I Became the Male Lead's Adopted Daughter-Chapter 180
Ferio's closed eyes furrowed slightly.
“...All of a sudden?”
It had already been several days since their visit to House Aust.
“You sure took your time asking.”
“Don’t be sarcastic!”
“Then should I not be sarcastic?”
“I’ll draw on your face, I swear!”
Leonia muttered a terrifying threat about leaving a mark on that handsome face of his—one that couldn’t be erased.
Only then did Ferio sit up.
“First of all, your question’s wrong.”
Ferio had indeed gone to the South to visit House Aust.
But it was because they had summoned him first.
In other words, the one with actual business was House Aust.
Ferio had deliberately changed his travel plans because they said they had something to tell him.
“Really? Then they foresaw something about us...?”
“Shh.”
Ferio brought a finger to his lips. There was no one else around, but it was a sign to be careful with their words.
“Shhh!”
Leonia copied him.
In that moment, Ferio saw a glimpse of the younger Leonia.
The little pervert who used to wear her hair in pigtails every day often mimicked his actions in jest.
“...You’ve grown up, Leo.”
Before he knew it, Ferio was sitting fully upright.
With his arms resting on his knees, he leaned forward slightly to meet Leonia’s gaze.
“All of a sudden?”
Leonia let out a small chuckle at his sudden comment.
“It’s not like me growing up is anything new!”
“You’re getting old too, huh.”
“Ugh, seriously, so annoying...”
The baby beast scowled, eyes flaring like a hatchet. As always, he didn’t give her a single moment to feel moved.
Leonia grumbled, blaming Ferio—completely irrationally—for her own emotional drought.
“But what about you?”
“Me?”
“You were alone with the Duke of Aust.”
“Oh...”
Leonia hesitated, scratching the back of her neck.
“It’s not that it was nothing, but...”
She trailed off, then spoke again ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) after a moment of thought.
“Did you stop by my old orphanage because that person told you to?”
Leonia decided to put aside the strange prophecy the Duke of Aust had shared with her.
It felt uncomfortable to talk about right now, and she also couldn’t shake the advice Salus had given her.
<I won’t take it away from you, so it’s okay.>
Leonia reaffirmed her resolve.
She would inherit her title through legitimate succession.
Even if it took so long that her face wrinkled and Ferio’s black hair turned entirely gray.
Some distant future wasn’t going to come between a father and daughter who were already so tightly bound.
“That’s right,” Ferio answered.
“I was going to tell you eventually.”
But he continued, saying the chance never quite came up, so he kept putting it off.
“You worry about the silliest things, Dad.”
Leonia chuckled.
“It’s your business, isn’t it?”
Ferio, however, responded seriously.
He had never treated matters related to his daughter lightly.
Even when she was younger, he always asked for her opinion first and listened to it.
“Hmm, stylish Daddy!”
Leonia smiled wide, clearly pleased.
“But what about you?”
“Me, huh?”
“That’s it?”
Ferio remembered that Leonia hadn’t looked so great that day.
“...I did hear something,” Leonia said.
“But Salus unni told me not to tell anyone. I was going to tell you that day, but she stopped me.”
Her explanation sounded like she was tattling.
She hadn’t meant to deceive her father, and she had no intention of following the prophecy, but her tone was laced with sulkiness.
Ferio listened silently, then gave a light nod.
“Then don’t.”
He agreed with Salus’s judgment.
Then he gave Leonia a bit more explanation about the Southern powers she hadn’t known about.
“Their power is a kind of advice.”
“Advice?”
“Yes. Sometimes it seems pointless, but all the significant futures House Aust has seen so far have served as signposts toward the best outcomes.”
And they had even used that power to help other regions.
That was why, despite never showing their face in the capital, the Southern Austs weren’t criticized by the other regional leaders—if anything, they were protected.
“Advice...” Leonia tilted her head.
Was telling her to take her father’s title really advice?
The Duke of Aust’s unpleasant prophecy now felt slightly different—just a little.
Maybe there was some hidden meaning behind those words.
“Hmm, then I’ll think about it more.”
Leonia believed Ferio’s words more than their prophecy.
Ferio looked at his daughter, who still didn’t have an answer and seemed frustrated, and his lips eased into a soft smile.
She might have grown physically, but she was still a clueless child. That fact gave Ferio some comfort.
When the two of them returned to the villa, they found Varia chatting with the maids.
“Varia unni!”
Leonia, curious, ran over. Varia smiled brightly and showed her what she was holding in her arms.
“Look at this.”
“Waaah!”
Leonia’s eyes grew wide.
“It’s a puppy!”
A black puppy squirmed in Varia’s arms.
Its black eyes and nose glistened wetly from within its fluffy fur.
The puppy rested its two front paws on Varia’s arm and lounged comfortably in her embrace.
“Isn’t it cute?”
Varia gently scratched the puppy’s chin with her finger.
Leonia began hopping in place, wanting to do it too, then remembered Ferio behind her.
