I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 89

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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 89
“Cassion is already twelve years old. I worried so much about his frail constitution, but I suppose I can rest easy now.”
Julia and Dayson, Bella and Cassion, and Diana gathered around one table in a circle.
Julia, who had not touched a single dish laid out on the table, suddenly tapped her teacup and spoke.
“Mother, Cassion is still rather delicate. Just moments ago, after he danced, he was breathless and gasping so.”
“Dear me, he ought to take more exercise.”
Julia and Dayson volleyed back and forth, their conversation circling around Cassion.
Not a word they spoke would have helped him.
They merely repeated, over and over, that his body remained weak and showed no signs of improvement.
Their purpose was unmistakable.
‘Don’t make an alliance with Cassion—his future cannot be guaranteed.’
That was what they were saying to the nobility gathered here today.
Cassion and Diana found the situation, thrust upon them against their will, deeply offensive.
Yet they could not drive Julia away, so they held their silence and remained in their seats.
‘Why has Julia come here?’
Diana could not begin to fathom what Julia was plotting.
‘After casting out Anderson, she did stay quiet for quite some time.’
Diana had expected her to stumble longer under the shock of losing Anderson.
Her recovery was far too swift, wasn’t it?
Diana clicked her tongue inwardly.
“I hear you’ve prepared quite a performance, Diana.”
Diana, cursing Julia in her mind just moments before, suddenly lifted her head at those words.
“A performance? What performance? Did you prepare a performance for Cassion’s birthday?”
Dayson’s eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between Diana and Cassion.
‘Where on earth did the information leak? The performance was meant to be a surprise gift for Cassion.’
Diana did not wish to unveil the performance before Julia.
“Diana.”
Cassion called out to Diana, demanding an answer.
“It’s nothing much, Your Highness.”
“Nothing much, Diana? You must have put great care into its preparation. A performance doesn’t come together in a day or two, after all. Since it is a performance you’ve arranged, I find myself quite looking forward to it already.”
Julia’s voice rang out unusually loud. She pronounced Diana’s name with emphasis several times over.
Diana felt an impulse to cancel the performance altogether.
An inexplicable sense of foreboding washed over her.
“Diana, what sort of performance is it?”
Cassion’s voice, which had grown tense at Julia’s arrival, softened considerably.
Diana changed her mind about canceling the performance.
Today was Cassion’s day. She had no reason to be swayed by Julia.
Diana resolved that, since it was already publicly known, she would begin the performance before people started to leave.
Julia’s arrival had shifted the atmosphere of the Banquet Hall in a peculiar way.
Whenever Julia turned her gaze to survey the Banquet Hall, those who had been watching her flinched and trembled visibly.
“I, I really ought to be going. I’ve forgotten some urgent business at home.”
“Shouldn’t you at least pay your respects to Cassion before you leave?”
“What business could I possibly have with His Highness? I happened to stop by on a whim. We’re hardly close acquaintances.”
“But you were just saying you wished to grow closer to His Highness Cassion…….”
“Ahem!”
With that, they began to slip away, watching for Julia’s reaction.
Already half of those who had come to the Banquet Hall had departed.
‘Julia came here to warn them. To warn off those who meant to court favor with Cassion.’
Diana let out a bitter laugh.
Was she really going to such lengths against a mere twelve-year-old child?
What’s more, most of the nobility who had come today were from minor houses whom Julia wouldn’t have glanced at twice in ordinary circumstances. Did she begrudge even them from showing favor to Cassion?
Confronted with Julia’s insatiable hunger, Diana sighed. She then called for Matthew.
“Matthew, prepare the performance.”
Not long after Matthew left, a Stage had been erected.
In the meantime, Julia asked Cassion what gift he might wish to receive.
Cassion, naturally, said nothing in particular. Julia, for her part, did not seem eager to hear an answer, and let the matter drop.
As the Stage took shape before their eyes, the mouths of those remaining in the Banquet Hall fell open.
Irenber’s Technical Skill shone brilliantly even when it came to staging a performance.
In mere moments, a small Balcony and a parlor had been created within the Banquet Hall.
“The performance is beginning!”
The lights in the Banquet Hall dimmed one by one at the announcement of the performance. Illumination shifted to the lamps positioned around the makeshift Stage.
“Though our bodies have grown distant, my heart’s desire to give you everything remains unchanged.”
The male actor’s sonorous voice resonated through the Banquet Hall.
The play was a very brief One-Act Play—an achingly tender romance.
“Nothing remains to me. I’ve lost my position, my house, everything. How could I possibly trust you?”
“Why do you say you’ve lost everything? My love dwells within you. You are the sole proof of my devotion.”
Honeyed dialogue poured forth in steady waves.
Everyone in the Banquet Hall was drawn completely into the play.
The brief One-Act Play that Rumdracks had written was saturated with his experience and expertise as a lover.
