Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 84

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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 84

The strange unease and wariness Titania had felt when she’d smiled and proposed a bargain to her betrothed, whom she’d met after so long, had long since faded. Or rather, thinking back on it, she seemed to have suffered from quite an odd feeling even then.
A Titania who had always chased after him with eyes desperately yearning, like a lost child glimpsing their only landmark, now regarded him with eyes that seemed somehow ordered, somehow settled—it was utterly unfamiliar.
He knew that Titania wielded a sword that the Empress had passed down. Besides, when it came to unusual weapons, the intelligence network of the Castrain Ducal House surpassed even that of Empress Cleo.
Whether it was the Beris-Pacheo or something else, it was certain that it was a rather rare weapon. But it didn’t seem to be a weapon imbued with divine power. He did, however, know that it was particular about its ‘owner.’
Before that sword had rolled into the Imperial Palace, more precisely into the hands of Empress Cleo—the sword’s former owner, as the Castrain Family had determined, was a mercenary. One who refused to belong to any single faction, yet accepted enormous payment and undertook any contract. They hunted anything: Magic Beasts or men, without discrimination.
The Castrain Family had always been eager to scout useful talent, but they had never extended such an offer to that mercenary. Why? Because the mercenary’s disposition was excessively cruel. They had savagely murdered and mocked a child merely for attempting to pickpocket them.
Though it was no secret that those who haunted back alleys had rough dispositions, that mercenary treated their own comrades and the youngest member who served as their errand boy in much the same way. One could suspect they were on the verge of transforming into a serial murderer.
And then, eventually, they had died wretchedly. It so happened that Empress Cleo wished to provide her beloved son with practical protection, so she had thrown money into the underworld, buying information and people. The sword, now masterless, conveniently made its way to the Empress. She paid well—very well—to the one who brought it to her.
An ordinary person would not have thought to place a sword stained with a previous owner’s blood into the hands of their own son. But the Empress harbored no particular thoughts about how the sword’s former owners had died feebly one after another. It was simply that bloodthirsty subordinates—mercenaries and knights and the like—had died stupidly enough, and she judged it had no bearing on her beloved son, who would travel with an honor guard at his side.
It wasn’t entirely wrong. Would the Emperor’s firstborn, Brian, ever find himself wandering the battlefield directly as the sword’s previous owner had? Even if he were to chase down a rabbit or a deer, attendants and servants would follow beside him to lend their aid.
And so the Empress seemed to have devised some tale about how the sword, having never found its proper master, had at last met its true owner in Brian and would shine brightly. But that changed when Titania appeared.
Titania had changed.
She herself did not deny the fact.
Starting with the knowledge of the Gloriana’s Banner, to the way she’d wielded the sword to drive back the Magic Beasts—if one examined it closely, there was nothing that didn’t seem suspicious. The way she had protected Bibi, whom she’d scarcely properly met, staking her life on it—that was no exception.
The changed Titania had first mentioned the Breaking of Betrothal. A princess raised from birth as the Castrain Family’s betrothed. There was no way her treatment after a breaking of betrothal would be reasonable.
So to speak of breaking the betrothal was truly, truly. For the sake of the Castrain Family. For the sake of Raymond. So that, so that…….
“…Titania.”
His trembling fingertips hovered near the tip of her nose. When he felt no clear breath, Raymond froze. Titania was drenched in blood. From the vicinity of her belly, pierced by the Magic Beast, blood flowed relentlessly. It was truly astonishing how alike it was to before.
He had seen dying soldiers many times over. There had been many moments when he’d had no choice but to cut their throats himself. Had he not been educated to remain unperturbed in such situations, to maintain reason better than anyone?
The next master of that grand Castrain Family. The one who must inherit the Duke’s mantle and sustain and overcome this vast battlefront—wasn’t that how he was supposed to be? Wasn’t he a creature that could only be that way?
“Ti…….”
Yet Raymond’s words faltered in that instant. The shoulders of Titania, cradled in his arms, sagged without strength. Her head lolled forward. Like a corpse that had collapsed, its last strength finally spent.
