Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 165

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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 165

“After all, the imperial family has to come anyway, doesn’t it? I won’t suffer like I did in the Southern Region.”
“…Yes.”
“There’s something I’d like to ask.”
“Please, ask whatever you wish.”
“Could I use the library of the Castrain Family? …But I heard that entry isn’t permitted unless you’re a member of the Castrain Family.”
Still, the library itself might be possible, might it not…? Watching me sound out the waters, Raymond laughed softly.
“Your Highness.”
His hesitant hand carefully touched the tip of my ear. The warmth of his skin against my cold cheek was startlingly hot. Before I could respond, Raymond simply refastened my loosened cloak as though he’d meant to do so from the start.
“Your Highness is my betrothed. You need not ask for my permission to go anywhere in my domain. There are a few places that require Father’s approval, as carefully guarded as treasure vaults….”
“No, no, I won’t go to places like that!”
No matter how openly the Castrain Family now seemed to have become my steadfast allies, I had to hold the line myself. When I shook my head vigorously, Raymond smiled ever so faintly.
“Yes, I expected you to say so. It would burden you otherwise.”
“…”
“But Your Highness Titania. Whatever plans you harbor, whatever relationship you wish us to share in the future—this is Castrain land, and I am the next lord of this house and your betrothed.”
Whatever relationship you wish us to share in the future…
I had no answer to words laden with such complexity.
A land frozen and bitter cold. Without lavish Mana Stone-fed magical greenhouses, crops could not grow, and Magic Beasts assaulted without rest.
In the frozen earth, only the corpses of Magic Beasts served as nourishment. Wild animals here became prey for the Beasts themselves.
Trees grown in the frozen lands were sturdier than common steel. The domain, ringed with such wood and iron, layered in many walls and fortifications, inspired not beauty or splendor but awe. It resembled Raymond’s expression.
A visage as ruthless as snow and frost. Hair black as tempered steel. Eyes that shone like amber discovered deep within ancient tree bark.
“While you remain here, I ask you not to forget that fact.”
Raymond’s hand pressed against my arm, hidden beneath my garments—the scar I myself had carved fighting Magic Beasts, the wound I’d needed a Priest to heal. His fingers, which had wound around that arm as though wishing to erase even the memory of that scar, now slowly released me.
“So that I might fulfill my role.”
It sounded almost like a plea. Like a hunting dog, trained through countless years, left alone in the forest by his master—appealing with his eyes as that master turns to leave.
Unable to resist, unable to cry out. Clawing the ground with his paws, breathing hard.
As though calling for his master to turn back.
So I simply pretended not to hear that final appeal.
This man is a beast bound by a collar of his own making—unbidden by anyone—to guard the world that is the Castrain Family. No matter how harsh the path I must walk, I had no intention of letting him stray from the role he was born to play. What a mockery it would be if ‘Titania’ became kind while ‘Raymond’ fell from his orbit.
I swallowed the words I wished to say—that I hoped I had no place in your role—and smiled instead.
“It’s cold. I should go inside now.”
The bitter wind, falling as something less than snow, mercifully concealed my hollow laughter. Such was the weather.

