I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 20

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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 20.
Since the Regression, I’d rushed toward my goal in such a daze that I hadn’t noticed my own breathlessness—but breathless I was, and it seemed I needed comfort.
I studied Casion quietly for a moment, then extended my hand.
‘Your Highness, could you offer me some comfort?’
Casion’s hand, lying so obediently on the blanket, trembled slightly.
‘It’s time for you to be brave, Your Highness.’
I swallowed the urging words and reached my hand out further. Casion’s head whipped around.
But while his head turned, his hand moved toward mine. Casion’s fingers brushed just past my own—almost touching, but not quite.
“Hold it properly.”
But asking more of a shy prince was unreasonable. I seized his unmoving hand directly in my own.
His hand was stiff. As I traced the surface of his palm, cracked like a tortoise shell, Casion—unaccustomed to contact with others—shuddered. I pretended not to notice and opened my mouth.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“For what?”
“For worrying about me.”
“That’s all I can do.”
“That’s enough.”
You’ve already given me a great gift in the life before this one, so in this life, it’s enough that you simply accept what I’m giving you.
Casion’s head turned slowly toward me. His eyes met mine without a single blink.
His golden irises had changed distinctly from before. In those eyes that had found their resolve burned a will to live.
“Are you certain?”
He asked. There were many kinds of certainty I needed to give him.
“Certain about what? Having money? Or getting revenge once we’re married?”
Casion let out a long sigh.
“About the end of those who pointed fingers at the Cursed Doll. Is that what you mean?”
Casion wasn’t so naive as to believe my fabrication, and his asking again meant—
“If you’re not certain, I’ll make you certain.”
He was asking me to do just that.
“You?”
“Together, if that’s what Your Highness wishes.”
The corners of Casion’s mouth lifted. In that instant, I saw the image of a grown Casion overlaid on top of him.
An elegant figure brimming with vitality, an overwhelming presence as if he held all the world beneath his feet.
“Your Highness—”
“Let’s do it. Let’s marry.”
He squeezed the hand he’d clasped.
“Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
He’d finally found his courage.
***
“Really? You’ll marry me?”
Her large, bright eyes fill with joy. Those eyes that had been like a deep forest beneath dark clouds transformed into a clear meadow color, holding the fragrance of fresh growth after rain.
For a moment, Casion’s heart lurched, and he withdrew his hand.
Diana, who would normally have seized it back at once, demanding why he’d let go, didn’t even notice that he’d released it.
‘She’s completely entranced. Is marrying me really that wonderful?’
Casion felt embarrassed and brushed the space beneath his nose.
“Say it again, Your Highness.”
Diana grabbed the front of Casion’s collar and shook it. Any other time, he would have brushed her hand away immediately, but now he simply watched it.
Her pale, delicate hand clasping and shaking his robe—it wasn’t unpleasant.
“Say what? What do you want me to say again?”
“What you just told me.”
They wouldn’t even live together immediately after marriage, and this wasn’t a marriage born of rational affection, so why was she so eager to hear it?
‘Well, I’ve made my gesture of good will.’
Grateful that she’d startled and chased away Julia, Casion spoke with emphasis.
“Let’s marry, Diana Viola Irenber.”
Diana’s mouth fell open. Her eyes, unfocused as if she couldn’t quite comprehend what she’d just heard, blinked once before she spoke.
“Why? Why do you want to marry me?”
An unexpected question came back.
He’d proposed, so she accepted, and when he’d said it again as she asked, now she wanted reasons?
“Tell me, Your Highness. You must have a reason for wanting to marry me.”
There were plenty of reasons. Every night since meeting Diana, he’d mulled over her marriage proposal as he drifted to sleep.
If he married her, he could achieve his Revenge. That had been the greatest reason his heart had leaned toward marriage.
‘Even that wretched Third Prince’s Residence would become a livable place.’
With plenty of money, his life would certainly become more comfortable.
‘And he said it would heal my illness too.’
Whatever magic was involved, after consistently taking the medicine that the Sky-haired Man had brought last time, moving about had become easier.
The pain that used to strike without warning vanished whenever he took the medicine, making life considerably more bearable. For Casion, that alone felt like gaining everything.
Reasons abound. But the decisive factor that made him resolve to marry—that lay elsewhere.
“Your Highness, you’re telling me to speak? Is it because I have money?”
Casion’s brow twitched.
“Is it because I seem skilled at fighting?”
That was certainly not it. Casion shook his head.
“Is it because I’m the young lady of House Irenber?”
If the young lady of House Irenber were someone else, if a different young lady had made the same proposal, would Casion have accepted?
“No. It’s not because you’re the young lady of House Irenber.”
“Then, is it because I’m beautiful?”
The last was Diana’s teasing. Yet the exposed skin on Casion’s face flushed a pale red.
“T-that’s not it!”
