Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 118

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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 118

When Cleo encountered the aunt who’d appeared without warning, her face was a complete wreck. It was exactly like biting into an unripe persimmon and being unable to spit it out. I watched the sight and barely suppressed a giggle.
‘Oh man, this is brilliant. Look at that expression. It’s like losing a tooth you’ve been aching over.’
-This is truly remarkable, Contractor! (๑╹ワ╹) How did you even think of something like this?
‘It’s a fact that I have weak influence in the Imperial Family when viewed objectively. And it’s not easy to oppose whatever my ailing, sickly mother claims.’
I recalled a melodrama my whole family used to watch back home. It was a blind date scene, I think. At first, the future in-laws exchanged pleasantries—”Your son is so accomplished, mine is too”—but by the end they were grabbing each other’s hair and earlobes, shrieking curses. When people reach their emotional limit, they tend to say remarkably direct things.
‘Hey! How old are you? I’ve eaten thousands more bowls of rice than you, no matter how you look at it!’
‘That’s rich—are you bragging that you wasted all those bowls? Really?’
‘Fine then, I’ll make sure you never hold a spoon again!’
‘Mother, please calm yourself!’
‘Who’s your mother? I’ll never be your mother. Cancel this wedding!’
What I’d learned from watching those scenes was that if your voice doesn’t carry weight, nothing you do anywhere will work.
In that melodrama, everything was only resolved when the groom and bride’s respective grandmothers appeared in person and declared, ‘If you all care so much about the number of rice bowls eaten, then everyone beneath me should keep their mouths shut.’
I’d combed through the Imperial Family genealogy, succession charts, and everything else to use my emote sword freely. And I’d discovered a fact that was barely mentioned even in the original work: that I had a grand-aunt—a great-aunt by relation.
A broken engagement at the betrothal stage was one thing, but divorce after marriage was not easy. Most people, even if they fell in love with someone else, were content to take a mistress or lover rather than actually dissolve the marriage contract itself. And when it came to the Imperial Family rather than some mere noble house, there was even less reason to do so.
Once someone had Imperial blood, no one would dare touch them lightly. She must have had considerable wealth too—apparently she’d built a grand villa and lived out her life in happiness. When war broke out, the empire itself was overturned, and given her age, it was highly likely she’d passed away…
But anyway.
No matter what scheme Cleo hatched, if she joined hands with Elaine to corner me, there would be no way to respond through ordinary means. There was no mother-in-law to stop her.
So I decided to bring in an elder to play the role of mother-in-law. It was quite effective.
Valentina sighed most elegantly, pressing her hand to her forehead.
“And what is this, I wonder, on a day meant for celebration?”
“I… have no words to offer to you, Aunt, for shame.”
The Emperor’s gaze slid away from Valentina. The Emperor, who’d lived his entire life ignoring everyone, had no intention of suddenly serving someone senior to him with respect, whether she was his aunt or his great-aunt.
So if this banquet had proceeded normally without incident, he would’ve been pointedly displeased with Valentina, who’d suddenly appeared at the Imperial Palace gathering. But this banquet had descended into chaos. In this situation, the Emperor had no means to preserve his dignity.
“Where is there shame for the Emperor? I hear this banquet was held because of joyous tidings in the Imperial Palace—yet instead of joy, I witness near-tragedy unfolding before my eyes…”
Valentina’s sharp gaze swept across every corner of the banquet hall. The handful of nobles in attendance remained silent, not daring to make a sound.
“A person of delicate health, after recovering for some time, comes to a gathering like this—yet not even a single proper place for rest is prepared. The proper way to treat the Guest of Honor has always been something the Mistress of the Household must teach her daughters, generation after generation…”
A sharp tsk echoed through the banquet hall. Cleo’s lips trembled. Valentina, having elegantly ridiculed Cleo’s upbringing, deliberately fixed her gaze on the Empress alone, not even glancing toward Cleo.
“Empress Bibliia, if I may—and it is perhaps presumptuous of me to address you so directly, but I am not a young woman, and as a matter of propriety you are something like my niece-by-marriage, so I shall speak without reservation. The Mistress of the Household must know how to govern her home in peace better than anyone. That in a gathering you yourself hosted, you fell prey to an enemy’s scheme and nearly died… can you truly claim to be properly executing your role as Mistress of the Imperial Palace?”
