I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 41

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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 41
“Aaahhhhh!”
Kelic screamed in agony.
Then came a sharp sizzle, the smell of burning flesh, and something faintly acrid in the air.
“No, this can’t be happening…….”
Mabel collapsed to the ground, all hope draining from her.
Now that the Subordination Brand had been marked upon him, Kelic would never be able to defy Caesar’s will again.
All her words to Kelic about living a life of his own rang hollow—he had become enslaved to Caesar because of her.
Mabel was too horrified by what unfolded before her eyes to even cry.
“Ha, ha. Done.”
Caesar let out a satisfied laugh upon seeing the brand seared into Kelic’s collarbone.
His face twisted with an unsettling madness.
“I’ve made Ziegmund’s Beast Companion mine!”
He exulted in having stolen something from Ziegmund as if it were his greatest prize.
Caesar’s excitement reached a fever pitch.
But it faded as quickly as it had come.
“Right, this one’s finished.”
Caesar cast Kelic aside like discarded refuse.
“Ugh, huh…….”
Kelic’s yellow eyes, half-consciousness lost to pain, stared ahead vacantly.
When Mabel saw that, her heart dropped, as if the ground had given way beneath her.
“Now it’s your turn.”
Caesar approached Mabel, holding the Seal aloft.
Mabel, despondent on the ground, looked up at him.
His face bore a hideous madness—cruelty would have been a mercy by comparison.
“Please, don’t come any closer…….”
Mabel scrambled backward on the ground to escape, but soon found herself pressed against the wall.
Gripped by terror, she wracked her mind for any last thread of reason.
“But, but that’s just an artifact anyway. Only a Beast Companion can use it-”
“Ha, if this were an ordinary seal, you’d be right.”
Caesar smiled with a thin, cruel edge to his voice.
“This isn’t just a Subordination Brand Seal. It’s been modified using hundreds of Magic Stones and dozens of Beast Companions—a brand that can mark humans as well.”
“That can’t……?”
“I’d originally made it for when your mother returned, but you should be grateful I’m testing it on you and that creature first.”
“That’s impossible-”
The shocking revelation left Mabel speechless.
She’d been told that since Magic had vanished, the only way for a human to use an artifact was to become bound to a Phantom Beast.
Could modification actually make it possible?
Caesar’s hand shot out, seizing Mabel by the throat.
“Ugh……!”
“Hold still. This is going to sting quite a bit.”
“Ngh……!”
Mabel squeezed her eyes shut at the sight of the Seal approaching her.
Caesar was about to press the brand into her abdomen.
Crack!
A stone came hurtling from somewhere and struck Caesar squarely on the back of the head.
Stunned by the unexpected blow, Caesar spun around—and his eyes widened in shock.
“You—how are you even…….”
“Let Mabel go, now!”
The one who’d thrown the stone was none other than Kelic.
And standing beside him—
“That’s enough of your filthy games, Caesar.”
Ziegmund stood waiting.
At the familiar, longed-for voice, Mabel’s eyes flew open.
She couldn’t believe it.
Ziegmund was really here, in the dungeon beneath the Asilonia Grand Duke Mansion!
“My lord……?”
Mabel’s voice trembled as she spoke his name without thinking.
…….
Seeing Mabel’s state, Ziegmund’s brow furrowed in pain.
There was a stab wound on her neck, and her body, cast down and rolled across the ground, bore countless scrapes and bruises.
Even to look at it was enough to wound the heart—something twisted beneath her navel, churning with anguish.
It pained anyone who witnessed it, yet her own father seemed unmoved.
“Your coming changes nothing!”
Caesar, who had frozen in shock, lunged once more toward Mabel, intent on imprinting the brand.
Slash!
But Ziegmund would never stand idle for that.
“Argh!”
Caesar’s forearm split open on Ziegmund’s blade, and the sudden loss of strength sent the seal tumbling from his grasp.
Clatter!
Seizing the moment, Kelic rolled swiftly across the ground and secured the fallen seal.
“I’ve got it!”
“Well done.”
Ziegmund immediately drew Mabel behind him and stood to face Caesar.
“You… you bastard…….”
