I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 82

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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 82
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And Zigmund’s prediction proved precisely correct.
It had happened a few days earlier.
“You’re telling me that on the very day Mabel was supposed to meet him officially, there are signs she was kidnapped?”
Francesca lifted her head at the Aide’s report.
“Yes. It appears the Duke was caught attempting some clumsy scheme beforehand, which is why the arrangement fell through, or so I’ve been told.”
“Fool. All he had to do was ask his wife. Instead he bungled it completely.”
Since the Crown Prince’s Birthday Banquet, when they’d planned to announce the engagement but Mabel’s exposure had derailed everything.
Francesca had been trying to undermine the credibility of Mabel’s claims of abuse.
But before the groundwork could even begin, Mabel had intervened and destroyed the scheme entirely.
So she’d requested an official meeting instead.
Caesar would appear in Sophia’s place, intending to abduct Mabel.
Yet even that had failed, undone by Caesar’s ridiculous blunder.
“It’s absolutely absurd. What is it about that girl that invites such fortune? She’s no Prophet, yet luck follows her everywhere.”
The old texts contained a legend on this very subject.
Those closest to the gods, the Prophets—beings with souls so pure they could companion a Mystical Creature, the nearest deity to all Beastmen—received blessings from all the heavens.
But as magic had faded, the Mystical Creatures too had devolved into mere Beastmen, now virtually extinct.
So Mabel could not possibly be a Prophet.
The women tasked with shaping public opinion, Sophia, Caesar—all of them were simply too incompetent, that much was certain.
After carefully reviewing the previous situation, Francesca posed a question.
“But what if that wasn’t the case?”
“Yes. Just before his execution, a poacher captured by the Eschlide Grand Duke said something. He claimed that he had kidnapped Mabel Asilonia while she was playing at the Grand Duke’s Residence, and that’s why he was caught.”
Francesca’s green eyes gleamed sharply as she heard the Aide’s report.
“Is that so? You’re certain? What evidence?”
“I regret to say there is none. The man is already dead, and recanting is impossible. However, the Grand Duke’s household only recently began keeping that White Lion, and it follows the young lady closely. Apparently, it was because they met when she was kidnapped.”
“So in the end, our only ‘evidence’ is the dying words of a dead man.”
Francesca murmured, her voice dropping an octave.
But it was enough.
“And come to think of it, the reason the young lady can remain at the Grand Duke’s Residence at all is because the Duchess has taken on her ‘protection’…… isn’t that what we were told?”
A cold smile spread across Francesca’s lips.
“Until now, we couldn’t simply bring her here because of rumors that the Duchess was abusing her. But if the Grand Duke’s Residence itself isn’t even safe—if she was kidnapped there—then the situation changes entirely.”
Francesca sent an encrypted letter to Caesar at once.
The message was simple.
There was something urgent about Mabel’s “safety” she needed to discuss with Sophia.
Francesca had expected Caesar to refuse her at least once or twice.
He wouldn’t approve of proceeding without her, after all.
But he didn’t.
He extended an invitation to her without hesitation.
Though he did request that she wear a disguise, since they hadn’t yet caught the spy sent from the Grand Duke’s Residence.
And so Francesca, disguised as a merchant making deliveries, slipped into the Duke’s Residence……
“Oh, good heavens.”
She was confronted with a shocking sight.
“Y-Your Majesty the Empress……?”
Sophia was locked in an Underground Dungeon.
Or rather, whether one called it being locked away, or whether the Duchess’s bedroom had simply been relocated to an underground dungeon—the distinction felt meaningless.
Inside the iron cage where Sophia was held, there were a bed, a desk, and many other furnishings.
There was even a carpet laid out, and a dress rack.
“Y-Your Majesty, how did you—ah, no, it’s an honor to see you, Your Majesty.”
Sophia, accustomed to maintaining etiquette, only now became aware that she wore nothing but a thin negligee, and her face flushed crimson.
The reality of her imprisonment crashed over her anew, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Sophia had to bite her lower lip hard enough to draw blood to bear the shame and sorrow.
Francesca opened her mouth, addressing Sophia’s distress.
“Hush. Please be quiet. I’ve come to this place in secret.”
“In……secret?”
Sophia’s voice trembled at such an unbelievable claim.
“Yes. I’ve been looking for the Duchess to discuss something urgent regarding the young lady. But each time, she’s refused me with excuses of illness. However, something felt off, so I came here in secret to investigate, and……”
Of course, it was a complete lie.
But Sophia had no way of seeing through it.
