-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Chapter Two
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A large carriage had stopped in front of Mabel, though she couldn't tell how long it had been there.
Mabel lifted her head, and her gaze met that of the man inside the carriage.
His elegant silver hair, as if ground pearls had been sprinkled, and crimson eyes made him look just like a prince from a fairy tale.
‘This person…’
If she wasn't mistaken, he was indeed a prince in real life.
Mabel immediately recognized who he was.
Sigmund Esclid, the Grand Duke.
He was Sophia’s childhood friend and the Sub Male Lead of this novel.
‘But just now, what did that Sub Male Lead call me?’
She wanted to ask, but her heart pounded so hard she couldn't speak.
It was due to an instinctive fear.
‘What if I misheard…?’
She was afraid of confirming that her existence was unknown to the outside world.
As a frightened Mabel just looked up, tears welling in her eyes, Sigmund tilted his head and asked again.
“Mabel… Is that not you?”
She hadn't misheard. She had heard it clearly!
Mabel’s teary eyes sparkled.
‘It’s my name!’
At that moment, an indescribable joy welled up from deep within her chest.
Mabel’s lips trembled as she asked.
“D-Do you see me…?”
“What…?”
Sigmund asked back, as if not understanding.
It was an answer.
Right now, they were talking!
“I-I mean, do you see me?!”
At the child’s repeated questions, Sigmund frowned slightly, seemingly bewildered, then opened his mouth.
“Yes, I see you. Very clearly.”
“Ah…”
Suddenly, Mabel felt as if a layer of anxiety, which had clung to her like mud, had peeled away.
Moreover, Sigmund was still looking at Mabel.
For the past eight years, everyone had quickly turned their heads away as if they had seen something they shouldn't, if their eyes even met hers.
This was the first time someone’s gaze had lingered on her for so long.
As she met his crimson eyes, she felt a tingling warmth.
She felt alive.
‘So this is what it feels like to exist in this world.’
Emotions boiling up from deep within touched her tear ducts.
A tear droplet, pooled in Mabel’s large eyes, plopped down.
That was the start.
“Ing… Kkuuk…”
Mabel began to weep uncontrollably, her face red from holding her breath.
“H-Hey! Child!”
Thud!
A flustered Sigmund stepped down from the carriage.
He looked confused, not knowing why the child was crying.
Yet, he cautiously reached out and gently patted the shoulder of the child who was crying without a sound.
The man with the highest status in the Greenhurst Empire, apart from the Imperial Family, was kneeling on one knee on the ground.
“Hiccup… Hic…”
“You’ll hurt yourself.”
Sigmund gently took down Mabel’s hand, which was carelessly rubbing her eyes.
The child’s tiny hands were chapped all over.
Sigmund gazed at Mabel’s hands for a moment, then carefully asked.
“Mabel… Is that right?”
To think that someone calling her name could bring such joy.
To think that receiving an answer and continuing a conversation could be so happy!
Mabel, her face tear-streaked, beamed and shouted with all her might.
“Yes, yes! I’m Mabel!”
Announcing that she was alive and here.
* * *
After a storm of emotions had raged and settled, reason returned.
‘Ah, this is a bit embarrassing…’
She had burst into tears so abruptly; how flustered he must have been.
Mabel glanced at Sigmund, who had brought her into the carriage.
Sigmund, seated opposite her and lost in thought while looking out the window, was exceedingly handsome, as expected of the Sub Male Lead.
His beautiful silver hair swayed slightly with the breeze, long eyelashes, and gentle eyes…
He was the epitome of a warm-hearted handsome man, and he also held titles like the youngest Aura User and the foremost authority in Alchemy.
If Caesar was the typical Regretful Male Lead who mistreated the female lead, Sigmund was the devoted, unrequited love Sub Male Lead.
‘I never expected to meet him like this.’
The novel explained why Sigmund Esclid was passing by the Ashilonia Ducal Residence.
He was a truly pure-hearted romantic who would even write dissertations for Sophia.
After the Sophia he loved so deeply disappeared, he would deliberately pass by the Ashilonia Ducal Residence every two or three months.
Just in case Sophia had returned.
Just in case he could hear any news of her.
It seemed today was that very day.
‘He looks even more pitiful in person. Sophia must be around…’
Oh?
Mabel’s eyes suddenly widened as she thought about Sophia’s whereabouts.
Mabel knew a clue about where Sophia, who had suddenly vanished one day, was!
