The Youngest Daughter of the Snake Family - Chapter 59

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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 59
Through the crack of the Office Room door, left slightly ajar, came Baon’s voice.
I stopped in my tracks.
What on earth was that about?
“Surely you’re not planning to send the young lady away?”
My thoughts froze. I stood there, blank as stone.
Had they already decided to send me to the Eastern Region?
Crunch. The corner of the box I was holding crumpled softly.
I don’t want to be alone again. It would be so terribly lonely.
“……I hate this.”
I yanked the door open.
Baon, seated directly across from me, looked up in alarm.
“Miss Aileen?”
“I’m not going anywhere! I’m staying here, I’m staying right here!”
Whoosh!
I hurled the box of cookies with all my strength. Thump. It hit the floor limply and rolled away.
“I hate you, Father!”
My voice rang out shrilly, echoing all the way down the corridor.
Gasp. I heard Baon draw in a sharp breath.
In the Office Room, now frighteningly quiet, neither of them spoke first.
Why wasn’t anyone saying anything?
The atmosphere had grown heavy and unsettling, but I had no intention of taking it back.
I’d baked those cookies as a gift, and all the while Cade was thinking of sending me away.
A surge of emotion rose in my chest. My eyes grew hot. My breathing came sharp and ragged.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then cracked them open again.
Pale red eyes fixed on me steadily, unwavering.
Flinch.
As I backed away with tears brimming on my lashes, Cade’s mouth twisted into a wry smile.
“So I didn’t mishear after all.”
“…Lord… please, try to calm yourself for a moment…”
“What did you throw on the floor?”
“I’ll check at once.”
Baon rose in one motion and examined the box I’d hurled.
Surprise blossomed in his blue eyes behind his spectacles.
“These are cookies, my lord.”
“Cookies?”
“Did you make these yourself, Miss?”
Both their gazes turned toward me. To keep the tears from spilling over, I clamped my lips shut and simply nodded.
Cade’s attention fixed on the box. He extended his hand.
“Give it here.”
“That’s rather unfair, sir. I’d like to look a moment longer myself.”
“They’re mine.”
“…That hardly seems just. You threw them on the floor—finders keepers, surely.”
“This house is mine.”
Baon, clearly reluctant, surrendered the box to Cade.
Once Cade opened the transparent box and saw inside, his expression shifted to something almost pleased.
It was entirely different from moments before.
“Aileen.”
“…Yes?”
I answered quietly, as if I’d done something wrong. My voice came out small, my throat tight with emotion.
You’re not supposed to throw things. I’m going to be scolded.
“Did you make these yourself?”
“Baharun and Gachi helped me make them.”
“I can tell at a glance.”
Cade opened the box and held up a small heart-shaped cookie as he spoke.
Baon, watching me stand there forlornly, shook his head.
“It appears the young lady overheard our conversation, my lord.”
“I see. A misunderstanding, then?”
A misunderstanding?
I lifted my head, which had been bowed low.
Cade let out a short laugh and rose from his seat, stepping closer.
Then he slipped his arms beneath my shoulders and hoisted me into the air with ease.
“Where did you hear about this?”
“From the part about… allowing the visit.”
“Baon made a mistake.”
“Are you saying I did?”
Baon looked flustered for a moment, then sighed and pressed his lips together.
The sense of injustice was written plainly across his face, but since the confusion had arisen from his own words, he didn’t bother to protest.
“I never had any intention of sending you.”
“Then why…?”
So why were those people coming at all?
“But the situation has become a bit complicated.”
“Because… of me?”
Surely the matter hadn’t become complicated simply because I wasn’t being sent?
As my eyes, which had been glistening with sorrow, shifted to worry, he shook his head.
“No. In a way, this might be for the best.”
Complicated but for the best? What was that supposed to mean?
As I frowned at his incomprehensible answer, Cade raised his thumb and rubbed my forehead.
“It’s time to untangle the knots that have been wound so tightly.”
“Surely you’re not thinking this is connected to Estella?”
