I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter

‘I returned to the past too.’
Varia herself had experienced the miracle of dying and coming back to the past. She couldn’t rashly claim that anything stranger than that was impossible.
“Ordinary people can’t see it.”

As he quietly watched Varia, Ferio extended his hand.
“Ordinary people can’t even climb the Northern Mountains in the first place.”
His large hand brushed through Varia’s loose hair like a comb.

The wavy, dull pink strands tickled between his long fingers, with knuckles slightly protruding.
Varia, momentarily distracted by Ferio’s gesture, only understood the meaning of his words a beat later.
The emperor’s end was already set.

‘They’ll fail.’
No matter what they did, it would end in failure. A truly miserable conclusion.
For a moment, Varia was overcome with futility.

If what Ferio said was true, then in her previous life, she didn’t need to risk her life to stop them.
“It’s really thanks to you, unnie.”
Just then, Leonia beamed at Varia.

“If it weren’t for you, neither Dad nor I would’ve come this far.”
“That’s not true.”
Varia’s voice denying it held no strength.

Looking back, Ferio had known everything from the start.
He had planned the hunt early on. The emperor, Olor, and Voreoti were all pieces on his chessboard.
Everything in the Empire was one of Ferio’s chess pieces.
‘I’m one of those pieces too.’

Varia felt a new sense of awe at his foresight. And yet, a bitter aftertaste lingered.
But Ferio rejected Varia’s line of thought.
“In a way, it really was thanks to you, Lady Varia.”

“M-My thanks?”
“You saved Ardea, didn’t you?”
Ferio had been able to notice and prepare for everything precisely because Ardea had returned to the North to serve as Leonia’s tutor.

“From that moment on, I began to suspect the imperial family /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ was targeting the North.”
A Northern-born scholar was attacked, and suspicious incidents began piling up one after another.
They all pointed toward a hidden conspiracy of the imperial household.

And the beginning of it all… was Varia.
“I’ve known you, Varia, since five years ago.”
At some point, Ferio had stopped using her honorific.

“If you hadn’t saved Ardea, Varia, we would’ve been quite caught off guard.”
“Dad might’ve been really annoyed.”
Leonia covered her mouth with both hands and giggled teasingly.

Ferio gave a sideways glance at his cheeky daughter, then lightly shrugged as if in agreement.
“I’m human too, after all.”
Even the fearsome Duke Voreoti, whom others trembled before, was human in the end.

Ferio didn’t know everything.
Unexpected things always happened. He simply resolved them with a firm face, pretending to remain composed.
Suddenly, Varia remembered what Ferio had once told her during a banquet.

‘If you hadn’t come to find me, none of this would have ever happened.’
Ah… Varia now understood that those words hadn’t just been meant as comfort.
Ferio truly believed that Varia was the beginning of this entire resolution.

She felt her heart beating rapidly—so joyful that she couldn’t even gasp in admiration.
“…So.”
Leonia, stuck between adults once again oozing some mysterious tension, deliberately raised her voice.

“What are we going to do now?”
The imperial family now had their excuse to set foot in the North.
“What else?”

Ferio flicked Leonia’s nose with a finger. She reflexively stuck out her tongue with a loud “Bleh!”
“We prepare to receive our guests.”
***

“So we’re going to the North?”
Ufikla asked in a disappointed voice.
“We need to go rest before winter to prepare for monster hunting.”

Trying to soothe her, Leonia picked up a cookie and popped it into Ufikla’s mouth.
Ufikla, though pouting her lips in protest, accepted it eagerly.
“Leo noona, me too, aah—”

Pinu, watching enviously, opened his mouth wide in demand.
Leonia laughed brightly and gave him one too.
The plump cheeks beneath the youngest Rinne heir’s eyes jiggled as he chewed.

Ferio had said he was heading North to receive their guests, and from the next day, preparations to depart began in earnest.
Before leaving, Leonia invited Ufikla, Pinu, and Flomus over.
“I think I’ll be heading out soon too.”

Flomus fidgeted with her cool glass filled with ice.
Inside the damp glass floated bright yellow slices of lemon.
“My father’s worried sick about the reindeer.”

“Whaaat? Flo unnie’s leaving too?”
“Don’t go.”
The Rinne puppy siblings rested their faces on the table, unable to hide their disappointment.

Leonia and Flomus giggled as they patted the oversized babies.
The children’s conversation was full of silly chatter.
“This snack is the tastiest.”

“There’s this game trending in the capital.”
Mostly, it was Ufikla and Pinu who chattered away, while the slightly older Leonia and Flomus listened and chimed in now and then.
Sometimes, Leonia would get bored and daydream, only to receive a pointed glare from Ufikla that made her laugh sheepishly.

