Hehe.”
A warm, fuzzy feeling.
Mabel’s chest prickled pleasantly, and she smiled quietly to herself.
It was then.
“You may have thought you’d successfully infiltrated the ducal manor, but that’s where it ends.”
“……?”
Dain turned back as they climbed the stairs at a pace that made no allowance for a child.
“I’ll uncover everything soon enough.”
In his brown eyes flickered traces of disdain and contempt.
“Black scheming, just like your mother.”
Mabel stared up at him blankly, and Dain clicked his tongue before turning away.
As if he had glimpsed something unseemly.
Mabel found that expression familiar.
It was the same look the people of the Ashilonia Ducal estate had worn.
So she was neither shocked nor wounded.
Rather, she found Dain’s reaction justified.
‘Considering the damage Sophia caused to the Eschlid Ducal Family, that reaction is only natural.’
Only, it was Mabel who had been abducted.
‘Without hidden motives, there’d be no reason to fear.’
Mabel paid no mind to Dain’s words.
Because she did not answer, the eyes of the Dain walking ahead grew sharper.
Dain was now certain that Mabel harbored ulterior designs.
No amount of innocent, cute prattling would fool him.
‘Will I fall for the same trick twice?’
Sophia had been exactly the same.
Ten years ago, on a certain day, she had arrived at the ducal manor with a face full of worry and gloom.
Dain remembered clearly the conversation he had overheard that day as he passed through the study.
– Siegmund, I need your help.
Sophia had clung to Siegmund desperately.
– Caesar wants a child. An heir.
Dain wondered why Sophia had sought out Siegmund and said such things to him.
He wanted to hear more details, but just then Siegmund caught him eavesdropping and ordered him out before he could learn anything further.
A few days later, word came that Siegmund was conducting research on “a certain medicine” alongside Sophia.
It was medicine to cure Caesar’s infertility.
Dain couldn’t fathom why Sophia would pursue such research with Siegmund just to treat her own husband’s condition.
So at first, he viewed Sophia with considerable skepticism.
But gradually, watching her pour such passion into Alchemy, his resistance melted away.
Eventually, he even found himself secretly rooting for Sophia as she worked so diligently for her family’s sake.
And so it seemed that everything would come to a satisfactory conclusion.
After all, Sophia had succeeded in becoming pregnant.
But Caesar, harboring deep inferiority toward Siegmund, refused to believe in the collaboration between Siegmund and Sophia.
– The medicine I drank was a fertility treatment? Ha, she must be carrying another man’s child in that belly.
He even went so far as to suspect the two of them of infidelity.
Then, just before Sophia vanished, Siegmund’s Research Laboratory was broken into.
The perpetrator was quickly identified.
‘Sophia, Duchess of Ashilonia.’
The fleeing duchess had stolen her childhood friend’s research as a means of escape.
‘So the papers I wrote on her behalf weren’t enough for her after all.’
Sophia betrayed every member of the Eschlid Ducal Family who had shown her kindness, satisfying her greed until the very end.
‘They must all be blind. Foolish enough to be bewitched by a face that’s merely a little cute.’
To Dain, Mabel—Sophia’s daughter and an Ashilonian—was far from endearing.
Whether Sophia lurked behind her or Caesar did, she was certainly here to bring harm to the ducal house.
This time, he decided, he would be the one to stop her.
‘I won’t let Eschlid be played with by Ashilonia any longer.’
But how could he do it?
How could he expose the true nature of this little devil—who reeked so badly that the stench clung to him like a puppy’s crude odor—to everyone?
A sharp gleam flashed across Dain’s eyes.
‘Yes, that method would work perfectly.’
Dain wore a quiet smile of resolve.
He was determined to strip Mabel bare—the girl whose innocent face pretended to know nothing.
* * *
The next day.
……
Mabel lay face-down on the soft, sweetly-scented bedding, blinking listlessly.
‘Morning……has come…….’
Good heavens.
She’d taken such a luxurious bath yesterday, and meant to lie down just for a moment—but had fallen straight asleep and only now was waking up!

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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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