I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 5

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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 5.
The Third Prince’s Palace, where Casion resided, sat in the northernmost corner of the sprawling Royal Palace grounds—the darkest, most isolated pocket of the entire compound.
Located where one might expect to find servants’ quarters or dormitories for menial staff, the Third Prince’s Palace was surrounded by a landscape that reflected its neglect.
Overgrown ornamental trees, left unattended for far too long, had allowed their branches to sprawl across the pathways; even carriages could no longer pass through.
One needed only to observe the roads leading to and from the palace to understand the treatment Casion received within the Royal Palace.
“Looking at this, anyone would think it was an abandoned palace.”
Jennis had put it perfectly.
Yet, unfortunately, this ruin of a place was home to the Kingdom’s Third Prince—and more than that, the Legitimate First Son of the King and the late Queen Consort, once the envy of all the Kingdom’s people.
“Still, since His Highness lives here, surely the interior of the palace is well-maintained? I’m so excited to see it!”
Unlike me, who had visited the palace occasionally with my father, Jennis was experiencing it for the first time, and her enthusiasm was palpable.
I dismissed her fantasies and expectations about the palace with indifference. Somehow, I doubted we’d be able to satisfy her hopes today.
As we drew closer to the palace, the sound of Jennis’s expectations crashing down grew louder. The palace was in such a state that it would be dishonest to call it maintained at all.
‘So that narrow path was the only thing they bothered to keep up.’
The lawn in front of the palace was so overgrown with grass that it wouldn’t have been surprising to see a snake slither out at any moment.
Vegetation had grown to knee height and spread so densely on both sides that I was afraid to set foot anywhere.
‘Abandoned.’
Both the palace and the prince.
‘The King has no interest in Casion, Dayson is too busy tormenting him, and Julia, his stepmother, wouldn’t dream of looking after him.’
My face burned with shame at the pathetic behavior of these adults—even though my soul was twenty-one years old, even though I was supposed to be an adult.
‘I knew Dayson was bullying him, but not to this extent… This is too much!’
The King and Queen were not alone in their disregard for Casion.
I recalled the looks the servants had given him when he passed—glances laden with shallow contempt.
The palace’s lack of maintenance might not have been anyone’s explicit command; it could well have been a choice made by the servants themselves.
Those without power are most sensitive to the direction of power and respond accordingly. They recognized that Casion had been discarded, and they saw no reason to care.
Learning that Casion had been cast out not just by the King, not just by the royal family, but even by the servants of the palace left a sour taste in my mouth.
A heavy stone settled in my chest.
“This way, my lady.”
Jennis tugged me along.
She pointed toward a path—a thin, barely-worn track marked only by footsteps someone had trodden repeatedly.
‘The more I see, the more layers of neglect I uncover. It’s almost impressive.’
With each step closer to the Third Prince’s Palace, my disappointment deepened.
Not a single knight stood guard at the palace. Had Dayson or Julia sent assassins, Casion could have died at any moment. Only their restraint—or indifference—had kept him alive.
‘I’ll need to arrange for protection.’
A skilled knight’s name came to mind—someone with such peculiar interests that only I, knowing the future as I do, could sway him. Someone unlikely to betray easily.
I wondered where he was now.
“This looks like ghosts live here! Wow, there are so many rats!”
Jennis’s exclamation snapped me back to attention, and I surveyed the Third Prince’s Palace more carefully.
The vast, untouched palace felt eerie—so haunting that one could believe a ghost walked its halls in broad daylight.
‘How does Jennis even know there are rats she can’t see?’
“My lady, apparently not many people come here.”
She spoke as though she’d heard this from someone.
With no one here but the two of us, such a manner of speaking was odd—the kind of habit that would strike others as strange, though I paid it no mind.
“Just a moment, my lady.”
She scampered toward a dead tree and stood there, muttering to herself at length.
I’d started to say something, but an image overlapped in my mind—Jennis at the execution grounds, staking her life to protect me.
‘Her quirks are endearing enough. Never mind.’
What might have shocked others suddenly seemed charming. I let go of my impulse to comment and moved toward the door.
Jennis bounded over and pushed open the creaking door without hesitation. “My lady, there’s no one guarding this place.”
“No one guarding a royal prince’s palace? That’s absurd.”
I pushed past Jennis as I spoke. She mumbled “but it’s true,” though I didn’t want to believe it even if it was.
If her words were fact, it meant Casion was living alone in this desolate, haunted palace.
But unfortunately, Jennis had spoken the truth.
When I pushed open the rust-stiffened door and stepped inside, I still found no trace of anyone.
Alone in this vast palace.
‘He could die and no one would ever know.’
I’d risked discovery to call out and ask if anyone was here, but silence answered me.
My heart began to race.
From childhood, Casion had been frail; I knew he’d been confined mostly within the palace, unable to venture outside. If the palace was in this state…….
My careful, measured steps began to quicken.

And when I reached the topmost floor, I heard a voice.
“Casion, you can’t solve this either?”
It was a voice I knew, though younger than I remembered it.
