Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 269
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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 269
Boom, a deafening crash that split the sky!
If a star were to plummet to the earth, surely it would boast such mass and heat.
The brilliant light blinded him for an instant. His ears rang. Lisianthus instinctively shut his eyes, then felt his body hurtled violently through the air.
Something hotter than fire, brighter than light itself, swept through the entire area like a whirlwind.
Though it couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds by any measure of time, it felt eternal. He tumbled like an autumn leaf caught in wind, and when he finally steadied himself and opened his eyes, everything before him blazed white.
“…What?”
Crackle, crackle-snap, sizzle, sizzle-pop…….
The ground that had been a chaotic battlefield moments before now gleamed as though someone had scattered grass made of light across it.
And at the center of it all.
There stood Titania, gripping a sword that blazed white as if to prove its existence.
She looked more formidable than ever before.
Hair like fragments of light fluttering in the wind, eyes bright as new shoots. White hands gripping the sword. And beside her, a creature with wings that beat defiantly—a bird, no less.
“…A bird?”
It resembled the Divine Beast she had called Jemina, though was the Divine Beast ever that large? Lisianthus blinked. An enormous creature—vast enough to carry a person or two aloft—held something in its talons.
Looking at what appeared to be a skeleton compressed flat as though crushed beneath colossal steel, twitching with darkness, it resembled Kosheay.
…No, actually it was definitely him.
Lisianthus glanced down at his own arms. They were intact. The Blue Flame he had kindled still burned weakly with residual heat, but compared to moments ago when he had poured every ounce of strength into burning his enemy, they were perfectly fine.
What in the world had just happened?
Standing slack-jawed before this situation resolved in an instant, Lisianthus watched as Titania drove her blade deep into the trembling earth with a sound that boded ill.
Fragments of light spread outward again, as if driving back darkness itself. At this, Jemina uttered a pleading cry. Titania saw the Divine Beast’s eyes gleaming brilliantly and clicked her tongue with a wry smile, saying:
“No, don’t eat it.”
“Shriek!”
“I have a feeling eating that would cause real trouble.”
“Screeeech!”
In the face of Titania’s firm refusal, the enraged Divine Beast drove its talons into its prey as though venting its frustration. Kosheay, who had been writhing, let out a scream.
“Ah, ah, no, please, no, the Mana Circuits inside my body……. They’re not connected physically……!”
“Ah yes. Well. So you truly are a genius. Your bones themselves aren’t mere bones but rather assembled constructs made from countless tiny Mana Stones packed with magical power—like sand infused with Mana. Break them and you simply resynchronize with your soul to reassemble them, and that only works where Magic Circles are laid out beforehand to supply that Mana. So… Immortality? No, actually I’m not even sure it counts as that anymore.”
Titania seemed to be sorting information with something invisible—likely her sword—murmuring to herself as she fixed a sharp gaze on the screaming Kosheay. Though it felt awkward to speak to such an opponent, Lisianthus cleared his throat hesitantly.
“Titania, I’m… I’m so glad you’re safe…….”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re safe too.”
Titania smiled brightly. At that sight, Lisianthus felt something swell in his chest. The way she smiled so naturally, as though nothing had happened, seemed almost like a lie.
“Everyone was really worried about you…….”
“I figured. Though you seem to have gone through quite a lot yourself.”
“…Heh.”
Lisianthus gave an embarrassed laugh. Titania caught sight of the Blue Flame rising softly around his body and her eyes grew bitter for just a moment—so brief that Lisianthus didn’t notice.
“The compatibility was terrible. If this had been a place overrun with plants, you would’ve been able to handle everything yourself.”
“Eh, eh? Um…….”
Titania placed a light hand on Lisianthus’s blackened forearm.
The moment a few drops of her blood fell onto his skin—skin that looked brittle enough to crumble—he felt the fierce flames burning inside him quiet, as though a lid had been placed over them.
To Lisianthus, Titania spoke with the casual tone one uses toward a troublemaking younger sibling:
“Still, don’t go overusing something like that. From now on, you stay right beside Rasper.”
“Eh, eh? If I can manage it, I will.”
“Then for now…….”
Like a debtor coming to settle an old account, having confirmed Lisianthus was fine, Titania drove the tip of her sword—still held in Jemina’s talons—repeatedly into the frail remains of Kosheay’s form.
