Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 29

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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 29

“These pastries are really delicious.”
“Please have more, sister!”
I listened to Bibi Lutein El Castrain’s cheerful chatter—bright as a lark’s song—with a warm heart as I finished another cookie. The one topped with apricot and strawberry jam was genuinely excellent.
Watching through the window as the maids gathered in the makeshift tent before the Empress Palace, praying for my recovery, made it taste even sweeter.
Eating pastries in bed while scattering crumbs everywhere gave me a twinge of guilt, but what did it matter? I was still technically a bedridden patient! The sheets were changed daily anyway, and I wasn’t the one cleaning.
I gazed out at the sunlit landscape beyond the window, my thoughts drifting.
Three days had passed since the maids who had wailed before the Empress Palace, begging for word of the princess’s safety, began voluntarily praying for my recovery.
The Empress had never liked people coming and going in her quarters.
The balance of power within the palace was delicate.
The Empress was a legitimate empress and the 2nd Imperial Prince’s mother, that much was true—but the Emperor favored the 1st Empress and the 1st Imperial Prince far too openly.
Those who worked in the palace could read the moods of their superiors faster than the wind itself.
In other words, the Empress’s position in the palace wasn’t particularly strong. Of course, someone without backing like me wouldn’t matter—but could any servant dare disrespect an empress?
The problem was the 1st Empress, though.
She trampled people while smiling. She ruled through fear and tempted with treasure. She knew her own weaknesses of birth better than anyone.
One could dare wear stars of the great ocean on their head and insult the Empress, but one could never enter the Chamber of Glory that only the current Empress and Emperor could access.
Even if the current Empress died, the chances of becoming a new Empress were slim. So she simply wielded control over the palace’s people, covertly disrespecting and threatening the Empress.
I had no doubt she’d endured countless assassination threats. Though the Empress had recently purged most of the 1st Empress’s agents from within her quarters….
“Bibi.”
“Yes, sister?”
The child’s face turned toward me with a gentle smile. Just seeing her pure, affectionate expression—like a sunflower—was enough to ease my heart.
She looked like a living doll, a yellow flower tucked behind her ear, picked because she couldn’t leave the Empress Palace.
I steadied my lips that were threatening to curve into a smile and spoke.
“Bibi.”
I met her gaze quietly and looked into Bibi’s blue eyes, which flickered with faint agitation, clear as a lake.
“You’re pushing yourself, aren’t you?”
“W-what do you mean, sister? Bibi doesn’t understand.”
“Our dear Bibi is working very, very hard for Titania, isn’t she?”
“…….”
Bibi looked away with a sullen expression.
All around us was quiet.
Except for the one maid attending Bibi, everyone had withdrawn. Even that maid was a former assassin who owed Bibi’s family a debt of life and now served as both guardian and protector, so everyone felt safe leaving us alone.
Since barely escaping with my life, I had received extravagant gifts from the Castrain Ducal House.
A letter of thanks written in the Duke’s own hand, no less—and Lisianthus straining to act unusually friendly, whimpering away; and Raymond with his usual expressionless face saying he’d come to check on my condition….
Yes, I was growing tired of the Castrain family’s excessive fussing over me.
Meanwhile, the Empress, who was actually the master of this palace, and Adrian, who had explained and clarified the situation for me, weren’t making a needless fuss.
Though I hadn’t even announced to the outside world that I’d awakened, the Castrain household staff were stamping their attendance records daily, and even the supplies flowing in and out of the Empress Palace….
Because the Empress normally lived frugally, people were probably already beginning to suspect I’d awakened.
In other words, the situation was as good as the Castrain Ducal House declaring they wouldn’t mind anyone else—meaning the Emperor, these foolish people—in order to protect our benefactor….
“But sister, what’s wrong with pushing yourself?”
Bibi chattered brightly, her eyes sparkling, pulling me from my worries.
“Our papa said that people of the Castrain Ducal House never, ever forget kindness or enmity. Especially since I’m now a proud daughter of the Castrain family, I must never forget that!”
“Mm….”