Poignant and fervent, lamentable and tender.
In every sense, it was a romance that had poured forth everything essential to the genre.
Diana watched Julia under the pretense of sipping her drink. She was smiling, but Diana noticed the skin beneath Julia’s eyes trembling slightly.
As the female and male actors shared a passionate kiss, a suffocating silence fell.
Then whispers began to ripple through the crowd.
“Doesn’t that actress remind you of someone?”
“Wait, now that you mention it… Queen Violetta…”
The nobles stopped mid-sentence, breath catching.
“Could this be… the love story between Queen Violetta and His Majesty…?”
“My love for you is genuine! It is only circumstance that has kept us apart. In my heart, in my very blood, there is only you!”
The male actor’s voice rang out again, drowning the onlookers’ murmurs.
The play was building toward its climax.
The female actor wept, unable to trust the male actor’s love, while he serenaded her with a love song.
The female actor pretended to yield, grasping the male actor’s hand. The play’s ending was drawing near.
‘This is the next scene—the line she delivers while embracing him is truly brilliant.’
Diana recalled the script Rumdracks had completed. She closed her eyes to savor that particular line.
“What—?”
But the play was unfolding in an utterly unexpected direction.
Crack—the sound of flesh striking flesh. The female actor had suddenly slapped the male actor across the face.
Diana gasped in shock and gripped Cassion’s hand tightly. Cassion glanced at Diana, then returned his attention to the stage.
“Your love? No. Your greed. I curse this child within my womb!”
“No, wait, I… I love you…”
The female actor’s voice rose in fury. Confronted with lines that deviated sharply from the script, the male actor broke into a cold sweat, desperately trying to salvage the performance.
‘This isn’t Rumdracks’ script!’
Diana turned to look at Matthew.
‘Stop the play immediately.’
Confirming that Matthew was moving swiftly, Diana turned her gaze to Cassion.
The play she had commissioned for Cassion was meant to convey a message: that his birth was the fruit of love, blessed by all.
Yet the play had been twisted into something grotesque.
Cassion’s birth had become a curse. His very existence had been recast as vengeance against Karman.
Even as Matthew summoned the attendants to rush onto the Stage, the play continued without pause.
“Don’t listen, Your Highness.”
Diana raised her hand to cover Cassion’s ears.
Julia caught sight of what Diana was doing and let out a contemptuous laugh.
Diana’s attention was entirely fixed on Cassion, so it was only he who witnessed that smile.
Cassion’s eyes glinted with a sharp, predatory light.
“This child will take my vengeance! She’ll tear you to shreds!”
Immediately after the female actor delivered those final, scream-like words, a tremendous crash erupted—the sound of the attendants subduing both performers.
“The play ends here.”
Matthew bowed formally on the now-empty Stage, announcing the play’s conclusion.
The nobles, pulled from their absorption in the performance, began to stir and whisper amongst themselves about what they had witnessed.
Diana wished to hear what the nobles were saying. But Julia tapped her Fan against the table. Naturally, Diana’s attention shifted to Julia.
“How did this happen, Diana? The play was a complete disaster.”
Julia spoke as though sympathetic, but both Diana and Cassion knew she was insincere.
“And this play—you truly prepared it as a gift for Cassion? For a gift, it seems rather…”
Diana found herself unable to speak.
Diana could easily imagine what Julia was about to say next.
‘Say one more word, Julia. If you do, I’ll answer back.’
But Julia was no fool. She scraped at Diana’s composure without crossing the line, stopping just short of outright insult.
Julia rose slowly from her chair and picked up her Fan.
“Dayson, the hour grows late. I think I shall take my leave—won’t you join me? A birthday celebration that feels like a funeral hardly promises much enjoyment.”
“I’ll go with Mother as well. Bella, let’s go.”
Dayson extended his hand to Bella. Julia’s knights surrounded her retinue protectively as they slipped out of the Banquet Hall.
“…I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I’ve ruined everything.”
Diana apologized to Cassion once more.
“If I told you I wasn’t troubled by it, you wouldn’t believe me anyway, would you?”
Cassion spoke. Contrary to Diana’s expectation that he must have been deeply shaken, his voice remained steady.
“What was the original story supposed to be, Diana?”
Cassion cupped her shoulder and turned her to face him. Diana’s head lifted.
A smile played across his face—a warm smile meant for her alone.
“Would you tell me that story out on the Balcony? It’s rather loud in here.”
Cassion rose from his seat. He had grown to match Diana’s height by now, and he led her out onto the Balcony.
In the meantime, a fanfare began announcing the resumption of the banquet, but the nobility hurried home.
Diana watched them flee with bitter disappointment.
These very people who moments ago had been scrambling to present gifts to Cassion and win his favor had scattered in fear at nothing more than a few lines of stage dialogue.
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serial)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 1101, 11th Floor, Ace Techno Tower 8, 33 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ 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,
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 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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