I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 45

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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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Episode 45
But what on earth was she being scolded for?
Hadn’t she already endured quite enough lecturing while locked in the Underground Prison?
‘Wasn’t that enough?!’
Mabel braced herself, waiting for the reproach she knew was coming from Siegmund.
But then.
“Make me one too.”
The words that fell from Siegmund’s lips were nothing like she’d expected.
Not angry, not suppressing rage—rather, quite the opposite.
‘Pouty… wounded?’
Unbelievable as it was, that’s exactly what it sounded like.
Now that she looked closer, even Siegmund’s rigid features didn’t read as angry so much as sullen.
‘…Perhaps?’
Mabel tilted her head without thinking.
“Make you… what?”
The twin braids Ella had tied for her slipped to one side.
Those same braids she’d so carefully glossed until those Aselthian brutes decided they looked like broomsticks and gave them an angry brushing before re-tying them.
At Mabel’s confused echo, Siegmund answered with perfect seriousness.
“Sunglasses.”
“…I’m sorry?”
“Make me sunglasses! Now!”
It was precisely like that time before, when Mabel had given shoes to Dain alone.
When he’d complained about why he didn’t get any.
Sure enough, Siegmund began to throw a fit.
“Why did you make them only for Aselth? Why don’t I have any? And why were you making things like that when I wasn’t even around?”
“No, I—”
Now Siegmund looked ready to throw himself flat on the ground.
No exaggeration—he was actually rising to his feet with the clear intention of dropping to the floor.
“How did you even think of changing the color of the lenses? Where did such an idea come from? How did you come up with it? Are the black ones just painted, or are they glass? How long did it take to craft?”
And then came another barrage of questions.
“Wait, please just wait!”
If words had weight, Mabel would be buried alive under a mountain of inquiry right now.
“When you instructed the craftsman, how did you conceptualize the design? No, this won’t do. I need to observe when you make mine! Let me be there the whole time!”
Now Siegmund, arms crossed as he sat on the floor, was actually attempting to lie down flat.
Flustered and flailing, Mabel spoke up.
“I’ll make them for you, I promise! So please, just get up—!”
Mabel rushed over and blocked his attempt to lie down.
But when Siegmund kept trying, she ended up burrowing into his arms to prop him up.
Siegmund wrapped his arms around the tiny girl who’d scrambled into his chest, whimpering with effort.
The sight of such a small child determined to stop him from lying down, nestling into his embrace, was far too endearing to resist.
“You mean it? You promise?”
Siegmund chuckled and extended his pinky finger while cradling the child.
It was a hand almost as large as Mabel’s entire palm.
“Yes, yes! I promise! I promise!”
Mabel’s face flushed crimson under his weight as she quickly linked her pinky with his.
It was too small to properly hook around his finger.
Still, Mabel gave it everything she had, shaking their joined pinkies up and down.
“So now please get up, come on!”
Mabel grunted as if he truly weighed a ton.
She pushed against him with all her might, as if to lift him to his feet.
Siegmund, a deep smile playing at his lips, felt all the tension drain from his body as he watched her.
“Oof!”
Mabel staggered under the sudden increase in weight.
Fortunately, Siegmund held her secure enough that she didn’t topple over.
But now she was beginning to struggle for breath under the sheer force of his embrace.
Mabel patted his back insistently, signaling him to let go.
“Ahh, that’s nice. Thanks for the massage too.”
Rather than release her, Siegmund pulled Mabel even closer.
“That’s not a massage—!”
Mabel gasped and wriggled as he held her fast.
Siegmund pulled Mabel toward him as he sat cross-legged, murmuring under his breath.
“Hmm, she’s gained some weight.”
Not that she’d ever been a plump child to begin with—or rather, she’d been barely more than skin and bones.
Still, after eating well in the Grand Duchy for a short time, flesh had returned to her frame.
He’d thought that if he kept raising her like this, she’d look as healthy as any other child.
‘Damn that Caesar…’
Drugging a little girl with a sedative just because he found her tiresome.
What kind of madness would drive someone to such a thought?
One thing was certain: that man was no human being.