“Unnie, unnie.”
Ufikla leaned in and whispered.
“Is she here?”

“She?”
“The Duke’s lover!”
“Lover!”

Ufikla said it, and Pinu echoed.
“I heard it from my parents too!”
Flomus, face turning red, joined in with what she had heard.

“They said the Duke and the lady in the rumors were affectionate and looked in love.”
“But… it makes me feel a little complicated…”
Ufikla, who had been giddy, suddenly looked glum.

Pinu, startled, worriedly asked, “Noona, what’s wrong?”
“Well, the Duke was someone I used to have a crush on, you know.”
“C’mon, noona. You and the Duke? No way.”

Why would the Duke settle for you?
Pinu's words were surprisingly cool-headed for a seven-year-old.
“…Is she here right now?”

Flomus asked awkwardly, forcing a smile.
Rather than answer, Leonia wedged herself between the two puppy siblings, who were nearly at each other’s throats.
“Wanna meet her?”

“Really? But will she be okay with it?”
“She was super curious when I said kids my age were coming over.”
When Leonia told Varia that kids her age were visiting, she had shown a lot of interest.

Leonia excused herself for a moment, leaving the kids speculating about what kind of person Varia might be.
“She must be a pretty unnie, right?”
“I hope she’s kind and gentle.”

“Yeah, but someone like that doesn’t suit Voreoti.”
“Then who suits him?”
“Someone who rips monsters apart with their teeth—like this!”

Pinu mimicked biting with gusto, and the girls burst into laughter.
“Guys.”
Just then, Leonia reappeared with someone in tow.

“Hello.”
A gentle voice rang sweetly in the children’s ears.
They all stared, mouths agape.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Varia.”
Varia smiled warmly, her dull pink hair swept long to the left.
Because of that, her right ear was fully exposed, showing a long teardrop-shaped earring.

“…No wonder noona got dumped.”
Pinu muttered.
Blue flames of fury flickered in Ufikla’s eyes.

“No fighting!”
As a result, Varia had to break up the Rinne siblings’ squabble upon their very first meeting.
Once things finally settled down, Leonia reintroduced them properly.

The children gazed at the Duke’s rumored lover like she was some rare animal.
To them, Ferio was simply “Leo’s dad,” so the fact that he liked someone felt odd… and also a little fascinating.
“How did you meet the Duke?”

“Why do you like the Duke, noona?”
“When are you two getting married?”
Varia blushed at the barrage of curious questions.

The children’s unfiltered innocence gave her no escape.
But there was one question she answered clearly.
What exactly did she like about Ferio?

“Well, um…”
Fidgeting with her fingers shyly, Varia replied with newfound boldness.
“I first fell for the Duke’s muscles.”

Upon hearing that her love had started with muscles, Leonia gave a smug grin.
“I totally set them up!”
Ooooh, the children gasped in admiration.

Thanks to Leonia’s long-standing muscle evangelism, they were far more tolerant of the topic than most.
“I like reindeer!”
Flomus shared her favorite thing.

“I like sword fighting and money!”
“I like sword fighting too! And muscles!”
Ufikla and Pinu shouted their favorites enthusiastically.

Varia and the children spent time together without a hint of awkwardness. Leonia, who had been secretly anxious, breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
“Well then, I’m off.”
“Bye, noona!”

“See you again in the North!”
Time passed, and the children rode off in their family carriages.
“You’re really good with kids, unnie.”

After seeing them off, Leonia commented to Varia.
“I had a younger sibling.”
Varia answered with a bitter smile. Leonia didn’t need to ask who she was thinking about—she already knew.

“I was probably the only one who thought that way.”
Varia had taken great care of Lota. When her sister whined, she would even give up her most precious things and tried her best to suit her tastes.
“The world’s really messed up.”

Leonia clicked her tongue.
“Looks like your parents spoiled you rotten.”
For what felt like the hundredth time, Leonia reaffirmed her belief—Ferio was a truly great father.

He was endlessly soft with his child but knew how to be terrifying when necessary.
“You really loved your sister, huh.”
“That’s not love. That’s ruining her.”

Varia had no response to that.
Because now, even she knew how flawed her parents’ way of raising them had been.
“Well, whatever.”

Leonia ended the topic of Erbanu there. She wasn’t kind enough to meddle in someone else’s family affairs.
“Voreoti cherishes you, and that’s what matters.”
Then she smiled brightly at Varia. Varia returned it with a joyful smile of her own.

I was never at fault for not being loved by my parents.
This simple truth—I learned only after dying once and receiving unconditional love from the Voreotis.
“But, unnie…”

Leonia finally asked the question that had been bothering her all along.
“Why were you so scared when you saw the Empress?”