I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 17

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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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Episode 17
I regarded Cho with an unwavering gaze. Cho let out a heavy sigh, then opened the jewel box sitting on the table and withdrew a Ring.
“I’ll take the deposit.”
By now, she knew exactly what to do.
“Yes. Thank you for your help.”
“I’ll look into it, but don’t get your hopes up. If it goes to Auction, will you participate? It could cost you quite a bit.”
I wanted to purchase it before the Auction began. Auctions always had their surprises. But if it came to that, I’d have to join the bidding.
“That’s nothing to worry about.”
I smiled and saw Cho to the door. She shook her head in disbelief and vanished in an instant.
I watched the spot where Cho had disappeared, then turned my attention back to the documents.
One word kept catching my eye.
“Phoenix Bank.”
The name of the bank holding the Twilight Estate in mortgage felt familiar.
Let me start here.
***
Julia was resting in the sunlight.
The balcony of the Queen’s Palace, which overlooked the most beautiful garden of the Royal Palace, was Julia’s favorite place.
“Your Majesty, Count Kolkos has arrived to see you.”
A crack appeared on Julia’s face as her sweet repose was interrupted.
Julia’s attendant Rena bowed deeply at the waist. A teacup flew over her head.
“I’m terribly sorry, Your Majesty. I’ll send him away at once.”
Julia’s temperament was notoriously sensitive—she despised being disturbed during her rest. Though Rena knew this well, she had no choice but to deliver the message.
Days earlier, Julia had given strict orders that whenever Count Kolkos called, she was to be informed without fail.
But even with that knowledge, Julia’s reaction would likely be unchanged.
In fact, if Rena offered that explanation, she’d only be scolded worse for talking back.
Rena’s bow remained so deep that her forehead nearly touched her thighs.
“Tell him to wait in the reception room.”
Julia stretched languidly with a serene expression, as if she hadn’t just thrown a teacup moments before.
Rena remained bowed, her body rigid with tension.
Julia rose slowly. With a wave of her hand, the attendants who had been clinging to the walls like cicadas to a withered tree came rushing forward in a flood.
“Prepare to receive our guest.”
Dozens of hands moved with perfect precision.
Despite the large number of attendants mobilized, Julia’s preparations took considerable time.
Julia didn’t leave even the smallest accessory to chance, so she spent long minutes putting on and removing dozens of earrings in succession.
It was only after two full hours had passed from the moment Rena delivered her report that Julia finally emerged from her chambers, dressed in breathtaking splendor.
“Your Majesty, you are even more beautiful today.”
As Julia appeared in the reception room, Count Kolkos clasped his hands together and showered her with flattery.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“Not at all, Your Majesty.”
Count Kolkos smiled, despite having waited a full two hours.
Anderson, Julia’s aide and secretary, let a barely suppressed smirk cross his lips.
Julia arranged a false smile and began the conversation.
“It has been quite some time, Count Kolkos. I thought you had forgotten about me, having cut off your visits to the Queen’s Palace for so long.”
Count Kolkos, who had been visiting regularly to pay his respects, had been absent these past few days. Now he bowed his head so low it nearly touched the table.
“My deepest apologies, Your Majesty. Family matters have become complicated……”
His vague tone carried an unmistakable undercurrent—a plea for help. Julia’s cheek twitched slightly. Count Kolkos tensed and swallowed hard.
“Has the Irenberr Family encountered difficulties? Oh, what a shame. For the very foundation of the kingdom to face such misfortune. What is this about, Count Kolkos?”
At her gentle inquiry, Count Kolkos, reassured, began pouring out everything that had transpired.
“The Guardianship Designation has been delayed repeatedly.”
Julia clicked her tongue and stopped her hand as it reached for her teacup. In an instant, the air around her grew bitterly cold.
Though Count Kolkos had lived a long life, he found the young Julia—a full decade his junior—terrifying. Whenever she looked at him with such a chilling expression, he felt as though a blade had pierced him.
Seeing Count Kolkos’s meekness, a surge of irritation welled up from the depths of Julia’s chest.
‘The Irenberr Family continues to test my patience.’
Julia had long sought to bring the Irenberr Family under her control. But it had not been easy.
The previous patriarch of the Irenberr Family was so unyielding that despite her gifts and threats, he never became her man.
Had the Irenberr Family been insignificant or replaceable, Julia would have dismissed them long ago. But the Irenberr Family was far too important for her to ignore, even as Queen.
If only the Irenberr Family would take her side, she could achieve her goals far more smoothly.
Securing the Irenberr Family meant being able to pass a stable and robust throne to Dayson.
Yet the Irenberr Family remained immovable. With no other choice, Julia kept the foolish and greedy Count Kolkos close at hand. After all, he carried the blood of the Irenberr Family.
When the previous patriarch of the Irenberr Family died, Julia had thought it was finally her chance to seize the Family. But Count Kolkos’s handling of affairs had been so disappointing.
Raising one small niece is hardly so difficult.
As Julia’s eyebrows rose sharply, Count Kolkos drew a breath.
To mask his fear, the Count began gesticulating as he explained the situation.
“The young niece has suddenly become temperamental, you see. While a final decision will be made at the family council, as you well know, a Guardianship Designation requires the consent of both guardian and ward, so…….”
