Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 242

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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 242

“Then at least I shall preserve the life of Adrian.”
“…….”
“Though it would be even better if the Empress, Your Majesty, were to leave the Imperial Palace of her own accord, using illness as a pretext.”
‘There are quite a few suspicious things even within the Imperial Palace.’
The Empress slowly turned over what Titania had said. It was a story from several years back.
‘I searched through the Imperial Archives again and again, but nothing was written down explicitly. Still, what I can infer is that Emperors and Empresses who conduct their coronation ceremony together are granted authority over the facilities within the Imperial Palace. I suppose it comes down to that…….’
For centuries, the direct bloodline of the Imperial Family had not been severed. Yet not everyone had inherited the throne peacefully and smoothly.
There had been an Emperor who, semi-imprisoned by his uncle and living as though dead, had miracously escaped and succeeded in ascending the throne with the help of nobles. And there was the case of someone who lived outside the Imperial Palace without knowing his own station, as a bastard, only to enter the Palace after all the Emperor’s legitimate children died in a series of unfortunate accidents.
So if the Emperor had transmitted secret information about the Imperial Palace only to his successor, it would not have been strange for everything to be omitted at some point. Such information could never have been recorded anywhere in writing.
Of course, whatever the Empress could do, the Emperor could also do. But the Emperor had never imagined or sought to discover what else might be hidden within the Imperial Palace where he had grown up since birth.
He had not even treated his wife as a wife, merely shutting her away somewhere; he would never have thought her capable of accomplishing anything more.
And so, when Titania had vanquished the Magic Beast that attacked Brian, the source of that most dangerous creature has remained unknown even now. Even Cleo, who spent all her days trampling upon and humiliating the Empress, could not have anticipated it.
‘Truthfully, I hope the Empress, Your Majesty, would not do anything reckless. But still.’
Even as her lips trembled with worry, her hands—which spread out maps, wrote characters, and marked locations as though she had no choice—were remarkably small.
‘…Because there’s no telling what new troubles might arise from now on.’
This child, who had ventured on a desperate deed to save someone far younger than herself, was worrying about whom?
The Empress was somewhat exasperated, but she simply nodded quietly in response. Seeing her thus, the jade-green eyes relaxed slightly, as though reassured.
The Empress, watching those eyes, suddenly thought: I wish she had been my daughter. If I could have raised her without teaching her to be so cautious, how different that would have been.
But even thinking such a thing was a deception, and she could not speak it aloud. What right had an adult who chose to look away when faced with a wayward child?
So the Empress, with precisely the same heart as Adrian, decided to maintain silence about what they might both do in the days to come.
“That won’t be possible.”
“…Are you truly being composed at a time like this?”
Cleo’s eyes blazed with sinister fury.
“Your Majesty the Empress was raised most nobly. If I cut off all funding to the Empress’s Palace, well. What could you possibly eat……. Would you use hunger as an excuse to visit some other palace and beg for scraps? Would you sell your possessions to survive? Would your noble constitution be unable to endure starvation, so you’d merely sip tea like water to stave off the hunger? I’m truly curious.”
“…….”
“If I were to give you bread charred black as coal, well, would you be unable to determine how to eat such a thing and thus go hungry? Or would you grit your teeth and tear at it with your mouth? It will soon grow colder still. If I remove all magical artifacts and you cannot find fuel, will you burn your chairs in the fireplace?”
Laughter—sharp, hollow laughter—leaked from Cleo’s lips. It sounded like a drum emptied of all substance.
“Your Majesty the Empress. Do you think I cannot reduce you to such a state?”
“You probably will.”
Cleo seemed irritated by the threatened party’s manner of speaking, which was far too composed.
“Or will you request aid from your natal family or some other noble house? ‘The greatest Empress in the world is starving in isolation within the Imperial Palace—please help me’?”
“No matter what happens, I shall not leave the Imperial Palace of my own accord.”
“You people of such high birth have such peculiar pride, don’t you…….”
Cleo raised her smooth hand and stroked the Empress’s cheek. While the Empress’s complexion resembled that of a noblewoman of her years, Cleo’s hand was as smooth and soft as a child’s. Yet as she gazed at the brilliant, sparking light in Cleo’s eyes, the Empress spoke with calm composure.
“I understand you suffered terribly in your youth—starving, eating hard black bread, living in wretchedness.”
“What, you—?”
“And so you wish to see someone of my station reduced to similar wretchedness, which is why you indulge in this spitefulness.”
“You think the threats I’m making are mere spitefulness?”
“You cannot kill me.”
“…….”
“You cannot kill me, cannot torture me. You might prevent me from leaving my palace, but tell me—whether you are the son of an Imperial Consort who murdered the Empress out of jealousy, or a prince who killed his mother’s rival, either epithet would do nothing to help you claim the Crown Prince’s seat. So you content yourself with threats of this kind instead, don’t you?”
“This, this, this——!”
The sound of Cleo’s fingernails snapping could be heard.
In a ‘normal’ situation, an Imperial Consort could not seize control of the Empress’s household and threaten her in such a manner.
But then again, what did ‘normal’ even mean anymore?
Had those who cared about such things even come this far? The abnormal always ignored convention. Save for a handful of servants and attendants—Barbara and the Chief Lady-in-Waiting among them—all others had been expelled from the Empress’s Palace. Already the Empress’s Palace had become nearly half-abandoned. The Empress watched as Brian, who was regarding Cleo with a subtle expression as she raged, barely keeping her fury in check, turned to face her.
“You’ll still dare speak to me this way even after you have your son’s corpse before you!”
“It seems you have yet to locate your son.”
“Please calm yourself, Mother.”
Brian patted Cleo’s shoulder with a touch that seemed quite genuine. At once, Cleo calmed as though water had been thrown upon her.
“Sigh, yes, our son. Mother got too excited. Standing before such an unworthy opponent……. If she went hungry for about a week, she wouldn’t even have the strength to answer back to us.”
“Yes.”
“My good son.”
Cleo pulled Brian into a tight embrace, as though making a display of it for the Empress.
“I shall make you the true victor, my son. I shall make everything in this world bow before your eyes……. I stake my very all upon it.”
The Empress, watching this comedy unfold—a mother speaking of maternal love after having replaced her own son’s essence with her own hands—inwardly clicked her tongue. Barbara, eavesdropping from the adjacent room, also clicked hers.
If one thought the so very noble Empress would crumble merely at being half-imprisoned and having her food and fuel cut off, one was sorely mistaken.
How could someone not imagine this, when she’d been neglected by the Emperor for years? If Cleo were to see the secret food stores, the escape routes, the provisions for warmth hidden away in concealed spaces……well, she would be staggered.
In any case, for the time being, the Empress would continue her hollow performance, wearing tattered, shabby clothes and feigning hunger.
Until the day the Imperial Palace was turned upside down.

