I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 10

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

Chapter 10.
A flicker of emotion crossed Cho’s eyes.
Instead of recoiling at my bombshell declaration, she brightened visibly.
Cho was different from other people, that much was clear. Most would have laughed it off as the prattling of a foolish child dreaming of marrying a prince.
But Cho didn’t laugh. Her eyes gleamed with interest.
She was calculating coldly whether my words held any profit for her.
And yet beneath that gleam lay no belief that my promise would come true—only suspicion.
“You’re going to marry Cassion?”
I nodded vigorously.
For now we were in a state of rejected proposal, but it was only a matter of time before Cassion took my hand. I was certain I could make it happen.
“Ha!”
Cho exhaled a low whistle. Her emotions remained unreadable. I proceeded slowly, laying out my plan.
“I’ll marry him, inherit the family estate, and pour full backing into your Guild. In return, you’ll prioritize my commissions whenever I ask.”
“So what you’re saying is, work for free first?”
“Hardly.”
I seized the necklace around my neck and tore it free. The gold caught and scraped my skin as it came away, but I didn’t flinch.
Cho’s eyes narrowed. Jennis gasped silently.
I rubbed absently at the wound on my neck, then pressed the necklace into Cho’s hand—an Emerald Gemstone the size of my thumb dangling from the chain.
“Your first advance. Find me someone: a sixteen-year-old with sky-blue hair, living in the Slums of the Capital. His name is Robert.”
There was no time to waste.
I needed a mad doctor. Urgently.
***
Cho accepted my commission with a bewildered expression, pocketing the Emerald Gemstone—larger than an adult’s thumbnail. While she set about handling my request, I threw myself into my own work.
“I’m here, Cassion.”
Another midnight visit. I slipped into his chamber, keeping my voice low.
‘I’m getting tired of crawling in through that hole every time.’
I brushed the dirt from my dress, dislodged from my passage.
‘But I can’t exactly use the front entrance either.’
If Colcos learned I was seeing Cassion, he’d cause trouble. Dayson would throw a fit.
‘I absolutely cannot be caught. And who knows how long Colcos will stay quiet.’
The last time I humiliated him, he’d withdrawn from public view, though word reached me that he’d been meeting with his household staff.
He was making noise about the urgent need to designate a guardian, they said.
‘I have to convince Cassion. And soon.’
My pulse quickened with urgency.
“Are you awake?”
Cassion was quieter than usual.
When I entered, I found him sitting by the moonlit window, wrapped in a blanket, gazing up at the sky.
If he’d been a healthy child, it would have been a picture—but seeing his emaciated frame in that pose sent a chill through me.
‘He looks like he’s about to die.’
There emanated from him a thick, suffocating resignation—the stench of someone ready to surrender life at any moment.
“Have you eaten? Is Flac taking good care of you?”
I pulled a chair across the room and sat beside him, speaking gently. Cassion offered no reply.
It was the familiar silence of dismissal.
For a time he’d tried to drive me away with heated words, but ever since he’d lost focus a few times mid-tirade, he’d settled into ignoring me instead.
I’d come prepared to be ignored, so there was no sting in it.
I coached myself into good humor and smiled at him.
The saying goes you can’t spit at a smiling face—but today Cassion didn’t even grant me a glance.
He was like a petulant cat, and I wanted to grab his cheeks and shake them playfully. But I was afraid his neck might snap, so I restrained myself.
“Stop being stubborn. Marry me?”
I’d expected today to follow the usual script.
Marry me. No.
Marry me. Get out.
But then—
“Would that… change things?”
The unexpected words fell from Cassion’s lips.
Somewhere along the way, he’d turned from the window ledge to face me directly.
Now I could see his face clearly. His condition was dire.
His eyes were sunken, and dried blood clung to the corner of his mouth.
‘Flac, you careless bastard—I told you to keep me informed!’
Even knowing Flac was in a position where frequent contact was impossible, I found myself blaming him the moment something went wrong with Cassion.
What could my fragile, sickly prince have endured now?
“Tell me. Will things change if you marry me?”
He was searching for that gossamer thread of hope in me.
But strangely, the honeyed words that would normally flow so easily hovered at the edge of my lips—refusing to spill out.
Why was today different?
“You’re asking if marrying you will cure this wretched disease of mine and let me wipe that look off Dayson’s face, aren’t you?”
So Dayson had been here again.
I remembered the things Dayson had spouted at Cassion the last time he visited the palace.
He hadn’t seemed to notice the improvement in circumstances, but it was easy enough to guess that he’d caused no small amount of trouble before leaving. I met Cassion’s gaze directly and spoke.
“Yes. I’ll cure your disease, scrub that look off Dayson’s face—no, I’ll strangle the life out of him.”
Words of promise tumbled from my mouth. I spoke carefully, deliberately, so Cassion could believe in me.
“How?”
This wasn’t a question born of disbelief. It was a plea—please, let me trust you.
