A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 327

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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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“You….”
Countess Arum’s fists clenched so tightly that her nails drew blood, yet she felt no pain.
How could he do this to a child?
“You’re telling me you made this decision entirely on your own and carried it all through?”
At that moment, Camilla posed another question. Her tone had shifted noticeably.
No longer speaking as a duchess—technically, this visit was ostensibly for business, so she had maintained a certain courtesy.
But they were no longer business partners. Dotia was nothing but a criminal who had sold a child, and one connected to the Eba Cult at that.
“Yes, I did it all alone. My son only learned the truth later.”
“You don’t skip your tea, do you?”
“…I’m sorry?”
Camilla cut off Dotia mid-sentence as he tried to shoulder all the blame himself, and brought up something entirely unexpected.
“I do drink tea regularly, but why would you suddenly ask that…?”
“There must be a particular tea you take every morning and evening without fail.”
“…?”
How could she possibly know that? Dotia’s eyes widened slightly as he glanced at his son Peri standing beside him.
Camilla was right—there was indeed a tea he consumed faithfully every morning and evening.
Peri had given it to him as a gift, claiming it was good for his health, something he’d procured expensively from abroad.
‘Peri?’
But something seemed off about his son’s reaction to Camilla’s words.
His complexion had grown even paler than before, and he was trembling far more violently.
A soft rustling sound.
“Do you know this man, by any chance?”
Camilla produced another photograph and placed it on the table.
“…? I’ve never seen him before.”
This time, it wasn’t a lie. It truly was a photograph of a man she’d never seen.
“This man was also arrested this time.”
“Could he also be connected to the Eba Cult…?”
“No.”
Camilla shook her head slightly, her gaze shifting to Peri, who was now trembling even more violently than before.
He flinched at her stare, shrinking back into himself.
“An illegal merchant.”
“An illegal merchant?”
Dotia swallowed hard, feeling a chill run through her. As an illegal merchant herself, she had deep connections to that world.
They were people who secretly traded in goods that the state had forbidden from sale.
Dotia herself conducted regular transactions with such merchants. Many of her clients requested illegal goods, and the profits were quite substantial.
‘Surely she doesn’t know about that too?’
Dotia examined the man’s face in the photograph once more, carefully.
But no matter how hard she looked, she didn’t recognize him. He was certainly not someone she dealt with.
“When we arrested this man, we obtained a list of those who engaged in illegal transactions with him.”
Camilla’s gaze turned once again toward Peri, Dotia’s son.
“Your name came up in connection with them.”
“…My son, you say?”
Dotia also turned to regard his son with startled eyes. Had the boy conducted some illegal transaction without his knowledge? What in the world could it have been?
Yet his son’s reaction seemed peculiar once more—his gaze wavered ceaselessly, refusing to meet Dotia’s eyes directly.
“What he sold to you was poison, apparently.”
“…Poison?”
“Poison in the form of tea.”
“Tea? Tea, you say…?”
…Wait. Tea?
Dotia’s expression shifted gradually as he repeated Camilla’s words over and over.
His own son had obtained poison in tea form from some black-market merchant.
There was only one thing that came to mind!
“You….”
“No! No, Father!”
That tea his son had given him not long ago—claiming it was a precious variety sold abroad, insisting he drink it faithfully morning and evening for his health…!
“He said he requested poison that wouldn’t show immediate effects but would work gradually over time. That way, no one would suspect poisoning or identify him as the culprit.”
“Tea, you say….”
He didn’t want to believe it. He desperately hoped his suspicion was unfounded. His son, his own son, seeking poison to kill him—it was unthinkable.
“It looked like this, he said.”
“…!”
But the moment Camilla produced a small vial containing tea leaves, Dotia could no longer deny the truth.
The tea Camilla held was identical to the very tea his son had given him. His complexion, which had gone blank for a moment, rapidly flushed crimson with rage.
“Peri, you bastard!”
“F-Father. That is…!”
“You tried to kill your own father! How dare you, how dare you!”
“It’s a misunderstanding. Please, just calm down….”
“Calm down? Calm down! You filthy wretch!”
“Damn it. Who asked you to live so damn long anyway!”
“What, what! You, you ungrateful! You shameless bastard!”
Chaos erupted.
‘This is pure melodrama.’
The Dukes would absolutely love to see this recorded. They seemed quite absorbed in such dramas lately. Camilla observed the two men with considerable interest.
The door burst open!
“Dotia and Peri are hereby arrested on charges of conspiracy with the Eba Cult and child abduction.”
“Gasp!”
“Ah, ah!”
Moments later, soldiers who had been waiting outside flooded into the Reception Room. Of course, these were all men Camilla had summoned beforehand.
‘Those who commit crimes must face justice.’
Conspiracy with the Eba Cult, attempted murder of one’s own father, and the illegal trafficking of a child.
A prison sentence was inevitable, and they might even face execution as Camilla had suggested. Emperor Edsen despised the Eba Cult, after all.
“Ah, Father! You did all of this!”
“Shut your mouth! You wretched bastard! Don’t you dare call me Father! You’re still lying through your teeth! You were the one who suggested this in the first place! I have all the evidence!”
“Evidence? Ha! So you kept evidence because you couldn’t trust your own son?”
“Why are you even my son! You damned—!”
As the soldiers dragged Dotia away, he no longer shielded his son.
Watching the two of them scramble to shift blame onto each other, I found myself clicking my tongue in disapproval.
“….”
Once the two were dragged out and silence fell over the Reception Room, only I and Countess Arum—Jans—remained.
She sat collapsed on the floor, her mind completely shattered.
‘Jesi… my child….’
Dead, then? The Eba Cult? They handed our child over to such monsters?
“Kh…ugh….”
She couldn’t breathe properly. No tears would come.
I… have no right to cry.
The remarriage, the choice for the child’s sake. A marriage chosen solely to protect the child, to restore our crumbling house and raise the child properly.
‘But….’
That choice killed the child. I… killed the child. My Jesi, I….
“Madam.”
“….”
I approached her as she sat dazed on the floor. But Jans showed no response.
Her eyes had lost all focus.
“Madam.”
I called to her again quietly. Still no response. But I continued speaking.
“I’ve brought someone with me. Would it be alright if they came in?”
“….”
“Come in.”
No permission had been granted, but I moved to open the Reception Room door.
Those who had been waiting there stepped inside—those who had arrived at Count Arum’s Estate just moments ago after riding in the carriage I had sent ahead.
“Is the conversation finished?”
“Yes.”
It was Dorman. I nodded at his question and stepped slightly to the side.
Then I could see the small child standing beside Dorman—Inyoung.
The child I had rescued from the Cave, the very one Aaron had tried to kill to gain vitality.
Still skeletal and gaunt, with barely any flesh visible, yet no longer the emaciated husk from when first discovered.
Swish.
The child standing beside Dorman shuffled toward me and grasped my skirt tightly.
The child who had seemed anxious beside Dorman finally found stability.
I gently took the child’s hand and led them toward Jans, who still sat dazed and collapsed.
“Madam.”
At my continued call, she finally lifted her head slowly for the first time.
“…Ah… Ahhh…!”
Jans’s expression shifted moment by moment.
Her vacant eyes gradually regained their luster, widening rapidly as a sound between a gasp and a sob escaped her lips.
“Je, Jesi!”
A cry—almost a scream—tore from her throat as she beheld the child standing beside Camilla.
The child she had believed dead now stood before her eyes!
The child Camilla had rescued from the Cave. The very daughter Countess Arum had lost—Jesi. And the one who had revealed all of this to her was….
[She is my daughter, my daughter….]
Count Arum, now deceased.

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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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