I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 86

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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 86
“……How could this be all right? How could this possibly be all right?”
Zigmund murmured, his voice fractured.
He recalled the moment he’d heard that Mabel had been kidnapped.
When the urgent report came that Mabel had vanished from the courtyard.
Zigmund had felt the world receding into unbearable distance.
A sharp ringing tore through his eardrums, and the ground beneath his feet heaved like waves—he couldn’t stand at all.
His legs buckled, and as he collapsed, his mind went utterly white.
He couldn’t form a single thought.
His heart seemed to stop entirely, plummeting like a stone.
For an instant, the world flickered to black.
Perhaps he’d lost consciousness standing, then come to again.
It was the worst panic he’d ever experienced.
Yet Zigmund had quickly discovered where Mabel was.
And he’d gone to find her, reuniting with the child.
‘Even so, the moment I can’t see Mabel, my heart still sinks like this…….’
What of Lillian, who’d never been found at all?
The mother who’d had to claw at the earth with her bare hands to reach her daughter’s buried grave, who’d clasped the sealed coffin and wailed——
That sorrow, which he could never have fathomed before, he thought he understood now, even in the smallest measure.
Even if only one ten-millionth—no, one hundred-millionth—of what she’d felt.
Zigmund watched quietly as Mabel held Lillian in her embrace.
Somehow, Mabel had become so precious to him.
Then Zigmund opened his mouth.
“If Mabel thinks positively of the Guardianship System, then let us proceed accordingly.”
“I beg your pardon?!”
Dain, who had been standing with his head bowed in mourning, started in surprise.
“But—but if that happens, when Sophia loses her Parental Rights, the precedence for the young lady’s custody will go to Her Majesty the Empress instead!”
Dain, who of course had assumed Mabel would remain in the care of the Grand Ducal Family, leapt to his feet in protest.
“The young lady is the Saintess of Alchemy itself! A Grand Duke’s Residence without her is unthinkable!”
His opposition was so fierce
that any moment now he looked ready to start rolling across the floor.
Zigmund found it somewhat absurd.
Still gazing out the window, Zigmund chuckled softly and spoke in jest.
“Didn’t you say she might become Duke of Asilonia someday?”
“That was some time ago, Your Grace! Stop deflecting—please, reconsider this!”
But unlike Zigmund’s light tone, Dain remained utterly serious.
Anxiety seized him, and he drew close to Zigmund.
“Didn’t you intend to formally adopt the young lady as your Adopted Daughter and make her your heir? Is that not why you’ve been ignoring the chatter of the elders demanding succession?”
Dain spoke as though it would be better to strike first than to let this happen.
That was how much he didn’t wish to imagine a Grand Duke’s Residence without Mabel.
Mabel had become precious not only to Zigmund, but to Dain as well.
Zigmund turned from the window and placed a hand on Dain’s shoulder.
“Calm yourself, Dain. You’re right that when natural parents lose their Parental Rights, precedence goes to the guardian. But we must extinguish the immediate fire first.”
“Y-yes, but……”
“And besides, Mabel herself may refuse the Guardianship System altogether.”
In truth, it was fair to say they were already at odds with the Empress.
But to seize the Empress’s hand after the Grand Ducal Family would only worsen the situation.
To put it mildly, it would mean open war with the Empress.
“Mabel is a clever child. She’ll surely examine the political circumstances behind the Guardianship System.”
If that was the conclusion she reached after such careful deliberation, then Zigmund believed he should honor the child’s wishes.
Even if it meant she would leave his side.
Dain tried to mount a rebuttal, but soon fell silent.
Zigmund’s smile, as though soothing Dain, looked terribly sad.
At the same time, an inescapable sense of defeat hung about him.
What good was being the patriarch of the only Grand Ducal House in the Greenhurst Empire?
What good was being the youngest Grand Master?
What good was being the supreme authority in Alchemy itself?
In the end, he couldn’t even properly save a single abused child.
Dain, watching Zigmund’s lips tremble faintly, quietly bowed his head.
“I shall obey your will, Your Grace.”
His voice was strained and suffocating, but compared to Zigmund’s state of mind in that moment, it was nothing at all.
* * *
After spending tea time with Mabel, Lillian composed herself and parted from the girl first.
She wanted to give Mabel time to think alone.
Thanks to Lillian’s consideration, Mabel was able to think clearly.
Given the urgency of the situation, she had to make a decision about the Guardianship System by day’s end.
