Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 74

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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 74

That was Titania.
That affection-starved child, who had instinctively grasped that she possessed nothing of value beyond her appearance, had been precisely that way.
Even when she heard it said that the Young Duke of the Castrain Family, despite having a betrothed, was the object of courtship and admiration from the majority of eligible young ladies in society.
She had never once considered turning her own gaze toward another man, troubling him in return.
But now it was different. If she wished it, she could have sold the pride of the Imperial Family itself any number of times.
She could have begged before anyone.
Please help, help me with my task….
At most it meant wearing plain clothes without ornament, dirtying her limbs with dust and grime.
She was about to open her mouth and say it was no longer so, but seeing the gazes of those around her, she closed it again.
Everyone looked at them as though they were witnessing a knight who had rescued a princess in peril—a betrothed come to save his intended from distress.
The Imperial Princess and the Young Duke.
As if they were beholding a scene from a beautiful fairy tale.
Only then, as the tension eased, did she hear the murmur of the crowd.
“Good heavens, that wouldn’t be….”
“The Young Duke of Castrain!”
“What a perfect pair they make.”
What Titania had once desired more desperately than her own life.
Strength drained from her limbs without her knowing it.
I watched blankly as Raymond held me close and gave directives to the people, leading them forward. Debbie, Barbara, and Lisianthus seemed to be saying something to me with moving lips, but I couldn’t properly hear.
Since no one dared oppose the Young Duke of Castrain’s opinions, all the arrangements proceeded without a hitch.
I tried to ask to be put down, patting at the forearms holding me, but instead he only tightened his grip.
Once Raymond seemed to have finished organizing the situation, he carried me into the carriage.
The carriage interior was spacious and quiet. Quietly, as a mother might lower her egg into a nest, Raymond finally set me down from his arms. In that last moment he even hesitated briefly, as if reluctant to let go. As before, he wound the cloak around my body with the insistence of one unwilling to compromise on this matter.
I swallowed dryly and opened my mouth. My throat ached as though I had swallowed sand.
“You didn’t seem to wear cloaks so often before. You said they were tedious.”
“Did I?”
“How did you even reach the Southern End? Shouldn’t you have been in the Capital?”
“There was an investigation to be ordered in this vicinity. There was also need for a military escort for the High Priest.”
“I had my own plan for this, and you basically destroyed it at the crucial moment. You do know that, don’t you?”
Only then did Raymond’s answers, which had flowed without obstacle, come to a halt.
“I heard that you were in danger.”
Despite the calm tone, my insides roiled at hearing it.
As though I had ever lived safely in my entire life!
“Besides, didn’t Lisianthus have to be at my side? You, Sir Raymond—you’re far too extraordinary and useful to be employed merely as my escort.”
“That one is certainly strong, but….”
Raymond’s brow twisted suddenly, as if recalling some bitter memory.
“…he is not someone who can take responsibility for anything. Whatever Your Highness the Imperial Princess wishes cannot be simple. He is somewhat negligent in considering the larger context and implications. I feared danger might strike from an unforeseen quarter.”
So Lisianthus was simple-minded and didn’t understand political machinations like that. I knew as much. I had deliberately visited Hecate’s Tavern on occasions when he was absent, knowing he had no talent for making excuses!
“I was managing quite well even with Lisianthus.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
Ha!
I let out a hollow laugh and threw down the cloak. My soiled and rumpled clothes were revealed.
“Was my appearance so unsightly that you couldn’t bear to look at it? For the esteemed Young Duke of the Castrain Family to see?”
Raymond flinched and averted his eyes from mine.
“That is not the case. Only….”
“The plans that I, in my own way, worked hard at. Using my abilities fully. Working through them together with others. To your eyes they seemed dangerous and… worthless? Worthless enough that you felt compelled to come down here and see for yourself?”
According to the original plan, I was supposed to stay at the Cortez Family Residence with Flux’s assistance, doing so ‘officially.’
While staying there, with the help of Hecate’s Tavern as well, I had intended to begin gathering in earnest leads on those who had orchestrated the conspiracy in this city.
