I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 57

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 57
Francesca ignored Ian’s outrage and yanked every hairpin from her head.
Slip.
Her elegantly pinned ash-brown hair tumbled down in soft waves.
The moment Francesca picked up her comb, Ian cried out again.
“Mother!”
He grabbed her forearm and pulled hard, as if to make her look at him.
The comb slipped from Francesca’s fingers, and she turned to face him at last.
“Then. You will become engaged to that girl.”
Francesca’s expression remained serene.
Yet her voice trembled now, fine and threadbare.
“Does the Crown Prince have some clever idea?”
The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, already slightly twisted, seemed deeper today.
When Ian flinched, Francesca seized his forearm instead.
“I asked if you have some clever plan to turn your father’s heart back to me.”
Her sharpened nails pierced his skin, drawing pain.
But Ian said nothing.
Tears were welling slowly into Francesca’s green eyes.
“You know I was a concubine, don’t you, Crown Prince?”
Francesca was roughly ten years older than the Emperor.
Ian had never understood why she’d remained unmarried for so long.
But gossip circulated about her nonetheless.
It was said that Francesca’s disposition was so vicious that despite the backing of a ducal house, no man would take her as a wife.
Of course, Ian, who loved Francesca dearly, did not believe it.
Since noblemen almost always married for political advantage, he reasoned that simply no suitable husband could be found for her.
“Look, Crown Prince. Your father, the Emperor, who is far younger than me, has wrapped himself in the skirts of a beastman woman and no longer looks upon me at all.”
Tears brimmed and trembled in eyes darkened by rage.
“He’s enthralled with that filthy beastman and ignores me, spurns me!”
Francesca, whose pride as a woman had been trampled, writhed perpetually in her humiliation.
Had her rival been another human, it would not have been so unbearable.
But the rival was a beastman.
In the age of magic, perhaps things were different; now she was merely an alchemical commodity, a slave by any other name.
That Francesca—raised as the jewel of House Zikoren, enjoying all the station and honor befitting her rank—should be cast aside for such a creature.
“Pushed aside simply because I am older! I, the Empress!”
That was what drove Francesca to madness.
Her grip on Ian tightened further.
A strangled cry escaped him.
Her sharp nails dug deep into his flesh; tears sprang from his eyes.
“Ow, ow, it hurts!”
Ian tried to wrench his arm free, but Francesca would not release him.
She pulled him closer instead, drawing his face near to hers.
“It is not only me. Your father the Emperor has no interest in you either, does he?”
Ian recoiled as her face loomed near.
There was something almost unhinged in the sight of her—eyes wide, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.
Something’s wrong with Mother.
Terror seized him, and the urge to cry swelled in his throat.
Francesca shook the arm she held, her own voice breaking as she pressed him harder.
“What are you good at, Crown Prince? Are you a brilliant scholar? Do you have talent with the sword? You are good at nothing—nothing!”
Ian choked back sobs, hiccupping.
But Francesca did not stop.
“You are Crown Prince today, yes—but do you think you will still be Crown Prince tomorrow? No! Your father, who cast me aside to take a beastman as his Empress, showed you his answer!”
His cries came freely now, gasping and keening.
It was Francesca herself who terrified him more than her words.
He wanted to flee, but she held him fast.
“Yet here you stand, angry at me? You, who can do nothing for me!”
“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry……P-please, Mother, I’ll do as you wish…….”
Each word from Francesca’s lips carved into Ian’s heart.
Terrified, gasping, he apologized through his tears.
Then Francesca pulled him into an embrace, as though she had never been angry at all.
“Yes, that’s right. All that matters is that you understand your mother’s heart.”
With that, she soothed Ian in a voice of perfect gentleness.
“Don’t doubt what this mother does, Crown Prince. Mother told you this, didn’t she? Everything I do is—”
“For me, for my sake…”
“You’ve done very well.”
Francesca praised him in that tender voice, stroking his back.
