Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 262

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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 262

The role originally assigned to Elaine had always been that of a puppet.
She had become nothing more than an already-hollow doll. They could plant Magic Beasts in her. Even the slightest touch from them—the merest brush of their fingers—and Elaine would melt away like a snowman left in the summer sun, vanishing without trace. Ironically, that very fragility was why they had never laid heavy hands upon her.
Because they had thought of her as nothing but a beautiful doll to be manipulated by all, and a doll that broke too easily.
Perhaps they had reasoned that if they were to keep her as a puppet beside the Emperor—just in case—then pressing a single special Lily Flower into her hands would be sufficient. After all, her family knew her better than anyone. No—Elaine thought—all they truly knew was the Elaine who had wallowed in defeat, cursing and despising herself, rotting from within.
‘Try living for yourself. Imagine a new life in a place where whether you entered the Imperial Palace unjustly, whether you couldn’t bear it, whether you couldn’t possibly love your daughter—none of that matters anymore. Perhaps then, living might become something you could enjoy. You have a daughter, and you needn’t love her or hate her. Simply think of yourself as free.’
She had considered it.
‘Just try to imagine living happily.’
She had considered that too.
But life, like an egg, cannot return to what it once was.
Elaine knew all too well that she could never truly forget any of it. So when her family came to find her, she decided to meet them.
‘You must think of your remaining years.’
What a joke.
‘You still have a bright future ahead of you. Once you’ve recovered your health, you should return to the Imperial Palace. Regain His Majesty’s favor. We will help you. Didn’t Cleo use you?’
Blood may have bound them, but they were worse than strangers now. The face and voice of those who came to tempt her had become foreign. How much contempt did they hold for her? Had they truly believed that a woman raised confined within her family and the Palace, having never learned to distinguish truth from falsehood, would fall so easily?
She recalled the face of a friend who could not tell her, even in their final moments before parting, that her own family was hunting her. The face of a lover who had said they could not run away together. The face of a daughter who had spoken of finding happiness.
And then Elaine, as she had been before—weak and foolish—wept before the Emperor, saying she wished to be at his side, that remaining near the Former Imperial Consort Valentina had become a burden.
After that, it was easy.
She rejected even the Former Imperial Consort’s attempts to dissuade her. She swallowed a special Mana Stone and, maintaining her composure, Entered the Palace through the Emperor’s secret passage. From the moment she heard of Titania’s death, she had been thinking.
Thinking all along.
If one of them had to die, it should have been her, not Titania. Even after learning it was a lie, nothing changed. On that funeral day—when the Emperor had shown displeasure at his plans being ruined rather than grief—she could not drape herself in a black veil and go to cast Lily Flowers.
Was there any meaning in living such a comfortable life this way? If she truly forgot everything, could she find happiness?
She posed the question to herself.
You have lived your entire life like a hollow puppet.
Your own blood, the one to whom you committed the gravest sin, has forgiven you. She told you to live happily.
So then, let’s think about this. Elaine.
What can you do?
What do you want to do?
“I need His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Wh-what are you doing? This—!”
“To be precise, the people I wish to help need His Majesty the Emperor.”
Without removing the blade from the Emperor’s throat, she unwound the rope she had carefully knotted inside her skirt and used it to bind him.
She lacked strength, and her hands were slick with sweat, so it took a long time—but Elaine was relentless. Even meticulous. She had to subdue the Emperor thoroughly before the headache became unbearable.
The Emperor attempted resistance midway, but when his cheek split deep and blood poured freely, he grew docile. Elaine’s own palm was cut deeply and bleeding, but she betrayed no sign of pain. With blood smeared across him, the trembling Emperor cried out.
“Wh-what have those wretches promised you? Whatever it is, I will give it to you. Is it Adrian? Answer me!”
“I don’t mean to kill you immediately, Your Majesty.”
“Gold? Jewels? Power? The title of Imperial Consort? I—I will cast out Cleo and give you anything! Speak, please! I am—!”
“Can you return my life to me?”
“…What?”
“To before I Entered the Imperial Palace. To before I abandoned my daughter with my own hands. Can you return to me the life of this foolish woman who withered away cursing herself, and only after committing one final stupid act came to regret her own existence?”
“Wh-what in the…?”
“Even if I could go back, I wonder—would I have had any path other than this one? My family would never have allowed me to live freely. My friend would not have abandoned her convictions. My lover would not have chosen me in any case. The most crucial moments of my life were never mine to decide. But now—yes, now it is different.”
Throughout that long life, all she had been able to do was turn away from Titania and slowly kill herself. Even that, looking back now, seemed hollow.
“That’s why I have no intention of releasing you, Your Majesty. This is one of the few choices I’ve ever truly made.”
Valentina had tried to stop her until the very end. But it was Elaine who had resolved to do this. To seize the Emperor from the Imperial Palace, from the hands of enemies, and secure him. It was nearly impossible—which meant Elaine was the only one with any chance of succeeding.
As for the reason for securing him…
Elaine glanced down at the Bracelet making a soft clicking sound. A small clock face was affixed to the end of the crystal Bracelet. Having checked the time, Elaine smiled with a look of relief.
The Emperor trembled at the sight.
All his life, even standing before the great Castrain Ducal House, he had longed to make them kneel without ever bowing himself. But now, before a woman he had treated as nothing but a pretty ornament her entire life, he felt a chill run down his spine.
“I came to realize that you, Your Majesty, are the only person in this world I can resent freely and without reservation.”
“I—I—whatever I’ve done wrong, please—”
“Honestly, it feels rather good.”
Elaine drove her heel hard into the center of the Emperor’s trouser leg. Her head was already splitting with pain and sweat poured down like rain, but she had enough strength for this.
A shrill scream tore through the air.
All the effort she had put into recovering her health for this single moment was worth it, to hear such a wretched cry.

