I Became the Male Lead’s Adopted Daughter
Chapter 211

Standing a cautious distance apart with the estate gate between them, Leonia was the first to speak.

“You came again today?”

“Ah, a-ah! Y-yes...!”

Remus stammered, clearly caught off guard that she had addressed him. Then he stood there, staring at her across the gate for a long while.

Soon, a bright smile spread across his face.

“Why did you come?”

Leonia, in contrast, didn’t smile at all.

“Well, because I’m your father.”

He spoke with a tender voice, saying he had come because he missed his one and only daughter. Leonia furrowed her brow in distaste.

‘Hold it in...!’

She drew in a long breath, forcing herself to endure.

It had been a while since her Fangs of the Beast nearly ran wild. She would’ve been justified, but the baby beast held it back.

She looked around cautiously. Remus observed her movements closely.

After confirming there was no one nearby, Leonia lowered her voice and asked:

“Are you really... my father?”

At that question, the corners of Remus’s lips curved upward.

‘She’s wavering.’

He judged that the girl was confused by the existence of her biological father.

When they met at the imperial palace, she had been arrogant to the point of insolence. Now, she was avoiding attention and showing anxiety.

That had to mean she was struggling # Nоvеlight # to deny the truth.

And yet—she came to see him.

Remus’s smile deepened.

“The swan necklace you wear—that’s proof.”

He was increasingly convinced that he truly was her father.

“That was my aunt’s keepsake.”

“That necklace is proof that Regina and I loved each other.”

The truth was, he had lost it when he secretly snuck into the North.

He didn’t realize it was missing until he returned to the capital. Apparently, Regina had kept it hidden all along.

Thinking of it now, he felt both betrayed and lucky—because that necklace had made everything unfold so smoothly.

But Leonia continued to glare at him with wary eyes.

She had tensed up so much that the lion plushie in her arms had become wrinkled from her grip.

“Tell me a little about your childhood. How was it with Regina?”

“I don’t remember my childhood. My earliest memory is from living in the orphanage.”

“The orphanage?”

“Teacher Connie took care of me there.”

“Connie? Who’s that?”

“She was a teacher at the orphanage. She protected me. Brown hair, and her face was...”

Leonia described Connie’s appearance in detail.

Remus’s expression twisted slightly. But he quickly collected himself. His facial muscles moved faster than a fly’s wings.

He now took on the role of the most sorrowful, grieving man in the world.

“...I see.”

He nodded, as if piecing something together.

“Leo, we’ve been deceived.”

“Deceived?”

“Connie isn’t the kind of person you think she is.”

Remus revealed what he knew.

“She’s the one who killed Regina.”

“...”

“The name Connie is fake.”

He claimed her real name was Saura, a wretched woman who would do anything for money.

“I still trusted Saura. Even when I had no choice but to leave Regina’s side, I left Saura with her. Because... Saura liked me.”

His voice grew more impassioned, as if he truly felt betrayed by her.

“And how exactly did she kill her?”

But Leonia wasn’t so easily convinced.

“My aunt also had the Fangs of the Beast. A Voreoti with Fangs isn’t easy to kill.”

“She could still be killed.”

Remus’s red eyes flickered with something strange. Then he smiled softly.

Leonia involuntarily swallowed. A chill swept over her at the eerie discomfort.

But at the same time—she rejoiced inwardly.

‘That bastard...!’

Remus had finally exposed his tail.

And not just a small tail, either.

“The Fangs of the Beast are powerful, yes. But a Voreoti who has them is still human. It may be harder than with others, but killing them isn’t impossible.”

The tail he revealed was massive. Big enough to threaten other prey—bold and fat with deception.

Leonia was so thrilled that a smile began to creep onto her face.

But she quickly bit the inside of her cheek to hide it.

“She probably used poison.”

But at his next words, her smile faded without any effort at all.

“A Voreoti killed by poison?”

Leonia’s doubt wasn’t an act.

In the original novel, the Fangs of the Beast were described as the most overpowered ability, saturated with author favoritism.

Those who possessed the Fangs had physically enhanced bodies.

Ferio himself had said many times during training that those with the Fangs wouldn’t die from ordinary wounds or poisons.

‘Right, under normal circumstances...’

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t die.

And yet, Regina had been killed by Saura.

Leonia’s eyes shook violently.

She quickly slapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping. The plush lion doll dropped to the ground.

‘So she kept trying to kill her... until she finally succeeded?’

Even someone who wouldn’t die easily—Saura had kept trying until death came.

