I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter

Leonia was filled with anticipation. She was about to hear something she’d never known before—something that hadn’t even come up in the original story: Ferio’s childhood.

But she was quickly disappointed.

His childhood had been miserable.

The former Duke and Duchess had never shown affection to their son. Instead of warmth or love, they gave him strict discipline, grueling studies, and relentless training.

Worse than raising livestock.

“Why... why would they do that?”

Leonia asked, a sorrowful expression on her face.

“Who knows.”

Even Ferio, recalling that time with a detached tone, couldn’t understand his parents.

From the moment he decided to take Leonia as his daughter—truly engraved in his heart that she was his child—he had felt an endless spring of affection for her.

But it seemed his parents had never felt the same.

To the former Duke and Duchess, young Ferio was nothing more than the perfect next Voreoti.

That was the only pride they had in their son.

“That’s insane!”

Leonia was furious.

“Dad’s so cool, though!”

She couldn’t wrap her head around how they could treat such an amazing son like that.

If she had been one of them, she would’ve poured her heart into cherishing and spoiling Ferio.

“If it were me, I’d be smacking Dad’s butt every damn day!”

“That, I’d hate just as much...”

Ferio raised an eyebrow slightly, but then burst out laughing.

It felt like the loneliness and alienation from his childhood were melting away.

“But they treated Regina well.”

And just like that, Ferio tattled, in a way completely unlike him.

“They were out of their damn minds!”

As expected, Leonia got mad like it was her own business.

Especially when she heard that the former Duke and Duchess had taken Regina on a picnic and left Ferio behind, she flailed her arms and legs in the air.

Ferio felt bad seeing her so angry, but at the same time, he was deeply comforted.

“I’m not trying to insult my birth mother or anything, but Dad, you’re way better than Regina.”

Leonia crossed her arms, fuming.

Ignoring their own child while doting on some niece they brought into the house?

She was sick of their stupid favoritism.

They were fools.

“They’re probably slapping their foreheads and regretting it in the afterlife!”

Leonia was sure of it.

They must have grabbed the back of their necks in shock over the mess Regina caused, and now, seeing Ferio raising his lovely daughter with so much care, they’d feel proud.

But so what?

Now, that precious son of theirs belonged to Leonia, and her alone.

“You better have a birthday party too, Dad.”

She glared up at him, her tone practically a command.

“I’m gonna make it perfect for you.”

“Why are you always trying to make things perfect?”

Ferio was both pleased and a little worried by her words.

“I’ve got a lot saved up, remember!”

Ferio had set aside a considerable amount under Leonia’s name, calling it “allowance.”

On top of that, once the wristwatch business took off, there’d be a ton of money flowing in.

Leonia proudly declared she’d throw the biggest birthday party the world had ever seen.

“I’ll even make you wear a pointy party hat and blow out candles on a cake!”

“No thanks.”

Ferio flat-out rejected that.

At his age, wearing some childish party hat and blowing out candles stuck in a cake was a bit much.

Instead, he made one request.

“I liked the letter and the drawing.”

He leaned forward, bringing his face close, a pleasant smile tugging at his lips.

To Leonia, he looked like one of those big, black-maned lions from the Voreoti family crest—a giant cat.

She could almost hear him purring with contentment.

“Give me that as a present next time too.”

“Ugh, just a letter?”

Leonia beamed, saying she could write him something like that every day.

“How could I not do at least that much for you, Dad?”

“That’s more than enough.”

“Next time, I’ll even draw you naked!”

“Just... don’t.”

As usual, the father and daughter’s lively banter ended in the same way.

Neither willing to lose an argument, going back and forth until they finally looked at each other and smiled.

And just like that, Leonia Voreoti’s eighth birthday came to a close.

***

Late at night.

Someone arrived at the office, where the lights were still on.

“You’re still awake, I see.”

The visitor came in, bundled tightly in a thick coat.

As he pulled off the fur hat covering half his face, a wrinkled face emerged.

It was Ardea.

“I heard you were coming tomorrow.”

Ferio spoke without lifting his gaze from the documents. He was catching up on the work he’d postponed to spend Leonia’s birthday with her.

“I pushed myself to come earlier.”

“Not that it’ll change anything.”

“It’s about time I resume the young lady’s lessons.”

At those words, Ferio finally looked up.

It was obvious at a glance—Ardea looked utterly exhausted.

Ferio gestured toward the sofa with a tilt of his head. The old man took off his coat half-heartedly and sat down.

A groan slipped out as Ardea leaned back against the seat.

“Thanks for the trouble.”

“Thank you.”

“But hold off on lessons for a week.”

In his current state, Ardea would surely collapse before teaching anything.

Gratefully accepting the consideration, Ardea nodded.

“But it was the young lady’s birthday.”

He muttered apologetically for missing it.

“You don’t need to worry, Leo had a great time today.”

Ferio mumbled, like it was a silly thing to worry about.

Just as he said, Leonia had been singing about how happy she was all the way until bedtime.

Ferio was the same.

Two new framed pieces—a letter and a drawing from Leonia—now decorated his stark bedroom.

Sitting on the nightstand beside the large bed, they still held the warm energy of the child.

Ferio knew this winter would be the warmest one yet.

Ardea, watching Ferio, widened his eyes in surprise.

‘The Duke is... smiling?’

He thought he must be hallucinating from exhaustion.

“But.”

