Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 111

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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 111

“…I’ve heard that the Empress Elaine’s condition is quite poor. The Sacred Vessel I gifted to His Majesty is something that even someone as vigorous and dignified as the Emperor could naturally assimilate its auspicious Vital Energy into his own. But I’ve heard it might be rather taxing for patients whose Vital Energy has become desperately weakened…”
“Has there been little happening at the Imperial Palace of late?”
Empress Cleo cut off my words with a soft laugh.
“It’s because I fall short, which puts the Emperor on edge. Yes, I’ve come to appreciate my own insufficiency. No matter how hard I tried to look after you, the fact remains that I have Brian—so how terribly lonely you must have been, Titania?”
“…”
What is she talking about right now?
“So, Your Majesty, I went to Licorice Palace during this time and appealed to you with tears, saying I couldn’t manage the duties of Empress alone in this vast Imperial Palace.”
It’s absurd that I’m speaking boldly as if I were something special in an Imperial Family where an Empress clearly exists… or wait, what? Licorice Palace?
“It is a blessing from heaven. That Empress Elaine’s health has recovered enough for her to leave Licorice Palace.”
My face went rigid.
In contrast, the Emperor’s face was filled with astonishment—as if he’d heard something he couldn’t have imagined. The Empress too hardened her expression.
“That, that is—Cleo, what are you saying?!”
Cleo blinked and laughed with ease.
“Well, you see…”
She lifted a silver spoon and tapped a crystal glass with it.
Ting, ting—the clear sound rang out and the doors opened. All eyes shifted toward the gap. And in that moment, I felt anew just how excellent Cleo’s follow-through truly was.
A woman entered slowly. A maidservant beside her, fidgeting anxiously, held her arm and supported her so she could walk safely.
She wore an opaque white veil that covered her from head to collarbone. Bundled completely from head to toe, no skin visible—perhaps to hide her extreme thinness.
Long gloves, flowing sleeves, a white dress that rose to her neck, a veil… and yet those emerald eyes that so closely resembled Titania’s, and that dull platinum hair, couldn’t be concealed by any amount of dressing.
“Oh, oh, Elaine—is it, is it really you? How many years has it been!”
The Emperor literally sprang from his seat. His face flushed red with excitement, his jaw trembling slightly, and his voice grew shrill. The woman walked slowly and stood before that empty seat the Emperor had stubbornly kept vacant. Then, slowly, she knelt.
“…Your Majesty, I am Elaine, and I come before you as one guilty of wrongs.”
Her voice was so thin that you couldn’t hear it without straining. Yet the Emperor was moved to tears.
“Oh, no, guilty? What nonsense! A person in weak health mustn’t place her body on cold stone! Come, get up at once!”
The Emperor stood and took Elaine’s hand. With his heavyset frame grasping Elaine’s hand, thin as a willow branch, he cut a rather absurd figure—like a cicada clinging to a dead tree. His face glowed as though his first love had suddenly appeared before him. As he personally helped Elaine to her feet and guided her to the empty seat, the Empress and Adrian’s faces grew noticeably taut. Brian’s expression remained listless.
The empty seat of Empress Elaine had originally been beside Titania. A voice reached me as I stood frozen in confusion.
“Titania.”
Behind the opaque veil, dull emerald eyes met mine. In that instant, I understood something.
“Have you been well?”
At some point.
At some time.
I had longed for this sight more desperately than death itself.
If I were to die, would she come to my funeral?
If I were to die, would she grieve for me?
Would she at least remember me?
I was in pain.
Because I was suffering, because my body was failing, I wanted nothing else to matter.
I know this because I too have suffered.
So when she becomes healthy, she will come to see me…
I will be able to call her mother.
The lingering attachment of a dying child chattered on.
In the original work, Empress Elaine measured her own dose and drank poison slowly, taking years to deliberately kill herself.
She could not love even her own daughter, and the Imperial Palace filled her with hatred, yet she barely clung to life so as not to fall entirely into the Empress’s hands. And when Titania safely reached adulthood, she died…
This woman?
Really?
She whose emerald eyes held such apathy?
Yes.
That Elaine had taken poison when Titania—that foolish, dim princess who was pushed about by the Empress’s hands—was her daughter.
