How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love

“Where’s Carl? Did she leave the report to you again and get stuck in the lab?”

 

“Well, if she just does a little more, she thinks it will be completed.” 

 

“Huh, that bastard. She really made it successful…”

 

It was his teacher who organized the theory and added hypotheses to establish a new book based on an old book that had pages missing here and there.

 

But his teacher’s success ends there. No, since not a single experiment that demonstrated that theory was successful, the establishment of the theory should also be considered a failure. 

 

In the end, his teacher discarded her own theories and abandoned her research, leaving behind only dozens of bizarre chimeras. She also urged her students to be faithful. ‘Don’t touch this research.’

 

However, he ignored his teacher’s advice and dug into his teacher’s experimental journal, to analyze and re-analyze the reasons for failure and revise the theory.

 

A special student helped him along the way and even took the initiative to procure a test subject to refine the incomplete theory: A human who inherited the blood of Estroa.

 

Making an Estroa symbol appear in someone with Estroa blood was much less variable than in the original experiment. Thanks to this, he was able to refine his theory much more thoroughly.

 

In the meantime, A special student brought Kana to him, because they wanted to try the experiment with blood other than Sesto and Estroa.

 

Yes, the reason Kana was first brought to this tower was purely as research material.

 

The only reason he took care of a newborn baby who couldn’t do anything other than smile was to save her. If she dies, the experiment samples they worked so hard to obtain will disappear.

 

But how did negativity sprout in the process? Even he didn’t know.

 

At some point, the sight of the small forearm with the injection needle stuck in it and the way she cried became heartbreaking.

 

In the end, he threw away all the experiments and theories he was researching and called himself Kana’s father.

 

He thought that since he had given up, his teacher’s unfinished theory would become trash this time.

 

But then Carl declares that he will take over the research as his successor.

 

At the time, he was skeptical and gave her the theory he had put together, asking her to try it if she could.

 

“Pan, what do you think? Do you really think Carl will succeed?” 

 

“Oh, maybe…”

 

Carl only had two experiments to manifest Estroa’s symbol with Estroa’s blood.

 

Moreover, since she succeeded in making the pattern appear on Kana’s body, it would only be a matter of time before she summarized the three experiments and completed the theory.

 

For a moment, he wondered if he might have been able to complete the theory himself if he hadn’t given up halfway through.

 

He had already developed a stronger sense of himself as a father than as a wizard and chose to spend time with his young daughter rather than deprive the achievement of his student who was on the verge of success.

 

Once he had known the joy of raising a daughter, nothing could replace that happiness.

 

‘Maybe I should just give her my position and retire.’

 

While thinking that he and Kana should find a peaceful place where they could live together, he gestured to Pan to make his report

 

“So, what about Asta’s child?”

 

“Well, that is…”

 

Pan shook his head, looking very intimidated. He carefully approached the old man, took out a bundle of documents from his magic bag, and handed them to him.

 

“List of places where the investigation has been completed to date….”

 

The man quickly scanned the stack of documents handed to him. In it, the names of various regions within the empire and the villages were listed countless times. 

 

“This is the same as scanning the entire empire.…you still couldn’t find it?”

 

The old man briefly clicked his tongue as Pan nodded while fiddling with the mask on his face.

 

“There are still places left, but….I guess there isn’t one around there.”

 

Of course, not all regions of the empire were listed on the document. 

 

A place with such strict security that even small low-level monsters cannot be let in. These included the Imperial Palace, the Magic Tower, and the Academy.

 

Among them, the imperial palace had already been checked, but there was no one suspicious. 

 

Furthermore, those who stood out enough to enter the Magic Tower or the Academy were already checked when they were young.

 

Then, the only place left was the northern part of the empire.

 

“This is why we shouldn’t have let an idiot in.”

 

The old man briefly clicked his tongue.

 

‘How can you kidnap Marquis’s Cloud’s daughter and give us all this trouble?’

 

“By the way, what happened to Den? How long has it been since I gave the order to withdraw, and why haven’t I heard from him?”

 

“Well, it’s taking a long time to deal with the monsters raised in the dungeon. Please give him just a little more time…” 

 

“He is not doing anything useless with the bloodstone, is he?” 

 

In response to the old man’s doubts, Pan shook his head vigorously as if making excuses. 

 

“I told him not to use bloodstone anymore within the border territory…”

 

“I’m afraid he can’t do that. Tell him to send the bloodstones first. Especially that one.”

 

There was no exact name, but Pan nodded as if he knew what he was talking about.

 

“By the way, I’ve got a message from the border…”

 

“The border, what?”

 

“Hah, I’m not sure.….”

 

Pan concisely summarized his explanation in a stuttering tone. It was fortunate that the old man was not frustrated with his tone of voice. If there had been someone with an impatient personality in front of him, Pan would not have been able to finish his sentence. 

