Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 31

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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 31

“A caution that did not fade even when a young and ignorant fiancée of the Imperial Family ranted and tested my patience—how could it melt away like spring snow at a single, chance kindness? If later you say I did this intentionally to extract the Castrain Ducal House’s secrets, what then?”
“You are not that sort of person….”
“Am I not? What makes you so sure?”
I tilted the corners of my mouth upward and smiled.
A smile young Titania had practiced countless times before a mirror. An aristocratic smile, half-lidded eyes and curved lips.
The expression was radiant and vivid, beautiful—but it was clear enough that I was not smiling from the heart.
“For the kindness conveyed through the Castrain Ducal House in this matter, I offer my sincere gratitude. Thanks to you, I have been able to lodge at the Empress Palace without hardship and avoid entanglement in certain… uncomfortable affairs.”
“…Your Highness. I….”
Raymond, unusually, spoke with a hint of agitation. But I did not stop.
“So I would ask that the Castrain Ducal House refrain from showing me such excessive kindness henceforth. It would only become a burden to me.”
……
I watched his lips press shut in clear distaste, then shrugged. I knew he would react that way.
“Very well then. Shall we settle this matter cleanly as a debt instead?”
“A debt?”
“In the future, whatever I request of you—two things, without exception, you will grant me. In return, I will not ask for anything immoral: nothing that brings direct harm to the Ducal House, nor anything that would incite such circumstances or compel you to commit wrongs.”
“Is such a trifle sufficient?”
“To be able to demand two favors of the great Castrain Ducal House itself? Is that not more than enough?”
I laughed brazenly. Raymond’s gaze slipped away. Neither Bibi nor Raymond looked pleased. Even knowing this, I did not lower the mask-like smile. Petty, I knew—and yet I held it fast.
There was no need to resent Raymond.
No need to reproach him for not giving his genuine heart to an engaged fiancée thrust upon him by circumstance. Everyone has something to protect, something precious to them.
It was simply that Titania, by misfortune, had no one in the world who held her dear.
I had saved Bibi’s life, and everyone came rushing, making such a fuss, offering thanks and pressing gifts upon me. I envied it so much it brought tears to my eyes.
It was true that the Prince and Empress had shown some interest of late, but it amounted to little more than that.
That I, yes—the memories of my past life awakening now was a mercy.
Titania had no one, but I had parents who loved me. That memory alone would sustain me.
You taught me not to shift blame to others or harbor resentment in unfair circumstances, but surely you will forgive me this much.
—Don’t you want to be loved?
Something rose suddenly from within my heart and asked. It was the voice that had rebuked me even when I went to save Bibi.
—If you marry him this way and cling to him, wouldn’t he cling to you in return?
I answered myself silently.
I don’t want affection that isn’t genuine.
I hate pity. I hate compassion.
There’s no need to debase myself that far.
The thought crystallized for just an instant.
The original Titania would surely have given Bibi that medicine even if it meant Bibi would fade, knowing she herself would never be loved in her place.
Because watching Bibi loved so deeply hurt so much.
Because she envied how many people would do anything for Bibi, how their affection overflowed so abundantly.
“So, I ask that you cease all interference in me under the pretext of being my benefactor.”
I chose to laugh.
Those with nothing must at least carry their pride.

