Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 279
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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 279
That’s why I did all of this.
That’s why I gathered every scrap of information. Why I doubted everything.
-In the language of humans, there is the god of light and creation, called ‘Beloborg,’ and my great Creator made me with the aid of the honorable Beles to guide the path of the Contractor!
Yes. That was true.
When you think about it, it’s laughable. A blade that only a Light Contract Holder can wield, and yet it wanders the continent as a non-demonic sword? Even ending up in the hands of the Imperial Consort, going so far as to kill Prince Brian?
It’s true that Beloborg made my blade. But all this time, my blade has never properly revealed its true name to me. Only that Veris-Pacio was a facade persona.
‘…You know, if Raymond and I formally register our marriage now, then… do I become your co-owner too?’
-Yes, that’s correct!
‘Then it might be possible to kill only Chernobog, not my rightful master, and keep Raymond bound.’
-That’s… well, but could a single human soul bear such a thing?
‘You know, I’m only guessing, but Mighty Beloborg might not have created you with his power alone.’
-…Yes, yes, yes? Of course, because Beles helped, he’s a great god of magic…. Why suddenly?
My thoughts ended there. Raymond, drenched in cold sweat, looked at me.
“…If we delay any longer, it will be difficult. Titania.”
“What. Are you afraid we’ll lose to Chernobog?”
“……”
I tried to laugh. The laugh wouldn’t come. I withdrew the blade from Raymond’s chest. He looked relieved.
I composed myself to slit my own chest and sever my neck, and he closed his eyes meekly as if waiting. The moment he did, as if on cue, a Magic Formation blazed to life all around us, glowing with light woven in five colors like a mesh.
Holding his cold, hard frame, raising the blade into empty air… I laughed like I was weeping.
“Hold on and don’t you dare die, you damned human. If you screw this up, I die too.”
“That’s… what…!”
His voice rang out, bewildered beyond measure.
Thud.
The sound of something being pierced through.
A sensation as if my vision were melting away.
A feeling as though everything supporting me were turning to sand.
Soon after, everything vanished.
* * *
A long blade, gleaming with an otherworldly light, pierced through the chests of both the man and the woman simultaneously. Blood seeped from the woman’s breast, soaking the man’s body.
The man’s body convulsed as if in resistance, while the woman’s body, cradling him as though restraining him, remained unmoved as stone.
Though the scene was gruesome, those around them moved with coordinated purpose, as though they had anticipated this.
The vast Magic Formation coiled beneath the Imperial Palace, and the oversized Mana Stones taken from Warp Tunnels across the realm.
And now, the heap of Mana Stones procured by directly hunting down Chernobog’s Magic Beasts.
The Magic Formation that had been channeling power to Chernobog himself held no meaning from the moment he set foot in this Imperial Palace, and lost control to Raymond.
So victory belonged to whoever poured in more power.
“The Magic Formation is functioning as predicted!”
“Our power is insufficient!”
“We need to adjust the balance more…!”
What Titania had done was a gamble.
Indeed. Raymond’s body no longer possessed the heart he had originally.
If the Mana Stone were separated, purified, and destroyed, Raymond would very likely die along with it.
…Then all one had to do was provide something to replace that heart.
Through a somewhat forced marriage registration, Titania made Raymond a co-owner of her blade.
And together, they pierced their hearts.
An ordinary person would die, but she… thought half a heart might be expendable for her.
Raymond’s body endlessly melted and regenerated. The stranded Darkness Power thrashed about in frenzy.
Power to suppress the Darkness Power and purify and reconstruct both body and soul poured forth at an extraordinary density.
Around Raymond and Titania, flowers that had no business blooming in this season suddenly blossomed, fell in the wind, and decayed into earth. Dry ground burst into flame, only to be swallowed by cascading water. Even the merest leakage of power wrought such devastation.
Well, Titania’s logic was simple.
If the problem was too much Darkness Power, then flood it with everything else.
If the balance was just right, regeneration should be possible anyway. I’ll buy time with my body, however I can.
