Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 236

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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 236

“So Prince Rasper agrees with my proposal, then?”
High Priest Illian regarded the boy before him—chin cupped in his hand, expressionless—with something close to exasperation.
Rasper’s blue hair rippled as he tilted his head.
Titania wouldn’t have known it, having kept her distance these past years, but Rasper had grown more than any of his brothers in that time.
His older brothers, who’d still retained hints of boyishness, had become entirely adult; Bibi, once a tiny lady, had matured in her own way—and Rasper had shot up alongside them, until no one could possibly mistake him for a clueless child anymore.
Of course, he didn’t possess the chiseled physique his brothers flaunted. His cheeks had sharpened, his frame stretched lean and tall, and the keen intelligence that had always lingered in his gaze had deepened into something more refined.
For those who’d known Rasper from the beginning, the true terror wasn’t the change in his appearance. It was the change beneath.
“Well, you did cooperate with my research because you sensed something ‘strange’ yourself, didn’t you?”
“…I merely thought that with or without my assistance, you would eventually unearth the truth.”
“Perhaps. But it would have taken far too long. I believe time is more precious than anything else right now.”
As Rasper moved his fingers, the droplets dancing in empty air coalesced and drew lines.
Several lines overlapped, etched symbols, and what emerged was a map.
The material’s limitations meant it wasn’t extraordinarily detailed, but the fact that he’d accomplished it at all was nearly miraculous.
Yet Rasper continued speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, as if it were the most ordinary thing.
“Both Raymond and Lisianthus. They conspire—I swear they do—to ensure I never venture beyond a certain line on this map. Isn’t that strange? Meanwhile, the two of them swagger about like Magic Beasts who’ve eaten people and been eaten by Magic Beasts in turn.”
“…….”
“From the moment Titania called herself a ‘Light Contractor,’ I suspected there was something I didn’t know.”
Perhaps, then—in the previous world, Rasper’s early death had been one of the critical keywords to failure.
Had he lived, they would have gained a Great Mage who could unravel the very secrets of the world and coldly engineer their way out of this situation.
“So I searched the Antique Bookshop. I went through every scrap—notes tucked between volumes that went to auction after a collector’s death…. Well, I couldn’t enter the Mage Tower itself. But frankly, Master knows most of what’s in there, so that was manageable.”
Rasper stared at his own pinky finger, charred black at the tip as though deliberately stained.
“And I found it. Only one person—Gloriana, and Gloriana alone—has ever referred to herself as a ‘Light Contractor.’ Despite how many royals have flaunted their command of light, not a single one has dared claim to be God’s Light Contractor. That’s strange. I’d assumed the First Emperor was the Light Contractor.”
“…….”
“And besides, it’s strange that a god of light, having won once, has fallen into such disrepair. People say the world follows its course—the moon waxes and wanes, day and night alternate—but if things continue as they are, it’s a foregone conclusion that the Barrier will shatter and the Underground World will breach the surface.”
The High Priest merely fell silent. There was no point in lying to someone who knew everything.
“So the Barrier and the Dedication Ceremony were certainly important…. But all these measures inevitably fade and weaken with time. Surely those people understood that?”
“You are a remarkably intelligent young man, Rasper.”
Rasper spoke with cold clarity.
“So I thought: perhaps the truly crucial keyword really is ‘Light Contractor.'”
Under the pretense of needing materials for his research, Rasper had ventured on several expeditions.
Though he traveled with Pan and skilled guards, his family—or rather, Raymond and Lisianthus specifically—had strongly insisted he avoid certain places, citing dangerous Magic Beasts.
At first, they’d tried to prevent him from venturing beyond a certain line on the map, as Lisianthus had said. But once he realized that was impossible, their story changed.
“Perhaps this world once knew darkness’s victory. Perhaps the god of light overturned the board and started a new game under specific conditions. …And given how my brothers act, perhaps I….”
Rasper spoke without laughter or tears, his expression dreadfully composed.
