Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 2

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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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Episode 2

In the novel, Bibi was a Returner. Even if her body was that of a child, her mental age was not. So, of course, she would understand what I meant by this.
Even in that problematic original story, even though I was the opponent who tried to kill her, she had said we should spare a minor life like mine anyway since the real culprit was someone else.
Hmm… There was no separate mention of Princess Titania after she was locked up in the North Tower in the original work, but in fact, it was unlikely that the people around Bibi, who loved her dearly, would have let a princess virtually abandoned by the imperial family live peacefully.
She probably died without anyone knowing, I suppose. I spoke with many mixed emotions.
“Thank you.”
“…….”
“But it’s alright.”
I understood the despair that Titania in the original story must have felt in front of Bibi.
The lady loved by everyone.
The lady who could have anything.
A young girl who could have everything she wanted without lifting a single finger.
The girl whom everyone in the notoriously terrifying and cold-blooded Castrain Ducal House cherished and loved like a treasure.
Just looking at her must have bred an inferiority complex. Especially since Young Duke Raymond, who used to look at her as if she were a bug, went as far as to treasure Bibi like a piece of sugar candy that would melt in the rain.
But still.
“You should worry about Young Duke Raymond’s safety rather than mine, Bibi.”
“……Big brother?”
Bibi’s eyes, which had been quietly accepting my stroking her hair, changed subtly.
“Yes, Bibi. Since it’s that Castrain Ducal House, there’s no need to worry so much… But still, breaking off the engagement now will allow him to meet someone better before it’s too late. It has dragged on for too long.”
Both Raymond and I are already nearly twenty years old. The original story has already deviated to some extent.
Far from killing Bibi, I had actually saved her life once, so I wouldn’t fall into ruin and be confined miserably like in the original story. Still, it felt a bit wrong to keep blocking the marriage prospects of another family’s son who had a bright future ahead of him.
“…….”
I tried my best to coax Bibi, who was looking at me with a pout and eyes full of discontent.
“I’m really fine, Bibi. I am the empire’s only princess, after all.”
If the Emperor really intends to sell me off as a second wife to some pot-bellied foreign royal, I’ve already thought of a suitable way to escape…
Rather, breaking off the engagement is a prerequisite for that.
I didn’t want to cause trouble for Bibi by getting entangled with the Castrain Ducal House any further. So, although I felt sorry for the worried Bibi, the midnight escape operation was a secret from her too.
Actually, rather than a midnight escape, yes, it was closer to a ‘faking death’ operation…
Well. Wouldn’t everything become clean and good if I just disappeared by pretending to be dead? Bibi might be a bit sad, though.
—…Do not apologize to me.
Suddenly, I remembered the man who had looked at me with eyes like melted, crushed stars. He looked hurt, and he also looked afraid. Maybe it was both.
In any case, to that man, I must be a symbol of misfortune rather than good luck.
—Why, for something like this, are you apologizing? I am the one who put you in danger! Why on earth do you only smile and say it is fine just because you saved someone else?
Recalling that voice that appealed to me as if pleading while gritting his teeth made my chest ache faintly.
But well, he was a man with an outstanding sense of responsibility, and he thought he owed me a debt.
However, the engagement is about to end now, and there is no longer any need to be protected by Raymond.
Only neatly living our own separate lives would remain.
You can’t bring a dead person back to life anyway, can you? There’s no way that cold Young Duke Raymond would cling to a relationship with his dead former fiancée.
He’ll meet someone new.
“So, shall we have some dessert now? Hmm? I prepared this after a long time because Bibi was coming.”
“…Alright.”
I just smiled brightly in front of Bibi, who rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction but did not refuse the fork I handed her.