Standing at a crossroads that could determine the course of her entire future, Mabel deliberated carefully.
‘All right then… let me think back to when I first learned what world this was last year.’
Her objective had been remarkably simple back then.
She couldn’t die like this, and she absolutely despised the thought of Caesar and Sophia getting their happy ending while she lay in her grave.
Mabel had run away to take her revenge on those two.
Though things had grown complicated when her talent for Alchemy came to light…
Her goal of vengeance remained unchanged even now.
But that wasn’t all she wanted anymore.
Mabel had acquired several new things she wished to accomplish.
She wanted to prevent the Grand Ducal Family’s ruin and stop Aselt from succumbing to darkness.
She wanted to protect Zigmund’s honor and the smiles of her adoptive family.
‘To do all that, I need…’
As Mabel continued her deliberation, her thoughts converged upon a single conclusion.
Soon after, Mabel made her way to the Reception Hall with Ella.
“Miss Mabel has arrived~”
At Ella’s announcement, the murmured conversation that had filled the Reception Hall froze in an instant.
But it lasted only a moment.
Dain hurried out and opened the door for her.
His smile was as warm as always, yet tiny beads of perspiration glistened at his temples.
The other adults were equally tense, though they pretended otherwise.
Since Mabel had already reached her conclusion, she had no desire to keep them waiting any longer.
So before even stepping fully into the Reception Hall, she spoke her decision aloud.
“I’ll follow Her Majesty the Empress’s wishes.”
In that instant, cracks appeared in both Zigmund’s and Dain’s expressions.
Though they had anticipated this, hearing it from Mabel’s own lips struck them with unexpected force.
Zigmund moistened his dry lips with a tongue tinged with bitter regret.
But Mabel’s statement was far from over.
“However, couldn’t it be arranged jointly with the Grand Duke?”
“…What?”
Every adult’s gaze snapped toward Mabel.
Mabel met their stares unflinchingly, her expression deliberately composed.
“If Her Majesty the Empress uses her Royal Decree, I could have more than one guardian, couldn’t I?”
A Royal Decree—absolute authority wielded only by the imperial family.
Existing above the law itself, if utilized correctly, even if Sophia held parental rights, Zigmund could still become Mabel’s official guardian!
There was no helping it if someone complained about her attaching conditions to receiving their help.
This was her true heart, after all.
“Even if the Grand Duke refuses to become my guardian, there’s nothing to be done about it. But since he’s my instructor, I’d like him to take responsibility for me as his apprentice.”
Mabel planted her hands firmly on her hips and thrust out her chin.
It was a clear declaration of her audacity.
Perhaps Zigmund might find it uncomfortable.
He might believe that hiring her as an apprentice and becoming her guardian were separate matters entirely.
But Mabel wanted to remain at the Grand Duke’s Residence.
More precisely…
‘I want the Grand Duke to continue being my protector from now on.’
No matter how kind Lillian might be, Mabel couldn’t accept anyone else.
On the night of the Crown Prince’s birthday celebration, Mabel had let go of her biological parents in her heart.
So if she could choose her parents going forward, she wanted to choose the person she loved most.
And that person was Zigmund.
Mabel adored Zigmund so deeply that no one else even came to mind as an alternative.
That was why she’d resolved to dig in her heels and push back, even if Zigmund showed reluctance.
But then.
“That’s exactly it!!!”
At this astounding cry, Zigmund—who had been frozen in shock—surged to his feet and shouted.
His voice was so loud that Mabel’s ears felt momentarily numb from the force of it.
Yet Zigmund’s excited voice showed no signs of quieting down.
“Yes, yes! That’s the word I was waiting for! After all, I’m……!”
Striding toward Mabel, Zigmund swept her into his arms—and his words caught in his throat.
I, I…….
This had happened before.
Last time, uncertain what he’d meant to say, he’d called her his assistant. But not now. Never now.
‘She’s my daughter…….’
That was what he wanted to say.
But seeing the glistening at the corners of Mabel’s eyes as she hung suspended in his arms, the words simply wouldn’t come.
A child who had wept in silence, cradled in Lillian’s embrace, as she had wept.
Though she had renounced her parents of her own volition at the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet, the wounds they inflicted had scarred over, leaving marks that would never fully fade.
To hastily bestow such a title on her would be nothing but his own selfish desire, his own greed.
So Zigmund swallowed the words that had risen to the tip of his tongue and smiled instead.
“An assistant and ward, as always.”
For now, this was enough.
Yes. For now.

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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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