The Youngest Daughter of the Snake Family - Chapter 51

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

Chapter 51
“What are you saying? I’m nowhere near ready to get married.”
“Exactly why you shouldn’t get close to a guy like that. Understood?”
“……But he’s my first real friend.”
Maybe Sage didn’t know what he was doing when he invited him either. I only just found out myself.
If I’d known what he meant by it, I wouldn’t have kept it from you. That must be it. Phew. My heart felt lighter.
“Sage probably didn’t know.”
“Like he wouldn’t know!”
Yet Arban was still fuming. I handed him a chocolate cookie from the plate to calm him down.
“Here, eat this.”
“…….”
“It’s good, isn’t it?”
Arban closed his mouth and took the cookie with one hand. A strangely displeased look was directed at me.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Do you think I’m your boyfriend or something? That I’ll shut up if you hand me food?”
“Then you won’t eat it?”
“……I’ll eat it.”
Arban snatched the pastry away. He still seemed to have plenty more to say, but the onslaught of sweets had softened his resistance.
Hmph. Arban’s still acting like a kid, and yet he’s always treating me like one.
I popped a cookie into my mouth and watched him eat.
“By the way, Arban.”
“What.”
“You came to see Aileen to teach her Beastkin Transformation, right? Out of concern.”
“……That’s not it.”
Then why did he come? There’s no other reason for him to seek me out.
As I stared at him pointedly, Arban flushed with embarrassment and shot up from his seat. Between the coarse black hair, his ears had turned noticeably red.
“I-I just happened to be passing by! I only dropped by because I thought you might be bored!”
Arban bolted from the room at lightning speed.
Bang!
The door slammed shut. Rozaria let out a small laugh at the sight.
“Young Master Arban really isn’t very honest, is he?”
“Right?”
By now, I could read him like a book.
He might as well just say outright that he wanted to go on a family trip soon and came to teach me Beastkin Transformation.
* * *
Her head throbbed. As consciousness gradually returned, Ella opened her eyes.
The last thing she remembered was falling off the cliff. That she’d managed to open her eyes safely meant she’d at least survived.
She exhaled in relief and tried to sit up, only to realize that all four of her limbs were bound. Her eyes snapped wide open.
Not a trace of pheromone radiated from her body.
Instantly alert, she scanned her surroundings. What met her eyes was a dark underground dungeon without a single window.
“So you’ve finally woken. Did you sleep well, Miss Ella?”
“……Hrk!”
Ella’s breath caught at the voice coming from behind her. Terror stiffened her body rigid.
Because of the Pheromone Control Stone embedded in the rope, she hadn’t sensed Durias’s proximity.
Ella slowly turned her head toward the source of the voice.
Durias sat cross-legged in a chair, looking down at her.
Behind him, Hestia stood silently, keeping watch.
“Thanks to your falling asleep, we were able to return swiftly without being detected.”
“Mmph! Ngh!”
“Ah, I had you gagged just in case. I apologize for the discomfort.”
“Ngh……!”
“Just wait a little longer—the person who’s been wanting to see you should be arriving soon.”
Someone who’s been wanting to see me.
Ella’s breath stopped. She didn’t need to be told who it was—she knew immediately.
Her body began to tremble violently.
Beyond the silent dungeon door, she heard footsteps approaching.
Shortly after, the dungeon door swung open.
Upon seeing who entered, Ella’s eyes wavered aimlessly.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”
Cade Astropel. It was him.
* * *
The moment Cade stepped into the basement, Durias and Hestia bowed respectfully and stepped back.
“Welcome, Household Head.”
“Welcome, Household Head.”
Cade glanced at them briefly, then turned his gaze toward the cell where Ella was confined.
“……Mmph!”
In the darkness, a pair of crimson eyes became startlingly visible.
Ella quickly pressed her head down at the sight of those chilling eyes fixed upon her.
“You’re a familiar face. If I recall correctly, you were the one who took in Estella’s child.”
Estella. At the sound of that name—one she could not forget even in dreams—Ella’s complexion drained to a sickly pallor.
Cade watched her reaction with an impassive expression and spoke on calmly.
“You may have heard that a child not of our Clan was born into my family.”
“……!”
“I suspect you know the reason.”
As Cade’s words continued, Ella’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Her golden eyes wavered with such aimless distress that even an observer would have felt pity for her.
Cade unlocked the cell door and stepped inside, coming to a halt before Ella.