* * *

“Liar.”
Inside the carriage returning to the ducal mansion, Bibi muttered in a voice full of petulance. She was tightly clutching the tart box the princess had wrapped up as a gift.
“What do you mean it’s fine because you’re the empire’s only princess! You don’t even think so yourself!”
Bibi’s loyal maid, Lucy, spoke as she tidied Bibi’s disheveled hair.
“It’s because Her Highness is also worried about you, Lady Bibi.”
“…If they break off the engagement now, there really is no way to protect older sister. Does she mean she’s really fine with being sold off to a foreign country? Of course, I won’t let that happen, but…”
The girl, who had been chattering away with worry, suddenly stopped speaking.
Maybe she really thinks it doesn’t matter.
If it was the Titania she had known up until now.
Bibi, who had entered the ducal house as an adopted daughter after experiencing a miserable death and returning, vowed to change everything.
However, the empire’s princess, notorious for being arrogant and presumptuous, was not included in that. Titania was not.
Originally, it had been that way.
Until she ran into her by chance at the Imperial Palace five years ago and fell into the palace labyrinth.
Originally, she had intended to find the hidden Imperial Relic near the labyrinth. A relic that no one in the imperial family remembered anymore.
It would be troublesome if someone questioned the source of the information, so she had tried to take it secretly when no one was around. It was definitely an item that could be taken even if one did not possess the imperial bloodline.
Something went wrong, a trap was triggered, and she ended up falling into the underground labyrinth of the Imperial Palace, which she had only heard about in rumors.
If it hadn’t been for Titania, who had rushed out from somewhere to shield Bibi, she might have died right then and there.
Even with her limbs bitten and torn by the magic beast guarding the labyrinth, Titania had smiled with a pale face.
That magic beast fundamentally does not attack those of the imperial bloodline if nothing happens. If she had ignored Bibi, Titania would have been perfectly safe. But Titania had protected Bibi.
She tightly held the child’s body and did not let go until the magic beast, growling for her to hand over the intruder in her arms and aggressively baring its teeth while looking for an opening, backed away.
Titania had smiled with blanched lips, telling her that people would arrive soon, so she shouldn’t cry and should rest assured.
—You have to return to the people who love you, Bibi.
Then, what about you?
Soothing the child frozen in instinctive terror with hands grown cold from losing too much blood, Titania left her last words.
Yes, those were her last words.
Princess Titania…….
Her voice sounded like that of someone who didn’t think she would survive at all. If she had truly been just a child, she wouldn’t have known, but Bibi had already lived a life, died, and returned.
She had also witnessed people’s deaths. She knew when people made that kind of voice.
When they had resigned themselves to everything.
That was when they made that kind of voice. A terribly quiet and calm voice.
Why are you doing this here? Why are you saying those things? To me?
—I’m fine. …Now Young Duke Raymond will be fine, too.
Realizing that, Bibi became a little dazed.
This person really thinks it’s fine to die like this.
Even if she dies……. Because there won’t be any problem.
Because once the troublesome fiancée dies, Young Duke Raymond will also be at peace.
Something surged up in her chest.
—…That’s not true.
So Bibi grabbed that pale hand and shouted.
—I, I am not fine! If you leave like this when I haven’t even repaid my life’s savior!
Titania’s hands were small.
Compared to her older brothers, compared to her father, compared to the hands of the people Bibi had held so far, they were far too small.
They were hands just barely large enough to wrap around the hands of the still-young Bibi.
Ah, I see. Bibi realized. This person is also only fifteen years old.
Yet in this vast Imperial Palace, there was not a single person who loved or worried about Princess Titania.
—I, I am the daughter of the Castrain Ducal House. We never forget favors or revenge, and we absolutely must repay them.
Bibi suppressed her heart, which felt like it was about to burst into tears.
The Princess Titania that Bibi knew before her return was arrogant and willful.
Her pride was high, she was a lump of inferiority complex, and she couldn’t let go of her obsession with Raymond. Everyone ridiculed her, saying they wished she would act at least half as good as her face looked.
For such a being to be her oldest brother’s fiancée even at the point of her return. Honestly, she hadn’t liked it. Since her brother didn’t like her either, she had tried to find a way to break off the engagement somehow.
But…….
—Where in the world is there a person whose death is fine?
To say that Young Duke Raymond would be fine too.
He was an older brother she liked so much, but at this very moment, she felt a brief sense of resentment toward him.
She was still his fiancée.
No matter how forced the engagement was. Couldn’t he have treated her a little more kindly?
If he had, …would she have calmly said that her fiancé would be at peace after she died, even after risking her life to save her beloved fiancé’s younger sister?
At Bibi’s words, Titania, who had stopped talking for a moment, chuckled. It was a sorrowful smile like a withered spring flower.
—…Right, thank you.
That face, which looked so faint as if it would disappear at any moment.
Just thinking about what happened back then still made Bibi anxious. Even during the tea time just now, she had coaxed her not to break off the engagement with exactly that kind of smile!
“…That idiot big brother!”
At Bibi’s words, screaming as if she were furious out of nowhere, her escort knight, Killian, who was sitting next to her, casually threw out a comment.
“Young Duke Raymond’s disposition does tend to be a bit like that.”
“I’m sure big brother likes older sister Tia too!”
“I’m sure he likes her.”
“If he likes her, he should express it! Instead of only caring about things like limiting her daily snacks to three chocolates because her teeth will rot!”
“That’s why he frequently visits Princess Titania’s palace to eat desserts. That’s why there’s no one who doesn’t know that the Princess went through the trouble of scouting a talented patissier and having them settle down in the Rose Palace.”
“Woohoo.”
Bibi, who had grown gloomy, rubbed her cheek against the outside of the tart box she was holding in her arms. Before the paper box could collapse, Lucy skillfully rescued the box from Bibi’s embrace.
Looking at the confiscated box with a tearful face, Bibi was suddenly caught up in a strange thought.
Come to think of it, since when exactly did the originally ‘arrogant and presumptuous’ Princess Titania change like that?
Bibi slowly retraced her memories.
So, surely….
Was that also about five years ago?
It was after the problematic ‘accident’ where Princess Titania was said to have almost died.

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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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