Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 32

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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 32

The terms of the contract that Raymond and Titania had arranged were known to only a select few within the Castrain Duchy Estate.
So the lower servants and attendants, oblivious to Titania’s transformation or the new arrangements made with the ducal house, merely gathered in the main corridor and whispered as they watched the procession of supplies being sent to Titania, who had collapsed after an accident at the Imperial Palace.
‘That damned princess is using our youngest lady this time, isn’t she?’
‘Could be. That intel sure came fast.’
‘She didn’t even die, right? So why would the Young Duke go to these lengths? After what that princess did to Raymond all this time….’
‘Maybe her not waking up is a lie too. How many worthless lies has she told? Always saying she was sick whenever she got the chance….’
Watching the servants whisper freely as they peered out the corridor windows, Bibi was contemplating how best to deal with them.
It had been good enough to purge the insider who’d been embezzling funds and conduct a thorough overhaul.
But how was she to have known that the hired hands she’d rushed to recruit in the shortage of staff would gossip about this affair so recklessly?
Just as she was beginning to consider stepping in, a cold voice shattered the silence of the corridor.
‘I didn’t realize there were so many underlings willing to belittle the Castrain Ducal House.’
Those gathered in one spot startled and hastily offered explanations.
‘Young Duke!’
‘We were merely speaking out of concern for you, sir.’
‘Yes, that vicious woman—if by chance this time….’
‘Who sets that standard?’
‘…Pardon?’
‘Who decides what is vicious in one eye and virtuous in another? Whatever flaws her past may hold, she is the Young Duke of Castrain’s betrothed and the benefactor of the Young Lady. That so many of this household would reduce the entire bloodline of the Castrain family to helpless fools played by conspiracy—truly remarkable.’
‘Young Duke, forgive us!’
‘We shall never speak so carelessly again!’
Bibi’s eyes widened in surprise.
Well, if her brother hadn’t stepped in, Bibi herself had been about to do so….
To the butler who came running late, Raymond spoke in an extraordinarily cold voice.
‘Send them all to the Mana Stone Mines.’
‘Young Duke!’
‘If you thought a sin committed by the tongue would go unpunished, you are mistaken. Before I come to regret the mercy I have shown, close your mouths.’
Yes, Bibi hadn’t missed the way Raymond’s eyes had briefly lingered on his sword hilt with something like regret at that moment.
In truth, Raymond had paused there, genuinely considering whether to strike them down right then and there.
The Castrain Ducal House owned two main excavation sites in its Mana Stone Mines.
One employed ordinary laborers and prioritized safety; the other was treacherous and harsh, where criminals were typically sent.
In days past, it might have ended in mere dismissal or salary docking. In fact, no action would have been taken at all until the head steward or housekeeper had disciplined them for carelessly speaking of their masters’ affairs.
Raymond was certainly the future head of the Castrain Ducal House and had always conducted himself accordingly. Yet he had never before sent servants to the criminal labor camps for a single misstep….
They had essentially cast doubt on the very judgment of the Castrain family itself. It was tantamount to insulting the entire house by suggesting it was being toyed with by Titania’s conspiracy.
And yet….
‘If he thinks speaking thoughtlessly is a sin, then my scrupulously fair older brother surely cannot escape guilt either.’
Bibi had heard of Princess Titania’s past actions. She’d heard the basics before heading to the Imperial Palace.
Especially all the things she’d done to Raymond. The sort of things that would sicken anyone merely hearing them. The fact that Raymond endured them without even a blink.
At present, Raymond clearly harbored affection for Titania.
Though he was rationalizing it as only natural gratitude toward the Castrain family’s benefactor, there was a difference between expressing public thanks and approaching someone privately.
Lisianthus, who never used to linger near the Imperial Palace, now seized every opportunity to enter it after Titania collapsed in the Imperial Consort’s Palace.
Even when Raymond was frantically busy, the moment Lisianthus entered the palace, he’d find him with uncanny precision and retrieve him under the thinnest of pretexts.
To Bibi, it was utterly absurd.
‘Excessive excitement is bad for a patient.’
