Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 154

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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 154

“Raymond!”
The moment I sensed something wrong, I cried out. Not that I needed to—he was already preparing. The guide I’d brought along lay on the ground, trembling violently. Golden characters carved into the stone hummed and buzzed, releasing an eerie light.
Behind the rock, shadows crept out as if someone had spilled ink.
-That stone must have been suppressing the Magic Beast all this time! Either sealing it away or keeping it restrained—that’s why we couldn’t detect its aura clearly until now. Look, it’s swallowing rocks indiscriminately and growing bigger!
‘I have eyes too, thank you very much! Does this mean it can keep expanding like that?!’
-That’s probably what’s happening!
‘So ordinary attacks won’t do any good?!’
-M-maybe if the Contractor used the Power of Light to strike it…?
‘Worth a try.’
“Shine!”
Flash!
Flash!
The edges of the shadow rushing toward me evaporated like steam. It wasn’t entirely ineffective, but the effect was weaker than expected. I glanced over at Raymond and his men.
“Ordinary attacks aren’t working!”
“Everyone, protect yourselves as best you can!”
“Don’t expose your backs!”
The shadow indiscriminately swallowed nearby branches, brush, and stones, its form swelling grotesquely. When the knights struck with their swords, only the debris clattered away from the blades—the shadow itself remained perfectly intact.
Despite their reputation, these warriors held their ground admirably against an enemy they couldn’t even wound. More than anything, Raymond himself didn’t seem bound by “ordinary attacks.” Each time he swung his blade, the shadow recoiled visibly, torn and shredded. He shouted toward me with determination.
“We need to leave this place! Your Highness, you must retreat!”
He was right. The grotesquely swelling shadow widened what looked like its mouth. The stone countered with continued bursts of strange light. That was when the guide, trembling in the center of the protective formation, opened his eyes wide and cried out.
“Cindy! Is that you, Cindy?!”
“…!”
Within the shadow’s mouth, the shape of a child wailed.
“No! No, please, mister, help me—someone, please!”
“Mister, where’s my mommy?”
“And Matthew too. Children! Listen, this monster has the children—!”
Raymond’s jaw tightened.
As if mocking him, inside the shadow’s gaping mouth, the children had an odd, faded color—like paper cutouts with shadows cast upon them.
Yet their cries sounded so real, their forms so lifelike, that they seemed genuinely to be calling for rescue from within. The morale of the defending knights crumbled.
I tried using the Power of Wind to push it back, but only dirt and stones scattered before the gust—the shadow itself swayed in the air like an intangible, lifeless thing.
This is infuriating.
-This is merely mimicry. But to do it so precisely… surely…
‘Surely what?’
-Looking at the Magic Beast’s state, it’s not complete. It seems as if people were attacked in its dying moments or fragmented state, their vital energy drained, and as their life force was being recovered, a Barrier forcibly isolated them and protected them inside just before it could swallow them completely. But if the Barrier’s duration ends, they’ll be absorbed entirely. The way it can mimic appearances by absorbing living people’s vital force suggests…
‘Don’t ordinary Magic Beasts kill people outright or consume them whole? Or corrupt them with Demonic Aura?!’
-It was labeled as an Inescapable Danger! A creature that doesn’t die even when killed. Maybe we can’t defeat it by normal means?
‘How does one become a Barrier administrator anyway?’
-…You just do? I mean, strictly speaking, I’m not a Barrier administrator, but…
‘Please tell me we’re not doing some complicated virtual experience of installing Barriers to waste time.’
-Well, Poda acknowledged you before, and it’s urgent, so if you just bleed a little—!
These vile, cowardly creatures actually took children hostage. Even knowing this was mere bluff, a simple Beast’s trickery, watching it flaunt the form of a child as a shield while attacking—the warriors’ morale evaporated. Especially the way it seemed to mock Raymond, the only one landing effective blows.
“So you’ve all fallen for the Magic Beast’s illusions. What have all your years of training meant?”
“No, Your Grace!”
“We shall correct this!”
Raymond gripped his sword tighter, resolute. No matter what the Beast did, no matter what the guide said—he wouldn’t waver. But the creature, sensing or perhaps testing his resolve, grew bolder. It increased the number of child-forms in its mouth, then added adults among them.
Well, that worked in my favor by creating an opening.
“…!”
“Your Highness, don’t charge ahead alone!”
No, I’m fine. Just bleeding a little.
Instead of answering, I drew my blade across my forearm and flicked the blood onto the stone.
Beep,
beep-beep.
A strange ringing echoed in my mind, or so it seemed.

