Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 13

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

Episode 13

Right, Raymond must have seen something wrong. He’s always been so proper, and he barely knows any women—the society’s number-one eligible bachelor had met far more women than Raymond ever had—.
Lisianthus wasn’t surprised when Titania said she’d agreed to meet with him.
He wasn’t even surprised that instead of asking “Why did you come instead of Raymond?”, she sat elegantly at the table and pretended to sip her black tea.
She must have been annoyed, yet she deliberately looked away and ignored his provocation.
But.
“…When you pour water on fire, it naturally goes out, doesn’t it?”
There was something odd about how instead of pouring the tea on him, she poured it on the burning branch.
He found it strange too—those questioning green eyes looking at him as if to say, “What’s the problem?”
His brother’s aide had made such a fuss saying “that princess is strange” that he’d actually broken off a branch from that tree where the princess had supposedly hit her head, just to see if there was anything unusual about it.
He’d meant to trick her, so he’d used a bit more power than usual.
The Flame he normally conjured was just ordinary fire. Anyone could extinguish it.
But when he poured excessive power into it, the fire would keep burning—embers alive for dozens of minutes even if doused with water or buried under earth.
The moment he lit the branch, he realized his mistake.
He shouldn’t have carelessly displayed his power in the Imperial Palace. Worse, though it looked like ordinary red Flame on the surface, he’d poured too much power into it—it wouldn’t go out easily.
Unless the other person was also an Ability User, it would be hard for anyone to gauge how much power he’d used, making it perfect for playing a trick on her.
But suddenly he grew worried.
Would his brother scold him? Should he just make it disappear as if nothing had happened?
…Yet the moment Titania poured just one teacup’s worth of water, the embers snuffed out in an instant.
That made no sense. While it wasn’t a blue Flame, it was fire with considerable compressed power.
There was no way Titania had only just awakened to Divine Power.
Even if she had, she wouldn’t be able to use power so smoothly and easily.
So how did she extinguish the fire with just one teacup of liquid?
And it was strange that she deliberately forced a formal tone—clearly making an effort—while addressing him in that awkward way.
Titania had always shuddered uncontrollably whenever she heard Lisianthus’s name.
But this Titania was treating him like a tiresome leech she couldn’t be bothered with.
Gone was any trace of her pride-driven demeanor—she ate scones with her bare hands without shame, sprawled out casually without pretense.
But if it were only such things, perhaps it wouldn’t matter.
The moment Titania checked the contents of the envelope her father had given her, her eyes went frighteningly cold.
With a distant gaze, she traced the emblem on the Badge, her fingertips brushing over the objects.
Most tellingly, the instant she saw the Card’s emblem, she seemed certain of its identity.
Lisianthus, watching, was startled.
Even if his father had given Titania that Card, Lisianthus thought it excessive.
Would she even understand what it was? Might she complain it was something strange and throw it away?
What if she carelessly discarded that precious Card, and Hecate’s Tavern lodged a complaint against them?
Hecate’s Tavern was expensive and its identity confidential.
When heads of prominent noble families wielding influence across generations of empire passed their position to successors, they would hint at its existence only then.
Few knew, but it was an organization connected to the bloodline of the Castrain Ducal House.
Therefore, it was favorable toward the House of Castrain but hardly familiar or courteous to outsiders.
Yet when Titania actually received them, she surprised Lisianthus by asking detailed questions.
Exactly as if she were simply reviewing normal Transaction records. That’s what startled him.
“Tell him I’m grateful.”
Her eyes were distant and thoughtful.
Eyes so unlike “that” Titania—you couldn’t have imagined it.
Eyes that seemed to contemplate something very deep and far away.
It was astonishing and, at the same time, struck him with an uncanny sense of wrongness.
Who is this woman?
“You’re Titania, aren’t you?”
The Titania he knew was selfish, stupid, and without common sense.
Obsessed with Raymond to the point of desperation….
So childish and immature that he couldn’t help but intervene….
Just then, Titania lifted her head and looked at Lisianthus.
Her eyes were strange.
Damp and cold, like moss grown on the tombstone of the dead.
Until now, Lisianthus had always thought Titania beautiful, but he’d considered her beauty utterly useless.
A doll, no matter how pretty it acted, was still just a doll.
But this Titania seemed like a different person entirely. There was an otherworldly quality, as if she were a statue erected in a shrine.
Her pale golden hair trembled like a veil, woven from frost that had fallen on a harvested wheat field.
Her green eyes, like olives floating atop a poisoned cup, shone with transparency.
“No. Titania is dead.”
Then she smiled slightly, as if joking.
“Which means what you’re facing right now is Titania’s ghost.”

