I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 4

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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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Chapter 4.
The Kingdom operated a Tour Program for children.
Mainly participated in by noble children, the program often extended opportunities to commoner children who had achieved excellent grades at Ecole School.
For reference, Ecole School was an institution run by the Kingdom for children aged eight to fourteen.
‘It’s riddled with corruption, but it’s still one of the few things he’s accomplished that’s worth counting.’
The establishment of educational institutions and the Royal Palace Tour Program had proven immensely helpful in cultivating loyalty to the royal family and promoting the Crown itself.
In any case, as a noble, I could apply for the Royal Palace Tour Program without needing to attend Ecole School.
“Put me down for the Tour Program.”
“Really? You’re sure, miss? Very well, miss.”
Jenys had worried at first that I shouldn’t go, but once I explained the proper procedure for visiting the Royal Palace, she surprisingly accepted my stubborn insistence on making the trip.
After she left to submit the Tour Program application, I stood before the mirror. The girl staring back at me still felt like a stranger.
On the surface, she was an ordinary, pretty thirteen-year-old child—but inside dwelt the cold cunning of an adult.
I had a feeling it would take time to adjust.
‘Can I really pull this off?’
Count Kolkos and Dayson drifted into my thoughts unbidden.
My mind wandered, flowing from one concern to another, until it settled on Cashion cowering before Dayson, his head and shoulders hunched. My mouth went bitter.
‘I married Cashion, but what if he dies?’
Even if he survived, what if he disappeared?
In the original timeline, Cashion had vanished from the Royal Palace in the winter of his fifteenth year.
Believing there was a cure somewhere in this world, he had received a final declaration of incurability in the winter of his fourteenth year, and a year later, he’d slipped away from the palace in secret.
I’d happened to encounter him as he left, and I’d given him a jewel from my possession—an act of kindness, so to speak.
‘He seems to have found a cure outside… but if he marries me, leaving becomes impossible, doesn’t it?’
My presence would change the future. And if his future changed because of me, then…there came a dark, foreboding thought.
‘No! He’ll live. He’ll become healthy, just like he was when he appeared before me at death’s door!’
The Cashion I’d encountered again was so large and robust that his mere standing presence seemed to crush the air itself.
For now, I decided not to be greedy. All I needed was for him to stay alive until I came of age. If that proved difficult, I’d simply make it easier.
I would shield him from Dayson’s threat and cure his illness.
The fact that he’d become healthy enough to save me before his death proved there was a way to heal him somewhere in this world.
‘I need to find the cure quickly and help him recover.’
Once my thoughts began, they wouldn’t stop. I spent the entire afternoon consumed by thoughts of Cashion.
Just as I was eager to see him again, Jenys arrived bearing welcome news.
“Miss, your permit for the Royal Palace Tour was approved! Fortunately, there’s an opening tomorrow!”
“Wonderful!”
I renewed my resolve: I would make Cashion my husband and keep him alive.
Shortly after, Jenys sat me before the mirror and began to comb out my hair.
In the glass was a lovely, endearing child.
My lustrous golden hair shimmered like wheat fields glinting beneath the sun, while my green eyes sparkled with the clarity of a cool forest.
My pale, luminous skin was so perfect that anyone would ask if I’d ever seen daylight, and the fine, harmonious arrangement of my features was striking enough to inspire admiration.
‘Wow, I have to admit—I’m really quite beautiful.’
And so I felt confident.
Confident that I could make Cashion my husband!
***
“Kla Zero, Sia Fair, and Diana Viola Irenber… Irenber?”
I’d arrived early in the morning, dressed and prepared, to participate in the Royal Palace Tour Program.
A minor nobleman in charge of the Tour Program was calling out the names of the children gathered around him.
He tilted his head quizzically as he pronounced my name.
Until a year ago, the Irenber Family had enjoyed free and easy access to the Royal Palace without any formal procedures. It seemed strange to him that such a family would now be applying for a formal tour.
I raised my hand immediately. The man whose eyes met mine approached and bowed respectfully.
“Lady Irenber? May I ask what brings you to the Royal Palace Tour…?”
The other children stirred. However young, none of them would be ignorant of the Irenber Family.
Even if they were lesser nobles, they would have heard the name often in their parents’ conversations, and children from Ecole School learned about our family in the very first history lesson of the Kingdom curriculum.
“A pleasure to meet you, Attendant Paulaner.”
I glanced at the nameplate pinned to his chest.
From my experience living long in the Royal Palace, lower-ranking palace staff were called not by their names but by things like “Hey, you there” or “Listen here.”
They loved having their names used, and they readily took a liking to anyone who did.
Sure enough, Paulaner’s face brightened.
“Yes, Lady Irenber. You must visit the Palace often—might I ask why you’ve applied for a formal tour?”
It seemed that gaining his lightened mood had also purchased his genuine interest. Paulaner spoke with overly familiar warmth.
“Well… the Rose Garden here is particularly beautiful this season. I’ve been wanting to see it, but as you know, my parents…a year ago…”
“Ah! My apologies, Lady Irenber.”
