Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 171

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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 171

Adrian made the young knight vomit. Then, hastily hunting fresh wild animals, he smeared their droppings on the man and sent him fleeing. The color drained from the face of the man watching the beasts scatter in all directions as he asked urgently.
“Is—is he going to be alright now? He’s okay, isn’t he?!”
“No.”
Writing a charm on food instead of a specific object had been clever enough. Much of it had already been digested, and being alive and moving would be enough to mark him as prey—there was no helping it. Adrian scratched his cheek while observing his companion’s ghastly pallor. There was no time.
It was only because Adrian, hardened by a rough mercenary life, could endure it—if he had been the delicate prince raised within the Imperial Palace as his enemies imagined, he would have already been dead from that ambush.
Adrian clicked his tongue at the blade of his sword, crusted with the blood of demonified beasts. He examined nearby trees and brush, rummaged through the satchel at his side, tied rope, and set small snares. Without pause, his hands moved as he muttered.
“I don’t know what he ate, but it’s already half-digested and spread throughout his body. Honestly, the blood might be somewhat dangerous too.”
“Pardon?”
“What I mean is… right now… it seems like something was hidden and fed to him that makes him look like delicious prey to the Magic Beasts. Even with just his breathing and scent right now, the beasts are swarming like this. If he gets even one wound, a whole pack of demonified beasts will charge straight at him.”
With his preparations finished, Adrian rummaged through his satchel once more. He pulled out a small glass vial containing what looked like round pills, hesitated over something, and handed the contents to the knight.
“Eat it.”
“What—what is it?”
“…Better if you don’t know?”
The knight, his face drained of color and restless with anxiety, seemed about to protest—objections rising to the very back of his throat—but seeing Adrian look different from how he usually appeared, he resigned himself and obediently swallowed what was offered. And immediately let out a shriek, clutching at his throat.
“Ugh, hack! Ack! Grrgh, hack!”
“Ah, it’s a bit bitter. That stuff.”
Adrian spoke with perfect calm while watching his companion thrash about like an earthworm struck by salt.
“Wh—what in the world is this smell! It’s like… like something mixed sewage and mold together…!”
“Haha. Magic Beasts avoid this scent.”
“I—I think I’m going to be sick…!”
“Here, let’s apply more of it.”
“Uuuuugh!”
Adrian emptied the rest of the vial’s contents, dampened them with water from his portable flask, and crushed them. An indescribable stench spread in all directions.
Adrian’s face betrayed no reaction to the acrid reek that assaulted his nostrils as he mercilessly smeared the substance across his companion’s face, neck, and between the folds of his clothes.
Because the Hunting Competition didn’t seem especially dangerous, the knight hadn’t dressed in proper armor, so the fetid odor wafted from the gaps under his arms and between his legs. Whether his companion hung limp as if he’d been thrown into a river alive several times and pulled out, Adrian was relentless.
“This is truly rare. Among mercenaries who deal with Magic Beasts, they charge whatever price they can get. Besides, we haven’t even started anything that could really be called ‘mad’ yet.”
“What on earth are you saying? This isn’t the end of it?”
“It would be nice if the beasts tore me to shreds, but if we just leave it so a beast swallows you instead and I slip away intact—well, there’s a possibility of that. So your brother would have arranged some other way to make sure the kill was confirmed.”
The sound of approaching hoofbeats drew nearer. Adrian let out a low chuckle.
“Can you run well?”
“…Pardon?”
“You’d better be able to. You want to live, don’t you? Right?”
“No, I’ve been asking for a proper explanation since—!”
Whoosh!
An arrow flew. The man’s face went pale as he spotted the arrow hurtling toward both Adrian and himself.
They were people.
There was still some distance, but the riders made no effort to hide their intent to hunt. Yet even in such danger, Adrian’s voice remained calm.
“Your brother probably did drive people back from this area. But the forest is vast, and once we leave this region, there will be people. It’s difficult to reach them while evading your brother’s men… but that’s fine. You have to run, or you die. And once blood starts flowing, the Magic Beasts will attack too, so you’d better run with all your limbs intact.”
“How can you speak of this so—so casually…!”
“In any case, make sure you catch people’s eyes. Better yet, shout like this: ‘His Highness Prince Adrian has been attacked by a bear! Help me!'”
“Where would there be bears in this hunting ground?!”
