How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love – Chapter 184

Author: Chewyy

“Nyaang!”

“Ruby!”

I lost my balance and fell onto the grass as Noah pulled my arm toward him.

“Marquise! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Leona, who had been standing some distance away, saw what happened and quickly ran over.

Shaking my head to show I wasn’t hurt from falling onto the grass, I accepted Leona’s help and got back up.

I brushed the dirt off my dress and looked to the side.

“What on earth is going on?”

“Ruby suddenly ran towards you, mother.”

Noah, who had a small frown on his face, held the struggling Ruby tightly in his arms with both hands.

“Nyang, Nyang!”

“Ruby.”

Even with Noah’s gentle scolding, Ruby didn’t stop moving.

Worried that Ruby’s claws might hurt Noah, I knelt down and looked Ruby in the eyes.

“Ruby, stay still. If you don’t, Noah will get hurt.”

“Nyang…..”

Then, as if he understood what I said, Ruby stopped moving.

‘He’s not usually this obedient. What’s gotten into him today….’

‘Ah, could it be…..’

As I was thinking about the pattern on my back, someone came running from afar, panting.

“I-I found you… huff, huff.”

Leona stepped protectively in front of me, her face wary at the unfamiliar girl approaching. I quietly gestured to her that it was okay.

The girl, who had now come close, stopped a few steps away from us and bowed politely.

“I-I greet the Marquise and Young Master. Huff, huff.”

“You’re going to collapse if you keep that up. Take a moment to catch your breath before speaking.”

“Th-thank you.”

As I watched the girl place a hand on her chest and take deep breaths, I tried to recall her from memory.

“You’re Layla’s maid, right? Your name is….”

“Diana! I only saw you once, but you remember me!”

Diana looked at me with a deeply moved expression.

Leona let her guard down and took a small step back when she heard Layla’s name.

I took a handkerchief out of my pocket and handed it to Diana.

“Of course, I remember. You’re the maid of my only maid, after all.”

Diana took the handkerchief with a face that looked unsure whether she was worthy of accepting it and gently dabbed the sweat off her forehead.

Then, holding the handkerchief with both hands, she hesitated for a moment before bowing her head again.

“I apologize for this sudden interruption. I was taking a walk in the park during my short break, and I saw a cute winged cat… I just wanted to play with it for a while…”

According to Diana, while playing with Ruby, the cat suddenly ran somewhere, and she followed—only to run into us.

The garden of the castle was open, and it wasn’t unusual for servants to play with Ruby.

I shook my head, signaling that there was no need to apologize, and offered a light warning instead.

“That kid may look cute, but he has a pretty fierce personality. There have been a few people who’ve tried to touch him and gotten bitten, so don’t get too close.”

“Really? He seemed so gentle, I didn’t realize.”

“Gentle?”

“Yes.”

Diana nodded, glanced at me, and then reached out her hand to Ruby.

“Come here, kitty.”

She pursed her lips and made soft kissing noises while reaching out, but Ruby didn’t even glance at her.

Instead, Ruby suddenly leapt from Noah’s arms and landed in mine.

“Nyang!”

Caught off guard, I instinctively caught her, nearly losing my balance from the force but managing to steady myself with my right foot.

“Ruby! Mother, are you okay?”

“It’s okay. I’m not hurt.”

After calming Noah down, I looked at Ruby, who had finally taken hold of my arms and spoke in a stern voice.

“You almost hurt me. Didn’t I tell you not to rush at me like that?”

“Nyang…..”

Ruby pretended to look pitiful and softened his gaze, but now I know.

Ruby wasn’t sorry—Ruby just knew how to act cute to win sympathy.

Even though it looks cute, it’s still a monster. I stroked Ruby’s head, wondering how Ruby could be so clever.

“Ruby is impossible to deal with… See? That’s what I meant. You never know when or how Ruby might attack you while playing together.”

“Yes… But he really seems to love the Marquise.”

“I once saved Ruby when he nearly died. Maybe that’s why.”

‘Actually, it’s because I’m of Sesto’s bloodline…’

I made a vague remark that it wasn’t something to spread rumors around and gave Diana a light wave.

“We’ll take care of Ruby. You should head back.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll wash the handkerchief and return it to you!”

“It’s okay. Just leave it in the laundry room.”

“Yes, I will do that.”

