Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 245

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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 245

“But, if we’re being honest with each other… everyone in your family is extraordinary, so isn’t it strange that ‘that’ Raymond uses no power at all? The man who used to fight at least as well as any awakened God’s Contractor, even before he could handle Divine Power?”
“…That is… now.”
“Even if he’s spent these past few years like a madman, killing Magic Beasts over and over, bathing himself in their blood—the stench of rot rising from the deepest part of his body is strange, isn’t it?”
……
I couldn’t control my expression.
It was true that Raymond, now reunited with me, had changed drastically from what I expected. The man who had been like a stone wall of steel had crumbled before me, begged, wept and clung to me repeatedly. He was someone who seemed never even to have imagined deceiving others and extracting false compensation.
Even in the most extreme moments, he would grind his own lips while cursing, yet swing his blade until the very last instant.
Why were you looking at me in ‘that way’? If you remembered, all the more so……
‘Titania!’
You shouldn’t have grabbed me like that.
‘Please!’
With such anguish, as though determined to prevent that one thing no matter what.
Rasper drove a wedge through my reverie with his words.
“It seems… Lord Raymond is using the Dark Power.”
……
—Simply using the Dark Power alone doesn’t mean there’s a connection to Chernobog! That, th-that is, unless he’s a Contractor…
“…And I think.”
Rasper drew in a deep breath. Like a prophet about to speak a nightmare that would haunt him forever.
“There’s a possibility… he contracted directly with Chernobog.”
Time seemed to stop. What? A man whose entire life—no, across several lifetimes—aimed at tearing Magic Beasts apart and slaughtering them. A man who had killed exponentially more Magic Beasts than the number of meals he’d eaten in his lifetime. The next heir to the Castrain Family.
What did you just say?
He made a pact with the enemy’s supreme commander?
It made no sense. I couldn’t understand. What on earth had I just heard…
Rasper swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty to me, who stood frozen and dazed.
“…It’s only a hypothesis so far. I’m not certain, but… if by some chance it becomes true and Raymond gets his hands on you, Your Highness, things will become catastrophic…”
“Catastrophic?”
Uuuummm.
Wind blew. The building shook.
Then Illian stood up abruptly. Pand did likewise. Both their faces showed signs of shock. Rasper was no different.
—…A Contractor?
“Screeeeeeeeeech!”

Wee-wee, wee-wee, wing! A somewhat old-fashioned alarm blared loudly and insistently. Rasper shouted.
“The distance from there to here—that’s impossible…!”
“…If he’s commanding a mobile Magic Beast, it’s possible.”
Pand spoke, his face drained of color. Rasper rushed toward me and grabbed my shoulders.
“You need to leave immediately. Take this.”
What Rasper thrust into my hand in a panic appeared ordinary at first glance—a bracelet. More precisely, it was longer than a typical bracelet and shorter than a necklace. I hurriedly put it on.
“I made it so it can be worn as an ankle bracelet too. Wear it under your clothes later. It’s a mobile Warp marker activation device I installed underground.”
“…What, what is this? What is it? Here… Illian was here with us, so shouldn’t we be safe? What is all this chaos?”
“I thought so too… The simplified Warp device I developed has limited range depending on the size and quality of the Mana Stones, and it can only be used once or twice a day. I thought it was beyond the distance an ordinary person could travel in a single day, and I believed I’d kept it hidden so no one could confirm where anyone was transported to… but…”
“…Ah.”
“…I seem to have underestimated my opponent.”
Rasper clenched his teeth and pulled a bracelet strung with Mana Stones from his pocket, slipping it on. Transparent barriers materialized in layers, encasing the room we were in. Pand, who had leapt toward the window, cried out.
“Damn it! Now he’s not even trying to hide his aura. He’s a complete monster! Illian, is there any way out of this?”
“If there were, I’d be killing Magic Beasts on the Front Line instead of saving people, wouldn’t I?”
“What about some hidden passage you’ve stashed away…?”
“There is one, but would it actually work against ‘that’ Raymond?”
Illian’s face bore an expression of complete absurdity. He then looked at me and sighed faintly.
“Your Highness.”
……
“I have one question to ask you.”
……
“If—by some chance—Raymond truly became Chernobog’s servant and resolved to set this continent ablaze…”
Urrrgh. Boom, boom.
From far away came a sound of something terrifying drawing near. Like a duet of the apocalypse.
As if the tempest that had descended earlier was far from finished. Like raindrops that had soaked my skin and hair countless times, like lightning, as though I had not just one choice to make today, but many.
“Could you kill him?”
Beneath an infinitely ominous night sky, the thunderstorm poured down.
It was brilliant light, as if shattered stars were screaming as they fell.

