Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11

The Emperor used to speak kindly to Titania when she grew tearful.
‘Titania, my little bird. Who doesn’t know what the second son of that household is like? Noble lady that you are, do bear with it.’
Noble lady, indeed.
What he really meant was: ‘You, the easier target, should just put up with it.’
In any case, to sum it up — young Titania, who had been everyone’s troublemaker, was the rare opponent who couldn’t win against Lisianthus and would stamp her feet in frustration.
Truth be told, if the Castrain Ducal House had always planned to deceive everyone by claiming that the Special Magical Sword was a gift from the Orland House—
It would have looked better aesthetically if the eldest daughter of the Orland House, Jun, had danced with the second son, Lisianthus.
Even if it was merely nominal, Raymond had a fiancée, while Lisianthus did not.
So why did Raymond have to dance at all?
That was because…
Lisianthus’s reputation was truly, genuinely rock-bottom.
‘The young prince Lisianthus burned an entire table!’
‘Good heavens, he brought a sword into the banquet hall itself.’
‘Even the greatest ducal house can’t succeed at raising all its children properly.’
‘If I may be so bold, the late duchess’s origins were…’
‘Still, Young Duke Raymond is so accomplished that…’
Even Titania, all but an outcast in the Imperial Family—a girl who had never made her Debut—could hear such vicious gossip about Lisianthus at the New Year’s banquet in the Imperial Palace!
Scandalous enough that if he danced with a young lady making her social Debut, the lady’s reputation would suffer!
Scandalous enough that it would be unfit to name him as a partner while presenting such a precious sword!
As for bad reputation, Titania—who had none of his ability or backing and was given to nothing but crude behavior—was hardly better.
Yet Titania at least knew to keep her head down before anyone above her station. Besides, she was rarely invited to any important gathering in the first place.
But Lisianthus—that fool was defiant even before the strong and merciless to the weak. In a sense, one might call it consistent.
“So you died and came back to life, is that what they’re saying?”
Yes! The first thing to say to someone rumored to have died and been resurrected was ‘You’ve gone mad’!
Whether he’d overheard what I’d said to Raymond or truly sought it out, he’d picked up a wooden branch from below the second-floor balcony and waved it ostentatiously before my eyes.
I had to exert all my strength not to lose my grip on the Tea Cup in my hand.
“Oh, this burns nicely.”
Lisianthus, having set fire to the branch with his ability, murmured as though surprised.
“Cassian was frothing at the mouth like the Imperial Family was secretly growing the World Tree somewhere. But it’s just ordinary wood! Tsk, how boring.”
No, for goodness’ sake.
He could do just enough to kill anyone who came at my throat in the middle of the night first, and
provide capable protection that would let me slip out of the Imperial Palace undetected. That was all I’d asked for.
And if I request a maid and bodyguard at this point, it screams what the actual purpose is, doesn’t it? Why, when I asked for a twenty-four-hour personal guard and an errand-runner?
You’ve sent me a madman who plays with fire in the Imperial Palace, haven’t you, my lord Duke?
So you finally got to unleash all your troublesome temperament on my precious son, your trading conditions met—now just grit your teeth and endure, is that it?
“……”
I stared at the flames wavering before my nose and took a slow, deep breath. Out, in, out, in. I’m fine. I’m fine. Think of his mental age. Call it karmic debt from my past life. I can endure—
“What? Don’t like it? If you hate playing with fire indoors, should I turn this room into an outdoor space instead?”
—I can’t endure this!
I shoved back my chair and poured the contents of the Tea Cup I’d been holding only for my patience training onto the burning wooden branch.
Ssssshhh!
The fragrant tea water cascaded down, and the flames clinging to the branch vanished.
The lunatic from the Castrain household, unconcerned whether the tea splattered on his clothes, said with a bewildered expression.
“…Huh? Why did it go out?”
“…Because I threw water on the fire, of course it went out?”
“Wait, you…”
“It’s basic common knowledge! Young Prince Lisianthus! My, what a joke! If outsiders saw this, they’d think the great Castrain Ducal House didn’t even know elementary facts!”
Haha, ho-ho-ho. Only my hollow laughter echoed through the air toward the soon-to-be ‘Young Lord.’
Lisianthus stared at me and the extinguished branch alternately, looking utterly bemused.
Then, watching me refill my empty Tea Cup with a pointed glance, he seemed to understand something and narrowed his eyes slyly.
