How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love – Chapter 157

Author: Chewyy

“If she was hurt, she wouldn’t have lied so desperately. What a pity. I should have at least lifted her skirt.”

If the opponent had been a commoner, he would have lifted her skirt without hesitation and dragged out Wingcat who had crawled inside. And he would have punished the woman who dared to lie to him.

But at that time, Kairos had no desire to do that.

Even when he had gone out of his way to ask Raenel for a dance at the ball, despite her standing in the back, it wasn’t to provoke Mariette. He simply wanted to.

If he had to dance with someone, Raenel was the best choice.

“Oh, my goodness. Yeah, now that I think about it, I’ve never seen it. If I had, I would have known.”

“Huh?”

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?! No—never mind. It’s not too late yet. Yes, the Marquise is in Ajas Castle… Hahaha!

Marquise Calvin, who had been muttering something to herself, suddenly burst into loud laughter.

Kairos frowned at her strange behavior.

“What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t fate really a coincidence? I didn’t even ask her to come to me, yet she ended up right where she needed to be.”

“Could you please explain so I can understand?”

“Hehe, no need for you to know. I have something urgent to do, so I have to go now.”

Marquise Calvin, who was going out laughing, said, “This is a good thing, you shouldn’t have betrayed me!”

Kairos, who had no idea what those words meant, just watched his mother’s back with discontented eyes.

‘I think it has something to do with Raenel.’

She had married the Marquis of Aias and left for his territory, so he had assumed they would never cross paths again.

She was a woman he had thought about so much and never thought about again, but Kairos felt uneasy in a corner of his heart because he thought something bad might happen to her because of his words now.

* * *

Leonhard raised his head and looked around as the cold air brushed past the back of his neck.

There was no sign of life around the frozen lake.

However, Leonhard, who was not letting his guard down and was glaring between the sparsely lined ice stalactites, let out a small sigh as he realized that his senses were becoming more sensitive than necessary.

“Shit.…”

His rough fingers scraped across his face, feeling his dry and peeling skin.

The cream he had taken from his subordinate—hoping to please his wife—had been buried at the bottom of his enchanted bag for a long time.

It had been a day since he and his men, the wizards and the knights of Ajas, crossed the Hiyela Gate and stepped onto the White Land.

After relentless efforts, the wizards had finally pinpointed the location of the Silver Frost Tower, taking two more days to reach.

But whether the tower truly existed there was uncertain.

It would be difficult to determine whether the book that records the location of the Silver Frost Tower is true or not, and even if the facts recorded in the book are true, it is unknown whether the Silver Frost Tower is still in its place.

‘No one has seen the tower since it closed…There’s a high chance it has either collapsed, been relocated, or the entire tower is covered in concealment magic. Given that its master is still walking around, it’s probably not destroyed, though.’

Leonhard had led countless missions where lives were at stake, but that was the first time he had gone out with such uncertain information.

But there was no time to look for information.

At this very moment, his wife and son could be in danger.

[I think I’ll miss you every day until you come home. So come back quickly before I chase after you because I miss you so much.

I’ll be waiting.

Your one and only wife, Raenel Ajas, will be reviewing everything she’s learned while waiting for the day you safely return to the castle.]

[I’m already looking forward to being able to learn from you, father.]

The contents of the letter he read and reread lingered in his mind.

Leonhard looked down at the photograph, its edges worn from handling, and bit his lip.

In the photograph, two people were smiling brightly. Unlike Leonhard, whose face was distorted.

They were two people who should have been in a safe and peaceful place under his protection.

But just the thought that they might be somewhere unknown, with someone unknown, made Leonhard’s chest ache like it was being stabbed by a knife.

His breathing became tight, as if he had been sobbing and then not being able to breathe properly.

Perhaps, the last time he saw them really was the last. That anxious thought gnawed at Leonhard’s sanity.

“Please….”

Leonhard buried his face in his trembling hands and gasped for breath. The tears that fell on the photo soaked the faces of the two people smiling brightly.

-Drrrtt

At that moment, the ring on his right little finger vibrated briefly.

Leonhard raised his head and interpreted the signal the ring was sending through the number of times it glowed and the duration of the glow.

Realizing that it was a notification from the magic crystal ball, he quickly put the photo in his magic bag and took out the blinking crystal ball.

Wasting no time, he activated it, and inside the crystal ball, the face of Lucius appeared.

“Any news?”

– The wizards from the Silver Frost Tower brought a letter. It is said that the Silver Frost Tower did not kidnap the Marquise and the Young Master, but rather invited them formally and is treating them with the utmost respect.

“A formal invitation? No invitation was sent to the castle, nor did anyone personally visit to extend one. My wife and son suddenly left the castle and disappeared along with the knights escorting them—yet you call that a formal invitation? Lucius, do you really think that makes sense?”

Leonhard’s voice was filled with killing intent.

As if he could feel it even through the crystal ball, Lucius hesitated before continuing.

– According to what I’ve heard… It was Cathy who caused the incident.

“Catherine? Catherine is there too?”

– Yes. So what happened was…

Leonhard just listened silently to the story Lucius was explaining.

But when all the explanations were over, he just snorted as if it was not true.

“Catherine alone managed to break through all the security spells on the tower? Do you think that makes sense?”

– If we think about it logically, it makes no sense. Since Cathy can’t use magic.

“How dare they bring my wife and son, and even my knight, to play a trick on me?”

It was natural that Leonhard, who did not know about the existence of Dragon Heart, did not believe the letter sent from the Magic Tower.

Of course, the same goes for Lucius.

However, the letter sent from the Magic Tower was written in Raenel’s handwriting and even had the seal of the Marquis that Leonhard had entrusted to her stamped on it, so it was impossible not to believe it.

Of course, Leonhard was still suspicious even after hearing those words.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that my wife wrote that letter under duress.”

– Still, it seems like nothing unpleasant like kidnapping or imprisonment happened as we had worried. I found that Sir Ethan left a code on the back. If it had been a more urgent situation, he would have asked for help… But, Master….

“Speak.”

Leonhard grew impatient at Lucius’s hesitancy and urged him to continue.

Lucius finally opened his mouth, as if forced by Leonhard’s pressure.

– It must be true since Sir Ethan even wrote a code to reveal this information….The owner of the Silver Frost Tower is said to be the young master’s biological father.

“What?”

– They likely took Marquise and the Young Master because of that…

Crack!

The crystal ball shattered like shards of glass in his reflexively clenched fist.

Lucius’s face and voice vanished, leaving behind only the sound of blood dripping onto the ground.

But Leonhard only gritted his teeth as if he didn’t feel any pain.

“How dare…How dare he!”

“The child’s father is dead.”

When Leonhard had held the crying newborn in his arms, he hadn’t been able to hold back the question—who was the father?

He still remembered the expression on Louise’s face when she answered.

Leonhard couldn’t bring himself to ask her any more questions, as she had the same expression on her face when she had stabbed him in the chest with a sword.

Instead, he had pitied her.

‘If you’re going to meet a man and have children, it would be better if you met a man you could love and rely on.’

‘Why did you appear in front of me like that? Why did you end up saying such regretful things to me, the person you hated so much?’

‘To think he left my sister in that condition.…’

‘And now, he dared to take that child… and my wife…’

“Captain!”

At that moment, Iron’s voice was heard from afar.

Leonhard turned around at the sound and met his eyes.

For a moment, Iron froze in surprise and then approached him again.

“The reconnaissance team has returned. They found a temporary settlement of barbarians nearby.”

“Go straight there.”

Iron turned his gaze away from Leonhard, who had just gotten up and looked at the ground.