Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 275

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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 275

Magic Beasts that would once have required staking one’s life to defeat even a single one could now be slain without difficulty.
Take, for instance, that creature Smoke—some great dragon, as they’d called it. Even after Illian had spent considerable effort melting and burning it, its massive head and tail still lay sprawled across the ground.
In its dying moments, it had shrieked piteously, crying out that this was impossible.
Yet even as powerful as Orto was, he couldn’t fight while protecting others. He couldn’t afford to let the endless tide of strong Magic Beasts breach the inner sanctum. So far, he’d fought without a moment’s rest. But the end was finally in sight.
“…Perhaps they’re simply playing at their leisure. Thinking that if they drag out time, they’ll win.”
“If I’m to draw out that damned eldest son of mine, I’ll need to harry them more intensely still.”
“The night will surely disadvantage us when it comes.”
“Any word from Cortez?”
“Yes, Lord Flux has been making considerable efforts. …Unfortunately, as the battle drags on, the casualties among the civilians seem to be mounting as well.”
“A bitter business, but that overconfident rabble is finally reaching its limits. Smoke, Strigoi, Rokita… That Magic Beast that appeared when I nearly died—it was of a similar caliber, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. If we count the one killed by Princess Titania and the one that possessed Prince Brian, that makes five. No matter how powerful Chernobog may be, he cannot send down more than five Named High-Ranking Demons.”
Five human heroes blessed directly by Beloborg’s power descended—so too can Chernobog summon five of his servants. The common elements are water, fire, wind, and earth. The remaining two are light and darkness.
Light and darkness alone can nullify each other.
Orto spoke while watching sunlight still streaming brilliantly through the parting clouds.
“Which means, kill Prince Brian, and Chernobog has no choice but to move.”
And that’s what we’re aiming for.

