Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 65

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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 65

“The Magic Beasts are behaving unusually.”
Raymond listened to the report with a weary face. Cassian handed over documents and continued the briefing.
“Last year the Magic Beast herds stirred suddenly as well, but this year….”
“I’ve heard. Even the ones that move in winter have woken without reason.”
The Castrain Northern Territory had always been close to the front lines. There were only degrees of severity.
At least when the weather cooled, things became somewhat more manageable. But this year felt different from the past.
What was the reason?
Was there any need to find a new reason?
The answer was always similar.
The weakening of the Barrier, those recklessly studying Magic Beasts and trying to harness Beast Energy, the Emperor openly checking the Castrain Family, and troops wastefully squandered in unreasonable conflicts….
If circumstances worsened further, even Raymond might have to leave the capital and descend to his lands.
The Duke Orto had left recently with a serious expression, saying he had something to investigate, but….
“Honestly, it’s unimaginable for summer to be like this.”
Winter was always a harsh season for mankind. Magic Beasts were creatures that moved just as freely atop snow piled to their crowns. But summer—even the Castrain Family, responsible for the northern regions, found it a season of relative ease. Though it seemed that time too was growing short….
Shadows deepened beneath Raymond’s eyes.
“What of the Knight Order?”
“…If Lisianthus found out, he’d cause a riot on his own, so Lef kept it secret, but ten regular knights suffered severe injuries. Two of the squires’ lives hang by a thread. Since the situation is grave, I’ve ordered all squires in training to withdraw.”
“It’s fortunate he’s not here. That one isn’t accustomed to losing someone.”
“…He’d just say he can manage it alone, I suppose.”
His adjutant Cassian sighed.
To outsiders, the Castrain Ducal House would always appear at ease and strong.
But they were desperate in their own way. Even if the Family itself was wealthy and powerful, that could not grant all their soldiers Immortality.
No matter how much gold they earned selling Mana Stones to purchase weapons and provisions, there were limits to manpower.
Magic Beasts grew more vicious with each passing year.
Barring the youngest and the adopted daughter Bibi, the blood of the Castrain Family was mostly strong. They accomplished what other knights gathered together could not manage.
Especially after Lisianthus gained mastery over Fire Magic, he had made clear his intention to move more actively, undertaking command in Raymond’s stead, for the Elder could not move freely.
Like a thunderhead ignoring high society and doing as he pleased, he only grew more attached to his own knight order.
During one bitter winter, when word came that the youngest knight had been trapped by an avalanche, he rushed out barehanded despite everyone’s objections.
At the time, before Lisianthus could properly wield Fire Magic, he nearly had his hands and feet lost to frostbite.
Raymond struck Lisianthus across the face then.
Because you are the second son of Castrain, because you are meant to lead these men.
Look at the manpower wasted searching for you.
If you sustain an irreversible wound, do you know how many of your own subordinates you would lose in the future because of this judgment today?
Lisianthus knelt and wept.
That youngest knight, rescued at the cost of his life, had already been isolated in the snow far too long, and died the next day.
Even at the funeral, Lisianthus wept silently, tears streaming down his face.
‘I can’t do what you do.’
‘Can’t you.’
‘I can’t… I can’t do what you do…. I don’t think I can….’
‘Yes. You don’t have to.’
‘I’m sorry, brother. I’m sorry…. But I can’t… I can’t make the judgment that it would’ve been better if I hadn’t saved him. I can’t live that way….’
As Lisianthus laid bare his emotions and wept, Raymond found himself envying him.
Everyone loved Lisianthus for his honesty. They scolded him, clicked their tongues in reproach and worry, yet they loved him still for that very honesty. Unlike Raymond, whom they treated with reverence and distance.
Of course, it was inevitable.
The first hunting dog Raymond had raised was torn apart by a Magic Beast in combat.
The skilled hunter who first taught Raymond how to kill Magic Beasts died of severe blood loss facing a Magic Beast in the shape of a fire bear during a harsh freeze.
Even the squire Cassian had directly chosen—clever and strong enough that he’d hoped to use him as another of Raymond’s aides—met a similar end.