Baon asked, his expression hardening.
“Yes. So we need to investigate the Roisar Family first.”
Cade settled me onto his lap as he sat down on the sofa, positioning me so that we faced each other, and I looked up at him.
His crimson eyes turned toward me.
“And I need to make one thing clear. Aileen Astropel will continue to be my daughter, no matter what.”
* * *
In the Underground Dungeon beneath the Mansion.
Ella had not taken a single sip of water for days now.
The silence she’d thought wouldn’t last long had proven remarkably persistent.
“Don’t you think it’s time to speak?”
……
“A delegation will be arriving from the Eastern Region soon.”
At those words, Ella’s hazy golden eyes trembled ever so slightly. Her gaze, fixed on the floor, lifted toward Durias.
A glimmer of hope and anticipation flickered across her eyes.
A vain hope, perhaps—that she might escape this place alive after all.
Though it lasted only a moment, Durias caught it and smiled coldly.
“Do you think you’ll be able to leave here alive?”
……
“Impressive. Your throat must be parched by now.”
Durias’s patience was gradually reaching its limit.
Ella’s lips proved far harder to loosen than he’d anticipated.
He felt as though he were engaged in a tug-of-war with no end in sight.
Though Ella had been brought under complete pheromone control and was now worse off than a common herbivore, her eyes retained their spark of life.
And that continued to irritate Durias deeply.
“When the delegation arrives, your chances of survival will only grow slimmer.”
Ella laughed bitterly to herself at those words.
She knew this already.
It was better to stay silent. The moment she spoke the truth, she would only be hastening her own end.
“I despise meaningless waste of time. And yet you seem determined never to open that mouth of yours.”
……
“That said, there’s not really no way to make you talk.”
……?
Ella, who had been quietly banking on the hope that they would eventually tire of this and give up, drew in a small, sharp breath.
The atmosphere emanating from Durias had shifted noticeably.
“My patience is at an end.”
“What do you…”
“I made some inquiries about those around you, and came across a name—Meril, if I recall correctly?”
The moment Meril’s name was spoken, Ella’s face drained of all color.
“Now we’re getting a reaction. I should have tried this from the start.”
Targeting those around her wasn’t his preferred method, but he had no choice.
The order to handle him with restraint until he opened his mouth meant she couldn’t push him to the breaking point.
But now that the delegation’s visit was confirmed, she couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
At minimum, she had to report results to her master Cade before the visit.
“If you don’t open your mouth, Meril will suffer for it.”
“Mmph! Mmmph……!”
“There’s no need to struggle like that. You’ll meet each other soon enough, after all.”
“Nnngh, mmmph, mmph!”
Bingo. Durias’s lips twitched slightly. She’d struck the nerve she was aiming for.
He’d been about to stand from his chair to leave the basement, but now he settled back down as if granting one more look.
Ella, her body a wreck, had begun crawling desperately toward where he sat in front of the dungeon cell.
It was a markedly different reaction from before.
“……Nnngh. Mmph!”
“It seems even someone like you is treasured by another.”
Click.
Durias removed the gag he’d left in her mouth.
“Cough, cough!”
Rough coughing echoed through the basement.
Ella’s body, drained of all strength, collapsed to the floor after just a few coughs.
Her chapped, wounded lips trembled and slowly began to part.
“Meril…… Meril can’t be hurt.”
“That depends on your actions, Miss Ella.”
“……No, I can’t. I—I’ll tell you everything. I…….”
“Then speak, and let me judge.”
Her face twisted as if she might break into tears. Durias nodded sharply, urging her to begin.
Soon a crawling, strained voice emerged from Ella’s bowed lips.
“I just…… wanted…….”
“Wanted?”
“……I just wanted so badly to go home.”
Kneeling, Ella began to weep as though in confession, her voice breaking.
Durias’s eyebrows shot upward.
“Go home? Where?”
“My hometown.”
Hometown.
At that word, Durias let out a hollow, incredulous laugh.

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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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