I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 184

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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 184

12. Returning

Adeline became the Late Duke’s bride due to a chance encounter.

After the First Wife gave birth to Mikhail and passed away, the Duke left for recuperation due to a curse that was slowly consuming his body.

He decided to temporarily halt his duties and spend the summer at a lake near Layton Territory.

There, he met Raymond, the Baron who managed the lake.

“I’ll be staying here for a while.”

“Of course. What an honor it is to have the Duke visit us.”

The Duke, who had not yet been defeated by madness, was a rational and wise ruler.

Though their connection wasn’t deep, Raymond had secretly admired the Duke and welcomed his retreat with open arms.

The Duke decided to stay in a small mansion built as a villa in front of the lake.

Since the servants were also directly selected from the Layton Family, Raymond had nothing to do except lend the land.

They only met when Raymond visited to check on his well-being or when he was called to guide tours around the lake’s tourist spots.

Raymond inwardly wanted to build a friendship with the Duke, so he showed his disappointment.

Seeing this, his daughter Adeline sighed and said:

“Then move more actively, Father. If you want to escape from this stuffy countryside, you should at least be diligent. How long are you going to live just staring at herbs?”

Adeline was a brilliant and spirited child.

Unlike Raymond, who was absorbed in herbology, Adeline showed great interest in management and politics.

She began interfering in the family’s affairs from a young age, and by the time she became an adult, she had grown into a worker who knew the lake’s business better than Raymond.

For her, the Duke’s retreat was a golden opportunity.

“I want to make our lake the best tourist destination in the Western Region.”

“Isn’t that too big a dream? The lake is beautiful, but there are many tourist spots in the west…”

“You always make excuses like that. You should be moving instead of wasting time like this.”

Raymond’s excuses didn’t work on the confident Adeline.

Raymond worried that his pure daughter, who had never experienced failure, might get hurt when she entered the world, but this time he couldn’t stop her.

“I couldn’t even have a debutante ball, so I need to earn money and bring in a son-in-law. We have to continue the family line, don’t we?”

“That’s…”

For nobles without money and power, a debutante ball was a luxury.

The family was so poor they could barely make ends meet, so they couldn’t even give Adeline a proper dress.

The most precious item in the household was a pair of shoes left behind by Raymond’s wife.

Raymond tried to arrange a debutante opportunity even if it meant using the territory’s emergency funds, but Adeline strongly refused.

She said they should save and multiply their money instead, that now wasn’t the time to spend.

Countryside nobles who could disappear at any time, with only their names remaining on the registry. That was Raymond and Adeline’s reality.

That’s why the Duke choosing this place as his retreat was a golden opportunity.

They would ask the Duke for a recommendation letter and use it as a basis to receive investment.

Since the natural scenery was beautiful, if they developed it as a tourist destination, it would become a better territory than it was now.

He couldn’t bring himself to stop Adeline as she drew such hopeful blueprints.

“If Father won’t step forward, then I will. It’s okay! The Duke will surely appreciate the charm of our lake too!”

After speaking boldly, Adeline went to meet the Duke carrying an armful of the lake’s local specialties.

Raymond prayed that the Duke wouldn’t be angered, but Adeline actually returned carrying an armful of gifts.

Presenting expensive food ingredients and silk that made one’s eyes widen, Adeline spoke in a bewildered voice.

“He, he told me to visit often?”

Surprisingly, the Duke seemed to have taken a liking to Adeline.

“Your daughter is… quite full of vitality.”

Adeline was intelligent, but had somewhat clumsy aspects.

She heard rumors that the Duke liked fruits and visited with the lake’s specialty fruits, but what he actually liked wasn’t fruit but fruit wine.

When she heard he liked watching the lake in the morning, she made plans to watch the morning sun together, but she misjudged the weather and they ended up taking a walk in the rain under umbrellas.

Raymond expected the Duke to be furious and scold her, but somehow he silently overlooked Adeline’s mistakes.

Rather, he encouraged her visits.

He said having her by his side made him less lonely, and that she could visit anytime, even giving her gifts.

Raymond couldn’t understand the reason, but when such kindness continued throughout the summer, he too caught on.

That the Duke had come to love Adeline.

“Father, I… want to visit Layton Territory.”

And the fact that Adeline too had developed feelings for him.

“Adeline, I wish for your happiness. But that place is too grand for us. Father fears what kind of wounds you might receive there.”

“I know, Father. It’s obvious that a countryside noble would be looked down upon in Layton. But… I want to go.”

“What about your dream of making this place the best tourist destination?”

“I will return. Without fail.”

Adeline’s eyes still shone brilliantly.

She was overflowing with confidence as if failure couldn’t exist before her, and at the same time, affection for her first love could be felt.

“I won’t abandon my hometown. When the time comes, I’ll return to fulfill my dream and make Father happy.”

“Then, why on earth…”

“Right now, he needs me.”

Adeline explained the Duke’s current situation, saying it must never be told to anyone else.

As the sun grew longer, the Duke’s mind became increasingly depressed.

Sometimes he showed violence, using mysterious powers to drive away the servants.

The only person who could stop this was Adeline alone.

When Adeline called his name, he would regain his reason and apologize desperately.

I’m sorry, it’s all my fault.

Please, don’t leave my side.

Though she didn’t know who he was speaking to, hearing those words, Adeline couldn’t bring herself to push him away.