Raymond was the future Young Duke and had to make many decisions in the Duke’s stead, bearing responsibility he could not shirk. Naturally, he rarely let personal emotion rage across the battlefield. Yet precisely because he was strong, because so much fell to his responsibility, the moments he had to stand and fight came without end.
Raymond was strong, but those around him who wished to protect him were not equally strong.
Endlessly, someone would tell him they believed in him, swear to protect him, and then die.
Like the handle of the sharpest blade wearing away instead of its edge.
Sometimes Raymond felt his heart was like a steel ornament set floating on a frozen lake.
That steel heart, already stained with blood spilled countless times, made only creaking, twisting sounds—responding in no other way.
And yet, without fail, letters came from the Imperial Palace at those very moments.
Raymond would receive them even as he wiped away blood, pressing snow to his cheeks to his eyes.
Paper packets brimming with rose-scented herbs said to aid sleep. Round, cheerful letters written in soft green ink full of anticipation.
Since she was supposedly his betrothed but they had not exchanged betrothal gifts, she rashly sent her own hair in turn—Platinum-Colored Hair strands.
A handful of thin strands tied in a pale-pink ribbon.
Raymond stared at it, gripped by a strange emotion.
Was it mockery of a Princess who, while someone ceaselessly died to protect this land, lived sheltered and carefree within the safety of the Imperial Palace? When everyone knew the end of this political marriage.
There was no way the conclusion could be good—between the sword of the Castrain Family lying broken on a land of blood and steel and ice, and a seedling blooming on artificial earth.
How could she say so consistently that she loved him, that she cared for him?
Without knowing anything about him.
Even though she would scream and flee the moment she saw traces of the dead, curse him a monster and run away.
Dressed carefully whenever she came to the Imperial Palace, seduced by that mere shell. Was she not drawn to the ‘Young Duke of the Castrain Family’ that everyone praised, coveted, elevated?
When he rolled, drenched in blood, among Magic Beasts like some monster, would she truly….
Without thinking, Raymond picked up the strand of hair with his fingertip. The moment he touched it, blood stained it. He had been wiping snow against his eyes to clear away blood in the first place.
The thin, silken hair looked unsightly smeared with blood. Like garbage.
Without hesitation, Raymond cast the delicate handwriting, the fragrance, the hair—all of it into fire. For just a moment, he felt like a fool for having held it.
This is what a relationship that cannot understand, cannot love, looks like.
Raymond had to protect the people of his desolate lands.
It was fine, wasn’t it.
Someone had to do it anyway. Lisianthus was somewhat soft-hearted, and the youngest, Rasper, was gentle. There was no one but himself to manage it. He could not waste what the Duke had built.
He had thought it would end that way.
‘William is too weak for it.’
Raymond recalled Lisianthus as he had been recently. His face held a sheepish smile brimming with laughter.
‘I’ll go, I will! We’ve gotten quite close, you know. She’s weak in body, so someone more active and strong than William needs to go. And that’s me.’
His cheeks flushed red as apples, his eyes sparkling. Lisianthus was always as honest as his own strength. When he returned from the Imperial Palace where he’d gone to give Titania a piece of his mind, saying his brother was being deceived, he came back in ruins, his bright red hair singed with sparks of fire, dusted with ash and grime—looking less like a person than a puppy that had wallowed in a mudpit. Even the words he’d tossed out carelessly. Like a fox, his eyes curved in a crescent moon as he smiled.
‘Ah, she’s actually better than expected, really spirited and insane?’
It was truly strange. The fact that ‘Titania’ had changed was definitely information requiring vigilance. So he had reported it to the Duke.
Since even Lisianthus, who couldn’t believe it, had grown convinced, Raymond’s judgment was proven correct. And this fact was certainly not bad news for the Castrain Family, standing opposed to the Imperial Family as it did.
Yet why, when seeing that honest smile, did his chest lurch? As if his rust-corroded heart creaked and spat out brackish water.

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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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