I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter

“I almost couldn’t make it here.”
Without so much as a proper greeting, the Tabanus heir immediately began grumbling about how difficult it had been to arrive.
Baron Hirqus was dumbfounded by the sheer audacity.

Still, all three who had come from the North looked far from composed.
“Duke Voreoti has made up his mind,”
Baron Glis said, his body trembling.

“He’s released the Gladiago Knights everywhere. The surveillance is brutal. If they even catch the slightest whiff of anything strange, they launch an immediate investigation.”
It was the first time they had experienced something like this since Ferio Voreoti took his title.
Only now did the three nobles begin to realize just how lenient the Duke had been with them until now.

He clearly suspected what they had done.
“But there’s no evidence,”
Among the three, only the Tabanus heir forced himself to sound calm.

But even he didn’t deny that Duke Voreoti was tightening the noose around them.
He was simply trying to shake off the ominous feeling with empty bravado.
In contrast, Count Mereoqa looked like he was about to collapse.

He kept glancing around nervously, as if Ferio Voreoti might appear from behind some corner at any moment.
“Still, we were lucky.”
The Tabanus heir tried to remain optimistic. After all, they had arrived.

Somehow, the three had managed to reach the Western logistics warehouse while avoiding the Duke’s surveillance.
This was thanks to Viscount Kerata’s house, which had steadily decreased its shipments, suddenly delivering the long-overdue reindeer hides right on the agreed date.
Under the pretext of moving goods into storage, they were able to ride a guild wagon and arrive late at night.
Who would’ve thought that the arrogant Viscount Kerata would end up helping them in this way?

“Well then, let’s take one final check.”
Creeeak— the door of the old warehouse groaned as it opened.
The stench hit them first.

It was a nauseating mix of the musty, metallic scent unique to monsters and the sweet, magical potion used °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° to weaken them.
They had to step back for ventilation before they could bear to look inside.
Inside the cage, lined with iron bars as thick as an adult’s arm, were all kinds of young monsters trapped inside.

Drugged by the scent, the baby beasts were sprawled out on the floor, barely able to move.
The Tabanus heir glanced around the warehouse and murmured with a hint of surprise.
“They’re kind of cute, being this young.”

If one didn’t know they were monsters, they might’ve passed for medium-sized dogs.
Compared to their fully grown, menacing adult forms, the young ones were clearly smaller and rounder in shape.
“They’re still monsters.”

The knight in mercenary disguise warned them, feigning authority.
As he spoke, a small mole beneath his eye briefly came into view.
The knights disguised as mercenaries began to prepare.

To prevent themselves from getting intoxicated by the lingering scent in the warehouse, they covered their mouths and noses with cloth soaked in antidote, then draped a thick, dark cloth over the cage.
Soon, the knights began moving the cages.
“L-Let’s hurry up,”

Count Mereoqa said, voice trembling with fear.
“Count, are you all right?”
Baron Hirqus found the changed Count Mereoqa almost unrecognizable.

He had remembered him as a confident, upright man, which made his current state all the more bizarre.
There were rumors that the Count’s daughter had caused a major scandal at the Voreoti mansion and had been divorced and exiled to a villa in the West.
“Nothing will happen.”

The Tabanus heir raised his voice, forcing himself to sound strong.
“What is there to be afraid of? We’re in the West, and the Black Beast isn’t here.”
“Exactly. Count, you need to calm down.”

Baron Hirqus, who had never once seen Ferio, felt the same.
How terrifying could this Black Beast of a Duke really be to make someone change so drastically?
He’s just a man in the end.

Hirqus had once feared the Marquis of Hesperi, but now he felt nothing of the sort.
“At best, he’s still a brat whose head hasn’t even dried.”
Hirqus sneered, scoffing at the man who had inherited his title only seven years ago, calling him an arrogant brat coasting on the fame of his house.

“Then would you like to meet him?”
A friendly voice offered a meeting.
In that instant, time stopped.

Baron Hirqus, full of arrogance, the Tabanus heir pretending to be brave, Count Mereoqa and Baron Glis frozen in fear—
Even the knights moving the cages—
“I happen to be good friends with that arrogant brat.”

Creak, creak—Baron Hirqus turned stiffly toward the sound, and moonlight poured into his vision.
Warm blonde hair shimmered in the pale glow.
“Baron Hirqus.”

A steel-blue sword gleamed in the hand of Carnis.
“Working late unexpectedly, are we?”
“……”

“I’m stuck on a last-minute shift myself.”
That was the end of the small talk.
The usual smiling, cheerful Count Carnis Rinne had vanished.

In his place stood a mad dog with a sword.
As the blade cut through his body, Baron Hirqus suddenly recalled the nickname once used instead of Carnis' name—
The Mad Dog of the Revoo Knights.

