Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 188

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Chapter 188

Rather than being moved by the fact that she had become a candidate to be the consort of the great Duke of Orto, she said—since neither you nor I welcomed this, but that’s the reality, so what can we do about it? Just don’t interfere with each other’s work, and find sincerity with someone else. That was the kind of woman she was.
A woman who had lived worse than a commoner—no, worse than a commoner—yet never once showed deference before the Duke of Orto.
No matter how illustrious the Castrain Family might be, it was difficult to elevate a woman of unknown bloodline, who had lived worse than a commoner, to the position of duchess. All the more so, given that it was one of the few great noble houses—in the Northern Region, practically a status equivalent to royalty.
So, really, there was no need to forcibly make her a duchess at all.
Most previous duchesses had known the circumstances of the ducal house, and they all accepted any children born that way as their own. The records, too, remained only as children of the duke and duchess. Since the women in question didn’t particularly desire the status of duchess either, this time could have been handled similarly.
But the duke of that time—that is to say…….
“If I hadn’t taken her as my wife, perhaps I wouldn’t have insisted on bearing three children.”
The duke smiled a deeply bitter smile. He drew a cigar from his breast pocket, cut the end, and lit it.
Even as he exhaled acrid smoke, his mind found no peace. Sharper than the smoke, bitter thoughts drifted aimlessly.
The duke had fought with that woman, bickered with her, gone through a process like war, and as their bodies came together again and again, feelings had emerged.
Before the first child was even born, he had felt the certainty that it could be no one but this woman.
Perhaps in all his life, across every moment, he had never before felt such a thought as: “inefficient, perhaps, but what of it?”
The woman, who had originally intended to bear one child, receive assurances of wealth and new status, and then depart far away to live freely, had accepted the duke’s courtship and become a duchess despite her ambiguous birth—despised for that very reason.
Within the Northern Region she was revered like a queen, yet those outside it looked down upon the new duchess. Slurs followed her—that she was born a courtesan. The duke rendered nearly everyone who spoke such insults as good as dead, yet he could not silence the gossip that spread beyond the Northern Region. But the woman paid it no mind.
Rather, the woman who had become the new mistress of the ducal house loved the Castrain Family far too well. And she had come to know far too much of its reality. She pitied the duke, who ventured onto the front lines every day risking his life, the duke who had to face Magic Beasts alone—dangerous precisely because he was strong, yet strong only by himself.
I wish you were not alone. Since I cannot fight beside you.
So even knowing she was cutting down her own life, she continued on, and continued on…….
It was then that the duke felt regret for the first time.
I should not have grasped her. I should not have said I loved her. I should not have spoken the value of the things I had protected like my own life.
Then at least I would not have to see her smiling like a plant in the shade, saying everything would be fine because the children would remain at your side even without me.
So the duke wished that Raymond’s betrothed would be someone of steel.
Someone perceptive enough to understand the circumstances of the Castrain Family, yet not one to throw away all she had—someone clever, sharp-minded…….
The princess’s disapproval was the same as it had been when the Betrothal was freshly performed, when she was just a child, but the reason for it had changed.
“…Are you speaking of the one who has passed?”
Only an adjutant, one who knew something of the circumstances, could address the duke so fearlessly, but the duke had sent that adjutant away with Raymond and Titania.
Still, as the duke gave voice to his thoughts as though speaking to empty air, a waiting knight, concerned, began to speak, and the duke gave a short laugh.
“Seeing things like this, I wonder if fate really exists. A vain thought, that…….”
In the end, words he confessed to no one—yet the duke believed that his love for his wife had killed her.
He felt a pang when he saw Raymond acting like a wooden puppet, but thought perhaps it was for the best that way. That was…….
The duke truly wondered whether his wife and Titania shared any blood ties. Yet Titania’s bloodline was far too clear, and now that she had manifested the Power of Light, there was no room for doubt. He had seen it with his own eyes and could deny it no longer.
“……Let’s go.”
Even as a father’s strange premonition stirred within him, the duke could not bring himself to speak it aloud.

