How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 264

“Nell! Noah!”

 

Leonhard rushed into the study, checked several times to see if the two of us were really okay, and then let out a sigh of relief.

 

“Hah… thank goodness…”

 

“I told you not to worry. We’re really okay. Right, Noah?”

 

“Yes. Nothing happened.”

 

“It’s no wonder the Marquis is surprised. He called me to track that mirror, and out of nowhere, your two faces appeared on it.”

 

Felix, who had followed Leonhard inside at a more relaxed pace, looked over at Noah as he spoke.

 

I tilted my head as I accepted the mirror he handed me.

 

“Tracking the mirror?”

 

“You didn’t know? That mirror was found at the detached palace of the Third Prince candidate. The one you suspect of fabricating the symbol.”

 

“What?”

 

When I asked Leonhard if that was true, he nodded.

 

“We assumed the mirror was either in Onyx’s headquarters… or at least being held by one of their wizards.”

 

“But then you two suddenly showed up on it, and the Marquis misunderstood—he thought you had been kidnapped.”

 

Felix looked at me as if he were looking at a bundle of troublemakers and clicked his tongue lightly.

 

“If it weren’t for me and the Marquis, you two would’ve been dragged off for questioning by Duke Khalid or the Second Prince by now.”

 

“N-no, but… You said Karl had the mirror originally.”

 

‘That means… the person Pan had been communicating with through the mirror before giving it to me was Karl.’

 

‘But… Pan knew… that Leonhard had taken the mirror from Karl… even though I didn’t.’

 

Leonhard had brought the mirror that was in the villa where Karl was staying.

 

‘That is, without a doubt… Pan was a wizard of Onyx.’

 

“Unbelievable…”

 

But the shock didn’t last long.

 

Leonhard gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders, comforting me.

 

With that, my thoughts quickly came back into focus.

 

The bloodstone Onyx now used came from my biological father.

And my birth mother carried her child—me.

 

She must’ve fled from Onyx’s base, where my father was.

 

That much, I had already suspected.

 

‘But then… why hadn’t I taken that next step in my thoughts?’

 

“My biological mother, who gave birth to me… was originally a member of Onyx.”

 

She had probably conceived me for that very purpose—to use my blood to make bloodstones for controlling monsters.

 

“Nell… “

 

“Mother, your face is pale.”

 

At that moment, I felt warmth from Leonhard, who was embracing me, and from Noah, who was holding my hand.

 

I finally came to my senses when I saw the two people looking at me with concern.

 

‘No… My mother was happy to have me. She gave her life to protect mine. I must not twist her intentions.’

 

I was able to shake off my negative thoughts with just that one thought.

 

“Nell, I think it would be best to rest now.”

 

“No, I’m fine.”

 

“But, mother….”

 

“I’m really okay. I just stayed home resting all day. Didn’t you sleep well either, Noah?”

 

I sat down on the sofa for a while, trying to calm down the two men who were worried about me.

 

I was really glad that the hem of my dress covered my legs, which were shaking slightly due to a lack of strength.

 

“Felix, you’re here at a good time. I have something I want to show you.”

 

“What do you want to show me?”

 

Felix asked the maid, who had brought the trolley to serve guests, for some alcohol.

 

I cut him off by saying, “In the middle of the day? Absolutely not.”

 

Instead, I told the maid to serve him tea.

 

He reluctantly accepted the cold tea with a face full of complaints, but his expression softened as he drank it.

 

Honestly, he had a surprisingly simple side.

 

“Take a look at this.”

 

“A magic stone…?”

 

Felix took the magic stone I handed him and examined it from different angles.

 

Then he raised it up toward the light.

 

His eyes moved slowly as if he were reading a book.

 

After a thoughtful hum, he suddenly looked like he was going to throw and break it.

 

Noah and I were surprised and quickly stopped him.

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Don’t break it!”

 

“If you’re so worried about breaking it, then you must know what this thing does?”

 

“Whether I know it or not, how can you treat someone else’s belongings carelessly? Hand it over here!”

 

That was my mistake. I should have saved it to show Rake after she woke up.

 

Felix must’ve realized I was seriously angry—he raised both hands up slightly in surrender.

 

After promising not to handle it carelessly, he examined the magic stone again.

 

“It’s etched with several layered spell formulas… The main one at the center is a teleportation spell. The rest are support spells.”

 

“Sage said something about a ‘key’ keyword.”

 

At my words, Felix’s gaze turned to Sage, who was standing on one side of the room.

 

She rolled her eyes around in surprise at Felix’s gaze, then cleared her throat with a slight blush on her cheeks.

 

She’d clearly realized what Felix’s gaze meant: “Not bad.”