Diana nodded and glanced at Ruby as if she had some regrets before turning around.

Noah, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke once Diana was out of sight.

“Mother, who is that maid?”

“You know my maid Layla? She’s her close maid. Layla brought her from Cloud Castle because she’s so good at her job.”

“I see…..”

Noah murmured in a strange tone as he stared in the direction Diana had disappeared.

His face looked somehow serious, so I crouched down to be at eye level with Noah.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“No… It’s just… she told a strange lie. It made me uncomfortable.”

“A strange lie?”

Noah spoke to me without hesitation.

“She said she met Ruby during a walk and played with her, and that Ruby is gentle.”

“That was a lie?”

True, both claims were weird—especially the second one.

I was the one who said Ruby had a nasty temper, so why would Diana lie like that?

“Hm… Was she trying to avoid saying something in front of me?”

‘But that didn’t seem like something to hide…’

“Nyang, Nyang!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll keep petting you. Why are you so clingy these days?”

I put my thoughts about Diana aside to comfort Ruby, who was whining loudly when I stopped petting him for a moment.

Until then, I could not have imagined that I would never see Diana in this castle again.

* * *

“Ha, so Asta’s daughter is really alive?”

After hearing the news of Asta’s death, Fel Sesto, who had lost weight rapidly and looked like a skeleton, closed his mouth as if he had become mute.

But there was one thing he kept saying over and over again:

“My daughter is alive. She must be living happily somewhere.”

Diana had scoffed at those words. If she really were alive, there would have been some trace of her.

But no trace was found no matter how much they searched the path Asta had taken.

Asta may have meticulously erased her traces. But even so, shouldn’t the child be found somewhere?

However, the child was nowhere to be found, and eventually, the wizards of the tower gave up halfway on finding Fel’s daughter and tried a different method.

That is, by transfusing Fel’s blood into a human’s body, the subject’s body is forced to display Sesto’s symbol.

It was absolutely crazy.

Even the Tower Master was involved in researching the experiment.

In theory, it was possible—but only in theory.

The wizard who had volunteered to bear the symbol of Sesto died two days after the experiment began.

Then another, and another, and another.

The experiment was canceled only after five previously healthy wizards died one after another within a month.

And the search, which began again as if grasping at straws, naturally ended in failure like before.

‘But who would have thought that I would actually find Fel’s daughter here?’

‘She was adopted into a noble family? No wonder we couldn’t find her!’

Back when they were desperately searching for Asta’s daughter, there had been talk of a child adopted by a noble family.

But no one suspected that the child might be Asta’s daughter.

Diana just assumed she was an illegitimate child of the head of the house, and thus not worth investigating.

She thought that it would be impossible for a nobleman to adopt a child who did not have even a single drop of their blood in her.

‘And the Marquise of Ajas doesn’t even look like Asta.’

‘She’s a witch’s daughter, so she should look exactly like her mother? Who the hell spread that false information?’

Searching based on clues like platinum blond hair and violet eyes was bound to fail.

The starting assumptions had been wrong all along.

She felt so sorry for the time she had wasted, and she felt so sorry for the wizards who died from ridiculous experiments.

Among those chosen as candidates was her aunt, who was very fond of her.

“Well… it’s a relief we finally found her now.”

With this, the tower’s wizards will have a steady supply of monsters and will be able to conduct as many experiments as they want.

At that thought, Diana’s steps became much lighter.

‘Then I can resume my experiment too, right? Ah… I can’t wait to return to the Tower.’

Moving toward a corner of the garden, Diana made sure no one was around before hiding in the shadow of a large tree and pulling a bird-shaped wooden carving from her bag.

“I wonder if Carl will reply right away…..”

“Carl? Who’s that?”

“What?!”

Startled by the voice from behind, Diana instinctively clutched the pendant around her neck.

As she infused it with magic, the bloodstone emitted a red glow.

But before she could even see it, she lost consciousness and collapsed.

That was because Catherine, sensing something was off, had struck the back of her neck and knocked her out.

“Ah, was that too strong…? She’s not dead, right?”

Panicked by Diana’s sudden, silent collapse, Catherine hurriedly placed a hand under her nose.

She could still feel the faint breath.

Relieved, Catherine sighed and went to pick up the wooden carving that had rolled some distance away.

“It’s only been a day since I took up the secret guard duty….”