Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 254

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 254

She was a beauty like a luscious summer rose. Every knight who passed through the Imperial Palace dreamed of receiving a single rose from her hand.
In those days, when the Emperor and Empress had no heir, all eyes fixed upon the marriage of the sole Legitimate Imperial Princess. No suitor could even have his name placed on the candidate list unless he came from an ancient, great noble house.
So back then, he had preened with satisfaction at the wedding’s completion. No matter that she looked upon men as dung beetles crawling through dirt—in the end, she was his wife. She could not spend her whole life within the Imperial Palace, swathed in silk and admiring flowers alone. She would lower her head to him, grow anxious to bear his heir, and eventually…….
Did I really think I would grovel and weep before the likes of you? That I would cling to you to produce an heir, that I would burn myself up in silence over that foolish woman and the even more foolish brat? Did you think I would dampen my handkerchief with tears? You’ve read too many novels.
I thought you would beg me not to abandon you!
Ha, how can the Imperial Family divorce? You’re right, that’s true. ‘Ordinary’ Imperial Family cannot. But I can. Not in law, perhaps, but I can live just fine without the likes of you.
A woman who played queen of high society. Who commanded followers like clouds, who smiled with satisfaction before the boys and youths who adored her. And now that woman says she will throw away the position of mistress of a great noble house, discard even the honored name of Imperial Princess!
Had you at least been a proper aristocrat, conducting yourself with efficiency, I might have understood. But to dare crush me underfoot?
Truthfully, he had been curious about Valentina’s reaction.
Would she endure it with heavy sighs, as the ladies of other great noble houses did upon discovering infidelity? Would she torment him, insisting the child was not of her bearing?
He had anticipated, at least, that she would rage at him for committing such a sin against her.
But Valentina had raged at him, and then—after embracing the shoulders of the woman who begged, saying she cared nothing for herself but please, please accept only the child—Valentina had fixed him with eyes cold as ice and departed at once for the Capital, heading straight to the Imperial Palace. There she had petitioned for death if he would not grant her a divorce. Because the princess had threatened him in broad daylight, blade at her own throat, the world had been turned upside down.
Valentina had taken the initiative to publicize the scandal herself, earning whispers of being “an hysterical woman who cannot even endure this much,” yet she had ensured that the mistress of the Lesen Family and her young heir continued to be mocked.
Who could possibly take a seat that even that Imperial Princess could not bear to occupy? That child—surely a bastard of remarkable stature, one whom the Imperial bloodline itself had rejected, recognized only for love…….
So he had cherished his son.
He had cared meticulously for the boy’s mother as well. He would absolutely, certainly pass this great house to his heir. He would allow his son to grow splendidly into the legacy of this ancient noble line, and then he would take the boy before his secluded wife and laugh at her as she withered into loneliness and ugliness, barren of even a single child. Then the great knot of resentment lodged in his heart would finally unravel.
To achieve that end, he would have done anything.
So then, why.
Now, of all times.
What, what had gone so wrong…….
Fool.
Before the dying man’s eyes appeared the phantom of a breathtakingly beautiful woman. She descended lightly as a butterfly through the rose-petal drops of blood, smiling fresh and radiant, and trampled the corpse beneath her feet.
Crack—
The sound of something twisting.
A signal flare announcing the beginning of tragedy.

