Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 49

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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 49

“So what I’m saying is, we have a common goal, so we’ve had fun with fireworks in the Imperial Palace, destroyed the Rose Palace, and all that—we’ve gotten to the point where we say harsh things to each other.”
I glanced around briefly.
We were inside the Imperial Palace, but most of those remaining to clean up this area seemed to be people from the Castrain family.
It made sense. The Royal Guards had all gone with the Emperor, and Cleo’s people had avoided this place, busy attending to Prince Brian and Cleo.
The Imperial Palace guards—originally famous for lazing about—had naturally been terrified by the Magic Beasts and eagerly fled once they saw that the Castrain family was handling the cleanup.
In other words, no one was going to interfere with whatever we did.
A man who seemed to be Lisianthus’s colleague was shaking his head, but he showed no signs of approaching us.
I sighed, then tore off a section of my skirt’s hem. Despite everything we’d been through, it was surprisingly not very dirty.
I casually pulled Lisianthus’s hand over and wrapped the fabric tightly around his palm. Treatment? This was the Castrain Ducal House, after all—they could bring a High Priest at will. A quick tourniquet would suffice.
“It’s not as though you have the right to question or interrogate me, does it, Young Duke Lisianthus?”
……
The moment Lisianthus realized my eyes had landed on the sword at his waist, his body went rigid. And with it, his hand in mine.
Like a wooden plank. Yet each time I wound the white cloth tightly, his fingertips trembled slightly.
“…Hey, you, that…”
I clicked my tongue as I watched Lisianthus hesitate, the words catching in his throat.
“I know. You and the Orland family coordinated the story about your sword.”
“…Brother made up an excuse to give me a sword, so you knew he danced with another girl? But then why didn’t you…back then…”
“I didn’t know back then.”
At my brief response, Lisianthus lost his next words. Our eyes met.
My quiet green eyes reflected in his flustered red ones, like confronting an unsolvable problem. It was a strange sight—like autumn leaves and fresh sprouts occupying the same space.
“…It was because of me that Brother did that.”
“I know.”
“You and that girl have nothing to do with each other.”
“I don’t care.”
“What?”
Lisianthus startled like a frog dropped into boiling water.
“Hey, I know full well what a mess you made back then! You don’t care? How?”
“It’s such a frequent question that I’m tired of it! But if you must know the answer—ask the tallest yew tree in the garden near the second-floor balcony of the Rose Palace. Though, well, the Rose Palace, the garden, and the trees are all demolished by now. The correct answer is: hit your head hard enough!”
“Your jokes aren’t funny… Anyway, does Brother know you’re like this?”
“Of course. Didn’t I tell him not to worry since I’m planning to annul the engagement later anyway?”
“What?! You’re going to annul it?!”
“This plan will ruin both the Imperial Family and the Ducal House if word gets out to them, so keep your mouth shut about it.”
“No, I… you…”
Lisianthus’s face shifted through several emotions in an instant, the changes so rapid it was hard to discern what he was actually feeling.
“…Really? You don’t like Brother anymore?”
I hesitated before answering.
I was gritting my teeth and showing nothing, but seeing Raymond wasn’t entirely indifferent to me.
If it weren’t for the memories of my past life surfacing and my adult self from the twenty-first century overpowering my emotionally deprived childhood self—
But that moment in the first tea room, when I felt the cold blade hanging over my throat and sensed what he truly was—
‘Just as I thought,’ I’d realized. I answered, grinding my back teeth.
“As a human to human, objectively, I think he’s a remarkable person.”
I’d hoped this would satisfy him adequately, but Lisianthus reacted as though it was absurd.
“You spent so many years moping and pining after Brother that I know every moment of it! And just last year you bought a Love Potion from some strange fortune teller, soaked it into a hundred Paper Flowers that you folded and put in a glass bottle, and sent them to Brother…”
“Because you said it didn’t suit him! Said I should know my place and disappear! I’m trying to be mature here, so don’t poke at it and just shut up!”
At my irritation, Lisianthus flinched and hunched his shoulders like a threatened turtle withdrawing into its shell.
Right. I’m tired of hearing it, tired of dredging up my past embarrassments. I should nail this down properly and be done with it.
“I! Do! Not! Like! Raymond Oberon El Castrain! Anymore! Do you understand?! Do you?! You told me to know my place, so I know my place. You told me to grow up, so I grew up. You told me to think of this as merely a contract engagement, so I do! Do you understand?!”
“U-um?”
Lisianthus gave a hesitant reply. The moment his eyes met mine—burning with frustration and fury—he flinched, averted his gaze, and then suddenly looked at the empty space behind me before letting out a sound like air deflating from a balloon.
“Princess Titania and Young Duke Raymond are politically contract-engaged! Strangers! Strangers through and through! Even if everyone in the world died and only a man and woman remained on a deserted island! They would never! Never become husband and wife!”
I was still burning with indignation as I finished speaking, when somehow everything fell silent.
About three paces away, a man with a shocked expression stared at me, his mouth hanging open.
His face was strangely familiar…
Oh, right. Cassian, was it? Raymond’s aide who followed him around like a goldfish following its bubbles. I wondered why he was here…
“I see.”
…Yes.
My spine went rigid.
Thump, thump. Footsteps sounded unusually clear. Raymond stopped between Lisianthus and me, frozen in place.
Lisianthus, looking like he’d seen a ghost, glanced back and forth between Raymond and me. Raymond’s face was the same as always.
That was what frightened me most.

