Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 213

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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 213

My mind spun in circles. Everything felt like my plans were unraveling. One thing was certain.
I couldn’t die before this man’s eyes.
Never.
I’d made a mistake from the start. I shouldn’t have let panic show. For reasons I didn’t understand, Raymond—with his sudden predatory intensity like a hunter sharpening his claws—didn’t seem the type to simply overlook my weakness.
“There’s a flaw in that reasoning.”
I pushed down the goosebumps rising on my skin and straightened my shoulders and spine.
“I’m not so lacking in manners that I’d come to a place like this without a partner. Unless you’re saying—if you weren’t looking for one either, why come here in the first place?”
I smiled, narrowing my eyes as though an outing like this meant nothing to me. At the sight of me like that, Raymond stopped still for a moment, then spoke in a voice heavy as stone.
“There was someone I was looking for.”
“Is that so?”
“It seems that person is right in front of my eyes.”
“You’re mistaken.”
“I’m not.”
The man let out a soft laugh. Then he deliberately lifted the hem of my dark-colored wig and pressed his lips to it—a laugh that bordered on mockery.
Jet-black hair, jet-black clothes, jet-black mask—and between them, golden eyes that gleamed with an ominous light, like a crow.
“Did you truly believe I wouldn’t recognize you?”
“…….”
“Yes, I promised to grant whatever you wish. I swore it on our family’s name. You said many times that we maintain only this much distance, so I’ve kept my word. I have.”
As though those years of avoidance were a lie, the emotional density concentrated in the man’s words was overwhelming.
It was like he’d pressed dark, inky feelings down and down, packing them to the limit until they began to seep out and pool at my feet. When I tried to look away from such a man’s gaze, his voice grew shallow and trembled.
As though he were afraid of me.
“Am I still……”
I could see his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed.
“Nothing but an annoyance to you?”
“…….”
“I don’t understand. I truly don’t. I can associate with those worms in this cesspool who look at you like filth, but not with me?”
“…….”
My chest plummeted. On reflex, I stopped the words that were about to spill out—anything but that.
Clumsy pity was the worst thing of all.
Better to cut cleanly.
“Yes.”
“…….”
“You’re annoying and infuriating. Even when I went south, when I’d prepared everything myself and set my plan in motion. You’d appear right at the critical moment and destroy everything I’d worked for. And the conclusion was always that you’re more talented, have more resources to draw upon, and can achieve better results—I found it insufferable. I still do.”
I noticed his hands twitch. I was aware that he kept looking at my bare shoulders, my cold fingertips, and the heavy cloak draped around my shoulders.
Over and over, he seemed to want to unwrap that cloak and drape it around me instead. How many times have I been wrapped up in that cloak and carried away in those arms? I’ve lost count.
“Whether I’m alone or not, whether I meet someone in a place like this and plot something—what business is it of yours?”
“…….”
My own words brought no satisfaction. It would have been easier to face the Raymond of the past—the one who went mad with grief, who despised me. The reason was clear.
Even after memory and nostalgia chose death in the past and became as still as a lake where rainwater and tears and seawater mixed, the traces of that most desperately longed-for emotion hadn’t vanished.
Young Titania simply hadn’t wanted to see her fine, magnificent betrothed fall to ruin. The girl who became so obsessed with her betrothed that she fell apart, the woman who abandoned all shame and lingering affection and hope, worn down and desperate to end everything—they shared something.
A certainty.
Raymond Oberon El Castrain did not love them. He showed favor only to the “Titania” who ended her contract with God, was educated by good new parents, and changed greatly thanks to guilt and knowledge of her origins—the Titania who saved the Castrain Family many times. My choices, my accomplishments, but……
“I hate this about you. Truly. Very much.”
Wasn’t it somewhat pathetic to be loved that way?
I don’t deny who I am now.
I don’t deny the choices that led me to become who I am. But seeing someone regard me with unwavering favor, knowing nothing of that process, unable even to guess at it, seeing only the result—
“I can’t bear it.”
It means I’m deceiving him.
If I thought of him as a stranger, perhaps I could become more forgiving.
Like a gardener obsessed with the most beautiful rose unable to settle for a dried artificial flower—because the feeling had festered and rotted so thoroughly—I thought, no, this deception won’t do.
I could see myself reflected in the man’s eyes.
A suffocating silence fell.
Since I hadn’t removed the mask, my expression couldn’t be seen, of course.
But my eyes trembled without direction—like someone shining light through hundreds, thousands of shattered glass shards. Like someone pouring sand into an empty glass bottle and shaking it. Raymond opened his mouth as though to speak.
I clenched my teeth.
That was when it happened.
“Have I been terribly late, my little bird?”
“A gentleman keeping a lady waiting—how ungracious.”
I never thought that nauseating voice could sound like salvation itself.
I pushed Raymond away.
He staggered backward, reflexively reaching out empty hands as if to grab me. But I moved faster than anyone toward the trash.
The man, in high spirits, showed visible displeasure upon seeing me and Raymond at my side.
“Ah, well. My fairy-like lady. I am truly terribly sorry for the delay. I’m afraid I quite forgot how insects cluster around a beautiful bird.”
“Yes, you’ll have to take responsibility and escort me properly.”
“Ha, well then, where shall we……?”
To your hell?
I whispered to my companion like I was driving a final wedge, my eyes still fixed on Raymond.
“My room.”
I felt his mouth fall open in delight. Even from a distance, the glint in the Countess Sheringham’s eyes as she observed us.
And Raymond, unable to believe the sight before him, wavering in place.
“I’ve been looking forward to tonight for a very, very long time, after all.”
I had to end this before things got worse.

