I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter-Chapter 240

I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter-Chapter 240

When Consort Usia finally registered the noise coming from outside the door—
She felt a fleeting thrill at the thought that the Imperial House was finally collapsing.
But what followed was despair.
Because Leonia stepped inside, having kicked the door hard enough to nearly rip it off its hinges, and approached her.
In one of Leonia’s hands was a sword drenched in blood. In the other, a man on the verge of losing consciousness, coughing up blood.
The Consort shot to her feet.
“You know this guy, right?”
Leonia threw the man at her feet.
Consort Usia, now standing, instinctively dropped to the ground beside the collapsed man.
“Just as I thought...”
Leonia curled her lips into a vicious grin, as if she'd expected this all along.
The bloodied man, groaning in pain, was a member of House Meridio—one of the Aust family's soldiers.
“Was the Duke’s daughter supposed to come too?”
Empress Tigria asked in a calm tone, but she was clearly surprised by Leonia’s arrival.
Ferio had made it clear that his daughter was still too young and would not attend.
“I’m not the Duke’s daughter.”
Leonia pointed at the crest on her chest.
“I am the Duke.”
Before the Empress could react, Leonia grabbed the unconscious marquis by the collar again and flung him aside.
It was a completely unfeeling act toward an injured man.
“Usia Olor.”
Leonia stabbed her sword into the hem of the Consort’s skirt.
Startled, the Consort reflexively tried to step back, but the sword was firmly embedded in the floor, pinning her in place.
Only the fabric ripped in long, tearing sounds.
“I was going to let you go.”
Leonia's eyes chilled as she seized the Consort's wrist, stopping her escape.
“Because I pitied your life. Because I liked the way you kept standing and planning your revenge. That’s why I pretended not to see.”
“Then... can’t you still pretend?”
The Consort tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her wrist and gave a sorrowful look.
But Leonia tightened her grip, showing no mercy.
“This is only my guess,” she said, voice low and spine-chilling like a beast’s growl.
“You knew Remus hid the Emperor, didn’t you?”
“That’s something your precious Voreoti also knew, isn’t it?”
“I did know.”
But, Leonia added, pausing to catch her breath, her expression twisting with menace.
“If you also knew what he planned to do...”
She unsheathed ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ her sword and pressed the blue-tinted blade to the Consort’s neck.
“Then it’s a whole different story.”
“......”
“...You knew.”
Leonia could tell from the fine trembling in the Consort’s eyes that she’d deliberately avoided saying anything.
“You hear that now too, don’t you, Your Highness?”
From behind Leonia’s mocking tone came the chaos of battle.
Clashing swords, terrified screams, and blood-curdling death cries.
“You really did manage to hide so many Meridio men. Is hiding in secret corners without anyone knowing a special trait of Southern families? Just like the father of your kid?”
Leonia’s insults were crude and childish, but they hit the Consort’s pride where it hurt.
Her complexion paled more and more.
“Right now, Gladiago is extremely on edge.”
The Gladiago Knights bore disgraceful shame.
They’d failed to protect Varia from Remus.
They couldn’t live up to their reputation as the Empire’s greatest knights, and instead became a burden to their lord and lady.
There was only one thing such knights could do now.
“What a shame.”
Leonia gave a wicked smile.
“Looks like both Meridio and Aust will be joining the list of fallen houses today.”
Consort Usia reached out her free hand toward Leonia in desperation.
But Leonia swiftly dodged and twisted the Consort’s arm behind her back.
Then she slammed the Consort’s head down onto the table.
Empress Tigria, watching, frowned and turned away.
“Why did you have to get involved!”
Leonia’s furious scream thundered through the room, nearly splitting the Consort’s eardrums.
“Why did you drag my family into your damned revenge!”
“Ugh...!”
“If you couldn’t handle it yourselves, you shouldn’t have even tried!”
Leonia was sure—if they had asked for help, Voreoti would’ve answered.
Ferio would never have left the Aust family struggling alone.
He would have helped them while securing many gains in return, but still, it would’ve been a great help.
“You should’ve dealt with Olor from the start!”
“That’s why we were trying to kill him!”
Consort Usia finally screamed back. The sudden outburst of rage shocked even Leonia and the Empress.
“We were going to deal with both of those bastards at once!”
The sweet and innocent smile she had worn like a mask shattered, revealing the furious illegitimate daughter who had held back for far too long.
“What’s wrong with that? They’re bastards everyone hates—we’re trying to crush them, so what’s so wrong with that?!”
As the Consort sobbed with grief, she looked younger than ever before.
It was as if she had gone back to her childhood, releasing all the sorrow she hadn’t been able to express then.
Leonia, stunned, slowly released her grip.
