A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad - Chapter 288
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Powerful Child Searches for Dad Episode 288
“I will order the Empress’s Palace to be sealed until the case is resolved.”
At Pides’s words, Lavania’s eyes shook greatly.
“Sealed? Pides, what are you saying? Sealed!”
“Exactly as I said.”
The air grew heavy with the coldly delivered response.
“It means no one can leave, and no one can enter.”
Lavania staggered as she rose from her seat.
“Right now… you’re saying you’ll confine me here?”
“It’s protection, not confinement!”
Pides’s gaze turned sharp.
“Then what should I do? Keep the doors of the Empress’s Palace wide open and let those hiding their true intentions approach Mother freely?!”
Lavania’s face hardened.
Pides stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.
“Then Mother will just nod along to their words with that foolish face, just like before.”
Finally, tears welled up in Lavania’s widened eyes.
However, Pides did not avoid her gaze.
“Remember this clearly. The decision of whether to protect or abandon Mother is mine.”
Lavania’s shoulders trembled.
“…Abandon?”
She muttered as if she couldn’t believe it.
“I was always on your side. Even when His Majesty disapproved of you, even when everyone distanced themselves from you, I alone never let go of your hand… and you would abandon me?”
Her voice grew louder.
“How can you do this to me! How can you! Ugh, huu-uk!”
However, no trace of compassion crossed Pides’s expression.
He frowned as if tired.
“So.”
His low voice continued.
“Stay quietly in the palace for the time being.”
Pides turned around.
“…Everything is what Mother brought upon herself.”
Finally, he left Lavania’s room.
As soon as his footsteps faded away, Lavania collapsed to the floor as if her strength had left her.
“Ugh, uu-huu-uk…!”
Where did it all go wrong?
Surely everything had been going smoothly.
She had simply made the necessary choices for her only son.
At that moment, one name flashed through her mind.
‘Ardiana.’
She had never once thought that child would be a threat.
Ardiana was weak and incompetent.
No matter how much she tormented her.
No matter how much she oppressed her, she was a child who couldn’t even properly glare back.
“Ardiana… Ahhk, ahhhhk!”
Tears soaked in rage dripped onto the back of her hand.
An indelible premonition was gnawing at her heart.
“How dare she be so insolent…”
Until now, she thought she was the one who had abandoned the Emperor.
For her only son, it was a decision she had made herself.
But.
‘It wasn’t what I did. That child, Ardiana pushed me away.’
What was the reason she met Nes in the first place?
It was because Lavania had created her own mercenary association.
‘Creating the association by force was to keep Ardiana in check…’
The hidden side of the situation gradually revealed itself.
She was not the one who had set the trap.
Lavania bit her lips until they bled.
In her blurred vision.
She seemed to hear the sound of something collapsing somewhere.
She couldn’t tell if that sound came from somewhere in the palace or from within herself.
What was certain was that the noose Ardiana had thrown was slowly tightening around her neck.
Meanwhile.
As soon as he returned to the Prince Palace, Pides headed to his office.
And as soon as he sat at his desk, he asked the aide who was waiting.
“How much wealth do I have left?”
The aide hesitated and watched Pides’s expression.
“Your Highness, well…”
Pides’s eyebrows twitched.
“It’s fine, so speak quickly. There’s no time.”
The aide fidgeted restlessly and clasped his hands together.
“Actually, the private wealth you’ve squandered on gambling is already considerable. Recently, you also hired a large number of private soldiers in preparation for possible battles within the Imperial Palace…”
“…”
“During the regency decision discussions, the money paid to silence several nobles was also substantial…”
“Is there nothing left? Not even a little?”
The aide bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, but that’s correct. Even some of the recent expenses were covered by public funds, so there are already holes in the financial records…”
Pides slowly clenched his fist.
Just a few weeks, no, even a few months ago, he never expected such a situation would arise.
That’s why he hadn’t stockpiled finances without any sense of tension or crisis.
‘But to think not a single coin remains.’
The letter demanding 500,000 gold came to mind.
