A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 326

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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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“The carriage is coming separately. I wanted to walk a bit, so I’ve been strolling slowly from up ahead.”
No, I absolutely despise walking. Why would I abandon a comfortable carriage just to trudge on foot?
‘Even so, what can I do?’
The one eager to inform me of this situation was frantically urging me to leave quickly. My gaze shifted toward Jans’s side.
A man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties… no, a Male Ghost. He was Count Arueme himself—Jans’s deceased former husband.
[My wife is currently in distress.]
That was what he had urgently conveyed to me during the carriage ride. A plea for help…
Having grasped the situation roughly, I deliberately descended from the carriage and entered the Home with utmost discretion.
Perhaps due to the commotion occurring inside, there wasn’t a single guard stationed at the entrance.
“This way, if you please.”
Dotia hurriedly attempted to lead me to the Reception Room. Yet even as he made his request, my gaze remained fixed upon Jans.
“Jans, do join us as well.”
“…Pardon? Me too?”
Jans, who had just finished gathering up all the pamphlets and was rising to her feet, looked at me with slightly startled eyes.
There was no reason for her to share a room with a visitor who had come on business to see Dotia.
“I’m not sure why you would ask that, but you could simply speak with me…”
Dotia, equally bewildered, cautiously posed the question to me.
“I have business with the Countess.”
I smiled faintly, then took the pamphlets from Jans’s hands and passed them to my husband Peri, who stood quietly to one side.
“You as well.”
“…?”
Peri, who had accepted the pamphlets somewhat bewilderedly, regarded me with wide eyes for a moment before silently following my gesture to come along.
* * *
“You’ve seen this person before, haven’t you?”
“…”
“…”
Seated in the Reception Room, I immediately produced a photograph and placed it before both Dotia and Peri. It was Aaron’s photograph.
Upon seeing it, both their faces stiffened momentarily, but soon enough, without anyone yielding to the other, they shook their heads vigorously.
“Who is this person?”
“I’ve never seen them before…”
“You don’t know them?”
I let out a silent laugh, as though I had already anticipated such a reaction.
“How strange.”
Then, as if unable to comprehend, I tilted my head slightly.
“Yet why did this person claim to know you?”
“…Pardon?”
“That is to say…!”
“You truly don’t know who this man is?”
As I posed the question once more, both Dotia and Peri swallowed hard in unison.
Unlike moments before, an immediate answer did not flow forth. Their eyes darted ceaselessly, as though trying to discern my intent behind such a question.
“Do you happen to know this?”
Camilla continued speaking without letting her gaze waver for even a moment, as though she refused to miss a single expression from either of them.
“That this man is a member of the Eba Cult.”
“…W-what? The Eba Cult?”
“A member of the Eba Cult?! That’s impossible!”
Both of them cried out simultaneously at her words. In particular, Peri, the husband of the Countess, shot to his feet in shock.
“He was caught this time as the kidnapper of children. True to his nature as an Eba Cultist, he used the children he took as sacrifices.”
“S-sacrifices?!”
“His Majesty was absolutely furious. He declared that all those involved in this matter would be hunted down and executed, or have all their assets confiscated.”
“Execution….”
Asset confiscation?! This was madness!
At Camilla’s words, both their complexions drained of color simultaneously.
“Absolutely not! The Eba Cult? There must be some mistake! We were told the children were being sold abroad!”
“Peri!”
“…!”
Peri, who had been speaking hastily in his defense, finally realized his blunder at his father Dotia’s urgent call.
He quickly clamped his mouth shut, but….
“Ah… so you were trying to sell the child abroad.”
Camilla had already heard everything.
Watching the two of them dig themselves deeper with their own words far more easily than she’d anticipated, Camilla silently shook her head in disapproval.
‘Really, why would you abandon your own child.’
The missing child from this household was different from the others—she had not been kidnapped by Aaron.
These two had dragged the Countess’s daughter away themselves and sold her to that man.