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a villainess who mistreated the protagonist.
One day, the villainess finally understood.
The protagonist’s misery didn’t bring the villainess happiness.

Gray, ashen memories from the darkness flickered past like a lantern show before the dead. Hazy scenes, as if she were seeing her own memories reflected in water before crossing the river.
-Why not give up?
A phantom rose from the ground, taking shape. A figure draped in a full-length hood hung suspended in air, but hollow as an empty box—if you lifted the hood, there would be nothing but emptiness beneath.
Yet the woman continued her task mechanically, as if accustomed to such sights.
-Don’t you think your Contract is unjust?
‘…’
-Consider it. You needn’t pretend to be a good child. Just as you are, do what you wish. Abandon what you dislike. Live this way. I shall seat you upon the throne of this new world. Rule my servants like subordinates at your fingertips, live at ease. That’s right…
The voice grew notably gentler.
‘…’
-Just set down that sword.
The woman glanced briefly at the sword held in her grip.
‘…’
-All your suffering now is, in the end, futile. That vile god of light uses you merely to fulfill his own desires. No one will remember you. No one will praise you. When it’s all over, nothing will remain for you. You never wanted to be a hero anyway, did you?
‘Thank you.’
-…What?
‘I wasn’t certain. But it seems this is the right place. If I destroy here, perhaps I can perform an act worthy of a hero…’
Titania laughed.
-You dare!
‘No matter how often you whisper that overturning this world would let me rule everything like a queen, beloved by all—it’s meaningless. Meaningless, you see. Emotions planted like a puppet’s recitation, a brainwashing—how are they different from lies? Even if they were real, I abandoned that long ago.’
-Whatever Beloborg promised you is nothing but a midsummer night’s dream—!
Titania found this agreeable.
She walked the ruined land as if coughing blood, and did what had to be done.
All of this—it didn’t matter if it were merely a stepping stone to begin anew. She needed no one to recognize her insect-like efforts. She needed no shell of affection.
Beloborg’s midsummer night’s dream was, after all, everything she desired.
A world where her existence wasn’t wrong.
A world free of the burden of that loathsome name.
Parents who loved her sincerely and raised her properly.
A world with ‘family.’
What did it matter if the dream had an ending? Humans are foolish by nature, capable of wagering everything on so little.
After all, she was a villainess who once burned her youth on an unrequited love.
So it mattered not if she had to work harder to complete this fairy tale with its guaranteed happy ending, nor if this entire story became ‘a story that never was.’ It felt liberating.
This world would be beautiful even without her…
And she would never have to worry about anything ever again.
Titania smiled radiantly and drove her sword into the earth. A practiced motion.
The blackened stone beneath shattered catastrophically. The Magic Beast, its vital point pierced, screamed—long, so very long. While it still slept was the opportunity. That monstrous creature of stone, protecting the path to the last location with its own body, had to be killed before it fully awakened. Then descend into the Underground World…
‘Titania.’
Shards of fractured stone grazed her cheek, drawing blood.
She watched a familiar figure swing his sword to deflect the larger chunks. Titania found Raymond’s conflicted expression amusing. The troublesome villainess who’d clung to him, the one deserving of death, now showed a different side. All because he glimpsed her trying to save the younger sister she’d once aimed to harm—and just like that, his entire perception shifted.
That’s why, then.

The villainess thought it might be fine to rewrite the story after all.
The one who’d been wrong was her, after all…
And so.

‘What am I doing right now?’
If a relationship so fragile it would crumble from the start couldn’t earn even this much affection—then it was right that it should disappear.
He needn’t be shocked now, grasping at Titania as if awakening to something.

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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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