I Became the Male Lead's Adopted Daughter-Chapter 204

“Sir! Miss!”

As she ran quickly through the entrance hall, Leonia saw Lupe and Inseréa had just arrived at the mansion. They both looked up at the sound of her voice calling them.

“Have you been well?”

“Our young lady has grown even more charming.”

Lupe and Inseréa greeted Leonia as she came running toward them.

“Where’s Rupi? Where’s Rupi?”

Leonia looked around frantically.

“Our Rupi, would you like to come here?”

“He just woke up a little while ago.”

The Ricoss couple approached the nanny standing behind them.

In her arms, Rupi blinked his pristine, innocent eyes as he looked around at the unfamiliar place for the first time.

Lupe picked up his young son and held him up to show Leonia.

“Rupi, you should greet the young lady.”

“Our little baby wolf!”

The baby beast gushed with excitement and smiled broadly. Staring at her, Rupi burst into giggles and reached out his hand.

“You’re getting heavier and heavier.”

“Awoo, ahhh!”

“Even your lungs are strong—just how I like it.”

“That’s how you should grow,” Leonia said as she pressed a flurry of kisses against Rupi’s cheek like a beak pecking.

“Mmm, mmm.”

Rupi, now fed up with future boss’s affection, flailed his arms and legs.

When Leonia set him down on the floor, the little baby wolf took a few unsteady steps.

“Look at Rupi walk.”

His awkward steps and wiggling butt were just too cute.

“I love baby butts. They're so plump, like two drumsticks stuck together.”

“Our young lady always knows how to describe things just right!”

Inseréa laughed, clearly delighted with the perfect comparison.

“Drumsticks...”

Lupe, on the other hand, felt conflicted seeing his own son's bottom being equated to such things.

“Uncle Lupe.”

At that moment, Leonia had snuck up beside him without warning.

“How was it?”

Lupe nodded.

“It went just as you predicted, young lady.”

Leonia broke into a bright smile at those words, as if she had just received an unexpected birthday present.

The baby beast headed straight for the office.

“Dad! Mom!”

But before entering, she didn’t forget to knock on the door.

“Leo?”

It was Varia who opened the door from inside.

When Leonia peeked in, she saw Ferio sitting on the sofa, immersed in something. Fortunately, it looked like her parents hadn’t gone through any intense pre-meeting workouts today.

“They made a move.”

Leonia informed her parents.

Olor had finally made a move.

***

Remus hadn’t slept for days.

‘The Voreoti girl... she was wearing a Swan Bracelet.’

At first, he thought Lota had just misseen something. Remus knew exactly how much the Voreoti family looked down on them.

They were the kind of arrogant bastards who didn’t even see the Olors as human.

The idea that such people would wear Olor’s emblem as jewelry?

It was unthinkable.

And yet, the young lady of Voreoti had indeed worn a swan ornament at the tea party. A noblewoman who had attended alongside Lota had said the same thing.

Remus didn’t think Lota and the noblewoman were lying. That only deepened the mystery.

‘The Voreoti girl, back then...’

Remus had only seen the Voreoti Duke’s daughter twice.

Once at the memorial banquet for the late emperor, and once more at the birthday banquet for the First Prince last year.

He’d only properly faced her at the latter.

The girl, who was the spitting image of the Duke, already treated nobles as if they were beneath her. Her arrogance and shameless behavior had genuinely frightened Remus.

Especially those black eyes that glared at him—they were like weapons.

‘Regina wasn’t like that.’

Inevitably, Remus recalled his past love. Regina had been sweetly clumsy, nothing like a typical Voreoti, and blindly devoted to him. He had found that pure love irresistible.

The Voreoti girl certainly had a captivating appearance, but her fierce, hostile aura wasn’t to his taste.

‘Regina was far better.’

But as Regina approached her twenties, she began to show signs of adulthood.

Remus had ultimately made the painful decision to leave her behind.

Their love, he believed, needed to be preserved as a beautiful memory before it became tainted by the filth of the world.

‘...Regina?’

Then a chilling “what if” crept into Remus’s mind.

‘No, it can’t be.’

But he quickly shook his head.

As an adult, he had always acted with propriety in his relationship with underage Regina.

He had been careful never to impregnate her, never to taint the pure Voreoti blood flowing in her veins.

Even on the day he had no choice but to leave, he had used protection.

‘Saura said she wasn’t pregnant.’

She’d also promised to safely return Regina to Voreoti.

Remus had never told Regina his real name or surname.

Even if she returned to the Voreoti estate, there would be no trail leading back to him. Still, just in case, he had kept in touch with Saura.

But at some point, her letters stopped coming.

‘That was exactly...’

Just as he was recalling the exact time the contact had stopped—

“......!”

Remus’s expression stiffened.

“That bastard child...”

