Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 48

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 48
* * *
The moment the carriage pulled through Gonnet’s gates, Mona burst into tears.
“The audacity! A mere Discarded Concubine dares to treat me that way! Father? You saw, didn’t you?! You saw that horrible look in her eyes!”
“Yes, yes, I saw. Compose yourself, Mona.”
Oswald produced a handkerchief and offered it to her.
Mona couldn’t even take it—she wept openly.
“I can’t compose myself! Father, give her something to silence her tongue… sell her to a brothel! That’s the only way I’ll be satisfied!”
“Of course, of course. Your father will see to it. He will.”
The baron patted his weeping daughter’s back.
His words were soothing, but his eyes remained fixed on something beyond the window.
‘Sharper than I expected. This could prove troublesome.’
He had already completed his investigation into Lorelthiana.
The considerable expense had been worth it—he’d discovered that this Discarded Concubine who’d become Grand Duchess had received poor treatment even during her years as a princess.
He’d assumed she would yield readily to gentle persuasion, but…
‘Tch.’
Oswald continued to console his weeping daughter with hollow assurances while his mind worked steadily.
‘No matter how she resists, I have the Edict that the late Grand Duchess left me.’
The late Grand Duchess—his own sister—had borne a son.
By rights, he should have been the legitimate heir to the Gonnet Grand Duke House, but the title had ultimately fallen to Shelkan, that mongrel.
Shelkan’s superior ability and achievements had certainly played a role, but there was another reason.
The late Grand Duchess’s son, the only true legitimate heir of Gonnet, had been born with a congenital disability.
A crippled legitimate heir was useless.
Worse than useless.
The greater the house, the more exclusive it became in choosing its successor.
Even the profligate and merciless late Grand Duke had despised bastard sons, yet in the end he’d passed his title to that mongrel anyway.
So of course that cursed Shelkan Gonnet paid the boy no mind whatsoever.
He knew too well that Gaisel posed no threat at all.
His teeth clenched.
‘Foolish Matilda. I told her not to give the late Grand Duke the Infertility Drug.’
It had been his sister Matilda who’d coveted the Grand Duchess’s position, knowing how lustful the late Grand Duke was.
She’d induced abortion in every woman who became pregnant by him.
Only Yayin, Shelkan’s mother, had carried Shelkan to term despite consuming an enormous quantity of the Abortion Drug.
Matilda had been furious, but she’d soon regained her composure when she discovered her own pregnancy.
What did it matter if a mongrel bastard by that half-breed woman had been born?
The next Grand Duke would carry her blood regardless.
The moment Matilda delivered her son safely, she’d secretly dosed the late Grand Duke with the Infertility Drug.
No one knew at the time.
No one realized that the son Matilda had delivered so triumphantly would never be able to use his legs.
She had brought ruin upon herself.
The late Grand Duke had made every effort to father another child, but his vitality had already been completely destroyed. No matter what he did, he could not produce an heir.
In the end, the late Grand Duke fell into drink and died in squalor.
Matilda, too, had perished, consumed by the ravages of grief.
‘Tch, tch.’
That crippled legitimate heir now lived under his protection.
The only clever thing his precipitous sister had managed before her death…
“Father, Father—is it really true? If that base Discarded Concubine gives birth to a daughter, will that daughter have to marry you?”
“Hush! I told you not to speak of this outside.”
“There’s no one in this carriage but us.”
Mona’s tears had dried. She wound her red hair around her finger, pouting her lip.
“Either way, it’s certain, isn’t it? Grandmother definitely left such an Edict! Ha! When that day comes, what can that filthy Discarded Concubine do? Her own daughter by that mongrel will become Father’s second wife?”
It was true.
The late Grand Duchess had left an Edict stipulating that should Shelkan bear a daughter, that daughter must marry her own brother.
It was quite common in society for grandparents to arrange their grandchildren’s marriages in advance.
Though an age difference of nearly seventy years between betrothed was unprecedented…
Oswald rubbed his hands together with a smile.
He feared no gossip. He had no intention of actually enforcing this Edict anyway.
If the marriage came to pass, excellent; if not, even better. The Grand Duke House would bear the cost of annulment. That was the nature of such documents.
Held in reserve, they could be exploited for a lifetime—an inexhaustible well.
And besides, if Oswald, heir to a noble baron house, were to take in the half-breed child of a mongrel, wouldn’t he be praised rather than condemned?
Or perhaps Shelkan Gonnet, who had suffered unspeakable abuse at his sister’s hands, would lose himself to fury and kill each daughter the moment she was born……
After all, what wouldn’t a base-born half-breed do?
Either way favored him. Best of all would be if Shelkan Gonnet died without leaving an heir.
Until now, everything had gone flawlessly.
The moment Shelkan Gonnet inherited the title, he was consumed with repaying the staggering debts, while the Council of Elders had been packed solid with Oswald’s people since time immemorial, leaving not a crack to exploit.
Everything proceeded smoothly, yet a small shadow nagged at his mind.
‘That brazen Discarded Concubine did stir up trouble in the middle of things, forcing me to personally repay a portion of the debt.’
Still, Oswald reckoned such a price well worth paying, and he soothed his bitter feelings.
Shelkan Gonnet, for all his rank as Grand Duke, despised these lands and seldom returned. That too suited his purposes entirely.
It would be perfect if he never returned at all—if he were to die abroad.
‘To suddenly produce a Grand Duchess, no less. Tsk, such scheming runs in his base-born mother’s blood.’
The sudden appearance of a Grand Duchess complicated matters, but it mattered little.
A cruel smile played across Oswald’s lips.
‘I do hope word of Shelkan Gonnet’s death reaches me soon.’
When that time came, he would arrange for the presumptuous Grand Duchess to meet an unfortunate accident as well.
The vacant Gonnet Grand Duke House would then pass easily into the hands of his sister’s only son—and ultimately into his own grasp.
Oswald had been chuckling to himself when his brow suddenly furrowed.
Beyond the carriage window, a haze of dust was rising thick and heavy across the plains.
What was this?
From the far horizon, dozens of mounted riders came thundering across the earth.
Just as the thunder of hoofbeats reached his feet through the carriage floor, he glimpsed the banner held high by the leading rider.
The seal of Gonnet, emblazoned upon a field of black.
Oswald’s face went ashen the moment he recognized it.
“The Gonnet Knight Order……?”
The half-breed was back already?
It couldn’t be!

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————