* * *

In the carriage bound for the Castrain Ducal Estate, Bibi gazed fixedly at Raymond, whose spirits were visibly dampened—a rare sight.
“Big brother.”
……
“You know, Bibi hasn’t known Titania long, so I don’t know the nature of your relationship with her. Raymond and Titania—”
But Bibi the Returner did know.
She knew well. So in this life, she had even attempted to orchestrate a safe dissolution of the engagement between Raymond and Titania.
Bibi studied the complicated expression on Raymond’s face and gathered her thoughts.
It was known among society that Elaine, the Empress, suffered from an incurable disease.
For now, the disease name itself had not been properly identified. In the distant future, when similar cases began appearing among other patients, someone would delve into old texts and reveal that this was the “Aerlene Disease”—but that knowledge was not yet known.
One of the medicines tested by the mage who had conducted cruel experiments on Bibi turned out to be the Treatment Medicine for this very illness.
The Aerlene Flower Root was an ingredient in the Treatment Medicine, which is why the disease bore that name. The Aerlene Flower Root was extraordinarily precious and rare—a wild plant that bloomed only occasionally on the Seaside Cliffs.
Once someone contracted the Aerlene Disease, their body weight plummeted rapidly and all strength drained away. The digestive organs weakened continuously, making it impossible to properly digest anything consumed.
Finally, the respiratory system too deteriorated gradually, until the sufferer gasped for breath and died. With no discernible cause, only symptoms appearing slowly, it was classified as an incurable disease.
But what if, in fact, they had been poisoned?
Not afflicted with illness at all?
‘…The original Rasper also came down with the Aerlene Disease, if I recall.’
Bibi bit her lip.
Most people who contracted the Aerlene Disease were ordinary civilians who did not train in swordsmanship. People who spent most of their time indoors, whose bodies had not been hardened through conditioning. The majority were those whom others constantly told were of delicate constitution.
So in the beginning, everyone dismissed it as a common cold or fatigue, and even as the illness progressed slowly, they could not begin to guess at its name or cause, and fell into despair.
Later, people came to suspect that perhaps it was not a disease from an unknown source, but rather something arising from an imbalance in the body’s vital force.
The reason the mage had administered medicine to Bibi was because Rasper had contracted the illness at that time.
Rasper, the youngest of the three Castrain siblings, was the only one who did not train in swordsmanship.
He had remained in the Family Territory, continuing his scholarly pursuits rather than coming to the Capital. And his health was not particularly robust compared to his brothers. That was all the information known at the time.
Even when the Ducal House began urgently searching for medicine after he fell ill, no further details emerged.
‘…What if the Aerlene Disease is not actually incurable, but rather the symptoms of a unique poison?’
It was only after Elaine, the Empress, finally died that cases of the disease began to multiply. Because it had become famous through Elaine’s death, some people took to calling it the Beauty’s Tragic Fate Disease.
Looking back now, that too seemed suspicious.
The mage’s attitude in testing the Treatment Medicine—containing Aerlene Flower—on Bibi, without even understanding the true cause of the illness….
The easiest way to learn the details would be to make contact with Elaine, the Empress herself.
If it was not the Empress or Cleo who administered the poison, but Elaine who voluntarily consumed it of her own will….
‘But then, but then….’
Bibi recalled Titania’s face, as she had stood aloof with a smile, walls raised between them.
Before sensing her own death, she had smiled with that somewhat weary expression of one who had abandoned everything.
Just as Bibi had undergone regression, perhaps Titania too had changed in some way this time around.
Perhaps that was why she showed such a different attitude toward Raymond, whom she had once clung to so desperately. Perhaps she had tried to save Bibi. But still….
‘I can’t bring myself to ask….’
Bibi bit the edge of her lip.
Bibi had the Castrain Ducal House.
She had people who stood behind her, encouraging her to do whatever she wished. So Titania had surely cut things short, declaring to Bibi: ‘Let us be closer than strangers, but more distant than family.’
Let the Castrain Ducal House, let family, come first.
You must not grow distant from those precious to you because of me. There is no need to choose.
Would it be hypocrisy if Titania truly expressed concern for me?
Would it appear as charity from one who has much to give?
Bibi wrestled with the question. But she could find no answer.
“Brother, what is your relationship with her?”
“……My fiancée.”
Yet the voice answering was unsteady. Yes—he must have felt it himself.
The attitude Titania had shown today was decidedly not how one addresses a fiancée. Nor was it how one addresses someone once loved.
Rather, if anything was certain, it was this:
It was precisely the attitude Raymond himself had shown toward Titania all along.
We do not deny the legal fact of our betrothal. But that is all.
We are strangers bound by law, who do not expect to trust or cherish or love one another. Whether we will even proceed to marriage remains unclear….
“I know all there is to know. The household of the Castrain Ducal Estate knows it all. Some even suspected it was all an act—though you certainly gave them a terrifying display of anger and then disappeared.”
Bibi paused a moment, recalling the past.

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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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