I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 46

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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 46
Zigmund and Mabel opened their eyes wide in unison, and Kelick followed suit, his own eyes widening in surprise.
Aselth, who had accompanied them, tilted his head, wondering what Kelick was talking about.
“Huh? Isn’t this what you called us here to talk about?”
“What?”
Zigmund asked back incredulously, as if unable to believe where this conversation was going.
“Huh? Then why did you call me?”
Kelick scratched his head vigorously, apparently confused about why they’d been summoned in the first place if not for this.
“Well, I was thinking about it on the carriage ride back. How much you and Mabel look alike.”
“Eh?”
Mabel looked up at Zigmund.
‘I look like the master?’
Noticing her gaze, Zigmund looked down at the child as well.
In the space between them, two pairs of crimson eyes met precisely.
‘True, we both have red eyes, but other than that, there’s nothing particularly alike, is there?’
Mabel tilted her head uncertainly, and Zigmund mirrored the gesture instinctively.
“Look, look! You’re doing it again right now!”
Convinced his observation was spot-on, Kelick burst into laughter.
“So I thought you were going to announce that you weren’t going back to Asilonia, and that the master would declare ‘Actually, Mabel is my biological daughter.'”
Kelick imitated Zigmund’s voice as he spoke, even mimicking his tone perfectly.
At his words, Mabel giggled and turned to look at him.
“It’s you who looks like him, actually. That impression was really spot-on!”
“Oh, I practiced that to tease—no, out of respect for the master.”
Wait, he’d just said he practiced it to tease.
Kelick hurried to correct himself, but the cat was already out of the bag.
“Anyway, since Mabel isn’t actually his daughter… I thought you called us here to give us a heads-up about that.”
But you’re saying that’s not it?
Kelick continued scratching his head, his expression awkward—an impression reinforced by the sight of Zigmund’s gaze, which had grown unaccountably distant, in sharp contrast to Mabel’s giggling.
It was Lundwell who noticed his discomfort.
Lundwell gave Kelick’s back a gentle push.
Looking up, Kelick saw Lundwell shaking his head slightly.
“It’s not… that, anyway.”
Kelick shrugged slightly and moved toward the sofa, settling down onto it.
“So why did you call us here, then?”
At Aselth’s question, Mabel, who had been chuckling, also looked up at Zigmund.
“Well, the reason I called you all here today is…”
Zigmund, whose expression had softened, looked toward Aselth and Kelick, who sat side by side on the sofa.
“First… Aselth, Kelick. You two have accepted Mabel as your sister, haven’t you?”
A gentle smile appeared at the corners of Zigmund’s mouth.
Only then did the two boys remember that they had never told Zigmund about their decision to become a family.
Their eyes reflected curiosity about how Zigmund could possibly know something they had never mentioned.
“Mabel sent me her journal.”
“Hehe—”
“I told her to go play and have fun, but instead she went and kept a journal.”
Zigmund’s large hand came to rest atop Mabel’s head as she grinned.
As he stroked it gently, soft purple hair tickled his palm.
“And the second reason…”
Zigmund looked down at Mabel, who sat before him.
“Mabel, I told you yesterday. That I would hold a trial.”
“Yes? Oh, yes.”
“I want to win that trial and free you from Caesar’s grasp.”
“Free… me?”
Zigmund nodded.
“Yes. And to do that, I need both your help—you and Kelick. I have to prove to everyone just how terrible a person Caesar is.”
“For something like that, wouldn’t my eyes alone be enough? I’ve seen everything.”
Kelick tapped the corner of his eye meaningfully.
Kelick’s Innate Ability was Broadcast.
With a Magical Stone, he could capture images and replay them like an artifact, showing memories to everyone present.
“But that only lasts a very short time. What happened in the Underground Prison alone won’t be enough.”
At Zigmund’s words, Mabel realized what he was asking for.
“Ah, you need my testimony, then?”
Zigmund’s throat constricted sharply.
He smoothed away the expression that kept trying to crumple on his face and nodded.
“Yes.”
He needed precise details of the abuse Mabel had suffered.
“I’m sorry. If I could, I’d find another way. But…….”
What Zigmund aimed for in this trial was stripping Caesar of parental rights over Mabel.