But what if circumstances had changed?
If suddenly the relationship with her dreadful fiancé had improved, and she’d severed ties with Cleo, the puppeteer pulling her strings, and found herself wielding a peculiar sword, drawing incident after incident?
“Why do you keep silent, Titania? Ha, yes, you’re so happy you can’t find words! Anyone can see it at a glance. She looks just like you! It’s your mother, Titania!”
The Emperor laughed. His lips moved. It felt as though someone had applied a powerful adhesive between my upper and lower lips. The weight was unbearable.
The weight of the words was heavier still. Words I couldn’t speak tumbled into my stomach. Something like old, rotted attachment accumulated in my gut and roiled.
“…Your Majesty, Empress Elaine.”
I know this.
“I cannot express how delighted I am to see you in such good health.”
Only I know. Even if you don’t, I do.
“I have prayed so earnestly for your recovery.”
Looking at her daughter who had hovered on the brink of Critical Condition countless times, her eyes held no warmth whatsoever. Her words carried no tenderness. It was plainly the demeanor one showed a stranger.
“Is that so?”
A frail voice.
So thin it seemed it would tear if you pressed down on it even once—like tissue-thin paper.
She was a beautiful woman. You could see it now. Titania bore no resemblance to the Emperor whatsoever—she seemed to be a small, delicate reproduction taken solely from the woman before us. The sort of fantasy men typically conjure. Even the Emperor, who had nearly banished her to her own palace for years as punishment for not clinging to him, seemed ready to laugh himself to death merely because she had come to him.
“My health has not fully recovered.”
A child’s love is sometimes absolute.
She struggles, yearning for someone to fill her small world.
A bond so strong it can only be severed in death.
Young Titania desired to be loved.
And I know that wish will never be granted…
“Then you must take care of yourself going forward!”
I laughed.
As though nothing could bring me greater joy.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty the Emperor! I think today might be my birthday. Coming to the Imperial Palace, only wonderful things are happening!”
As though I were happier than anyone to finally draw near the biological mother I had craved all my life.
“The Rose Palace is ablaze with flowers! And Empress Elaine has recovered enough to leave Licorice Palace! It’s all thanks to Your Majesty!”
“Ha ha, well, what have I done to deserve that? Cleo, you’ve accomplished something great indeed.”
“Empress Elaine simply lacked the courage to face Your Majesty. She said she had no face to show you.”
Empress Cleo wore a likable smile.
“She said she had no shame to repay Your Majesty’s affection. That she might as well be dead, merely breathing and living. With an unhealthy body, she cannot serve Your Majesty properly, so how could she show her face? I pressed the matter and brought her here.”
The Emperor’s eyes gleamed with delight.
“Yes! You, you’ve done splendidly. What good is having an Empress if she doesn’t look after a family member shut away in her own palace for years…”
The Emperor glanced at the Empress with displeasure, then looked at Cleo and laughed again, his shoulders bobbing as though he possessed the world.
“Whatever you wish for, I shall give it. Just look after Empress Elaine well.”
“There’s no question of that. Titania too, I shall… look after well.”
I watched Cleo and Elaine beside her, quietly observing the Emperor and Cleo speak, and I laughed. Hard enough that my lips trembled.

* * *

“I was thinking of you.”
Empress Cleo gazed at Titania with an expression impossible to read and smiled mockingly.
The Emperor, beaming with joy, personally supported the dizzy Elaine as she tottered and escorted her to Licorice Palace. The Empress and Adrian left as well, their faces dark. So Cleo could finally speak her true thoughts freely.
I don’t know what meaning she intended to imbue in that gift, but… well, by bringing Elaine today, she had clearly secured the Emperor’s favor. No matter what Titania tried, it wouldn’t amount to much.
“My ‘care’ may have been lacking, so you haven’t suffered too many hardships. Wouldn’t it be far better for you to receive your biological mother’s help instead?”
“Your care, you say? Everyone in the Imperial Palace lives under the care of the Empress.”
For only having just gained such sharp eloquence, never backing down—that annoying little brat. Cleo clenched her teeth as she gazed into those transparent emerald eyes.

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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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