Julia, growing weary of Kolkos’s rambling excuses, raised a hand to silence him.
“Is the niece not thirteen years old?”
“That is correct.”
“You came to disturb my time over one mere child you cannot manage?”
Count Kolkos, bereft of words, felt his eyes dart back and forth.
“How far must I extend my assistance to you?”
“Your Majesty…….”
“I called you from your provincial lands, where you managed nothing of consequence. Your family promised great things, and I lent you my strength.”
The Count’s eyes trembled. For a moment, guilt flickered across his face.
“And that is not all. I even arranged the matter of your succession as guardian.”
With each word she spoke, gooseflesh rose on the back of his neck. He recalled the methods by which Julia had brought the Irenberr Family to heel.
And with that recollection came a tremor through his body—a visceral response to her pettiness, her cruelty, her precision.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I am, I am so inadequate…….”
“That is enough. If you have grasped your insufficiency, go back and apply yourself. But effort alone will not suffice. As you know, I have no shortage of replacements for you.”
The Count’s face drained of color. To be replaced did not simply mean losing his position.
For Count Kolkos, who knew fragments of Julia’s secrets, to be replaced meant only one thing:
Death.
The Count drew in a sharp breath.
The effort Julia had invested to claim the Irenberr Family was truly immense.
Managing Kolkos was merely part of that effort.
She had sown; now she waited to reap—but those she had cultivated were proving useless at bearing fruit.
‘They cannot think for themselves, cannot move without direction.’
Then they must be forced to run.
“Did you come merely to whimper?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
In truth, the Count had come prepared to whine and beg for help, but Julia showed no inclination to aid him. Sniveling would only earn her disdain. He needed something of value to offer.
But what? His mind raced, searching desperately for some useful intelligence.
The Count feared Julia would slip away if he did not act.
‘I must say something. I cannot let Her Majesty leave like this.’
Perhaps because he was so desperate, a piece of information—one he had heard recently from a spy planted at the Irenberr Estate—surfaced at precisely the right moment.
“My niece, Your Majesty…….”
“Yes. That clever niece you, a man of over forty, could not manipulate?”
Ignoring Julia’s sarcasm, Count Kolkos leaned forward across the table.
“She moves through the Royal Palace.”
“What?”
Julia’s eyebrows rose into sharp peaks. For the first time since greeting him, she fixed Kolkos with her full attention.
“I received no report of this.”
She needed to know every movement in the palace—it was a hunger in her. She knew even the number of times the King coughed. If there was a place within the Royal Palace that escaped her notice……
“The Third Prince’s Palace?”
Julia’s gaze searched Kolkos’s face, seeking confirmation.
“I cannot determine that much.”
Idiot, Julia thought, her expression darkening.
“Very well, Count Kolkos. You may go.”
“But the matter of the guardianship…….”
“I shall look into it further.”
At that, Count Kolkos smiled with relief and withdrew from the parlor.
Once he had disappeared and silence settled around her, Anderson moved close to Julia’s side.
“That woman—you said she was nothing but a naive noblewoman?”
He meant Diana.
“So she was. There was nothing remarkable about her. A typical young lady of the aristocracy—fond of fairy tales and dresses.”
“Yet she delays the Guardianship Designation and moves secretly through the Royal Palace?”
Anderson accepted Julia’s rebuke in silence, bearing her disapproval without protest.
“Find out more about her. And I must pay a visit to the Third Prince’s Palace.”
***
“……There is a smell of death in this place. There always has been, since I was young. The prince was a man who summoned death.”
What kind of nonsense was this?
I arrived at Kasion’s palace to inform him about the situation surrounding Twilight Estate, and the words flowing down the corridor stopped me short.
“On the day the Prince was born, hundreds died of plague. Were you aware?”
It was inevitable gossip. The Prince born from the body of the deposed Queen had become the talk of the capital—a harbinger of calamity.
“And surely you know that those who formed ties with the Prince met mysterious deaths?”
Had they? That was something I didn’t know myself.
“Yet the Prince alone survives and dwells in luxury within his palace, clinging to life.”
Wrong. Anyone with eyes in their head couldn’t say that Kasion lived in luxury. His palace was anything but opulent.
‘Someone with blind eyes has come to call.’
Who?
Who would go all the way to Kasion’s palace to torment him? An adult woman, no less. Only one person came to mind—Julia.
But at this moment, Julia had no interest in Kasion. To her, he was like weeds growing by the roadside.
A person not worth a speck of attention.
‘But that voice is definitely Julia’s.’
I crept cautiously toward the door, my uncertainty mounting with each step. Through the gap of the slightly open door, I peered inside.
I could see the back of a woman accompanied by an attendant. Her elaborate dress and hair styled high and swept back—unmistakable!
‘It really is Julia! What’s she doing here suddenly?’
Kasion, standing before her, trembled visibly. His face drained of color, he bore her harsh words as if on the brink of fainting.
“I hear a charming young lady visits you, Prince. Are you planning to kill a promising lady of the Irenberr Family as well?”
I Bought Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Yi In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 1101, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 11th Floor, 33 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Yi 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 the permission of the company and the author.
Violation of this will result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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