“Dad, look! A puppy!”
“Your Grace, please look at this! Isn’t it cute?”
Leonia and Varia looked at Ferio with pleading eyes.
“......”
Ferio felt a kind of pressure from their gazes.
Neither of them made any effort to hide their desire to keep it because it was “too cute.”
“Who brought this here?”
“Dad! Don’t call it ‘this’!”
“Ah, well, Sir Gaber...”
“Paavo oppa did something good!”
But Ferio didn’t seem too pleased about it.
After staring at the puppy for a while, he finally said to put it back where it was found.
“Dad, why? Then it’ll be all alone!”
“Your Grace, I’ll pay for its care, can’t we please keep it?”
But the answer that came back was so cold, both Leonia and Varia begged him again.
“That’s not a dog.”
Ferio ordered a maid nearby to bring Paavo back.
“That’s a bear cub.”
Just then, the puppy let out a cry.
“...Okay, not a dog.”
Leonia muttered.
Varia froze, still holding the bear cub in her arms.
***
The bear cub was taken back to the forest by the knights.
They even confirmed that the mother bear came to retrieve it.
Fortunately, not long after returning the cub to where it had been found, the mother bear appeared.
As soon as she found her lost cub, she licked it furiously and embraced it.
And then the Gladiago Knights, upon their return, were severely scolded by Ferio.
That had already been two days ago.
“Can’t even tell a bear cub from a puppy...”
The day of departure from the South had finally come.
Ferio, still incredulous about the incident, muttered now and then.
His annoyed voice could be heard even outside the carriage, and the mood in the Voreoti party was heavier than usual.
‘It’s natural for Dad to be worried.’
This time, Leonia couldn’t really take the knights’ side.
If the mother bear had become agitated after losing her cub, things could’ve gone seriously wrong.
Especially causing an incident outside the North—that would’ve been a real problem.
“So bears live in the South too, huh.”
And near the coast, no less.
What surprised Leonia wasn’t that the knights had brought back a bear cub—but that bears lived here in the South at all.
Right outside the villa was the sea, and even now, heading toward the Gate, she could see the ocean from the carriage window.
“Honestly, it really did look like a puppy.”
“Right?”
Varia subtly joined in.
“It was an easy mistake to make.”
Varia was still too embarrassed to look at Ferio—she hadn’t even been able to tell a dog from a bear.
When the knights got scolded, she felt like she had been scolded too.
“...Unni, that’s worse for you.”
Leonia gave her a bewildered look. How could someone from the South get that mixed up?
“Leonia, no one knows everything.”
Ferio chided her lightly.
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
“You’re unbelievable, Dad. You were acting totally different earlier.”
He’d dragged the knights through the mud for not knowing a simple animal.
Now that it was Varia, suddenly he was the gentlest, most understanding man alive.
Leonia was sure that if Ferio had shown even a fraction of that generosity to the knights, the mood in Voreoti right now would’ve been a lot lighter.
But the shameless Ferio remained unmoved by her jab.
“When we get back to the estate, I’ll kindly teach you about the animals that live in the North.”
He even made a proud promise.
‘Does this man not know how to flirt?’
Leonia shook her head.
‘He should be flexing those muscles!’
Though not her original intention, Varia had become obsessed with muscles because of Leonia.
It was serious enough that she did the workouts Leonia had taught her daily and kept a record of them.
Then, while drinking tea with Leonia, she’d have deep conversations about muscles.
<His Grace’s pecs look bigger than mine.>
<Don’t you think if His Grace choked someone with his forearms, they’d die instantly?>
<Lately, his glutes are just...>
Despite being this infatuated with Ferio’s muscles, he made no use of it.
<He only uses that smart brain of his when getting rid of useless people.>
It was fine to be careless when dealing with the emperor or Southern scum.
But at this moment—right now—she wished he’d think a little harder about how to show off to the woman he loved.
She thought back to that steamy novel where just meeting eyes meant the characters ended up working out in bed. It felt like such wasted potential.
<I’ll have to help him out later.>
So ridiculously pure.
Leonia let out a deep sigh.
<I swear, he’d be hopeless without me.>
Thinking that, the corners of Leonia’s mouth curled into a smug smile.
“Miss seems to be in a good mood.”
“Leonia sometimes smiles to herself like that.”
“She’s adorable.”
“She’s still such a child.”
Meanwhile, Ferio and Varia exchanged peaceful conversation, not having a clue what Leonia was thinking, and smiled softly together.
“We’re almost there now.”
Ferio, now in a good mood, looked outside and said.
The sea had vanished.
The carriage passed through the Gate in an instant.
***
Kara couldn’t speak.
The glasses perched on the nose of the refined butler slid noticeably downward.
He thought they must have slipped too far for him to see the scene before him properly.
So he adjusted them.
Just in case, he even took out a handkerchief and cleaned them thoroughly.
But from the black carriage that symbolized House Voreoti, the number of people stepping out remained three.
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