Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 257

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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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Episode 257

This is a story of when the world burned.
[Want to make a wager with me?]
[…A wager?]
[There’s nothing in it for you to lose, is there?]
Even separated from the group and left behind, the light in her opponent’s eyes burned with undiminished brilliance.
Lilium found that curious.
Lilium and the broken Contractor of light stood at opposite ends in every way. Save for the fact that her opponent’s beauty was strikingly apparent, there was scarcely a point of commonality between them. Yet that opponent stirred Lilium’s curiosity. They were the same age, both entangled in matters concerning the divine, and, well, how to put it…
In any case, Lilium had been raised with grace.
Even when a bird chirping beside her fell dead and plunged beneath a pond’s surface, when a fish that ate it died and floated up, when another bird that pecked at that fish fell dead and left the garden in ruins—she would smile and observe the state of a single flower that might bloom within that garden, rather than bury something and mourn it.
So how could she not find it strange when her fallen opponent was reduced to scraping up the corpse of a bird from the ground, kindling a fire, roasting it, and choking down the meat?
She had seen her once from a distance before. She’d smiled like a flimsy paper doll. Which made this even less comprehensible.
Back then, even her laughter had sounded hollow, like the crushing of thin paper—but now those baleful green eyes gleamed like kindling for a flame.
‘That’ had been chosen?
Why?
Her once-beautiful face was ruined, and her behavior was that of a street vagrant.
To survive?
What worth was there in surviving in such a state? Had it been Lilium… well, she would have held her father’s hand and preserved her composure until the very end.
So Lilium found herself unable to suppress the curiosity that welled up.
[…All right, but. For fairness’s sake, I’ll erase both our memories as a condition of this contract. In exchange….]
[Yes, yes. If I lose, I’ll become whatever you wish—a plaything, a sacrifice, prey for the Magic Beasts, anything. Don’t worry about it.]
It was a transgression, if transgression it could be called.
An evil flower, nurtured in nobility and beauty, had made a wager just once, thinking ‘what harm could come of this?’
Her heart raced with the thrill of wickedness.
But, Chernobog, my beloved father.
That creature believes she can overcome this moment alone.
And she looks as though she might perish without my lifting a finger….
So I do wish to witness the moment her hope shatters.
It will be delightful. Truly delightful.
The most important decisions are often swayed by trivial fragments of feeling, more than reason would suggest.
Even a noble child, raised to believe all laws she has come to know surpass all order in the world, is subject to this law.

