Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 38

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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 38

“Everything is ready.”
Raymond nodded lightly at his aide’s words.
“The trap positions?”
“Satisfactory.”
“Any movement from the Empress’s faction?”
“They don’t seem to suspect anything. I….”
“You have something to say?”
“To be honest, I don’t understand this operation.”
Cassian spoke with a troubled expression.
“May I speak plainly? I can’t fathom what Princess Titania is thinking. Even if she does owe a debt of life, I don’t understand why Miss Bibi treats her with such particular affection.”
Cassian was the only son of the current Castrain house’s right hand, the aide to Duke Ortho. The Duke had acquiesced to his aide’s request that his son bear the Duke’s middle name, ‘Cassian,’ so the loyalty of both father and son was beyond question.
“Well, the previous contract terms themselves… until now we haven’t suffered losses on our side. Even if she pulled some trick, we could respond immediately. But this operation is something else entirely! If we’re not careful, there’s a real possibility we’ll be blamed for introducing Magic Beasts into the Imperial Palace. In fact, by any objective measure, that accusation wouldn’t be wrong.”
“Do you think I haven’t considered what you’re considering?”
“Because you have, that’s why I’m saying this.”
Cassian sighed softly.
“We conducted the investigation as ordered, of course. We combed through everything you asked us to. ……It turns out her circumstances were considerably worse than we’d anticipated.”
Because her outward appearance was always convincing enough, almost no one could have predicted just how dire Titania’s situation truly was. The reality of her circumstances, properly examined, was like a rotten egg—beautiful on the outside, putrid within.
Yet what did it matter, now that her situation was becoming known?
From Cassian’s perspective, the lives of the border territories’ people—who faced Magic Beasts no matter how hard the Ducal House tried to aid them, living a life worse than death—held greater tragedy.
And it was far from a matter deserving sympathy that the members of the Ducal House sacrificed their own bodies at every crisis, washed in Magic Beast blood and spending nights in the wilderness, all to care better for those territories and their people.
“Then what of it?”
……
Regrettably, the Princess—from any perspective—would have been better off never born at all.
That she was born a daughter and the Imperial Family conceived covetous designs to manipulate the Castrain Ducal House was one such misfortune.
That Elaine, the secondary Empress, lived such a hollow life was another.
And serving Raymond as his lord, bound by betrothal against his will into these very circumstances—that was most unfortunate of all.
“Before, she threw dishes at the Rose Palace servants and caused a commotion. All this time she’s hidden behind her imperial status—tormenting and harassing the Young Duke repeatedly. Yet she remains of royal blood. She eats proper meals, lives in warmth, lives in safety.”
“So I should feel no guilt?”
“What has the Imperial Family done to the Castrain Ducal House all this while?”
Deep distrust and anger resonated beneath Cassian’s words.
“If only the current Imperial bloodline weren’t essential to the Barrier itself, I’d have begged the Duke long ago to burn down this cursed Imperial Family entirely.”
The breakwater holding back Magic Beasts.
That was the burden the current Castrain Ducal House bore.
The Mana Stone Mines were no natural formation.
They were quarried from the accumulated corpses of Magic Beasts the Castrain Ducal House had been killing throughout the Empire’s history, beginning on a certain day when the stones started appearing.
Mana Stones made the Castrain Ducal House itself prosperous, but there were insufficient resources to make all the territories’ people wealthy and safe.
The Imperial Family had abandoned its duty, treating the Castrain Ducal House’s struggle as another’s concern. Instead, they grew wary of the Castrain Ducal House, which wielded enormous military forces fighting Magic Beasts.
They could not help; they could barely restrain their urge to obstruct. Since the Castrain Ducal House, gritting its teeth, had long kept Magic Beast hordes from reaching the interior, peace was taken for granted.
Yet each year the number of Magic Beasts multiplied.
To strengthen the Barrier dividing the realms of Magic Beasts and humans, the Castrain Ducal House had tried every method imaginable.
And they realized anew—as the Barrier raised by the first Emperor, it required the blood of the imperial line.
Should there be no living member of the Imperial Family, the Barrier would naturally dissolve.
“…What if a member of the Imperial Family were to emerge, capable of aiding our plight?”
“Don’t place such faith in Princess Titania. What if all of this is merely part of some larger scheme to seat the Young Duke in the secondary position?”
Raymond laughed bitterly at those words.
“That’s one thing you needn’t worry about.”
‘Find someone you love and marry them.’
When Titania said those words while gazing at Raymond, not the slightest flicker of disturbance crossed her eyes.

