How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 164

The moment Noah realized the truth and became clear about the emotions he was feeling, there was a dark emotion that welled up inside him like a rage.

 

“And even if I did, your father wouldn’t allow it. He’d definitely storm this tower to take you back.”

 

“Father…?”

 

“Well, he is just not good at expressing himself because he is clumsy, but your father loves you too.”

 

‘What is the name of this emotion?’

 

Noah bit his lips to hold back the unexplained sadness, but he couldn’t hold it for long. His lips parted, and a wail escaped.

 

“Uh, uh-huh-huh….”

 

“No–Noah?”

 

“Father…,Father!”

 

Noah threw himself into Leonhard’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably. 

 

Leonhard, startled by the sudden embrace, glanced back at his subordinates for help.

 

However, they did not know Leonhard’s heart and were moved by the scene of the father-son reunion with proud, touched expressions.

 

Even Ethan looked moved.

 

“It seems….The young master has been under a lot of emotional strain. If only I had handled things better…”

 

“Ethan.”

 

Finally noticing him, Leonhard rose to his feet, still holding the weeping Noah in his arms. As he gently patted Noah’s back—who clung to his clothes, crying his heart out—Leonhard asked Ethan:

 

“Seeing you’re safe, I assume nothing happened here?”

 

“Of course! The Silver Frost Tower treated the Marquise and the young master with the utmost care. Right, sir?”

 

Marilyn, who had been quietly absent-minded at that time, quickly intervened without missing the opportunity.

 

“We only invited your son on behalf of Felix, the Sage of Water and Ice, and the master of the Silver Frost Tower. We had no other intentions, truly! We have absolutely no intention of becoming enemies with Ajas—!”

 

“I understand the intentions of the Silver Frost Tower. Now, where is my wife?”

 

“Yes?”

 

Marilyn flinched, her shoulders jerking up as if from a hiccup.

 

“I’m asking where my wife, whom you treated so ‘well,’ is right now. Is she inside the tower? She must be safe, right?”

 

“Oh, that’s right, she’s in the tower but..…”

 

Unable to finish her sentence, Marilyn fell silent under Leonhard’s sharp gaze.

 

His blue eyes glinted dangerously like frost forming on the glass. But just as tension filled the air, Noah’s faint, tear-soaked voice drew Leonhard’s attention back.

 

“Father… Mother won’t wake up.”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s been….three days.”

 

Noah, having cried too much, was gasping for air, his breath ragged. 

 

Still, he didn’t stop speaking, clutching his father’s clothes as if hanging from a cliff.

 

“Please, wake her up. Father…!”

 

* * * 

 

Could its child have been born safely in a place where it was not present? And did it possess a Dragon Heart?

 

All the dragons that laid eggs failed to hatch their offspring, so Hiyela was not at ease even though it had arranged a dragon heart for its offspring.

 

So Hiyela glimpsed the future. A thousand years from now, when its offspring will hatch.

 

And Hiyela despaired.

 

A thousand years into the future, Hiyella’s offspring was not born. It wasn’t the Dragon Heart that was the problem. It didn’t even hatch from the egg.

 

Perhaps it was natural. If Hiyela died, there would be no one to protect the eggs.

 

Hiyela tried to protect the egg in various ways. However, even if it casts several layers of defensive magic on the egg or hides the egg in a deep valley in the mountain range, the result is the same.

 

Sometimes it was broken by barbarians, sometimes by monsters, and other times by humans. No matter who the culprit was, the egg was always destroyed.

 

Seeing that the results were always the same, Hiyela realized that the method had to be different.

 

‘I need a guardian to protect the egg…’

 

So Hiyela looked for someone who would protect her eggs.

 

Someone strong enough to resist outside pressures. Someone trustworthy enough to make a promise with. Someone without greed, who wouldn’t covet the last dragon egg on the continent.

 

Finding someone who meets those criteria wasn’t easy.

 

Hiyela carefully observed the futures of the chosen candidates, scrutinizing them as potential guardians.

 

After hundreds of years, Hiyela finally made a contract with a powerful human. Hiyela offered its power in exchange for the protection of its egg.

 

– 300 years—just 300 years. Protect my egg during that time, and if you fail to keep this promise, you will definitely pay the price.

 

A place where you can escape the clutches of greedy humans and monsters looking for food.

 

That’s how Ajas’s treasure room was created.

 

– So then, only the bloodline of Ajas could enter—because of the magic I cast.

 

“Ah. So that’s why the first Marquis Ajas ordered not to take the treasures out of the treasure room!”

 

Unless someone intentionally destroys it, the dragon will grow safely inside the egg regardless of the external environment.

