I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 47

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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 47
After sending the children out, silence settled over the Office.
Siegmund was the first to speak.
“Well then… shall we begin the strategy meeting?”
Siegmund, sitting at the desk with his fingers interlaced and his chin resting on his clasped hands, spoke with a chill in his voice.
Though he’d rushed straight to Ashilonia the moment he returned from the Hermetic Kingdom, forgoing rest, one might have expected him to be exhausted.
Yet Siegmund’s gaze burned with the same keen, rational light as always.
“Yes. First, I’ve summarized my approach as follows.”
Lundwell moved with the same brisk efficiency, his eyes sharp and resolute.
He laid a single sheet of paper before Siegmund.
Bearing the grandiose title: “Operation Rescue Miss Mabel!”
Upon reading this lofty operation title, Siegmund’s eyes moved across the contents.
He looked up at Lundwell immediately.
“…Is that all?”
Lundwell didn’t so much as blink at Siegmund’s terse question.
“Yes, that’s all.”
Instead, he answered with utter confidence, adjusting his spectacles as if he couldn’t remember when he’d put them on.
Siegmund looked down at the paper again.
There were only three lines written on it.
[1. Dein, heading to Ashilonia, keeps Caesar detained.
2. When the trial begins, we present evidence using Kellic’s Ability.
3. For now, we spend happy days with Mabel.]
“…Are you joking?!”
Bang!
Siegmund struck the desk and shot to his feet.
Yet Lundwell looked genuinely puzzled as to what was wrong.
“But didn’t Master Kellic see everything himself? And conveniently, Your Grace has brought plenty of Magical Stones from the Hermetic Kingdom. So shouldn’t that resolve it?”
“No, this isn’t nearly so simple, is it? We’re talking about Mabel’s parental rights—her parental rights! And what do you mean by ‘for now’?”
As if exasperated at Lundwell’s slowness today, Siegmund slapped his own chest repeatedly.
Yet for all Siegmund’s barely contained fury, Lundwell’s expression remained composed.
“If not ‘for now’—do you mean to officially register her as an Adopted Daughter then?”
“That is…”
“Or is it truly as Dein suggested—to make her your Successor so that the elders will hold their tongues?”
Siegmund’s lips pressed firmly shut.
“That cannot be, Your Grace. Miss Mabel has suffered grievous wounds at the hands of family.”
“I know that well. That’s precisely why I’m trying to bring her here from Ashilonia by any means necessary.”
“But that means changing her family register against her will, doesn’t it? And asking the child to lend her strength to the Eschlid Ducal House by doing so?”
At Lundwell’s caustic words, Siegmund’s lips would not part easily.
“Your Grace, I do not believe the Eschlid Ducal House—to which I have devoted my entire life—is so weak that it must rely on a child’s power to sustain itself.”
“…”
Of course, the matter of Succession was both urgent and grave.
But it was not urgent enough to demand the sacrifice of a wounded child.
Nor was that the only path to resolving the Succession question.
“Then what should I do? I just never want to see Mabel, the children, hurt again.”
Siegmund ran his fingers through his hair in agitation, again and again.
With each anxious gesture, his lustrous silver hair fell into disarray.
To such a Siegmund, Lundwell spoke gently, as one might soothe a child.
“Your Grace, as they say, even a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step. One cannot gulp water hastily without choking—much less rush through becoming the girl’s family as if roasting beans over a flame.”
Only Lundwell, who had walked beside Siegmund since childhood, could speak to him in such a manner.
The anxious pacing that had plagued him—fear that Mabel might need to be sent back to Ashilonia, or worse, returned to the Orphanage—came to a halt.
Siegmund listened to Lundwell in silence.
“I, too, wholeheartedly support—no, enthusiastically support—rescuing Miss Mabel from the grasp of that contemptible wretch, even if it means sifting through every bit of filth.”
Most of the curses that fell from Siegmund’s lips had, in fact, been learned from Lundwell.
“But what we can do ends there. Thereafter, wherever the young lady resides, whoever she dwells with, what family she chooses to embrace—all of that must be her choice foremost.”
“Mabel’s… choice.”
