Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 224

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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 224

I left behind nearly all the gifts that Bibi and the Castrain Family had given me.
If I’d taken them, thinking it a waste, someone would notice something was off—especially Debbie, who’d been with me through thick and thin right up until the moment I left.
Well, in the end it turned out to be pointless anyway…
I was in the middle of gently coaxing Bibi, assuring her that I’d left everything behind not because I didn’t treasure them, when I heard barking.
“Woof! Woof, woof, arooo!”
No, it really was barking.
My eyes flew open. Bibi, whimpering against my chest, suddenly stopped. A familiar-looking dog came bounding toward me, circled around me excitedly at the sight of me. I recognized it.
“Oh.”
It was the sled dog I’d seen in the Northern Region.
I tried to accept its enthusiastic jumping while holding Bibi, but as I stumbled and my balance wavered, a firm chest pressed against my shoulder.
Wait—a chest?
Blinking dumbly at this unexpected situation, I heard a familiar laugh. It was Lisianthus.
He grinned like a mischievous boy, his youthful features bright with amusement. He’d embraced me from behind, drawing me close, so his laughter reached my ears clearly.
“Dogs have a supernatural knack for recognizing their owners, I’m told.”
“Ah…”
“They also have that same sixth sense about people who care for them. And it was me who brought this one all the way here—feeding it meat, managing its shedding, seeing to its every need.”
“Uh, um…?”
“What? You don’t find it cute anymore?”
The subject of his words was clearly the dog wagging its tail before me, yet somehow it felt as if he was talking about himself—speaking with those eerie red eyes gleaming, a slight smirk playing at his lips. I found myself going silent without meaning to.
-(Cancel that—the people of this family have apparently swallowed up foxes, wolves, and dogs whole. ；￣ェ￣)
‘What is this? A menagerie?’
I carefully kept the dog from bothering Jemina on my shoulder, and managed to soothe it as it whined and mewled, showering me with affection and attention.
The dog was nuzzling against me, I was holding Bibi, and Lisianthus was supporting us both—it should have been quite heavy, but he just smiled contentedly. I was thinking how good his spirits seemed, considering how long it had been, when—
“The Count Flux won’t do as a suitor, that’s for certain.”
What? Where did that come from?
“…Lisianthus?”
“Honestly, Lisianthus is too long anyway. Maybe something like Sian, or Liss. You could probably stand to give me a pet name or something.”
I felt oddly off-balance.
He’s not angry?
I’d honestly expected the people of this family to express some anger toward me, the way Nabira had.
But Lisianthus’s face was as serene as if I’d simply taken a short trip to a retreat and returned. The way he’d casually brought the dog, the way he now mentioned pet names—it was all so casual.
“…The Count Flux won’t do as a suitor?”
“Well, I suppose there might be some business disadvantages if his loose tongue keeps flapping about information concerning Titania. Tsk, he’s far too untrustworthy to be a partner to rely on for the future. Though I must say, thanks to him, I was able to find Titania before she could find herself in any real danger.”
“Ah, you think so? I wouldn’t have thought him the type to sell me out so easily…”
“Hmm, you trust him quite a bit? Enough to choose him as a partner to deceive us all and run away with?”
There was something odd about his tone—it sounded almost like an interrogation.
Bibi had stopped whimpering against my chest and was now rubbing her cheek against me in silence, while Jemina trembled faintly, and Lisianthus leaned his face close with a penetrating gaze. I found myself scratching the dog beneath its chin as it pressed against me—so soft, so cute… No, focus. I pondered the question.
Something felt off.
It hadn’t been that long since I’d last seen him at the Imperial Palace. He shouldn’t have grown noticeably taller or experienced anything drastically different in that time.
Though his transformation wasn’t as dramatic as Raymond’s, Lisianthus seemed somehow changed from before.
Before, he’d struck me as wet wood struggling to catch fire—producing only acrid smoke, the flames sputtering out even when forced to ignite. Now, it was as if someone had lit a match to thoroughly dried charcoal; the fire burned with a deeper, more concentrated intensity.
Even standing near him, I could sense a warmth radiating from him.
Yet his smiling eyes toward me remained guileless, as if he knew nothing of such intensity—still the impish trickster who’d come to jest.
“Rather than a partner, it’s just…”
My words trailed off.
Truth be told, if the full truth ever came to light, I owed Flux more of an apology than I owed the Castrain Ducal House. Flux believed I’d saved his life, and he had something of a blind devotion to me because of it.
When that “savior” of his secretly deceived everyone and ran away to become a living sacrifice, helping orchestrate that very deception… he’d surely torment himself with guilt.
As long as I wasn’t caught or didn’t confess the truth myself, no one need ever know.
