Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 86

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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 86

Indeed, her appearance could have passed for angelic. Hair as lush as a black rose. Eyes of green that held a different luster than Titania’s.
If Titania was a beauty who resembled the Empress—said to be the most beautiful woman in the realm—with a dazzling, luminous quality, then Lilium was a natural beauty, like a profusion of flowers blooming wild in a forest. The kind of presence that seemed to lower one’s guard simply by sight.
She wore a well-tailored linen dress of the sort that wealthy commoners typically favored—simple in design, loose in fit, practical enough to keep working the soil in a garden without concern. Not a single jewel adorned her; to a careless eye, she might have appeared merely as a well-bred commoner’s daughter. Yet her skin, pristine and immaculately maintained, and her lustrous hair, betrayed her station to anyone with a modicum of perception—she was unmistakably a noblewoman of consequence.
Lilium brushed dust from her skirt and straightened. Primrose brought a chair and positioned it beside the man she had dragged in. As Lilium settled into the seat, she spoke with gentle shyness.
“Oh, thank you, Primrose.”
“Not at all.”
“Well then. Shall we take a look at the gift Primrose brought?”
The man’s appearance was grotesque enough to offend a noblewoman of Lilium’s breeding, yet not a single wrinkle marred her lovely face.
“Mmph! Ugh! Mm-mmph!”
“Should we remove the gag first? We’ll need his answers, after all.”
Lilium nodded and unfastened the man’s gag. He drew in a deep, gasping breath—then immediately spewed forth curses.
“You! You lot! How dare you! Do you know who I am! I am—!”
“I know who you are. The question is whether you know who I am.”
Crack!
Before Lilium had even finished speaking, Primrose struck the man’s throat. As he flailed, gasping for breath, Lilium’s expression remained serene and unchanged.
“I trust you’re ready to listen properly now. Yes—I know quite well that you’re the Head Priest of the Southern Temple.”
“Agh… cough, cough…!”
“And I know you damaged the Sacred Relic in the recent fire at the temple. I also know you came to the Black Market—or more precisely, to the Underground Trading Ground—to acquire something rather interesting.”
The man, Cronen, finally regained his senses.
He had heard rumors that the Princess’s Sword would be put up for auction at the Black Market. Half-believing, half-doubting, he had slipped into the Underground Trading Ground to participate in the back auction. There, to his astonishment, he found a Rare Treasure that could serve as a replacement for the Sacred Relic, and he committed his entire fortune to securing it. It had not been an easy decision.
Since a major fire had already occurred, he had even considered using it as a pretext to call off the Dedication Ceremony, claiming ill omens. He had contemplated presenting a convincing forgery instead. But people had whispered.
—Why would a Sacred Relic that was fine all this while suddenly…?
—It couldn’t withstand fire?
—That’s strange. A Sacred Relic that burns in fire—is that really sacred? Doesn’t Holy Power heal even burn scars? Yet the Sacred Relic burns?
Moreover, even as Gregory had remained hidden at the crucial moment, he had openly coerced Cronen.
—We’re already in the same boat. Now that things have gone so badly wrong, if we don’t see this through properly, doesn’t it seem the Empress would leave neither you nor me unscathed?
Of course, Cronen agreed with Gregory’s assessment. The fire in the temple and the theft of the Princess’s Sword had already drawn far too much unwanted attention. And Raymond—the Young Duke himself—was watching with sharp eyes.
No matter how much influence Cronen had accumulated during his long tenure at the Southern Temple, he didn’t have the nerve to falsify the Dedication Ceremony under the watchful gaze of the Castrain Family’s Young Duke. It would be better to handle things properly until they could deal with Titania through hired hands outside the temple. Until then, he had no choice but to proceed with genuine preparations.