Francesca was dressed in the garb of a commoner, after all.
“You truly came looking for me……?”
“If that weren’t the case, why would I be dressed like this? There’s no time. I don’t know when the Duke might discover us.”
Francesca examined the lock urgently.
In that moment, she genuinely appeared desperate to free Sophia at once.
“Blast. The Duke must have the key after all…….”
The more rigid Francesca’s face became, the more a smile bloomed across Sophia’s lips.
‘Ah, God has not abandoned me yet—He is still by my side!’
Across Sophia’s face, which had been stained with despair and shame, the light of hope began gradually to kindle.
Yet in moments like these, one had to be careful.
“Your Majesty, Empress. My heart is grateful, but I fear it may not be wise for me to leave with you just now.”
“What do you mean, my lady? You endure such cruelty and still love that man?”
“It is not that. I no longer love him. But we have not yet divorced.”
“Then……! If I take you from this place, you would still not be truly free of the Duke’s grasp, would you?”
There was no help for it.
Francesca furrowed her brow, her expression troubled and deep in thought.
After a moment’s deliberation, Francesca opened her mouth carefully.
“In truth, if I were to issue an Imperial Edict—that is, if I were to write one—annulling your marriage would be simple. Given what I have witnessed of such serious violence being inflicted upon you.”
“……!”
Sophia’s eyes widened with surprise—she had not expected Francesca to raise the matter of an Imperial Edict so readily.
But Francesca’s words were not yet finished.
“However, for that I would need your unwavering will to divorce. And evidence to support it as well.”
“Evidence?”
“Yes, clear proof that this divorce is truly your wish, and yours alone…….”
Francesca muttered to herself before turning back to the lock, as though deciding it would not do.
“Come with me now regardless. Even if you should fall back into the Duke’s hands, I shall shield you.”
Francesca spoke with resolute determination.
“As Empress, and as a woman, I cannot leave you in this state.”
With that, she grasped the lock and pulled at it repeatedly.
The sound of metal scraping against metal echoed through the Underground Dungeon with sharp, ringing clangs.
“Wait, Your Majesty, please wait!”
Sophia stopped her anxiously, seized by the fear that they might truly be discovered.
Then she immediately began to lift the hem of her skirt.
“My lady?”
Francesca turned to look at Sophia in surprise.
Sophia withdrew something from the inner lining of her garment at the waist and spoke.
“This is the Duchess’s Seal, which I have kept hidden. That man desired it so greatly that he inflicted terrible cruelties upon me, but I never yielded. For I always believed this day would come.”
With firm conviction, Sophia handed the seal to Francesca.
“Surely this is sufficient evidence to corroborate my claim for divorce.”
“That is…… indeed, if it is the Duchess’s Seal…… yes. It would be.”
As Francesca reached for the seal, Sophia turned her body slightly away.
“I can trust Your Majesty, can I not?”
Doubt and worry flickered across her face.
Though she was doubting one who had come to help her, Francesca felt no displeasure.
“I shall never betray your trust. I stake the name of Francesca Zicoren on it.”
At those steady words, Sophia finally handed the Duchess’s Seal to her.
“Hold on just a little longer, then.”
Francesca offered Sophia one last word of encouragement before leaving the Underground Dungeon.
Once outside the dungeon, Francesca made directly for the delivery merchant’s carriage in which she had arrived.
The carriage was parked near the rear entrance of the kitchens, and a voice called out from inside its half-opened back door.
“Have you achieved your purpose?”
It was Caesar.
Francesca hesitated for a moment, then boarded the carriage as though nothing were amiss.
“So that was it. The reason you agreed so readily to my request to meet the Duchess.”
Once Francesca had settled into her seat, the driver returned—he who had been chatting with the cook as usual.
He gave Francesca a slight nod of recognition before taking his place on the driver’s bench.
“Yet yes, I have succeeded, thanks to you.”
Francesca’s lips, hidden beneath her head covering, curved into a faint smile.
“A document will come your way before long.”
“…….”
“Rest assured, it is certainly not divorce papers.”
With those words, the carriage departed.
Caesar watched it recede through the gap in the door, muttering to himself.
‘Sophia… there really is no limit to your stupidity.’
To throw away the last refuge she could have used to escape me.
He couldn’t believe she’d made such a choice even knowing that the Empress and Caesar already had a connection.
Thinking of how he’d let himself be swayed by such a foolish woman all these years, he resented the wasted time.
“Tsk. What is love, anyway.”
Caesar, clicking his tongue at himself, turned away.

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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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