* * *

“Were you displeased with what your father did?”
“Pardon? No. Not particularly.”
Raymond fell silent. I, now quite accustomed to it, nestled in Raymond’s arms as we traveled on horseback, blinking my eyes.
A very faint sound of hoofbeats reached my ears—precisely, the soft sound of horses’ hooves treading on snow.
The guards escorting us by the duke’s command, the horses we rode—all moved silently through the night, as though we were riding ghosts. Had I lacked courage, I might have trembled with fear in such soundless motion.
“From his perspective, it’s certainly understandable.”
“…Listening to what the princess says, I always seem to hear similar words. It’s fine, it’s understandable. From his perspective, it might be so.”
“But…isn’t that how you are too, Raymond?”
“It is not.”
I could read the feelings in Raymond’s quiet voice. He was sorry. That the duke had pressed me with sharp intent and tested me. And that he could not openly intervene to prevent it.
“If you had stopped the duke for my sake, my evaluation would have been even worse, wouldn’t it? You knew that, so you didn’t stop him. You might have tested me in a different way out of irritation. When I face people like the duke, these things just happen. I was prepared for it.”
“…….”
“I just had that thought. If that kind of person is one’s parents, truly, you couldn’t avoid being influenced even if you tried.”
In truth, even if the Duke of Castrain had made threats against me more severe than those, I don’t think I would have minded much.
A man who has spent his entire life grinding himself down to protect the Northern Region finds me suspicious as a day-old puppy—well, suspicious is fair enough. My past-life memories suddenly returned; there’s no way that’s ordinary.
Seeing it in person, I couldn’t help but be impressed.
That overwhelming aura and presence.
What’s more, a biological father? Even if I were his daughter, it would have been obvious that I’d be desperate to be acknowledged in any way possible. The duke was as strict with himself as he was with his children, and they said he only relaxed somewhat after Bibi appeared…….
As for Titania, her family circumstances are murky at best, but even so, the children of the Castrain Family—they haven’t lived such purely happy lives.
Having things to do, things that must be accomplished—that too is quite a shackle. Raymond was earnest and good-hearted, so it would have weighed on him all the more. Lisianthus knew he couldn’t match his perfect older brother, so he’d just decided to do what he could, what he was good at—that was his stance. Rasper is a model child (though, seeing how he secretly practiced Magic under his brothers’ and father’s noses, can you really call him merely a model child….).
“People say ordinariness is best, and that’s true, isn’t it?”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“If you hadn’t been born into the Castrain Family, your shoulders might have felt a little lighter.”
Raymond opened his eyes wide as though he had never entertained such a thought in his life.
“…What?”
“You can’t imagine it? I can’t quite either. Surprisingly, you might have lived quite… ordinarily. Though with that skill and that face, ‘ordinary’ hardly fits.”
“I’ve never had such thoughts before.”
His voice trembled slightly at the end, as if he were flustered.
“I like that.”
If I were to pity the great Raymond, it would be for this and this alone.
If I were to sympathize with the Castrain Family, who have far more than I do—well, modern tycoons have far more comfortable lives than this, and money alone can accomplish anything, but here they have money, power, and honor while grinding away their very lives to protect them.
“Living simply and ordinarily under ordinary parents. That would be nice.”
“Is that the kind of life you wish for?”
“I’ve made a mess of it, but if it were possible, it’d be good. Have you never thought it yourself, Raymond—I wish the world weren’t like this?”
“I…….”
Raymond hesitated for a moment.
“…I have thought it unjust, but mostly I have only thought that I myself am lacking—not capable enough to sufficiently overturn such an unjust situation.”
“Having someone like the duke as your father makes you feel your own insufficiency…….”
Jemina inside the hood stirred, sending me her intent.

‘Yeah, yeah. You’re allowed to dislike someone who showed off their power in front of a newborn baby spirit-beast. You’re okay?’

Confirming Jemina’s safety, I lifted my head. Cold air brushed against the tip of my nose.
“Later.”
I slowly ran my fingertips over themselves. The wound from bleeding was already healed, leaving only a rough texture. Inside my body, the power I had gained moments before slowly circulated.
I had come to wield the Power of Light, the Power of Wind, and the Power of Earth, and since the Power of Water and the Power of Fire belonged to Rasper and Lisianthus respectively, there should be no difficulty with ownership. And with the Dedication Ceremony too, I might be able to properly restore the Barrier. I was acting as a proxy for three powers, not bringing three Awakened Ones, so there might still be insufficiency.
So if things go well, perhaps. Regardless of me.
“I hope you get to live such a life, Raymond.”