Raymond’s gaze settled on Lisianthus’s and my joined hands. After binding his wound and applying pressure, I was still holding Lisianthus’s hand in mine, and he—oblivious or too foolish to pull away—was just leaving it there.
The moment Raymond’s eyes landed on us, my grip tightened reflexively.
Lisianthus let out a small sound of pain.
“Ow.”
“Oh, oh—does it hurt? I’m… I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine…”
As I fumbled with my apology, Raymond—watching Lisianthus tell me it was all right—his eyes narrowed in a peculiar way.
What was that about? While I was wondering, Raymond slowly took my hand in his gloved one.
The moment the cold leather touched my skin, my fingertips curled involuntarily.
As though soothing my stiffened hand, Raymond gently pried my fingers free from Lisianthus’s hand, one by one, and spoke quietly.
“Lisianthus.”
“…Yes, Brother.”
“You’re injured. There shouldn’t have been any unusual Magic Beasts among those you faced.”
“I made… a mistake.”
Lisianthus, unlike himself, avoided Raymond’s eyes and trailed off uncertainly.
Even though his wound was haphazardly wrapped in a torn piece of my skirt rather than a proper bandage, Raymond didn’t press further.
“Go inside and meet up with Alphonse. Don’t forget to get treatment.”
“Yeah…”
Though he answered obediently, Lisianthus kept glancing at me as though concerned.
“Your Highness.”
“…Yes, Young Duke Raymond.”
I watched him like a child caught in wrongdoing.
No matter that I’d already told him beforehand that we’d annul the engagement and each live our own lives—wasn’t it a bit much to have him hear me say such things directly in front of others?
Had I offended him?
“There’s blood on you.”
His face drew close suddenly.
His golden eyes, unreadable in their intent, shone with a mineral coldness.
I felt a cool, faint warmth—his hand brushed my cheek firmly, and his thumb seemed to slip deliberately past the corner of my mouth.
It felt like someone had tossed a popping candy directly into my chest. Only in the next moment did I realize he’d wiped my face clean with his bare hand, having removed his glove.
Then, as though it were nothing at all, his face receded.
Was it Lisianthus’s blood that had splattered when I’d disarmed him earlier…?
I stood frozen, watching dumbly as the man licked his own bloodied palm with his tongue.
His expressionless face remained bland, as though it were nothing as he pulled his glove back on.
…No, I mean, I do the same thing when I accidentally bite my lip and draw blood. But something felt off.
This didn’t feel like that.
What was that just now?
As my eyes instinctively darted around, I caught sight of Raymond’s aide, his eyes wide in shock. So it hadn’t been my imagination just now, then.

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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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