I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 91

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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 91.
I smoothed out the wrinkled newspaper with its footprints, pressing it flat with my hand, and offered it to him.
I could have fetched a fresh copy, but Karman didn’t seem the type to wait.
Karman accepted the creased newspaper. His golden eyes rolled across it again and again.
Reading and reading still.
The article I’d already read more than ten times seemed to be etching itself into Karman’s memory at this rate.
Tap.
Karman folded the newspaper and placed it on his desk. He pressed his eyes shut.
“What is the public reaction?”
I couldn’t answer his question readily. Speaking the truth would only hurt him.
“It’s all right, Karman. You can speak honestly.”
He’d already vented his anger once.
“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty. Malicious rumors are spreading about the Deposed Queen Violeta.”
Karman’s jaw tightened. His closed eyelashes trembled slightly.
He tried to gauge what people were saying.
‘They’re calling the Deposed Queen Violeta toxic. They must be saying she cursed him.’
“And beyond that?”
This wasn’t the sort of rumor that would end there.
“Concerns about Prince Cashion are mounting. There’s talk that his marriage to the Irenberg House has become the cornerstone of rebellion against Your Majesty.”
“I’ve made a fool of myself.”
He was the one who’d given away the Irenberg House as a gift. A single theatrical performance had turned the king of an entire nation into an idiot.
“My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty.”
At Karman’s opened eyes, seeing Karman make his second apology, I felt the weight of it.
“You bear no fault here. Summon Princess Diana.”
“Your Majesty, if I may be so bold as to speak……”
Karman had come to favor Diana. The timber and anti-nausea medicine she’d provided had brought tremendous profit to the Kingdom.
And once the naval warfare concluded, the gains would be even greater.
Since meeting her, Cashion had regained his health, and thanks to that, one dark cloud had lifted from Karman’s face.
Karman had ordered me to watch Diana closely for some time.
She was simply far too busy to have done anything that might threaten the King’s authority. This incident was the work of someone else entirely.
My intuition was screaming it.
“I know, Karman. Do you think I don’t know what you know?”
Karman let out a sigh as he spoke.
“Still, someone must bear responsibility for this matter. After all, Diana is the one who created the theatrical performance, and it was at the Irenberg Mansion where the tragedy unfolded.”
Karman’s words were entirely sound. So I quietly withdrew and sent a footman to the Irenberg Mansion.
And not long after, Diana—visibly withered in a single night—came to seek out Karman.
***
“Sit.”
The moment I stepped into Karman’s study, I realized the space had changed dramatically.
The porcelain that Karman had always kept on the side table beside his desk—a treasure supposedly sent from the Brook Kingdom—had vanished.
The plaster statue by the window, made by a renowned sculptor, was gone as well.
And the flowers that normally sat atop his desk were nowhere to be found.
The carpet bore water stains, and loose papers protruded from beneath the sofa, not yet collected.
‘His Majesty must be furious.’
From these scattered details, I could tell that Karman had turned his study upside down.
I resolved to be even more careful with my composure as I sat before him.
“Everyone out. You too, Karman.”
Another private audience.
Once upon a time, private audiences delighted me. Today, they did not.
Knowing what stories were circulating in that newspaper, only someone less than human could welcome a private audience with the King.
Before my return, I had been executed for attempting rebellion. And now rumors were spreading that I was plotting rebellion again.
What person could remain composed in such circumstances?
“Diana.”
He called me softly.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you for holding the birthday celebration for Cashion yesterday.”
His unexpected words made my eyes widen as I looked at him. Then, suddenly conscious of my impropriety, I cast my gaze down.
Was he simply going to let yesterday’s matter pass?
That would be utterly unlike him.
I was desperately curious what scheme lay beneath all this.
“I believe yesterday’s play was not your doing.”
At Karman’s words, tears nearly spilled over.
I had expected to be suspected and cast aside. Even if not openly rejected, I thought I would be harshly reproached for letting matters deteriorate to this point.
I’d spent the whole night anxious that he might use this as a pretext to strip me of my position as Acting Head of Irenberg House.
Yet the first words from his lips were gratitude and trust—I could not help but be moved.
I clenched my fists, held my breath, and forced back the tears.
“Tell me, Diana—who suffers the greatest blow from this affair? You would know, wouldn’t you?”
Painfully, the one who suffers most is not I, but Cashion. I could not bring myself to say it aloud and fell silent.
“I can no longer offer Cashion active support.”
Diana wanted to ask when I had ever actively supported him, but she held her tongue.
She understood what Karman was trying to say.
With rumors circulating that Cashion harbors a desire for vengeance against Karman, if Karman were to offer him support, he would appear a fool.
A king must be beyond reproach. He must be as solid as an iron fortress, unshakeable and firm. He cannot afford to appear weak.
