Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 119

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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 119

Brian hadn’t stepped forward because he loved Cleo. It was simply that insulting Cleo felt no different from insulting himself. He’d been raised sheltered, innocent of the world’s ways….
There were almost no elders in the Imperial Family to guide him, so there hadn’t been time for Cleo to teach him how to conduct himself toward such a person. But truly—didn’t he have even a shred of perception?
Valentina didn’t grow angry. She merely looked at her nephew with quiet eyes. The room fell silent.
Even the Emperor could only gape, unable to form words. It was only after Brian’s ragged breathing subsided and every eye in the room fixed on him like a blade point that he seemed to realize something had gone terribly wrong. His face paled.
“I see that this old woman has become a disgrace to the Imperial Family.”
After a long silence, Valentina spoke at last, her voice like a sigh. The Emperor’s face went ashen.
“No, that’s not it, Aunt! That boy is simply so thoughtless….”
“The Late Emperor, in his kindness, once told me I needn’t trouble myself—that I might simply live on as Lady Armerin. Yet how swiftly even that kindness became like wind blowing over a grave, fleeting and insubstantial…. In the Armerin region, flowers bloom with sharp, golden petals. They bear the name Armerin, and the Great-Grandfather Emperor once told me: ‘My precious daughter, you resemble these flowers—let this land be your portion.’ I alone remain who remembers those words from our Great-Grandfather. So I am no longer a member of the Imperial Family, destined only to fade like a withered leaf.”
The Emperor looked ready to faint at any moment.
No matter how great an emperor’s power, one cannot dismiss the existence of one’s predecessors—indeed, one feels bound all the more to honor them. It had been the Great-Grandfather Emperor—the current Emperor’s own grandfather—who had granted Valentina the entire Armerin region. Brian, it seemed, had simply calculated in his stupidity that since she’d already married into the Land Family and become an empress, bearing sons, she was somehow beneath his own mother. But….
In other words, he had insulted his great-aunt, who had received from the Great-Grandfather Emperor the very province from which her name was drawn. To interpret Valentina’s words broadly, Brian had managed to insult both the Late Emperor and the Great-Grandfather Emperor at once.
-Contractor. Everyone’s expressions have changed in wildly different ways. What exactly did she mean by that?
‘I was my brother’s precious sister and my father’s precious daughter—and both of them were emperors. Now that they’re gone, I’m treated like this. Are you greater than those departed imperial majesties?’
-Huh? You can actually compare the dead to the living like that?( ｡_｡) I didn’t think humans had that kind of technique yet!
‘Yes, we do. That’s why, when you invoke the names of the dead, the living always lose. It’s a kind of cheat code.’
Now the Emperor could never forgive Brian, if only for the sake of his own dignity. I felt like pulling out popcorn to watch this spectacle unfold.
I glanced at Adrian. Even he, whose composure was always perfect, let the corners of his mouth twitch. As for the Empress… she was laughing discreetly behind her fan. I let my gaze drift toward Elaine. She sat quietly, watching events unfold without any apparent intention to intervene.
Our eyes met. Elaine narrowed hers slightly. I smiled back at her.
“That’s absurd! Great-Aunt was born a member of the Imperial Family from the very first!”
The Emperor, speaking hurriedly, was now sweating profusely. His own son had insulted his great-aunt! In other words, how badly must he have raised his child that he allowed the Late Emperor to be defamed? If he couldn’t handle this situation properly, the disgrace would reflect on the current Emperor himself!
“Brian! You fool, apologize to your great-aunt at once, with sincerity! What manner of disrespect is this?”
“B-but….…”
Brian hesitated. The grievance still glimmered in his eyes—this madman truly hadn’t abandoned the notion that he, as the Emperor’s eldest son, was somehow superior to a mere imperial princess who’d married into a noble house. Of course, if they’d been of the same age, Brian would naturally have ranked higher. But his opponent was an elder of overwhelmingly higher rank. What an idiot….
“It is my fault!”
Cleo threw herself to her knees before Valentina.
“The Imperial Prince spoke thoughtlessly out of concern for me! Such a great calamity occurred today that I feared—I feared my mother might come to harm….”
