Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 123

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

Chapter 123

To anyone ignorant of the truth, this scene would have seemed beautiful and pleasing to behold.
The Emperor praised Elaine, dressed in white, as pure as a lily, and had new furnishings brought into Lycoris Palace—mostly in white tones.
He gave no thought to how difficult white furniture was to maintain, nor to how much Elaine disliked the Emperor bringing strangers into the palace without her knowledge.
Yet Titania, sitting atop the marble table and smiling, looked like a princess visiting a fairyland.
“I was worried you might find living here inconvenient, but it seems quite pleasant. And since Cleopatra has treated me generously, I haven’t lacked for food or clothing, have I?”
The head maid—the only servant Elaine could speak to with any warmth—had set down the teacup with trembling hands, and Titania picked it up with remarkable composure, tasting the tea.
Elaine’s laugh came out brittle as snapping wood.
“You sound as though you’ve been very concerned about me. But wouldn’t it have been better if you hadn’t given me strange things to eat in the first place?”
The smile faded from Titania’s eyes, which hardened. They were amber-colored.
At first, they had been merely a thick, dense liquid, but over time they had hardened slowly, until they could no longer melt.
“I could never offer Elaine anything that would harm you.”
……
“The reverse, perhaps.”
The moment Elaine awoke from her collapse, she saw Titania weeping at her bedside and sensed immediately that something was wrong. If Titania had cried out before everyone that Elaine actually hated her, that she had joined hands with Cleopatra to trap her in a plot, no one would have believed it. Most would have dismissed it as nonsense: “Come now, she’s still your true mother. And she’s been ill—how could she? You must have misunderstood.” But thinking about it, this logic applied equally to Elaine herself. How could a young girl be the mastermind when her true mother had suddenly collapsed before her eyes and the child had wept in shock? If Elaine had accused Titania, everyone would have worried that her illness had clouded her judgment. Titania had made it clear that she alone was not the only one who could wield the excuse of blood relation.
Yet when one thought about it.
The same applied to Elaine herself.
Just a girl who happened to go out in public and wept at her mother’s sudden collapse? If Elaine accused her, they would all worry that her long illness had dulled her reasoning. Titania had taught Elaine properly that blood relation was not a weapon only she could brandish.
“How on earth did you bring Lady Armelin into this? Most people have forgotten she exists.”
“Because I dislike Cleopatra.”
……
At this blunt statement delivered with a smile, Elaine fell silent.
“I needed someone on my side who could stop Cleopatra by any means necessary. Even if only temporarily. In a forest without tigers, a fox may play the king, but Cleopatra overstepped. There was something I wanted to ask you, Elaine.”
“What?”
“Within the Imperial Palace, who do you hate most?”
It was a question Elaine had not anticipated. She felt as if struck from behind.
She had expected questions like “Do you love me?” or “Why have you ignored me all this time?” or “Why don’t you love me?” Not this.
“……What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know your inclinations, Elaine. No matter how much I thought about it alone, I couldn’t find the answer, so I wanted to ask you directly. Is it the Emperor—who has no sense of restraint and covets every beautiful thing, yet takes no responsibility? Is it the Empress—who has the duty to maintain order within the palace against the other consorts, yet pretends ignorance? Or is it Cleopatra, who might directly threaten your life?”
The girl spoke not like a child, but like an adult contemplating life itself.
“Or is it me—your daughter, born against your wishes, whose very existence gave you reason to remain bound within these palace walls?”
……
“In any case, if you meant to use me, you should have started earlier, like Cleopatra did. But you didn’t.”
……
“I’ve confirmed Cleopatra’s purpose. I have a rough idea of what she was trying to accomplish. But if Cleopatra had truly been the kind of person who would have let you escape safely and live in peace and happiness, I wouldn’t be standing here telling you this. I would have long since regarded her as my true mother in my heart and been a dutiful daughter.”
