I Became the Male Lead's Adopted Daughter-Chapter 113

If word of this ever got out, nobles who already looked down on House Voreoti would scramble to get their hands on black diamonds.

Especially that Emperor Subiteo...

Leonia shivered.

There was a Gate in the Imperial Palace that connected to the North.

If Emperor Subiteo learned of this and coveted it, he could use any excuse to invade the North at any time.

But something felt deeply off.

While Leonia was genuinely worried, both the Marquis of Pardus and Connie looked completely unbothered.

“You’re not worried?”

Leonia finally asked in frustration.

“What if that bastard of an emperor tries to invade!”

“The Duke will kill him.”

Possibly even before he gets the chance.

The Marquis of Pardus gave such a bright, irritating smile that Leonia wanted to pick up the cream puff she’d dropped earlier and smash it right into his smug face.

“...Even if this gem weakens the Fangs’ power,”

Only after thoroughly riling up the little beast cub did the Marquis finally offer more information.

“It’s an extremely small amount.”

“How small?”

“If I had to compare... it’s like turning an instant death into an instant death with a three-second delay.”

“What kind of difference is that!?”

Leonia stared at him with a dumbfounded look.

If she thought about it a bit more, the power of the black diamond felt even crueler.

“Honestly, I’d rather just die instantly.”

“Still, better to survive even that way than die outright.”

“I mean... I guess...”

Leonia frowned, falling into serious thought that didn’t suit her age.

“Wait, does the diamond mean, ‘If you betray me, you’re screwed’?”

“Something like that.”

The Marquis of Pardus tucked the pen back into his coat.

To Leonia, the way he did that looked like someone casually walking into a lion’s den.

“A black diamond is a token of trust given by the Duke of Voreoti.”

“That just means, ‘If you betray me, don’t expect a peaceful death.’”

“How perfectly Voreoti-esque and elegant!”

The old Marquis placed a hand over the area where he had just stashed the pen, his wrinkled eyes curving with a smile.

“If I’m lucky, I’d like to be pierced through by the Fangs of the Beast someday.”

His cheeks flushed with a strange, rosy enthusiasm as he confessed this.

Ack!

Leonia recoiled, pressing her back hard against the couch.

Even Connie behind her shivered from the sudden chill crawling down her spine.

He’s serious!

The little beast cub’s fur practically stood on end as she bristled with suspicion.

A genuine pervert was right in front of her.

She suddenly wondered—Is this what it feels like for Dad when I go on about muscles? The guilt hit her like a brick. She had never felt more unfilial.

“But.”

The Marquis, having returned to his composed self alone, continued.

“Turning instant death into three seconds of life is still a power you can’t ignore.”

The phrasing was extreme, sure—but even so, it had been strong enough to briefly fool the sharpened senses of Leonia, whose Fangs had yet to fully mature.

“Ugh, I got worried for nothing.”

With her tension drained, Leonia slumped across the sofa and eventually flopped down entirely.

Connie smiled softly as she helped adjust the folds of Leonia’s skirt.

“Wait a second.”

That’s when Leonia suddenly remembered a plush doll in her room.

A black lion plush—one her father had given her.

“My lion doll has black diamond eyes too!”

“Oho, how impressive.”

To use such a rare material for a child’s toy—Marquis Pardus genuinely admired that. It was a true testament to Ferio’s deep, heartfelt affection as a father.

But Leonia thought otherwise.

“Black diamonds mean ‘betray me and I’ll destroy you’...”

The little beast cub grew increasingly glum.

“But Dad used them even for my dolls and clothes...”

Which could only mean one thing.

“That he won’t let me go, either!”

Leonia’s face crumpled into a teary frown.

It was like a child suddenly learning that pigs were raised to be eaten—and then fearing their parents had raised them for the same reason.

“Pwahahaha!”

Marquis Pardus couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst into thunderous laughter.

He laughed so hard he practically punctured a lung. His sides hurt, and he couldn’t breathe properly.

Even Connie turned away, pressing her knuckles to her mouth to stifle a giggle.

I really need to stop running my mouth so much.

The unfilial daughter made yet another empty promise to behave better—a vow destined to last all of three days.

***

While Leonia was passing time with the Marquis of Pardus—

“......”

Count Urmariti sat alone in Ferio’s office, quietly weeping.

Having traveled north with the Marquis of Pardus, he had received a private summons from Ferio and had rushed to the Voreoti estate alone.

There, he was told the devastating news of Regina.

“My Regina, my daughter...!”

The count’s massive body, reminiscent of a towering mountain range, shook with each sob.

Tears poured between the thick fingers covering his face.

“I just came up from the capital...”

Ferio quietly handed him a handkerchief.

