I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 22

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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 22

Their greatest achievement they had encountered would be the honey trap, so it wasn’t incomprehensible that they would misunderstand.

However, his fellow knights including Derek were those who had witnessed his swordsmanship by his side.

They were comrades who had been beside him when he beheaded enemy generals and survived among dozens of soldiers.

On the battlefield, Nata was a reliable comrade, but now that the war had settled, he was viewed as an obstacle blocking their promotions.

“Even if it’s an event, the fact that we hold swords doesn’t change. If you’re a knight…”

“Who’s going to acknowledge you even if you win here?”

“…”

Here it starts again. Derek pretended to comfort Nata not to try too hard, while cutting down his opportunity once more.

He had indirectly conveyed that no matter how hard he tried, it would be useless.

The usual Nata might have been swayed by those words. He would have fled, thinking he might have taken it too seriously.

The habit of deliberately ignoring such trivial injustices had created this kind of behavior.

However, he couldn’t do that now. Because he carried on his back the grace of one person who believed in him unconditionally.

Nata looked directly at Derek with unwavering eyes.

“Is that an excuse prepared for defeat?”

“…What?”

“Saying you won’t give your all because it’s just an event sounds like a lie assuming defeat. Are you planning to make excuses after losing that you weren’t being serious?”

“…”

Derek’s expression momentarily darkened, as if he hadn’t expected Nata to give such a sharp response. But he regained his composure again.

“Why are you so angry? I was just encouraging you not to be nervous.”

“Is that so? Then I hope Sir Derek also won’t be nervous and will show his best skills. You remember the rule that you have to remove your mask if you lose, don’t you?”

“…”

“Even if you say you’re not serious, if you lose too miserably… wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”

With those words, Nata passed Derek and headed to the waiting room.

He could feel Derek’s gaze glaring at the back of his head, but he wasn’t scared at all. Rather, the fact that Derek was angry at him felt refreshing.

The reason Derek couldn’t refute Nata’s words was because he couldn’t remove the mask of being a well-regarded senior.

‘When the Grand Duchess gave me this weapon, I couldn’t understand…’

Arriving at the waiting room, Nata picked up a small box placed in the corner. Inside was a weapon that Wilhelmina had personally gifted him, adding that he should try using it if he was confident.

At first, he wondered why she would give him such a thing, but now he seemed to understand.

‘If you’re going to win, win thoroughly, and win ‘befitting an event.”

Perhaps she had foreseen even this situation?

It would be just like Wilhelmina, whose true intentions were unknowable, Nata chuckled softly.

* * *

The event preparations proceeded swiftly. Honestly speaking, there wasn’t much I did.

I thought that people of high status shouldn’t interfere unnecessarily and should help by just giving orders and then resting.

I did lend a hand with the sewing for making costumes, but other than that, I just waited comfortably.

‘It’s rather fortunate that the servants from the main house didn’t come.’

While I was preparing the celebration, the main house was busy preparing for the year-end party. Anna mentioned that it seemed busier than usual years, perhaps because distinguished guests were also coming to the year-end party.

Thanks to this, there was no interference from the main house, and I was able to neatly finish preparing the celebration with the servants from the annex building and the soldiers provided by the Margrave.

The celebration began, and with the prepared music, knights, soldiers, and officers took their respective positions.

I climbed onto the platform prepared in the garden and watched the Margrave sending congratulatory remarks to the soldiers.

Mirinai, who was watching the celebration with me from a corner of the garden, saying this was the first time so many people had gathered at the annex building, asked.

“Grand Madam, aren’t you going over there?”

“No, it’s bothersome.”

I had received a proposal to participate in the medal ceremony together after the congratulatory speech, but I declined because it was bothersome.

Not only would it be awkward to pin medals on the chests of people I’d never seen before, but it was obvious that quite a few among the Margrave’s knights would view me unfavorably.

‘They probably wouldn’t want to receive medals from some fallen noble.’

The Margrave’s personality was upright so he couldn’t show it, but according to what I heard from Anna, there were some among the servants who had been subtly looked down upon by the knights.

‘Baroness Rollan actually said the same thing.’

After the previous education session, I occasionally exchanged letters with Baroness Rollan.