* * *

Right then, Lisianthus saw something bizarre.
Everything was soaked in blood.
“He” ignored the stinging pain of scalding heat and gripped the sword’s hilt again.
Everything around was slick and hot and wet. It was hard even to breathe.
—No, no, it wasn’t like that!
Before his eyes….
A woman was shrieking.
Her long hair was crudely shorn on one side, and her flailing limbs bore clear marks of wounds.
Trembling and soaked in blood, she crawled across the ground as if trying to escape.
He heard himself grinding his teeth and cursing as he watched.
—I, I really didn’t know it was poison! I just…!
—Don’t make me laugh.
The arm swinging the sword at the defenseless target without hesitation suddenly froze.
The sinews bulged clearly in his forearm from how hard he was gripping.
—Didn’t know it was poison? Stupid wretch.
—…….
—Even if it was poison, you wouldn’t have cared. Or maybe you didn’t have the presence of mind to think about such things?
You wished for everything Raymond loved to be erased from this world, didn’t you? You want it so only he and you exist in the world, with no one else needed?
—No, no, it wasn’t… like that….
—Don’t make me laugh.
Killing you would be far too merciful. Continuing to live here is already worse than being vermin.
With that knowledge, he spoke like driving in a wedge.
—You’re a seed rotted from the root. Even if you died and were reborn, no matter what happens, never.
Her dull green eyes widened. Her face, wrecked with tears and ash and blood, froze as if taxidermied.
—You will never receive Raymond’s love.
He found it laughable.
She was already someone who’d lost everything. She had nothing.
Browbeating her like this was nothing but venting. The true instigator was laughing from behind, unseen, even now.
Too stupid to even realize she’d been used as a tool, she’d dragged herself down to this state with her own hands.
He despised her genuinely, but even as things had come to this, the way she still acted like this at the mere mention of “Raymond”….
It was revolting.
How could a person be so disgustingly stupid?
Something in his chest roiled and boiled. It seemed nothing could cool it.
—If you’d never existed from the start, it would’ve been better for him!
Click.
Something locked into place with a sound.

* * *

“Why do you look so dazed, Prince Lisianthus?”
“…….”
Lisianthus blinked, pulling himself from his daze.
What had he just seen? What was….
The image of the woman shrieking, soaked in blood, overlapped with the image of the girl before him looking at him with puzzlement.
Their features were certainly similar.
The woman who’d been crying, ruined and filthy with devastation, had pale golden hair and green eyes—hazy, but unmistakably so.
Yet he couldn’t possibly think of them as the same person.
As if every light that existed in the world had been stolen away, such a….
Caught in this strange feeling, unable to gather his thoughts, Lisianthus found Titania pressing him further.
“Did the Duke of Castrain have anything else to say?”
“No.”
“So you really came just to deliver the Transaction items?”
Just when he thought she’d changed—did she actually want Raymond to come himself?
Distracted by the suddenly rising thought, Lisianthus was about to open his mouth in irritation—
“Then, before you go, how about you act like a rabid dog for a bit?”
“…What?”
Titania smiled brightly, like a child playing a nasty prank.
Lisianthus swore he’d never seen her face look so delighted.
“So that everyone will never forget what happens when we meet.”
“Let’s cause absolute havoc.”

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