I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 183

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I’m a Mother-in-Law, But I Don’t Want Family Conflicts Episode 183

I had to explain to her that she had no duty called sacrifice.

And I wanted to tell her that it was natural for her to hate me, that she didn’t need to feel guilty about it.

But before that, Helene’s muttered words stopped me from speaking.

“And that is… the settlement I must make as the Lady of the House.”

‘Settlement?’

Come to think of it, the word settlement had been bothering me continuously.

I understood that she considered it a sin to have ignored Mikhail’s curse and killed the Late Duke.

But that didn’t make it ‘a settlement for Raymond.’

I thought Raymond was taking revenge on the Layton Family because he held a grudge against the Late Duke.

Then was Helene’s settlement about the Late Duke’s sins?

‘No way, if we’re going by that logic, there wouldn’t be just one or two things to settle.’

Even Helene, who was loyal to Father, had killed him because she considered the Late Duke a tyrant.

Using the word settlement because of resentment toward him didn’t make sense.

‘There must be circumstances about Raymond that I don’t know. That’s what shook Helene.’

I stared at Raymond’s back as he stood in front of the cemetery.

“Raymond, what do you want from Helene?”

“…I told you this is something you two must resolve.”

“I want to know your purpose.”

Raymond’s shoulders twitched briefly.

“What are you saying after coming this far. Don’t you already know? I am going to destroy the Layton Family…”

“What caused you to hate the Layton Family? By doing this, what grudge are you trying to settle?”

“…”

Raymond slowly turned his head.

He looked at me once with dry eyes devoid of emotion, then spoke quietly.

“I have no obligation to answer.”

I suppose so.

I clicked my tongue briefly at his firmness that didn’t allow questions.

Raymond was different from the others I had met. He had no intention of explaining his circumstances.

I might have had a chance if I had collapsed his plan first and then threatened him, but the sword hilt was practically in his hands.

Unless Helene changed her mind, I had no proper cards to play.

I glanced at Helene with her downcast eyes.

She too seemed to have nothing more to say to me, keeping her mouth tightly shut.

For her, the lament from earlier must have been an act that destroyed her pride.

Helene needed time to compose herself.

‘The fact that Raymond won’t answer rashly means this isn’t an ordinary grudge.’

It was an obvious fact that didn’t require deduction.

He was said to be a pharmacist and doctor who served by the Late Duke’s side. Raymond wasn’t the only servant who suffered oppression and abuse by his side.

According to Anna, the annex building was like hell for the servants at that time.

I shouldn’t say “merely,” but the persecution he suffered while working there seemed somewhat insufficient cause for orchestrating all of this.

There must be something that motivated that cold and meticulous man to act.

‘Let me think carefully. What has Raymond been doing all this time?’

If he won’t answer, I have no choice but to find clues in his actions.

From the time he was expelled from the Layton Family and used Johan to explore the annex building in a corner of the territory, to when he bought me and transported me to the Late Duke, and recently when he used Blackhand in the capital…

While I was reminiscing about the past, Raymond walked toward Helene.

At some point he had taken it out, and a black book was held in his arms.

Realizing that book belonged to Oberon, I understood he was about to execute his plan.

Raymond, who had been walking slowly, looked down at my feet and said.

“It would be better not to move any more. You might injure your legs.”

“…Thank you for your concern.”

“If you promise to return to the annex building, I’ll release the magic only around that area.”

“Then could you release it? I’ll go back right away.”

“…No, never mind. That’s a lie. You’d better just watch from there.”

He clicked his tongue briefly and turned his gaze away. At that sight, I suddenly remembered what Mikhail had said in the capital.

The assumption that Raymond’s reason for staging the kidnapping was actually to save me.

‘Then, wouldn’t he want me to be safe even now?’

Come to think of it, even just a moment ago I was confined using sleeping gas, but I wasn’t bound with chains or handcuffs.

Despite all that had happened, I didn’t have a single injury.

“Ugh…!”

As soon as I finished thinking, I forcibly moved my feet.

The power of magic was greater than I thought, and my feet stuck tight like they were caught in glue, not budging at all.

The magic seemed to be applied below the knees, and when I tried to move forcibly, pain shot through my waist and thighs.

“Stop it. You can’t break free with your strength.”

Raymond frowned and glared at me.

He seemed to be acting like he was casually trying to advise me, but he couldn’t hide the panic and worry that seeped into his voice.

‘My guess was right. Raymond is trying to protect me.’

At first, I thought it was just sympathy between victims who had suffered at the hands of the ducal house.

But this made it clear. He definitely had a special reason to protect me.

It bothered me that the way to prove this was through threats using my own body, but this wasn’t the time to be picky about methods.

The moment that black book opens and Mikhail arrives, the Layton Family will be finished.

“Ugh, ahhh…!”

When I moved my legs with all my strength, bizarre sounds began coming from my knees.

A sound like bending fingers to pop the air bubbles in joints echoed throughout the temple interior.

The faces of Helene and Raymond, who realized I was serious, turned deathly pale.

“Mother, please stop!”