* * *

People everywhere love a good story.
An entertaining one. My parents in my past life were quite fond of melodramas. I never once won the battle for the TV remote.
My stepmother and my ex-husband had actually been dating, and they adopted a child together who was later given up for adoption, and that child turned out to be my current husband’s mistress, and my current husband fathered a child with that mistress, except actually my current husband is infertile so that child is the result of the mistress secretly meeting with her real father….
When I see dramas with the same convoluted structure, I curse the implausibility while still watching them anyway.
In other words, people are drawn to a plausible narrative.
Especially in the Imperial Palace, where nothing can be done without justification and appearances.
Least of all when the Emperor himself is a shameless opportunist beneath any veneer of impartiality.
The story the Empress crafted was plausible, entertaining, and had upended the entire Palace while perfectly matching the Emperor’s tastes.
My life hanging in the balance and the Castrain Family now entangled in it—my prediction that Cleo would tread carefully proved wrong.
In any case, Cleo had long been the one who held the reins of power in the Imperial Palace, even above the Empress.
She hadn’t named the Castrain Ducal House as the source of the curse; she’d instead pinned me—lying defenseless—as the innocent victim of a curse.
Even if I told Cleo that the sword she gave me was a Cursed Sword, she’d simply dismiss me: ‘Poor dear. You barely survived, and the curse has left your mind unbalanced!’ Case closed.
She’d sent the sword through her servants, but those servants were already silenced.
Once caught in the opponent’s trap, I couldn’t afford to play by the opponent’s rules.
So I decided to rewrite the entire game.
Fragments from the book I’d borrowed from the restricted royal library—where only imperial blood could enter—proved remarkably useful. I thought that chaos would claim it, but Raymond brought it back later. With little else to do in my room, I’d read bits of it whenever I had time.
The Imperial Family had been obsessed with concealing past history, so even the Emperor himself knew little about the early Empire’s circumstances.
But I, having read the original work, knew.
Of course, I still don’t know why “The Veil of Gloria” ended up in an abandoned mine, but in any case, the Labyrinth Garden within the Palace was a remnant of the past.
My Emoticon Sword’s sub-functions were the Beast Encyclopedia and the Navigation Function.
Before I encountered Bibi, when I was killing time in the Rose Palace, I’d tested the Emoticon Sword’s functions out of curiosity, asking it about the Magic Beasts within the Palace.
And I discovered there was another place within the Imperial Palace where a Magic Beast slept, beyond the Labyrinth Garden.
I found out when I tested the Navigation Function on a whim. When I saw where it led, I nearly collapsed in shock.
Of all places—the Hall of Glory.
Apparently it was one that preferred to kill any blood relative except the current Emperor and Empress—the ones deemed appropriate for their era.
The Hall of Glory was a place no one could enter except the Emperor and Empress who had undergone the formal ceremony of succession.
Which meant if a rebellion ever threatened my life, the point was to enter the Hall, release the Magic Beast outside, and dispose of one’s siblings—the thought chilled me to the bone.
Ancestors, what on earth had you set up inside the Palace? No wonder civil war breaks out later and the Palace gets destroyed….
You who established these initial systems meant to eliminate Magic Beasts—why hide one away like this?
“How brazen. Planning to use me.”
Having learned a secret even the current Emperor and Empress didn’t know?
I had to put it to good use.
Especially one that resembled an elegant pet beast—a Magic Beast shaped like a wolf with a magnificent golden mane. Wasn’t it the perfect bait to catch some trophy-hunting fool with vanity?
I shrugged.
“I thought we were in the same boat on this matter, Your Majesty?”
The Empress’s cold gaze swept over me.
She was remarkably composed for someone who’d elegantly slipped into the Hall of Glory without her husband’s knowledge, rung the Blue Bell three times beneath the portrait of the first Emperor, and released the Magic Beast.

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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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