I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter

At the tea party hosted by Empress Tigria, Varia’s complexion while greeting Consort Usia was visibly unwell to anyone watching.
“It was just me feeling uncomfortable,”
Varia said with an awkward smile.

“Why? Is it something hard to talk about?”
Leonia asked, adding that it was okay not to explain if it was something she didn’t want to say.
“They look alike…”
Though she claimed it wasn’t a big deal, Varia’s face went pale again as she muttered the reason.

Leonia quickly seated her on the sofa. Varia looked as if she might collapse.
“They smile the same way… that person and her.”
“You mean, your sister’s husband?”

Leonia wisely avoided saying Remus Olor directly.
That man had killed Varia, and he was the reason Leonia had to endure hell.
To both of them, he was a horrifying figure—and there was no need to speak his name aloud.

“It wasn’t something that really happened.”
Varia hesitated.
“It was in a dream… in a dream, I mean.”

She knew this wasn’t something to say to a twelve-year-old girl, but she felt like she would suffocate if she didn’t spill this secret right now.
It was a secret she had kept to herself all this time.
And yet, whenever she looked at Leonia—who worried so sincerely for her—she felt a strange urge to tell her everything.

She believed this child would understand and accept her secret.
“In the dream… that person hit me.”
But she barely managed to remind herself that she shouldn’t say too much.

Varia disguised the death she had experienced in her first life as merely a dream.
“He strangled me and stabbed me in the stomach. And the smile I saw then looked just like Consort Usia’s.”
The swan siblings shared no real resemblance except for their age-defying beauty.
Yet in Varia’s eyes, the innocent smile on Consort Usia’s face looked exactly like Remus’s twisted grin as he tightened his grip around her neck.

“……”
Leonia was stunned.
That was… not a reason she expected.

“Unnie, I’m sorry.”
She quickly apologized.
Leonia knew all too well that the “dream” had actually happened.

That’s why the fear Varia must’ve felt when she saw Consort Usia was something she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
“It’s okay.”
But Varia apologized instead, saying she was sorry for saying something weird.

“It was just a dream.”
“No, it wasn’t…”
That wasn’t just a dream.

Leonia murmured sadly.
It hurt her deeply that she knew Varia’s pain was real, yet she still couldn’t fully comfort her.
“Please don’t tell the Duke.”

Varia held out her pinky for a promise.
“…Okay.”
Leonia extended her pinky as well.

“But, Dad already heard everything.”
With her pinky still out, the girl pointed behind them.
There stood Ferio, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe with a fierce expression.

“Kyaa!”
Varia shrieked when she realized it.
“…I’ll go wring that swan’s neck right now.”

Ferio started to move as if that evening’s dinner would be roast swan, and Varia barely managed to stop him.
Ferio froze stiffly when he felt Varia’s soft body press against his arm.
“Those swans are all lunatics anyway.”

Leonia, still watching the scene unfold from the side, grumbled that she wouldn’t eat something like that even if you gave it to her.
***
The Day of Departure to the North

“We usually go through the West to get to the North,”
Leonia explained, circling around Varia as she described their journey.
Varia couldn’t help but smile whenever Leonia spun around her.
Despite pretending to be all grown-up and acting like an adult, she always behaved like a child in front of Varia—and it was absolutely adorable.

When Varia held out her hand, Leonia grabbed it right away and burst into laughter.
“The gate to the North is in the imperial palace, so we can’t use it.”
“I’ve heard that too. Have you ever seen that gate, young lady?”

“The one inside the palace?”
“Yes.”
Leonia shook her head vigorously.

“Have you seen it, unnie?”
Varia also shook her head at the returned question.
The two of them soon took a seat at a shaded table, watching the servants load the luggage onto the carriage.

Leonia instructed a nearby servant to prepare a cold drink full of ice once the packing was done.
The servant, delighted, ran off to the kitchen.
“I got really sick the first time I used a gate.”

“Really? Gate sickness is quite rare…”
Varia looked genuinely concerned.
“But not anymore!”

“They say it only happens to people the first time they use it.”
“Did you ever get it?”
“No.”

“That’s a relief then.”
“It was awful,” Leonia said, grimacing as she recalled the experience.
Gate sickness felt like all the organs in your body were turning inside out.

“Leo!”
Ferio called out to her, ready to depart.
“Dad, aren’t you calling unnie too?”
Leonia shouted, deliberately loud.

“Is he too shy to say her name?”
Her mischievous smirk made her look absolutely evil.
“Young lady…”

Varia, blushing, tried to stop her, but Leonia only giggled and teased the embarrassed adult.
Ferio’s face, even from a distance, twisted into a menacing scowl—clearly not amused.
Nearby knights and servants fled in a hurry.