So, swallowing his despair, he had resolved to liquidate his entire fortune to purchase the Sacred Relic. Even for someone of Cronen’s standing, gathering all his hidden assets took considerable time. He’d worried someone might recognize him, worried the item might be stolen on the way back. His mind had swum with anxiety. When he discovered the Princess’s Sword had actually been put up for auction, he’d nearly laughed in bitter mockery. After all that fretting and turmoil, and there the sword was, brazenly on display in such a place!
If the sword was truly as magnificent as the rumors claimed, if it could strike down Magic Beasts so effortlessly, wasn’t it odd that it had been stolen so pathetically? A weapon powerful enough to slay Magic Beasts by draining its wielder’s very life should be able to stop a thief’s hand—though Cronen’s suspicions were correct, he would never learn the truth.
Since he’d already committed his entire fortune to purchasing the Sacred Relic, the sword was out of reach anyway. He’d been watching with indifferent resignation when the Magic Beasts suddenly attacked.
Cronen fled in blind panic.
He hadn’t even thought to secure the Sacred Relic he’d spent his entire fortune acquiring. He thrashed through the crowd, nearly crushed by the press of bodies, clawing his way to escape. He made no attempt to reveal himself as a Priest or aid anyone. After all, he was one of the prominent Aristocratic Faction priests connected to Marjid. Unlike the Commoner Faction clergy, he had never stepped into a battlefield swarming with Magic Beasts, nor did he ever need to.
This region was peaceful! There had never been any significant Magic Beast attacks. The Southern Lands were peacefully ordered!
This was Cronen’s first genuine brush with mortal peril since the day Raymond had radiated killing intent—and it was no wonder he had lost his mind.
Pushing through the tangled masses, using others as shields before the Magic Beasts, fleeing……
‘Wait?’
Yes.
He thought he’d glimpsed someone. Specifically, a man wielding a sword with chaotic fury, his voice raw with anger. How could he not know him—the man who had threatened him with “incompetent superiors die early in war,” the one Cronen had cursed inwardly for being part of the corrupt Castrain Ducal House bloodline. As he’d moved to confirm whether that man was truly present in this chaos—
His vision went black.
Cronen felt terror seize him. The two girls before him, smiling quietly, seemed infinitely terrifying.
By the passage of time, it appeared he hadn’t been unconscious long. Though the odd sunlight streaming through this greenhouse garden made it difficult to gauge time’s flow.
Yet this was a place he had never been before.
He’d been invited to many grand estates and lavish villas of prominent nobles throughout the Southern Lands. But never to a place that evoked such an unsettling feeling. Never even heard of one. If such a distinctive garden existed, surely word would have spread if any guest had been invited even once.
Which meant…
“I’m glad the thing at least has some wits about it, Primrose.”
“If it didn’t, I’d simply kill it here.”
“No, no. Our esteemed customer entrusted this errand to a wandering mouse. If I let the cat loose on a whim, they’ll scold me for losing their messenger.”
He couldn’t dare object to being compared to a mouse. The maid with amethyst-hued, mineral eyes and the noble she served possessed the power to end him in an instant if they chose. And perhaps, all this time, without Cronen’s awareness—Lilium had been demonstrating her influence throughout the Southern Lands. She was undoubtedly a figure of tremendous consequence.
Lilium rose with a gentle laugh, as though her quip had been mere jest, and lifted the lid of a woven straw basket. She selected something with deliberate care, paused for effect, then withdrew one item.
What she pulled out was a fruit resembling an apple. Except its shell was black and lustrous. Lilium tapped it lightly—tap, tap—and the shell cracked. It shattered cleanly, like a boiled eggshell. Within the broken shell lay the interior, brilliant red. A color as transparent as rubies bound together like pomegranate seeds.
“It appears the ‘item’ you purchased at the auction will be safely delivered to you. But it must be awkward if you’re so impoverished from the purchase price that you haven’t even the traveling expenses for this errand.”
Lilium whispered, her voice sweet as melted sugar.
“What… what do you want from me?”
Cronen asked instinctively.

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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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