The Temple was their stronghold, and beyond being excessively closed off, they held nearly total control over the administration of the Dedication Ceremony.
So long as I remained in the Temple, the probability of my falling into danger, regardless of what measures I took, was dangerously high. That was why I had thought it necessary.
So I set fire to the Temple.
It was fortunate timing that Lisianthus was absent. Had he remained, they might have suspected the fire was his doing—a false flag operation. No, without evidence they would have pressed the accusation regardless.
Neither Cronen nor Gregory was to be underestimated.
Though I had nearly died and claimed to have lost my sword, and though Gregory, my chief guardian, had not been at my side in the most perilous moment, both of them were shameless.
With the logical escape routes barred and Flux pressing them before the watching crowd, only then did Cronen and Gregory realize their error and stumble over their words—but they fell silent the instant Raymond appeared.
In that moment, I felt hollow.
All my strength drained away.
“That is not the case,” Raymond said urgently.
Raymond spoke with urgency.
“I simply wished to assist you in whatever way I could.”
“…….”
“You are… you are too….”
Suddenly Raymond clenched his teeth.
“…too, carelessly indifferent to yourself.”
“…….”
“If you possessed much, overflowed with much, and could easily select from among those things to accomplish whatever you wished, then if I were one of those things, I thought you might value yourself more. I heard that you truly set fire to the Temple. Even if the fire was not Lisianthus’s, even if you controlled it so no innocent lives were lost, it remains a dangerous act. Why on earth….”
Raymond’s voice was truly, strangely urgent in a way I couldn’t understand. Why was this man showing such weakness?
“…Because it’s the most efficient approach.”
The Imperial Princess’s life had to be in danger; the Imperial Princess’s sword had to be stolen—only then did people have cause to listen to my appeals.
I could obtain nothing easily without casting away everything I possessed and pleading.
Was it the same for that man? Did that man, who shook me so without effort, feel the same way?
There were things I came to realize, moment by moment.
I wished I had never been born.
I wished I had never loved.
There was indeed a way of life, a manner of existing, that led one to think such thoughts.
Titania was the living proof of it.
I did not wish to pour my senseless hatred and anger upon someone good. The world overflowed with engagements and marriages far worse than what either of us deserved.
The Imperial Family was, strictly speaking, the enemy and the blood-debt of the Castrain Family. Who would welcome the edge of a blade that their foe had drawn to tear through their house?
Much less when that blade was myself, rust-spotted and dull, destined to draw blood and pus from others with nothing more than careless action? What if I did not even know it?
So it would be good if I could forget all such sentiments cleanly and treat that man as though nothing were amiss.
I wished the novel I had read were rather a beautiful love story.
I wish it had been a story of this man loving wholly and perfectly, not Bibi.
That would ease my heart far more.
If he was destined to have another’s heart, then I need neither waver nor harbor hope.
Yet why does this man keep shaking my heart?
“It was not my intention to interfere with your plan.”
Raymond gathered up the cloak I had thrown and wrapped it around my bare feet. I lost words entirely in that moment.
“Only that I, a useful tool to you, hope that you might use me well….”
The man’s lips touched the cloak wrapped around my bare feet.
“…so that you obtain everything you desire.”
His voice was as thick and clinging as muddy water.

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Raymond’s arrival was like a storm.
Just as one cannot perceive one’s surroundings while enduring a tempest, only becoming aware of them once it has passed, so too the surroundings had erupted into noise the instant he disappeared.
It was already after the carriage carrying Raymond and Titania had departed the Temple.
“Was that just now really….”
“No, from the Castrain Family, here of all places….”
“Don’t you see? He came to rescue his betrothed.”
“My goodness. But then what happens to the matter at hand….”
Among the murmuring crowd, Cronen suddenly came to his senses. The moment he lifted his head, he felt a chill as cold sweat that had gathered on the back of his neck began to trickle down.

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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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