Casion stammered and protested.
“Why are you getting so flustered? I was only joking. Besides, Your Highness, do you have a fever? Are you not feeling well? Never mind, don’t say anything. I don’t need to hear it anyway.”
Diana said it was a joke and tried to make Casion lie down. Though he resisted, he couldn’t overcome Diana, who was older, taller, and stronger than him.
In the end, despite feeling considerably better than usual, Casion had to lie flat on the bed with the blanket pulled all the way up to his neck.
Diana patted Casion’s belly.
Only a two-year age difference, yet Diana treated Casion far too much like a child. Even though she herself was young.
Perhaps it was because Diana’s touch was so gentle. Sleep came to him.
“Thank you for agreeing to marry me.”
“The reason I want to marry you is…….”
Still, he felt he ought to give her a clear answer to her question, and so he began to speak, but Diana cut him off.
“I already know. I’ll take care of everything. Just trust me. I’ll buy you the Twilight Mansion! I’ll take your revenge for you! I’ll even crown you!”
“That’s not what I—”
“With all these things to do, I’ll be busy. I was going to give you the Twilight Mansion as a proposal gift, but it’ll become a wedding gift instead! Your Highness, I should be going now. Rest well!”
“Diana, I haven’t finished saying—”
Before he could finish speaking, Diana vanished in a whirlwind.
Casion stared vacantly at where she had been sitting and let out a hollow laugh.
The despair he had felt when he met Julia and hit rock bottom had somehow, without his noticing, lifted.
Casion buried the answer he hadn’t managed to give in his heart and closed his eyes. A soft smile leaked from the corners of his mouth.
***
At the moment Diana dramatically obtained Casion’s acceptance of her proposal,
“The Phoenix Bank is bankrupt?”
Julia seized whatever objects lay near her and hurled them at Anderson.
The first two were cushions, but the third thing she threw was a vase.
The vase struck Anderson’s abdomen and shattered on the floor. Anderson was grateful it hadn’t hit his head.
“Where did you hear this?”
“Does it matter where I heard it? Is it true that the Phoenix Bank is on the brink of bankruptcy, or not?”
Julia advanced on Anderson as if to bite him. From her, standing so close, came a deep lily fragrance that made Anderson hold his breath.
“No, Your Majesty. Though many are withdrawing their deposits, we will take measures to prevent such a thing.”
Julia snorted and gripped the edge of the table.
When Diana had mentioned the Phoenix Bank, Julia had thought it was idle gossip. What had angered her was not the rumor itself, but that Diana knew of it while she did not.
“Anderson! You promised to tell me immediately about anything concerning the Phoenix Bank.”
In the span of a moment, Julia forcefully suppressed her anger. The resentment she had managed to contain would need to be vented on a suitable target later. Anderson was someone she needed, so there was no reason to direct her fury at him pointlessly.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty.”
At his crisp, unadorned apology, Julia swallowed her retort and sat on the sofa.
Anderson gestured, and handmaidens filed forward in a line. They removed Julia’s shoes and massaged her feet with steady attention.
Julia closed her eyes. Her mind was deep in thought.
The girl from House Irenber.
Why was she meeting Casion, and in secret? Was there someone behind her after all? More than that, how was she coming and going? Did she have an accomplice within the palace helping her?
When Julia considered it, if someone could slip in and out undetected, they surely had a clear purpose—yet House Irenber had nothing that would make Casion a worthwhile target.
“I will inquire into the matter of the Phoenix Bank.”
Anderson spoke.
“No, there’s something else I need first.”
Anderson bowed his head. Julia gestured to her attendants, and they filed out one by one.
Only when Julia and Anderson were alone did she open her mouth.
“Diana of House Irenber. I want you to learn about that girl. And find out how she’s been entering and leaving the palace.”
A cool smile played at Julia’s lips as she ordered the background investigation.
“Let’s eliminate that door as quickly as possible.”
Whether it’s a person or an actual door, that is.
***
The moment I heard Casion accept my proposal, I returned home. There was something I needed to resolve before marrying him.
“Where have you been?”
As I opened the study door, the familiar scent of tobacco drifted in. Red hair swayed in the breeze. Cho waved at me.
What was I supposed to do about my underage nephew’s study being used by Cho for smoking? As I gave her a disapproving look, she pointed to the window behind her.
“The window’s open.”
“So you climbed through it and forgot to close it behind you.”
“Caught, huh?”
Cho laughed so brazenly that I was left speechless.
This room is visited not just by me, but by Robert as well. Soon, Casion will be coming through here too.
So it would be best if you broke that habit of smoking anywhere, anytime.
Well, I’ll address that later. First, let’s get to business.
“What’s the status on the Phoenix Bank matter?”
Villains Bought with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Yi In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 1101 Ace Techno Tower 8, 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 content cannot be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may 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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