Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 4

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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 4

It was a story from when they were a mere five years old that Princess Titania and Young Duke Raymond had first faced each other as fiancé and fiancée.
‘Do not show your weakness.’
Those were the words Duke Castrain, who rarely set foot in the Imperial Palace, added as he personally brought his eldest son.
‘As she is a young child, things can always change, but…’
Instead of a reply, Duke Castrain looked down at his eldest son, who possessed more spirit than most adults despite his tender age.
‘The opponent is the Imperial Family, and this marriage is a match forced upon us to bind us. Just match her pace appropriately until you reach adulthood. It might be better than giving those pathetic jackals an excuse to target your flank.’
Raymond simply nodded at the words laid down by his father and the master of the house. The Imperial Family was the political enemy of the Castrain Ducal House. There was no way he did not know that.
Titania, whom he met for the first time in the Imperial Palace at five years old, was beautiful.
With her long platinum blonde hair cascading down and her bright green eyes blinking, the young girl was literally like a doll.
To the point that the moment their eyes first met, he had stopped dead in his tracks without realizing it.
She might have looked like a ridiculous mannequin because of the cumbersome accessories hanging heavily from her young neck, wrists, and head.
Yet, Titania, peeking at him with flushed cheeks, looked more like an angel wearing those things like a halo.
With blind eyes, as if looking at a god, the gaze that chased only Raymond was unfamiliar.
If only she had maintained the appearance of that first meeting, perhaps Raymond would have kept a not-so-bad image of his fiancée.
However, Princess Titania became obsessed with Raymond.
The direct bloodline of the Castrain Ducal House rarely stayed in the capital. They stayed in their northern fief for more than two-thirds of the year, only coming up to the capital for the New Year’s banquet held at the Imperial Palace and the summer social season.
Furthermore, Raymond was the next duke and had many things to do and duties to assume. Along with the secret bound to his bloodline that must never be known to outsiders.
A fiancée he would only see a few times a year in the first place, it would have been enough to treat her as such.
Yet Titania always clung to Raymond. When he showed no reaction, she became even more persistent. Nevertheless, Raymond could not show the reaction Titania wanted.
Because she always wished for something she could not hope to get from Raymond.
‘…Why don’t you like me best, Raymond?’
‘…….’
‘Why do you…’
When I… like you… the best, Raymond…
Just once, Princess Titania had broken down and cried in front of Raymond.
It must have been after he granted her the first dance of that year at the birthday banquet of the daughter of Count Orland, a faithful vassal of the Castrain Ducal House.
She, who had always dressed perfectly almost out of spite and sat smiling brightly like a doll, had thrown a fit before vomiting out words while sobbing like a child, not caring whether her makeup melted or not.
He was rather used to her throwing fits. He was also used to her grinding her teeth, saying she would kill that damn bitch. And her throwing a temper, telling him to act like a fiancé if he was one.
However, crying like this as if she had let go of everything was unfamiliar.
Raymond remained silent, unable to even reach out his hand.
The answer was simple. Raymond was the next head of the Castrain Ducal House. The Duke was robust, but he had already passed his peak of power and was declining, and his younger siblings were still immature.
The reason Raymond endured his fiancée’s outrages was also because this engagement was a contract between the Imperial Family and the Ducal House.
Since the emotions between the two were not what mattered.
Raymond could absolutely never like Titania ‘the best’. Because he bore the weight of his castle, his family, the safety of his fief’s people, and the northern front lines.
Therefore, he could neither comfort the crying Titania nor tell a lie. The girl who had smiled brightly as if holding a bouquet when he first saw her gradually saw her eyes stained with malice.
She would even commit blatant disregard or tyranny, as if just to see Raymond flustered or angry.
Raymond grew used to such things. He thought it was rather better that way.
“It must be a lie anyway.”
Raymond moved his feet, ignoring the grumbling of his adjutant, Cassian.
“Is the body of royalty made of sugar candy or something? How on earth do you fall to end up in a coma from a mere second-floor balcony?”
“If it were a civilian, falling headfirst would be more than enough to cause that.”
“It’s the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Palace! No doubt she made a huge fuss just to summon Young Duke Raymond. Is a lie like that a one-day thing?”