The Consort’s condition was a mess.
She had a lump on her head from hitting the table, her lip was bleeding from biting it, and her once neatly arranged hair was completely tangled.
Her beautiful dress was stained with blood and torn in several places.
“There’s a big problem.”
Leonia tilted her head slightly.
“You were that angry, yet you don’t understand how I feel right now?”
“......”
“You’re doing the same thing.”
Putting someone’s mother, someone’s lover, in danger—selfishly.
Leonia stepped back and sheathed her sword, twisting her lips.
“You’re no different.”
She had thought it was just the face they shared. But even the repulsive nature of sacrificing others to reach their goal was exactly alike.
“Must be nice—being so similar within the family.”
Consort Usia’s face flushed red. She struggled to breathe, trembling from head to toe with rage at the most vile insult she had ever received.
Leonia, the one who had thrown those words, couldn’t care less.
“My lady!”
Just then, Manus appeared. His clothes were soaked with blood.
“It’s time for the noble council.”
“Really? Then let’s go.”
“The Revoo Knights have secured Kasus Palace.”
“I wonder if our booming knight is here too?”
Leonia sang the words excitedly.
Empress Tigria tilted her head. She still didn’t know that the “booming knight” was her second son, Scandia.
“Oh dear, where’s my mind today?”
Telling them to wait a moment, Leonia turned to Consort Usia to say her final farewell.
“I always repay what’s done to me a hundred times over. That’s how my dad raised me.”
Kindness—only to a reasonable degree.
Revenge—with everything I’ve got, in the worst way possible.
With that, Leonia headed toward Manus.
Then she called out past the door to the knights: “To Kasus Palace!”
“......Hah.”
The Empress, who had stood by watching, finally let out a long breath.
“Voreoti just gets more and more like that.”
Her voice was tinged with genuine regret. She muttered how their temper only seemed to worsen.
It stung more because, up until last year, that clever little girl had been so adorable.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
The Empress helped tidy up the Consort’s disheveled hair as she spoke.
“They’re the ones who will bring it all to an end.”
“You sound awfully calm about this.”
The Consort pushed away the Empress’s hand with a sharp tone.
The Empress smiled with her eyes. That was much more to her liking than fake courtesy.
“Voreoti is about to claim Meridio as Olor’s private army.”
It was a gentle explanation, but to Consort Usia, it was a cruel prophecy.
“W-What...!”
Despair returned to her wide eyes in an instant.
It was the greatest humiliation imaginable—for her, for Meridio, and for Aust.
“Olor will get rebellion added to his long list of crimes. And Meridio might be accused of conspiring with him...”
If that happened, Aust wouldn’t escape suspicion either.
“Amazing, isn’t it?”
The Empress praised Voreoti’s ruthlessness in turning others’ plans against them.
They were the kind of dangerous people you never wanted as enemies.
“To be honest, I’ve wished for the Empire’s collapse too.”
She signaled the maid behind her.
The maid went to a large painting hanging on the wall.
As she approached, a thin, square crack appeared beneath it. The crack widened and receded, forming a door.
When the maid opened it, a small tunnel of stone walls was revealed.
“But the Duke of Voreoti—ah, I suppose now he’s the former Duke?”
The Empress’s shoulders trembled as she recalled the young beast who had proudly worn his family crest.
“Anyway, that’s what he said.”
Even now, the Empress couldn’t believe it.
‘It’s better to manipulate the ones in charge from the shadows.’
The fate of the Empire had been decided that day—by the cunning preference of a seven-year-old child.
“So, Voreoti is my benefactor.”
The maid rotated the picture frame of the golden eagle flying through the sky.
When it changed to an image of the eagle plummeting, a heavy clunk echoed.
“As the Empress, I still need the Empire to survive.”
So I can hand the throne to my son.
“Now go. Take the wounded man with you.”
She nodded toward the passage.
The Consort groaned as she helped the injured knight up. Fortunately, he still had enough strength to walk.
But she didn’t enter the tunnel right away.
“That is...?”
“A secret passage, common in the palace.”
“You want me to... run away?”
“It’s the first and last gift I’ll give you.”
A sword had somehow appeared in the Empress’s hand.
Even the air seemed to split against the blade as it came free of its sheath.
“Keep going straight. You’ll reach the outside. There’s someone waiting for you there.”
“Your Majesty...”
“Calling me that won’t make me spare you.”
She chuckled as if to say there was no need for their parting to be sentimental.
“Oh, before that.”
Snip.
A flash of the blade—and green hair fell to the ground.
Startled, the Consort instinctively glared at the Empress.
She no longer had to feign calm or suppress her emotions.
“That’s your punishment for all the headaches you’ve caused me.”
“...Wasn’t it your husband who caused you more trouble?”
“You did too.”
With that, the Empress turned her back.
Whatever happened behind her now had nothing to do with her.

Chapter 240