To achieve that, he had to prove Caesar had committed acts warranting such a deprivation.
“And the reason I called Kelick is to create a record of it.”
“A record?”
“Yes. And since Kelick alone can’t know everything, Aselth will need to be present as well.”
Aselth nodded in agreement.
“Mabel, I promise you.”
Zigmund extended his pinky finger again.
Looking up at him, his face bore none of the ease from their earlier promise—only raw suffering.
“You only have to tell it once. Just once, and I swear I won’t ask you for anything this difficult again.”
The trial might call for Mabel’s testimony.
But Zigmund couldn’t bear to let her struggle through such a painful story in a room full of Caesar and strangers.
That was why he’d summoned Kelick.
If Mabel’s testimony proved necessary at trial, he intended to Broadcast Kelick’s memories in her stead.
“So I’m asking you too, Kelick—please cooperate with us.”
“No, well…… I can do anything if it’s for Mabel.”
Kelick scratched near his neck and nodded.
For Kelick, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
But for Mabel, it certainly would be.
‘She said she was a child who shouldn’t have been born…….’
Drawing out all those memories and speaking them aloud would undoubtedly be an ordeal.
Lundwell, attending as scribe in Dane’s absence, also watched Mabel with troubled eyes.
After a moment, Mabel saw Zigmund’s trembling fingers and nodded.
“Yes, I understand.”
Then, just as before, she hooked her small finger to his and made the promise.
Mabel hesitated, wondering where to begin, before she opened her mouth.
“Well…… the first thing I realized was…… that no matter how much I cried, it wouldn’t help.”
This was from when she was far younger than she was now.
There had been a day when she cried until her throat was raw.
Normally, even Sophia would have appeared, but no one came.
The louder her fear grew, the louder her sobs became.
But even when heat rushed to her head and she gasped for breath, no one appeared.
“That’s when I first left the room. I think I stumbled down the stairs awkwardly, stopping and starting. Then I saw someone passing by and cried again, but…….”
As Mabel continued speaking, the light seemed to drain from her eyes.
In the now-silent room, only her voice echoed.
Even the breathing of those listening faded away.
“I think that day was when Mother left the Estate.”
The memories after that became hazy.
When she came to, she was in a closet, not the room she’d shared with Sophia.
The room where she lived as a Ghost Princess, thick with dust and vermin.
“When I was in Asilonia…… people would grimace and leave whenever they saw me.”
Mabel’s eyes seemed to search somewhere in her memory, losing focus, growing distant.
Mabel had simply been hungry.
Her head had simply ached, and she’d simply wanted to speak.
Yet people hurried away as though they’d encountered something untouchable.
“I found this out later, sneaking around—that while I was a child who shouldn’t have been born, I also couldn’t die right away, so they complained I was a nuisance.”
Eight years.
That was what Mabel had been in Asilonia.
She ate stale bread that someone had left near her before she could starve, bathed herself in rainwater on nights when it rained—sneaking out to do so—and suffered through fevers alone when they came. She would cut herself deliberately just to feel alive, and found joy in the pain as proof of her existence.
She had injured herself deliberately to know she was alive, treasuring the pain as evidence.
“I thought that if I stayed alive, perhaps my parents might look at me someday. ……But that never happened.”
If she hadn’t realized this world was from a novel, she would have simply died there.
“So I wanted to leave. If I stayed there…… I was afraid I might actually die someday…….”
Recalling the version of herself who had died within the novel’s pages, Mabel lifted her head.
Her gaze met Zigmund’s, who had been watching from nearby.
Zigmund’s face was devoid of expression.
Lundwell, Kelick, and Aselth wore similar masks.
Mabel fidgeted with her hands as she spoke.
“Perhaps… this still isn’t enough……?”
Hearing her cautious question, Zigmund exhaled as though releasing a breath he’d been holding, and extended his arms.
“Ah…….”
Mabel, drawn into Zigmund’s embrace, widened her eyes in surprise.
“No. It’s enough.”
“Really, truly?”
“Yes. Thank you for telling me, Mabel.”
Beneath Zigmund’s taut voice, a seething anger churned.
Mabel didn’t notice. But everyone present was consumed by a rage so fierce it had erased all expression from their faces.

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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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