* * *

And in a different place, but with a similar turn of events—
Titania looked down at her opponent, sprawled in exhaustion, pointing an accusing finger at her.
“How—how underhanded!”
“I’ve always lived underhanded.”
“Y-you’re crude!”
“You’re really bad at insults.”
……
The brawl, naturally enough, ended in Lilium’s complete defeat. If she inflicted any damage on her opponent, her own body would shatter in return—fighting was impossible.
Titania bound her struggling opponent with a makeshift rope fashioned from a torn tablecloth.
What, if your opponent escapes, then so be it?
Of course, so be it.
Which is why Titania resorted to something resembling self-harm blackmail. Discarding all shame and dignity, she threw herself onto her opponent’s body just as they were trying to desperately flee—and they collapsed, writhing. Simple, really.
-To be honest, you seem like a villain, Contractor ⊙_ʘ
‘You’re the one saying you don’t care if people all die off in droves, aren’t you?’
-Not that you’re actually a villain! (゜▽゜;)
Having apparently never been provoked so childishly in her entire life, her opponent thrashed about, tears streaming down her face, and screamed.
The affected tone she had maintained vanished entirely like a lie.
“This contract condition is ridiculous! You used my own body to harm me—that’s basically self-harm!”
“I’m amazed by this effect too. Do you think Raymond deliberately made a defective contract?”
“How—how you use such crude methods I don’t know, but it won’t go as you plan!”
“What were you originally, anyway?”
“What?”
“What you lived for. What you did. What you truly wanted to do. Family connections, things like that.”
“…What good does it do you to know?”
Well, what indeed.
Titania dug through the integrated memories of her past. She dug and dug, but found only memories of struggling to survive in a wretched world. However, thinking about it…
Let her speculate.
This girl Lilium must have been treated as someone quite precious to the enemy at that time as well. Fighting Magic Beasts and pushing toward the very edge of the Underground World was perilous and exhausting work—they had been separated from the group many times. If Lilium had encountered Titania during one of those moments, it would have been absurdly easy to kill her. Yet, for whatever the preceding circumstances, Titania had survived and reached the place she was given.
Could she have… let me go? Her?
For what possible reason?
If she could understand that, maybe she could solve this mystery. It was precisely at that moment Titania was pondering—
Something gleamed at Lilium’s chest. Lilium twisted her body as if in dismay, but bound by rope, it had no effect. Then that black jewel-like object detached from her chest of its own accord and transformed into a large, wide Mirror. A voice came from within it.
“Lilium! Lilium, Miss! Kosheay has caused a disaster!”
“…What?”
Lilium answered irritably.

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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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