“Seriously? You’ve already forgotten what I taught you? I said you could solve it with just basic arithmetic.”
The dismissive, contemptuous tone was familiar as well.
“You’re hopeless. You should just stop studying. Clearly it’s not for you.”
As he spoke, the man with that familiar voice let out a series of heavy sighs.
“I told you. A prince should naturally know how to do these things. You’re no good at Swordsmanship, you’re weak, and really…… Have you memorized the Ibrael Language?”
If I were Casion, I would have kicked that man’s shin by now.
“What? You haven’t done that either? Look, just don’t do anything. There’s no point trying when you can’t do it anyway.”
This wasn’t Casion tormenting himself in some solitary performance. Someone was deliberately crushing his spirit.
Beneath the ostensibly kind tone lay mockery—and beneath the mockery, a petty cruelty.
I knew the culprit immediately.
‘That wretched Dayson!’
I’d long known that Dayson resented Casion.
But this was the first time I’d witnessed him bullying him so openly.
“I’ll get going now. Next time I’ll bring you problems suited to your level.”
From what I could gather, this harassment of Casion had been happening repeatedly.
Just overhearing it made me furious—and Casion had been listening to this all along?
Get angry!
My fists clenched without my meaning to. I willed Casion to throw a punch, or at least to shout.
“Thank you, brother…….”
But the words that came from Casion’s mouth were utterly different from what I hoped.
‘How in the world can anyone thank him after hearing that?’
Had he grown so accustomed to Dayson’s words that he no longer recognized them as cruel?
“I’m heading out now. Stay quiet, and don’t go causing trouble with your exercise.”
I heard Dayson offer a final farewell and leave the room.
I had to hide. I couldn’t face Dayson now. But where was Jennis?
I spun around to find Jennis watching me with an odd expression, her ear pressed to the door. I quickly grabbed her wrist, pulled her toward the door on the opposite side of Casion’s room, and shoved us both inside.
“Miss, what are you—Mmph!”
“Shh, Jennis.”
Jennis’s eyes widened. I ignored the curiosity gleaming in them and waited until the sound of Dayson’s footsteps faded completely.
“He’s gone.”
Even after his footsteps disappeared entirely, I waited longer.
I still couldn’t afford to run into Dayson. If he somehow discovered that I had an interest in Casion, there was no telling what he might do.
He might torment Casion even more severely, or he might suddenly take an interest in me himself.
In my previous life, Dayson only began to regard me after Count Kolkos became my guardian—but there was no harm in being cautious from the start.
‘Dayson is greedy. If he sees me showing interest in Casion, he might decide to pay attention to me.’
I wanted to avoid any entanglement with him at all costs.
“Miss, are we playing detective?”
Jennis, having held her tongue admirably, finally spoke.
Watching her seem to enjoy this situation made me feel exasperated. At least she wasn’t making a dramatic fuss out of surprise.
I released Jennis’s wrist.
“More importantly, who was that? Which prince were you avoiding?”
“I’m not telling you.”
Explaining everything from why I came to the Palace to Dayson would take far longer than a day. And if she dug deeper, there would be nothing left to say.
“Tsk, I can figure it out anyway.”
Jennis began muttering to herself against the wall again. I couldn’t help but furrow my brow.
Cute as it was, wasn’t that a bit odd?
“It was the prince, wasn’t it? Though I have to say, the other prince who just left seems like bad news.”
……How on earth did she figure that out?
My bewilderment was considerable, but what mattered now was Casion.
“Let’s go, Jennis.”
I pushed the door open briskly.
Beyond that wooden door in the corridor lay my future husband.
***
Casion exhaled slowly. His eyes remained fixed on the spot where Dayson had been sitting.
His glistening eyes and drooping shoulders brought to mind an orphaned kitten—a sight so pitiful and sorrowful it wrung the heart.
“Bastard.”
Yet in a single moment, that pitiable expression transformed into something far more sinister.
His gentle eyes narrowed with unsettling sharpness, and crude curses poured from between his full, crimson lips.
“What’s the point of studying when I’m this incompetent?”
Casion flipped through the books Dayson had left behind, then shoved them under the desk.
He wanted to hurl them out the window, but he lacked the strength for even that.
“Damn this useless body!”
Unable to contain his fury, Casion wheezed heavily as he sprawled across the sofa.
Dayson’s words echoed in his ears—false concern that gnawed at him like rot.
Part of him longed to seize Dayson by the collar and shake him senseless, but Dayson was right: Casion was weak, unable to lift a sword with any competence.
Even if he possessed the strength, he could never stand against Dayson.
The divide was insurmountable—Dayson, beloved by the King and Queen; himself, cast aside. The outcome of any confrontation was already written.
In the end, all Casion could manage was a bitter mutter.
“It’s even hard to play the fool.”
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serial)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Joo-hyung
Published by │ J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. — Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 1101, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11th Floor, 33 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Homepage │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Lee In-hye 2021
※This work is published by J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder.
No part of this work may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Unauthorized use is subject to criminal and civil 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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