I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 218

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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 218

Until now, the mansion had been managed by the Imperial Palace, but now that no one came and went, dust had accumulated.

Since it was evening, the corridor was quite dark.

I was thinking about whether I should buy some candles when Helene pulled out a ring from her bosom.

“It has illumination magic cast on it. It will emit light when worn.”

As expected of my daughter-in-law, she was well-prepared.

When I put the slightly loose ring on my ring finger, it illuminated the surroundings like a torch.

I slowly headed toward my destination, the kitchen.

“Helene, let’s suppose there’s a villain trying to devour a noble family.”

“…Yes.”

Though it was a sudden topic, Helene nodded with a serious expression.

“He deceived the Family Head to usurp that position, and planned to use his noble status to commit all sorts of illegal acts. But one day, the Family Head’s daughter tried to do something bizarre.”

It was a form that allowed the Family Head to arbitrarily delete family members, called ‘Proposal for Improvement and Revision of the Noble Registry.’

The name was just long, but in effect it was the same as an application form for family register deletion.

When this form book was discovered in the mansion, my first thought was the suspicion that ‘past Wilhelmina was trying to abandon her noble status.’

If she left the family, the responsibility to pay debts would also disappear, so perhaps she intended to abandon her family and leave home.

However, my prediction was exactly half correct.

“The Family Head’s daughter wanted the family’s extinction. She tried to sell all the land, clothes, and jewelry to live a new life.”

“…That’s very much like Mother.”

“I didn’t say it was me.”

“Mother is the person I’ve seen who’s least interested in status.”

“How perceptive.”

I let out a small laugh.

Lord Windsor actively utilized his noble status.

As if he wasn’t even worried about getting caught, he committed all sorts of misdeeds even before Father passed away.

A commoner pretending to be a noble isn’t a light crime that ends with just a fine.

In the worst case, it was a grave sin that wouldn’t be strange to be imprisoned until death.

Yet he didn’t stop.

It was because of his greed for money and his obsession with believing he was still a noble.

‘An exiled scoundrel taking revenge on his family is a common theme even in novels.’

Then, could someone with such a wicked nature and obsession with noble status be satisfied with mere ‘noble pretense’?

‘Not a chance.’

If his vengeful spirit and desires had subsided to that extent, he wouldn’t have gotten involved in heinous businesses like human trafficking.

Though I couldn’t predict the timing, Lord Windsor must have bared his teeth coveting Father’s position.

Born on the same day with the same appearance, his younger brother was a noble while he, the eldest son, was a commoner… It wouldn’t be strange if he vowed to kill his younger brother and steal his name.

While he was sharpening his blade like that, I appeared.

Making the absurd demand to abandon noble status.

“What do you think the villain thought when he learned of my intentions?”

“…You must have wanted to stop Mother. Even if it meant killing her.”

That’s the correct answer.

“The urgency and desperation of his family house disappearing must have driven him. He would have wanted to kill me for coming up with this absurd plan. But there was preliminary work that needed to be done first.”

We finally arrived in front of the kitchen.

Through the gap of the slightly open, worn door, I had the illusion of seeing bloodstains.

“First, kill the father who’s trying to protect his daughter.”

I slowly grasped the kitchen door handle.

At that moment, I began to feel a headache as if needles were piercing into my brain.

“…!”

And then the memories came flooding in.

Gathering all the clues and finding this place had been the right answer.

The fragmented pieces of memory came together as one, beginning to unearth the memories that had been disguised as blank spaces.

The first scene that emerged was a memory from early spring, after the Academy winter break had ended and before the new semester began.

‘Finally, the preparations are complete. Now I just need to go to trial!’

I smiled as I looked at the perfect and extensive documents that would be worthy of being bound into a book.

Our family house’s hopeless financial state, consent documents from several nobles who would support us, the recent movements of increasing fallen nobles… there were no gaps in the documents.

I could guarantee that even the most stubborn nobles would be swayed after seeing these documents.

‘With this, I can persuade Father.’

Even Father, who had been lukewarm and kept postponing decisions, wouldn’t be able to ignore these documents.

I gathered the form templates and documents and set out to find Father.

Since it was a night with heavy spring rain, calling for Father from the study probably wouldn’t be heard.

When I opened the door, what spread before me was a dark corridor without even candles lit, but my steps were light.

Though I had stayed up for two straight nights, the joy of finally being able to grasp the future I wanted made me forget my fatigue.

‘Father!’

Just then, I felt a presence around the corner of the second floor corridor.

Since the few remaining servants would have all gone home, it must be Father.

I called out loudly for Father and approached.

‘…Give up noble status?’

To Father, whose expression was a bit colder than usual, I continued my persuasion while showing him the prepared documents.

Perhaps because of my overly excited mood and fatigue, I failed to notice that his face was growing increasingly stern.

‘Don’t worry. Even after becoming commoners, I will be with my family….’

‘No, that won’t do.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Know your place, Wilhelmina.’

It was only when those rough hands grabbed my throat that the foolish explanation finally ended.

“Mother.”

“…Yes.”

At that moment, Helene grabbed my shoulder.

Not forgetting my request to wake me if I seemed to fall asleep, her response was faster than I expected.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Not long. About 30 seconds.”

“I see… You woke me at just the right time.”

I rubbed my neck as I felt what seemed like phantom pain.

