How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love – Chapter 261

Author: Chewyy

“H-How…?”

A man who had a severe stutter tried to leave in a hurry.

My guards moved before I did, but I raised my voice before they could lay a hand on him.

“Don’t go! Stop!”

The man stopped dead in his tracks as if my words were a spell.

Catherine, who had appeared out of nowhere, was blocking the man’s path.

I approached the man who was at a loss and said,

“I don’t know how you got here, but you’re not trying to hurt me, are you

“It hides you from anyone who approaches with ill intent. But there’s a blind spot — it won’t work on someone who’s met you even once without the bracelet.”

This man and I met for the first time today.

Even if he somehow knew I had the bracelet, if he had harbored any hostile intent toward me, we wouldn’t have been able to meet like this.

So I could speak honestly.

“All I know about my biological mother is that she left me with my current family right after giving birth and went off to somewhere else.”

“Ah, Sister Asta…”

The tension in the man’s body eased. He put his hand inside his hood and touched his face, stammering.

“I… I was… trying… to… protect you…”

“Could you… tell me more about that?”

The man stood still and hesitated for a while.

But when he finally nodded, I felt the tension leave my body and managed to smile at last.

* * *

The outing to buy ice cream was canceled.

Naturally, Rake threw a fit in protest, but luckily, the chef had just finished making some ice cream, which barely managed to calm her down.

– But we’re definitely going tomorrow! I’m gonna eat everything from there to there!

“Okay, okay. I promise I’ll buy it for you.”

‘Why are you so sad when you’ve already taken up such a large portion by yourself?’

I made a parfait out of ice cream piled high with cookies, biscuits, and chocolate chips, and headed to the living room.

The man had been shown earlier and was seated in front of cold tea and an assortment of sweets.

He still had his hood up, but traces of his indulgence — from both the ice cream and the snacks — were all over the table and his lap.

I sat in front of him, pretending not to know that fact.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“N-No… It… it was… delicious…”

Looking closely, the ice cream in particular was almost empty.

I had the maid bring out a new bowl of ice cream, and gave a bowl to Noah, who followed me, saying he wanted to hear the story too.

“Let me introduce myself first. My name is Raenel Ajas, wife of Marquis Ajas.”

“I-I… I’m… Pan.”

Maybe because it was a single-syllable name, he was trying hard not to stutter over that at least.

While I was muttering the word “pan” in my mouth, Noah, sitting next to me, also finished introducing himself.

“Noah Ajas. I’m this lady’s son.”

Noah, who was clinging closely to me, looked at Pan with eyes filled with caution.

Whether Pan was used to such looks or just didn’t care, he merely gave a slight nod in response.

“So, what is it that you wanted to ask?”

There are many stories I want to hear, but that’s the one I’m most curious about.

Pan brushed the crumbs off his hands and reached into the sleeve of his robe, pulling out a mirror with a long handle.

The sleeves are a little wide, but not wide enough to fit a mirror that size. It looks like the robe itself has some kind of magic attached to it.

‘It’s my first time seeing a robe like that.’

Usually, I carry a magic bag with me.

“D-Do… do you have… one… just like this?”

“A mirror like that? No, I don’t.”

I did have a similarly designed mirror, but I had never seen one with that exact pattern.

I briefly wondered if I had misunderstood, but if I had a mirror with such an intricate pattern carved into it, there was no way I wouldn’t have remembered.

“B-But… the… the Marquis… he… took it….”

“My husband? Hmm… he’s not home right now, but I can ask him when he returns.”

Wasn’t the only time they crossed paths when Pan nearly got hit by the carriage?

Where else could they have met for Leonhard to take Pan’s mirror?

“But why that mirror?”

“I-It’s a m-magic tool… A pair… If you each have one, y-you can… see each other’s face… and talk… from far away…”

“Really? Wow, I heard it’s really hard to find a crystal ball that lets you talk while looking at someone’s face.”

I glanced subtly at Noah. He gave a small nod, silently confirming that Pan wasn’t lying.

‘Is it true that Leon took the mirror?’

He’s not the kind of person who would just take someone else’s belongings without permission.

I opened my mouth to apologize first, but before that, Pan handed me the mirror he was holding.

“I… I want… to give it… to you.”

“Huh? This? Why?”

