Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 214

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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 214

An explosion erupted in the dead of night.
Screams tore through the air.
Half-naked people stumbling out, demanding to know what was happening; others fleeing; still others weeping over corpses and blood…….
It was a bomb powerful enough to obliterate an entire floor of the building.
Had magic been used?
Well, no one knew the truth. The assassins that Empress Cleo had sent to Titania with Lilium’s consent were not, strictly speaking, Magic Beasts.
They were subjects who had undergone procedures to become Demonic Servants—weaker than Lilium’s loyal agents like Primrose or Prince Brian, but transformed nonetheless. The decision had been made to avoid leaving traces of Magic Beasts at the scene, lest it cause troublesome complications later. But what did it matter.
In the end, they were simply obliterated by the bombs Titania had hidden throughout her building using her wealth, resources, and connections.
Had they possessed the abnormal regenerative abilities unique to Magic Beasts, things might have turned out differently. But since Titania had fled regardless, the outcome remained unchanged.
The third floor had left scarcely a trace, while the second and fourth floors retained some semblance of structure. Baroness Sheringham had panicked and fled.
The stench of blood and ash hung heavy. Flames continued to roar.
“…Ah.”
The moment Raymond saw the scene, his breath caught.
Stumbling forward, he made his way toward the third floor—the one that had left barely a mark. His fingertips trembled.
Tonight had been strange from the beginning.
A Masquerade Ball hosted by Baroness Sheringham—a word he’d known but thought he’d have no connection to for a lifetime.
But the instant he thought that Titania might be there, something in his mind seemed to burst apart.
When her figure didn’t appear at the evening ball held in the Imperial Palace, and yet the Empress and Prince somehow pretended everything was fine, an ominous premonition had gripped him.
He’d pressed his attendant and others to hurry and procure appropriate clothing and a mask. By any means necessary, he’d obtained an invitation and entered under the name inscribed upon it. He hadn’t had time to think about the honor of the Castrain Family, or scandal, or any such thing.
Simply, he couldn’t bear the thought of Titania being in such a place…….
“I cannot endure this side of you. Truly. Not at all.”
Did Titania really hate him that much?
Did she find the very sight of him unbearable, never wanting to meet him again?
“……I cannot endure it.”
It felt as though someone had poured molten metal into his ears.
He simply wanted to ask.
Why then did she look at him with such eyes?
Why, even as she spoke cruel words as though deliberately trying to leave wounds, did she refrain from uttering the basest insults—as though such vulgarity didn’t suit her nature?
As though it wasn’t Raymond who couldn’t endure it, but Titania herself who was running from something. As though she were pushing him away for a reason.
He’d removed himself from that place because he feared that if he’d remained there, Titania would have killed the man who leaned upon her with her own hands.
That man was the illegitimate son of the former husband of former Crown Princess Valentina. Titania couldn’t possibly not know. So there must have been a reason for her to smile and draw close to him.
If he’d interfered…… he might be hated for it.
Surely, no matter how incomprehensibly Titania continued to act. Could she really be trying to trap such a worthless man, kill him?
Ah, yes. That might truly be it. So Raymond had left that place. Put distance between himself and the building. He’d choked down his seething breath, suppressed the killing intent that threatened to boil over.
That was why.
Even when he heard the bomb detonate, even when he sensed something was amiss. He hadn’t been able to reach that place first.
“……Ah.”
The room, of which barely a trace remained, was devastating. What appeared to be the remains of the dead had turned almost entirely to ash. A wig, burnt beyond recognition of its original color and fused to the ground…….
Hair that glimmered very faintly, and a cold body so damaged that its original face was utterly unrecognizable.
Trembling, unable to steady his crumbling knees, crawling forward half-conscious, Raymond instinctively searched for Titania, then tried not to.
“Ahhh, aaaaaah…….”
A bestial cry tore from his throat.
He should have suspected.
Yes, the Titania he knew would never willingly meet such a man in such a place. There had to be a reason. And if it was Titania he knew, then if there was a reason, she was the sort of person who would throw her own body into a place where she might die without hesitation!
Seeing corpses reeking of blood and iron clustered near Titania’s room, he couldn’t even muster a hollow laugh.
He understood now why Titania had driven him away. She was going to be attacked…….
And instead of asking Raymond for help or telling him the truth, Titania had pushed him away from this place with her usual cruelty, just as she always did.
So suffocating that he couldn’t bear to be in this place where Titania might be with another man—so suffocating he hadn’t felt something was amiss and had walked out on his own legs.
Why?
How could this be?
Reason whispered to him.
Such a woman doesn’t die easily.
Instinct whispered to him.
No, that woman. She, more than anyone else. More than anyone else…… could die easily if only the chance arose.
She’s abandoning you and leaving again this time.
‘Raymond.’
Again.
The woman was smiling. Her face seemed somehow relieved. A smile so vivid it wouldn’t fade from his retinas even if she died a hundred times and was restored only to die again.
Despite never having considered drawing a blade on Raymond even once before, she wielded her sword without hesitation, hurled light, pushed him back, and threw her own body into the void.
The void, death, darkness seemed to consume the woman. As though she had lived only for this moment, as though nothing else was needed anymore.
‘After all, it would have been better if you and I had never met from the start.’
Whether Raymond wallowed in his emotions alone, whether he rotted or broke apart or was destroyed—it mattered not. She had set a light in this murky reality, and that was enough.
She would become the wick of that light, burning away everything and disappearing without a trace.
All the connections and emotions between Raymond and the woman would simply vanish and cease to matter.
……Whether he made some choice, what he thought—it was no concern of hers.