“I’m sorry to have to deliver such a cruel message.”

“No, not at all...”

Count Urmariti shook his head as he accepted the handkerchief.

Thanks to Ferio, he had finally been able to hear something—anything—about his daughter.

No matter how horrific the news, it was still the last trace of the daughter he had longed for in silence.

Though her death burned painfully in his chest, some of the crushing guilt that had weighed him down for so long had begun to lift—just a little.

Ferio watched him quietly, his thoughts heavy and tangled.

This was not a comfortable moment for him, either.

He was a man confident enough to proclaim he had no one above him.

Even Leonia would sometimes outright call him arrogant and insufferable.

But right now, Ferio understood—if only a little—Count Urmariti’s grief.

As a fellow father.

As a parent with a daughter.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The count’s sobs over his daughter’s death struck a chord even in Ferio’s heart.

He recalled the time Leonia had secretly run off in the capital to meet Inseréa. That alone had made his chest drop like a stone—so what must it be like to hear your child has died?

Ferio couldn’t even imagine it.

“Count.”

He spoke carefully.

“There is something else I need to tell you.”

Count Urmariti, wiping his soaked face with the handkerchief he’d been given, slowly lifted his head.

“Regina... left behind a child.”

Ferio momentarily fell silent—because the count suddenly swayed, as if his knees might give out.

Startled, Ferio reached out and steadied the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) man.

“A... a child?!”

The count gripped Ferio’s arm and shouted.

It was a breach of manners, but Ferio didn’t scold him.

There was no reason to.

“You’ve already met her.”

Ferio didn’t say the name directly.

As expected, Count Urmariti figured it out at once.

“Her name is Leonia.”

The child who had laughed while singing absurd songs about muscles.

The child who grew up showered in Ferio’s love and smiled with a spotless, innocent face.

“Ah... ahhh...”

Only now did he finally see Regina’s image overlapping with Leonia’s face—so much like Ferio’s.

Tears once again streamed down the stunned count’s frozen expression.

The crushed sobs pouring from his throat sounded like a grieving bear howling in agony.

And after a long, painful silence—

“...Duke.”

The count finally exhaled a trembling breath.

“Who is it.”

He wasn’t asking who Regina’s child was.

“That damned bastard who did that to my daughter. The filth who left a child alone in the world. Who is he?!”

He looked like he’d tear that man’s throat out with his bare hands the moment he was told.

And Ferio knew—he could absolutely do it.

“We’re looking for him now.”

That was the reason Ferio had summoned the count.

It wasn’t simply to inform him that Leonia was his granddaughter.

“And we’ve almost found him.”

Crash!

A loud crack rang out.

The count had slammed his fist down on the armrest of the sofa.

The solid wood broke clean in half under his fury.

“Count Urmariti.”

Ferio called him calmly, even though the count’s bloodshot eyes were blazing with wrath.

That one word was enough to barely rein in the man’s rage.

He took a long, quivering breath from deep in his gut—but it didn’t mean the anger had faded.

“I’ll keep raising Leo as my daughter.”

“You must.”

“And Regina...”

“Don’t reveal it.”

The count spoke first.

“Regina is still my precious daughter. But to House Voreoti, she’s a disgrace who can never lift her head again.”

She had eloped with a man whose identity was never confirmed—a wandering knight—and shamed the Voreoti family with her scandal.

There was no excuse that could change that.

“And...”

The count hesitated.

“...The young lady matters more.”

He couldn’t even bring himself to call her granddaughter.

What Regina had done to the Voreoti name was close to betrayal—and as her father, Count Urmariti had to bear responsibility for that.

“Regina died that night.”

On the night of that storm, she had been presumed swept away by the flood with that unknown knight.

And here in this office, her death was now finalized.

“That’s for the best.”

For Leonia’s future.

For Regina’s eternal rest.

“...And for the death of the knight.”

Ferio handed the count a note.

“Several Gladiago knights are currently deployed in the West. With the help of the Marquis of Hesperi, they tracked down a location in one of the western territories.”

It was there that they’d found the remains of a young woman.

She had been buried shallowly in a forest, in such poor condition that no part of her could be preserved well.

The animals had done their damage. The bones were shattered and stripped, beyond recognition.

Ferio didn’t burden the count with those details.

“There was black hair found in the dirt where the remains lay.”

It was Regina’s body.

As he clutched the note, Count Urmariti broke into full-blown sobs.

He collapsed onto the couch, leaning against the table, howling loud enough to shake the walls—no longer a man, but a father gutted by loss.

Because the grief of losing a child is a weight no human should ever have to bear.

“And the place where the body was found—”

Ferio added quietly,

“—was on the mountain directly behind the orphanage where Leo lived.”