The timing of when the Duke of Voreoti brought in that illegitimate child and when Saura’s letters stopped... they lined up far too well.

And the last thing he’d heard from Saura was that she was hiding in a nearby orphanage, waiting for him.

And now he hears the Voreoti girl used to live in an orphanage?

“...Ha!”

Remus marveled at his own hypothesis and quickly called for someone.

He needed to confirm this theory at once. Then, he had to act.

If his guess was right, then all the recent misfortunes could be cast aside.

No—he would gain something unimaginable.

The black blood of Voreoti.

***

“It went just as the young lady predicted.”

Having arrived in the capital, Lupe immediately reported to the Voreoti family.

“They seem to have desecrated the grave based on the false information we spread about the birth mother. Of the three people present, one escaped, but we captured the other two.”

“Then the one who escaped...”

Varia began predicting the next step.

“...will show us how far Olor is moving.”

“Correct, ma’am.”

Lupe nodded.

Naturally, the fake mother’s grave had been empty.

The escaped grave robber had clearly seen the coffin was hollow. If he was indeed sent by Olor, that fact would surely be reported back to them.

“Were they really sent by Olor?”

Ferio asked.

“What about the identities of the two we caught?”

“They were the type who’d do anything for money. Vagrants, basically.”

They hadn’t seen the face of the person who hired them, but they did say they’d seen strikingly bright red hair.

“......”

Leonia, who had been quietly listening to Lupe’s report, brought one hand to her lips. One of her fingers tapped lightly at the corner of her mouth.

“Speak.”

Ferio, noticing something was bothering her, gestured with his chin.

“The Empress... I mean...”

Leonia spoke.

“What are we going to do?”

“Indeed...”

On that point, everyone present—including Ferio—agreed.

Their carefully orchestrated hunt had just encountered an unexpected variable.

That variable was Consort Usia.

“I still can’t believe it. Is that person really dangerous?”

Varia was skeptical. She had personally seen how House Olor had treated Consort Usia.

“They treated her like a tool or a pawn. Even the nobles aligned with the Emperor’s faction weren’t afraid of her.”

Some people went so far as to call her a “parrot.”

Because she would repeat exactly what they asked her to say to the Emperor.

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be way more interesting if she were actually the villain behind everything?”

Leonia said bluntly.

If she were in that position, she’d be hell-bent on revenge and retribution.

“...Huh? That would mean everything she’s done so far has been an act.”

Leonia shivered at the eerie “what if.” It was too dangerous to treat her hunch like a joke.

When she looked at Ferio, he too was struggling to maintain a calm expression.

“Well, then... it makes some sense.”

Ferio said.

“Every stupid mess the Emperor has gotten into always involved Consort Usia.”

Ferio began listing the cases tied to her.

“From the botched monster trafficking case...”

From the major ones to the bizarre and petty incidents.

If ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) you traced them all back, each one started with one of Consort Usia’s childish requests.

“And even your attendance at the banquet.”

“You mean when I was little?”

Leonia recalled that time.

She had attended a royal banquet when she was young, and it had all started because Consort Usia had expressed a desire to see the Voreoti illegitimate child.

But in the end, Consort Usia hadn’t even met her that day.

Later, she’d heard through the Marquis of Pardus that even he hadn’t been able to see the consort.

Some people had seen her early in the event, but not a single person saw her again after Leonia caused a scene.

“The same goes for the artist patronage scandal.”

Varia added.

“Apparently, Consort Usia asked the Emperor to show her the works of the artists being sponsored. So the Emperor even scheduled a meeting with them before the scandal broke.”

And the next day, the scandal exploded.

That scheduled meeting made the Emperor look even more suspicious.

“Wow...”

Leonia wore a dumbfounded expression.

At this point, it wasn’t just unsettling—it was genuinely terrifying.

‘So in the original story too?’

Could Consort Usia, who had been portrayed as a foolish and oblivious woman, actually be a traitor plotting to drag Emperor Subiteo into ruin?

“But still...”

Leonia stayed cautious.

“There’s no guarantee she’s on our side.”

“Agreed.”

Lupe said.

“But one thing is clear: she’s not exactly a help to the Emperor.”

“But we don’t really know her relationship with the Olor family.”

Varia placed her hand on Leonia’s shoulder. Her expression was full of concern.

“Mommm...”

The baby beast seized the moment to dive into the mama beast’s arms. Behind her, the suspicious gaze of the papa beast stabbed into her little black-haired head.

“Consort Usia is from the Olor family. They’re the ones who made her a consort.”

“But... did she even want that?”

Ferio murmured.

But his voice was so quiet that Varia and Lupe couldn’t make out the words.

“......”

But Leonia heard it.

With her heightened senses—thanks to the Fangs of the Beast—she picked up every word her father said.

“What if,”

Leonia repeated Ferio’s muttering.

“Someone’s already behind all this?”