500,000 gold.
It was an absurdly large amount, but at the same time, it was an amount Pides could have somehow managed if he had been managing his finances properly.
He let out a deep groan and leaned his head back.
‘Though I said that.’
Should he really abandon Lavania?
If he didn’t pay the 500,000 gold, that mercenary would surely expose Lavania’s crimes.
‘If it’s revealed that I knew and turned a blind eye…’
Pides squeezed his eyes shut.
There was only one way for him to escape this ordeal.
‘Reporting Mother before that mercenary does.’
His head throbbed.
‘I was always on your side.’
Lavania’s tearful voice kept circling in his mind.
‘Even when everyone distanced themselves from you, I alone never let go of your hand…’
Pides opened his eyes.
Then, having decided on something, he gritted his teeth and rose from his chair.
“There’s no choice. I have to touch the treasury again.”
His aide looked up at him in shock.
However, Pides had no other options.
‘She’s still my mother.’
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t frustrated and disappointed.
But Lavania was the only person he could rely on in the Imperial Palace.
Even her attempt to poison the Emperor was something she did to give him the throne as quickly as possible.
“Your Highness. You cannot. If you’re discovered again this time…!”
“Silence.”
His aide urgently stepped forward, but Pides coldly cut off his words.
“Write a letter to the treasury manager. Tell him to transfer 500,000 gold to the Prince Palace treasury by tonight. Of course, make sure it doesn’t reach Balthasar Grail’s ears.”
The aide’s face turned pale.
“Your Highness. Please reconsider! Records will remain in the documents! At this rate, there’s no way to hide it…”
Pides turned his head.
His narrowed eyes gleamed coldly.
“Don’t you know that when I become Emperor, erasing a single record would be more than enough with just one finger?”
The aide’s lips parted.
Pides placed both hands on the desk.
“The hole in the treasury can be filled with the private wealth of those vermin who sided with Ardiana. The first thing I’ll do when I become Emperor is to banish them all to the frontier.”
He commanded.
“Write the letter to the treasury manager.”
“…”
“Right now.”
Dark night.
The backdoor of the Prince Palace.
Two carts covered with straw mats carefully entered through the gates.
Servants holding torches kept watch around them, followed by the treasury manager.
At that moment.
Someone wearing a veil emerged from inside the Prince Palace.
“…You arrived on time.”
The one slowly removing his hood was Pides.
He approached the cart and lifted the straw mat covering it.
Bright yellow gold coins were revealed inside.
After briefly examining them, Pides covered them with the mat again.
Then he commanded.
“Begin.”
The servants nodded and began pushing the carts into the Prince Palace.
Mud stuck to the cart wheels smeared across the clean marble floor.
Pides walked through the palace he had emptied in advance, lost in thought.
‘From now on, it’s just a matter of time.’
If he could silence the old mercenary with this money and get his hands on the regent position.
Seizing the throne and getting rid of Ardiana would be a matter of moments.
‘Give what must be given, take what must be taken.’
While he nodded to himself.
The group reached the treasury at the deepest part of the Prince Palace.
“Open it.”
At Pides’s command, his aide stepped forward.
The aide pulled out a key with a complex structure from his sleeve.
He looked back at Pides with a heavy expression.
“Then… I’ll open it.”
But just as the key was about to touch the lock—
Click.
A strange metallic sound cut through the air.
Everyone, including Pides, froze in place.
“Y-Your Highness.”
The aide turned around, still holding the key.
The key hadn’t been inserted yet.
Yet the tightly closed treasury door was opening from the inside.
Pides’s pupils dilated.
What emerged from inside was a familiar face.
“How did you all…”
“Your Highness… at last!”
Baltazar.
“Ahem! This is quite…”
Several other high-ranking loyalists clearing their throats with uncomfortable expressions.
And,
“Is this your way, brother?”
Cold blue eyes stared at Pides as if to pierce through him.
“Just gold that fits in two carts…”
Ardiana looked down at the carts and chuckled.
“I suppose your throne was cheaper than I thought, brother.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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