「Make a Contract with me.」

Click, click, click.
The sound of a broken clock hand slowly ticking, one beat at a time.
Memories and emotions buried in dust gathering. A crow, having dug up a tomb sealed away for eons, gathering up all that remained of the dead—nothing but bones now—and standing guard over the grave until it dies, leaving the grave unattended.
To seize a ghost desperate only to die or disappear and evade everything, one must awaken in hell.
To wake those who have sunk beneath the River Styx, one must fill the river itself.
Unlike that foolish Orpheus, who lost his wife forever by turning to look back as he led Eurydice from the underworld, this man, if it meant reclaiming what he had lost, well——
Rather than sing and beg for mercy, he would cut Hades’ throat and hang Persephone, if that’s what it took.
If this life were to vanish once the dream of a midsummer night ended, he would bring eternal night upon all the world.
And so in that moment, Raymond Oberon El Castrain finally opened his eyes.

* * *

The Imperial Palace was thrown into chaos.
A bomb had detonated at the estate where the Masquerade Ball hosted by Baroness Sheringham was held. The problem was the identity of those who had died in the accident.
“P-Princess Titania……!”
“Th-The heir of the Lecen Family was also……”
“Hush! Such vile talk! What connection would Princess Titania have with Young Lord Lecen!”
“B-But it was a Masquerade Ball……!”
“Her Majesty the Empress has lost consciousness!”
“Prince Adrian maintains silence on all matters!”
Of course, there were suspicious circumstances.
Why on earth would Princess Titania, who had been unwell, be at such a place instead of the Imperial Palace.
Why was the one found beside her that good-for-nothing heir of the Lecen Family, whose reputation in society was abysmal and who had ruined the lives of several women?
Though the corpses were too severely damaged to identify with certainty, a body with what appeared to be platinum hair and what seemed to be a maid who had attended Titania were found. No one could believe this wasn’t Titania.
Baroness Sheringham was arrested immediately and subjected to harsh interrogation. She couldn’t evade responsibility for a death in the royal family at her own gathering.
She denied knowing anything, then denied it again, and finally testified with trembling hands that Young Lord Lecen had indeed arranged a private meeting between himself and Princess Titania, but that was all she knew. The next day, she died.
It was claimed she had committed suicide out of guilt, but everyone who mattered knew that someone had silenced her.
The Empress collapsed from shock and secluded herself thereafter, while Prince Adrian used the pretext of caring for the Empress to withdraw as well. The Imperial Palace struggled with the matter for a time before finally acknowledging only that Princess Titania had been murdered by those targeting her. Naturally, rumors ran wild.
A princess, recently Engagement Dissolved, counted as the greatest beauty in the empire. She had frequented disreputable places and been murdered. Worse still, beside her had been a contemptible man. Of course, rumors spread that she had been killed while consorting with the good-for-nothing of the Lecen Family.
Meanwhile, almost no one suspected that Titania was hiding somewhere and living on.
Because her reputation had been so thoroughly destroyed that she could absolutely never show her face again.
Though it was a regrettable matter, the dead were the dead. The funeral was held. The Empress could barely stand, and Adrian wore a somber expression. Young Count Flux, who had a connection to the deceased, and the members of the Castrain Ducal House all attended.
“It cannot be that Her Highness has passed! It simply cannot be!”
“Sob, sob…… Debbie…….”
“That’s right, Barbara!”
“I know, but Her Highness is…… gone…….”
While the maid who had supposedly attended the dead princess wept bitterly and all shed tears.
Titania, meanwhile, was…….
“These shrimp are absolutely delicious.”
Savoring her freedom.

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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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