“Died somewhere beyond this point. Probably.”
“…….”
Illian closed his eyes once, then opened them, unable to bring himself to look at the place on the water-drawn map that Rasper’s fingertip indicated.
“There are certain Magic Beasts that pursue me with particular persistence. I wonder if even their creators have personal preferences…. They seemed to target Bibi more at first, but lately it’s been me. Their goal is capture, but since I’m not naive enough to go quietly, their methods have become cruder of late. And when Master confirmed this, he fell into absolute despair.”
Rasper wiggled his blackened fingertip—as if someone had carelessly painted the tip with black water—while he spoke.
Had Pan seen it, she would have leapt up and cried, “Why would you touch that?!”
Not that the problem would worsen so easily—he knew that well enough. But that was a teacher’s heart. A parent’s heart.
Rasper’s eyes clouded over. Memory of that moment had surfaced.
‘Not you. Anyone but you!’
The moment Pan confirmed that Rasper’s fingertip had turned black, she descended into despair. Her jaw trembled, her voice failed. With hands soaked in cold sweat, she reached to grasp Rasper’s hand—then stopped just short, terrified something worse might happen. Instead, she could only stammer incoherently:
‘T-Titania…Princess Titania, I must…I must ask her….’
‘Master.’
But remarkably, Rasper, confronted with such anguish, remained colder than anyone.
‘You’re still growing. Even a minor curse could be fatal at your stage. This isn’t the time for this! Let me handle it immediately—’
‘I want to experiment with this.’
‘…What? Are you insane?’
‘Fortunately, I still have Divine Beast Byproducts left, and I think I can seal this at the tip of my pinky joint. Using it as a medium, I might be able to trace the mark of the person Master is most bound to.’
Rasper, who had encountered divine power at a tender age, had to control his strength with an immature body—first to survive his kidnappers, then because there was so much that needed doing.
In consequence, he’d grown sensitive to every current flowing through him.
For now, he was fine. This wasn’t a direct curse, but an indirect one—a glancing blow. Where Pan had taken the equivalent of an entire vat of acid, Rasper had taken something closer to its dilution.
Pan’s panic was merely trauma born from what she’d suffered and what had caused it, layered together.
‘Right now, this wretch, right now, a wretch with a thousand miles of road ahead, standing here before me…. Learning nothing but bad habits from Princess Titania….’
‘If something gets serious, Princess Titania will help me, won’t she?’
Pan, who had once neglected her own hand only to be healed by Titania afterward, couldn’t immediately deny it, only hesitate—and Rasper watched her hesitation with infinite remorse.
Yet his expression remained purely that of a researcher, smiling softly, even as he watched Pan’s face contort.
‘…….’
‘It’s fine. Master has endured far graver states using only pure magic. With Master and Princess Titania beside me, what danger could there possibly be?’
The truth was,
there was something Rasper couldn’t bring himself to tell his teacher—the woman who now cherished him like life itself.
That he needed this to more easily uncover his brothers’ secrets.
The truth is, Master.
Perhaps I was always fated to die without ever meeting you.
It’s often the way: the people closest to our hearts are the last to hear the truth. Which was precisely why Rasper could be honest with High Priest Illian.
“But to conclude: I’ve found a ‘suspicious location,’ and I was hoping you might verify it for me.”
“……I have watched the children of the Castrain Family since the moment they were born.”
Deep regret settled over Illian’s face.
“Though I did not birth them myself, I have cherished them like other children—or, if that metaphor is unfit for a priest, like beloved nephews and nieces. And now…. This is….”
“…….”
“…To understand what you do, yet be unable to stop you, and instead be drawn into helping you.”
“Then my assumption was correct.”
“…Yes.”
Rasper laughed lightly. Then his Sleeve Button began to vibrate. When Illian regarded it with puzzlement, Rasper touched it casually and spoke:
“Ah, that. It’s nothing much. Just that Master seems to have gotten into quite a bind.”
“…Pardon?”
“Would you mind stepping aside for a moment?”
I have a guest arriving, Rasper said, smiling with the serene face of an angel.
By all appearances, it was the face of someone wonderfully kind.

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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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