* * *

There was once a man who went completely mad after losing his villainess.
To this man, a god spoke.
「Let us make a contract.」
It was a ridiculous thing. For it was the very same words another god had once offered to a woman who had forever left his side. The common thread between these two gods was, perhaps, that they too were desperate enough to promise this man anything.
「Then I shall give you that which you desire above all else.」
If your love is a wick of candle wax burning itself to bring forth dawn, then I shall shroud this entire continent in endless night.
If your beloved is a handful of memories and dreams that crumble upon waking, someone to sleep eternally beside, then I need only ensure that summer nights never end.
That dew gathered between leaves never dries…
Such peace as would be built upon burning the bone and flesh and blood of one you desire—surely that would not be meaningless.
If you become lord of hell and eternally hold your spring beside you, what use would there be in the distinction between above and below?
And so the man took the god’s hand.
Because he had something he desired.
Because there was something he could not abandon, even if he burned away his very body and heart and memory and feeling in the attempt.

* * *

“Have you lost your mind?”
Raymond watched Lisianthus screaming before him.
Lisianthus had not recovered ‘all’ his memories. The gate to the Underground World had not opened completely.
Having melted his very existence into the gate itself, after Titania’s incomplete coronation and the ensuing chain reaction of recovered memories that followed Raymond, it seemed he had recovered some memories.
But all the way to the very end. The very, very end. It seemed he could not remember that far back. If that were so, he would not stand in Raymond’s way with eyes like those.
“Bibi is here too! Aren’t you thinking about where you are right now?!”
Even to the final moment, that one burned like a flame. Raymond flexed his hand, now free of all wounds but bearing scattered marks, as he thought.
Burning as a flame, consuming himself in the process, leaving hope for the future. Though it seemed like resignation, he threw everything he had for it, smiling as though this were enough.
Sparks flew from Lisianthus’s blade before Raymond. They were white.
“If you want to stop me, show me your true power.”
“What?”
“Use the Blue Flame.”
Lisianthus’s eyes wavered with unease. Raymond did not smile. Where their blades met, Black Lightning erupted. Jagged lightning that jutted out like thorns. Like the bite of a snarling beast. Either way, even a graze would cause serious injury.
Raymond swung his blade with one hand while the other played with the core of the Blue Device he had destroyed. His bearing toward Lisianthus was quite composed.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it! I understand you want to capture Titania! I’ll help! But why are you doing this here, right now…?”
“I thought it would be good if you became the anchor to hold her back. I meant it.”
“So you were taking that yielding stance for this?”
“It seems you don’t have the resolve to bite at heels after all.”
……
As Raymond fingered the core, he easily deflected the blade aimed at his undefended left hand.
Clang, ring!
With a sharp sound, the blade flew through the air. Lisianthus was no mere novice swordsman to lose his sword so carelessly. His shock was likely due to his confusion.
The Flambeau’s Fury flying through empty air was caught like a whip by formless flame and brought back.
Seeing Lisianthus recover his blade as though performing a trick, Raymond’s eyes narrowed.
“Your skill has improved since before.”
“Damn it, even when things are like this, you’re treating me like a child…!”
“But it’s still insufficient.”
Raymond swept away the blazing flames surrounding Lisianthus like an angry porcupine raising its quills, brushing them aside like steam with an indifferent gesture.
The white flame tinged with blue lost its power and crumbled as though devoured by darkness.
Lisianthus watched the sight with trembling eyes. To Raymond, he looked like a Demon King from a children’s fairy tale.
“I told you that you could become a dog.”
……
“But you don’t know how to deal with one who conducts himself worse than a dog.”
Raymond laughed.
It was a smile like a piece of nightmare had been spliced onto his face.

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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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