While she was pleased about the news that I was holding a celebration, she expressed that it would be better to avoid getting involved with the military.

[Military personnel are exclusive. It’s an organization that has no choice but to be that way. It would be better to keep your distance from officers and knights of noble origin who have noticed the Grand Duchess’s status.]

It was brief advice, but the content wasn’t difficult to understand.

‘I guess the inside of the Western Army is complicated too.’

While there’s no discrimination based on status when recruiting soldiers, a certain rank and above requires status. Nata was a representative victim of this.

‘With such a track record, they sure did well defeating the western barbarians. Do they have some hidden ace?’

I heard that the Margrave’s army had completely defeated the barbarians, but perhaps there were actually hidden weapons? Or maybe the barbarians were weaker than expected.

While I was having such thoughts, the congratulatory speech had ended before I knew it. The Margrave, knowing that soldiers didn’t want long speeches, had deliberately shortened the script.

Since the medal ceremony seemed about to proceed, I moved my steps back to the rest room.

“Then I should wear the outfit Mirinai made for me.”

“Yes!”

Mirinai nodded with a bright face, seeming confident in the outfit she had designed.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what she was aiming for when she made it.

If I had to give it a name, it would be cute chimera pajamas, but since I couldn’t say that in front of Mirinai, I was roughly calling it an ‘animal dress.’

I entered the rest room and changed clothes. Since it was inconvenient to put on, Mirinai helped me instead.

“Thank you. Shall we go out then?”

“I’ll look forward to it!”

“Alright, it’s dangerous, so don’t leave Anna’s side.”

After patting Mirinai’s head, I put on my mask and left the rest room.

It seemed the medal ceremony had just ended and they were starting to prepare for the event, as I could see people gathering at the prepared arena.

Since I had moved while hiding my body, no one seemed to suspect that I was the Grand Duchess. Instead, Anna, who had spotted me from afar, was making a wry smile.

As I was walking, the soldiers who had already taken their positions discovered me and opened their mouths wide in surprise.

Regardless, I climbed onto the arena and picked up the small wooden megaphone that Anna had prepared for me instead of a microphone.

Then I put my mouth to the megaphone and shouted vigorously.

“Welcome to House Layton’s masked martial arts tournament, invincible warriors! I am Cat Rabbit, in charge of hosting and commentary for the tournament!”

“Oh, ooh-!”

Only then did they seem to realize that this was commentary meant to hype up the event, as several soldiers began adding their cheers.

Of course, the knights who weren’t used to this kind of event still had bewildered expressions.

‘I need to make it lively, that way I’ll feel energized as the planner too.’

As a bonus, Nata’s performance would get that much more attention too.

I slowly raised my voice.

“I won’t give a long explanation. You’ve all already received instructions, and my throat hurts too much for lengthy speeches anyway.”

“Hahaha.”

“Instead, before we begin the tournament, please give thunderous cheers and applause for the Commander and Count Teitan Isonon, who helped prepare this tournament!”

“Wahhh-!”

Clap clap clap!

The Margrave, who had been sitting in the commentary seat first, apparently hadn’t expected all eyes to suddenly turn to him, as he stood up from his seat with an awkward expression and gave me a brief salute.

‘No, you shouldn’t salute. That reveals my status.’

In this setting, there was no one other than me who could receive a salute from the Margrave first.

Fortunately, no one in the audience seemed to have noticed, so I quickly moved on to the next part.

“The rules are as you heard! It’s tournament sparring, and it will proceed in exactly the order announced to you! Each participant will appear with their identity hidden, so try to deduce who they are! And…”

At my gesture, one of the servants waiting behind the arena appeared pulling a cart. Two boxes were placed on the cart.

“Not only will the tournament winner receive a prize, but we’ll also select the top scorer among the spectators who correctly identify the most participants’ identities, and give them a special treasure!”

“Huh, I never heard about that?”

“Treasure? Don’t tell me it’s gold?”

They had only heard about the martial arts tournament, but knew nothing about the rewards. Because I had deliberately kept it secret.

‘Nothing beats money for creating atmosphere.’

Even if someone had no interest in the tournament, no one would refuse if told they could get rewards just for the simple task of guessing identities.

This way I made them take deep interest in the masked participants’ identities.

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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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