I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 98

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Aarten?”

Alteon’s eyes widened in surprise.

He didn’t know for certain, but seeing that they had come all the way here in person, it must be an extremely urgent matter. Usually, letters addressed to him would pile up at the Crown Prince’s Palace.

“A letter, you say? Hurry and give it to me.”

“Yes!”

Suha, breathing so hard he was gasping for air, handed over a letter.

The letter contained Ekian’s brief message: [The task is complete, and I will now return directly to the capital].

“Melanie.”

Alteon spoke, unable to control his trembling eyes.

“This is truly good news, and something I’ve been sincerely waiting for, but…”

Melanie also nodded as if she understood Alteon’s feelings. Then she swallowed dryly and muttered the rest.

“Why, why, why is this so frightening?”

Because he had borrowed the hands of barbarians, and because it was a matter where having no justification didn’t matter, Ekian was rather comfortable. Perhaps it even perfectly matched his aptitude for moving secretly since childhood.

After the Marquis of Aarten and his close associates, who hadn’t anticipated Ekian’s presence, all died, the barbarians easily occupied the castle. The barbarians, unfamiliar with the castle’s geography, simply carried out indiscriminate plundering, while Ekian hid behind the rear gate that every castle had. Through the rear gate, the castle’s residents were streaming out like a tide.

Though the residents looked surprised and frightened, they didn’t seem overly panicked.

This was because barbarian invasions weren’t particularly rare occurrences. Usually in such cases, territorial armies from neighboring domains would come to help, or the Marquis of Aarten, who had gone on a distant expedition, would return to reclaim the castle, so if they went to the rear mountain where they always took refuge, they could return home within a day or two.

Being plundered was unavoidable, but still, this was one of the inescapable daily realities for people living in domains near the barbarians.

Since it was something that happened frequently, everyone’s faces showed expressions of being fed up with it all.

Ekian hid and waited outside the rear gate. Everyone was dressed like ordinary refugees.

‘They won’t think the Marquis of Aarten died in such a small-scale attack. They’ll think the barbarians went to strike the main base, and everyone thinks this is plundering that will end if they just wait about a day.’

Indeed, since they hadn’t mobilized all the barbarians in earnest, the scale of the attack was small. However, all effective military forces had already departed.

Then how would the Emperor, who was inside the castle, act? The answer was clear. He would pretend to mix in with the refugees and go to the shelter, then stay in the safest place. And naturally, Ekian didn’t know where the safest place in the Aarten Refuge was.

Therefore, he had to deal with him on the way to the Aarten Refuge.

“What should we do?”

A subordinate beside Ekian whispered.

“The close associates protecting the Emperor alone will probably be tremendous in number. There are too many people… It seems it would be difficult to find the Emperor among them. Moreover, he’s surely wearing a disguise that can’t be recognized from afar, like a wig or glasses.”

“That’s likely.”

Ekian muttered lowly. But he wasn’t without methods either.

“Tell them to pretend it’s an attack and rain down arrows. But make sure there’s no harm to civilians – scatter them as much as possible so they hit the trees on the opposite side.”

“Understood.”

About five subordinates scattered after hearing Ekian’s command. Ekian waited calmly with sunken eyes. And before long, the subordinates who had received Ekian’s orders began shooting arrows from various positions. Chaos erupted instantly.

“Aaaah!”

“It’s the barbarians!”

“Run! Arrows!”

Among the people scattering in confusion, Ekian spotted a group that stuck close together to protect someone among them. It wouldn’t be visible to ordinary people’s eyes, but to someone with sharp vision who could observe formations from above, the movement of the formation was clearly visible.

‘Only one chance…’

Of course, even so, it was quite a large-scale movement, making it confusing to tell exactly who they were protecting. Everyone was hidden under large hats, making it difficult to pick out only the Emperor among them. If he ended up killing someone other than the Emperor, their numerically inferior side would be overwhelmed in an instant.

However, if he assassinated the Emperor in one strike, it was obvious that those with no one left to protect would fall into confusion.

Ekian observed the Emperor’s group with sharp eyes, then crouched low and leaped in, throwing a dagger at just one person.

‘The one with the cleanest shoes.’

Someone of the Emperor’s status wouldn’t often have occasion to walk on dirt roads like this. So the person wearing the cleanest shoes would surely be the Emperor.

Alteon and Ekian’s plan was as follows.

They thought it would be better not to reveal the exact date even after assassinating the Emperor. The plan was to treat it as going missing during the barbarian attack, then discover the Emperor’s body much later, allowing Alteon to naturally ascend to the throne.

Alteon thought they should announce the Emperor’s death at least after Ekian Meius returned to the capital. While it was also advantageous that they could thoroughly weed out the remaining Emperor faction in the meantime, it was primarily to prevent Ekian from being suspected of assassinating the Emperor. Since the Meius Ducal House was a representative anti-Emperor faction noble family, Ekian’s absence could arouse suspicion.

And on a slightly more personal level, he didn’t want to attach the label of having killed the Emperor to Ekian Meius, and he also wanted to naturally reveal that he was Alteon’s brother.

The death of the Emperor, who had once been the master of the Empire, was sudden and equally miserable.

The Emperor’s subordinates who were suddenly attacked by an assailant were greatly flustered.

As soon as the signal flare indicating an attack on the Emperor was fired, the barbarians began rushing toward the rear gate, and the evacuation route became even more chaotic.

In the meantime, Ekian and his subordinates quickly dealt with the Emperor who had fallen under attack.

“The Emperor is dead anyway.”

Ekian, his entire body covered by a mask and robe, spoke lowly to the close associates who had surrounded the Emperor.

“Just scattering like this would help preserve your lives.”

The close associates who had been guarding the Emperor immediately understood the meaning of those words. They would have to risk their lives in a frontal breakthrough with these people. Even if they survived, they had failed to protect the Emperor, so the Imperial Court would obviously hold them responsible later.

But if they scattered at this point, the story would be different. If they couldn’t bring the already dead Emperor back to life anyway, they naturally had to flee now and at least preserve their lives. Thus, the subordinates who had no great personal affection for the Emperor scattered into the refugees like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

“You see, Father.”

Ekian whispered lowly.

“No one truly followed you.”

There was no response from the Emperor, whose life had already been cut short in an instant. Ekian left the corpse on a deserted mountain path.

Just as his father had ordered him killed and thrown into a river over twenty years ago.

“Mother’s prophecy was correct after all.”

Ekian spoke indifferently without any change in expression.

“But it was you, Father, who created this situation.”

In truth, he didn’t even want to call him father, but thinking about it, since he only called him father after his death, it had the meaning of executing his birth mother’s curse.

Now Alteon would announce the Emperor as missing in a few days, then announce his death after finding the Emperor’s body and ascend to the throne himself. In between, Ekian would publicly declare his imperial blood and become the Grand Duke of Aarten.

To confuse the date of death, he sprinkled anti-decay chemicals on the Emperor’s corpse. As the decay was delayed, Ekian Meius would be able to create an alibi.

Everything was now finished. There was no longer anyone who would dare touch Judith, calling her the weakest part of the Meius Ducal House.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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