Raymond remained silent at Cassian’s words but agreed in his heart.
The Princess had almost no one on her side within the Imperial Palace. She was easily at the age to make her debut in society if she wanted to, but due to her neglected situation, she could not even debut.
Thanks to that, even though her fiancé, Raymond, traveled around high society and attended other people’s parties, the Princess could do nothing but summon Raymond to her palace and throw fits.
This time would be similar. The claim that she was hurt would be an excuse, and she would come out perfectly dressed, throwing fits and complaining in front of a tea set.
And to hold onto Raymond for even a little longer…
“Welcome, Young Duke Raymond.”
…He expected her to pull all kinds of tricks, but?
Raymond stopped his steps instantaneously. He had no choice but to do so. Cassian, who had been following right behind him while complaining, let out a groan of shock.
Princess Titania welcomed Raymond with a bright smile. No, there was no problem with that fact itself.
If there was a problem…
It was Princess Titania’s appearance.
Whether the words that she had hovered in a coma from being injured were not a lie, the bandages and splints wrapped around her head, neck, slender wrists, and legs were vivid. She had even applied gauze to her cheek.
Her hair, which had always sparkled like sunlight, was crumbly and loosely unkempt, and the clothes she was wearing…
My goodness. She was wrapped in a baggy white dress that one wouldn’t even show among family members, with a shawl like a potato sack wound around her.
Just looking at her hollow cheeks and pale skin, which were still completely showing signs of illness, it did look true that she had almost died.
The surprising thing was that she showed that appearance completely to Raymond.
Titania took great pride in her beauty. In fact, she might have thought that her beauty was the only thing she could trust.
The greatest beauty in the Empire, that was her pride. She never received Raymond unless she was perfectly adorned. Raymond also acknowledged her pure appearance itself.
“…I heard your body was very unwell. Please forgive me for only visiting you now.”
“It is an embarrassing wound to show in front of Young Duke Raymond.”
Instead of rebuking him by saying ‘why did you only come now’ or ‘were you only going to come if your fiancée died’, or complaining by saying ‘it was so hard because it hurt’, Titania returned a clean answer and invited him to sit on a chair.
Cassian, who had been watching Titania’s behavior from the closest distance as Raymond’s assistant, had a sour look that seemed to say ‘she said she almost died, but has the Princess really gone mad’.
However, Raymond felt a strange sense of incompatibility.
“Young Duke Raymond. I have something urgent to tell you, so could you please dismiss your adjutant?”
…Since when did Titania speak in that manner?
Compelling Cassian, who was saying with his eyes ‘you absolutely cannot because I don’t know what she will do out of actual madness’, out the door, Raymond sat across from Titania alone at the table.
The Princess lifted her teacup with an incomparably elegant posture despite her messy attire, moistened her lips, and set it down. Then, flashing her sharp green eyes, she spoke.
“I propose a deal to the Young Duke.”
“…What kind of deal are you talking about?”
The more they spoke, the larger the sense of incompatibility grew.
Titania was not someone who could act so resolutely with Raymond in front of her.
She was someone who would pester him to notice her pain, feel upset about showing an embarrassing side, and if there was something she wanted, she would beg, saying ‘a fiancé should naturally do at least this much for his fiancée’.
She should have even thrown a fit, asking if he didn’t even have a single word to say that he missed her after not seeing each other for a long time.
Above all, desperate longing had always dripped from her gaze looking at Raymond.
“The fief of the Bradley Count Family… There is a closed iron mine on Mount Haylon in the northwestern part of the Whitton region. It was granted as a reward when my mother was offered to His Majesty the Emperor, but it was closed down because the iron ore was depleted. It is far from the main fief and now has no profitability, so it is almost abandoned and rarely visited. In fact, ominous rumors say a ghost appears, so most people don’t even go near it.”
Yet the current Titania merely smiled softly like an old merchant while caressing her teacup.
Even while being wrapped in bandages and gauze because her wounds were not fully healed, as if such an appearance of her own was no problem at all.
Her transparent green eyes rather looked indifferent.
“At the end of the mine shaft below, the lies asleep.”
“……!”
It was information he had never even imagined hearing in this place. Raymond’s face hardened stiffly.

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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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