Titania’s face was dry. She had eliminated the plot before Cleopatra could even carry it out, so she might have boasted a little—but her manner was matter-of-fact, as if she had simply removed an obstacle from her path.
“It’s true that Lady Armelin has agreed to help. You really can rest and recover at a villa far from the palace, in a place with good weather. No matter how much I might dislike you, it would be foolish to miss the chance to leave safely and find peace.”
“If you’re sincere, then I find myself doubting. If I had accepted Cleopatra’s proposal, wouldn’t I be your enemy? Why would you show kindness to someone like me?”
“That’s why I’m asking. Who do you hate most within the palace?”
……
“You find it hard to answer. Then, who is the most bearable person in the palace?”
……
“Let me rephrase the question.”
Titania lifted her gaze and looked directly at Elaine.
“What has been your reason for enduring within the palace until now?”
……
Elaine blinked several times. Blink, blink. Even as she forced open her heavy lids, the sight before her did not fade.
Eyes of solid green.
No one had ever told Elaine that a child could possess such eyes.
Every time news reached her, Elaine had been certain: what cruel fate, to love and cling to the Young Duke of Castrain.
Titania would live and die as she did.
Her gaze fixed on noble people who would never love her, she would languish and perish without ever being requited.
If that came to pass, then perhaps she herself could, in death, appeal to her lover and friend.
Look.
You abandoned me, yet you died so grandly that you seemed worth it. But you were never worth anything to begin with. So you should never have let go of my hand. I had neither the will nor the strength to save myself, so I could do nothing but love you and rely on you.
I am a coward, blaming my child’s fate for my own resentment. So it is fitting that I rot and fester and die this way.
Just as an eagle cannot be born from a sparrow, no one will save that child.
So if she laments the fate of being born to such a mother, I was prepared to listen to that at least. I thought that much was my burden to bear.
But Titania was as luminous as a rainbow stretching across the sky after rain had cleared. “Your reason for enduring”—as if she understood how difficult these years in the palace had been for Elaine. And so, without quite knowing why, Elaine found her words faltering.
“……There was something I wanted to confirm. That’s all.”
She could not lay bare the whole truth. Faced with Titania’s clear eyes upon her, a strange shame washed over her.
Neither her lover
nor her friend
had ever truly listened to Elaine.
Their purposes were firm. Their paths were right. So they left, apologizing to Elaine, without even considering compromise.
Unable to control another’s fate, Elaine had at least been able to touch her daughter’s—and so she had left it alone.
Yet Titania had not uttered a single word of resentment. Why? How? Elaine would have resented. She would have demanded reasons. And……
“I, I……. I thought giving birth to you was unjust. Coming to the palace was unbearable. I decided I should not love you. Because what I lost because of you was far too much……”
But Elaine herself knew.
A newborn child is blameless.
It was circumstance, not something Titania had chosen. What Elaine had lost was not Titania’s doing. The reason was bitterly trivial. Speaking it aloud made it more so.
Before the Emperor and Cleopatra, Titania had treated Elaine as a stranger.
Ah, so the child hates me. She refuses to be swayed. She feels betrayal toward a mother who cannot be her unconditional ally. That was what Elaine could believe.
But the Titania she faced today was different. As if to say: tell me anything. I will try to understand.
I need to hear the story of who you are.
Even a coward’s life, a life of evasion and flight, rotting from within—
I will simply listen.
And so, without quite meaning to, Elaine had spoken as if confessing. As if begging this child alone to understand. She had thought it better to remain a clear villain than to reveal this.
Titania spoke quietly as Elaine started at her own words.
“So everything was so painful that you came to hate Titania?”
“……Yes.”
“There’s no one in the palace you find unbearable in particular, or dislike?”
“…Yes.”
“I see.”
Elaine’s eyes widened.
“I understand.”
Whatever Elaine’s reaction, Titania spoke with simple acceptance, as if she had found her answer.

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