* * *

Screams.
Piercing, wretched screams could be heard.
Save me.
How unjust.
It hurts…….
Raymond clenched his teeth instead of crying out. His mind felt as though it would shatter.
From far away, countless things shrieked. He could sense it instinctively. But Raymond swallowed his own blood instead of showing weakness, biting his tongue.
The taste was bitter, metallic, and acrid.
It was only natural—he was becoming not human, but a monster. Raymond drew his own arm with eyes empty of all vitality, as though his very essence had been torn away.
A blade so blackened that handle and edge were indistinguishable cut through his skin soundlessly, and before the wound could close in an instant, he lifted what lay upon the altar of bone and thorns and placed it there.
Starting with his arm, every nerve in his body blazed as though on fire.
Raymond endured the transformation through supernatural willpower alone. Then a voice spoke in his mind.
[Still insufficient.]
“So it would seem.”
[Still, still not enough…….]
“Yes. More preparation is required.”
If Beloborg, the God of Light, had exhausted his power over nearly a thousand years separating and protecting the continent in the Underground World, then Chernobog, the God of Darkness, had spent all that time waiting in the Underground World for this one opportunity.
Beloborg had helped humanity by infusing his power into weapons or through blessings.
But Chernobog’s way was more direct. He stained with darkness, or shared darkness, or consumed it himself. In other words, he never employed the wasteful method of losing his own power as Beloborg did. He greedily seized everything.
A body capable of containing Chernobog in its entirety? It was almost miraculous. Unlike other ordinary vessels, Raymond had to maintain his reason until the final moment and burnish his own body like a Demonic Sword.
True, if Raymond’s existence had not been such an exceptional vessel, Chernobog would never have conceived of adorning his own form upon the surface in the first place.
A soul bearing memories strengthened through tragedy and hell, a body trained to its limit, tremendous spiritual fortitude. This much was worth the risk, worth donning the finite vessel of humanity.
So Chernobog was exercising considerable patience, waiting as Raymond took time to perfect his vessel.
He consumed and absorbed what looked infinitely repulsive to Raymond’s eyes—masses of power and things like the hearts of Magic Beasts—without a single complaint. Pain that would have made an ordinary human faint countless times over, he endured without so much as a blink.
All for the sake of one woman.
Beloborg had cheated. The situation had seemed assured of Chernobog’s victory, yet by making his own Contractor a sacrifice, Beloborg had obtained another chance.
Before that, the one Beloborg had pinned his hopes on was merely a small child of the Castrain Family. Possessing so little power that it would soon fade, yet remarkably persistent.
But Beloborg had made a mistake.
It was ridiculous that she possessed the resolve to cast away her life for the world, but beyond that she had no virtues whatsoever.
Not a sturdy, resilient vessel like Raymond. Well, even such a vessel had capitulated to this side for the absurd price of not laying a finger on Titania.
Well then, even after the body falls to Chernobog, the Contract terms themselves remain valid. But there exists such a thing as Indirect Intent in this world.
There are many methods. One need not stab with a blade or strangle. One can place poisoned food somewhere and lock the door, or make her cross a swaying single-log bridge above a cliff…….
So in truth, the condition of “not harming Titania” is limited to this very moment. Chernobog still did not understand his own contract terms.
[I thought you would have your reward right before your eyes.]
“There is no need for haste. Our time grows short enough as it is.”
[My faithful servants will soon bring down the Imperial Palace.]
“…….”
[Once I have destroyed all the few wedges and cornerstones Beloborg left behind on the surface, then tell me—what if that little girl you demanded goes mad?]
A world where all close ones die and only enemies flourish.
Even if this side does not kill her, could such a life truly have meaning?
The shell remains, yet the spirit dies. But Raymond laughed lightly, as though he had heard utter nonsense. With each light breath, something reeked of rot.
“I have no leisure to concern myself with such things.”
[…….]
“It is enough that she does not die before my eyes.”
[You are a strange human indeed.]
Chernobog recalled the words his faithful servant, the wise gardener, had offered to him.
‘It must be love, mustn’t it? Men are all made that way. Once love blinds them, they care for nothing else.’
The House of Marquis Habilios had been Chernobog’s faithful servants for generations. In return, Chernobog had granted each generation’s lord a wish.
The current Marquis’s wish was simple: to resurrect his mutant wife, who had grown weak bearing an improved daughter, Lilium, and died young.
‘Had I not used her as a vessel, she might have made quite a good ally. A pity.’
The Marquis had said such words and laughed heartily.
It was possible to augment existing things with power and modify them to maintain infinite lifespan, but for Chernobog himself to return an already lifeless creature to its original state was impossible.
Creation and resurrection belong to the Realm of Chaos, the parent of light and darkness. Neither light nor darkness alone can achieve it.
Yet if Chernobog became master of surface and underworld, commanding all living things beneath his rule, then something close to resurrection might be possible. If the Marquis could create infinitely many beings resembling his dead wife, who knew—perhaps one of them might inherit memories similar to the ‘original’?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————