Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 190

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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 190

“This is the back entrance.”
“…Bibi?”
“Here, here—with this you can summon the Emergency Guard Forces. Since you didn’t take the Castrain Family name, this is probably the limit you can access. This is the key to the Third Stables, and take this too.”
“…B-Bibi?”
Cold sweat beaded on Titania’s brow. But Bibi showed no hesitation, her small hands methodically pushing items across the table toward her one after another.
Maps and diagrams for brief routes, back entrances for emergencies, secret passages—all except those reserved exclusively for the family’s direct line—badges symbolizing the authority to summon some of the guard forces in a crisis. Precious things that rolled across the surface like scattered treasures.
The Castrain Family’s rivals would have moved heaven and earth to possess such valuables.
Titania recoiled as if shown a plague, her hands trembling, unable even to reach for them.
It was exactly as Bibi had expected.
“B-Bibi, you can’t just hand these things out to people! Especially not maps like this! What if word gets out?!”
“Are you going to spread it around?”
“Of course not!?”
“Then we’re done here.”
Titania’s mouth hung open, her hands pressed to her temples in bewilderment. Her eyes spun in circles—it would have been almost funny if it wasn’t so genuinely distressed.
Bibi loved this Titania. Loved her enough that she had no desire to pry into whatever secrets she harbored.
“Sister.”
But did Titania truly know nothing of Bibi?
She displayed the kind of warmth only family would show, so earnest it bordered on pitiful. Of course, the Castrain Family’s sole precious jewel was worthy of such devotion—
Yet here she was, even pushing away her own betrothed, the young lord of the Castrain Family.
Then why did she smile at Bibi with such luminous, melting tenderness?
There was that flustered anxiety whenever Bibi gave her something. That worried scramble—what will become of Bibi if I take this?
It was the manner of a family that had completely accepted each other within their circle. And whenever Bibi saw that expression, certain words echoed in her ears, unforgettable.
You must return to those who love you. You are precious and beloved, and so you are worth saving—words that amounted to exactly that.
Bibi understood that sentiment better than anyone. I am worthless. I will die leaving nothing behind. I am. I am.
She had despaired like that for so long, right up until her death.
So she wanted light to kindle in that face. She wanted Titania to be happy.
Rather than remaining trapped in despair, drowning in resignation’s river, Titania would laugh ruefully, thinking “there’s nothing for it,” and wade across that current—
Yet Bibi wondered whether all of Titania’s choices were truly for herself.
What on earth could she do about it?
“Sister has things you need to do, don’t you?”
Titania’s eyes widened—she’d expected nothing more than something like “How could you come all this way and not trust Bibi, us, your own family? You should have brought proper guards at least!” But that wasn’t what came.
Bibi had heard that the Duke of Castrain had returned. That he’d met with Titania.
No matter how much Bibi reimagined her own place, no matter that the Duke had entrusted everything to her small hands—the Duke would lose his own life dozens, hundreds of times over rather than place Bibi before a Magic Beast.
So she could not prevent his testing of Titania that first time they met in such a way.
Before the great Duke of Castrain himself, Titania did not beg. She did not kneel. She accepted his treatment as a proper guest, with dignity intact.
But to Bibi, she would never confess, “I was hurt by being treated that way.” She didn’t want to create a painful situation where Bibi would have to choose between the person she treasured most—her “Papa”—and Titania.
Yet as long as the Duke of Castrain existed, Titania would accept that she could be severed from the Castrain Family at any time, at his word and command, and she would think “there’s nothing for it”—even say it aloud.
So Bibi simply decided to do what she could.
It was too obvious what would happen if she apologized a thousand times over—Titania would blink, smile with mature grace, and answer, “The Duke was merely doing what was natural. You don’t need to apologize, Bibi.”
Who didn’t know that?
But feelings get hurt—that’s human nature. Bibi had thought about it constantly: isn’t it because we’re not that close if you won’t even unburden yourself of hurt? Do you not need comfort from anyone? Should I just accept that you’ll carry this alone?
But slowly she came to understand.