Caesar clutched his wounded forearm, his face contorted with pain as he struggled to his feet.
“Caesar. I’ve long known you for what you are—the dregs of humanity, unworthy of association, a worthless wretch.”
Mabel’s eyes widened at Ziegmund’s caustic tongue.
It was only natural—in her presence, Ziegmund had always spoken with propriety and restraint.
“Mabel! Come this way, quickly!”
Had Kelic not called from the other side, she would still have stood frozen in astonishment.
Mabel rushed toward Kelic in panic.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Caesar drew his sword in desperation, lunging to seize her, but—Clang!
“Your opponent is me. At thirty years old, the best you can manage is to prey on children? You’re pathetic, utterly pathetic.”
Ziegmund brushed Caesar’s blade aside as easily as one might handle an infant.
“Spouting off in front of a child—don’t you feel shame? Why do you even draw breath…….”
Ziegmund gave Caesar no moment to breathe, pouring out his contempt with each stroke.
One might have thought he’d spent the entire day memorizing his invectives specifically for this moment.
“How dare you spew such nonsense!”
Caesar’s face flushed crimson with humiliation and fury as he pressed forward with savage ferocity.
An Aura coiled about the blade he raised.
Yet Ziegmund received his strike without drawing upon his own Aura at all.
Clang—clang, ring… clang!
The sound of their blades meeting rang out sharp and bitter.
Though Mabel was anxious for Ziegmund, she first examined Kelic’s collarbone.
“Kelic, wait a moment. Let me see. How is it now—does it hurt at all?”
Mabel’s hands trembled as she inspected the collarbone where the brand had been struck.
Kelic’s eyes gleamed with delight at Ziegmund’s swordsmanship, which he’d not witnessed in so long, but he grasped Mabel’s trembling hands to steady them.
“Don’t worry. It didn’t mark me.”
“What?”
“Look—I have this, remember?”
As Kelic pulled back his upper garment, a small artifact emerged from a crudely stitched pocket inside.
“The Nullification Artifact!”
He usually carried it in his pocket, but before leaving the Asilonia Grand Duke Mansion, he’d sewn it into the lining as a precaution.
Having taken this measure, Kelic laughed with playful relief.
As Mabel belatedly recalled the artifact’s existence, her strength drained away and she sank down onto the ground.
“I… I thought something terrible had happened to you…….”
As her worry lifted, her held breath escaped in a gasp, and her compressed heartbeat returned to its rhythm.
Fearing tears would come, Mabel buried her face in her hands, leaving Kelic at a loss.
“Oh… I thought you knew, of course…….”
“But it hurt so much! So I… I…….”
“Th-that’s… ugh, perhaps it was modified? But Master’s invention would never lose to a wretch like that.”
He added that an ordinary seal would have caused no pain at all.
After burying her face in her palms for a moment, Mabel suddenly pulled Kelic into a tight embrace.
“Thank goodness… truly, thank goodness…….”
Mabel’s voice was thick with relief and emotion.
Kelic, blinking, returned her embrace.
“What about you? Is your neck all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. The bleeding stopped quickly…….”
While the children fretted over each other in harmonious concern, the adults’ battle raged on.
Clash—clang!
Caesar drove forward with all his strength, but Ziegmund’s legs remained immovable.
“You……!”
“There’s an old saying: a true swordsman can know his opponent simply by crossing blades.”
“What……?”
“So I understand you well now, Caesar. Just how pitiable and wretched a man you truly are!”
Ziegmund shoved with force, and Caesar flew backward through the air before landing with difficulty.
“It must be hell. You yearned for this mansion so desperately, yet you’ve built nothing with your own hands.”
“Don’t mock me. I have seized this mansion. I am the master of this household!”
The strike found its mark, and Caesar lost all reason, charging forward again.
The Aura flowing through his blade grew sharper and thicker.
But Ziegmund still did not draw upon his own Aura.
He was skilled enough to overpower Caesar with nothing but his naked blade.
Ziegmund dispersed the Sword Aura Caesar hurled at him with ease and spoke.
“Tell me—is that really so? I think everyone who matters already knows: without Sophia, you are nothing.”
Caesar shuddered violently at those words, his Sword Aura wavering.

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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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