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

(3rd person pov)

Princess Titania and Duke Rayman met each other for the first time as betrothed when they were only five years old.

“Don't show your weaknesses.”

These words were added by the Duke of Castrine, who seldom visited the Imperial Palace, as he took his first-born son.

“She’s a child, so anything can change, but…”

Duke Castrine looked down at the eldest son, who, even at a young age, was more energetic than any grown-up.

“The opponent is the imperial family, and we were forced to marry into their family. Just adjust to it in moderation until you reach the age. It might be better than to give an excuse for ignorant wolves to stalk you.”

Rayman simply nodded his head at what his father and the owner of the house had said. The imperial family was behind them. He couldn't have known that.

The five-year-old Titania he met at the imperial palace was pretty.

The little girl, with her long white blonde hair drooping and blinking gleaming green eyes, was literally a doll.

The moment his eyes met hers for the first time, he stopped without realizing it.

She was still a child, and the cumbersome trinkets hanging from her wrists and head made her look like a ludicrous mannequin.

Titania, who glanced at this side with her blushing cheeks, was rather like an angel wrapped around them with a halo.

It was unfamiliar for Rayman to compare her to looking at god.

Had she kept her first meeting the same, maybe Rayman would have kept that image of his fiance as it was.

However, Princess Titania was obsessed with Rayman.

The direct blood relatives of the Duke of Castrine hardly stayed in the capital. He stayed in the Northern Territory for more than two-thirds of a year, only going there for the New Year's banquet at the Imperial Palace and the summer socializing season.

Since Rayman was the next Duke, he had a lot of work to do and a lot of responsibilities. Along with the bloodline secrets that should never be revealed to outsiders.

In the first place, the fiance that he couldn’t even see a few times a year, he thought it was okay to just treat her like that.

Always, Titania clung to Rayman. When he didn't respond, she became even more tenacious. Nevertheless, Rayman did not give her the reaction she wanted.

Because she always wished for something she couldn't wish for from him.

“…Why doesn't Rayman like me the most?”

“Why did Rayman…”

“I like Rayman the most…”

Only once, Princess Titania cried in front of him.

It would have been after he gave his first dance of the year at the birthday banquet of the Countess of Orland's daughter-in-law, a faithful vassal of the Dukes of Castrine.

It was the words that she, who always sat up perfectly dressed, smiled like a doll, spat out words like a little child, not caring whether her makeup had melted or not at the end of her anger.

He was used to her getting angry, and was accustomed to her grunting her teeth saying she was going to kill that damn bitch.

Since she was his fiance, behaving like that somehow did make sense. However, it was unfamiliar to cry as if he had let everything go like that.

Rayman was silent, unable to reach out his hand.

The answer was simple. Rayman was the next head of the Duke of Castrine. The duke was originally strong, but he had already passed the heyday of his power and declined, and Rayman’s younger brothers were still immature.

The reason that Rayman endured his fiancee's affairs was that this engagement was a contract between the imperial family and the duke.

The feelings between them two didn't matter.

Rayman never put Titania ‘first’, because he was carrying the weight of his own estate and family, the safety of his people, and the weight of the northern front line.

Therefore, he could neither appease Titania from crying nor lie. The girl, who smiled brightly as if she was holding her bouquet when she first saw him, gradually got her eyes wet with poison.

There were times when she was just blatantly disregarding or reviling him, as if she wanted to see Rayman bewildered or angry.

Though, he got used to those things.

"I'm sure it's just lies anyway."

Rayman ignored the grunts of his lieutenant Cassian and moved on.

“When you become a member of the Imperial Family, your body becomes a sugar cookie, right? How could she possibly fall off the balcony on the second floor and get into a coma?"

"It could happen if she fell from her head."

"Isn't it the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Palace?! At least, she must have been trying to bring you in. Such a lie only lasts a day or two."

Rayman was silent at Cassian's words, but he agreed emotionally.

The princess had little to do with him in the Imperial Palace. She was old enough to make a debut in the social world, but she couldn't even make her debut due to her neglected situation.

Thanks to her, her fiancée, Rayman, traveled around socialites and attended other people's parties, but the princess could only do her best to summon Rayman to her palace and be angry at him.

It would be similar this time too. Saying she was hurt would be an excuse, and she would dress up perfectly and get angry and fuss in front of him.

And then she would try to hold on to Rayman just a little longer...

“Welcome, Duke.”

…Did he expect her to do all sorts of tricks?

Rayman stopped his steps for a moment. He had no choice but to do so. Cassian, who had been chasing after him while grumbling right behind him, let out a gasp of astonishment.

Princess Titania greeted Rayman with a bright smile. No, there was nothing wrong with that fact.

If there was a problem…

It was the appearance of Princess Titania.

It wasn't a lie that she was injured and went through a coma, for there were bandages and splints around her head and neck with her slender legs clearly visible. She even had gauze on her cheeks.

Her hair, which was always shiny like the sun, was frizzy and loose, and the clothes she was wearing...

Oh my god. A shawl like a sackcloth in a white dress that was not even shown among her family members.

She still had slender cheeks and pale skin, and it seemed to be true that she was really close to death.

What was surprising was that she showed it completely to Rayman.

Titania took great pride in her beauty. In fact, he thought that the only thing he could trust was her beauty

She was the most beautiful woman in the empire, and that was her pride. She wouldn't have greeted Rayman unless she was in perfect shape. Rayman also acknowledged her pure looks.

“…I heard that you were very ill. Forgive me for visiting now.”

"It's a shame to be seen in front of the Duke."

Instead of scolding him for things like, 'why are you here now?' or 'does my fiancée have to come here?'.

Cassian, who had been watching Titania's words and deeds more closely than anyone else, had trembling eyes like, 'she almost died, so did the princess change?'.

But Rayman felt a strange sense of incongruity.

“Duke. I have something to tell you, so can you please let the lieutenant leave?”

…Since when did Titania talk like that?

He forced Cassian, who said with his eyes, 'she is really crazy and I don't know what to do', out the door, and Rayman sat down at the table with Titania alone.

The princess lifted up her teacup in an unparalleled elegance, even in her messy outfit, and set it down. Then she said, with her sharp green eyes shining.

"I would like to make a deal."

“…What deal are you talking about?"

The more she talked, the more the sense of incongruity grew.

Titania was not the type of person who could act so resolutely in front of Rayman.

She would harass him so he knew she was ill, be upset by her shameful appearance, and would beg him saying, 'my fiance should give his fiancée what she deserves.'.

He hasn't seen her in a long time, so she had to get angry, saying that he didn't even say a word that he missed her.

Above all else, desperate longings were always dripping down from her gaze on Rayman.

"Earl Bradley's estate... There is a closed iron ore mine on Mount Halon in the northwest of Wheaton. It was given to my mother by the Emperor as a reward, but it was closed because the iron ore was exhausted. It is far from the main estate and there are few people because it is almost abandoned since it’s not profitable now. Rather, there are ghastly rumors that ghosts are coming out, so some people don’t even go near there.”

But now Titania only caressed the teacup and smiled softly like an old merchant.

As if her wounds were getting better and she was wrapped around her gauze with a bandage, as if there was no problem with how she looked.

Her transparent green eyes looked rather indifferent.

"At the end of the iron ore pit lies <Gloriana's Emblem>."

“…!”

It was information he never imagined he would hear here.

Rayman's face hardened.