I’m The Male Lead’s Biological Daughter, But I Want To Live With The Second Male Lead! - Chapter 9

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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 9
Moments later.
Mabel, having relocated to Siegmund’s Research Laboratory, sought first to clear up the misunderstanding.
“I’m not a saint of Alchemy or anything like that. Really, I’m not.”
“But you knew what it was the moment you saw it!”
Dain waved the paper covered in Mabel’s handwriting as he launched into an impassioned speech.
“How else could you have filled in the blank so perfectly, saying, ‘Ah, this is that,’ unless you were a talent sent down by the Alchemy God himself?”
At Dain’s cry, which rang through the laboratory, Siegmund covered Mabel’s ears.
“Dain, your voice is too loud. You’re startling Mabel.”
“Oh! I sincerely apologize!”
“But Dain does have a point.”
Siegmund withdrew his hand from Mabel’s ear and took the paper that had been fluttering in Dain’s grasp, examining it once more.
Though more composed than he’d been in the Courtyard, Siegmund’s crimson eyes still gleamed with childlike wonder.
Like Dain, he was simply restraining his excitement rather than expressing it outwardly, but the fervor burning within him was no less intense.
If this continued, there would be trouble.
Mabel hastened to speak.
“I probably wouldn’t know any other problems! This was all just coincidence!”
A saint of Alchemy?
There was no way.
‘I just wrote down what came to mind! This only happened because I’m a Reincarnator, after all!’
To prove her point, Mabel asked for another problem.
And she deliberately wrote down a ridiculous wrong answer, hoping to calm this overheated atmosphere—
“H-huh?! This character… isn’t this an ancient elemental symbol?!”
“What did you say?!”
Dain trembled violently as he stared at what appeared to be Mabel’s careless scribbling.
He was so agitated that Mabel worried he might collapse and start foaming at the mouth.
“Moreover, it’s correct. This problem was just recently published by a renowned Alchemist.”
Siegmund’s breath caught as well, confirming that Dain hadn’t exaggerated this time.
Why on earth was this a recently published problem?!
The second problem Mabel received involved the simple distinction between acids and bases.
The more she tried to deny it, the deeper she seemed to sink into quicksand.
And then it happened.
“The Alchemy God must truly have taken pity on our Duchy and sent us this saint! How much we’ve suffered since the Research Materials were stolen!”
Dain’s voice struck Mabel’s ear like a hammer blow.
“The shame of missing the deadline, the mockery from the Empress Faction who looked down on our house! I still cannot forget it.”
*Sniff.*
Dain removed his glasses and buried his face in his sleeve, his shoulders shaking with sobs.
“I even began to wonder if we’d have to prove the Spirit of Horn Summoning Ritual itself just to restore our family’s honor…!”
“There, there, compose yourself.”
Siegmund patted Dain’s shoulder gently.
His own expression had grown considerably clouded, suggesting his heart lay with his companion’s distress.
Mabel felt a sudden pang in her chest.
‘They really did suffer a lot because Sophia stole their research.’
But he would lose everything to Sophia once more.
Because the ending was drawing near.
“Come now, present it at once! Verification or whatever—surely this method is genuinely revolutionary, is it not?!”
Dain, who had barely managed to stop his tears, rushed out as though there was no time to waste.
“W-wait, that’s not actually what—”
But Dain had already vanished.
Mabel reached out after him with a helpless expression, her gesture falling on empty air.
But wait.
‘Did I just… interfere with the heroine’s path?’
Through the Spirit of Horn Summoning Ritual, Sophia accumulates vast wealth and finds the thread to reconciliation with Caesar.
But if Mabel had just solved it first and Siegmund received the credit for it…
‘Haven’t I just changed the future?’
Mabel tried to suppress her heart, which had begun beating with eager delight, and collected her thoughts.
‘Chemistry is the foundation of Alchemy, they say.’
So the Chemistry knowledge that surfaces in Mabel’s mind could certainly cause Alchemy to advance by leaps and bounds.
Which meant…
“L-Lord Siegmund!”
“Huh?”
Perhaps it was hasty thinking.
She might have simply gotten lucky once.
But even so.
“Was I… actually helpful?”
Siegmund answered with a faint smile.
“Yes. You were a tremendous help.”
