Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 283

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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 283

Before hope came to everyone.
Before Titania and Raymond made their final choice and awoke.
In a space like ruins, dust and stone scattered with every step.
“I can’t accept it. I can’t accept it. I can’t accept it……”
Cleo ran forward, gritting her teeth. Her appearance was a complete disaster. That was natural enough—after all, she had died and come back to life.
Those useless maids dared to attack her, putting Sara in front. Dared to deceive her.
The maids who had attacked her had whispered something among themselves, then bound Cleo and vanished. Fortunately, with Natalie’s help, she’d worked free and stumbled about searching for Brian. But from a while ago, something felt wrong.
The Imperial Palace had nearly collapsed, flames still refused to die, screams continued to echo, and on top of it all, she hadn’t heard Adrian’s pompous speech from earlier.
Instinctively, she knew well that something was going terribly wrong.
“This ending, this ending—I’ll never accept it. Why did I, why did I come this far……”
She dragged her half-broken ankle without a care, gnashing her teeth. She had to find that bitch Lilium. Or someone else, anyone.
They had made a contract with me.
A promise must be kept.
Where the hell was Brian?
The Golden Magic Circle that enveloped the entire ruined Imperial Palace like a wave was clearly not prepared by Cleo’s allies. As she walked, skirting the magic circle, her eyes suddenly gleamed.
“Ah.”
Cleo ran forward with delight.
“Brian!”
“Huh? W-what? Mother…?”
And in the next moment, she froze. Brian’s expression, seeing Cleo freeze as if she’d glimpsed a ghost, seemed even more bewildered.
In the middle of a building’s ruins mid-demolition, Brian was bound to a column. He looked useless, like an abandoned hostage. But Cleo’s eyes widened.
That was it. The ‘Brian’ she had known was not the sort of child weak enough to be restrained by something so trivial.
“……Why are you here?”
“Y-yes?”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Cleo muttered. Covered in blood and dust, she looked like a madwoman.
“I received, as per the contract’s terms……. a perfect son.”
“M-mother, right now—”
“Ah, yes, yes. You’ve grown weak……. Yes. With Two Souls in one body, you must be resting in his place for a moment.”
“Mother, I’m right here!”
“Tell me, where is your father? Go with your father and escape the Imperial Palace. Ah, do you have the Emperor’s Seal? You had that one, didn’t you? That will do. That will do. I’ve lost everything else, but……. that matters. Later I can reclaim this pathetic Imperial Palace with the Lande Marquis House’s help. So then.”
“I… I can’t move. My whole body hurts, I can’t move.”
“That’s impossible.”
The Imperial Consort Cleo blinked. Like a doll, like glass eyes.
“You’re not such a weak child.”
“……”
“Ah yes, yes. It’s the medicine, isn’t it? You’re in pain. Yes, it might break down for a moment. You’ve suffered……. So that’s why. Don’t worry, Mother is here. I’ll fix it right away.”
Cleo reached into her clothes and pulled out a pouch. She opened something that looked like a dark seed and tried to feed it to Brian. But Brian refused.
“No! I hate it! I hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it!”
“Good medicine tastes bitter, my son.”
“Again! Again someone’s trying to take over my body…! I hate it, hate it, hate it! Go away, you insane woman, how can you call yourself a mother like this…!”
“You’re making too much noise, dear.”
Too loud. Too loud. Too loud. Be quiet. My ears hurt. My head hurts.
The child I bore must be more perfect than anyone.
Perfect enough that even that contemptible, wretched woman couldn’t mock her.
So in a fit of rage, Cleo stabbed Brian in the throat. With a Dagger she had been gripping for emergencies.
Blood spurted from his carotid artery.
He screamed and made a commotion for a moment. But soon, it grew quiet.
And so Cleo felt reassured as she shoved the seeds into Brian’s mouth.
Ah, now. It’s done.
Her worthless ‘original’ son was finally quiet.
Her ‘true’ son will awaken, stronger and braver and the finest, and hand her victory.
Then that wretched Empress, and that repulsive Adrian—they’ll all kneel before her.
And finally, at last……
Finally everything must become hers.
So why.
Why isn’t Brian moving?
Cleo trembled violently.
“……Huh?”
“Imperial Consort.”
“I… Natalie. Something’s wrong. The… the new seeds need to come. Brian is in pain. He won’t move. Where are they? Call my brother. Yes, call my brother.”
“Imperial Consort.”
“……What?”
Cleo lost her words upon seeing Natalie staring at her with a quieter expression than anyone.
Ah, yes. Where and when had she taken in this girl?
Within this Imperial Palace, this girl was the only one she could truly trust. Naturally.
-Are you happy that I’m dying? You fool, you worm.
After that noble girl from the Lande Marquis House had spoken those words and died, we offered her sister tea.
