I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 43

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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 43
Of course, Kellik couldn’t use his ability whenever he wished.
To employ his Special Ability, Kellik required an enormous quantity of Mana Stones.
Now that magic had vanished and most Mana Stones had become nothing more than ordinary rocks, they were far from easy to obtain.
Moreover, even if Kellik managed to focus solely on the scene he wished to display, the slightest stray thought would bleed through in the Transmission.
Yet this ability of the red fox demi-humans had consistently remained in high demand.
Specifically, during trials.
Mabel’s eyes went wide with surprise at this revelation.
Watching her reaction, Kellik shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
“Pretty impressive, right?”
Perhaps because Aselt carried such an air of maturity, Kellik seemed almost mischievous by comparison.
The way he’d matched Lander blow for blow just moments ago, the determination with which he’d shielded Mabel to the very end—
Kellik was beginning to appear different to her.
‘But if I say something like that, his face will turn bright red and he’ll sulk.’
So Mabel said nothing, simply smiled brilliantly, and answered with genuine warmth.
“Yes! You really are amazing!”
“Hehe, don’t worry—I’ll always be here to protect you from now on!”
Feeling the sincerity in her words, Kellik laughed shyly and made his promise.
The tender atmosphere was genuinely heartwarming to witness, but there was something that needed to be addressed.
“Well, I’m glad you two have patched things up—”
At Siegmund’s voice, lowered a full octave, both Kellik and Mabel flinched visibly.
Siegmund turned to them with a smile still fixed on his face.
“So, why don’t you both tell me exactly what you were doing in such a dungeon?”
His expression was no different from usual, yet suddenly Siegmund’s face seemed as terrifying as a demon’s.
Mabel swallowed hard and reached out with trembling fingers to grab Kellik’s arm.
“B-brother, please protect me……”
“H-hiccup……”
Kellik was no less frightened than she was, though his plea was just as desperate.
“Let’s talk this over in the carriage.”
And so both children found themselves riding in the Esclide Grand Duchy’s carriage, subjected to a torrent of worry and affectionate scolding.
An hour each, then two more hours during the carriage ride to the Grand Duke’s Castle.
And in between, continuously—
Siegmund’s stream of concerned reproach never ceased.
Mabel acutely realized just how incredible the stamina of the youngest Grand Master in existence truly was.
* * *
Siegmund’s fortuitous arrival owed everything to Lundwell, the head butler.
After both Aselt and then Kellik disappeared, Lundwell had immediately enlisted a hawk demi-human to carry an urgent message to Siegmund.
Never had there been such a genuine emergency.
The moment Siegmund received word that the children would surely head for the Ashilonia Residence, he mounted his horse.
After days of riding without rest, changing horses repeatedly, he arrived at the Ashilonia Duchy and encountered Aselt.
“He told me he saw Kellik being dragged toward the Underground Prison.”
He hadn’t expected Mabel to be there as well.
“Things happened too quickly to explain properly, but I’ll need to see Aselt separately once we’re home.”
Siegmund spoke with barely contained resolve.
Kellik and Mabel, barely escaped from his tirade, exchanged glances and offered silent condolences to Aselt.
“In any case… Mabel, let’s check if your bandages need changing.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Siegmund’s signal, the carriage slowed to a halt.
Mabel, wary of another lecture, said nothing and quickly moved to sit beside Siegmund.
The wound on her palm where she’d been pierced by the Hairpin was considerable, as was the wound on her neck from Caesar’s blade.
“The one on your neck may heal cleanly, but the wound on your palm will likely leave a scar.”
As Siegmund wiped her palm with a clean cloth, his expression twisted with distress.
He was both pained that the child’s body would bear a scar, and furious with himself for allowing her to fall into such danger in the first place.
Already, Mabel’s skin bore many scars of her own making.
He had not wanted to add another mark to wounds that carried such painful histories.
“I’m sorry.”
At his sudden apology, Mabel looked up from regarding her wound with a blank expression.
Siegmund kept his eyes fixed on her palm.
“That you had to endure something like this.”
How could he not have foreseen that Caesar would try to reclaim Mabel?
Was it because I neglected Mabel all this time?
Was it because I acted as though people other than Sophia were beneath my concern?