* * *

Rasper, extracted from the Castrain Estate and awaiting that day, had completed truly enormous preparations. I myself had been summoned to a small Temple where High Priest Illian resided. Rasper seemed to have perceived my circumstances from the start, for he asked me nothing in particular and began his explanation at once.
“Our primary objective is to annihilate the forces and Magic Beasts of Chernobog that have infiltrated the Imperial Family and drive them from the continent. You understand that much, yes?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“To give a rough explanation, the god of light, Beloborg, has dispersed considerable power among Contractors and Barriers. The current awakeners of divine power owe their existence to seeds of Beloborg’s power in the first place, so it’s strange that power remains at all. By contrast, the god of darkness, Chernobog, has never had a Contractor until now.”
Rasper rustled through documents as he spoke to me, Pan, and High Priest Illian, who sat huddled together.
“If Beloborg requires ‘bloodline of the First Emperor’ as a condition for a new Contract with the Princess, then Chernobog almost certainly demands a vessel and holder of power comparable to the First Emperor himself.”
I clicked my tongue as I examined the materials Rasper had organized. The High Priest beside me wore a similar expression. Only Pan, who had been wilting like boiled spinach until moments before, now bore a face of smug confidence—as though to say ‘my disciple can handle this much easily.’
“Our advantage is……that we possess strongholds. Though if we lose all of them to the enemy, we’ll be in a poor position.”
“Strongholds?”
“The Northern Barrier and the Imperial Palace.”
“…The Imperial Palace did seem odd to me, but why?”
“Though there were many Temples devoted to Beloborg, the Temples themselves showed little interest from the enemy. The Magic Beasts never attacked them. Rather, they pursued the Northern Barrier obsessively. Considering that the Southern Barrier shows no great change even after its essence vanished, I believe that from the time of its installation, it was either a decoy to conceal the Northern Barrier’s true importance, or a wide-area amplification device to supplement the Northern Barrier’s function.”
Even if I had recovered the memories of my previous life, I would know no more than Rasper, who has lived only this lifetime. As I listened to Professor Rasper’s special lecture, where he summarized and organized the truths of a world I myself had not grasped, I continued to nod. It felt like attending a class, even though much of it was content I somewhat understood or knew already.

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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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