 

In the future Hiyela saw, the family of Ajas still existed 300 years later.

 

No invader could break Ajas’s flag, so Hiyela believed that its child would be born safely.

 

But this time, the Dragon Heart was the problem.

 

– My egg could be moved to a safe place, but the Dragon Heart had to stay exactly where it was to be completed. And that Dragon Heart always ended up in human hands before my child could claim it.”

 

And the Dragon Heart that fell into human hands repeatedly caused accidents that were close to disaster.

 

Hiyela used its power again and again to avoid that future.

 

But even a dragon couldn’t alter the future infinitely. 

 

Seeing the future required a lot of magical power, and every time Hiyela touched it and changed the fate of many people, Hiyela had to pay a proper price.

 

Little by little, Hiyela’s enormous Dragon Heart began to erode.

 

Hiyela changed the way people discovered Dragon Heart in the future by saving some humans and killing others.

 

Finally, through that method, Hiyela succeeded in getting the Dragon Heart into the hands of the Marquis of Ajas.

 

Hiyela thought that as long as the Dragon Heart entered the Ajas treasure room, its child would absorb it as soon as it hatched from the egg.

 

But in the future Hiyela checked again, its child still couldn’t absorb the Dragon Heart, grew weak, and died.

 

“Why? Did someone steal the Dragon Heart again?”

 

– Yeah! That foolish man gave it away as a gift to his mistress!”

 

“A foolish man…? Who was it?”

 

– The Marquis of Ajas! Who else could it be? I personally enchanted the treasure room so no one but the blood of Ajas could enter!”

 

“Oh, is that Marquis Ajas the father of my husband?”

 

– Yes, he must be a very stupid man. A man with the power of Ajas was killed by his own wife.

 

“Killed…? The previous Marquis of Ajas was murdered by his wife?”

 

– Yes. He probably never imagined his wife would poison his wine. Especially since it was the wine they were supposed to drink together.”

 

The former Marquis didn’t just have one or two mistresses. Among them, there was even the wife of one of his vassals, whom he brought into his castle.

 

A Noblewoman’s Tragedy.

 

Though Cosette, who came from a commoner background, had been driven out, the others couldn’t even hope for that much.

 

The Marquise begged her husband to at least show her some respect in public, but instead, he openly mocked and ridiculed her.

 

When he finally dared to utter the word divorce, she made up her mind.

 

Even if she died, she would die as the Marquise. 

 

With that single thought, she killed the Marquis, confirmed his death, and then drank the same poison.

 

How could such a tragedy, nearly comical in its irony, be announced truthfully? 

 

That’s why it was publicly declared that the previous Marquis and Marquise had both died of illness.

 

Only upon returning to the estate did Leonhard learn the truth about his parents’ deaths. What he felt at that moment—only he would know.

 

“No way… couldn’t that future be changed?”

 

– When I saw that future, I didn’t have much time left.”

 

In return for repeatedly peeking into and changing the future, Hiyela’s dragon heart has shrunk and become smaller than its original size.

 

Hiyela didn’t have many chances left. 

 

If Hiyela recklessly tried to change the future again, it might lose everything and die.

 

After much thought, Hiyela decided not to change the future it had seen. Instead, Hiyela decided to try something else.

 

How can Hiyela make sure that Dragon Heart reaches its child?

 

– I observed that fixed point in the future over and over again—the future you know as well.

 

“The future I know?”

 

– Yeah. You don’t remember that either?

 

“Are you talking about the book? The one where Noah is the main character?”

 

– Yes. I wrote it down in a book and gave it to you.

 

In the future Hiyela saw, there was one person who stood out.

 

Raenel Ajas.

 

As the Marquise, she had the right to enter the Ajas treasure room and was a descendant of Sesto’s bloodline.

 

– 300 years ago, it was the first Sesto who made a contract with me to lend power to the Ajas.

 

“Sesto? Why did Sesto make the contract if the power was going to Ajas?”

 

– Because he was the husband of the first Marquise.

 

The terms of the contract were to lend power to Ajas, but the one who made the contract was indeed the first Sesto.

 

He pledged his power and blood, promising to fulfill Hiyela’s conditions.

 

Because he staked his blood, Hiyela gained a unique right:

 

The completion condition of the contract was for Hiyela’s child to be safely born. So technically, the contract between Hiyela and the first Sesto had not yet been fulfilled.

 

Thanks to that, Hiyela was able to interfere with Sesto’s bloodline to ensure that the ongoing contract would end as it wished.

 

With the girl who would be born with the name Raenel.

 

* * *