Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 210

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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 210

By convention, a Masquerade Ball is ostensibly an occasion to facilitate meetings between unmarried young men and women without betrothals. Widowers and widows who have lost their spouses are also welcome. In other words, if you have a betrothal, you don’t receive an invitation.
Though it’s not as though there’s no way to slip in without one.
Even so, they sent me an invitation mere days after my engagement dissolution. The audacity is staggering. Of course, mere rumors that a princess frequents such a place would already constitute quite a damaging scandal in society. But why should I care about scandal or reputation?
“Cleo didn’t realize the building was registered in her own name—she seems to have persuaded the Countess of Sheringham instead. Whether it’s poison needles or assassination daggers, whatever. I know all the secret passages and fixtures of that building. And the building manager answers entirely to me.”
Know yourself and your enemy; victory in every battle.
Money makes the world go round.
I wanted to play dead, not actually die, so I had to prepare properly.
Normally, if someone died at a party I hosted, my life would be ruined. But this time, since Cleo herself arranged it to ruin my life, I felt no guilt whatsoever.
The only thing that troubled me, just a little, was this:
“The problem is, word that I’m attending mustn’t get out. And it would be equally problematic if Cleo didn’t find out.”
I intended to kick up a scandal just severe enough to destroy any dignity as a princess—one that would make sending me abroad impossible. After all, it would be embarrassing to marry off a princess who’s been caught playing around with some foreign man to become a neighboring king’s queen, no matter how little the king cares about such things. But if the scandal gets truly catastrophic, even if they want to send me, they can’t.
Knowing my circumstances, I remembered Flux eagerly volunteering himself as my fake lover for the night, and my mood turned complicated.
Hmm, Flux was too decent, and his fortune and lineage were respectable enough that there was a high likelihood a betrothal would become a foregone conclusion. That’s the difficulty.
Moreover, since his family has considerable wealth, the Emperor might think that if he decided against selling me to Grove Kingdom, the family could simply cover the dowry amount the kingdom would pay me instead. Or worse—if I pretended to be his fake lover and then disappeared playing dead, he could end up taking the fall.
When I said no, Flux’s face flushed red and purple, and his expression became so ambiguous I couldn’t tell if he was happy, sad, or just disappointed.
He’s universally recognized as a solid marriage prospect, after all. It would be a shame to have his marriage prospects ruined by being tangled up with a princess who’s destroyed her reputation and vanished pretending to be dead.
‘Are you afraid?’
The memory of another man whose marriage prospects I’d nearly ruined surfaced, and my body went rigid.
His gaze burned hot, but his voice trembled ever so slightly.
It made no sense. He was the one asking if I was afraid. Yet his concern somehow sounded like he was the one who was terrified.
Ridiculous. The next heir to the mighty Castrain Family couldn’t possibly be afraid of mere words.
Since he’d spoken so harshly when we reunited, I’d wondered if he might actually show up at a place like that again.
No—the Countess of Sheringham’s Masquerade Ball is a gathering that everyone whispers about as being in poor taste. Respectable noble ladies ensure their children absolutely never attend such a place. Everyone wears masks, so as long as those masks don’t come off, no scandal attaches to anyone’s name.
Yet even with a masked face and a wig, a man like Raymond would give himself away just by existing.
And no matter how cruelly I’d spoken to him, if I found myself in mortal danger before his eyes, he would save me.
“Is the Castrain Ducal House not looking for new betrothal candidates for Young Duke Raymond?”
“…Your Highness Titania?”
The Empress looked at me as though I’d just said something utterly nonsensical. I smiled brightly.
“If Your Majesty arranged a gathering yourself, even Young Duke Raymond would find it difficult to refuse.”
“…I understand what you’re thinking, but Titania. Masquerade Balls are largely evening affairs. Even if I summon Young Duke Raymond, it would be impossible for him to arrive until nightfall. And it would be improper to begin with.”
The Empress rebuked me with her eyes. I gazed off into the distance, playing innocent, then—ah—lifted my head.
“What if Your Majesty held a nocturnal Ball at the Imperial Palace on the very same evening the Masquerade Ball is held?”
“……”
“Since things are well between Your Majesty and me, surely no one would think I’d skip that gathering to attend the Countess of Sheringham’s Masquerade Ball!”
And above all, any properly-thinking nobleman would go to the Imperial Palace Ball without question; no one of breeding would choose the Countess of Sheringham’s event.
Moreover, the Empress could cover for my absence, saying something like “She must be tired; she said she’d rest at Rose Palace.” The Empress sighed softly as she looked at me.
“Have you started throwing tantrums, asking me to do such things now?”
“No, not tantrums exactly—I’d just be truly grateful if you would.”
I quickly sat beside the Empress and massaged her shoulders. A faint smile of exasperation appeared on her face.
She didn’t seem displeased.
“You know perfectly well that even for a low-quality Masquerade Ball, my suddenly hosting an event at the same time as one whose invitations have already been distributed is rather like slapping the Countess of Sheringham across the face, yes? Before, you trembled lest you cause me even a grain of harm. Your audacity has grown considerably in the meantime.”
“Come now, everyone knows the Countess of Sheringham is nothing but Cleo’s lackey. It wouldn’t hurt to showcase Your Majesty’s authority over such a matter.”
“And meanwhile you plan to vanish pretending to be dead in some unseemly location and tarnish my dignity.”
I leaned my head gently against the Empress’s shoulder.
Watching me nestle my head into the empty space like a cat gauging its owner’s mood, the Empress looked at me as though I were truly an inveterate troublemaker. I slowly took her hand.
Jemina softly brushed her delicate wings between us.
“If I leave the Imperial Palace, you’ll actually have nothing to worry about. You’ll be safer.”
“That’s why I haven’t stopped your plan.”
I simply smiled in the quiet that followed.
Living in the Imperial Palace these past years, the Empress has looked after me in various ways. Adrian was naturally easy with me, and I had nothing to lose by making a show of my friendship with the Empress. And somehow, her way of thinking and her values resembled my original mother’s. It made me feel a little nostalgic and warm.
It was obvious that if a princess on good terms with the Empress died in some unsavory manner outside the palace, the Empress’s dignity would be tarnished.
But she didn’t consider such external damage more important than the fact that I could escape the Imperial Palace safely and live freely and securely.
Despite valuing dignity above all else, she’d even deign to compete with someone as vulgar as the Countess of Sheringham.
Years ago, when I learned that the Empress had protected me from near-death in her own palace, and later discovered that Cleo had attacked her using that very day as a pretext, I’d clenched my teeth.
No matter how little I had or how lowly my station, I hated it when someone reached out to me and suffered for it. Hated it deeply, profoundly.
That was part of my inferiority complex, I suppose.
Really, Cleo is the worst.
I spoke while holding the Empress’s hand.
“Stay healthy and live a long, good life.”
“Once you leave the palace, you’re cutting off all contact?”
“Oh no, I’ll reach out when the time comes. But at least for a few years, I need to play dead, so…”
“You’ve only picked up Adrian’s bad habits. The way you speak such brazen things so naturally and smile shyly.”
“But you find me cute anyway!”
If she couldn’t say something, the Empress laughed. A smile reached the corners of her eyes. Barbara was laughing too. Hmm, I’m not exactly the embodiment of cuteness like Bibi. It’s rather embarrassing to say such a brazen thing in front of the Empress. But Adrian goes even further than me, so.
I stuck close to the Empress, lightly patting my shoulder, and continued on with this and that.
If I succeed in playing dead and manage to escape, I should probably show some sign of real grief. But applying this instead of onion juice would be more seamless, or so I hear. But this…
The tender gaze watching over me was so precious. Once I leave the Imperial Palace, I’ll never see it again. I pressed down that feeling firmly and simply laughed out loud and cheerfully.