I smiled to comfort the worried-looking Helene, but in truth, more memories were still surfacing in my mind.

Me struggling with hands around my throat and Father—no, Lord Windsor—hurling fierce accusations.

‘Give up your noble status and live as a commoner? You’re married and part of another family now, how dare you spout such nonsense!’

‘After all the care I put into raising you, instead of helping the family, you want to become a merchant? Do you think this world is so easy!’

‘You think that’s why I sent you to the Academy? You can’t even bring back a man, yet you dare discuss the family’s future!’

Those were definitely not words my usual father would say.

Father’s rough and violent tone should have raised suspicions, but at the time, my thoughts didn’t reach that far.

In the gaps between the suffocating pain, a faint sense of guilt arose.

‘Maybe I was wrong. If I had submitted to fate like Father said, like everyone else did…’

It was a pathetic regret.

Even I, who had viewed society with a progressive and cynical attitude, was ultimately just a child who felt fear about going against the current.

For Wilhelmina without Kim Hana by her side, freedom was a word that evoked guilt.

“…Phew.”

I tried to calm my trembling hands from the headache and opened the kitchen door.

Under the moonlight streaming through the small window, I could see the kitchen floor in complete disarray.

“Did thieves come through here?”

“Your husband did this.”

“Mikhail? But why…”

Helene closed her lips as if she had realized something.

Indeed, my perceptive daughter-in-law seemed to immediately understand Mikhail’s intentions.

‘Mikhail probably found some kind of clue here.’

And it was obvious where he had found the clue.

I relied on the ring’s light as I headed toward the kitchen cabinet.

I opened the door of the lower cabinet where kitchen knives were stored—the entrance to the ‘secret passage’ the Nanny had mentioned.

“…Bloodstains.”

There was blood inside the cabinet door.

It looked like traces of something soaked in blood being dragged along the wall.

Mikhail must have seen these clues and reasoned like this.

That the Windsor Family Head’s cause of death wasn’t illness or old age, but murder.

And looking at all the circumstances, the most likely suspect was me.

‘At the right time, Mikhail witnessed the Emperor and Rohan showing me excessive interest… He must have thought they covered up this case for my sake.’

Setting aside the suspect, the conclusion of murder was correct.

But focusing on the fact that I might be a suspect, he missed an important clue.

Click-

I pressed down firmly on the knife holder part where the kitchen knife had been stuck, beneath the wooden board stained with blood.

Then, the inner wall of the empty cabinet was pushed back slightly.

When I pushed it with my fingertips, the panel moved backward, revealing a hidden secret space.

It was the passage that Lord Windsor was said to use.

I put my hand wearing the ring inside it.

“Helene, don’t you think these bloodstains are strange?”

The reason I kept talking to Helene was to hold onto my sanity.

My mind was screaming because of the new memories confusing my head.

Over Helene’s face, Lord Windsor disguised as Father grabbed my neck with one hand and held a kitchen knife in the other.

‘How dare you look down on the family, a child like you doesn’t deserve to be nobility!’

He swung the kitchen knife along with his curses.

Since I didn’t feel pain, it seems I managed to avoid it somehow, but I don’t know what happened.

I just remember closing my eyes tightly, struggling with all my might, and knocking the kitchen knife away.

Watching Lord Windsor retreat while clutching his jaw, I unconsciously grabbed the kitchen knife that had fallen to the floor…

‘Wilhelmina-!’

Toward him running at me, I closed my eyes tightly and thrust the kitchen knife forward…

“The bloodstains leading to this passage.”

Whew, I took a deep breath.

“It looks exactly like traces of someone passing through, doesn’t it?”

When I opened my eyes again, what I saw was a long trail of blood leading from the corridor to the kitchen.

I followed it very slowly.

Telling myself it couldn’t be true, that it was a mistake, I eventually saw Father’s corpse collapsed in the kitchen and sank to the floor.

‘No. This wasn’t what I intended… Father, Father…’

“What I stabbed was Lord Windsor disguised as Father. Wounded, he must have escaped through the secret passage. That’s why the bloodstains lead inside here.”

‘This isn’t what I wanted. Father, please, wake up. The freedom I wanted was supposed to include you too.’

“Thinking about it now, Father’s corpse that I checked later was too cold. It meant he had been dead for quite some time. If I had this memory from the beginning, I would have analyzed the situation more coldly.”

‘Wake up, please wake up. I’m sorry, I was wrong. I won’t go to trial. I’ll throw away all the documents and application forms. So please…’

“Lord Windsor probably planned to sell me off after killing Father. But I finished preparing for the trial too quickly, so he had no choice but to kill me.”

‘Father, please say something. That it’s okay, that everything will work out like usual…’

I didn’t even know what words were coming out of my mouth. A sense of duty that I had to finish this explanation kept moving my tongue.

“So, he killed Father and framed me…”

‘Father.’

“…ni.”

And I couldn’t tell whose voice was entering my ears.

Whether they were speaking to me with my head bowed, or to Father’s corpse that had grown cold.

As my vision grew hazy from the memories and emotions that kept flooding without stopping.

“I am…”

My vision was dyed in warm darkness.

“Mother!”

“…Helene?”

Helene embraced me.

She held my head to her chest and pulled my body close with trembling arms.

“Don’t cry.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to comfort crying family members. So… stop crying.”

“Ah…”

Only then did I realize that my blurring vision wasn’t because of a headache.

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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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