Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 3
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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 3
Question: One day, you wake up from a coma and realize that you are a villainous supporting character in a book you read in your past life. Choose the action you should take.
Answer: Before I even had a chance to snap out of it and gather my thoughts, I was dragged in to put on makeup because my fiancé was coming?
Titania Sol Kite Hamastion, the only princess of the Hamastion Empire, fell from the second-floor balcony of her palace three days ago and lapsed into a coma.
And she only regained consciousness today. With the memories of her past life completely awakened.
If I were to describe my current feelings, they would be as follows: I woke up after almost dying, and it truly feels like death.
‘Wow, this is seriously driving me crazy.’
I took a deep breath and looked into the mirror before me. It was far more disastrous than I had anticipated. No matter how I looked at it, I was a patient who had just gotten out of bed.
A pale, sickly face and hollow cheeks. Sunken eyes. Splints attached to limbs as thin as firewood… A newborn fawn would be healthier than me.
Dazedly, I raised my left arm. Splints were applied and bandages were wrapped tightly around it in this hot summer weather, making it suffocating just to look at.
The moment I gently brushed my forehead with my intact right hand, I felt a stinging pain. It was obvious that my forehead was in a similar state to my arm.
‘They’re telling me to put on makeup and greet my fiancé even after seeing me in this state? Seriously?’
Right, I know very well that Titania’s significance in the Imperial Family is nothing more than being the ‘fiancée of the Castrain family.’
Every single staff member in the Rose Palace is a spy sent by someone. I also know that no one actually worries about Titania.
But this is just absurd. Are they out of their minds? Why would someone with a hurt face put on makeup!
“There is no need to worry, Your Highness. You look absolutely lovely!”
Sara, the maid in charge of makeup, spouted total nonsense without even blinking an eye.
Instead of answering, I narrowed my eyes.
Looking at the bandages and gauze wrapped all over my body, another maid, who was glancing at me to gauge my mood, cautiously opened her mouth.
Was her name Mary? She was the maid who primarily took care of my hair.
“Shall we call a priest?”
As if thinking it was a grand idea, Sara chimed in.
“If we request it of Her Highness Elaine, you won’t have to show an embarrassing appearance before the Young Duke of Castrain.”
Oh, look at them go.
When a person was rolling around in this sweltering summer heat to the point of getting heat rashes from bandages, they didn’t even mention the letter ‘P’ of a priest, but the moment they hear Raymond is coming, they’re going to fetch a priest right away?
Their intentions were far too transparent. They just didn’t want the Castrain Ducal House to catch wind of the fact that Princess Titania was being neglected at all.
It wasn’t because they cared about Titania; they just didn’t want to give them an excuse to find fault.
Moreover, not even the First Imperial Consort, but the Second Imperial Consort? I subtly clenched my teeth.
You people are truly cruel to Titania.
It was a well-known fact that Imperial Consort Elaine never took Titania’s side. If they were to call a priest, she would reply along the lines of, ‘Call one yourselves, I don’t care.’
Then the young Titania would have been hurt all over again.
I flicked my eyes over to Natalie. She was the head maid who acted as the person in total charge of the Rose Palace, and her demeanor was completely detached.
That was why the previous Titania had regarded her as an adult she could trust and follow, but…
“If you command it, I will dispatch someone immediately.”
That very Natalie, speaking dryly as if it weren’t her own opinion, is a spy for the First Imperial Consort.
They would go through the motions of sending someone. If the Second Imperial Consort refused to send a priest, they would suggest that since the First Imperial Consort is ‘merciful,’ requesting it of her would allow her to show a perfectly fine appearance to the Young Duke…
That’s how she would persuade her.
Titania, rejected by her biological mother, would have easily swayed under the influence of Natalie, believing that only the First Imperial Consort actually cared about her affairs.
Without ever realizing that everyone had played her for a fool by hiding the fact that a princess could call a priest on her own accord in the first place.
I simply put on a bright, empty-headed smile like a clueless princess.
Everyone was waiting for my answer. Expecting me to quickly cling to my biological mother, get rejected, and then barely scrape by with the help of Consort Cleo to call a priest and heal this battered body.
Those eyes, completely devoid of any doubt.
Haha, did you really think I would do what you want?
“I heard Raymond goes out to that front line every winter. If so, he must see a lot of hurt and sick people, right?”
The maids answered meekly.
“Yes, that would be the case.”
