I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 83

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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 83
Meanwhile, back in Zigmund’s study, Mabel posed a question.
“But… what do we do now?”
It was the document requesting her safe return, submitted under the seal of the Empress Consort herself.
“Hmm…”
Zigmund wanted to say something—anything—to ease Mabel’s worry, which hung heavy as a mountain.
But no suitable words came to mind, and his headache deepened.
In practical terms, the alliance between Sophia, who held custody of Mabel, and the Empress Consort, who wielded absolute power, was formidable.
Moreover, whether Mabel had been kidnapped or not hardly mattered anymore—the evidence had long since ceased to be relevant to them.
Mabel was even able to be at the Grand Duke’s Estate now only because Sophia had entrusted her care to Zigmund.
“For now…”
After a moment of wracking his brain, Zigmund exhaled slowly and opened his mouth.
“There’s still a grace period.”
Zigmund pointed to where a date was written.
About a week from now.
It meant that if Mabel did not enter the Imperial Palace by then, they would deploy force.
But how in the world were they supposed to resolve this within a week?
Though Mabel was deeply anxious, Zigmund seemed to have a plan.
“So if I strike first before then…”
“Strike what?!”
The problem was the idea of striking at all.
“Why not? If it succeeds, it’s a revolution. If it fails, it’s treason. If I just succeed…”
“You can’t talk like that in front of a child! Stop spouting that insanity!”
Dain threw up his hands and covered Mabel’s ears, though she’d already heard every word.
But thanks to their familiar banter, familiar as always, something shifted.
The heavy dread that had been suffocating her grew strangely lighter.
It felt as though, revolution or treason or not, Zigmund would find a way through somehow.
Before she even realized it, Mabel had come to rely on him so deeply.
Before she even realized it, Mabel had come to rely on him so deeply.
‘I won’t give up either. I’ll keep searching for a breakthrough!’
From the start, she had harbored no illusions that it would be easy to thwart and destroy the happy endings of the story’s true protagonists.
So Mabel chose to hold fast to hope and press forward.
Blessed are those who believe!
But… did blessing truly come to those who believed?
“Your Grace! Your Grace! You must come at once—hurry!”
Suddenly, Lundwell burst through the study door without so much as a knock.
It was unlike him—the Grand Duke’s Estate’s one voice of reason, rarely if ever losing his composure.
Yet Lundwell’s face looked as though he might collapse from breathlessness at any moment.
He thrust something he held in his trembling hands forward.
“The Empress Consort! She’s arrived!”
It was a ring bearing the seal of the Empress Consort.
“S-suddenly like this, without even word of her coming?!”
Dain, still covering Mabel’s ears, asked in alarm.
“Surely not…”
Zigmund immediately rose from his seat and looked out the window.
Before a weathered hire carriage, someone stood with a grey hood drawn up.
Sensing the gaze, she lifted her head and drew back her hood.
Beneath the warm spring sunlight, hair nearly white as snow gleamed like silver thread.
Lillian, having caught Zigmund’s eye, offered him a slight nod of greeting.
Her pale sky-blue eyes were unmistakably those of a white lion.
* * *
A short while later.
Click.
A glass of lemonade was set before Mabel as they moved to the reception room.
Mabel, whose mouth had gone dry, welcomed the lemonade gratefully.
As carbonation bubbled up, the cold ice shattered and clinked inside the glass.
Droplets of condensation beaded along the glass’s surface—just looking at them seemed to ease her thirst.
Yet Mabel did not readily reach for the lemonade.
There was good reason.
“I receive you with utmost honor, Your Majesty. I should have called upon you long ago. I apologize for causing you to make this journey.”
“I apologize.”
Because sitting before Mabel right now was Lillian, the Empress Consort.
What in the world was happening?
Where was she, who was this person…?
Mabel felt her head spinning, unable to make sense of the situation.
Lillian, noticing Mabel’s state, spoke with a gentle smile.
“Have I frightened you, my dear? There’s no need to be alarmed.”
But that voice—it seemed familiar somehow.
Mabel, who had been lost counting dust motes in the air, blinked.
The softly smiling lips, the slender jawline, and beneath the chandelier’s glow, hair as white as fresh snow.
Most of all, the delicate pale hand offering Mabel lemonade.
‘Wait… could it be…?’
The moment realization flickered across Mabel’s crimson eyes, Lillian’s smile deepened.
“Do not be so tense. I’ve simply come today to thank you for your kindness.”
With a gesture from the now-gentle Lillian, a knight standing behind her brought forth a small box.
It contained the ointment and bandages that Mabel had given to the beastman woman during their last outing.
And there were also high-grade magic stones, unused.
Mabel’s eyes flew wide open as she pointed at Lillian and cried out.
“You’re that woman from before!!!”
Huh? That woman?
At Mabel’s outburst, every eye in the room snapped toward her.
The most startled was Lillian herself, the Empress Consort.
She had never been addressed with such a term in her life.
Oh no.
Realizing her blunder too late, Mabel clapped her hand over her mouth.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to—”
But once the mood had soured, there seemed no way to recover it.
Convinced she had utterly ruined things, Mabel squeezed her eyes shut.
But then it happened.
“Hee… hehehehe!”
Lillian suddenly burst into delighted laughter.
Mabel’s eyes snapped open as she stared at Lillian.
“That woman is not entirely inaccurate, actually. Although I have no children at my side at present.”
Lillian, collecting her laughter, reassured Mabel.
In the quiet words that followed, unmistakable sorrow lay hidden beneath the surface.
Suddenly, Mabel recalled something she had heard at the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet.
– Would things have been different had the Empress Consort borne an heir?
At the time, she had assumed it simply meant the Empress Consort had not yet conceived.
But what if that wasn’t the case?
She was curious, but didn’t dare ask.
Something told her it wasn’t right to pry.
“If you’ve remembered me, then things shall move quickly. Though I must confess, I never imagined you’d think of me as ‘that woman.'”
The term ‘that woman’ seemed to amuse Lillian greatly, for she giggled as she continued.
“I happened to hear that you find yourself in rather difficult circumstances these days.”
“Yes? Oh, well…”
Mabel glanced uncertainly toward Zigmund.
Zigmund blinked at her reassuringly, as if to say she could speak freely.
Encouraged by this, Mabel nodded.
“Yes, it seems Sophia, the Duchess of Asilonia, has joined hands with the Empress. As for why they joined hands…”
Mabel was about to explain her situation directly.
But Lillian appeared to know already.
“It’s alright. You needn’t say anything. In fact, that’s precisely why I’ve come today.”
“What do you mean, because of that?”
Lillian pushed the small box the knight had brought toward Mabel.
“I received great benefit from your kindness. Please, allow me to repay the favor.”
“I’m not sure what you mean, I—”
After all, those items were what Mabel had given out of apology in the first place.
For what had happened at the Grand Duke’s Estate, an expression of her regret.
So how could it be a debt owed to her?
As Mabel blinked rapidly, her expression bewildered, Lillian smiled.
“Please make Lillian Wingrion, the First Empress Consort of the Greenhurst Empire, my ward’s patron.”
“……What?!”
Mabel sprang from her seat in shock.
In her haste, the ice in the lemonade glass on the table clinked and collapsed once more.
Mabel was not alone in her astonishment.
Zigmund, who had been quietly observing the situation, and Dain, standing behind, both widened their eyes.
Lillian smiled faintly, as if she had anticipated such a reaction.
“Use me as your shield, my lady. That should be more than enough to contend with the Duchess of Asilonia, who has allied herself with the Empress.”
Truly, great fortune had come to those who believed.
And such an immense blessing, arriving with remarkable swiftness!

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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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