It was Cleo who had secretly poisoned it, but the maid who brewed it was also dragged away and died.
When they said the younger sister should also be killed for her possible involvement, Cleo saved her.
Cleo gazed at Natalie’s forearm in silence as the girl came to meet her. That arm covered in burns and bruises.
‘Look, the family that made you work like a servant and beat you—they’re gone now. Or did they remain? Well, if you need anything, tell me. I’ll kill them together with you later.’
The reason Cleo had deliberately used Natalie’s sister was because she thought Natalie’s situation was similar to her own.
A shameless father’s bastard daughter born outside the home was the family’s shame.
Her sister was the family’s darling.
Even working as a maid in the noble household together, she was trapped in her sister’s shadow, tormented and bullied.
‘If you come with me, I will see that no one treats you carelessly.’
And until now, she had kept that promise.
Those around Cleo never dared to disrespect Natalie, who held the position of the Imperial Consort’s closest attendant.
“The Lord of the Lande Marquis House has passed away.”
“……What? I was continuously feeding him the medicine, the seeds. I surely ordered you to handle all the tasks flawlessly.”
“Yes, because the previous Brian had requested it, so all were used as sacrifices.”
“What? Using the head of the Lande Marquis House as a sacrifice—that’s absurd. No matter what……”
“My apologies. I kept silent because Cleo ordered me not to speak of it.”
“There were things hidden from me—that’s impossible……”
Cleo’s blood pressure spiked; she clutched the back of her neck and started to shout, but felt her head spinning.
She’d been beaten by those useless creatures, imprisoned, bound, and had barely escaped by getting hurt in various places.
But the sensation just now was different. An instinct that had been clouding only recently suddenly revived and warned her.
Cleo instinctively felt danger and stared blankly at Natalie. Holding her cooling son in her arms, feeling something ominous in that face, which remained unmoved even now.
“……I promised you wealth and glory.”
“Yes.”
“You’re my most trusted aide. You, of all people, I……”
“Yes. Until now, I have been the loyal servant of the Imperial Consort Cleo. As Chloe ordered.”
Cleo felt her vision turn blood-red.
Chloe.
Cleo.
The legitimate daughter of the noble Lande Marquis House.
A Lady who knew everything.
An elegant woman whom anyone, upon seeing once, would be unable to help but enchanted by.
Yet speaking as though life bored her to death, she would gaze down on people with disdain……
I will not die as Chloe’s servant.
My name will become the highest and most noble, unforgettable to anyone. For that, I can do anything.
“Understanding my situation, Cleo surely said she would take me in.”
“Ah, ah.”
“Following the shadow of yourself, drowned in inferiority and self-doubt, for all your life—and moreover, with strong agency and a decent appearance, the Lande Marquis House would surely entangle and perish with you. I would be at Cleo’s side until the final moment, so it wouldn’t even be difficult to carry out her orders, Chloe said.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh.”
“Chloe has instructed me to relay a message at this moment.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
“-I.”
Natalie straightens her posture. She assumes the smile of a woman infinitely elegant and contemptuous of all the world.
A smile that even after nearly twenty years had passed since death, this servant who obeyed her master’s commands without a single complaint would not be able to forget even in death.
The sort of smile that Cleo, who thought her own lack was important and believed she could manipulate anyone by merely filling the lacks and desires of others, could never understand.
Even at this very moment, Cleo could not grasp reality. The other woman dropped the title of Imperial Consort, which she had been using consistently, and now addressed her simply as she would a lady of the Lande Marquis House—yet Cleo denied the truth. Why. Why.
Natalie had had many opportunities to betray over all this time.
She had not even pitied Titania, siding only with Cleo.
So she had thought she could trust her.
She was wrong.
From beginning to end, only to ridicule Cleo’s entire life……
Why.
It was she who had avenged the enemy.
From when, what, how far had she been guessing all along?
Everything
that I have done.
“I always knew you’d end up like this.”
Like a rope strangling Cleo’s breath, the cold smile.
In the end, she could not even overcome the shadow of the dead……
Something snapped inside her mind with a sharp crack.
Like a rotted scarecrow breaking, Cleo’s body slowly collapsed to the ground.
Thud.
Overlapping with Brian’s blood-soaked form, to any onlooker they would appear like a tender mother and child.
And after that, nothing could be heard anymore.

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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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