Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 36

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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 36

“If you presume to interfere, wielding nothing but the meager justification of gratitude—as though you’ve become the ‘master’ of House Castrain rather than merely a ‘guest’—I cannot say what might come of it.”
“I gave my oath to protect Her Highness the Princess.”
“Even if I became an enemy of House Castrain?”
“That could never—”
“Why not? I am the daughter of His Majesty.”
Titania lifted only the corners of her mouth, faintly.
“It’s a mercy you haven’t spouted that absurd lie—that I matter more than House Castrain.”
“…Your Highness.”
“You needn’t pretend to care for me.”
“Your Highness, I—”
“The moment I mentioned the Gloriana Mantle, you drew a sword to my throat. That wasn’t so long ago, was it?”
Raymond understood then.
That day—the day he had felt the depth of Titania’s transformation more keenly than anyone. Even when Raymond had drawn his sword, she had not flinched.
As though, for the sake of the Castrain Ducal House, she would have gladly died.
“For Bibi’s sake, I’ve made some concessions, haven’t I? But that’s beside the point. Let’s keep things simple. Don’t speak such nonsense about giving me the position of next mistress of the house.”
“Is it not the position you desired?”
Ah, there it was. At last, Raymond—who had failed to properly question the striking change in Titania’s demeanor—asked the question he’d been holding back. At first, the change itself had seemed strange yet not entirely unwelcome, and afterward, because he himself had deceived her without offering his true heart, he could not bring himself to ask if he was the one being played for a fool. And then…
“If I say I want it, you would give it to me?”
Her voice was even. Raymond simply swallowed a hollow breath. It was a simple question, yet something in it hollowed him out.
“…Yes.”
“Don’t.”
Titania laughed lightly.
Like a petal born from the corpse of a girl who had yearned for Raymond’s side as for life itself. Like a seed that scatters when the wind blows. Infinitely light.
“Yes. The Imperial Family’s betrothed—one who could even die for Bibi. If I thought of it that way, it wouldn’t be bad for House Castrain, would it? Hmm, I’d never considered it in this light before…”
Titania murmured softly, lost in thought.
“But it won’t do.”
“We are officially engaged.”
“Find someone you love and marry them.”
“…What?”
At those words alone, Raymond could only be astonished.
“You love Bibi, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“How would you feel if Bibi were forced into a political marriage with someone she doesn’t care for—a mere calculation of profit and loss, mechanical and hollow?”
“Our house need not conscript Bibi into such an arrangement—”
“A political marriage is sufficient with you as the Young Duke, isn’t it? Yes, that’s enough. Your words have been going in circles from the start. Let me be clear here and now: Young Duke, I intend to break off our engagement.”
This time, Raymond’s astonishment was genuine.
“…What?”
“Since I intend to break it off, I’m telling you here and now that we won’t marry. The situation doesn’t permit an immediate annulment, and I simply hadn’t mentioned it to avoid any misunderstanding.”
Titania spoke as though she had been thinking of this all along, her manner unflinching.
“……”
“I understand the Duke’s intention as well, in delaying the marriage after I came of age?”
“What intention do you mean?”
“Endure it for now, and if you wish it, I will break the engagement no matter the cost.”
“……”
Strangely, he found himself resistant to her words. He wanted to deny them, to explain. Yet Raymond could not bring himself to refute them. He could only bite the edge of his lip and manage a barely audible response.
“I cannot deny it. But—!”
“The Duke cares for you in his own way. It means you needn’t sacrifice yourself unconditionally for the house.”
Her voice was dry, as though the matter were entirely unrelated to her.
“Why, then, do you go so far? That is your question, it seems…”
Titania blinked, as though weary.
“I have lived without owing the Empress a debt. I believe I owe nothing to anyone in the Imperial Family. To House Castrain, my life has been shameful, perhaps, but…”
Her pale face, more like porcelain than flesh. Below her hollow cheeks, her lashes cast shadows like fine brushstrokes.
“So, you see, merely from the smallest flicker of pity. Just compassion. The thought that I could help to this degree. Because someone reached out a hand in that moment—I cannot bear it. Truly, I cannot. I cannot bear someone losing even a hair’s breadth for my sake. I cannot bear the thought that having helped that foolish, ignorant girl of a princess, I would then think of the price that should be paid. I cannot bear it.”
“……”
“You cannot understand, Young Duke.”
A smile sharp and precarious as walking the edge of a blade.
A child who never knew love, forced to listen—jaw clenched—as peers boast of their parents’ affection.
When she stumbles and falls, and someone extends a hand, she takes it and rises, but will not shed a single tear.
Rather, she will grit her teeth and smile: “Thank you for your kindness. Thank you.” She will never weep and cry, “It hurts, I’m suffering, please help me,” never grip that hand and hang from it in desperation.
She will not beg for affection, sympathy, or pity. She will not allow others to see her misery and shake their heads in contempt.
To see the one who reached out regret it—that is worse than death itself.
“I too possess pride.”
Looking upon that face, Raymond understood.
Titania Sol Kite Hamastion would never, under any circumstance, beg Raymond for his affection.
She would never again lay bare her heart’s deepest truths and thrash about as she once had done.
Should she ever know that her love becomes a burden to someone, she would sooner strangle herself and choose death locked in a coffin—such was the desperate, resolute gleam in her eyes.