Slowly bending down, he grasped the chin of the girl pressing her head to the ground, tilting it up as a smile played across his lips.
His cold crimson gaze pierced through her like a blade.
“Gasp……!”
“I heard that the moment Estella drew her last breath, you fled eastward.”
“……!”
“How curious. According to what Estella told me, you were cast out by your own Clan.”
Cade’s words were true. Ella was a beastkin abandoned by her Clan.
The Eastern Region where she was born was deeply conservative, harboring a strong prejudice against mixed blood.
And the more proud the family, the more severe that prejudice tended to be.
Estella had taken pity on her situation and brought her in.
She had actively helped her build a life in the Southern Region, and when she married Cade, she even brought Ella into the family home so they could live together.
So Ella had never suspected anything.
When Ella submitted her resignation shortly after Estella’s death, saying she wished to leave the family, everyone assumed it was only natural.
Life in the Astropel Family without Estella would be unbearable.
Remaining here would be torture, haunted by memories of her at every turn.
At her departure, she had been given a generous severance package—the last kindness Cade had to offer.
But the Ella standing before his eyes now…….
Cade’s pheromone flared ominously, radiating an aura so menacing it seemed he might throttle her at any moment.
Ella, her jaw on the verge of shattering, gasped and choked for breath.
“I looked into where you went, and found that the East took you in. There must be a reason they were willing to accept you.”
Durias and Hestia quickly covered their noses. The basement was flooded with a poison-laced scent.
The potency was such that if it intensified even slightly, not only Ella but Durias and Hestia—his own kinfolk—risked poisoning.
Already, Ella’s eyes had begun to roll back as she teetered on the edge of consciousness.
When he released the chin he’d been gripping, Ella’s body crumpled to the floor, and the gag that had been between her teeth fell loose.
Cade’s gaze shifted to Hestia.
Meeting those chilling, slit pupils, she flinched and swallowed hard.
“Heal her, Hestia.”
“……Yes, understood.”
She approached the unconscious Ella and began casting Healing Magic.
As the poison gradually neutralized, Ella exhaled in agony and her eyes opened. The moment her golden gaze fell on Cade, it rippled with despair.
She screamed in terror.
“I-I haven’t done anything. I swear it.”
“You’ll have a chance to discuss that with my subordinate. I hope you’ll hold up well.”
“I’m truly innocent. Please believe me, Cade!”
Ella cried out as Cade departed the basement.
Exhaling slowly as the situation reached a temporary conclusion, Durias furrowed his brow as he looked down at Ella shrieking loudly.
The truly important work was about to begin.
Durias began removing his gloves one by one.
“Well then, shall we have a conversation, Ella?”
“……! I’m truly wronged. You know, Durias—you know how devoted I was to Lady Estella!”
Tears streaming down her face, Ella gazed at him desperately.
Durias smiled softly and spoke.
“Of course, I’m well aware of how faithfully you served Estella.”
“Yes, that’s right? You know that, don’t you, Durias? I’m so relieved. Truly relieved…….”
“Then allow me to ask directly, Ella.”
Ella’s breath caught. The relief that had softened her lips drained away, replaced by something darker.
Durias, seated in his chair, regarded her with eyes devoid of any emotion.
“Is it true that Estella passed away after giving birth to an heir?”
* * *
“Ella has disappeared?”
“Yes. This morning when I checked her quarters, there was no trace of her anywhere.”
A vast chamber, its walls adorned with gold.
Beyond the feet strung with long jade, a silhouette wavered like a mirage.
The man reclined against a jade throne, murmuring as he sipped his tea.
“How tiresome. She’s run off, then?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“You don’t believe so?”
A chill swept through the chamber.
The man seemed displeased by the uncertainty in the report.
Elbin held his breath and bowed his head low as the atmosphere turned frigid.
He knew far too well that a single misstep could cost him his life.
“Elbin.”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t I tell you to dispose of her long ago?”
“……My apologies.”
“If she didn’t run away, then someone has abducted her?”
“All evidence points to the Astrropel Family.”
He froze. His hand, which had been raising the teacup to his lips, went utterly still.
“As long as there’s no direct evidence linking us, it should be manageable.”

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