* * *

“Your Highness. How does that area look?”
“Hmm. Why?”
“I think I saw boar tracks over there. Look at those prints on the ground.”
“It does look like a boar. Looks like there’s disturbed earth too.”
Adrian was utterly sick of politics. Having to match appearances outwardly while inwardly staying at war. Especially the matter of walking knowingly into traps.
Certainly, someone might say that a man vying for the highest seat in the empire should expect such hardship and ordeal as merely par for the course….
‘Not beast tracks.’
Adrian’s mouth twisted.
Adrian was no great hunter. He’d picked up adequate skills while serving as a mercenary, but he was nowhere near the true hunters who’d spent long years in the mountains.
Instead, he’d learned other things. How to lure people into the wilderness, so to speak.
Hunting people is easier than hunting beasts.
There are those who hunt hunters.
There are mercenaries who hunt other mercenaries. Rather than labor at actual hunts or complete contracts, it’s easier to simply seize the fruits of others’ work. Empress Cleo was not beneath placing such low-grade contracts. And yet, it was difficult for even the lesser knights drawing wages from the Imperial Palace to have learned all these dirty tricks.
“Shall I scout ahead?”
“Or what about this direction?”
The expression of the man Adrian indicated darkened.
“…That’s rabbit droppings. Are you after rabbits? Though rabbits won’t give you many points. Better to track a wolf or fox…”
“My liver is only as large as a rabbit’s, so I’ll hunt rabbits. You’re bold—why not pursue a fox yourself?”
“No, Your Highness. I’ll remain at your side…”
Adrian chuckled, found a rabbit warren, set a simple snare between trees, and lit a fire at the burrow entrance. He deftly caught the rabbits that bolted from the smoke and placed them in a pouch bearing his name. The man seemed surprised by Adrian’s unexpected skill.
“You’re quite adept at catching them as they flee, Your Highness.”
“Large game draws many hunters, so accumulating points steadily through small catches isn’t a bad strategy, is it?”
That was when it happened.
Whistle-screech!
A hawk swooped down from nowhere, snatched a rabbit, and flew away. Seeing the bird—unusually large compared to other hawks—the man whistled.
“Oh, robbed of your rabbit? But that hawk does look splendid. Count Smith, who’s obsessed with hunting, would’ve paid anything for such a fine bird…”
“Duck down.”
“The hawk—gaaahhh?!”
Adrian seized the back of the young knight’s neck and slammed him to the ground. The hawk’s talons, raking toward the man’s eyes, met empty air instead.
Clang!
Adrian’s blade clashed with the hawk’s talons, steel ringing against steel. The hawk, deprived of its prey, soared back into the empty sky.
“Gack, gah, gahhh—what is this? What, what is that? Some crazed bird attacking a person…!”
The young knight lay trembling on the ground.
Adrian bit his lip. Just as he’d suspected.
His enemies didn’t want to make a scene. A sudden, mysterious Magic Beast attacking Adrian and killing him would be messy to clean up. It might invite suspicion of foul play…
So if these conspirators could command beast-shaped or winged Magic Beasts, they would naturally set traps using them in the hunting grounds.
Brian paraded the hawk into a cage and brought it back.
But if one can command one hawk, why not two or three? You keep the hawk docile in its cage, and if Adrian somehow survived, or if others protested—no matter. You simply deny it: “His Highness Brian’s hawk remained in its cage the entire time,” or “Are you suggesting His Highness unlawfully won through illegal falconry?” There was no rebuttal to that.
There was no way they could openly tamper with Adrian’s clothes or weapons.
So when Adrian traveled with a companion, he’d assumed they would exploit that ‘companion’. He’d anticipated it, but he hadn’t expected them to use their own subordinate so carelessly as bait for a Beast Demonification.
Crackle.
Chirp.
Screeeee.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
Beside the rabbit corpse Adrian had caught, another rabbit with blazing crimson eyes approached. One, two, three. Rabbits demonified, creeping silently toward us…
“What is this? Insane beasts—why are they coming closer? Why do their eyes all look like that!”
“It seems all Beast Demonified creatures get eyes like that. Good to know.”
“Y-Your Highness Adrian! What is happening!”
“What? You’re finished, that’s what.”
The young knight shrieked as the uncanny creatures surrounded them like a closing net.
“This isn’t what was agreed! You said just lead him to a remote spot. Why am I involved!”
“Before you came here, did you take anything? Any objects?”
“Ah, th-that can’t—!”
The young knight’s face went pale. He hastily threw items from his pouch to a distance—a tobacco pouch, a coin purse, jerky, animal feed of various kinds. But the creatures showed no interest in any of it, pressing onward toward the knight.
“P-please help me, Your Highness! I was merely deceived by the one targeting you. If you help me…!”
The knight instinctively clung to Adrian—the one remaining calm and assessing the situation even in such chaos. A wise choice.
But Adrian laughed with ease.
“Well, honestly, right now, if I just ignore you, I think I’ll be fine. So why should I?”
“B-but we’re surrounded together—!”
“Hahahaha. So, do you choose?”
Adrian’s smile widened—somehow resembling the bright, mischievous smile his half-sister wore when scheming.
“Something mad and brutal where you might barely survive, or just stay here and let them hunt you in peace.”
“The mad thing! I’ll do it! Please save me!”
“Wise choice.”
Of course, to the knight, Adrian simply looked like a beautiful lunatic.

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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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