The Beloved Youngest Daughter of the Lord Family - Chapter 12
At that moment, Sione was climbing a treacherous snowy mountain alone to meet her master.
Wearing tall boots to ward off the cold and wrapped tightly in a thick cloak, she looked every bit the traveler.
As she pressed onward across the softly snow-laden ground, Sione suddenly halted and gazed up at the towering snowy peaks.
“To set up residence in such a remote place—just as expected from that eccentric old man.”
After Vlad’s formal coronation in his youth,
her master Elga relinquished all the honors and authority bestowed upon her and quietly left the royal capital.
At the time, Elga carried only a small travel bag—nothing more.
For a hero who had ended centuries of brutal racial warfare and enjoyed the full trust of the previous Lord, it was an astonishingly modest retirement.
“Are you really leaving just like this? What about the Royal Mage Corps you spent so long cultivating?”
“The war is over. And the Mage Corps holds far too much power. It’s best to disband it early. Left as it is, it’ll only become a playground for those in power.”
“But then… what will become of the royal mages?”
“Figure it out yourselves. I have no intention of looking after the young ones.”
Sione sighed deeply, recalling her master—so small and cute she barely reached Sione’s waist.
Despite her youthful appearance, her age and speech marked her as an old woman, yet her skill vastly surpassed Sione’s own, always leaving her with a strange, simmering frustration.
“So where will you go now?”
“Who knows? I’ll just wander wherever my feet take me. Somewhere quiet in the north, I suppose—I can’t stand people coming and going.”
“…So you won’t even accept my letters?”
“If I feel like I might die tomorrow, I’ll send you a letter or two. I suppose I could even leave you my meager estate.”
After Elga’s departure, the powerful Royal Mage Corps was disbanded and merged into the Royal Knights under Lord’s command.
During that transition, Sione volunteered for the military rather than the knights, earning fame through countless minor and major conflicts.
Though she now served as Bella’s governess in Rose Palace rather than as a soldier, her path in life owed greatly to the influence of her master Elga.
Calling them master and disciple was merely formal—truthfully, she was no different from Elga’s adopted daughter.
“If not for Master, I never would’ve learned magic.”
It was Elga herself who took in the orphaned Sione as a nursing infant during the long war between demons and humans.
Sione had grown up dreaming of becoming a mage by watching Elga, and she respected her master above all others.
Yet Elga had abruptly left the capital one day without so much as a proper farewell, and for hundreds of years, not a single message had come—leaving Sione thoroughly exasperated.
“Is that it?”
Elga’s cabin, situated well past the mountain’s mid-slope, shifted its location daily through teleportation magic.
Its position changed each time, making the journey to find it anything but ordinary.
It wasn’t mere misanthropy; there had to be a deeper reason.
“Master, I’ve come.”
As Sione knocked on the door, exhaling white breath, a small, adorable girl appeared with a creak of the hinges.
“You’re early. At your age, how can your steps be so slow?”
Sione sighed deeply at Elga’s tsks of disapproval.
Anyone would mistake her for her youngest sister—her master looked that young.
Listening patiently to the old woman’s grumbling made her feel utterly drained.
“Master, you tangled the teleportation runes so intricately I took ages just to find the cabin. You knew I was coming—was that really necessary?”
“Hmph! A test was needed. People grow useless if they’re always relaxed.”
As Sione brushed snow from her coat by the hearth, she wore a look of disbelief.
Only someone of her skill could manage it—ordinary mages would’ve perished long before reaching this peak.
The mountain was too perilous and the weather too unpredictable for common travelers.
“I don’t have much time, Master. I must finish quickly and return to Rose Palace.”
“Youngsters are useless, I tell you. Is that really how you speak to your elder after coming all this way? So heartless.”
“If we’re comparing heartlessness, Master, you and I aren’t so different.”
“Now you’re talking back?”
Elga grumbled a few more words, then waved her hand through the air, casting a spell.
At her gesture, soup rose from a large pot by the hearth, and warm tea poured itself into a chipped, aged cup.
“Sit and have some tea first. Your business will be over soon enough.”
Sione gave a wry smile as she looked at the table set with a clearly long-simmered potato soup and fragrant black tea.
She was as emotionally guarded as ever—just like in the old days.
“So, is that little brat Bella still giggling away as usual?”
At her master’s question, Sione set down her teacup with a soft clink.
“No real improvement yet. The mana crystal helps her manage daily life, but… she still faints occasionally.”
She let out a light sigh, thinking of the petite, adorable little lady of Rose Palace plagued by her chronic illness.
Even Elga’s prized dragon mana crystal—one of the most cherished items from her magical vault—had proven insufficient to meet Bella’s growing mana needs.
Despite two of the kingdom’s finest mages working together, they remained frustratingly short of a solution.
“Why not just hunt a few high-tier demons near the border and feed them to her? You’re taking the hard path when the easy one lies right there.”
“…Lady Bella dislikes demon cuisine. If you put that on her table, she wouldn’t even touch it.”
In truth, many within the kingdom refused to consume raw demons.
Tastes naturally varied, after all.
Though numerous recipes existed to prepare demon meat suitably for human consumption, the poor princess wouldn’t even try those.
She reacted to the faint fishy odor in demon blood just like an ordinary human—perhaps even more strongly.
“That is strange. While rare cases exist among purebreds, it’s unusual for a child in her growth phase to reject it so strongly. Usually, they lose control and start biting those around them.”
Elga was referring to vampire rampages.