Screams tore from his throat as if he’d been struck by electricity, utterly shrill and raw.
It was a far cry from his arrogant boasts mere moments ago about his Immortality and how many times he could be destroyed. While Kosheay shrieked like a squid curling over flame, that was when—
-T-Titania. Thank you so much for saving my brother…!
-You, you villainous employer! Really! Augh, I thought something terrible had happened…….
The voices of Rasper—tinged with what sounded like tears—and an alarmed Pan came crackling through the Communication Device in quick succession.
“It’s been a while, all of you. Just hearing your voices makes it clear how much you’ve all suffered.”
-As long as you’re safe, Titania, that’s all that matters…….
“Actually, I did get dragged to the enemy of my own accord. But I gathered some useful information and managed to escape. I learned theoretically how to kill the enemy.”
-Y-yes?
-W-what do you mean!
“To be honest, looking at it just now, the Imperial Palace was a sea of flame, the Capital was a sea of flame, and even what looked like the distant Northern and Southern Regions were seas of flame. We need to sort out what’s happened, hear an explanation, and get everyone’s help.”
Titania spoke rapidly without pause, then glanced at Kosheay and Lisianthus before continuing:
“Because I shot through like a meteor and struck with the Weakness Attribute, our dear Divine Beast has been clamoring to be allowed to eat this rotting fool Kosheay—let’s see if we can make use of him if we can. So what I’m trying to say is…….”
There was so much to explain. Where had Raymond, who kidnapped me, taken her? What had she done with the enemy all this time? What had she learned……?
Instead of laying it all out, Titania laughed.
That same smile—one she had worn unchanged many times before. Sometimes it had seemed like a mask, sometimes genuine, and sometimes merely evidence of her struggle to try. Now it was simply like pale sunlight.
“Let’s try killing a god.”
If fate as decreed by the divine truly exists, then to defy that fate and forge one’s own will through human determination—that is humanity’s privilege.
* * *
“That’s impossible.”
“What do you mean, impossible?”
Cleo bit her lip as she glared at Natalie blocking her path. Fire raged throughout the Imperial Palace. Brian stood at the Imperial Palace Main Gate, locked in combat with the brutish Adrian.
She had assumed that since Brian possessed a special constitution, he would naturally defeat Adrian.
But the situation was progressing far more slowly than she’d expected. The servants she had brainwashed or drugged had already been taken away for other uses, as Brian had decided, and the few remaining subordinates she could command directly were little more than terrified mice trembling with fear.
She had barely managed to send them out by invoking family safety, yet they returned in such a devastatingly short time claiming, “From what I can see, nothing has changed at all”—absurdly unhelpful drivel.
They should have reported that the enemy had swarmed like rats and died, or that someone was now commanding their forces, or that the young Prince Brian was unharmed—something concrete like that!
Enraged, Cleo ordered the maid thrown into a disused warehouse she was currently using as a disposal site. Even kicking the servant as she wept and begged not to become a monster did nothing to ease her fury.
As expected, those who grew up pampered and sheltered had no backbone whatsoever.
Cleo clenched her teeth.
In a situation like this, for fear the traitors might somehow prevail—there must have been lunatics who defied her orders, which was why the fire hadn’t spread properly. Yes, that pathetic maid she’d sent to the Empress. If that servant failed to carry out her orders, then she would have to eliminate all of that maid’s associates.
And… and…….
Cleo felt something like ink rising from deep within her chest. Her breath came in short gasps, and if she didn’t act, she would suffocate. Natalie blocked her path without the slightest change in expression.
“Going outside the Palace is dangerous.”
“There’s fire outside the Empress’s Palace, in other places! My precious son is right now fighting that despicable Empress’s son, and the Emperor is nowhere to be seen in all this!”
“I only know what I was instructed to relay beforehand by the young Prince Brian.”
Cleo stared at Natalie with bloodshot eyes, but seeing those clear eyes untouched by any agitation, she clenched her teeth and whipped her head around, spitting out harsh words.
“Sara, will you go?”
“Y-yes, yes, ah? W-what… what place are you asking me to go to?”
Sara, who had been cowering in a corner of the room praying she wouldn’t be called upon, flinched and looked up. Her face was pale with terror.
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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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