How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 289

“Kana, come to your sister! …I’ll give you my hair!”

 

I guess she really wanted my hair.

 

The child, who had been screaming and crying, suddenly stopped just like that

 

“Really? You’ll really give it to Kana…?”

 

With sparkling eyes, she reached her hand out to me—only to fall asleep mid-sentence, like a wind-up doll that had run out of power.

 

Startled, I looked at Leonhard, who was holding her. His hair a total mess, he let out a weary sigh and said,

 

“I used sleeping powder. It’s harmless to the body… but since she’s a child, I used only a little. She’ll wake up soon.”

 

“Hmm… I guess that’s the best option right now.”

 

If we had more time, we could have taken the effort to persuade the child gently. But unfortunately, the situation didn’t allow for that.

 

And we couldn’t just leave her behind and come back later, either.

 

“This really looks like we’re kidnapping her, but… we need to find Rake and get out of here first.”

 

“Then what about your biological father?”

 

“My biological father still has value to the wizards here, doesn’t he? It’ll be okay if I have to delay meeting him a little.”

 

But if we left this child now, the wizards of Onyx would definitely hide her away somewhere else.

 

In the worst case scenario, they may take the child hostage or try to kill her.

 

“She needs to know what’s happened to her. What she’s been through.”

 

“Then….”

 

Leonhard, who was about to say something to me, suddenly hardened his face and quickly sent me behind him.

 

At the same time, there was a loud bang as something hit his left arm, which he had raised in front of his chest.

 

What fell with a thud at Leonhard’s feet was a thick needle, only about the length of my finger.

 

No, judging by the black stain at the tip, the word ‘poison needle’ seemed to be a more accurate description.

 

“As expected of Marquis Ajas. Your reactions are quick.”

 

A round of clapping followed, with a mocking rhythm.

 

I looked towards the place where the sound came from, holding the snoring child in my arms.

 

In front of a large window with fluttering curtains, a woman wearing glasses stood looking at us.

 

Beside her, a large gray hawk perched on the window ledge.

 

“Who are you?!”

 

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? You were the one who broke into someone else’s home.”

 

Of course, I already knew who they were—but the woman smirked and looked straight at me.

 

“You even try to kidnap someone else’s precious child? Didn’t your parents teach you not to do things like that?”

 

Her gaze, dripping with malice, looked down on me as if to say, Do you even know where you are right now?

 

‘So she knows who I am.’

 

Instead of me, who was cold-headed at the thought, Leonhard became furious and threw the sword he was holding.

 

—bang!

 

“Shut your mouth, while I’m still being nice.”

 

“Nice? Hah, if I keep talking, the whole tower will probably collapse.”

 

Leonhardt’s sword, still in its scabbard, crashed into the stone window frame and the wall below it, bringing down part of the structure with a thunderous noise.

 

Startled, the gray hawk flapped its wings and flew off.

 

The woman, who clutched her chest like she had genuinely been shocked, clicked her tongue as she looked at us in disbelief.

 

“This is why I can’t deal with brutes. I bet violence is the only language you people speak.”

 

“Better than you, criticizing others with mud on your own hands. Who are you calling a kidnapper when you’re the real one?”

 

The woman frowned at my sharp words.

 

“Oh my god… I heard you were raised as a noble, but your speech isn’t very elegant. Is it because you were born lowly?”

 

“Well, considering my real father is locked up in a dump like this, maybe my birth was a bit low.”

 

A tower inside a dungeon.

 

Just hearing the words is suffocating.

 

No sunlight, stale air… Do they even feed him properly with fresh and nutritious food?

 

“How guilty must you be to hide in a place this gloomy and damp? What kind of criminal can’t even show their face on the street, and still has the nerve to talk about upbringing?”

 

You picked the wrong person to mess with.

 

I blurted out what I had been holding in my heart to the woman who was looking at me with a dumbfounded expression.

 

“Maybe you imagined I grew up pitiful and miserable. But sorry to disappoint—I was adopted by loving parents the moment I was born and raised with care. Even if I had to be separated from my birth parents because of scum like you!”

 

“Wow, now you’re really pushing it…”

 

“What? Weren’t you the one asking if my parents didn’t teach me any better? And yet you’re the ones who kidnapped an unborn child and locked her up in a place like this?”

 

In a way, Kana might have been a reflection of myself.

 

Dragged into this tower without ever being adopted by loving parents.

 

Maybe that’s why I couldn’t help but feel more attached to her.

 

Still holding the child close to me, I glared at the woman and snapped,

 

“What did you do to this child’s mother?”

 

“Why ask? Afraid we might have kept her alive?”

