I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter

Leonia’s first monster hunt went surprisingly well.

“Are you sure this is really your first time, my lady?”

Paavo was in awe, staring at the cleanly severed neck of the Inopaco.

Even the Gladiago Knights approached this type of monster with extreme caution, yet this young girl had taken it down on her own.

It made all those heart-pounding moments he’d spent watching her seem ridiculous in hindsight.

As expected of the Black Beast...

Paavo felt something tighten in his chest.

And with that feeling, he looked at Leonia.

The scrawny little girl who had arrived at the mansion at seven years old had somehow become twelve.

She used to be tiny, smaller than most kids her age. Now she was the opposite. Leonia had grown tall, taller than most kids her age.

Her well-balanced frame and long limbs made it hard to even imagine the frail child she used to be.

More than that, the confident expression on her face—the look of someone who believed she could do anything—was clear proof she’d been raised in warmth and love.

“You were magnificent.”

“Better than half the Imperial Knights I’ve seen.”

“Truly the next Voreoti!”

It wasn’t just Paavo.

The other knights were full of praise for Leonia too.

“What’s so great about it?”

And just like that, someone dumped cold water over the warm atmosphere.

Ferio.

“...What now?”

Leonia frowned, annoyed at having her good mood ruined.

“I killed it well, didn’t I?”

Waving her sword toward the slain Inopaco, she gestured proudly.

“Drop that damn pride of yours when you hunt.”

“What pride?”

“Arrogant pride.”

Ferio started nagging her about not being so sure of herself, not to think she could handle everything so easily.

Leonia was stunned.

“That’s you, though!”

“I can get away with it. I’m naturally talented.”

“Ohh, reeeally?”

She dragged out the words, glaring.

Annoyingly, she couldn’t even argue with him—he was good at everything.

Still, Leonia understood where Ferio was coming from.

“Look here.”

Ferio pointed at the Inopaco’s severed neck.

“See those marks? You swung too wide on purpose.”

“...”

“These things—its veins are valuable parts too. If you damage them like this, they lose worth. This one won’t even sell properly.”

Ferio coldly evaluated her hunt.

He even pointed out her stance when she lunged, the way she gripped the sword, the pressure in her hands.

His concerned advice went on for a while.

Leonia pretended to sulk, but she listened. Everything he said was true.

“...Still.”

After finishing his lecture, Ferio gave her a light pat on the back.

“For your first time, not bad.”

A big smile bloomed across Leonia’s face.

“So, tired yet?”

Ferio looked at her warmly, checking her over.

She wore a light leather armor, easy to move in.

But since it was made from expensive monster materials, it had better protection than most steel armor.

She didn’t seem hurt.

“It’s fun.”

Leonia said.

And it was. Her first monster hunt had been full of strange and exciting things. Some annoying stuff, sure, but overall, she liked it.

But as the days dragged on, she started to feel it.

She’d hunted animals with Ferio before, but killing for this long, again and again, drained her.

“How long do we have to keep doing this?”

One night, camping near a cave, Leonia asked while settling into her sleeping bag. Ferio sat with her until she fell asleep.

“At this pace, just a few more days.”

“No, I mean, this whole monster hunting thing.”

She wanted to know how long this boring ritual would go on.

“Do we have to do it every year?”

“What, you wanna quit?”

Ferio gave her a look, like he couldn’t believe the nonsense he was hearing. Leonia suddenly felt like an idiot.

“I mean, every year sounds like a pain...”

“Breathing’s a pain too, then. Why do you bother?”

“How is that the same?”

“Sounds the same to me.”

“Then clean your ears.”

She cursed like a little beast, saying he probably had a giant lump stuck in there.

“One thing’s for sure.”

Ferio pinched the bridge of her nose lightly.

“I just have to do it until you take the title.”

But Leonia would still have to keep doing it after, until she raised her own heir and passed the title down.

In other words, she had decades of this left.

“...I could hand the title over to a younger sibling, you know.”

Leonia grinned slyly.

“Too bad I don’t have any kids besides you.”

Ferio patted her sleeping bag.

That was his way of saying: stop dreaming and start preparing to succeed me properly.

“By the way, I plan to give you the title early.”

Ferio teased.

Leonia shook her head.

“Give me fifty more years.”

“You’re seriously gonna make your old man work until he’s a grandpa?”

What a wonderfully unfilial child.

Ferio gave his shameless daughter a side glance. The older she got, the more brazen she became.

“You’re the Ice Stud Duke of the North! You’ll still be having babies at eighty!”

And her mouth just kept getting filthier.

“How many times do I have to say this, I’m not a Grand Duke.”

“Still, ‘Duke,’ ‘Grand Duke,’ same difference!”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re insane.”

Yet, he didn’t argue much with her calling him a stud.

***

It was the seventeenth day of the monster hunt.

Ferio went over the types and numbers of monsters they’d caught, then held a short meeting with Mono and the senior knights.

The knights watching him were practically sparkling with hope.

“Please, please let this be it...!”

Leonia even dropped to her knees, hands clasped together in prayer.

“Alright, let’s call it here.”

“YESSS!”

Leonia cheered.