Mana deficiency inevitably led to withdrawal symptoms, and rampaging vampires—deprived of reason—would hunt not just demons or humans but even their own kin.
The vampire massacre tales passed down in human villages were precisely such cases.
“Just thinking about it is horrifying.”
Sione shook her head roughly, banishing the brief, dreadful image of her beloved charge turning into a mad beast.
“Lady Bella may be young, but she is wise beyond her years. She is of Lord and Daphne’s bloodline—such a thing will never happen.”
“That’s exactly why it’s more dangerous. You’re practically carrying a time bomb in the body of a two- or three-year-old. We can’t afford another stain on the Chepesu royal house.”
Sione frowned, realizing what her master was alluding to.
Roan, Lord Vlad’s half-brother and rival for the throne,
was counted among the most horrific royals in Chepesu’s history—he slaughtered nearly a thousand of his own kin for mana amplification experiments.
Ultimately, Roan’s experiments failed, and the unnatural mana he manipulated triggered severe rampages.
As Roan laid waste to Chepesu and human villages alike, Vlad could no longer stand by and finally eliminated him with his own hands.
Long since passed, Roan’s tale had become a buried shame of the Chepesu royal family.
“Don’t compare Lady Bella to that monstrous brute. Even if you are my master, some things I cannot tolerate.”
“Hah! You’ll hit me now, will you? Who changed your diapers, fed you, and taught you magic?”
“…How long do you plan to keep bringing that up?”
Though Sione wore an exasperated expression, Elga began lamenting tearfully—how she’d raised her on her own, how difficult it had been raising a child in such a delicate, girl-like body.
Feeling like a marriageable maiden dragged before a senile grandmother, Sione drained the now-cold tea and rose from her seat.
“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll take my leave. After the recent assassination attempt, I can’t be away long.”
“Just whose temper did you inherit, anyway?”
She desperately wanted to snap, “Whose do you think?” but swallowed the words with effort.
“Sit back down. I think I’ve finally found a way to raise your precious little princess properly.”
“…Is that truly possible?”
Seeing Sione’s skeptical look, Elga merely shrugged.
“It’s less a surefire solution and more a last resort.”
“Please explain in more detail.”
A growing vampire child’s mana needs could not be met indirectly.
This was especially true for one of Lord’s bloodline.
Even ordinary vampires barely met their growth-phase mana needs by directly consuming demons—how much more so a child born of a ruler’s blood?
Thus, Elga’s solution involved drawing mana not from demons, but from a demonkin of a very specific bloodline.
“Demonkin? Surely you’re not suggesting we offer a human in place of demon meat for Lady Bella?”
“Tch! Impatient as ever. Who said anything about eating people? Hear me out.”
“…If not that, then what?”
“Have you ever heard of human-demonkin hybrids?”
Benians—the rare hybrid race born of high-tier demonkin and humans.
With dark russet skin and golden eyes, they were treated as mutants, ostracized by both humans and demonkin alike.
Rumors claimed they hid near the dimensional gate leading to the Demon Realm, but few had ever seen one.
Benian blood was considered a medicinal treasure, so rare and valuable that wealthy demonkin collected them as curiosities for their beautiful, unique appearances.
Always hunted, Benians survived in harsh conditions, with only a handful making it to adulthood.
Though bearing demonkin blood, genetic flaws left them entirely unable to use magic, and their lifespans matched those of ordinary humans—making mere survival an immense struggle.
“I heard almost none survive. Many are killed by their human parent even before birth.”
“Precisely. Demonkin usually ignore children born through humans. And blending into human society is impossible—so survival chances are near zero. Their unusual power and appearance make them stand out too much.”
“…You’re telling me this now because you’ve found where Benians are, aren’t you?”
Elga nodded, satisfied that Sione had guessed correctly.
“It seems Vlad’s army is stationed near there. If we can find a Benian and bring them to the capital, that child Bella might yet be saved.”
“Would Lord… agree to that?”
“Not sure. But if I ask, he’ll find it hard to refuse. In a way, I ended up secluded in this mountain corner because of him.”
Sione quickly nodded, sensing an unspoken arrangement between Elga and Vlad.
“Then I’ll leave it to you. Lord seems to dislike me anyway.”
“Tsk tsk—I’d feel the same. It’s like your closest subordinate stabbed you in the back. Honestly.”
She wanted to protest—how deciding to protect his daughter instead of serving him directly could possibly be betrayal—but held her tongue.
After all, it was she herself who had forsaken her position among Vlad’s retainers to stand by his newborn daughter.
“Now that we’re done talking, you may go. Don’t forget to take this—it’s yours.”
Elga tossed her a pair of gloves, imbued with warming magic.
Not ordinary gloves—they bore a permanent, high-tier artifact-grade enchantment.
“Aren’t these quite valuable? From someone who goes mad for magical tools… Could you already be losing your wits?”
“Losing my wits? Are you quite finished?”
After another round of scolding from her master—who looked no older than a girl—Sione finally fled the cabin, feeling as though blood might pour from her ears.
Watching her disciple’s back slowly vanish into the heavy snowfall, Elga murmured quietly,
“That girl needs to learn to care for herself once in a while…”
How long would she keep sacrificing for others?
Tsk tsk—Elga clicked her tongue and stepped back inside, where a warm oil lamp flickered gently.
Soon after, a fierce snowstorm swept through, and the cabin where the two had met vanished without a trace.
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Woww, what a great father he is.
Claimed to love the mother, but ignored their own child…. how great.
Oh, what’s happening? My poor baby Bella! I hope someone comes to help her quickly 😭💔