Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 27

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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 27

Had her lover possessed a respectable station and come from an honorable house, had he shown her the respect she deserved, she might have endured the Emperor’s displeasure and fled the Capital altogether. But her lover was nothing more than a Guard Knight of common birth.
If she had resolved to forgo her social debut entirely and elope with him under cover of darkness, the matter might have ended differently.
But Elaine’s beauty was unrivaled throughout the Empire—the kind of beauty that could not be hidden.
And her family had always been ready to sell that beauty to the highest bidder.
She was foolish to fall into infatuation and turn a blind eye to reality. She was naive to believe that her sacrifice would save her lover’s life.
In the Imperial Palace, naivety is a death sentence.
“If you lay with the Emperor himself and bore his child, you should have known full well that your lover would die for it!”
Had Titania been a son, the First Empress would have had him quietly murdered.
But she was a daughter.
And so the Imperial Family had forced a betrothal upon the Castrain Ducal House—a house that had come under attack for the unclear origins of its dead duchess.
The previous duchess, mother to the three brothers, had never once set foot in the Capital.
She had never seen the Emperor. She had attended no state functions. A record had been filed naming her as the daughter of an ancient baronial house in the North, but it bore all the marks of fabrication.
Nearly every noble in the Capital had whispered that the great Castrain Duke himself had fallen for some baseborn woman, purchased her a title, and forced her into the position of duchess.
When she died after bearing three children, all of society demanded that a “proper” duchess be brought in to bear a legitimate heir.
The Imperial Family did not miss this small weakness in the Castrain Family.
The duchess’s questionable origins became the heirs’ vulnerability. The Duke refused absolutely to remarry.
So the Imperial Family made a proposal: they would overlook the rumors surrounding the dead duchess’s station if the Duke would take the Imperial Daughter as the future Young Duke’s bride.
If that were the case, what would it matter what the duchess’s origins had been? After all, noble blood would be mixed through the marriage when the Imperial Daughter became his daughter-in-law.
The Castrain Family gritted their teeth and accepted the bargain.
But they stipulated that the formal wedding ceremony would be postponed until all the children had come of age.
Ironically, for this very reason, Titania’s birth had to be beyond reproach.
Of course, Elaine, now in the Imperial Palace, had no opportunity to meet with men outside the court. She had no hope of reunion with her former lover. By any account, Titania was the Emperor’s daughter.
And yet Titania had been born prematurely, arriving far too early.
If the Castrain Ducal House seized upon this as grounds to claim that Titania was born not of the Emperor but of the Empress’s adultery, it would be catastrophic.
Whether true or false, the mere suggestion of such suspicion would be fatal.
And so Elaine’s former lover had always been destined to die.
Had he refused to enter the Imperial Palace and taken his own life instead, matters might have been different.
Though the Emperor, wounded in pride, would likely have ordered him hunted down and killed anyway.
So one could hardly blame Elaine for despising her own daughter. In any case, Elaine was kept alive—not executed—precisely because she was so weak, foolish, and stupid.
“Has there been any new word from the Empress’s Palace?”
“My apologies. None of the servants we placed there have brought any significant news.”
In any case, if this matter was not Elaine’s doing, then the culprit must be the Empress.
Yet the Castrain Family’s open involvement in caring for Titania at the Empress’s Palace only raised further suspicion.
The Empress was shrewd and cautious—she rarely left traces that could be followed.
Moreover, Titania remained the Emperor’s daughter. If complications arose in the Empress’s Palace, the Empress herself would bear the responsibility.
Would she risk such burden for whatever gain this matter might bring?
Cleo’s eyes grew cold and bright.
“So Titania has awakened?”
“My apologies. There has been no notable change observed at the Empress’s Palace.”
“Summon every servant who works at the Rose Palace. Whether through beating, dunking in a well, starvation, sleep deprivation, or rags on their backs—bring them here broken. If the frog won’t come out of its hole, you poke the hole until it does.”
“It shall be done.”
Cleo smiled with satisfaction.

* * *

“How are you feeling?”

I answered Adrian’s question flatly. He laughed softly.
“I’m relieved to see you’re really all right.”
“I heard you came looking for me.”
“It was nothing, really.”
I stared blankly at Adrian’s awkward expression.
“That ‘nothing’ being a reclusive prince openly requesting aid from the Young Duke of the Castrain Family.”
If I’d been off somewhere in a secluded corner of the Imperial Palace instead of with Bibi, his reputation would have been shattered beyond repair.
Adrian must have feared as much, but still….
“Either way, I’m grateful. That’s probably why I’m in the Lilac Palace now.”
“Is that so?”
I shrugged.
“You know the Castrain Family’s incredible efficiency. They either expelled everyone from the Rose Palace and took me to my own rooms, or to the Licorice Palace, or—failing that—used some excuse to take me outside the Imperial Palace altogether.”
None of those options appealed to me.
This arrangement was far preferable.
Adrian wouldn’t expect much of me, and I wouldn’t expect much of him. Two people opposed to the Empress, exchanging small conveniences.
That suited me perfectly.
“I thought the Castrain Family and you were at odds. But seeing this now….”
“That family has never needed help from anyone. They’ve never had to ask.”
Adrian blinked at my flat tone.
“With no allies and enemies on all sides, surrounded by vultures who’d tear apart the smallest kindness tenfold—they survived alone. A harsh house, truly. They’re just….”
Vulnerable to genuine goodwill.
How many people in this world could even offer help to the Castrain Family?
Still, wasn’t it a bit much?
I swallowed the sigh that threatened to escape.
No—saving Bibi was the right choice. I’d do the same again. Don’t regret what’s already done and can’t be undone!
“You seem to know quite a lot about the Castrain Family.”
I let out an audible sigh at Adrian’s observation.
Until now I’d been bombarded with questions about my health, whether anything hurt, whether I needed another physician, why I hadn’t eaten properly, what kind of fabrics I preferred for new clothes, and endless bustling and fussing….
This blessed stretch of quiet was what I’d gained by ordering everyone but Adrian—the building’s son who’d come to check on me—to leave.
As luck would have it, Bibi needed to return to the Duke’s Residence, and Raymond had to escort her. Meanwhile, that madman was dragged along with incomprehensible shrieking: “Finally done! Just gotta see your face and go—! Brother, what the—?! What is this?! Let me see her face, you buffoon!” and similar nonsense.
For someone whose body was light but whose mind was not, this had been a mercy.
Piecing together what had happened: I’d nearly died. The Castrain Family brought me to the Lilac Palace, and… kidnapped—no, forcibly summoned—the High Priest and obtained all manner of supplies to save my life.
That was a week ago.
My body healed within hours. The High Priest and other physicians testified that I was in “perfect health.”
But I hadn’t regained consciousness, and everyone had fretted constantly. Someone sat by my bedside round the clock, twenty-four hours a day.
No one knew when I might wake or if something might go wrong.
The Emperor dared not lay a hand on the Castrain Family’s household while they nursed an imperial princess in the Empress’s Palace—not without drawing suspicion.
Everyone knew the betrothal was merely nominal, but when the Castrain Family insisted that “a betrothed naturally cares for his bride”—and refused to yield—the Emperor couldn’t force the matter, not within the Empress’s Palace itself.
So the Empress’s Palace had been under a lockdown, if not an official one.
Naturally, no information about my condition leaked to the outside world.
I laughed hollowly.
“Ah, so that’s how things got like this….”
Adrian laughed in response to my oddly serene tone.
“They sure did!”
Listen, now wasn’t the time….
For such cheerful responses.

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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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