* * *

“Master, you’re not lonely. I’m here.”
“Even if you had subordinates who did nothing but praise and follow your every word, well….”
I swallowed the words that had risen to my throat. After spending what felt like both a short and a long time in this place, it carried no trace of human habitation. It would be impossible for a simple nobleman’s estate to conceal so vast a hidden space so easily—I could only suspect this was one of the most critical facilities, kept hidden and used only when necessary.
And there, the only person visible, was this girl called Primrose, nicknamed Prim. And the girl she followed like life itself was Lilium.
As my mind grew cold, several judgments crystallized. What Lilium had told me was true, but still—it was vague.
Not everything is resolved by alluring atmosphere and a beautiful voice and face alone. Perhaps such enchantment works less on me because I’m a Contractor of Beloborg, but….
“…Well, fine. So your master is so complete a being that she needs no friends or anything else. That’s why you came to me unnecessarily and played those childish games like ‘you have no future,’ and let me poke around however I wished.”
“That—her actions aren’t childish!”
The angry girl swung her arm at me. From fingertips that looked like those of an ordinary human, thorn-like nails extended and rushed toward me, scraping the edge of my shoulder.
-Gaaaaaah! You breakers of contracts! How dare you so brazenly?! (꒪⌓꒪)
Before I could even let out a groan—a scream rang out.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
The tips of the nails she’d swung at me bubbled and dissolved. It wasn’t just her fingertips that were injured—she writhed across the ground, rolling in agony, her entire body convulsing. Tears streamed from her eyes, and her limbs, unable to bear the pain, spasmed as they clawed at the floor.
“Prim!”
It didn’t take long for Lilium to rush over. Whether her affection was genuine, she came with her skirts billowing, examined Prim thoroughly, then sighed softly and looked at me.
More precisely, at the bright red line drawn across my shoulder.
Her brow furrowed as if in mild irritation, and she asked in a quiet voice.
“…Did you deliberately break the contract?”
“Hardly. A fanatically devoted maid caused trouble for a guest. I’m the wronged party here.”
I spoke in a flat tone, and Lilium, still holding the screaming Prim, glared at me and spoke.
“Leave.”
“Hmm?”
“Out of this room. No arguments.”
I shrugged and left the room.
I thought there was no door, but woven wooden branches—something like a door panel—grew in real-time and sealed the entrance. I pressed my ear against the makeshift door. Then I heard a soft whisper.
‘You’re not even fully healed yet. What do I do about this? We’ll go to the Cultivation Chamber later…. We need to replenish your strength.’
‘I’m…sorry.’
Truly touching voices. Listening to them, I spoke to the Sword.
‘What can we infer from that?’
-Yes, beings like that girl Primrose—fused forms of human and Magic Beast—appear to require supplies from this sort of specialized facility. (´⊙o⊙`；)
‘They’re experimental results, after all.’
-And it seems she can attempt to harm her master. However, it appears there’s a backlash afterward…. סּ_סּ
‘To be precise, that was just a graze. If even that degree of contact incapacitates her for some time, then if I inflicted a serious wound on her, she wouldn’t emerge unscathed either.’
-Correct. Generally, the higher-ranking an existence, the more they cannot break oaths or promises made with their own name and being at stake. And if they do break them, they can face annihilation…. (◔_◔)
‘That said, there must be something here. There’s no way Chernobog’s descent into a human body requires only one or two things.’
Even merely resurrecting the Duke required the Demon’s Heart that Chernobog had ground his teeth over and prepared for an extremely long time. Beloborg has never even descended into a human form, so I can’t know everything that Chernobog might require.
‘…Still, the backlash is intense. I’ll be stuck here for at least a week.’
‘That’s…impossible! I can care for you—’
‘No. There’s a crack in my core. If something goes wrong and it worsens, I’d have to switch bodies again. Good successors are rare these days.’
‘……I’m…insufficient…. At such a critical time….’
‘It’s all right. What matters is not accidentally attacking our guest. At this rate….’
Yes, at this rate, if I stepped on a column of walking ant Magic Beasts and the anthill irritated my skin, the entire ant species might face extinction.
Since I can even heal myself, it seems genuinely worth considering—dealing damage that causes countless Magic Beasts to drop out…?
That might actually be quite worthwhile…?
-…Contractor, you’re not thinking anything strange, are you? (¬▂¬)
‘Hmm? What do you mean strange?’
-Like, the results are so good that if I just charged naked at those enemies and survived, all of them would die. That’s the best, right? Something along those lines. ٩(๑`^´๑)۶
‘But I still have to escape.’
-…You really are thinking strange thoughts! I won’t survive! ◟(`ﮧ´ ◟ )
The moment I heard footsteps, I quickly pulled my ear from the door and straightened up.
After stepping back a pace, looking bored out of my mind, I watched the door. Lilium emerged with evident displeasure, then flinched slightly. She hadn’t expected me to be standing there looking like that.
“Is Prim all right?”
“Really, you’re asking me that now?”
“I can ask, can’t I? I didn’t just command her to attack you.”
Lilium looked at me with an expression difficult to describe.
“Anyway, I’m hungry and you don’t have any proper food? Wow, and here I lived as a princess. You’re a duke’s daughter too, aren’t you? You have a culture where drinking tea is more common than eating rice, yet you won’t offer even a drop of tea?”
“……You’re shameless.”
“When you’ve fought on an empty stomach, everyone gets shameless.”
“…….”
“It’s been a while since I’ve had tea with a peer of my own standing.”
Glimmer—Lilium’s eyes lit with a strange color as she heard my words.
This being called Lilium has seldom appeared openly throughout history, original narrative, or even memory.
Primrose said she had that power originally.
But even if I remember what nonsense Chernobog used to seduce me, the fact that I don’t remember Lilium, who is supposedly her subordinate, is odd. If that’s the case, then something is amiss.
‘The past version of me left too many loose ends!’
I wanted to tear my hair out. In memory, fragments of the past self sleeping at a beach, bathed in soft waves, laughed with a tinkling sound. We’ve done our part. Now it’s your turn. That kind of laughing sound.

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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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