“Your legs will break. Even if you move, nothing will change!”

Perhaps because she was flustered, Helene’s way of addressing me had returned to normal.

That fact made me so happy I almost smiled, but I exercised patience and held back.

Raymond began walking toward me again. I looked up at him, breaking out in cold sweat.

“You must have heard Helene Layton’s true feelings. Even if you approach her, nothing will change. What can you possibly do with that frail body of yours?”

“I can break my own body.”

“How foolish…”

“If you want to stop me, then speak.”

Raymond was right. Even if I forcibly broke free from the magic, nothing would change.

Even if I clung to Helene, she would easily subdue me, and if I tried to run away to call for help, I’d be caught by the traitors.

All I had left were persuasion and threats.

Then I needed clues I hadn’t yet obtained.

Why Helene spoke of liquidation, and…

“What’s your purpose? What’s the cause of your hatred toward the Layton Family?”

“…Are you sacrificing your leg for such a trivial secret?”

“Whether I sacrifice it or not depends on you. You wouldn’t just leave it alone anyway, would you?”

Raymond pressed his lips tightly shut.

Seeing his eyebrows trembling slightly, it seemed he couldn’t hide his true feelings.

“I don’t understand why you go this far. Is this family so precious to you? Someone like you could live in a better world without receiving such treatment…”

“Don’t carelessly judge my family. Just as I don’t know your Layton, you also don’t know my Layton.”

“…”

Whether it was admiration or anger, he glared at me with eyes swirling with complex emotions.

We confronted each other like that for a long while. Just as I was about to move my leg again, thinking Raymond wouldn’t speak until the end.

“…Do you know the rules of the Noble Registry?”

Finally, he began to speak.

“You mean the registry managed by the Imperial Palace?”

“Yes. The registry that contains all noble families and direct family members of the Empire, handled directly by His Imperial Majesty.”

It was a fact known to all imperial nobles. Just as family registers existed in the modern world, this world had the Noble Registry for nobles.

It was managed directly by the Imperial Family, and modifications were only possible with the Emperor’s permission—the most important record after the Empire’s history books.

“Once a name is written there, it cannot be erased no matter what happens. Even if someone falls from nobility to commoner status, the record remains.”

That was also natural.

That’s why Chloe’s case became famous for being exceptional.

Usually, even when divorce, disownment, or social downfall occurred, traces of having existed in the family would remain.

“What are you trying to say? What does that registry have to do with your grudge?”

“My daughter was deleted from the Noble Registry. Her birth date, family names, everything vanished. As if she had never been born.”

“…What?”

Erasure of existence records.

At this tremendous act that couldn’t even be compared to marriage annulment, I looked at Raymond with disbelieving eyes.

He continued his explanation in the same tone as if reading passages from a book.

“Thanks to that, after That Child died, I couldn’t even hold a funeral for her. Not only was a noble funeral impossible, but I couldn’t even receive the body to make a coffin. Since That Child was never born, she couldn’t die either.”

“Who would do such a thing…”

I asked reflexively, but the answer was already predetermined.

“The Late Duke, Nikolai.”

Raymond’s target of resentment. Nikolai Philip Layton.

“Are you saying that the Late Duke killed your daughter and deleted the records?”

“The opposite. He deleted the records first, then murdered her. He probably made some kind of deal with the Previous Emperor. They were political enemies and allies at the same time.”

Before I could ask why he would do such a thing, Mikhail’s past words flashed through my mind.

‘Many of Father’s subordinates had their identities erased. Father didn’t trust people easily, so he thoroughly made his subordinates his own before using them.’

I thought it meant erasing the past, but could it have meant deletion from the registry?

But nobles were rare among the servants in the annex building. Commoners wouldn’t be recorded in registries anyway.

Those listed in registries would be knights, butlers, and members of the ducal family…

“Ah.”

At that moment, the worst assumption came to mind.

The scattered clues came together to present a plausible conclusion. I didn’t want to imagine it, but my mind had already begun deriving the answer.

Raymond had a daughter. A person who was deleted from the registry and made to not exist.

It was the Late Duke who erased her existence and murdered her.

And last summer, I had coincidentally learned about a certain woman.

Her records had disappeared even from the Duke’s Estate, leaving only rumors among the servants that such a person had existed – ‘The Wife Whose Name Disappeared.’

The owner of the old painting I found in the underground secret room of the annex building.

[For my beloved wife, XXXX – Nikolai Philip.]

The second wife with the same face as mine, whose name had been erased.

The conditions that were too coincidental, the puzzle pieces of different colors but similar shapes, finally fit together.

The daughter whose records disappeared. The father who wanted to avenge his daughter, Raymond.

The second wife forgotten by the family. And Wilhelmina Layton, who looked exactly like her.

Finally, Raymond’s inexplicable kindness in trying to protect Wilhelmina.

Raymond, standing before my frozen form, bowed his head and met my gaze.

“Perceptive one, it’s exactly as you think. My daughter is Nikolai’s second wife, ‘Adeline Layton.'”

My clever and lovely daughter, who looked just like you.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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