“There’s a bear over there that eats people.”
Only then did the young knight understand what was meant by a “mad gamble with one’s life.”
Run to safety without a scratch while avoiding arrows fired from afar? And then call for help?
“Your—Your Highness, aren’t you coming?”
“Ah, you’ve never hunted humans before, have you? Usually in situations like this, when the first-priority prey and second-priority prey flee together, you target only the first priority. So if we flee together, I die first.”
“Th—human hunting? What kind of madness…”
“What you and I are experiencing right now is human hunting. If you don’t want to die, run.”
Instead of answering, Adrian kicked his trembling companion with the toe of his boot. After the man hesitated for a moment, he ran with all his might, abandoning this place without the slightest hesitation. Adrian watched his retreating figure, then slowly surveyed his surroundings.
Three men on horseback bearing down on him. One with a bow, one with a long spear. One with an axe.
They were firing arrows at the fleeing young knight, but because Adrian was in front of them, they showed no intention of leaving this spot.
Well, from the start, the young knight’s role had been bait to drive Adrian forward. Killing him could happen anytime, anywhere—there was no rush.
‘…If it’s a monster, no matter how skilled I am, I have no chance.’
He’d heard that among those who attacked Titania, there was someone who didn’t seem human. Adrian was confident in ordinary combat, but if a monster appeared that even the Castrain Family struggled against, he had no confidence he could face it.
‘Well. If it comes… that’s where it ends.’
If he hadn’t secretly lived as a mercenary, he would already be dead from that earlier ambush. Adrian let out a faint laugh.
Arrows flew relentlessly, aiming to wound him wherever they could. Adrian easily dodged them by using the surrounding trees as cover.
His opponents seemed somewhat surprised. Only mercenaries who’d spent long years on battlefields could manage that. One of the axe-wielders spurred his horse and charged at Adrian.
Normally, when a mounted and an unmounted opponent collide on open ground, the latter is guaranteed to lose. But the charging horse caught on a rope Adrian had strung earlier between the trees and lost its footing, crashing to the ground. It was a trap he’d set beforehand.
Neigh!!
“Aaaaah!”
Adrian drove his blade through the throat of the opponent tumbling toward him without difficulty. The eyes of those who had underestimated him hardened.
“What is this? I thought he was a delicate young lord raised in the palace?”
“A trap?”
No loyalty among them, no grief, no confusion—Adrian clicked his tongue. The enemies, sensing Adrian’s skill was no ordinary thing, kept their distance rather than approach closely, simply observing him.
The time given had been too short to set many traps. He’d been lucky to kill one man, but…
He needed an opening.
“Huh?”
Right then, Adrian blinked.
A pungent, familiar scent drifted through the air—like the substance he’d been carrying and had applied all over the young knight’s body as bait. White smoke spread in thick ribbons. The two men smelling it stiffened visibly.
“Damn it, what—?! The air stings…!”
“Cough, hack…!”
Like mosquitoes suffocated by incense, the men froze, gasping for breath.
The forest was vast, and it was unclear where the smoke had come from, but it lacked the power to keep the enemies pinned indefinitely. Given time, even a brief moment, they would recover and attack. But even that brief opening was enough.
“Aaaah!”
“Grrgh!”
Adrian dispatched both men without difficulty, then turned to gaze out of the forest with an expression of bewilderment.
“…What?”
What in the world was this Numbing Smoke? What was happening?

* * *

Titania could do little.
She couldn’t enter the forest unarmed. She couldn’t protest about bringing hawks—wasn’t that illegal? What a debutante invited as a lady’s companion to a Hunting Competition could do was…
Precious little.
Titania had arranged the event and, while struggling to survive, hadn’t fully grasped what it meant that her debutante ball had been held at the Orland Family estate.
‘It was Magic Beast corpses.’
The Castrain Family had spent lifetimes fighting Magic Beasts, and naturally, the retainers under such a family possessed basic knowledge of them.
The evidence Titania could gather from seeing the remains of the swarms of insects she’d desperately slashed through was more than enough to harbor suspicions about the true nature of the enemy. Even the Orland Family had basic methods to prepare for Magic Beasts.
‘So, so… they might use Magic Beasts this time too.’
Fire requires fuel to burn.
Titania, preparing for lunch, observed the small campfires beginning to spring up in scattered places. And she moved.

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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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