But how could I explain this?
“I thought the Castrain Ducal House needed to be deceived so that everyone else would believe it?”
“…”
“…”
It was a hollow excuse—it omitted the real reason why, the actual purpose behind deceiving everyone so completely.
But before I could worry further about where his questioning might lead, Lisianthus deflated like a balloon, exhaling with a soft “whoooosh.”
“So that’s why you spurned us all and chose the Count? Your Highness, the Dowager Empress herself didn’t know the full truth of it?”
“No, well, it’s precisely because she’s the kind of person I’d drag down to hell with me that I thought I couldn’t afford to be caught… I was worried…”
“My goodness! Here I thought you were planning to run away in secret, ignoring everyone’s eyes and society’s judgments, to live freely with your lover!”
“Hahahaha, what’s that supposed to mean? Love’s Flight?”
At his words, spoken with a hint of bashfulness as his eyes darted away, I burst into laughter.
My Love’s Flight! The audacity!
To discard the Imperial Family’s honor, abandon political marriages, cast it all aside and seek freedom—winning love in the process.
Though I had indeed dreamed of enjoying my days by the sea, where the waves were beautiful, savoring dreams and hopes and money. But to have love as part of that dream…
I gave Lisianthus’s shoulder a hearty smack. It must have hurt, but instead of evading or blaming me, he simply grinned wider.
“Well, of course, having a proper scandal with someone of standing would lend credibility. But… he’d have to be the sort of fool who’s so high-born and such a trash with his private life that dying wouldn’t be loss enough.”
A successor carefully raised by the Dowager Empress herself, even going so far as to undertake a quasi-divorce with him.
Frankly, the Dowager Empress’s legal husband—Lady Armelin’s legal husband—was a woman-chaser.
He’d touched many women besides the successor’s mother, but he’d only appointed one as his successor: the very one I’ve now sent to hell.
I suspect he did it out of pure spite toward the Dowager Empress.
No matter how sordid his usual conduct was, it was plain to see how a family would react to losing such a precious heir.
Though the Dowager Empress had been my chaperone once, that was a thing of the past. She’d long since withdrawn from the Imperial Palace to her retreat, living in strict seclusion.
Now that I’d come of age, she’d put distance between us. I hadn’t told her the full truth about this incident beforehand precisely because I feared her eyes would go wild and she might target the Dowager Empress in retaliation.
Though I suspect Her Highness the Dowager Empress will come to be angry with me anyway…
Still, having lost such a carefully raised heir like that, what would he do? Try to adopt a new child and raise it? Or perhaps recognize some illegitimate child? He might even whisper to the Empress Cleo for revenge. But revenge—against whom, and to what end? Against Prince Adrian and the Empress? As if that would bring the dead back to life, or restore his son to him.
“Well, that’s what I suspected your intention was.”
Lisianthus shrugged his shoulder.
“Apparently the Dowager Empress has become unusually healthy these days. She’s so delighted she’s taken to drinking more than one glass of wine before bed—two, sometimes more.”
“Heavy drinking isn’t good, but… well, she must be managing her health carefully enough…”
I found myself responding without thinking, but then I caught myself.
Wait, are we just exchanging recent news about each other? And how did the Castrain Family even find me? Did Flux help, and Hecate’s Tavern mobilize fully? But did Flux really betray me? It doesn’t seem likely…
“The Empress Elaine also seemed quite surprised.”
“…I’m glad to hear she hasn’t had any health troubles.”
They might have contacted the Dowager Empress when searching for me. Given how Raymond wept and pleaded before me…
I felt a strange sensation and fell silent. Lisianthus smiled at me with a gentle warmth. His eyes held an eerie red gleam.
“I’ve been training incredibly hard these days. Look here—it’s all muscle.”
I reflexively followed his gaze and gasped in admiration. He usually dressed rather loosely, so I hadn’t paid attention before, but today he’d unbuttoned his shirt quite thoroughly, leaving his upper body nearly bare. The pectoral muscles below his protruding collarbones were…
-(Did he really just do ordinary ‘training’? ·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )
‘Magic Beast hunting, probably. But… you’re being awfully talkative today, aren’t you?’
“Yes, yes, you’ve definitely grown much stronger.”
Before I knew it, my gaze had been drawn in, and Lisianthus kindly took my hand to guide it toward his chest muscles, and I was about to touch—no, I shouldn’t!
I startled and pulled my hand back.
What, what is this flow?
Why am I naturally, smoothly flirting with a strange man?
“What, what, what is this?”
“Come on. I’ve gotten so much stronger. I was hoping you’d notice?”
Lisianthus winked at me with one eye. I found myself at a loss for words.

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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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