“Yes. And consider this: though Your Grace had to depart immediately for the Hermetic Kingdom and the time spent with the young lady was brief, do you truly believe that if you force her to stay, she will open her heart to you?”
Siegmund pondered this carefully.
The way she’d nearly bolted from the house at first, the way she’d wept with joy upon recognizing him, then protested that it was kidnapping—all of it came to mind.
For all her background, Mabel was a child with remarkably strong convictions.
And she was equally firm in drawing her own boundaries.
Looking at how she said she had no money when shown the Lemonade, or how she asked Siegmund to hire her as an assistant—it all painted a clear picture.
“It’s true that Mabel could stay here, but she wouldn’t be comfortable, would she?”
“No, sir. I think the same. The young lady, who already lived on tenterhooks back home, watching her step even here—I cannot abide it.”
A wounded child will flinch from harm even when told there is none to come.
No matter how much kindness surrounded her, unless the infection in the child’s heart was healed, everything else was merely first aid.
Siegmund, persuaded by Lundwell’s reasoning, sank back into his chair.
“All right. Let’s take this slowly for now.”
His voice had grown somewhat calmer, though dissatisfaction lingered—yet this was not a problem he could solve in an instant.
So Siegmund decided to set aside distant concerns and address what lay directly before him.
“I’ll prepare to win the trial decisively.”
* * *
A week later.
An emergency Noble Trial was convened in the Greenhurst Empire.
The parties involved were none other than the Eschlid Ducal House and the Ashilonia Duchy.
The enmity between these two families was longstanding, so public attention was riveted.
Yet the reason these two houses, which had always avoided direct confrontation, suddenly called for a trial was a child—and that alone set tongues wagging.
In a dull world, no gossip could compare.
Thus, on the day of trial.
The steps before the Greenhurst Supreme Court were packed shoulder to shoulder.
“There! There they come! The Eschlid carriage!”
“Here too! Here comes the Ashilonia coach!”
The excited crowd barely yielded the road, creating bottlenecks in their fervor.
Meanwhile, in the carriage, Siegmund’s thoughts turned to Mabel.
“I’ve arranged things so you needn’t testify. What say you to turning back now?”
“That’s right, Mabel. Just let me handle this, won’t you?”
Kellic, who had come along, urged her to trust him alone.
The moment she stepped from the carriage, countless eyes would fix upon her.
Could Mabel truly bear that weight of attention?
Yet Mabel only shook her head again and again.
“It’s my trial, isn’t it? You said I needn’t speak, but still—I want to be there with you.”
Over the past week, he’d learned that Mabel possessed an unusual conscientiousness for a child.
So scrupulous was she that once she understood the value of her wages, she’d added a clause to the Employment Contract demanding reimbursement for everything she ate, wore, and used in daily life.
Though Siegmund and Dein protested loudly that the contract was already signed and this could not stand, she remained unmoved.
The best they could manage was a compromise: a “performance bonus” system where Mabel would receive additional payment whenever she proved useful.
In truth, Mabel had initially accepted the Ducal House’s support without reservation.
‘If only I would stop calling Lord Siegmund “father” in my dreams—’
Even after returning to the Eschlid estate, Mabel kept having dreams where she called Siegmund “father.”
Why did she have such dreams?
Was her heart yearning for such things so deeply?
Before dangerous desires could take root, Mabel had resolved to draw a line.
‘I’ve prepared well enough, but there’s no knowing how this trial will end.’
And so the lord was unable to sway her, and they descended together.
“Look there! The Ashilonia princess!”
“The Ashilonia princess really did come in the Ducal carriage?”
The crowds pointed and gossiped about Mabel as though trading in juicy rumor.
With so many pressed close, even Siegmund’s icy stare could only do so much to silence them.
Yet to his relief, Mabel handled it better than expected.
In fact, thinking that all these people would soon learn of Ashilonia’s true nature made her feel oddly exhilarated.
‘Maybe I really do have a bit of an attention-seeking streak.’
Now that she thought of it, she’d grown used to the servants’ fussing rather quickly at first.
Having discovered this new side of herself, Mabel’s expression brightened.
And then the trial began.

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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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