Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 43

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 43

Cleo was visibly desperate to rush to Brian, but the maid at her side held her back just in time.
Watching the Emperor’s focus settle on me instead, she ground her teeth.
Oh, she’s caught on to what happened. I had to fight the urge to smile.
The Emperor spoke in confusion.
“You—you were summoned? That black…?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I sustained a mortal wound fighting a Magic Beast here in the Underground Labyrinth and fell into a coma.”
I hadn’t been lying about the battle—I’d fought fiercely—but the Emperor had his tastes, so I decided to play along. I licked my lips.
“Did it not strike Your Majesty as strange? No matter how many suspicious tales circulate, it is rare for anyone to fall from the maze garden into the Underground Labyrinth. And yet both I and the Castrain Ducal House’s adopted daughter found ourselves in precisely that circumstance!”
“Ah, yes, yes, quite so.”
The Emperor murmured agreement despite his bewildered expression. I continued with theatrical fervor, lips glistening.
“Villains targeting the Imperial Palace have laid traps here in the Underground Labyrinth and gathered Magic Beasts!”
“What, what did you say?!”
“This blade reacts when there is something corrupted nearby! So those who have wielded it naturally sensed something amiss. The Imperial Palace was saturated with evil things bent on its ruin! But Father, while my body lay in coma, the blade spoke to me.”
Who would believe a blade could speak.
So I resolved to win through blatant manipulation and fabrication.
If you’re going to call this nonsense, then you prove it by taking the blade yourself and falling into a coma!
“The blade’s power is weak, so it cannot properly communicate with those who are fully conscious. Only to me in sleep could it convey its full meaning. I was summoned to awaken and thwart the conspiracy against the Palace! I only opened my eyes this dawn. Alas, I never dreamed the situation had grown so dire!”
I wiped away tears, gripped the blade again, and silently cried out.
‘Shine!’
Whoooosh.
Holy light flooded the narrow corridor once more. Faced with undeniable evidence before his eyes, the Emperor could not say the blade was anything but sacred. He changed course.
“But then—why is Brian here in such a state…?”
“Regarding Brian, Your Majesty, I am regrettably…”
I turned my head and gave a subtle signal with my eyes. Right on cue, Ilian arrived with a grave expression and held out a small box.
“Esteemed Your Majesty, we have confirmed that Hunting Bait laced with Magic Beast lures was found on Brian’s hunting tools. Similar objects were discovered this very morning in his quarters as well.”
“What, what is the meaning of this, Ilian?”
“It is a lie, Your Majesty! Brian would never—!”
Sensing the danger, Cleo erupted in desperation. Right. While Brian had thoughtlessly absented himself to go catch that golden wolf, we had fabricated evidence.
The Castrain Ducal House had some conscience. We didn’t deploy the kind of radioactive hazard that Cleo wielded. It was merely ordinary bait—the sort used even on battlefields.
“I have been formally investigating the Curse Evidence linked to Titania since yesterday, with Your Majesty’s approval. Your Majesty! The High Priest Marjid came to us today intending to perform Purification on the curse!”
Cleo glared at Ilian and pressed on.
“Ilian, you have been stationed in the Imperial Consort’s Palace all this while, tending to Titania—or so you claimed. How is it you only now unearth evidence? The logic does not hold!”
“The Empress is correct.”
Ilian lowered his head with a sorrowful expression.
“If there was indeed something corrupted in the Rose Palace while I was supposedly caring for the patient, and yet I failed to detect it—then the title of High Priest is hollow. To correct my own shortcomings, I came to examine the Palace from dawn onward in hopes of aiding Your Majesty’s investigation in even the smallest way.”
Ilian paused slightly before continuing.
“However, I regret to inform you that the person responsible for yesterday’s ‘investigation’ was merely a novice priest who had been tending to Her Majesty’s health while coming and going. He lacks the skill to properly trace when the evidence was buried or by whom.”
Ilian’s plan to hold the Castrain Ducal House at fault for ‘insufficient ability’ in detecting the curse had backfired in precisely this manner.
