Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 222

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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 222

“…….”
When I opened my eyes, a stranger sat beside my bed, staring at me with an intensity that made my skin crawl.
No, not a stranger…….
Raymond was there, perched on the edge of my bed where I’d been sleeping, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled faintly. I went rigid. What was happening here?
Jemina fluttered her wings frantically, pecking at me as if to say I should wake up properly. I stroked her trembling feathers, then squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
He handed me a water cup filled with ice-cold liquid. After I drained it in one shot, my mind cleared.
Fire, beautiful, lanterns cast away, loneliness descending, tears falling. And then…….
‘Please don’t disappear like that in front of me anymore…….’
…I was caught by a man clinging to me, weeping.
I couldn’t turn away from him as he trembled and wept like a lamb separated from its flock, so I soothed him with soft sounds—there, there, hush—and before I knew it, I’d brought him into the Villa. Raymond had lost consciousness and fallen asleep, and not knowing what else to do, I’d simply fallen asleep myself.
The moment I realized this, heat flooded my cheeks. No, what was I, a goldfish? How could I have fallen asleep in that situation!
—Well, yes, I quite agree.
‘Don’t mock me, Jemina.’
I was certain I’d been sitting in the chair and Raymond lying on the bed. Now the positions were reversed.
From my hand holding the empty water cup, the man deftly took the cup away. Then, in a voice dripping with tenderness, he drove home the moment with a finality that made my breath catch.
“I’ve missed you, Titania.”
“…….”
Whether I blinked in confusion or not, Raymond rested his cheek against the back of my hand where it lay.
Titania? Since when did he call me that? Not “Your Highness” or “Your Royal Highness”—but Titania?
Only Adrian would call Titania Sol Kite Hamastion by such an intimate nickname, and it took me a moment longer to realize he was addressing me this way.
Wait—had he called me Titania yesterday?
“Truly…….”
His voice grew thick with emotion. I panicked.
“…The moment you turned away in that Estate, I’ll never forget it, even in death. When I realized that was the last moment I saw you alive…….”
“I’m—I’m sorry.”
“No, as long as you live, that’s all I need…….”
My chest ached with guilt.
For this man of such steadfast responsibility to have lost me like that—thinking my final moment had been spent as it was—it was enough to cause genuine trauma.
That’s why he was acting like a clam with its shell shattered. Why—if I asked why, if I asked why he’d gone so far and fled to this place…….
‘…I’ll have no choice but to lie.’
I struggled to reclaim the reason that had been hazy yesterday. Whether Raymond wept before me, pleaded, or seemed suddenly childlike instead of like a beast of prey—I had to keep the truth hidden.
As I fumbled for some lie to tell, the man spoke to me as if to soothe me.
“Titania is no longer my betrothed, and you’ve abandoned royal status, so I have no right to force your actions. But…….”
Ah, so that’s why I was no longer “Your Highness” or “the Princess.” Raymond chose his words carefully.
“…Everyone has been worried about you.”
“…….”
“I won’t ask you to stay. I won’t call you a proper guest either. Just—if you’ll show yourself once, everyone will find peace.”
I should have left while he was asleep.
I’d even played dead for all this—and for what?
But his face, clinging to me like this—his voice, his gaze—all were so desperately urgent that…….
To turn away from that was like refusing to take the outstretched hand of a drowning man dangling from a cliff edge…….
“Please, just a little.”
His voice trembled. Our eyes met.
“…If you’d pity me even just a little.”
It was a strange look in his eyes.
As if joy and despair had been crushed together into one. The eyes of a hunter stalking prey—and yet also the eyes of prey caught in a trap, waiting only for death.
There was moisture glistening on his flickering eyelashes. Without thinking, I touched the corners of his eyes, and he trembled, his eyelashes quivering.
Something hot and wet fell onto my fingertips like melted wax. Just a single tear, and yet I felt as though I’d fallen into the sea.
“Will you not come with me?”
“…….”
“If you wish not to, there’s nothing to be done…….”
The sticky, trap-like intensity in his gaze died in an instant, extinguishing to black and plummeting. The change was so dramatic I could scarcely believe it.