* * *

“Might I inquire the name of such a beautiful lady?”
Instead of answering, I studied my counterpart. More precisely, the appearance of the candidate I’d earmarked to go to hell with me.
The mask itself, which covered the upper face and left only the mouth exposed, was ordinary. But the lavish black pearls, mother-of-pearl, and feathers adorning the area around the eyes and forehead made it gaudy to behold.
Pomaded, slicked-back hair shining like lacquer; eyes that appeared ordinary but radiated excessive confidence of “you could never refuse me.”
A coat of arms adorned with decorations so ostentatious even moderately wealthy Flux wouldn’t dare attempt it, like a peacock in full display.
So. This is the man who abandoned Former Empress Valentina and fathered a trash of an ex-husband with another woman where their eyes met.
Pathetic. Right now, I’d love to grip that hand he’s extending, twist it hard as I can, and hear him whimpering, “Ouch, it hurts!” But I couldn’t do that.
I opened my fan to conceal my trembling lips and smiled with my eyes.
“How impolite, asking for a lady’s name in a place like this.”
“My apologies. You’re like a fairy, and I thought—if I don’t learn your name and bind you to the human world, you might fly away.”
Ugh!
Ugh!
Yes, I’m flying away. My composure is completely gone.
I pinched myself on the empty hand to stifle the snort threatening to escape.

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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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