The monster hunt was finally over.

“Prepare to head back.”

Ferio gave the order, and the knights rushed to the pile of supplies near the rocks as if they’d been waiting their whole lives for it.

“Yeah! We’re finally going home!”

Leonia was about to bolt after them—

“Except for you.”

Ferio grabbed her shoulder.

Her face fell, like she’d just been sentenced to death.

“...Why?”

She looked like she was about to cry.

“Good luck, my lady!”

“We’ll head down first.”

“A nice soak in hot water, with a cold drink in hand!”

“Just thinking about it makes me happy.”

The knights, already packed and ready, waved at Leonia. Well, mocked was more like it.

“When I get down there, none of you are safe!”

Hope you get shit on by birds on the way down!

Leonia shouted after them.

But her eyes were filled with envy as she watched them go. Her lonely figure looked utterly defeated.

“Hngh, I wanna go too...”

Leonia whimpered.

Then she shot a glare at Ferio.

“What for?”

“We...”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Ferio didn’t answer until the last of the knights disappeared from view.

“We’re going to the summit.”

The moment the words left his mouth, something strange happened. The wind, which had been blowing with flurries of snow, suddenly stopped as if on cue.

With the air now still and clear, Ferio’s striking features became even more vivid.

“The summit? But why...”

Leonia started to protest, then hesitated.

“...Why?”

Her voice was cautious now.

Ferio glanced at his suddenly quiet daughter with a curious look.

But the irritation still lingering on her face made him think she was just too tired to argue.

“There’s something I want to show you.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s just say... something incredible.”

Ferio dodged the question as he slung his pack over his shoulder. Watching him, Leonia silently shouldered her own bag.

And the two of them began their climb to the top.

Then something even more peculiar happened.

It started with the wind stopping. As they continued, the exhaustion that had weighed down their bodies from days of camping and hunting seemed to melt away.

Even the heavy pack on Leonia’s back felt lighter, as if someone was lifting it for her.

And those monsters that had been everywhere? Not a single one appeared.

“What the hell is this...”

Leonia wasn’t just amazed now—she was scared.

Even the summit, which had seemed impossibly far away, was suddenly within reach.

Leonia felt like she was under a spell. Without thinking, she grabbed Ferio’s hand tightly.

Ferio silently squeezed her hand in return.

And just like that, Leonia felt safe.

“Leo.”

“Yeah?”

“That song you used to sing.”

“I’ve sung a lot of songs.”

Back at the Voreoti mansion, she was known as the resident diva.

Mostly because she’d shamelessly twisted the lyrics of every song into something perverted and sung them boldly in front of everyone.

“Wanna sing one now?”

Leonia’s eyes widened at the random request.

“Well, I don’t mind...”

Her body felt so light now that climbing the mountain while singing didn’t seem hard at all.

“Your pick, Dad.”

She started listing off the many songs she’d proudly sung before.

“Maybe ‘Muscles Are the Best’?”

“Not that one.”

“‘Guess Who Daddy Is’?”

“Try again.”

“Then how about the ‘Filial Piety’ [N O V E L I G H T] song?”

Every suggestion was laced with her weird, twisted humor.

Her mischievous grin was in full bloom as she teased.

“You don’t want me to inherit, is that it?”

Ferio asked quietly. Cut it out, he meant.

“...You’re threatening me with money again?”

Leonia grumbled.

“You think that’ll work?”

“Pretty sure it will.”

“Right!”

Unfortunately, Voreoti’s wealth was still a very persuasive force in Leonia’s life.

“Okay, okay.”

After getting her fill of messing around, Leonia finally sang the song Ferio wanted.

She already knew what it was.

“The black beast family lives together~”

It was the little tune she’d made up in the carriage on the way to meet the Marquis of Hesperi, when she was younger.

“Mommy and Daddy and baby, cozy and close~”

The lyrics came from an old Northern folktale that Kara had once told her.

Lurking in the white snow, the beasts leap behind the mountains, ho ho.

“Behind the mountains is...”

Her cheerful humming slowly faded.

Beyond the summit they had reached, a view she’d never imagined stretched before her.

Leonia was speechless.

“Leo.”

Ferio’s voice was quiet.

In his black eyes, staring at the same view, a red mist began to rise. It was the Fangs of the Beast, emerging naturally as he looked beyond the summit.

And Leonia was no different.

Golden light shimmered in her dark eyes.

“What you see now, this is the reason Voreoti exists.”

“...Yeah.”

Leonia barely managed to answer.

Truth was, she already knew what lay beyond the summit.

Because she remembered the original story—the one that captured parts of this world.

But this...

The sight before her wasn’t something mere words could ever describe.

The sheer wonder of it made her blood boil.

Her chest felt like it would burst from the overwhelming surge of emotion—too complex for any word to capture.

Beyond the snowy Northern Mountains.

A vast, pitch-black plain stretched out.

“Take a good look.”

That familiar darkness, swallowing everything in sight, was the very shade of Voreoti—their symbol, the color of black.

“This is why we Voreotis made our home here in the North, with our backs to these mountains.”

Father and daughter stood in silence, staring at the world beyond.