The atmosphere shifted subtly. On the surface, her words sounded like rebukes toward the Empress—even like an unreasonable attack. What kind of logic was it to blame someone for not preventing a wicked person’s wicked scheme in advance? Especially when directing such words at the very person who nearly died from it?
But those who caught her true meaning saw Cleo’s eyes grow dark. The Empress bowed low to Valentina with composure.
“I am chastened by the wisdom of the Imperial Family’s senior. Though I should note that this gathering was not held by me, but by Cleo, the First Empress, who wished to celebrate the recovery of Elaine, the Second Empress, as though she were her own sister. Yet regardless, since it occurred within the Imperial Palace, the responsibility is mine.”
“Indeed. All events that take place within the Imperial Palace are the Empress’s responsibility, are they not?”
Cleo’s lips trembled violently. By openly ignoring Cleo, Valentina was making her intentions clear. Everyone knew that Cleo had been disrespecting the Empress this whole time and had been handling many duties that should have been the Empress’s responsibility. Because the Emperor ignored the Empress and doted on Cleo, no one had dared to advise him that “this is not proper, it violates the law of the realm.” But Valentina could.
Of course, the Emperor was the principal culprit in having extremely favored a mere empress, ignoring the Empress and throwing the Imperial Family’s discipline into chaos—but faced with a stern aunt he hadn’t seen in some time, he showed no sign of asserting that “the Empress may be presumptuous, and I favor Cleo and have entrusted her with managing Imperial Palace affairs.” In other words, he was turning a blind eye.
“However, I know the traditions of House Integria well. If this gathering had been arranged by the Empress, it would not have been so bungled. When one tries to cut cloth with scissors that won’t hold an edge, one only ruins the cloth. Tsk, tsk… In the future, you must properly learn how to manage foolish subordinates, Empress.”
“I shall heed your words.”
Cleo wisely refrained from interjecting into the conversation between Valentina and the Empress. It was a shrewd move.
Cleo was not stupid.
Even though Valentina had arrived abruptly, she knew the woman couldn’t stay long in the Imperial Palace without some pretext. She was an elder the Emperor himself couldn’t treat carelessly, but unless the Emperor had personally invited her to the Palace, she was merely a guest who would stay briefly and depart.
The Emperor might, for the moment and in Valentina’s presence, temporarily grant the Empress authority over Imperial Palace affairs—but in the long run, he would certainly return that power to Cleo. More importantly, it would be a loss to gain the impression of impudence before the Emperor by confronting an Imperial elder.
Yes, Cleo understood perfectly.
“Are you saying my mother is a foolish subordinate?”
Only Cleo’s foolish son—the Emperor’s firstborn, raised with such care to one day become the Crown Prince—did not.
“However much Aunt may be the Imperial Family’s senior, are you not now merely a member of House Lecen? My mother is the Empress who bore the Emperor’s firstborn. How dare you insult her so coarsely! It was unknown enemies who ruined this gathering, not my mother!”
“Brian!”
Cleo cried out in shock. But Brian’s face flushed crimson as he shouted in fury.
“Apologize to my mother!”
A chilling wind swept through the banquet hall. Everyone stood aghast. Even the almighty Cleo turned pale.
It was true that Valentina had lived in seclusion due to unfortunate circumstances.
Though she was the Emperor’s aunt and sister to the previous Emperor, the very fact that she was called “Lady Armerin” after the region she owned, rather than being addressed by more complex titles or as a member of House Lecen, was proof. That she was called “Lady” instead of “Madam” or “Duchess” meant everyone understood her status to be effectively that of a divorced woman.
But that very humiliation… only someone of Valentina’s generation, or older, had the right to point out. A youngster—barely more than a grandchild—could not dare diminish her by saying “you are now merely a member of House Lecen.” Though, granted, since even the Empress had grown up watching Cleo do as she pleased, her disrespect was understandable enough…
Adrian, standing quietly beside me, whispered in my ear.
“Sometimes, truly, the fact that the Emperor pits such an idiot against me makes me genuinely doubt his mind.”
“…But the Emperor himself is silent, and this fool still thinks he can speak up. That kind of stupid intelligence must be the Emperor’s heredity, after all.”
Adrian gave a barely perceptible nod. I couldn’t have agreed more.

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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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