Trapped in her own logic, Cleo spoke in panic.
“This, this makes no sense! What difference should it make whether a novice or a full priest performs Purification on something corrupted?!”
“I understand that the esteemed High Priest Marjid will be arriving at the Palace today. If I may be so bold, Your Majesty—why, despite knowing I lodge near the Imperial Consort’s Palace, did you request an investigation only yesterday? Why did you single out a curse affecting only the Rose Palace and summon Marjid specifically today?”
Cleo spoke desperately.
“Titania would not wake, and strange sounds came from the Rose Palace. What else was I to do?!”
“Had you invited me to purify the blade, I would have gladly examined it. Yet Your Majesty did not call upon me.”
The Emperor’s expression changed. He looked at Cleo with suspicion.
Certainly, he had suspected yesterday that Cleo had been scheming. He had even considered covering it up to some degree.
But he was not the sort of Emperor to protect or trust an Empress whose schemes unraveled before so many witnesses.
Cleo knew this better than anyone, and her face had gone ashen.
“Your Majesty, I have but one question. You claim the Curse Evidence was buried in the Rose Palace?”
“Yes, yes! Everyone saw it! The moment the blade was said to be problematic, I grew concerned about the Rose Palace!”
“That would be impossible.”
At that moment, Raymond stepped forward and spoke. Without ceremony, he seized the ‘evidence’ from Cleo’s maid and pressed it against a rat he had brought.
The moment the creature touched the black ‘evidence,’ it twisted in agony, swelled grotesquely, and shrieked—Keeeeeee!—before lunging at Raymond. He drew his blade once and struck it down, reducing it to nothing.
The small rat had ballooned to the size of a wild boar in an instant before collapsing as a corpse. All who witnessed this scene fell silent. The Emperor was particularly shocked.
“What, what is this thing?!”
Raymond explained in a measured tone.
“Had this been left buried for any length of time, the Rose Palace grounds would have become a den spawning Magic Beasts where neither human nor animal could live. As you see, any weak creature—a wild beast—need only touch it to transform into a Magic Beast. It is an evil thing. Any grass nearby would wither; any animal would become corrupted. I sensed something amiss in the Palace itself and hastened to enter court today.”
Though the Emperor knew Raymond had been coming and going from the Imperial Consort’s Palace under the pretext of visiting me, he had gone pale at the sight of a rat the size of a palm swelling to nearly the size of a young boy before charging at him.
So. He had assumed Cleo’s affair would end in mere mischief, not that it would put even himself in danger.
Raymond spoke to Cleo in a cold voice.
“Your Majesty, I would ask: what was the soil condition in the Rose Palace grounds where this object was buried?”
Cleo instinctively sensed the trap and deflected responsibility.
“The, the Rose Palace grounds were blackened and burned from the recent chaos, so the condition was too ruined to discern the soil color…! Yes, there—the Rose Palace head maid is right there.”
Natalie stepped forward and bowed before Cleo.
“Are you not the Rose Palace’s chief steward? You were responsible and participated in the curse search. Tell us—what was the soil condition?”
“As Your Majesty says, the Rose Palace has been in poor condition of late and looks very different from before. The grass is charred, and unrepaired materials are scattered everywhere…”
Raymond cut through Natalie’s words in an icy voice.
“I hear the Rose Palace has few servants and the mistress has departed, leaving it desolate. Are you truly saying this object was by chance buried underground and discovered during Your Majesty’s search?”
Had I truly been cursed and suffered successive calamities, falling into a coma, the soil of the Rose Palace grounds should already have turned black, vegetation withered beyond recovery, and the entire area transformed into a hellscape.
Had the object truly been buried deep beneath the Rose Palace for any length of time as Cleo claimed, disaster should have struck long ago.
In a place emptied of people, all manner of beasts would have roamed the Rose Palace gardens.
The deeper one dug into the situation, the worse it became for Cleo.
She could never reveal that she herself had prepared the Curse Evidence, secretly buried it, and then dug it up herself.
Cleo bit her lip hard, seething.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————