Even the dog that guarded the Western fields was, in the end, a beast.
It was then, and only then, that Hirqus understood why he and Duke Voreoti had grown so close—
A lesson paid for with his life.
***

“Strike!”
The Revoo Knights who had come with Carnis swiftly raided the warehouse.
The imperial knights, caught completely off guard, scrambled to fight back, but the tide had already turned.

The rest of their accomplices had already been captured.
Count Mereoqa, Baron Glis, the Tabanus heir, and a few remaining knights had barely escaped and were gasping for breath as they fled blindly up a mountain path.
It took them a while to notice something strange.

Their pursuers had suddenly stopped.
Even though they sensed something was off, they couldn’t stop running.
The chaos had overwhelmed their instincts, driving their bodies forward without pause.

But even their instincts had begun to break down.
That was why none of them noticed the vicious killing intent lurking right beside them.
“……Kh!”

A blur leapt out from between the trees and tackled one of the knights.
The knight didn’t even have time to scream before the beast clamped its jaws around his neck.
There wasn’t even a growl—just the gruesome crunch of bone snapping.

This translation is the intellectual property of .
The knight fell to the ground, neck twisted, lifeless.
Dripping with blood, the beast slowly, leisurely walked forward.

The deliberate pace mocked them like a cat toying with its prey.
“Damn it…!”
The knights raised their swords and took defensive stances. Behind them, the three nobles trembled uncontrollably.

Then, the beast stopped.
It wagged its tail slowly.
“Had to make my way back from the North.”

Ah.
At the sound of the voice by his ear, Count Mereoqa fainted on the spot.
No one caught him. No one had the capacity to.

“You’ve all worked hard.”
The terrifying pressure grew closer.
Wearing a black suit draped in the snow-white Gladiago Knights’ cloak, Ferio stepped out before the three nobles who had just returned home to the North.

Before they knew it, the Gladiago Knights had completely surrounded them.
A few imperial knights resisted but were subdued in an instant. The Gladiago Knights found it laughably easy.
The captured imperial knights were gagged and tightly bound.

“……”
The Tabanus heir realized something was strange.
His body was tied up and forced to kneel in the dirt, and yet Ferio’s face appeared vividly clear.

Even though the moon had already disappeared behind the clouds.
He still didn’t realize that the only reason it was bright here was because of the magic of Marquis Ortio.
And no one saw the need to explain it to them.

“Aren’t you curious?”
Ferio looked down at the bound nobles.
From below, he looked enormous. His black suit and white cloak reminded them of the northern mountain range itself.

“How I found out what you were up to.”
Ferio offered them the generous favor of an explanation.
Thanks to his recent "fang training" with Leonia, he had grown rather confident in his explanations.

“Your scheme was easy to uncover.”
Despite the unusually active monster mating season, not a single cub was encountered during winter hunts.
And every monster that had gone on a rampage during the season had signs of having given birth.

Once the pattern was noticed, the rest fell into place.
Ferio investigated the nobles who had shown suspicious behavior while he was away.
He discovered that only three families had continued to meet in secret.

And behind them stood the Swan.
They were the ones who had hired eastern tower mages to capture monster cubs—
The ones who had willingly handed over the imperial knights.

All orchestrated by the parasitic worms hiding in the imperial court, and the Red Swans of the South who had been infected.
“I bet your hearts were pounding.”
Clearly elated to have caught the Swans’ attention.

Ferio scoffed.
“So I decided to let you feel that high a little longer. That’s why I waited.”
He could’ve arrested them earlier, but chose not to—out of cruel courtesy.

He had ordered Viscount Kerata to reduce shipments to the Tabanus Guild, then suddenly release them all on one day.
He had coordinated with Count Rinne and the Revoo Knights to herd them into fleeing toward the North.
“Did it make your hearts pound?”

If anything, their lungs had been pounding from running.
Ferio curled his lips into a crooked smirk.
“Would’ve been a shame otherwise.”

His eyes, though, looked anything but regretful—they gleamed with murderous intensity.
Part of the reason he’d lured them North was to avoid implicating the Marquis of Hesperi or Empress Tigria in the capital.
“……Has he always talked this much?”

Marquis Ortio, now back in human form, spat the leftover saliva in his mouth in front of the bound prisoners with a grimace.
Blood and fur were mixed into it.
He hated killing people in beast form.

If only he could kill them with magic—it’d be much easier, he muttered irritably.
“You’ve gone soft thanks to the young lady.”
“How revolting.”

At Meles’ comment, Marquis Ortio gave a dry laugh.
“Well, either way, I’ve racked up quite the debt this time.”