“But, it’ll be his first time seeing someone who is this pretty even while sick. Don’t you think?”
The maids’ pupils dilated. Yeah, even I thought that was absolute garbage.
Princess Titania was a beauty, but after being unable to wash properly and turning into a turtle-like figure wrapped in bandages and gauze here and there, she wasn’t the kind of beauty that would immediately catch anyone’s eye.
Fluttering my white, loose one-piece pajama dress, I said refreshingly.
“So, I’m going just like this!”
“Y-Your Imperial Highness.”
Mary’s voice shook. The eyes of Head Maid Natalie, who had maintained a blank expression, also wavered faintly.
“Why?”
I tilted my head. My hair, which would normally shine brilliantly like sunlight reflecting off a crystal glass, hung down limply, looking completely parched.
“You said Raymond wouldn’t dislike it because I’m pretty no matter what I do.”
“…….”
Taste at least a little bit of the karmic retribution from the nonsense you’ve been brainwashing Titania with all this time.
The young Titania was truly the ultimate nightmare of a customer. Not only had she not received a proper education and lacked an adult to set her straight, but even the servants by her side were all cut from this exact cloth.
Recalling that fact, I beamed.
From now on, I am a young, unreasonable menace who can’t be reasoned with. I’m young, and I’m even royalty. The only menace who could beat me is that bastard, the First Prince!
Sara hurriedly intervened.
“Th-that may be true, Your Imperial Highness. But didn’t you always say you wanted to show a presence that wouldn’t bring you shame?”
“Are you saying my appearance is shameful?”
When I asked with my eyes narrowed into triangles, Sara realized her mistake and shut her mouth.
They had, at the very least, carved the words ‘you’re pretty’ into the princess’s eardrums. It happened to be true, too.
They wanted her to be satisfied with just being pretty, not read a single extra book, realize her situation and place, and not talk crazy to the Young Duke.
“Or, are you saying that Raymond doesn’t like me?!”
At this point, I shrieked as if a taboo scale had been stepped on.
By now, Natalie gave up and gestured to Mary. While cursing me out with her eyes, Mary approached me with a forced smile plastered on her lips and began to fix my hair.
In truth, there wasn’t much time left. They must have already stationed a priest at the First Imperial Consort’s Palace. After pretending to send someone to the Second Imperial Consort’s Palace, they probably intended to say, ‘Your biological mother refused, but the merciful First Imperial Consort sent a priest instead!’
It seemed like that was their plan…
But what good does that do now? The princess says she doesn’t need a priest. Sara barely managed to compose her voice.
“Oh dear, hoho… My, Your Highness, really. No, it’s not that! He will surely love seeing such an unpretentious side of you as well. I only said that out of regret because you are so beautiful even with just a little bit of grooming.”
She’s probably saying that because if an ill-mannered brat who at least had good looks turns into an ill-mannered brat who looks like a mess, she’ll definitely get dumped by Raymond.
But well, that’s fine. It’s perfectly fine to get dumped now. No, actually, I’d be grateful if he dumped me.
While receiving the bare minimum of grooming that the maids were reluctantly giving me, I made a firm resolve in my heart.
‘Annulment! Absolutely, an annulment!’
The goal is an annulment.
The previous Titania was downright pathetic.
Where on earth did she even get it? She tried to secretly feed him some love potion or whatever by mixing her own blood and hair into it.
Just hearing a rumor that he met a young lady from another noble family would send her flying into a murderous rage, vowing to kill that wench.
She sent countless letters, and when they actually met, she would throw massive tantrums, raging about why he was treating her so coldly.
Stalking his every move, obsessing over him, and combining that with all sorts of other unspeakable acts…
She was a textbook stalker menace.
When I read a couple of lines about it in a book, I didn’t think much of it, but now that it’s become my own reality, I feel like dying of embarrassment.
‘…If it were me, I would have just asked for an annulment, Imperial Family or not.’
With a devastated heart as I reminisced about my dark past, I wrapped a baggy shawl over my loose pajamas that could at least conceal them—deliberately choosing something like a blanket despite the maids’ desperate attempts to stop me—.
I took my steps confidently.
“Young Duke Raymond of Castrain has arrived.”
And I flashed a bright smile.
“Welcome, Young Duke Raymond.”
To my fiancé, who had been walking toward me with a perfect posture as if carved from stone without a single change in expression…
“…….”
…before faltering and stopping dead in his tracks, as if he had just witnessed something completely impossible.
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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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