Papa…. Papa, as in Raymond….
The day has come when I hear the protagonist of a child-rearing story speak the word “papa” in her voice. I felt oddly moved.
“That’s why it’s only natural that I care about you, sister!”
“I nearly died, but I didn’t die. Not a single scar remained.”
“If it wasn’t for you, sister—!”
“You wouldn’t have died.”
Bibi blinked at my firm words.
“You wouldn’t have died. You’re a blessed child, and you deserve to be loved.”
“……But, sister. That’s…….”
Bibi’s lips moved, as if she wanted to refute my words but couldn’t find them.
The incident never happened in the original story, so I was a bit suspicious—but regardless, hadn’t Raymond arrived at just the right moment?
“Sister.”
Bibi called to me quietly, as if pondering something.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because you’re much younger than I am?”
“…But sister, you’re still just a child compared to adults, aren’t you?”
“There were no adults around. When that happens, someone older has to take responsibility.”
“…….”
Truth was, I had been afraid.
I missed my mother.
I missed my father too.
I wanted to go home.
But I already knew I could never return, that I was Titania now.
I had realized I had to live as a child who had never been loved, endlessly breaking down into ruin.
It had all become so overwhelming that I had even thought—even saving this child was enough, if this was where it all ended.
“Sister.”
Bibi’s voice trembled thinly.
“…I won’t tell anyone about the 1st Empress.”
“…….”
I smiled bitterly. Neither before I awoke nor after. No word had come from the Licoris Palace where the 1st Empress stayed.
No one didn’t know that. Everyone suspected as much. Looking at my face, Bibi seemed as if she might cry herself.
“Could I… could I take your side instead?”
“…….”
“If I love you, sister, and bless you… wouldn’t that make you a blessed child, a loved child? Isn’t that possible?”
That was right.
Even the Bibi of the original story had despaired while being abused by her terrible foster parents before regression. Perhaps that’s why she could empathize. But I, having read the book, know.
Bibi doesn’t know it yet, but her true mother is the Duke’s missing younger sister. She was incredibly talented, and Bibi was born from a short, passionate love with someone she cherished. Before Bibi was abandoned to the orphanage, it was she who put a necklace around Bibi’s neck.
“If you take my side, Bibi, I’d be truly grateful.”
Bibi bloomed into laughter, like flowers opening.
“But Bibi—let’s stay closer than strangers, but more distant than family.”
“Why, why, why?! Sister, why?!”
Like Bibi complaining that her snack had been taken away, she pouted indignantly.
“Because, Bibi, we still have many enemies.”
“Enemies?”
A spark of interest kindled in Bibi’s eyes. Before her regression, Bibi had wandered here and there in miserable circumstances, yet never neglected gathering news from the outside world.
Ironically, because everyone looked down on Bibi’s situation, no one had been careful with their words around her.
There too, she had probably learned of my infamous behavior, the feud between the Castrain Ducal House and me, and the current chaos within the Imperial Family.
“The Castrain Ducal House has many enemies, and I have enemies of my own.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Bibi glanced toward the landscape beyond the Empress Palace. It was a sign she understood.
Behind the 1st Empress stands the Rand Marquis House.
The Rand Marquis House had always had few hands. They had only two children—a daughter who was half-expected to become empress, and the eldest son who was to be heir.
The daughter suddenly died, and they hastily brought out a bastard who had been working as a maid to the Emperor, but relations between the 1st Empress and the Rand Marquis House were strained.
They merely cooperated and used each other to achieve the singular goal of making the 1st Imperial Prince emperor.
Moreover, an Emperor who brazenly favored the 1st Empress was a problem. Unless one wished to rebel, one could not defy the Emperor’s will.
The 1st Empress had not yet moved to openly antagonize the Castrain Ducal House.
She was simply testing the waters, gauging whether this large prize was worth antagonizing—yes, using Titania, the princess she thought she had in hand, as bait.
But if my relationship with the Castrain Ducal House was smoothly restored following this incident…?
“She’ll use me as bait to control you and the Castrain Ducal House.”
“Even so, I can pers….”
Bibi’s confident words trailed off.

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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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