“…No, it’s all right. You must have had your reasons for pretending death. I……. I’ve been causing you tremendous trouble.”
Even if someone poured poison on a freshly bloomed flower bud, nothing could wilt so devastatingly as he did in that moment.
Without looking at him, I desperately felt my conscience pricking even more as he spoke, trying to compose himself.
—…….
Jemina muttered something I couldn’t hear. It sounded like a curse.
“…Thank you for taking care of me last night.”
What, what—is he leaving just like this? Like this?
My pupils trembled. Raymond quickly smoothed his expression and forced his lips upward into a smile. His golden eyes, meeting mine in confusion, still glistened with moisture.
“This area will be safe for some time……. Still, it would be best not to venture into the Northwestern Region for now. If you plan to stay longer, I’ll provide you with several new false identities. Since you seem unwilling to be entangled with the Castrain Ducal House, I’ll make sure going forward…….”
Raymond swallowed hard, as if forcing words he didn’t wish to speak. His adam’s apple bobbed.
“……I’ll ensure that nothing obstructs Your Highness’s path. I’ve been far too presumptuous.”
“No, wait.”
“……Lisianthus and Bibi still don’t know you’re here. They’ve been causing quite a stir……. I’ll do all I can to hold them back.”
“…….”
The man spoke quietly, watching me falter.
“……Take care of yourself.”
“…Yes.”
As if ready to leave at any moment, the man rose from his chair.
Reason whispered to me.
Turn away.
Don’t hold on.
Don’t pity him.
Don’t pity him if you can’t take responsibility……. It will strangle you one day.
Just because this man shows weakness now doesn’t actually mean he’s weak, does it?
No, of course not.
In the distance, I heard the sound of waves.
Salt crystals dried in the sunlight glittered white mixed with sand, and even through the window, the sight was dazzling. It was utterly different from yesterday, when the night sky had bloomed with golden flowers and stars.
But still, that is……. and yet…….
If I’ve already been discovered alive, and if what mattered most wasn’t revealed, and if he won’t try to hold me back wherever I go later…….
“If—if I don’t need to stay long…….”
It’s fine, isn’t it?
Without thinking, I reached out and grasped his collar.
My palm was sweating so badly I thought I’d lose my grip. Seeing this, the man’s eyes widened.
A sky woven from darkness and embroidered with flecks of gold.
The man approaching me like a lie.
I stood rigid as a sugar pillar on the sandy beach, while endless waves crashed at my feet. Slowly melting into seawater, sweet and salty, seeping down into the earth below.
The man crumbling before me was like a sandcastle collapsing…….
“……I’ll just look at you and go.”
I wondered whether I should crush this sandcastle utterly, or instead add a little sand to shore it up.
Destiny swayed endlessly like the tides, and emotions I’d buried in graves long ago came drifting up on the foam of the sea like flowers blooming on the sand.
Pop, pop-pop, pop…….
Things so fleeting, destined to vanish the moment I turn away.
In the end, I am such a foolish creature. I whip myself forward saying this is right, this is the path I must walk, yet I can’t hold to it consistently—instead, I stumble forward like this, fumbling and uncertain.
This man’s life has been cruel enough already, so perhaps just a little. Perhaps in the future this will prove to be an even crueler act, but truly, just a very little…….
Knowing better than anyone else how deceptive I was being, I found myself closing my eyes and then opening them.
“…Yes.”
And in the next instant, my body trembled before I could help it.
The man was smiling.
Truly, with such delight……. In a way that words could scarcely express.
An intensity of satisfaction blazing in his eyes.
Even a serpent that had fasted for centuries, swallowing living prey whole, could not wear such an expression afterward.
That icy, clinging gaze that had frozen me was only for an instant.
The next moment, Raymond wore only a tender smile.
I had the feeling I’d made some mistake. A very large, decisive mistake. But before I could process that feeling, the man tilted his head toward me.
“…Yes.”
Slowly, his forehead and mine came together. Our hair tangled with a soft rustling sound. Our nose tips brushed.
“I’ll do whatever you wish, whenever you wish, however you wish it.”
His voice was fiercely, intoxicatingly satisfied.

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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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