Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 221

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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 221

I couldn’t refuse the hand he offered.
Beyond my shock, it was because his fingertips trembled helplessly, without any strength behind them. If I pushed even slightly, he would collapse backward. He seemed so fragile he might shatter.
Hollow cheeks, twisted lips, those ominous gold eyes unable to tear away from me….
Like a wounded beast.
Like an abandoned animal that had wandered through forests for years searching for an owner who had abandoned him. Rather than finding a new master, it dug through empty earth searching for the shadow of the departed one, and grasped my hand with an endless, blind desperation—as if it would dig and dig until its breath failed and it fell asleep.
Several words circled in my mouth.
How did you know I was here, what do you know, where do you know to….
There was so much I should say, so much I should ask, but nothing came out.
I simply stared at the trembling man clinging to me, pleading.
The last time I saw him, and the time before that, he was like a wounded, ominous beast. But now those gold eyes gazing up at me glistened with moisture.
“I was wrong.”
“…….”
“So please. Please…….”
It wasn’t a mistake.
Fat teardrops fell, one by one, wetting my hand.
They were hot.
If he had raged at me, threatened me instead, I might have responded without hesitation.
If he had demanded to know what I was thinking, why I was doing this to him, I could have smiled like a con artist.
I was accustomed to “that” side of him. A man who would be fine without me. Always, always strong. Like a hero.
So I never expected this.
“…….”
The man wept before my silence like a lost child. Even when he had lost his entire family and trudged through endless despair, he had shed not a single tear, his face dry and composed. He was the kind of man who would cough blood rather than tears.
Yet here he was, tears streaming down his face.
And that’s why I could turn away.
That’s why I could believe it would be fine.
But I never imagined he would collapse like a child who had lost his parents, as if he would die if I abandoned him now. So I remained frozen, bound by invisible threads, unable to move.
“Please don’t disappear like that before me again…….”
His whispered plea sounded like more than just a request.
With his grip on my hand so fierce, as if binding me so I could never go anywhere, I lost all words.

* * *

—What on earth were you doing?
The man shifted his gaze to the sword that spoke to him in the dim interior.
Titania, worn out, lay sleeping.
Raymond continued to weep before Titania. With Raymond crying ceaselessly, Titania grew flustered. She lacked the heart to be harsh with Raymond, who clung to her, saying he thought she was dead, apologizing, wanting to see her—true to form, strong with the strong and weak with the weak.
After she led the pleading, whimpering Titania inside the Summer Villa, coaxing her to move to another room, Raymond suddenly pulled Titania into an embrace and fell asleep—or pretended to—exhausted by the torrent of emotions and fatigue. Yet Titania simply fretted, “What do I do?” and after laying him down so he could rest, she sat in a chair and tried to sleep herself.
It was an endlessly foolish thing to do.
She didn’t realize that Raymond had deliberately tested her.
Raymond wiped away tears that kept spilling from one eye with an utterly expressionless face.
The sight of that statue-like face wiping away tears was almost bizarre. Though it hardly mattered—he had no intention of showing Titania such a face.
The Divine Beast sat beside Titania with its feathers bristling, glaring at the man. The man ignored the Divine Beast and checked the time.
The sky visible through the window was gray. It was dawn.
The ship would be arriving.
Raymond looked down at Titania sleeping peacefully like a child.
He gently arranged the Hair Strands she had dyed with clumsy care. Titania sometimes called herself vain, saying that looks were all that remained of her. But perhaps not. He felt he would recognize her even if she woke in an entirely different body.
That resolute gaze, that clear voice—he could measure her existence from a single syllable.
Raymond was curious whether Titania would abandon him and run.
His body was indeed exhausted and worn. If he lost focus, he might lose consciousness entirely—his condition was at its limit. But collapsing and fainting before Titania had been an act.
Though suspicion would have been natural, Titania fretted because she believed Raymond would never show her false weakness.
“…How utterly foolish.”
She had thought he would always be unyielding, outstanding, a paragon of responsibility and restraint.
Though, in truth, that’s how he had lived. He thought he would live with a hole in his heart all his life without ever noticing it, then die.
Not speaking truth, but never speaking lies either. A proud eldest son, the heir to his house…….
“……How lovely, truly…….”
Raymond slowly traced the corner of Titania’s eye. He wiped at tear marks that no longer left a trace. Tears fundamentally different from his own crocodile tears.
Precious in hue, like shattered and crumbled steel reforged and refined into something bright and true.
He wanted to swallow every tear she shed, leaving not even a trace.
A thousand of his tears could not equal one genuine tear of hers.
Watching her cry was like torture and like a dream. He wanted to embrace her shoulders and comfort her. He wanted to isolate her so no one in the world could see her tears.
Because he knew he would gain neither pity nor compassion unless he approached in a weak and broken form, he forced himself to suppress it.
In any case, capturing Titania came first.
Even if Titania had abandoned him and left, he would have found her eventually. Would have caught her regardless. But Raymond wanted to see Titania unable to turn away from him of her own will.
That the woman who had turned away and fled would at least hesitate—that she was still bound to him in some way—he found it brought tears of joy.
Titania lavished praise on Raymond and the Castrain Family, singing of their sacrifices. But truthfully.
He never thought of himself as such a noble being for even an instant, so he couldn’t perceive what others thought when they saw her like that.
I’m fine, truly fine…….
But saying she’s fine while disappearing. Cutting off all paths behind her so no one could follow, laughing as if content, then leaving.
The more noble and wise Titania became, the more degraded and ugly Raymond felt.
Not mere feeling, perhaps.
Titania was deceived.
The betrothed whom the princess, ignored by all and raised in loneliness, fell for at first sight was not such a noble and magnificent creature. Rather, his insides festered, rotted so thoroughly it reeked—broken beyond redemption. He wore a mask to hide it, shed crocodile tears convincingly enough to be utterly hypocritical.
The sword’s cold voice pierced Raymond’s ear.
—The reek of Chernobog emanates from you.
Raymond smiled with only the corners of his lips.
“But you won’t tell Titania.”
—…….
“Will you?”
Raymond laughed, enduring the sensation of his insides melting away.
Titania would never imagine that while she exhausted herself giving for others, someone might give everything for her.
Rather, if she noticed anything amiss, she would surely panic, run, close and lock the door behind her. Adding the weight of emotion or guilt to her burden—well, that wouldn’t help.
“Next time.”
Raymond slowly brought his lips to the corner of Titania’s eye. He swallowed the bitter, salty taste that traced his lips—like grains of salt. Poison, even just holding it would turn his insides to mire, yet he did not care.
……At least, he had caught her.
That would suffice.
The monster in Raymond’s heart sighed.
Poor thing, poor thing. You couldn’t escape, and now you’re caught in my grasp.
“……Don’t show weakness to something like me.”
Because you’ll be caught.
Raymond harbored no illusion that Titania loved him.
He didn’t believe she would sacrifice everything because he begged. It was truly absurd.
Once, the young Titania had fervently hoped her young betrothed would abandon his family, his house, everything—and devote himself solely to her. Now Titania had shattered that childish love and was soaring ever higher, shouldering responsibilities even greater than those he had once admired in her.
This feeling could not be called love.
This action could not be called sacrifice.
Yet in this moment, it was unbearably sweet. An endless, hellish heaven.
Raymond could only laugh as if he might weep.

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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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