“Damn employer! Never asks for anything simple!”
Fane grumbled in a voice on the verge of tears.
Castrain and Prince Brian had undergone something close to an experiment, though no one could know the results.
Could Raymond and Titania endure all of this?
At the very least, if all went as expected, they should be able to finish off Chernobog, but would the process truly unfold without resistance?
“Please. Just once.”
No one knew whose voice it was.
But everyone’s wish was the same.
Might they ask for one miracle?
“After saving the whole world, dying now would just be unfair, wouldn’t it!”
Once. No more, no less.
Only once.
For the world’s sake, for the sake of others, that woman who carelessly throws her own body away and laughs it off with such utter self-sacrifice—surely her wishes deserve to come true, don’t they?
Amidst the prayers of all, a brilliant light exploded as though rewriting the world itself.
* * *
[The Contract of Rod activates.]
[The Contract of Rod activates.]
[The Contract of Rod activates.]
[The Contract of Rod……]
The death of Contractor ‘Titania’ is not erased.
The death of Contractor ‘Titania’ is not erased.
Contractor ‘Titania’ is—
* * *
“……”
Raymond opened his eyes.
And without thinking, he checked his own body.
It felt light.
Why? How?
In that final moment, he had seen Titania looking at him, her face on the verge of tears yet smiling, and thought: ah, she’s figured out how to kill herself. She can die in peace now. That’s what he had believed.
‘Hold on and don’t you dare die, you damned human. If you screw this up, I die too.’
…But why.
Why.
Why had Titania spoken those words as she raised the blade…?
The moment Raymond recalled that final instant, he reflexively patted his body.
It was intact. Not a drop of blood in sight.
The view before him was outdoors.
A night with a thin crescent moon. On a seaside cliff stood a small house. Below the cliff lay white sand, and above it bloomed a hillside full of flowers.
At first glance, it was a scene from a painting.
Raymond knew he should hurry, yet found himself wishing to delay. He walked slowly toward the house atop the cliff.
It was a small two-story building. He opened the wide-open door and entered to find the simple interior of a home.
A window hung on the wall, square and strange, glowing with an odd light—like some transmission device. Or was it a window? From within it, someone laughed.
-Mom!
A white shirt and tie nearly like a uniform, a spacious vest, a skirt reaching the knees, a bag slung over the shoulder, hair trailing from it.
-You didn’t forget you promised to make tteokbokki today, right!
He thought he saw a smiling face. But it was only a feeling.
Even as he looked, the face was strangely blurred. The moment he turned away, he would forget it. He couldn’t tear his eyes from that face. It felt like something he mustn’t lose.
-Ah, but the exam could go badly… Please, just do it. Yes. Or maybe I could sneak some allowance from Dad…? Ah, I might never grow up, might I?
The window turned pitch black. The next moment, a figure in finer clothes appeared, holding something long near an ear and complaining.
-That’s not such a big deal. No, I mean not like I was being a fool or anything…. So then, you just leave it and go? In this day and age? Wait, no. Is there a kid over there…? Hey! Wait a minute!
Without thinking, Raymond threw himself forward. Though he knew it was meaningless, he couldn’t bear not to.
The window shattered before his face. At the same moment, something cracked with a sound like wood splitting. He thought he heard a voiceless scream. With the feeling that he himself would break into screams, Raymond slowly rose. Just then, someone sobbed.
-All… all mothers worry about their… their children, that’s what they say.
Sway, sway. A small body hanging from the balcony of the two-story building wavered.
Sway, sway. Creak, creak.
-It’s… it’s hard, the body isn’t… isn’t well. If I just go, I’ll be scolded. But… who knows?
Raymond knew what this scene meant.
-Mom… Mom might… come see if I… if I almost died.
“No.”
Raymond knew what all of this meant.
Raymond gritted his teeth and ran. He had to catch her. Running inside would be faster than outside. Not wanting to startle her with noise, he held his voice and rushed up the stairs in an instant.
The small body, startled, tumbled down.
“No!”
Raymond felt as though his very soul were shattering.
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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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