‘Could I sell that information to Sigmund?’
She was already worried about waddling around by herself without a guardian, fearing she might get kidnapped!
Mabel gripped the carriage seat tightly.
‘Let’s ask him to take me just to the vicinity.’
“Um, excuse me, Mister!”
“…Mister?”
At the sound echoing in the silent carriage, Sigmund slowly turned his head.
His neatly trimmed eyebrows twitched, but Mabel, focused on choosing her words, didn't notice.
“You came to find my mom, right?”
“…What?”
“I know where Mom is, and I’ll only tell you.”
“…”
“But, um, I have to go a bit far.”
“…”
“If you tell me what you’re curious about, could you just take me that far? If you just lend me the carriage, I can go by myself!”
“Why? Your home is here.”
“Ah, well…”
Mabel pondered for a moment how best to explain this, then just answered honestly.
“I’ve run away from home.”
“…Hmm?”
Did I mishear?
Sigmund unceremoniously picked at his ear and asked again.
“You’re going far away why?”
“Because I ran away from home!”
But this time, too, Mabel gave the same answer.
Sigmund felt his mind go blank for a moment.
Mabel was still scrawny and gaunt, her crimson eyes wide as a rabbit’s.
‘Now that I think about it…’
In truth, Sigmund bringing Mabel into the carriage had been an impulsive act.
He had worried she might collapse from crying so hard without making a sound.
The child he examined in the carriage… As expected, she looked neglected.
Her tear-streaked face was grimy, and her small, thin frame made her seem much younger than her age.
Her worn dress and shoes were by no means appropriate attire for a Ducal Princess.
No, he could tell just by looking at her hands, which were chapped and covered in scabs.
‘It seems no one took care of her after Sophia disappeared. Not even her father, Caesar.’
Sigmund recalled Caesar.
As Sophia’s childhood friend, he knew Caesar well.
‘I thought Caesar wouldn't neglect a child since he had a difficult childhood where he was neglected himself…’
As Sigmund’s expression hardened in distress, his gaze fell upon a fidgeting hand.
“Mister, I’m not lying, I really do know.”
Thump, thump.
Even as her torn cuticles bled, Mabel didn't stop gesturing, seemingly unfazed by the pain.
“Stop, stop.”
Sigmund, who had been silently watching, took Mabel’s hand.
Her chapped, rough hand was so thin he could feel the bones.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Oh, yes. I know. I can feel the sting.”
“Then you should have stopped.”
Sigmund wrapped her finger with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket and asked.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, I’m fine. I like pain, actually.”
“What…?”
“Pain and bleeding mean I’m alive!”
At Mabel’s cheerful answer, Sigmund’s expression stiffened.
‘What on earth is this…’
The more he continued to talk with the child, the more his throat tightened, and his head throbbed.
Sigmund ran a hand over his gaunt face and opened his mouth, his voice heavy.
“Let’s go home for now.”
“Home? But I, I ran away from home?”
Was he going to take her back to the Ducal Residence like this?
Mabel flinched and subtly rose from her seat.
Sigmund then placed a hand on her shoulder, as if to reassure her.
“No, not your home. Let’s go to my home.”
“Your home, Mister…? Why would I go there?”
“Because it seems you have a lot to tell me.”
“Huh? No, the place I was going to…”
But before Mabel could finish, Sigmund tapped the carriage wall.
Rumble.
The stopped wheels began to roll.
Mabel’s eyes widened as she watched the Ashilonia Ducal Residence grow smaller and smaller outside the window.
Mabel, her tiny mouth opening and closing, shouted.
“Wait! Th-This is kidnapping!”
“You’re surprisingly good with such words.”
“Eek…! I’m getting off!”
“It’s dangerous to stand up in a moving carriage, so sit down.”
“Then stop it!”
“It’ll stop whether you like it or not when we reach home.”
An answer came back, the conversation continued, but he was impossible to reason with!
‘Is this really the kind Sub Male Lead from the novel?! Isn’t this out of character?!’
To be so shameless after kidnapping a child!
However, unlike the distraught Mabel, Sigmund remained unperturbed.
“It’ll take a while, so get some sleep.”
And so, Mabel was kidnapped by the Sub Male Lead she had trusted to be a good person, and she had to taste the bitter cup of failure.
“Want a cookie? Or chocolate?”
It was a slightly sweet bitter cup.