“...It’s a shock, isn’t it?”

Remus’s voice reached her ears.

Despite the distance between them—and the heavy iron gate standing in the way—his voice pierced through clearly.

“The Fangs of the Beast weaken visibly at certain times.”

He whispered a secret.

“It happens during pregnancy.”

“Pregnancy?”

Leonia’s eyes narrowed. She had never heard of that before.

“Maybe it’s to protect the baby in the womb... But when a Voreoti woman with the Fangs becomes pregnant, her power is cut nearly in half.”

“...”

“And you know what’s even stranger? A Voreoti man’s power also weakens when his wife is pregnant.”

It was unbelievable. Leonia’s eyes trembled, and her breath caught in her throat.

The Fangs, which had been twitching with tension since she first saw Remus, reacted sharply now.

He was telling the truth.

Leonia was genuinely shocked to learn such an unexpected weakness.

‘So she’s not pregnant yet.’

Meanwhile, Remus had gleaned a new piece of information.

If Varia were pregnant, Leonia would have responded much more calmly. But her visibly shaken reaction proved this was the first she’d heard of it.

“I know many things.”

“...”

“Regina loved me. That’s why she trusted me and told me.”

“...”

“Leona, won’t you trust this father of yours?”

Remus reached out through the bars.

But Leonia looked at his hand and smirked.

Her reaction caught him off guard. He looked startled.

Watching him, Leonia said:

“My mom really was a good person.”

To have given two middle fingers to trash like you.

Muttering to herself, Leonia picked up the dropped plushie and turned back toward the estate.

Remus shrugged as if there was nothing he could do.

“I’ll have to teach her proper manners.”

To think a daughter would be so rude to her father.

He muttered that such behavior would never be tolerated in House Olor, and finally left the Voreoti estate.

As he climbed into his carriage, a smug smile spread across his face—one born from imagining the profit he would reap from the upcoming Ceremony of Honor.

There was no way that was the face of a father thinking of the daughter he’d only just learned existed.

And in the office, watching from the window, Ferio twisted one corner of his lips.

“What a fucking joke.”

“The young lady is truly incredible,”

Lupe murmured beside him, still peering through his binoculars.

Ferio could see everything clearly thanks to the Fangs of the Beast, but as an ordinary person, Lupe needed binoculars just to guess what was happening.

“Her acting was flawless.”

“There’s nothing she can’t do.”

She is my daughter. Ferio smiled proudly.

Beside them on the windowsill sat a small stone with tiny holes.

It was a magical tool, capable of eavesdropping on conversations from afar.

One of the paired stones was hidden inside the loose dress Leonia had worn.

Through that stone, Ferio and Lupe had heard the entire exchange between Leonia and Remus.

“...But did Madam really give him the finger?”

“She’s too kind.”

Ferio grumbled.

“She gave him two fingers.”

“Madam...”

Lupe murmured with sympathy. It really seemed like there was something ominous about the name Voreoti.

He had thought a woman of great strength had married into House Voreoti—but now he realized it was just another Voreoti drawn to a fellow beast.

But that wasn’t the most important thing now.

“Duke, is that story true?”

“What story.”

“About... pregnancy...”

Lupe asked cautiously, and a look of irritation clearly spread across Ferio’s face.

The Fangs of the Beast were a mysterious power passed solely through blood.

Because of that, they were less understood than ora or mana, and sometimes came with laughably strange limitations.

For example, that their side effects resembled drug side effects.

That if the bearer’s physical condition was poor, they couldn’t use the Fangs’ full power.

And, as Remus had said—pregnancy could weaken the power.

That last one was the most tightly guarded secret within House Voreoti.

Only those who had inherited the Fangs knew of it.

Because it was the one and only weakness of the so-called strongest black beasts.

‘Even Regina didn’t know...’

Regina had the Fangs of the Beast, but she hadn’t known this.

She had run away before she could be taught.

At the time, she was only sixteen, and the previous Duke had planned to tell her once she was ready for marriage.

But Remus knew.

“How does he know that?”

“The answer’s obvious.”

Ferio murmured.

Just then, the office door burst open.

Leonia, now dressed in her usual shirt and pants, scoffed.

“That pedophile must’ve figured it out when he snuck into the North.”

While investigating the Voreoti estate and the Northern Mountains under orders from the late emperor, Remus must’ve discovered something.

“Actually, it works to our advantage.”

Leonia grinned.

“At the Ceremony of Honor, it might not just be Olor we get to crush.”