“Lady Cleo must be truly blessed.”
Valentina smiled down at Cleo, a warmth that might have melted even shattered ice. But there was steel beneath it.
“I was not blessed with fortune enough to have a child who cares so for their own mother as you do for yours. The two children who nearly lost their mother today didn’t tend to her nearly as devotedly as the Imperial Prince does. Such filial piety! It is a fortune for His Majesty. Come to think of it, three women attended His Majesty today, and thanks to your dutiful son, not a single empress was lost.”
Valentina’s words carried daggers within them, each one sinking deep. Lady Cleo looked as though she might faint from the impact. The Emperor’s face flushed scarlet.
“Brian.”
The Emperor’s voice had grown strangely calm—a tone he’d never used, even during the Magic Beast attack on the Imperial Palace. A flicker of genuine fear finally appeared on Brian’s face.
“Leave the Imperial Palace.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Cleo scrambled to her feet and threw herself before the Emperor.
“Brian isn’t even of age yet! Though he’s committed a grave offense, surely within the palace walls….”
“Within the palace walls? An not-yet-adult boy speaks so disrespectfully to someone who is practically his great-grandmother? What—isn’t he merely a member of the Land Family?”
The Emperor’s voice grew louder, and finally he hurled the cup before him toward Brian. Brian instinctively threw himself backward, dodging it.
The Silver Cup clattered across the floor with a deafening crash. Seeing it, the Emperor’s neck flushed crimson with rage.
“You worthless fool! She is your great-aunt! The daughter of the Emperor Titius and the sister of the Great-Grandfather Emperor! What are you that you dare question the station of the legitimate daughter of the Great-Grandfather Emperor and Empress? You are my eldest son—that is all! Are you the Crown Prince? Are you the son of an Empress? What is your bloodline that it grants you the right to disrespect one I myself dare not treat carelessly?”
The Emperor’s fury was genuine.
The Emperor’s Legitimacy was flawless—comparable, in historical terms, to King Sukjong of the Joseon. The only child of the Emperor and Empress. No one could find fault with his Bloodline.
So confident in his own perfection was he that he’d entertained the irresponsible thought of raising his son as Crown Prince even if the boy wasn’t born of the Empress, should he merely favor him. Yet pride in his own bloodline ran deep. Whether Adrian or Brian—both ranked beneath him in the hierarchy, so there was no need to concern himself with who was superior.
But if Brian dared to insult the Imperial Bloodline, that was another matter entirely.
Valentina was the legitimate daughter of the Great-Grandfather Emperor and Empress. By bloodline alone, she was not beneath the current Emperor, was she? An Emperor could afford to disregard an Empress because he was Emperor! But what right did Brian have to such arrogance? He had lower bloodline than Adrian, yet he presumed—!
“So long as Great-Aunt Valentina remains within the Imperial Palace, you will not set even a toe within these walls! If she remains here for life, you shall be barred forever!”
“F-Your Majesty! I have committed a capital crime! G-Great-Aunt, I was wrong! Where would I go—where could I possibly—!”
Brian began to tremble in earnest, finally grasping the true extent of his peril.
“You have hunting companions you’re mad for scattered everywhere, don’t you? Or go to your mother’s family! Hmph. Half your blood belongs to the Lande Marquis House anyway—go beg that shameless side of your bloodline, the half that makes you merely a member of a noble house!”
“F-Father…!”
“Remove him at once, this worthless boy!”
“Your Majesty, Great-Aunt, I was wrong! Mother! Your Majesty…!”
The royal guards seized Brian at the Emperor’s command and dragged him from the hall. Cleo stood pale as wax from head to toe, trembling as she watched him go. For all her sensitivity to atmosphere was—oddly reliable.
The Emperor’s fury stemmed from one thing: Brian, a half-blood with a lowborn mother, had dared insult a pure-blooded, legitimate member of the Imperial Bloodline. Had Cleo continued to beg for his forgiveness in this moment, the Emperor’s wounded pride might have driven him to inflict punishment beyond imagination.
The Emperor approached Valentina himself and extended his hand. Valentina accepted without hesitation, placing her own hand upon his.

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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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