But Leonia, pleased with her successful prank, clutched her stomach and laughed.
Varia, flustered but oddly happy, covered her mouth and chuckled.
At that moment, Ferio strode over to the two of them.

“Had your laugh?”
He pressed a finger firmly against Leonia’s forehead.
“Why’d you only call my name? You’re making unnie feel left out!”

“I don’t mind.”
“Or maybe you two want to introduce yourselves properly when I’m not around?”
Ferio now called Varia by name. But Varia still clung to calling him “Your Grace” and “Young Lady.”

“It’s time to leave.”
Ignoring his teasing daughter, Ferio extended his hand to Varia.
She gently placed her hand on his, and Leonia looked on in satisfaction.

“Aww, I was wondering when you two would finally get married!”
Leonia patted Ferio’s back like a nosy old aunt.
“You’ve grown up so much!”

Pat-pat, she thumped his back repeatedly.
Varia was quietly in awe of Leonia’s audacity. Even if she lived through death a hundred times, she could never act that way with her own parents.
“Are you my mom now?”

Ferio batted away her hand.
“I’m like your mom-daughter!”
“More like your pain-in-the-neck daughter.”

“Same thing!”
Leonia climbed into the carriage first, kicked off her shoes, and put her feet up on the seat next to hers.
“I don’t want to be stuck between you two anymore.”

She lay down, grumbling that it was too stifling and uncomfortable.
And so, Ferio and Varia naturally ended up sitting side by side.
Ferio, understanding his daughter’s sense of timing, gave her a candy.

“See you later!”
Leonia leaned halfway out the window and waved.
Tra and the other servants stood still until the carriage disappeared from sight.

“This is always the saddest part.”
Leonia, back in her seat with the candy in her mouth, mumbled.
Even if they were going to see each other again, saying goodbye always left a twinge of sadness.

“They’ll probably be relieved things are quieter without you.”
Ferio broke the mood to keep his daughter from getting too sentimental.
The little beast-in-training snorted and turned her head away.

The carriage quickly pulled away from the plaza. The Voreoti family’s carriage drew every eye it passed.
Varia stared out the window at the scenery for a long while.
“So, we really are going to the North?”

She still couldn’t believe it.
Her heart pounded at the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) thought of finally heading north.
“Though we’ll stop by the West first.”

Leonia asked if she’d ever been to the West. Varia shook her head.
“I’ve only been to the capital and the South. I used to spend summer vacations in the Erbanu estate.”
“From now on, you can rest with us in the West!”

Leonia proudly bragged about the Voreoti villa there.
“But we’re not going to the West.”
At that moment, Ferio cut in.

Only then did Leonia realize that the scenery outside was unfamiliar.
They weren’t on the road to the fortress with the gate to the West.
Though the walls were getting closer, the direction was off.

“W-Wait… this is…!”
To Varia, however, the path was familiar.
“Are we going to the South right now?”

Varia asked in a surprised voice. Leonia’s eyes widened as she glanced outside.
“Why the South?!”
She practically yelled.

“Why else?”
Ferio said nonchalantly.
“We’ve got business there.”

And just like that, the carriage passed through the gate to the South.
Just before passing through, Leonia caught the stares of those shocked by the sight of a Voreoti carriage appearing at the Southern gate.
That’s how momentous it was for House Voreoti to travel South.

***
“Ugh, it’s hot…”
Leonia quickly donned a hat after stepping out of the carriage.

The ventilation magic embedded in the hat—one that Ferio had gifted her when she was younger—cooled her heated scalp.
“Phew…”
Finally catching her breath, Leonia shielded her eyes from the sun with one hand.

“So this is the South.”
She looked around with curiosity—it was her first time here.
The Southern gate was situated between forest and coastline. The salty sea breeze clung heavily to the air.

Leonia crouched down and touched the ground with her palm.
“Gross.”
Ferio dusted off her palm with a handkerchief.

“The soil’s different from the North and West.”
Damp soil with a layer of gritty sand.
“Not too hot?”

Ferio asked.
“I’m fine! I have a hat!”
Leonia pointed to the hat on her head proudly.

She was more worried about the horses and the knights.
The horses, in particular, were jumpy from the sudden change in temperature.
Ferio ordered the knights to let the horses rest in the shade and check the carriage.

“Varia, are you alright?”
He also checked on Varia attentively.
“I’m a Southern noble, remember?”

“This unnie’s just all talk.”
Leonia took off her hat and plopped it on Varia’s head.
“Right now, you look like you need this more than I do.”

Truthfully, Varia was struggling the most in the heat.
Despite being born in the South, she had started sweating profusely the moment they stepped through the gate.