“I told you. I’m rich. There’s nothing money can’t do. Just tell me what you want.”
“You speak as though you could buy a whole nation like it’s a trifle.”
It’s not amusing, but it is possible. If I become Family Head and have full control of the Irenber Estate, I could purchase a minor kingdom outright, even now.
And in time, I plan to grow that wealth even further. I’ll take back everything Dayson stole from me.
“Do you want a nation? The nation—just take our Kingdom. I’ll give it to you, I will.”
The nation Dayson will inherit—I’ll seize it from him.
When I finished speaking, Cassion shook his head as if he’d heard nothing but madness. Yet his lips curved softly upward.
“Don’t think about it so negatively. If you need land, I’ll cut off an estate in the Outskirts of Capital for you. So will you marry me, Cassion?”
I would give Cassion the best things I had to offer. For now, that was money; someday, it would be power.
But from Cassion’s perspective, I must have sounded like a braggart.
Cassion fell silent for a long while.
“No. I won’t.”
And the answer that came, too late, was a rejection.
I thought I’d won him over! Was this bastard playing games with me now?
My fist clenched, but I held it back.
I’m the one begging for marriage—I have to be patient.
“Fine. Don’t, then.”
I let my posture crumble and slumped carelessly against the chair. I decided to end today’s courtship here.
Life was always like this anyway—”It won’t work, won’t work, won’t work,” until suddenly, “It will, it will, it will.”
Cassion’s gaze fixed on the side of my face.
His expression remained impassive, but a glimmer of mischief sparkled in his eyes.
“But didn’t you slip into casual speech just now? That’s disrespect toward royalty.”
“Then report me.”
Cassion looked at me with the expression of someone witnessing an impossible phenomenon, then let out a sigh.
He stepped on the footrest he’d affixed to the wall and descended from the windowsill. He walked slowly and crawled into the blankets.
I pretended not to notice while tracking his every movement—ready to catch him if he stumbled.
Fortunately, he reached the bed safely and pulled the quilts snug around himself.
Since receiving my care, Cassion’s health had improved, if only subtly.
In the past, he would have paused several times for breath on his way to the bed; today he made it without stopping once.
I had to suppress the smile threatening to break across my face. Cassion despised being fussed over—I couldn’t let it show.
He didn’t want my sympathy.
But I’d never pitied him.
I looked after Cassion for my own benefit, not out of pity. And partly, too, because of the conscience I’d carried from my past life.
But I couldn’t explain all that in detail, so I simply said, “It’s not pity.” Of course, Cassion didn’t believe me, and he frowned whenever I showed concern.
“Have you eaten?”
I’d told him this was just an ordinary question anyone might ask—not a sign of worry.
So he’d given brief answers since last time, but today Cassion didn’t even acknowledge the question.
“Has he fallen asleep already?”
I approached the bed. His eyelids were shut tight. I waved my hand in front of his face. His long lashes didn’t flutter.
Like a kitten that never got to nurse properly, he’d withered away, and now sleep had claimed him.
“I need to find him faster.”
The search for Robert was slower than expected. In my past life, Chor’s information-gathering speed had outpaced even the Intelligence Bureau that ran from the palace—so much so that Dayson would click his tongue in disbelief.
“I can’t stand how slow this is.”
Once I marry Cassion and can dispose of the wealth as I please, the first thing I’ll do is invest in Chor.
I pulled the blankets up and tucked them carefully around him.
‘But what on earth happened to him?’
Cassion’s question sat heavy in my chest like a stone.
***
At last, Cho came to find me—the very person I’d been waiting for. It happened just as Jennis was reading me the climax of a mystery novel.
“Oh my goodness, you startled me!”
Jennis let out a cry of alarm when she saw Cho slip through the window without a sound.
“You’re here, are you?”
“Doesn’t the boy get frightened?”
Well, I’d seen the shadow first.
I shrugged. Jennis muttered something along the lines of “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” before shutting her book and stepping back.
“About the task you commissioned—have you found anything?”
“Found it.”
“I knew you would.”
Cho’s eyebrows lifted.
“Sometimes you carry yourself like a hundred-year-old elder. Anyone watching would think you’d lived two lifetimes already.”
I haven’t lived a hundred years, but this is indeed my second life.
“I’d love to trade pleasantries with you, but I’m in a hurry. Where is he?”
Last night, Cassion had taken a turn for the worse. The medicine Dayson had given me couldn’t even dull his suffering.
So right now, I needed to find that person urgently.
A prodigy of the Medical Arts who’d shot up to become the royal physician through breakthrough treatments and new drug development, only to plummet into ruin after succumbing to Madness—an obsession with corpses.
Robert.
When I turned fifteen, he created a drug that eased pain as if by magic. I remember Cassion’s condition improving after taking it.
I had to accelerate the drug development as much as possible.
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 11th Floor, Ace Techno Tower 8th Building, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, 1101)
Email │ [email protected]
Homepage │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Lee In-hye 2021
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder,
and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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