‘I shouldn’t have merely told them to live well and take care of themselves. I should have arranged something more concrete.’
Every last bit of this—Mabel and the children’s injuries—was his fault alone.
“That’s not your fault, my lord! It isn’t, truly it isn’t!”
Mabel shook her head in panic.
“Ow.”
In doing so, the wound on her neck opened slightly.
“Mabel!”
“Mabel!”
Siegmund and Kellik rushed toward her in alarm.
“Let me see—is it bleeding again?”
“What should we do! Does it hurt much?”
Two pairs of hands—one large, one small—grasped gently at Mabel’s face and neck, checking her carefully.
Knowing this was hardly the time, Mabel found herself laughing despite it all.
A soft giggle escaped her.
Each laugh sent a dull ache through her throat, yet she couldn’t seem to stop.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Don’t laugh—you’re bleeding again!”
As blood began to seep through, the two of them flustered and urged her to stop.
But the laughter wouldn’t cease.
The way they both startled at her smallest word or gesture, reacting with such concern—they resembled a father and son so closely.
Their worry was so precious, so deeply welcome.
She found herself thinking: if I had a father and an older brother, perhaps this was what it would feel like.
‘Of course, Kellik really has become my brother now…….’
But with Siegmund doing the same, her chest felt so full it was impossible to hold back the laughter.
After laughing for some time, Mabel wiped away the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes and spoke.
“My going to the Ashilonia Residence was absolutely not because of you, my lord.”
As her breathing steadied, a natural sigh escaped her.
“And these wounds aren’t your fault either.”
Siegmund listened silently to Mabel’s words while carefully cleaning the wound on her neck with a clean cloth.
Until the first aid was finished, Mabel held his gaze steadily.
Feeling her eyes on him, Siegmund looked up to meet hers.
Those remarkably similar crimson eyes held each other completely.
Mabel’s eyes widened with warmth.
“I was so happy that you came. When we first met, you seemed like a kidnapper, but this time you were just like a prince.”
Actually, now that she thought about it, Siegmund had seemed princely from the beginning too.
He had appeared like a prince, suddenly materializing to call her by her name.
And just as he did now, he had placed her in a carriage and brought her to the Grand Duke’s Castle.
Like a suffering Cinderella stepping into a carriage to journey to a prince’s castle and live happily ever after, so had Mabel.
“So please don’t speak that way. And what if a scar remains? Thanks to that, we were able to meet again and be together like this.”
“That’s…….”
Siegmund, who had been listening in silence, let out a sigh and rinsed his face with his hands.
“But still, I can’t help feeling upset about it. This is my…….”
Suddenly, Siegmund’s words trailed off.
‘My…… what was I about to say?’
As Siegmund remained uncharacteristically silent, Mabel tilted her head in curiosity.
Following the tilt of her head, those crimson eyes shifted to the side.
Whenever Siegmund looked into Mabel’s eyes, a strange illusion would sometimes take hold of him.
He had never been married, never even had a lover, and yet—he sometimes felt as though, if he had a child, she would surely look exactly like this.
As though those very eyes that had caused Mabel such misfortune were eyes he himself had passed down to her.
‘That’s impossible.’
People around him had been so insistent on the possibility of an illegitimate child that the thought had begun to take root.
Shaking off the absurd notion, Siegmund cleared his throat.
“Because you’re my assistant. You’re my precious assistant, Mabel. What researcher would be pleased to hear his assistant was injured while he was away?”
“Ah.”
Mabel nodded as though she understood.
If a flicker of disappointment crossed her face at those words—was that too merely an illusion?
And was this desire he felt to call her by any name but ‘assistant’ also nothing more than an illusion?
‘Perhaps it’s from the children being hurt. I’m filling my mind with useless thoughts.’
Siegmund affixed a bandage to Mabel’s wound, then signaled the driver once more.
Meanwhile, Kellik, watching from his seat, grasped something momentous.
‘Now that I think about it, Master and Mabel…… they look remarkably alike!’
He wanted to share this extraordinary discovery with Siegmund and Mabel, but Kellik pressed his lips firmly shut.
He couldn’t say why.
Only that it didn’t feel like the right moment to speak—not yet.
Not yet.
The carriage bearing the three of them rolled gently back toward the Grand Duke’s Castle, mindful of the sleeping children 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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