“It seems he’s under a curse. I’ll stay by his side only until I can cure it.”

“Is there a way to cure it? No, maybe it’s not a curse but just his mind…”

“Father.”

To Raymond, who was anxious about sending his precious daughter down a thorny path, Adeline spoke firmly.

“He is normal. And even if he’s not, I will make him so.”

“…”

A dazzling child.

She was his own daughter, but how could she be so brilliant?

Unlike Raymond, who adapted to his surroundings and gave up on progress, Adeline never gave up on her potential.

In his heart, he wanted to say it was just a fleeting love of one season, a memory that would fade with time.

But Father could never bring himself to stop his daughter who was setting out to find her own happiness.

And before long, he bitterly regretted that choice.

Raymond came to feel deeply that the beginning of all disaster was his own permission.

* * *

“Adeline held a wedding ceremony with the Late Duke.”

Looking at Wilhelmina, whose face had turned pale white from shock, Raymond calmly continued his story.

Helene, who had already heard this fact, tightly closed her eyes and turned her head away as if it was painful to listen.

“It wasn’t a blessed wedding. Her maternal family were countryside nobles, and there was nothing to speak of as a dowry. Moreover, since it was also the Late Duke’s remarriage, few relatives came to congratulate them.”

Since the Late Duke’s first wife was of Imperial Family origin, his second marriage was not celebrated by the Capital nobles or even the Western Nobles who had to mind the Emperor’s opinion.

In the end, only about ten guests attended the wedding, making it unimaginably small-scale for a Duke’s Estate wedding.

But Adeline didn’t mind.

With a smile across her face and still confident expression, she demonstrated that she was happy.

“After seeing that sight, I returned to the lake. There was no point in staying there as I would only be a burden to that child. Even if Adeline never returned to the lake, I thought it would be enough if that child was happy.”

Several years passed like that. On a day when Raymond had also grown accustomed to living alone, news from Adeline suddenly stopped.

She was a daughter who never forgot her father.

Contact would come at least once a week at the shortest, or once a month at the longest.

Thinking it might be the Delivery Person’s mistake, he questioned him harshly and even visited the Letter Exchange Office, but after a couple of months, it was concluded that no letters had even been sent.

Raymond hurriedly headed to Layton Territory.

Holding an armful of letters Adeline had written, he knocked on the Castle Gate to meet his daughter.

But what came back was…

“News that no such woman existed in the Duke’s Estate.”

The conclusion was that Adeline had disappeared from the Noble Registry.

“No matter how much I shouted that it couldn’t be true, the Knights wouldn’t let me in. Sensing something strange, I hurriedly went to find the Imperial Administrator, but he said the same thing. That there was no one in your family except you. That a girl named Adeline had never existed.”

The child he had lived with for decades had disappeared from the world.

Raymond could not accept the fact that the most brilliant and beloved child under the sky had vanished without leaving even a single strand of hair.

Unable to even think of returning to the lake, he went back to the Duke’s Estate.

“I knocked on the Castle Gate countless times, crying out for my daughter. I showed up at the castle every day. I shouted, begging them to please let me see my daughter, to let me meet the Duke. …They ignored me to the very end.”

“…At that time, she was already…”

“Yes, in fact, my daughter had already left this world long ago. I learned that fact from a certain Page Boy.”

It was a Page Boy who cleaned the Annex Garden.

That child, who frequented the slums, came to find Raymond, saying he had once received potatoes from Adeline.

The season at that time was winter.

Raymond had long since become a ragged wretch from trudging through snow paths to visit the Castle Gate every day.

The Page Boy who cautiously approached him revealed the hidden truth.

“Over the past few years, she was abused countless times by the Late Duke.”

Though the page boy had only been coming and going from the annex building for about a year, he clearly remembered the rumors he had heard.

The Late Duke, whose madness had begun to take hold, would beat and humiliate Adeline almost daily.

He threw the black tea she had brewed at her face because he didn’t like it, cursed at her not to speak in such an unpleasant voice beside him, and cut off her hair because he didn’t like her appearance.

The abuse was so cruel and degrading that it was difficult for a child to even hear about.

Raymond was about to ask why no one helped Adeline, but soon realized the reality.

In Layton Territory, the Late Duke was like a god. No one could go against his word.

Running away was also impossible. The annex building deep within the castle was truly a prison.

“And Adeline never lost her conviction. Even while being hurt like that, she steadfastly raised her voice.”

‘The Duchess… kept shouting. To come to his senses, to remember her.’

“The funny thing is, her words actually brought him to his senses.”

As Adeline said, her voice awakened the Late Duke countless times.

For brief moments, the Late Duke loved Adeline so deeply in his heart that he could push away the madness.

Each time, the Late Duke would cry and apologize.

He would desperately embrace her, personally treat her wounds with healing, and kiss her while promising never to lose himself again.

But that didn’t last long either.

The madness tormented him again, and those periods grew longer and longer.

“Eventually, the Late Duke made a decision. If things continued this way, she might fear him and leave. So he had to bind her so she couldn’t return anywhere.”

That method was erasing her records from the registry.

So that she couldn’t live anywhere in the Empire unless she was his wife, so that she couldn’t escape from him, he erased Adeline’s existence and confined her in the annex building.

This is your home. I am your only family. You are Adeline ‘Layton’.

The woman the Late Duke Nikolai loved most was thus swallowed up deep within the annex building.

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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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