And just like a mirage, Ferio’s expression returned to its usual coldness.

“The thing I asked you to look into?”

“Ah, just a moment.”

Quickly composing himself, Ardea carefully pulled something from his coat.

“First, I want to express my sincere condolences regarding Lady Regina.”

He held out a bundle of letters as he spoke.

“You’ve worked hard too.”

Ferio took the letters as he replied.

Ardea had recovered Regina’s body, buried behind the orphanage, and identified her.

Judging by the size of the bones, it was confirmed to be a female, and they had found strands of black hair mixed in the soil.

The knights who had accompanied him returned north with Count Urmariti, but Ardea had stayed behind.

“There was a secret vault in the mansion.”

Ardea had investigated the mansion of the western noble who ruled the territory where the orphanage was located.

And there, he found proof that noble had colluded with the Olor family.

The very bundle of letters he had just handed to Ferio.

“......”

Ferio silently stared at the letters, then pulled out another set from a drawer—identical in appearance.

He had secretly taken these from Ardea’s study at the Research Institute. They contained veiled threats and offers of bribery directed at Ardea.

“They’re exactly the same.”

Ferio compared the letters, flipping between them.

Maybe the sender thought they’d never get caught, but both sets used the same envelopes and wax seals.

Ferio was nearly certain the handwriting would match too.

The dead western noble had meticulously recorded the dates each letter arrived.

Keeping the letters instead of burning them had been their way of holding leverage—proof to shield themselves if anything ever came back to bite.

The oldest of the letters Ardea brought was from twenty years ago.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Thanks to that, Ferio was certain.

“It’s the late Emperor.”

All of this had begun back when the late Emperor was still alive.

Only now did the things that had seemed strange start to make sense.

Like how Subiteo, back when he was Crown Prince, had openly kept the daughter of the Olor family at his side, despite already having a Crown Princess—and no one had said a thing.

Back then, the Olors didn’t even have a title.

And that western noble had been exchanging letters with the Olors twenty years ago, same thing.

‘...Were they just meant to be discarded?’

Maybe the Olors were a carefully chosen “disposable pawn” of the late Emperor.

A dirty little tool to do the Empire’s filthy work, and small and insignificant enough to be cut off without a second thought if things went sideways.

“The dead old bastard sure pulled some fun tricks.”

Ferio let out a hollow laugh.

Truly like a bird of prey, soaring alone while the nest was full of fools.

Ferio had respected the late Emperor, in his own way, and now that he saw all this had started from him, he couldn’t help but feel a kind of pure admiration.

No way something like this had come from the current Emperor’s head.

He’d thought the former Duke had been on ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) good terms with the late Emperor, but now it seemed it was all just an act—to spy on an enemy.

And maybe... maybe even his father, the former Duke, had been playing the same game.

Then—

Ferio’s fingers twitched slightly on the desk.

‘...How much does he really know?’

That mysterious fog of doubt crept into his black eyes again.

Ferio had read all of Ardea’s papers, the ones he’d brought back from the capital.

Ardea argued that the origin of humanity was in the North, presenting ancient ruins found across the Empire as evidence.

He also claimed that the symbols and patterns left in those ruins all pointed to a specific region in the North.

‘Judging by everything so far...’

What the late Emperor was after had to be that “certain region” in the North Ardea wrote about.

The Northern Mountains.

Ferio’s finger, which had been tapping the desk, suddenly stopped.

‘And he’s been after it for a long time...’

Even though Ardea had been researching this for years, his paper had only been published less than a year ago.

Ferio didn’t know how, or to what extent, the late Emperor had found out about this, but one thing was clear—his target was the Northern Mountains.

That must be why Remus Olor, back then an Imperial knight, had infiltrated the North.

The letters to Ardea, the break-in at his lab—it was all about getting the detailed research.

Ferio frowned.

This whole situation was becoming a pain in the ass.

“...By the way.”

Ferio set those thoughts aside for now.

“How did you come out of that attack unharmed?”

Ardea’s lab had been completely wrecked, trashed beyond belief.

The fact that he’d managed to escape and make it back to the North was impressive.

Especially since the attack looked like they’d gone in fully prepared to kill.

“My student helped me.”

Ardea recalled that strange day.

‘Master! Absolutely not!’

His student had stubbornly refused to let him go to the lab, for reasons he hadn’t understood. In the end, he’d given in to that stubbornness and hadn’t gone in for a few days.

That’s when the attack happened.

And he had been able to flee to the North safely, thanks to that same student.

Ferio, on the other hand, found that student suspicious.

It felt like they knew something.

“Who is this student?”

Ferio asked.

“Varia.”

Ferio’s finger flinched.

“...Varia, the older sister of the Count’s daughter engaged to Viscount Olor’s son?”

“You know her?”

Ardea looked puzzled.

“I remember the name.”

Ferio answered casually.

“We need to keep an eye on her.”

“It pains me, feels like I’m betraying my own student.”

Ardea muttered with a sorrowful voice.

Thanks to Varia, he had survived. But because of that, Varia was now one of Ferio’s targets.

“It’s not like I’m going to kill her right away.”

Ferio clicked his tongue softly.

Still, there was no doubt that Varia knew something.

“We’ll watch for now.”

Varia Erbanu.

Ferio slowly spoke her name.

“...I’ll meet her eventually.”

The black beast bared a lazy grin.

<End of Part 1>