“Yet neither can I cast Cashion aside.”
To do so would make me a king swept up in rumor.
“But surely it is absurd for a king to be moved by mere theater.”
It sounded like he was subtly asking for my thoughts. I pondered long before answering.
“Your Majesty, it was only a single play, as you say. Though the nobles are stirred, their unease remains beneath the surface—nothing has yet surfaced openly.”
I paused to collect myself.
“And?”
Karman watched me with keen interest.
“If Your Majesty were to alter your stance toward His Highness over such a matter, would it not appear all the more absurd? I shall bear responsibility for what has transpired at Irenberg House. Therefore, I beg you—do not impose punishment upon His Highness Cashion.”
Karman smiled as though he had anticipated my words.
Karman lifted his teacup. He needed time to think.
“The choice most advantageous to me would be to cut off support to the Third Prince’s Palace as before and confine him there.”
“Why do you think so?”
The question escaped before I could stop myself. I could not afford to appear as though I were opposing Karman’s judgment. My heart was racing.
“I could cultivate an image of a strong king who banishes even his own son if he becomes a seed of discord. Even a mere play could serve as a warning to those who allow rumors of the prince challenging royal authority to spread unchecked.”
Karman’s logic was sound. I clenched both fists tightly.
For Cashion’s treatment to revert to what it was before—just when he had finally begun to smile at ease……
“You do not wish for that, do you, Diana?”
It was a question that needed no asking.
After yesterday’s tragedy, I had not slept a single hour.
Cashion had left saying we should work together and overcome this together, and I had told him it was nothing—yet inwardly I was consumed with worry.
I am the family representative, and I was the one who planned to hold Cashion’s birthday celebration at Irenberg House.
Since I was the one who prepared the play, if matters escalated, it would surely deal Irenberg House a heavy blow.
“Diana, you were far too reckless in this affair. Holding Cashion’s birthday celebration outside the Royal Palace, preparing the play itself.”
It was Karman who had granted permission. Though I felt aggrieved that he was blaming me for everything now that things had gone wrong, the damage was done—I had nothing to say in my defense.
What I needed to do was contain the situation.
“Have you found a way to resolve this?”
I had agonized through the night, but no brilliant solution had come to mind.
The play was over, and the rumors would surely spread like wildfire.
Of course, I had interrogated the actors about what had happened, but the actress refused to speak. The actor only repeated that he was innocent.
Since I was not the Security Force, I could not hold them indefinitely, so I sent them home for now.
Instead, I asked Choe to have them watched. But there was no sign of suspicious activity.
An incident has occurred, and scandalous rumors involving the king and prince are circulating. To contain this situation swiftly, a scapegoat is needed. Someone to bear the blame.
‘If only this could be resolved with money.’
But this was not the sort of thing money could solve. I had tried to buy off the newspapers, but they had chosen the story.
They had chosen to make themselves famous over immediate financial gain.
From the start, I should not have thought people’s mouths could be silenced with gold.
‘So there are things money cannot accomplish.’
To continue this struggle, I would need another weapon entirely.
“It appears the matter of the play has fallen to me. But I must hold you accountable as well.”
Surely he was not going to strip me of my position as Acting Head of Irenberg House?
I swallowed hard.
Karman straightened himself and spoke.
“Who wrote the script for the play?”
Ah……
I exhaled a soundless sigh.
“We shall conclude this incident as an act of indiscretion by the script’s author. Someone who harbored ill will toward the Seraint Family.”
The perpetrator of the bombing attack at the engagement ceremony was also determined to have acted out of ill will toward the Seraint Family.
The Seraint Family’s reputation was already tarnished. Karman concluded that one more blow against them would hardly make a difference.
Though the Seraint Family was Violeta’s blood relation, she had severed all ties with them upon becoming Deposed Queen, and there was no connection to Cashion either—making them suitable as a scapegoat.
I have no intention of protecting the Seraint Family either. But what concerns me is another sacrificial victim.
The person who wrote the play—that was none other than Rumdracks and myself.
As long as I am Cashion’s betrothed, Karman will seek to protect me in this matter above all else.
Which leaves the transgression entirely on Rumdracks alone.
Hand over Rumdracks? Then break him out of prison later?
If I explained it well to Karman, he might reduce his sentence.
‘Just put out the most urgent fire?’
But I did not hesitate.
“There was nothing wrong with the play script.”
“Even if there wasn’t, we’ll have to make it seem like there was. That final line the actress spoke—we’ll make it so he wrote that.”
Karman had already mapped out the scenario to close the case. This was not a proposal. It was an ultimatum.
Yet I could not follow Karman’s will.
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 1101, 11F, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 33-gil Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
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 content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher 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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