Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 76

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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 76

It was one of those perfectly warm afternoons, the kind where sunlight settles on your crown like a gentle hand. I worked my spoon without pause, stress driving me toward sweets like a compass toward north.
The Southern Region truly lived up to its reputation for abundance—their desserts put the Imperial Palace’s to shame.
I consumed five Macarons filled with ganache and candied orange peel, two cups of rose-scented tea, a full bowl of yogurt topped with Pomegranate Jelly, and—without failing to mention it—a generous heap of Shaved Ice with milk ice and fresh apple mango piled high.
The table groaned under the weight of all this luxury. Not just the table, either—the entire room where I sat radiated opulence.
Which made sense, really.
I was staying at the Southern estate of the Castrain Family.
Even if the Castrain Family’s main seat lay in the North, their investment in the Dedication Ceremony itself was nothing short of staggering.
No matter how vital the Northern Barrier was, they couldn’t afford to treat the Southern Barrier as mere window dressing.
When Brian came for the Dedication Ceremony last year, Lisianthus had accompanied him, and so a proper Castrain estate had been planted here at the very edge of the South. That part made sense.
But everything after that? Nothing made sense.
Yesterday, roiling with barely suppressed irritation, I’d said to Raymond:
‘I was supposed to stay at Flucks’s manor, wasn’t I?’
‘That won’t do.’
‘Why not?’
‘The Castrain Family has estates aplenty, and you are my fiancée. If you’re not staying at the Temple, then you belong here.’
He wasn’t wrong.
The logic was airtight.
And yet I’d been planning to work with Flucks, visit the Black Market, actually get things done and lay some proper groundwork—
“I hope you’ll come to have everything you desire”? The audacity. Raymond had stared at me so directly that words simply died in my throat.
Was it my imagination, or did something in that expressionless face soften as he looked at me? Some flicker of pleading in those eyes?
In that instant, I swallowed the retort that had been building and said something else entirely.
‘Then… you won’t mind what I do while I’m out, or whom I might invite here?’
Raymond’s eyes narrowed slightly instead of answering.
‘Wasn’t it you who said I should use even the great Young Duke of Castrain to get what I want?’
‘…Yes.’
‘Then consider it settled.’
I had to work hard not to sneer.
When Raymond appeared, why had I felt surprise and shame and mortification before relief? The reason, if I thought about it, was simple.
I didn’t want to show him my ugliness. That should’ve been obvious. No matter how much I claimed to have abandoned the desire to be loved by him—the desire that Titania once cherished—
Yet in the process of clawing my way toward survival, I’d shown him nothing but that ugliness. Flailing without anything to hold onto, desperate and base.
I’d erected walls of borrowed pride, but the truth was that without their help, I’d never have kept my life together at all.
Maybe it would’ve been better to crawl along the ground, grateful, accepting everything they offered without complaint or resentment.
But he keeps trying to break down my walls.
Without even understanding what it means to me.
A man who feels longing for me—genuine, desperate longing—in a way that Titania could never, not in a thousand lifetimes, inspire in him.
If I hadn’t saved Bibi, if I hadn’t become a useful member of the Imperial Family to Castrain… my mouth turned bitter at the thought.
But I had become their benefactor, so I had to bear what came with it.
As I held all of that down, Raymond had gone on rambling like an earnest fool.
‘Whatever you need, I’ll procure it. If you desire something, you need only ask. People, resources, anything at all—’
‘Ha, and what if I asked you to uproot the very foundations of the Castrain Family?’
‘If Your Highness truly wished it, one or two might be arranged—’
‘That’s enough teasing. Don’t take it seriously.’
‘It was not teasing.’
‘Ah, yes…’
‘Though if by “foundations” you mean the literal pillars of the estate, that would be rather inconvenient. One can hardly use uprooted stonework for anything practical. Wouldn’t a Family Heirloom with symbolic significance be more useful?’
Raymond spoke this nonsense with a perfectly straight face.
Thanks to him, I shed that bitter feeling that had been suffocating me moments before.
‘No, you can’t hand over the Family Heirloom to me.’
‘One or two heirlooms are hardly a loss to the Castrain line.’
‘I’m not saying it’s inconvenient for you—I’m saying it’s inconvenient for me! Let’s end this conversation here!’