* * *

“As you anticipated, the Curse Evidence was recovered from the vicinity of the Rose Palace garden.”
Everything proceeded smoothly. Cleo, the First Empress, thanked the captain of the First Guard Detail as she gracefully lowered her head before the black object displayed in a rectangular box.
Everything unfolded as expected.
“When does the High Priest arrive, Natalie?”
“He is on his way now, Your Majesty.”
“Hmph. Leisurely in a situation like this. Well, no harm in it.”
Cleo was in excellent spirits.
This matter had been particularly rushed. She had pushed hard. Obtaining such a substantial Curse Evidence imbued with Darkness Power in less than half a day was no simple feat. Smuggling it into the palace and secretly burying it near the Rose Palace in the dead of night was nothing, of course.
Well, she had already sketched out a similar scheme beforehand. Thus, the moment she heard talk of a strange sword at the Rose Palace, the thought to connect it with a curse had come to her swiftly.
She had not anticipated that the sword she gifted would become a problem, but what did it matter? Titania would never be able to claim that Cleo had given her the sword.
She watched as the apprentice priest who regularly attended to Cleo’s complexion and beauty, along with Natalie, excavated the evidence in question from the Rose Palace gardens.
The Empress checked her appearance once more. Rather than the revealing garments she usually favored, she had dressed in relatively modest navy attire. The Ocean of Stars that she typically wore in her hair was removed, replaced instead with a simple sapphire pin.
Today, she had to play the role of one stricken with grief—a beloved stepdaughter whom she held as dear as her own daughter had been cursed.
Soon, High Priest Marzid would arrive. Then she would greet him and lead him into the Empress Palace.
“Hmph, as if those fools think they alone can summon the High Priest? Three days of fever, unable to wake—and they claim they’ve called the High Priest? How laughable!”
Cleo was already predicting that Princess Titania must have awakened.
The claim that she had not yet woken was surely a lie.
Whether the incident was a staged farce or not remained unclear—though she had arranged for an investigation, the Castrain Ducal House had handled matters so thoroughly that nothing could be extracted—still, she needed to learn the current state of that young thing locked away in the Empress Palace.
Who could have foreseen that the servants she’d sent as mere probes would be handled in such a way?
Observing that clever maneuver, Cleo surmised that Titania was likely perfectly alive.
But even that was a move possible only because those fools believed they alone possessed the High Priest.
There were five High Priests in total. Two of them were aged and half-retired. The younger generation numbered only three. Among them, Illian and Marzid were renowned.
The remaining one had become a High Priest at a young age, but afterward threw himself into his studies and no longer engaged in external affairs, or so it was said.
Thus, the important ones were Illian and Marzid—these two.
High Priest Illian was a representative of the common faction, advocating that healing sanctuaries through Holy Power should be opened to those of all stations, not only the nobility.
High Priest Marzid was a renowned dignitary born into a storied noble house, and he argued that Holy Power—the reward given by God for the noble deeds of noble humans—should be granted only to the deserving, that is, to the noble.
Led by these two factions, a power struggle was in full fervor within the Temple.

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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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