 

“That’s right. This is a magical tool that lets you enter a sealed space—something like a barrier you can’t normally pass. And… once the spell is activated, no one around can interfere.”

 

“Why would someone interfere?”

 

“Let’s say I’m a kidnapper.”

 

“What?”

 

Felix tossed the magic stone into the air, caught it again, and then suddenly grabbed Noah’s hand and stood up.

 

“Huh?”

 

“If I break it like this…”

 

In a flash, he recited the teleport spell—and appeared across the room with Noah.

 

Leonhardt shot up in shock, but Felix calmly handed Noah a cookie and said it was just a demonstration.

 

“Of course, it might be an emergency escape function meant to be used when someone’s being chased.

But magical tools are like that—if someone wants to abuse them, they always can.”

 

Noah quickly came back next to me and sat down next to me.

 

Felix’s one raised eyebrow went back to normal when Noah began munching the cookie.

 

“Also, this only teleports two people: the one who breaks the stone, and the person in closest physical contact with them.”

 

Felix spoke in a small whisper.

 

“No matter how much I think about it, I can’t help but think that it was made to grab someone and teleport away with them.”

 

At those words, Leonhard took Noah and sat him on his lap and asked me with a serious face.

 

“You said this man named Pan gave it to you, correct?”

 

“Yes. He said… that soon I’d find out where it leads.”

‘Could it be… that “soon” meant… just a few hours from now?’

 

I asked Felix, leaving behind a feeling of excitement.

 

“Do we know where we’ll be transported if we break the magic stone?”

 

“I don’t know at this stage. It’s covered in two or three layers of formulas.”

 

Rake, who had just woken up after a full meal, shook her head too.

 

– I don’t know the spatial coordinates that humans have determined with formulas. The teleportation magic that humans use is different from mine.

 

“Really?”

 

-But if you use this, you can find out where it takes you after the teleportation.

 

To put it simply, it’s like not knowing where the plane is taking off to, but finding out where you are once it lands.

 

Leonhard heard that and said with a serious face.

 

“Then what if I use it just to find out the destination and come back?”

 

“No way. We don’t know exactly where it leads or what’s there.”

 

‘This man really doesn’t seem to realize how serious this is.’

 

Still holding Noah in his arms, Leonhard tried to insist, but I clung to his arm and emphasized again and again,

 

“Pan told me. It’s dangerous, so I should only go with someone who can absolutely protect me.”

 

“Then shouldn’t I go and check what kind of place it is first—”

 

“I said no, didn’t I? No matter how powerful you are, you can’t block all forms of magic.”

 

– Then should I go?

 

See? This is why you can’t even drink cold water in front of kids—they’ll want to copy everything.

 

I shot Leonhard a glare and held out my palm for Rake to sit on.

 

“No. Didn’t you hear what I just said? I said it might be dangerous.”

 

– Dangerous? For me? I’m a great dragon!

 

“Of course, no one in this world could hurt you.”

 

Trying to lay the groundwork for reasoning, I replied, but Rake raised his head high and spoke as if he were complaining.

 

– But Leon could kill me!

 

“What?”

 

“Kill you?”

 

Leonhard, who had been sitting still, raised his upper body with a surprised expression.

 

He answered in a bewildered voice, trying to calm Noah down, who seemed just as surprised as he was.

 

“Me? Kill you? Why would I?”

 

– Felix said so. That Leon and Nell could kill me.

 

“What? What on earth did you say to the kid!”

 

Rake climbed up onto my shoulder and chirped in a whisper, Scold him, scold him!

 

Apparently, Leonhard was just as dumbfounded.

 

“Did you really say that to Rake?”

 

“I was only talking about possibilities. I said that with Layenbert, which you possess, you could pierce a dragon’s hide.”

 

“Pierce the hide…”

It was a simple statement, but imagining it was brutal enough to make Leonhard’s face twist.

“Did you really have to say that to a baby who just hatched from an egg?”

 

– Right, right, I’m still young.

 

“Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

 

I rubbed Rake’s head with my index finger and spoke in a stern voice.

 

“My husband isn’t even allowed to go because it’s dangerous. How could I possibly let you go to a place like that?”

 

– But it’s not dangerous for me.…

 

“Didn’t I say it before? I’m your guardian. I can’t just shove you alone into a dangerous place.”

 

“Yeah, you’re a strength to me just by being there for me.”

 

That’s what Noah said.

 

– Really….?

 

“Of course. Really.”

 

Rake flew over and landed in Noah’s outstretched hands, trembling and flicking her tail feathers.

 

‘Seriously, what did Felix say to this adorable little thing?’

 

I don’t know if he has a sense of compassion or not. Sometimes I felt like I knew him, other times I couldn’t understand him at all.

 

And with that, the conversation ended.

 

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