Ugh. The more I thought about it, the more my temples throbbed. Actually, it filled me with a kind of dread: ‘Is this really a normal Family to be this generous to their benefactor?’
I pushed aside the circular thoughts and scraped the bottom of my yogurt cup with single-minded focus.
Weight gain? So what. With nerves pulled taut as they’d been lately, stretched to the snapping point every single day, I’d be lucky to gain anything. My militant assault on dessert made Barbara’s face sag with resignation.
“…Your Highness?”
“What.”
“Eating so much sweet food all at once can’t be good for you.”
The emoticon sword, which had been quiet ever since I’d separated from it against its will, suddenly piped up in alarm: -(;° ロ°) That’s right! Contractor-sama! Your stomach has limits! It’s not some infinite bottomless pouch that grows without bound!
The little weapon muttered its grievances under its breath, peeking at me sideways as though offended that I’d tried to leave it behind again.
Tch. I shoved my empty bowl toward the edge of the table.
Actually, stress calls for spicy food, not sweets.
Suddenly I craved tteokbokki with an ache that brought tears to my eyes. Damn it—what good is having a body this precious when my soul yearns for Korean food?
I was the kind of person who ate kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew, radish kimchi as a side dish…
Jjolmyeon… kimchi… cup ramen… tteokbokki… Sob, sob, sniff. But there’s nothing here, so what can I do?
I extended my empty bowl.
“More of this……”
Debi was quick to refill my yogurt and set a fresh bowl in front of me. I grabbed it eagerly, but sucked too hard and choked on it, coughing roughly. At that, Debi bolted from the room.
I was too distracted by my coughing to notice where she’d gone.
Probably fetching medicine or something…
“Hack, cough, hack! Gag, gaaag-cough… Blech!”
-Oh my, our contractor-sama is dying ahhh(´；Д；｀)-!!!
“Oh my, Your Highness!”
“Are you alright?!”
Barbara patted my back in alarm. Between the choking and the overeating that had left my stomach churning, I retched painfully. It was in the middle of this agony that—
Bang!
The door flew open.
Debi strode in with someone slung across her shoulder like a sack of grain. Barbara’s eyes went wide.
Her words came out in stutters.
“I-Illian? The High Priest?!”
“G-gaaag, hack, the High— the High Priest?!”
A familiar face. The priest that the Castrain Family had summoned before, the one who’d stood with me against the Empress in the Imperial Palace…
Right, yes—Bibi had mentioned something about sending the High Priest my way, but here? Now? For this reason? The High Priest was actually—?!
While Barbara and I stared in shock, Debi set the High Priest down from her shoulder and announced proudly:
“High Priest! Her Highness is unwell!”
I yelped in protest.
“No! I just overate out of frustration and choked a little—that’s hardly a medical emergency! At worst, I’ll just throw up and be fine!”
“Vomiting is bad for the stomach and esophagus, Your Highness!”
“Heh heh heh, it’s been a while. Your Highness, Princess Titania.”
Illian the High Priest smiled warmly and stroked my back and shoulders with gentle hands.
A subtle mint-tinged fragrance, warm and refreshing, and a palpable current of power flowed from him. The nausea that had been churning in my stomach vanished in an instant.
The lingering muscle soreness that had made my body stiff and aching dissolved as though washed away.
Wow—this is High Priest power!
Last time, I’d been unconscious during treatment, so this was my first chance to feel it while fully aware.
The effect was remarkable, but could I really accept this? I couldn’t hide my hesitation as I asked:
“Is it… is it okay to use this much of your Divine Power for something this minor? Your power should be reserved for people with more serious conditions…”
Illian the High Priest maintained his usual impression—that of a warm, neighborly uncle.
His round, smiling eyes and perpetually curved lips were unchanged, though his undereyes looked slightly darkened.
The High Priest broke into a wide grin and pinched his thumb and forefinger together, making a small circle. His teeth flashed bright and white through the gap—a wink and a gleam.
“Ah, no matter. I receive plenty of this.”
“Ah… yes… I see…”
“A High Priest’s call-out fee is the value itself, you understand. Even great nobles don’t often summon one—so this quarter’s budgeting for commoner priests in our department was a real puzzle. Lucky for us you called, Your Highness! Everything’s resolved nicely! Ha ha ha! And I got a tidy bonus from last time, too, so please do keep calling on me!”
Illian the High Priest’s smile was dazzling.

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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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