[They sold their child to that man….]
It was Count Arueme, the girl’s father, who had revealed this fact to her.
‘No matter that she wasn’t their biological child.’
How could anyone do such a thing?
‘But then again, perhaps humans do such things precisely because they are human.’
Even animals cared for their young!
“What… what is all this talk about?”
At that moment, a trembling voice quietly interjected into the conversation of the three—it was Jans, the Countess.
“What have you done with my child… what have you done with my child?”
Her eyes and voice trembled continuously. Had she heard correctly? Sold? Who to whom?
“So….”
My child wasn’t kidnapped?
“My child….”
You sold my Jesi to that murderer?!
“You….”
Jans approached her husband Peri, whose face remained deathly pale.
“Is it true? You sold our child away?”
“This is not the time for that! We’re talking about the Eba Cult! We’re all going to die!”
“Speak plainly! Did you sell the child?”
“Damn it! Who do you think you are! You barren wretch! Did you really think I’d keep raising someone who isn’t even my blood!”
“…So you really did sell the child.”
“So what if I did?”
Crack!
Peri’s head snapped to the side.
‘Oh, that was quite a blow.’
Watching this unfold, I felt a small surge of admiration. The Countess’s hand technique was exceptional. Her strikes carried real force.
“Y-you insane bitch! I saved you all from ruin! And you show no gratitude!”
Whoosh!
Peri’s hand shot upward. But the Countess didn’t flinch.
Instead, she clenched her fist and glared at him with murderous intent.
“That’s enough.”
“…!”
Peri froze mid-swing toward Jans, stopped by the quiet steel in my voice.
“You just admitted you sold the child.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant…!”
“Are you unaware that human trafficking is a capital crime in the Empire? And your buyer was the Eba Cult, no less. You must have been loyal to them for quite some time.”
“N-no, that’s not true!”
Peri stammered in panic. He had to answer carefully now. One wrong word and he’d be branded as Eba Cult collaborators—and executed for it.
“It wasn’t me! I didn’t suggest it! My father did! Yes, my father orchestrated everything!”
“You….”
Dotia’s eyes widened at his son’s sudden betrayal.
It was his son who had first proposed this scheme—who had mentioned that someone he’d recently met was buying children at an exorbitant price and suggested they dispose of the child that way.
Of course, Dotia had acquiesced and participated in the deed, but now his son was pinning everything on him!
“You… ungrateful…!”
Dotia’s face flushed with rage, and he began to speak, but then he saw his son trembling with fear. He exhaled a long sigh.
“Sigh.”
If his son was begging for his life like this, how could a father drag him down with him?
‘The Eba Cult.’
This wasn’t about anything else—it was connected to the Eba Cult. Dotia knew well enough that the entire Empire was in an uproar hunting them down.
This meant they could both die. If it had come to this, wasn’t it better if at least one of them survived?
If handled well, there was a decent chance he’d just spend some time in Prison and be released. As long as his son managed the business well in the meantime.
‘Damn it.’
All his caution had only made things worse.
There was a time before when he’d attempted something illegal and been backstabbed by someone else.
He’d commissioned the work, only to be extorted with it as leverage…. He’d been shaken down for enormous sums several times.
This time, to avoid providing such leverage, he’d moved directly himself and sold off the child, but now the situation had spiraled out of control.
If they hadn’t acted directly, there would have been some way to slip through the cracks.
“Did you really, truly make this decision alone?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying… stop lying!”
The Countess of Count Arueme, Jans, her voice rising higher and higher. To anyone’s eyes, this was not something Dotia had done alone.
Looking at Peri’s reaction just moments ago and what he was saying, it was clear he had actually been the one leading this.
“The two of you did this together, didn’t you!”
“Shut your mouth! Who was it that saved this crumbling family! Did you think I would hand over everything I’ve built to prosperity with my own money to some brat with not a drop of my blood!”

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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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