Gathering his courage, Ian began to falter through his story.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I’m the Crown Prince, your precious son, and I don’t want to marry someone like that girl… I don’t want someone like that to become your daughter-in-law…”
“Then this mother already knows, without you saying a word. How devoted to filial duty our Crown Prince is. What a remarkable child, my beloved son…”
Francesca answered him gently as she always did, continuing to stroke his back.
The moment her anger seemed to lift, Ian broke down again, hiccupping.
Just moments before, she had been so terrifying.
Francesca held the boy close for a long time, patting him gently.
Her own tears had dried long ago.
* * *
High altitude meant one thing: autumn and winter arrived faster.
The Grand Ducal Castle, which had welcomed autumn early, now shed its crimson leaves one by one.
“Autumn’s passing so quickly—it feels like such a waste,” Mabel said, dangling from the window of Zigmund’s Office.
Zigmund, organizing a newly discovered Summoning Formula, turned his chair with a soft chuckle.
“Still, you got to enjoy an early autumn more than most places would give you.”
“I suppose, but…”
The moment Zigmund opened his arms, Mabel came bounding over and settled into his lap.
With practiced ease, Zigmund lifted her onto his knees, reached out, and took up a fork.
Jacques had carefully candied a chestnut, and Zigmund speared it, opening his mouth.
“Here, say ‘ah’—”
“Ah—”
Mabel, perched on Zigmund’s lap with her small mouth open, accepted it like a baby bird.
But even as sweetness bloomed on her tongue, her dissatisfaction showed no sign of fading.
“Still, I wanted us to go back to the Riverbank one more time before all the leaves fell.”
At her wistful words, Zigmund answered with playful mockery.
“Didn’t I warn you to be careful? And yet you slipped on the way there and ended up soaking wet.”
The memory made Mabel’s face flush bright red.
“T-that was—!”
She could never breathe a word about the dream she’d had before.
That dream of Kellic excited about catching trout, Aselt suggesting they go together, and Zigmund telling her to be careful as she called him father.
‘It must be my imagination, but it was so similar…’
Before she could even blink, she’d lost her footing and ended up looking like a drowned mouse.
‘Ugh, why did I have to dream something like that!’
Zigmund held the candied chestnut up to Mabel’s pouting lips.
“But I’m disappointed too. I wish we could’ve seen more places before it gets cold.”
Her sullenness lasted only a moment before Mabel eagerly accepted the treat.
Zigmund stroked her hair fondly as he spoke.
“Together, that is.”
“Mm, but you’re already overextending yourself.”
Mabel shook her head lightly.
Since she’d grown close to Zigmund later than she had to Aselt or Kellic, he’d devoted much of his time to her.
Thanks to that, Mabel had taken her first boat ride, visited the Night Market, and seen a circus.
It had been wonderful, but she didn’t like watching his free time vanish.
“There’s plenty of time. We can take it slowly. I’m not going anywhere anyway.”
“Oh? That’s quite different from the girl who kept asking me to send her away at every opportunity. Kidnapping, wasn’t it?”
“Eek! Why are you bringing up ancient history! That was before I became the Grand Duke’s assistant!”
Mabel shot him a glare as he continued to tease her about the past.
Zigmund found her impact so delightful every time that he kept laughing.
“I’m just saying it’s good to see you developing. Which means I should add a Development Bonus.”
“Ah! Wait, just a moment! No, no, no!”
The moment Zigmund reached for the Ledger, Mabel thrashed in protest.
She nearly fainted when she discovered that the joke bonuses—the Pride Bonus and others—had actually been paid out.
“Why not? You’ve made a fortune off those Sunglasses, so surely you don’t need Allowance anymore?”
“That’s not what I’m saying!”
They were in the middle of their playful bickering when—

“Your Highness, there’s something urgent you need to see.”
Dain burst in without so much as a knock.
But his expression was so grave that Zigmund, rather than chide him, simply gestured for him to approach.
Mabel began to rise discreetly, but Dain moved to block her path.
“I think it best if you hear this as well, miss.”
“Me?”
What on earth could warrant this?
Mabel looked up obediently, and Dain opened his mouth with visible reluctance.
“It appears Caesar has had a private audience with the Empress. The reason, it seems, concerns your betrothal.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————