Hope and anticipation bloomed in Mabel’s chest.
‘I might be able to stop it.’
The future where Siegmund loses everything because of Sophia.
The future of the Grand Duchy collapsing and disappearing from history.
And even the future where the protagonists get their happy ending at Mabel’s grave!
‘With this, I might be able to take my revenge more certainly!’
Mabel’s heartbeat quickened irregularly.
“Earlier, didn’t you say you wanted to research together with me?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then, what if we do it like this?”
Truthfully, when she’d first met Siegmund, she’d harbored no such thoughts.
Just moments ago, Mabel had wanted nothing but to escape.
But as the saying goes, one’s mind changes between entering and leaving the bathroom—and Mabel had come to like this tiger’s den.
Everyone here was so kind and warm.
And on top of that, if she stayed at the Grand Duchy, she could take her revenge on the protagonists!
It would be foolish to pass up such an opportunity.
Thus, Mabel proposed a deal to Siegmund.
“Please hire me as your assistant!”
“Hire?”
“Yes! Then while we’re together, I’ll help you even more!”
The beaming Mabel likely didn’t realize it.
That her eyes were now shining with the exact same light as Siegmund’s.
And so, just two days after being kidnapped by the secondary lead, Mabel voluntarily became his slave—or rather, his assistant.
* * *
That night, as Dain organized the presentation materials, he marveled once more at Mabel’s adorably crooked handwriting.
“I never imagined it. To interpret the summoning ritual in such a way.”
“First you thought she was a spy, now you’re a believer.”
“That was circumstantial. Circumstances…”
“And now? Are you certain Mabel isn’t a spy?”
Siegmund teased Dain as the latter sputtered his excuses.
“That’s not what I mean, but… at the very least, I don’t think Ashilonia Duchy is behind this. If they’d known she was a genius, they wouldn’t have let her run away.”
“True. If they’d kept her locked up and squeezed every ounce of her dry, that’d be a different story.”
Yet so far, Ashilonia Duchy hadn’t published any theories.
Moreover, on second thought, Mabel seemed barely literate.
Clearly, Ashilonia Duchy had given her no education whatsoever.
For this very reason, Siegmund found Mabel all the more remarkable.
‘She recognizes Alchemical summoning rituals, yet can’t read a simple memo.’
What sort of prodigy would she become once she mastered written language?
Siegmund himself was called an unparalleled genius, but considering the environment in which he’d been raised, Mabel was the true genius.
His entire body itched with the desire to teach her properly as soon as possible.
At the same time, a hunger stirred from deep within his heart.
“At first, I only meant to keep her around while I assessed the situation. But to think she possessed such talent…”
Siegmund murmured, stroking his chin.
“I really do hope she’s just a runaway child.”
A strange obsession flickered in his crimson eyes.
As if he would never let her go until their research was complete.
It was the very look of a professor who had spotted a brilliant graduate student.
“In any case, since the Duke doesn’t seem to be behind this, how about making discreet inquiries about the location where the Duchess is said to be?”
Dain, recognizing the look in Siegmund’s eyes, offered the suggestion subtly.
Siegmund was searching for Sophia’s whereabouts.
Of course, it was not because he loved her, as Mabel believed.
“If the young lady knows the Duchess’s location, we might be able to recover the Research Materials that were taken from us.”
And just now, one more reason had been added.
“And once you’re registered, I daresay we could silence the collateral branches itching to name their own sons as heirs.”
The Esclide Duchy currently had no legitimate successor.
There were candidates, but all of them refused to acknowledge any of them, citing their base bloodline as grounds.
But if Mabel were the one in question, everything would change.
“There would be controversy about the affair and illegitimacy, yes, but ultimately you would be either a Grand Duchess or a Princess.”
Dain whispered like a devil.
“And with that brilliant mind of yours, you could overturn any negative public sentiment without difficulty.”
Siegmund, who had been thinking quietly, spoke with a chill in his voice.
“I see……. You knew where your mother was, yet you didn’t go there—instead you chose to go to the Orphanage…….”
The corner of his languid mouth suddenly curved into an oblique smile.
That smile wore the gentle secondary male lead quality Mabel knew well enough.
“Perhaps you’d already resolved to abandon your bloodline early on.”
What followed was something unhinged, as if his focus had slipped somewhere.

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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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