To call such a creature human was an insult to humanity itself.
While Siegmund mentally ground Caesar to dust with his teeth, Mabel’s lips began to tremble.
“I’m, I’m so sorry……”
“Hmm?”
When Siegmund shifted his body slightly back, he caught sight of Mabel looking uncertain.
“You told me to eat well, and I, I just couldn’t……”
It wasn’t that she’d refused to eat on purpose.
She felt a touch of injustice, but it was true—she hadn’t managed to complete the task Siegmund had given her.
As Mabel lowered her gaze and glanced nervously at him, Siegmund realized his mistake at once.
“No, I wasn’t blaming you. Of course not. How could I blame you?”
He released the child and bent lower, as if trying to meet her eyes.
“It’s my fault. I should have been more careful to keep news of you from reaching Caesar’s ears.”
But Mabel found it difficult to meet his gaze.
It was the first task he’d given her, and not managing to complete it weighed heavily on her mind.
Noticing this, Siegmund patted Mabel’s back and spoke gently.
“So when you said she’d lost weight, you were really upset with me, weren’t you? Right? Mabel, will you look at me?”
At that slightly anxious gesture, Mabel slowly met his eyes.
Yet a hint of sadness still lingered in her gaze.
Siegmund’s brows drooped apologetically as he tried to comfort her.
“Don’t be nervous. If anything, I’m the one who should be nervous. I gave you a task, but I failed to create an environment where you could complete it.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong at all.”
Just as she’d said in the carriage, Siegmund had nothing to apologize for.
At Mabel’s words, Siegmund’s lips curved upward in relief.
“That’s right. Then you haven’t done anything wrong either. All the fault belongs to Caesar.”
So don’t be nervous, Siegmund said again.
Mabel, who had been glancing at him sideways, slowly opened her mouth.
“Then…… I don’t have to make you those Sunglasses?”
“…… What?”
Siegmund’s face went rigid in an instant.
Had he been too forceful after all?
Was his promise to make them just him indulging her whim out of nervousness?
If that were the case, he should say she didn’t need to make them……
“That is…… well……”
But he truly was curious about the Sunglasses.
As Siegmund struggled with the dilemma, breathing painfully through gritted teeth, he was about to nod his head——
“Just kidding!”
The child’s bright voice struck Siegmund’s ear like a bell.
Mabel before him was giggling with pure mischief.
This time, Siegmund’s face went rigid in an entirely different way.
But only for a moment.
“Mabel, you little——”
Teasing an adult!
Siegmund swept her up and tickled her ribs and belly mercilessly.
“You rascal, you rascal!”
“Ahaha! Stop, it tickles!”
Sitting between Siegmund’s legs, Mabel writhed and laughed with delight.
Their faces, turned toward each other in laughter, looked so remarkably alike—truly as if father and daughter.
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock, knock.
At the sound, Lundwell poked his face through the gap in the door.
“Forgive the intrusion on such a pleasant moment, but if we don’t begin the main discussion soon, we’ll be late for the young lady’s snack time.”
“Huh—ha, so that’s the real point?”
She’d laughed so hard she could barely breathe.
Mabel caught her breath and looked up at Siegmund.
Wasn’t pestering him to make Sunglasses the whole point of this visit?
“Oh, is it already that late?”
Siegmund checked the time, then lifted Mabel into his arms and rose from his seat.
She’d thought he was finally setting her down, but apparently not.
Siegmund simply sat back down in the chair, still cradling her.
“Hm?”
Nestled in Siegmund’s embrace, Mabel turned her head to peer up at him.
“Aren’t you going to put me down?”
“Why would I?”
“Well, I—”
But Mabel’s reply never found its ending.
“Mabel! You’re here early?”
Kellik, his face dotted with bandages, stepped through the doorway wearing a grin.
“Oh? But—”
Kellik’s eyes darted between Mabel, who was cradled against Siegmund like a stuffed doll, and Siegmund himself, and his face lit up.
“I knew it! You’re the Master’s daughter, aren’t you?!”
“……What?”
“……Huh?”
Where on earth had that come from?

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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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