* * *

Explosions echoed throughout the Imperial Palace.
The sound was like thunder.
Chortos—or rather, Brian—was bewildered. He knew the Imperial Palace was burning in places.
After all, he couldn’t be injured by such trivial flames, and there was no one in particular he needed to protect within the palace. It wasn’t a matter of great concern. His only irritation had been that those riding on the dire wolves moved with unnecessarily high speed, making pursuit bothersome.
Adrian had shown off before vanishing, but he’d likely be somewhere near the Empress’s Palace. He was thinking this as he moved.
Then, without warning, the ground throughout the Imperial Palace trembled.
Bang, bang, bang!
Buildings collapsed entirely with the sound, and screams echoed from every quarter. As for Brian’s human subordinates—their abilities were lacking anyway, so whether they fled or not was no concern of his. And the sacrifices and vessels he’d been using would be useful to Chernobog even in death, so there seemed to be no problem… except something felt wrong.
Something was amiss.
“…!”
Brian sensed an ominous presence. Where was it? The Hall of Glory? That place he knew but couldn’t enter. No, it was different. More precisely… near the Throne….
“Damn it!”
Brian moved, cursing. Until now, he’d acted with considerable ease. After all, the final ritual wasn’t taking place inside the Imperial Palace, and time alone was victory. It had been enough to toy with the enemies and kill them.
But still, that was once a place of Beloborg’s favor. There might be some variable they hadn’t fully accounted for, which was why he’d remained in the palace to guard against it. And now they’d created such a variable.
It was the sort of thing that would draw Chernobog’s rebuke later.
Was the Emperor alive? Had he caused this trouble? Well, either way, he’d kill them all. Destroy any apparatus he saw.
With such resolve, Brian walked without hesitation toward the hall where the Throne stood.
It didn’t take long. There was no resistance. As he tore open the door, what came into view was the Emperor and Empress near the Throne.
The Emperor lay unconscious and limp, while the Empress dragged him toward the Throne.
Instinctively, Brian realized that if the current Emperor were allowed to sit on the Throne, something would begin—and he lunged forward with blade-sharp hands.
Expecting the Empress to flee in fear before him, Brian’s eyes widened as she did anything but….
‘Is she laughing? That worthless woman?’
The Empress smiled faintly. Brian’s eyes widened. But he decided, without hesitation, to sever both her neck and the Emperor’s. Kill them all, destroy everything, and leave this palace behind. As he swung with that intent, his hand was lightly blocked.
Clang!
“…!”
“Hehe, I’m here to protect Her Majesty the Empress!”
“You damnable wench…!”
Brian hurled the smiling maid-dressed human far away with force, then reached toward the Empress, whose face bore a peculiar calm as she looked at him.
He felt an odd desperation. That she still lived—all the better. He would kill her here and witness Adrian’s despair….
“It’s been such a long time, brother!”
“Me too, eldest brother!”
“…!”
…but he couldn’t. Brian gasped in shock at the sight of Titania and Adrian flanking him on both sides.
Two siblings whose faces were strikingly similar. Platinum-blonde hair flowing, green eyes blazing with determination—a brother and sister.
“Impossible! Beloborg’s Contractor—why are you here…!”
“Sorry to say, but we’ve completely cleaned out your home base!”
A blade enshrouded in luminous radiance came at Brian. He parried it without difficulty. The problem was that his parry severed a strand of Titania’s hair, nicked her ear, and a thin line of blood ran down.
“Ugh, uhhhhh…!”
Brian nearly lost consciousness from the intense agony and nausea he’d never felt before, barely managing to dodge the blade Adrian was swinging at him.
Seeing Brian’s reaction, Titania clicked her tongue.
“Figures. At least he’s in a royal body, so the side effects are minimal.”
“Right now, I, ugh, what….”
“That Primrose and Lilium were practically moaning like they were dying, but this one’s standing fine on both feet.”
“Well, it still needs to hurt him for it to work. I’ll handle him if it gets too rough.”
Barely catching his breath, Brian watched Titania and Adrian converse with rather cordial familiarity, his eyes flashing with ferocity.
It was impossible. Titania had been confined by Lilium and Primrose. Yet she’d escaped so cleanly and now stood here?
Moreover, when he’d attacked Titania, he was the one who’d taken the hit?
“…What trick did you pull with the Contract?”
“The Contract is fair and square. If you sign first and change the terms later, that’s inconvenient, yeah? A well-raised prince like you wouldn’t know such things.”
“So then, so then…”
Titania and Adrian cackled together like swindlers cheating an innocent customer.
Safe and wholly protected.
It was only then that Brian recalled the wording of the Contract that Raymond and Chernobog had made, and he clicked his tongue.
Chernobog himself had promised it, so naturally his minions couldn’t harm Titania!
Chernobog himself, thinking Titania couldn’t possibly harm Chernobog even if she tried, had likely accepted the Contract light-heartedly. But what was this? If Brian could be wounded this badly, then Lilium, Primrose, and the resources and personnel waiting at Marquis Habilios’s stronghold and elsewhere would be utterly helpless?
Titania called out cheerfully, teasing the subordinate who’d been left in a bind by her superior’s fraudulent Contract.
“Just because I supposedly was helplessly kidnapped by Lord Raymond doesn’t mean I can’t smack a Magic Beast’s head around. Thanks for treating me like some frail, useless princess, you pieces of trash!”
“Right! Thanks!”
Brian stared at Adrian, who called out with apparent delight, his eyes filled with hatred. Then he shifted his body backward. The movement was unmistakably one of retreat.
Until now, Brian had always disdained Adrian and his allies, treating them as mere humans. But it seemed he’d made the judgment that he couldn’t properly stand against Beloborg’s Contractor, Titania.
Seeing this, Adrian smiled like a fox, his eyes narrowing, and spoke.
“Hey now, brother. All that bluster, and now you’re scared? Don’t you want to know what we’re about to do here?”
“…I won’t fall for such crude provocation.”
“Then I won’t attack.”
Titania planted her sword beside the Throne in a cheerful motion, then leaned against one of its armrests. By leaving the center of the Throne vacant and positioning herself only to protect the Empress, she made Brian’s eyebrows rise sharply.
“Honestly, Chernobog doesn’t strike me as a particularly magnanimous superior, does he? I’m telling you I won’t attack, yet you don’t even have the nerve to face a single ordinary human. When you go back and fail to eliminate what could be a significant threat to the Great Chernobog’s ritual, well… don’t you think you’ll be in trouble?”
“Don’t speak of Chernobog in such crude terms. Your scheming is transparent, and I have no need to fall for it.”
“But you should.”
Titania lifted the Royal Scepter from the center of the Throne. The moment she grasped it, a faint pale-blue light, like pre-dawn mist, overflowed.
“With our genius Archmage Rasper and Paniel—by thoroughly squeezing that Kosheay fellow—we’ve been installing a Magical Circle centered on this very Throne and Royal Scepter to nullify the power of Chernobog!”
With the tone of a merchant hawking goods rather than an enemy, Brian reflexively replied.
“That’s absurd! I sense no such power! Moreover, why is that here…!”
“Well, naturally. We’re still installing it, aren’t we? But since it’s a Magical Circle meant to summon the god Chernobog himself to the mortal realm, to nullify even a fraction of it, we needed some very special items. So! If His Majesty the Emperor sits here and lets the Royal Scepter draw his blood, then… that’s when it begins.”
Titania laughed and waved the Royal Scepter. Her face was that of a swindler.

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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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