‘Come on, brother! Brother! Why are you like this! I really do want to pay my respects!’
‘Do you truly think your visit will help her recovery? Even during that Rose Palace arson incident before, you said the ailing princess was….’
‘No, wait, I told you about that! That she staged it! Seriously, that girl’s got some fire in her. But then again, thinking about it, the way she was treated in the palace…. No, never mind….’
‘Treated in the palace?’
‘No, I mean. Like, does she get proper treatment? She should, right…? But then she mentioned something about embezzlement or whatever, sounded fishy.’
‘…Embezzlement, you said?’
‘Uh…. Yeah, something about cursing that Finance Ministry official who pocketed funds. But honestly, looking at her clothes and all, you’d think she lived in total luxury. Doesn’t she? Or is it a bigger budget so they could just steal more?’
‘…….’
Raymond fell silent for a moment, then pressed Lisianthus relentlessly about everything he’d discussed with Titania during that Rose Palace arson incident.
Lisianthus answered dutifully, though something seemed to awaken an instinctive doubt in him.
‘…I really thought she lived well.’
‘…….’
‘Damn it, now I’m second-guessing. Was she really unable to feel safe even in her own home?’
Raymond listened to Lisianthus in silence, but Bibi, standing just outside the corridor, could see it clearly.
Raymond’s face had gone considerably paler than usual.
So she deliberately brought up marriage, hoping to provoke him into at least voicing the emotions churning inside him, somehow resolving them.
Unlike the flustered Titania, Raymond pursued the marriage with remarkable composure, yet almost blindly.
From that alone, Bibi felt she understood the depth of Raymond’s sincerity all too acutely….
‘So stop interfering with me under the guise of owing me a debt.’
She had rejected him utterly.
“I don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“The reason for my actions.”
Raymond, unlike his usual self, kept his gaze fixed on the floor of the carriage. He couldn’t even look at Bibi. His voice was very low.
“…Princess Titania’s words are correct. If you wish to convert kindness into debt, that is of no consequence either. Our relationship isn’t poor, and…. The engagement was only nominal to begin with….”
As if someone were jabbing him repeatedly in the chest, Raymond’s face twisted in pain.
“Besides, I was far too late, truly….”
The moment the princess had ceased breathing in his arms—whenever Raymond thought of it, his own breath seemed to stop.
He had witnessed the final moments of many wounded. He had brought ease to many mortally injured.
But to hold something so fragile that holding it tightly could shatter it, and to feel its breath fade to nothing in his embrace—that was something he had never known before.
When he saw those lips curve upward with a faint smile as though reassuring him, as though accepting that things had turned out well enough this time, his heart felt torn asunder.
It was a sensation he had never experienced.
The moment breath vanished, then returned to life.
Instinctively, he understood.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
That he had arrived too late.
That by this single fact, he would be forever a debtor before this person.
“…Because I nearly failed to save her.”
So it made sense to harbor resentment and keep distance, he told himself. Even as he thought this, his golden eyes swayed helplessly like a small boat caught in a gale.
“So basically, you’re guilt-ridden, that’s the whole story, right?”
“…….”
Watching the silent Raymond, Bibi sighed and spoke. Sometimes the peripheral observer sees more clearly than the person at the center. Raymond could not refute the claim that guilt was driving him, but Bibi knew better. Raymond was not foolish enough to rush into marriage based merely on guilt.
“Ugh, fine, whatever. Lisianthus seems absolutely thrilled about all this. If you two just split the enthusiasm between you, it’d be perfect.”
“…What did Lisianthus say to you directly?”
Whether it was guilt, responsibility, or regret for the past, suddenly the elder brother was being shaken to his core by Titania and could only dig himself deeper into the earth.
The younger brother, who’d gone to the palace, set a fire with her and left, only to return and set his own heart ablaze, now endlessly talking about Titania.
And the elder brother, acutely sensitive to the younger’s every reaction….
Bibi’s vision clouded over.
For some reason, in that moment, she just wanted to tell Titania to run away.

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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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