 

“So…according to the noble list you received, there is an adopted child among the twenty-year-old and she even became a marquise a few months ago?”

 

Pan nodded at the old man’s brief summary.

 

The old man rested his chin on the armrest of his chair in thought.

 

“Adoption….. I didn’t think she gave her child up for adoption to a noble family….”

 

It is a question of ‘how’ rather than ‘why’.

 

Inside an abandoned house that had completely burned down, a woman was gathering her magic power to the limit to create a water barrier to protect a young boy.

 

That was the first meeting between the old man and Asta. 

 

She was eighteen or nineteen at the time. She lost her parents when she was young and wandered aimlessly around her country. Unlike her vast amount of magic, her magic skills were poor, so she was brought to the tower to teach her magic.

 

And she never went outside until she became pregnant with Sesto’s child and ran away from the tower.

 

‘How could she have come into contact with a nobleman and given her child up for adoption? I don’t know if they let her in as their maid.’

 

“Oh, I heard she doesn’t have magical power.…but Carl said she should check it out, just in case….”

 

“She is going to do it herself?”

 

Pan quickly shook his head when the old man asked a question.

 

“He said he’s going to have Anne do it…”

 

“Anne?”

 

Hearing a name he hadn’t heard in a long time, the old man rolled his eyes upward and briefly recalled his memory.

 

“Now that I think about it, it seems like it’s been a while since I’ve seen her. Where is she now?”

 

“she disguised herself as a maid of a certain nobleman.”

 

“Maid? Why?”

 

“Uh, a certain noble family has a family heirloom, she wants to get the jewelry, but….security is strict…”

 

“And she got the jewelry out? No, never mind. With her personality, if she got the jewelry out, she would have come back quickly. What kind of jewelry is that, that naughty girl could be a maid?”

 

The old man shook his head, picked up a cookie from the abandoned trolley, and handed it to Pan.

 

After hesitating for a moment, Pan took the cookie, lifted his mask slightly, and swallowed the cookie through the gap.

 

Crumbs fell down from under the hand holding the cookie, but the old man didn’t care about the carpet getting dirty.

 

“If he has just been married, the Marquis will soon invite people to introduce his wife, so she can take advantage of that time to check. Tell Anne not to act rashly.”

 

Because his cheek was full of cookies, Pan nodded.

 

Pan stared down at the bowl of sweets on the trolley, his hands clasped tightly around the wooden mask that rattled and swayed with every jerk of his jaw, and finally mustered up the courage to speak.

 

“Ah, if the Marquise is Asta’s daughter, then…”

 

“Then?”

 

“Uh, what are you going to do….”

 

“What am I going to do? Of course, I should bring her back. Shouldn’t we let her see her father’s face?”

 

‘That’s all?’

 

Before Pan could even say out loud the question that was in his head, the old man continued.

 

“I’m afraid he won’t survive this year….he probably used up almost all of the bloodstone I’ve made, so there should be at least some compensation for it. Isn’t that right?”

 

“……”

 

“Pan?”

 

Pan nodded shakily, unable to find his voice for a moment, wondering if the cookie he’d forced himself to chew and swallow had gotten stuck in his throat.

 

Fortunately, thanks to the wooden mask that covered the face, the agitation went undetected. Pan lowered his head and rattled the cookie bowl, pretending to eat more cookies.

 

“How many people suffer at his whim? I should have paired him with someone other than Asta.”

 

“……”

 

“Now that I think about it, you were on good terms with Asta. How, if I bring her child back safely, will you make her your partner?”

 

“What?”

 

“What are you so surprised about? If I bring her back, I’ll have to make sure she gives birth to a child first, because there’s no guarantee this won’t happen again, and we have to make sure she has at least two children from now on, and I’ll need Sesto’s bloodstone to be prepared for any possible danger….”

 

At first, it seemed as if he was talking to Pan, but the old man soon fell into his own world. 

 

He can not talk to an old man who is deep in his thoughts. 

 

Pan’s voice faded as he flicked the cookie crumbs off his fingertips with his thumbnail.

 

“Pan. If I fail, if my child is dragged here….and ends up like Fel. I’m not asking you to do anything difficult. Just… make sure that child can smile here. Huh?”

 

‘Why did she leave here? Was the child in her stomach that precious? Enough to leave me alone?’

 

‘She asked me to make her daughter smile, but I can’t smile anymore because she left.’

 

Twenty years. Even after all that time, the questions that had lost their owner still lingered in his mouth like echoes.

 

‘If she was Asta’s daughter, would she be able to answer that question?’

 

Pan couldn’t find anyone to answer that question, so it just kept happening inside his closed mouth.

 

Pan rattled the mask meaninglessly, thinking that the mask he had worn almost his whole life could not be more frustrating than today.

 * * *