“I-I was… planning… to keep it… until… I died… but…”

Frustrated with his own stammering, Pan rubbed his throat as if trying to loosen it.

I didn’t rush him and waited for him to continue.

His voice, which had risen slightly, gradually returned to its original quiet tone.

“The… Marquis… your husband… took it… b-but… I-I thought… maybe… it was just… going… back to its original… owner…”

“The original owner? Of the mirror?”

Pan swallowed hard and nodded.

“It… it was Sister Asta…..”

“This mirror?”

“Sh-she gave it to… me… when she left…”

Pan’s eyes turned to the mirror on the table.

Even though his hood concealed his face, I could tell where he was looking.

I couldn’t see the color of his eyes or the emotions in them — but somehow, I could still tell what he felt. The emotion Pan had for that mirror was… longing.

“She said it was a farewell gift.… I only asked for one.…”

He must have just wanted to keep in touch with my mother through that mirror.

“She gave you both? Why?”

“B-because… she….”

Pan’s voice wavered with a faint trace of tears.

Startled, I blinked.

He reached into his hood and touched his face again.

After a while, when he pulled his hand away, there was no moisture left on the tip of his chin. It was as if it had never been there in the first place.

“S-she was… my lifesaver… Someone… like… family.”

“So you and I are family too?”

“Huh?”

His head jerked up in surprise, causing his hood to shift.

But he didn’t even think about pulling down his hood and just looked at me.

The eyes that finally met my eyes were a deep crimson. Only then did he panic and hurriedly tug his hood down. I spoke up.

“If you were family to my mother, then you’re family to me too. Right, Noah?”

“Right. And if you’re family to my mother, then you’re family to me, too.”

“Our Noah is smart.”

As I turned my head and stroked Noah’s head as if it were a habit, Pan was shaking his body as if he didn’t know what to do with his hands inside his hood.

“B-but… I…”

“I want to hear more of my biological mother’s story. Can you tell me?”

“…D-doesn’t… it bother you?’

“What do you mean?”

At my question, Pan lowered his head. His hands stayed hidden in his hood.

He kept his mouth shut for a long time, as if he was suppressing something inside.

Only then could I finally hear his voice.

“…..I-I first met her… on the road….”

Pan explained that when he was a child, the lord of his estate had unjustly accused his parents of something and had them killed, leaving him an orphan.

Before they could kill him too, he ran away and ended up wandering somewhere unknown — and that’s when my birth mother found him and helped him.

“S-she… took me… to an orphanage….”

“An orphanage?”

“Y-yeah. She said… she couldn’t take care of me herself… b-but she came by… every few months… gave me some pocket money… and spent time with me…”

Pan trailed off. His lips moved silently beneath the hood, hesitating for a long moment.

“T-then… the orphanage… c-caught fire.”

“Fire?”

“I-I got… burned… back then. A-and the stutter… it started… from then…”

That must have been when his stammer began.

He didn’t seem eager to talk about it, so I simply nodded to show I understood.

Pan took a deep breath as if he had overcome some difficult situation and continued speaking.

“S-she was there… that day… at the orphanage… A-and she… protected me… That’s… why I… I’m the only one who survived.”

“You were the only one who survived the fire?”

“Y-yeah… just me… E-everyone else… was killed… There were…”

“Yes?”

Killed, not died?

Maybe he hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Pan flinched and quickly shook his head.

“N-No, I mean… a-after that… sister A-Asta… stayed by my side… She said… she had nowhere else to go, but… really… It was because of me. B-because she was worried about me…”

“Because you were family. That’s why she stayed by your side.”

At my words, the movements of the person who had been touching his face suddenly stopped.

His head slowly turned. I couldn’t see him clearly, but I could somehow feel that his gaze was trembling.

“D-do you… really… think that? Th-that she and I… w-were… family?”

There was a hint of desperation in the voice that asked back, as if he couldn’t believe what I was saying.

As if he had never once heard such words in his life. As if he had never even hoped to hear them.

And strangely, that was precisely why I could finally understand — why my mother had given Pan both mirrors.

“Don’t you already know the answer to that question, Pan?”

At my words, Pan was speechless for a long time as if he had lost his mind.

When he finally spoke again, his voice was distant — so distant that I could tell he was reliving old memories.

“S-she… promised me…”

And I could hear it — the moisture that had barely been wiped away now creeping back into his voice.