“…This madwoman is trying some new scheme to mess with my brother, I figured.”
Before Lisianthus could spit out anything more vulgar, I cut him off.
“Young Prince, you see, Titania’s body hasn’t fully recovered yet, so it’s terribly, terribly difficult for her to entertain guests for long~!”
Sigh. I made a show of wiping my forehead—though no sweat had formed—with an exaggerated exhale.
I fluttered my eyelids and groaned softly, “Oh dear, so dizzy, so dizzy~,” and let my body collapse against the chair back.
At that, Lisianthus’s confident expression crumbled into bewilderment.
That’s right—until now, Titania had faced him with honest rage, grinding her teeth and stomping her feet in fury.
She’d never maintained this kind of infuriating pretense. Even without looking at his flickering crimson eyes, I could read his thoughts.
‘What the hell? Why is this madwoman acting like this now?’
I’d like to throw that right back at him. You lunatic.
“Besides, playing with fire in a reception room? Oh my, how frightening~. If sparks somehow flew outside and the garden burned to cinders, I’d be absolutely terrified. Fire in such a historic Imperial Palace!”
My words were a prophecy.
Titania had made a nuisance of herself out of lack of skill—her troubles were trivial at best.
He would later actually set the Imperial Palace on fire when fighting with the Imperial Family.
Fundamentally, Lisianthus kept hidden the fact that he was conscious of wielding Fire Power through Divine Power.
He’d feigned innocence, saying ‘It’s all the power of that capable magical sword.’
But when those madmen finally touched his precious sister and his brother and father announced ‘there’s no need to hold back anymore,’ he truly rampaged like a lunatic in the Imperial Palace.
What was it he said—different colored flames depending on how much his Awakening progressed? Different names too?
The weakest was Red Flame, the middle stage was White Flame, and the final stage was Blue Flame.
Particularly, once he’d mustered all his strength and summoned the Blue Flame, it couldn’t be extinguished by any natural method, he’d said.
A person with a comparable level of power had to come and neutralize it manually to put it out. Because of that, half the Imperial Palace burned without a chance to defend itself.
Adrian had to hold his enthronement ceremony on the ashes of the Palace he’d burned to cinders.
Well, that’s all in the future anyway.
“Did the Duke of Castrain send Young Prince Lisianthus here to ‘find out whether Princess Titania is actually insane or not’?”
While waiting for an answer, I thought it pointless to maintain propriety before someone who wasn’t even Raymond, so I relaxed against the chair back.
Then I simply stretched out my arm and grabbed a Scone with my bare hand, gnawing on it.
Seeing me throw out a question, then—without waiting for a response—nibble away at the hard Scone like a squirrel with my front teeth, Lisianthus gave me a dumbfounded look.
“…What? What are you doing? That’s not how you normally talk, and acting like some ruffian…”
Right, as if…
If only this were inside some novel like ‘The Baby Lady is the Evil Duke’s Little Treasure’ or ‘I Woke Up as the SSS-Rank Ultimate Lunatic of the Golden Spoon World.’ How wonderful that would be.
You can’t pull off ruffian behavior without backing. Even if you’re a bit-part nobody like Titania…
I spat out a raisin from the Scone and grumbled.
“Or perhaps you’re conducting a little fire experimentation in the Imperial Palace? As a prospective arsonist?”
“Why would I burn down the Imperial Palace?”
Despite just having suggested turning the Rose Palace indoors into outdoors, Lisianthus cried out indignantly.
Yet the slightly guilty expression on his face suggested he’d actually entertained the thought of burning the Palace itself.
Watching me chew the Scone with sloth-like leisureliness, Lisianthus scowled. Then he abandoned the extinguished branch and pulled something from his pocket, thrusting it toward me.
It was a thin paper envelope.
“…It’s from Father.”
I was about to extend my hand, covered in Scone crumbs, when I hastily wiped it on the tablecloth instead and took the envelope.
Witnessing my action, Lisianthus’s gaze grew even more peculiar.
Indifferent to what Lisianthus made of it, I simply poured the contents of the envelope onto the tablecloth. And then I froze.
“……”
A Black Card with three serpents and a laurel wreath meticulously etched in gold leaf.
And a small Bronze Badge with crossed swords over a shield engraved upon it.
A thick Silver Ring bearing no other marks but covered in countless fine scratches from long years of use.
A stranger might have thought these unrelated objects. But…
I stared down at them in silence for a long while, unable to speak.

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