ヽ(。_°)ノ
>
‘Just as well.’

I stifled a sigh that threatened to escape on its own.
Even now, cold sweat threatened to break out. I’d just left in front of Raymond’s eyes with another man—worse, one with a completely sordid reputation.
I hadn’t intended to put on such a display, but truly. No matter how harsh my words and actions were, honestly, I’d been afraid that if I simply watched that trash ruin my life, I’d be forced to grab me and drag me away myself.
I confirmed that everything I’d prepared remained in place and felt relief. It was then that the trash became handsy.
“Won’t you consider removing your mask?”
“A night’s encounter is only for the night. I heard there was such a rule?”
“Rare as it is, there are those who’ve met here and become true companions.”
True companions? More like cases where someone drifted in here by accident without knowing anything, ruined their life, and the family found out and forced them to marry the person for money and concessions just to make the best of a bad situation.
I removed the mask from the face of my enchanted companion.
He didn’t resist—in fact, he smiled with satisfaction.
“Even without the mask, I know who you are. Your Highness, the Princess.”
“…….”
“Haha, whatever you desire, I can satisfy you…….”
“Well then. Die for me.”
“What?”
Crack!
I brought my fist down on the back of his head, then pressed the button hidden behind my necklace.
With a hum, a faint Protective Barrier clung to my body.
That was when the deliberately activated Listening Device crackled with noise.
-No! If we’re not careful, he……-
Bleak voices.
The sound of things being cut and shattered.
Just as I’d thought—knowing I was in my room but not receiving a signal from the Countess Sheringham to attack, she’d simply decided to assault me directly.
﹏
Transfer Magic and Teleportation Magic are truly, truly difficult.
But if a grand mage of Rasper or Pan’s caliber has a massive pile of high-quality, large Mana Stones, and can even supplement it with divine power, it’s not entirely impossible.
I grunted and pulled fake corpses from beneath the bed to replace Sara and myself.
Then I threw my body into the narrow gap between the door and a pillar.
I steadied my breathing and gripped the small sphere hidden like a decoration within the crude wig.

Crack! The door was torn from its hinges, and I laughed.
“Done.”
Kaboom!
A bomb powerful enough to level half the building detonated along with the attackers.
At the same moment, my body became transparent. Evidence of Teleportation Magic at work.
I closed my eyes, feeling a mix of relief and subtle strangeness.
Now, at last, I was truly free.

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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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