In that moment, his heart constricted. Fear seized him all at once. So much so that he couldn’t even assess her condition, even as he recognized the urgency of the moment.
What if she was truly, already dead?
What if he was about to lose her just like this?
“Damn it, brother!”
At the voice that reached him in that very moment, Raymond snapped to attention. The gleaming spearhead that came flying at him was barely—barely—blocked by Lisianthus, wielding the Flamberge’s Wrath, scattering flames.
The sparks dancing in the empty air were a brilliant white light. It was growth that Lisianthus had demonstrated in an extreme situation—something he’d complained was difficult, hardly managing to produce White Flame deliberately—but given the circumstances, there was no time to celebrate it unreservedly.
“Take Titania and get out of here!”
Lisianthus screamed until his voice cracked. The death cry of the Magic Beast that had lunged at Lisianthus and been incinerated—Kee-EEEE-eek!—echoed clearly in his ears. Flux and Debi, having barely pulled themselves together, joined Lisianthus’s side.
Flux’s sword technique was clumsy enough that it was only marginally better than useless, but still, when the three of them gathered together, the girl seemed to find them annoying, her eye twitching slightly at one corner. Raymond gritted his teeth.
He had known that Titania was heading here and had followed her just in case, but he’d brought far too few soldiers. Barely his aide Cassian, at best. Even after he’d confirmed the dire situation, he’d sent word to call up the reserve troops that had been waiting near the Villa.
Raymond gritted his teeth.
By reason, it would be correct for Raymond to stay while Lisianthus, Debi, and Flux took Titania and fled.
But Titania appeared far too critical, and there were still many Magic Beasts scattered all around. If the beasts grasped at her feet to impede her movement, he might fail to save her. Only Raymond could move fastest and most safely while carrying Titania away.
Raymond made his decision swiftly.
“…Just hold on a little longer. Hold on. Lisianthus.”
“Hah! Hold on? I’ll be crushing them spectacularly, so hurry back!”
Lisianthus cried out with bravado and once again scattering flames with fervent intensity. The girl with the icy face watched this scene unfold with an odd gleam in her eyes.
“Can’t, let, go. Master, order….”
“Yeah, well, whatever sort of ‘master’ that is! You’ve badly underestimated me!”
Lisianthus growled like an indignant hunting hound. The smell of his shirtsleeve singeing in the flames reached the air.
Fundamentally, the ‘power’ that Lisianthus wielded had little effect on Lisianthus himself. Had it been otherwise, he would have been injuring himself with his own flames every time he unleashed a great fire.
Perhaps because the sword’s name was the Flamberge’s Wrath, the flames had a tendency to resonate with Lisianthus’s anger and reveal their true power.
When his emotions were kindled, he could sometimes wield flames of a magnitude that bore no comparison to the power he could normally control.
But great power always exacts a great price. If Lisianthus wielded a fire so great that his original power couldn’t control it….
Whoosh-CRACK!
Lisianthus bore the sensation of his hand burning and clenched his teeth. His skin smarted.
…he himself was also affected by that fire. Yet Lisianthus maintained a composed expression and declared with apparent confidence. He was, in essence, burning his bridges behind him.
“Ha! Rumors and all that—I won’t worry about them anymore. Titania’s already gotten to safety, so this annoying building and these petty Magic Beasts. I’ll bundle them all together and burn them…!”
“Young Master!”
Debi cried out in alarm and grabbed Lisianthus by the waist, yanking him backward.
Screeeee-EECH!
“Ahhhhh!”
Lisianthus fell backward on his rear and shrieked.
In an instant, the Magic Beast that had rushed at Lisianthus’s nape, disappointed at its failure, chattered its beak and landed on the girl’s shoulder.
It was a Magic Beast resembling a raven. Its eyes were bright red, and its beak gleamed like steel.
As it muttered something in a sound like rusted metal near the girl’s ear, she seemed about to rush at Lisianthus, Debi, and Flux with an ominous air, and drew the spear she held slightly back.
“You’re lucky, you lot.”
“…What?”
Eyes of a purplish-red like colored glass, mineral-cold, regarded them as she spoke.
“That man from before—or no one else. You could never beat me.”
“How dare you mock us…!”
“Please, Young Master, restrain yourself!”
“Damn it, all right! Listen, just try to hold your patience a moment!”
Debi and Flux grabbed either arm of the enraged Lisianthus and hung on.

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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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