The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 21

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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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Just because Cain Inkaris assured me I needn’t fear retaliation didn’t mean I could afford to sit idle and lower my guard.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
If Marquis Dever truly set his mind to reclaiming Timothy, there were limits to what even Cain could protect against.
For now, he’d withdrawn—partly out of disgust with Timothy, partly to distance himself.
But what if he decided he needed Timothy after all?
It was painfully obvious he would reverse his stance in a heartbeat, just as he had in Nadukgeu, and move to reclaim her.
‘…Is there no legal protection I can secure?’
Submitting a petition now to invoke the Child Protection Bureau’s authority would fall on deaf ears.
The Imperial Court and high nobility were far too preoccupied with matters they deemed more pressing than the suffering of children.
Such as, for instance, lining their own pockets.
That left me with only one option: to unearth rights the Child Protection Bureau already possessed but had never exercised.
‘There has to be something.’
I had good reason for such certainty.
The Imperial Legal Code.
Five hundred years ago, when the Empire was founded, three sages had convened and composed this comprehensive legal text, establishing the intricate framework of the Imperial Bureaucracy down to its finest details.
Somewhere within those volumes, there had to be provisions governing the Child Protection Bureau.
They likely amounted to nothing more than “the Child Protection Bureau shall protect children,” but one never knew without actually searching.
The Imperial Legal Code was divided into five volumes, and while one might assume Imperial Bureaucrats memorized every word, the reality was far different.
During my tenure at the Finance Ministry, I’d been occupied enough simply mastering and applying the provisions relevant to that department.
‘…Volume One: The Book of Bloodline and Nobility, Volume Two: The Book of Bureaucracy and Finance, Volume Three: The Book of Justice and Order, Volume Four: The Book of War and Treaties….’
I skimmed through the familiar sections quickly, but examining the portions I’d neglected still consumed considerable time.
As the night deepened, the cold seeped further into my bones, and my fingers grew stiff turning the pages—yet I couldn’t stop.
As the dark night faded and dawn’s light began to brighten the sky.
When I opened the final Volume Five, the Imperial Supplementary Code, the pages greeted me pristine and untouched, as though no one had ever opened them before.
They stood in stark contrast to the other volumes, their pages worn and darkened by countless hands.
‘…Nothing here either.’
I scanned the table of contents, but found no section on child protection.
This much I’d anticipated.
I had no choice but to examine every single page.
‘…Perhaps I should rest my eyes for a moment.’
I rubbed my weary eyes.
What if I overlooked a relevant provision?
What if there existed a clause that could be applied indirectly?
Such thoughts made it impossible to read carelessly.
After resting my head on the desk for a brief moment, I rose again and continued reading for some time.
‘Found it.’
Sleep vanished instantly, my eyes snapping wide open.
Amid the minutiae of Imperial protocol codified into dry legal language, one phrase stood out distinctly: “Child Protection Bureau.”
Imperial Law, Article 493, Section 5.
[The Child Protection Bureau may immediately separate a child who has suffered abuse from their household, and may exercise its authority to place such a child in adoption with a new family deemed most beneficial to the child’s welfare.]
My hands trembled uncontrollably.
‘If only I had known this sooner….’
But I was grateful to have discovered it even now.
The night had completely passed, and it was now broad daylight.
I carefully traced the relevant clause with my finger, then turned to Director McGuffin, who had arrived late, and asked.
“Director, is Imperial Law Article 493, Section 5… still in effect?”
For a moment, something flickered in Director McGuffin’s eyes.
‘He knew.’
Of course he did.
Unlike his predecessors, who changed positions in the blink of an eye, Director McGuffin had held this position for quite some time.
He surely understood intimately what the Child Protection Bureau could and could not do.
The problem was that his conclusion had been that it could do nothing at all.
“It’s never been repealed or amended, so technically it remains in effect. But it’s never actually been used properly.”
“Why not?”
“Why, you ask?”
The Director shrugged.
“Because there was never reason to.”
“But if there’s a child being abused…!”
“Vice Director Tessa Harrington.”
The Director cut me off.
“How you interpret that clause is your prerogative. But when you separate a child from their parents, you’ll be responsible for what comes after. Can you handle that?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t hesitate for even a moment.
“I will take responsibility.”
* * *
Director McGuffin advised that it would be better not to file any report regarding that clause.
If we actually invoked that clause and clashed with the higher authorities—the Imperial Court and noble society—there would certainly be considerable backlash, but there was no need to tip our hand beforehand.
It was better to catch them off guard.
‘He’s right.’
Timothy was fortunately doing well under Cain’s protection.
‘Perhaps I may never need to use it.’
It was a grave miscalculation.
Mere days later, an opportunity to test that clause directly presented itself.
A report of child abuse came in from a Village Near Capital.
Though the Child Protection Bureau was largely defunct, reports occasionally arrived from commoners unaware of this fact, sent in the Bureau’s name on the slim chance that something might be done—and this was precisely such a case.
I had reviewed the previous reports upon taking office as Vice Director, but all were too old to even trace.
But this case was different.
It had arrived today.
The report stated that a widower next door appeared to be abusing his young daughter, with sharp screams heard every night.
I immediately rose from my seat and handed the documents to Director McGuffin.
“Look at this.”
The director stared at me with a bewildered expression.
“What is this?”
“There’s suspected abuse. We need to investigate.”
The director handed the documents back to me.
“If you want to go, go alone. I won’t stop you.”
“What about you, Director?”
“Will abusive parents stop abusing their children just because I show up?”
In the past, I would have had no choice but to accept Director McGuffin’s logic.
But now I had another way.
A nine-year-old child—reported to be remarkably thin and small for their age—and I knew how to save them.
Of course, there were risks involved.
The child’s father was a respected mage in the village, a commoner who possessed considerable wealth.
He could easily hire lawyers to harass me endlessly.
Moreover, Imperial Law Article 493, Section 5—the very statute I intended to invoke—was a dead letter, however much it existed in the Imperial legal code.
There was room for dispute in court.
But…
‘How could I turn away?’
There was an abused child out there.
And I was Vice Director of the Child Protection Bureau.
Whether I had sought this position or not, I had to at least fulfill the duties it demanded.
Besides.
‘I’m exhausted by inaction.’
Watching Timothy suffer abuse had been more than enough.
Whatever world I had transmigrated into, whatever future awaited me, I wanted to uphold my humanity.
Director McGuffin clearly disapproved of my decision.
“I won’t recommend this. Helping the princess or the marquis’s daughter—there’s something to gain there. But saving one commoner child…?”
“I don’t help children to gain something.”
“No matter how obscure a statute you’ve uncovered, there’s room for dispute. It could become a headache later.”
“I don’t care.”
Director McGuffin exhaled a sigh—I’d lost count of how many.
“You’ll die before your time, living like that.”
I couldn’t agree more with him on that point.
But what did it matter?
There was a child out there who needed help.

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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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