 

There was a pitiful look in her eyes as she looked at me, telling me just how naive she thought I was.

 

“No, wait. You’re wondering about someone else, aren’t you? I heard your adoptive parents were on that ship we sank.”

 

My face hardened, and a deep smile appeared on the lips of the woman who saw me like that.

 

“Actually, we saved those two people.”

 

“What…?”

 

My parents… are alive?

 

They didn’t die?

 

“Nell, our daughter.”

 

Their gentle voices echoed in my ears. The image of their faces, telling me to be careful, promising to bring me a present, blurred like a mirage in my tear-filled vision.

 

But just like any mirage, it wasn’t real.

 

Leonhard stomped once, loud and firm, bringing me back to reality.

 

“Shut up. Don’t mock my wife any further. We’ve already confirmed the former Count and Countess passed away.”

 

“What, this is not fun.”

 

“Fun….?”

 

My wet eyes burned as if on fire.

 

Conversely, the inside of my chest felt cold, as if I had swallowed ice.

 

Tossing someone between heaven and hell in an instant— and that was fun?

 

“How can you….? How can you hurt people and kill them so easily?”

 

“What’s so hard about it? Ask your husband. I’m sure he’s killed quite a few people.”

 

At that, Leonhard’s shoulder—partially blocking my view—twitched slightly.

 

“Don’t twist the issue. My husband never dragged in innocent people to inject them with monster blood for experiments.”

 

When Leonhard interrogated the wizards and confiscated their records, we learned at least a little about what was happening in this tower.

 

Yeah, a little.

 

What we found out was only the surface. Who knows what else, what worse things might be going on?

 

“What’s your goal? What grand goal do you have for doing all this?”

 

“A grand goal? Nothing like that.”

 

“What?”

 

“Why? Did you think we were doing this dreaming of world domination or something? Were you hoping to join us if we were? Too bad. There’s nothing like that.”

 

A cackling laugh echoed through the room.

 

“Why should something as easy as killing people and dissecting monsters need some lofty belief or noble purpose?”

 

With a wave of the woman’s hand, the ash-gray hawk floating in the air landed on her arm like it was a perch.

 

“I just do it for fun. Making things like this makes me feel like I’m some kind of god, and it’s thrilling.”

 

She pinched one of the hawk’s feathers between her thumb and forefinger, and I saw sharp, needle-like spines sticking out between the feathers.

 

The feathers around it were discolored with purple and black spots, although they were originally white.

 

“That’s disgusting….”

 

“Oh, don’t act so pure. I swear to the heavens—your husband has killed more monsters than I have. But I bet you’ve never once called his actions disgusting. Because when he does it, it’s fine, and when I do it, it’s not. Classic noble logic.”

 

The woman stuck out her tongue in mockery, pulling a ridiculous face before snapping her fingers at me.

 

“Should I stop here? It’s starting to get boring.”

 

At that moment, I felt a current of magical energy gathering around me.

 

It was like invisible hands were choking me—I couldn’t breathe.

 

Panicked by the pressure on my chest, I instinctively began circulating the magic inside me.

 

“Nell!”

 

The moment Leonhard turned around, noticing something, a gray falcon spread its wings and flew up at the woman’s gesture.

 

The poisonous spines glinted as they caught the light.

 

“Stop!”

 

My cry came out instinctively—and the gray hawk froze midair.

 

The woman clicked her tongue as if she had expected it, but there wasn’t a trace of panic or disappointment on her face.

 

She had another move. I could feel it.

 

I stared straight into the hawk’s eyes and shouted,

 

“Don’t stay here, run away! Fly to a place where there are no people!”

 

“You can’t do that.”

 

The woman, her eyes sparkling, moved her lips quickly as she recited the spell.

 

A thick violet barrier formed around her. And then—

 

“Explode. Leave nothing behind.”

 

With an ominous hum in her chant, the gray hawk behind Leonhard flashed black.

 

In that situation, all I could do was hold the child in my arms tightly and close my eyes tightly in Leonhard’s arms.

 

—Boom!

A deafening explosion shook the air, the ground beneath us, and the entire space around us.

 

But that was all. I felt no pain.

 

That was what scared me even more. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes.

 

“Le-Leon…”

 

“I’m fine, Nell.”

 

I could barely open my eyes at that whisper.

 

It was clearly not a minor explosion—the scene around us was devastated.

 

All the furniture was destroyed, and the walls and ceiling had mostly collapsed into ruin.

 

Yet we were unharmed, thanks to the blue shield that had spread out from Leonhard to protect us…

 

But that wasn’t the most important thing.

 

“What is this?”

 

At some point, Kana I was holding in my arms had turned into a rabbit doll.

 

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