I deliberately trailed off, hoping to stir his sympathy.
Paulaner recalled that Irenber’s parents had passed away, and immediately looked mortified.
“Ahem, we shall depart now.”
Unsure how to console my suddenly dejected expression, he fumbled with uncertainty before raising his flag. He’d apparently decided I was better left alone.
The children lined up behind Paulaner. I naturally positioned myself at the very end of the line.
Paulaner led us along the designated route for the Royal Palace tour. He stopped at each landmark, straining his voice as he delivered his explanations with great enthusiasm.
The children hung on his every word. Whenever one of them asked something peculiar, the others shot them withering looks. The offending child would shrink back into silence.
‘Their parents have trained them thoroughly before sending them here.’
One of the reasons parents sent their children on Royal Palace tours was the hope that their child might catch the eye of some noble passing through the corridors and be selected as an Attendant.
But sadly, that never happened. The tour route itself didn’t overlap with where the nobles traveled.
‘Can’t have the little children disrupting the lords and ladies, after all.’
My thoughts naturally drifted into curses against the nobles.
‘All they do is play, eat, and dance in the Royal Palace. Useless lot.’
I turned my head to gaze at the towering Brighting Palace.
The Brighting Palace, where music never ceased throughout the day, had been built for the current Queen Julia.
It was a nest of every conceivable corruption.
‘I’ll blow that place up someday.’
“Your Highness? Your Highness?”
I’d fallen behind while staring at Brighting Palace, and the dutiful Paulaner called after me. I quickly picked up my pace and hurried to his side.
“Your explanation is truly remarkable. I’ve visited the Palace several times, but I never knew there were such stories behind it!”
When I lavished praise on his explanation, Paulaner became animated and spoke even more.
‘Stop, please stop.’
It was all a story I already knew. Yet I smiled pleasantly and nodded along enthusiastically.
After maintaining this pretense of fascination for a while longer, we finally arrived at the Rose Garden.
Now I needed to separate from the group. I tapped the back of Paulaner’s hand. He looked down and met my eyes.
“Knight Paulaner, might I spend some time here?”
“I beg your pardon? But…….”
“This place holds precious memories with my father. Actually, that’s why I applied for this tour in the first place.”
Paulaner’s face clouded with difficulty. One of the rules of the Royal Palace tour was that no one could leave the group. Even if urgent nature called, the rule was to move together with the guide, Paulaner.
In situations like this, retreat was better than pushing forward. I let my eyebrows droop and spoke softly.
“If it troubles you, I’ll just go along.”
I could see Paulaner wrestling with the decision.
“I’ll just hold those memories of Father in my heart.”
“Wait, just a moment.”
As I turned to go back to the line, Paulaner urgently caught my arm.
He saw my shoulders sagging and rubbed his face with his hand. Finally, reluctantly, he consented.
“Your Highness, you must remain in the Rose Garden. Do you understand?”
“Thank you, Paulaner! I’ll sit quietly on that bench over there!”
I pointed to a bench beneath a rose bush.
Paulaner confirmed the location with a glance, then led the children away. As he left the Rose Garden, he informed us that the tour would take roughly half a day to complete before returning.
Paulaner’s group quickly vanished from my sight. I didn’t move immediately but waited for Jenys.
Soon I saw Jenys, with a bored expression, appearing among the group of Attendants.
Even families of modest standing sent one Attendant alongside each child, and the Attendants maintained a respectful distance while their young charges completed their tour.
“Jenys!”
“Miss, what are you doing here? Did you lose the group? If you walk quickly, you can catch up. Come, stand up.”
Jenys treated me like a lost child and pulled me to my feet.
I stood and waved my hand—a signal for her to lean in close. Jenys bent down.
“No, Jenys. I decided to wait here.”
Jenys’s eyes widened. Her gaze carried an unspoken question of why I would stay.
I looked past her. I couldn’t speak openly in front of others, so I waited for the Attendants to move away.
The other Attendants glanced at us but didn’t dare approach me with questions born of curiosity.
Once the group of Attendants had put sufficient distance between us, I seized Jenys’s wrist and pulled her deeper into the Rose Garden.
“Miss, are you wanting to play hide-and-seek?”
“That’s not it. There’s somewhere we need to go.”
“Where? But can we even leave this place?”
Genuine concern colored Jenys’s voice. Her worry had its reasons.
The Rose Garden had been built to protect the King in times of war, and its labyrinthine design required a map to navigate.
I couldn’t imagine any soldier foolish enough to march through the wide-open roads straight to the Royal Palace and then into the Rose Garden, but I accepted that once inside, one would inevitably become lost.
For me, however, it was irrelevant. I knew the Rose Garden intimately. I had often hidden within it during my encounters with Dayson.
‘Though “encounter” is generous. I was simply on the receiving end.’
I quickened my pace with a bitter smile.
“Miss, where exactly are you taking me? And what is this place?”
Jenys, following behind, continued to chatter on.
At last, my destination came into view. Now I decided to answer Jenys’s questions.
“Jenys, this place is… the Third Prince’s Palace.”
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, 1101-ho, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th Building)
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 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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