This sister was stubborn.
More stubborn than Raymond! In some ways, maybe even like Papa!
“Apparently when she didn’t have a proper vehicle, she took that snow sled and modified it with all sorts of adjustments.”
“….”
Bibi thought back to the witness accounts she’d heard earlier.
‘Swear something like a sailfish flew over it. Seriously! Like a boat!’
‘What kind of nonsense is that? A sailfish-boat instead of a sled or horse flying around in the middle of the night? Were you asleep? If it was a Magic Beast, the alarms would’ve sounded, so it couldn’t have been.’
‘It’s true! Something was fluttering, fluttering through the air! There were even marks left in the snow!’
‘…A ghost?!’
A newly minted urban legend: the ghost sailfish-boat crossing the snowfield, whose captain of honor was Titania. She stared into empty space with nothing to say.
“So I’m giving her a vehicle. Yes, if this kind of situation happens again, I’m giving her the Emergency Guard Forces to use however she needs. But if she has to leave in a hurry and tries to sneak over the walls like a cat burglar, what if she sprains her ankle?”
“B-Bibi, still… just climbing one wall wouldn’t sprain my ankle… would it?”
Hearing Titania’s defense, Bibi’s patience finally snapped.
At least don’t tell me you’d never climb a wall even if you were dying!
How had things come to this? Was it Lisianthus? Could be. Something seemed off from the moment Rose Palace burned—
As they say, a leaky roof leaks inside and out. Did our burning house leak fire into someone else’s and cause all this?
Of course, if Lisianthus had heard this thought, he would have felt wounded.
He’d had nothing to do with Titania’s actions today, so why was he catching arrows? This is why your everyday behavior matters.
“I’m not asking you to tell me everything you do, every secret. I’m not asking to be part of everything you do. Bibi isn’t that childish.”
Since Bibi couldn’t prioritize Titania above everything in the world, she couldn’t demand that from Titania either.
So the only way was to give her everything and ask that next time, she be just a little less reckless.
If Bibi had her way, she’d have laid the very foundations of the Castrain Family at Titania’s feet—both Lisianthus and Raymond.
But Titania was still young, and she rarely refused Bibi’s gifts, making the excuse that Bibi had saved her. Faced with her betrothed’s steel walls and that betrothed’s thoughtless little sister…
Thinking this far, Bibi’s head ached. No wonder these older brothers were hopeless at romance!
So here, she simply smiled and resorted to force.
She couldn’t let Titania refuse by claiming she’d already caused enough trouble, that it would inconvenience Bibi, and other such excuses.
“But I’ve given you all these splendid means and methods in abundance, in abundance. If you use them as an excuse—’It troubles people, I’m an outsider, blah blah’—and get hurt and endangered, then Bibi will be genuinely very sad! I’ve given you money and prestige and power, so why won’t you use them?!”
“…Bibi, that sounds a bit off somehow.”
Bibi decided to act like a tyrant toward stubborn Titania.
I give it to you—why won’t you use it? Why?
“If you sprain your ankle climbing a wall, I’ll tear down the wall.”
“Bibi, that sounds pretty insane. Don’t you have to think about security? You might live on, but I only visit.”
“Then if you don’t want Bibi to be in danger, you’ll use the map, right? If you keep using the wall and twist your ankle so that Bibi cries and has to remove it, well, then the building is exposed. How convenient for assassins—they’ll come every single day, and Bibi won’t sleep, and her face will go dark, and her appetite will fall…”
“…I won’t climb walls. I’ll m-memorize the map. I’ll memorize it, burn it, keep anyone from seeing it…”
Titania had finally surrendered.

* * *

Thanks to Bibi’s cooperation, moving about inside the Castrain Family became much easier.
As a result, I searched the secret archives again, kept Jemina pleasantly plump, shared tea with Flux, who kept dropping by asking what I was up to lately, felt sorry for Raymond, who was working himself to death, fended off Lisianthus when he made an absolute fuss offering to create the Ultimate Snow Sled if I’d enjoyed the snow sled so much, visited the nearby Temple and engaged in capitalist gossip with a young priest who claimed to be close with the High Priest Adrian, and kept running away whenever Adrian said “Just once, let me try purifying that hand once,” until—
“It’s complete!”
The item Bibi had commissioned from Rasper was finished.
It was the day before the Dedication Ceremony.

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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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