I Inherited a Beautiful Wife and a Territory - Chapter 108

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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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Inheriting a Beautiful Wife and Estate Episode 108

 

108. Elimis Duchy

 

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“Kyaaaah!”

 

With the sound of screaming, Serpal Manor was turned upside down.

 

Holton’s corpse had been discovered. Rusten’s face turned pale when he was called to the scene where the body lay.​

 

‘There’s no way Lord Holton would commit suicide at a time like this. No, Lord Holton wasn’t the type of person to take his own life in the first place.’

 

In other words, this incident was an assassination.

 

An important figure had been assassinated in the heart of Serpal. And the fact that they had no idea until morning came.

 

Soon Rusten’s thoughts turned elsewhere.​

 

“Y-Your Highness!”

 

Cliff, who could be called the most distinguished guest. He hadn’t left Serpal yet.

 

And an assassination incident that occurred where the duchy’s ruler was staying.

 

Rusten hurriedly ran to where Cliff was.

 

And he was flustered.

 

He wasn’t alone in his bedroom.

 

“Oh, you came?”

 

Leticia with a flushed face and an embarrassed expression.

 

Though she looked ordinary, he could guess what had been happening until just now.

 

“I-I have committed a discourtesy.”

 

Rusten hurriedly bowed his head.

 

“Phew. No, it’s fine. But it seems noisy outside, what’s happening?”

 

Only after receiving Cliff’s question did his expression become serious again.

 

A tremendous incident had occurred.

 

However, he was troubled.

 

‘Would it be… right to tell His Highness the truth?’

 

The Serpal Family was already in disfavor. An assassination occurring where Cliff was staying could potentially incur Cliff’s wrath.

 

Because it meant their security was that lax.

 

And it was a matter that revealed Serpal’s security was terrible. But it was already too late to cover this up.

 

At the very least, it was right to report the truth to Cliff.

 

“I apologize. An unfortunate incident occurred inside the manor.”

 

Even as he spoke, Rusten’s mind continued to wrestle with concerns.

 

Should he tell, or should he appropriately minimize or conceal it?

 

“An unfortunate incident?”

 

Cliff asked him.

 

Rusten bit his lips, then answered Cliff’s question.

 

“Lord Holton has ended his life inside the manor.”

 

In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to say the word assassination.

 

Cliff asked him with a hardened expression.

 

“Ended his life?”

 

“I believe… it was probably suicide.”

 

It wasn’t suicide.

 

No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t his suicide but assassination, that is, murder. A killer who murdered a Serpal noble exists in this manor right now.

 

But Rusten decided to conclude this as Holton’s suicide.

 

He had no choice.

 

‘This is where the ruler is staying. An assassination incident in such a place…’

 

Even though it wasn’t an incident targeting Cliff, it couldn’t just be overlooked.

 

Serpal had to take responsibility for it. And there was another thought behind trying to tie it up as suicide like this.

 

‘Lord Holton wasn’t someone I could join hands with anyway. This is his own doing.’

 

Rather, it worked out well.

 

From Rusten’s standpoint, Holton was a political enemy. Although he had acknowledged Rusten out of fear of Cliff, there was no way Holton or his people would fully accept Rusten.

 

Cliff quietly looked at Rusten saying these words.

 

“…Is that so?”

 

A look that seemed to be questioning while also knowing something.

 

Someone like Cliff probably noticed it wasn’t suicide. With that thought, Rusten’s heart pounded.

 

But Cliff didn’t bother to interrogate Rusten who had made a false report.

 

“What a tragic affair.”​

 

He only murmured those words.

 

With this, Holton’s death was concluded as suicide. And this became Holton’s fault.​

 

‘How dare he commit suicide in a place where the ruler is staying!’​

 

This was an act that tarnished the ruler’s honor.

 

Though Cliff and Holton had been in opposition or conflict with each other, he never expected him to create a blemish on the ruler in this manner.

 

Rusten, who had become the lord of Serpal, announced this in anger. And using this as justification, he executed Holton’s children and grandchildren who could be considered his own relatives.​

 

“For the crime of attempting to insult the royal honor, he and his bloodline are expelled from Serpal, and his children shall be punished for guilt by association.”

 

All males were sentenced to death.

 

All females were sentenced to lifelong slavery.

 

In that state, Holton also found the people from Mabel’s faction who had nearly died.

 

All the key figures of Mabel’s faction had died in the fight with Holton. But the young officials who had survived.

 

“Glory to the new lord and the Elimis Duchy!”

 

“Loyalty to Serpal!”

 

​

 

​

 

Serpal’s submission.

 

With this, Cliff had definitely seized control of the northern Yusta Peninsula.

 

Everyone acknowledged him as their ruler. But he hadn’t yet seized control of the entire Yusta Peninsula.

 

“Is the problem the south?”

 

Cliff muttered.

 

The southern Yusta Peninsula.

 

Plains regions different from the northern mountains.

 

‘Many places there had fertile land. Or the cities along the coast had grown into international ports surpassing Serpal.

 

‘The problem is they’re too independent.’

 

The south was difficult to occupy by leading an army like Serpal.

 

That place was an independent region even on the surface from the beginning. They lived among themselves without receiving titles from the homeland.

 

Was that why?

 

‘It doesn’t seem to be affected by my status window either.’

 

The status window didn’t recognize that place as his territory.

 

This was confirmed by Kyuung being unable to cross over there.

 

“Your Highness. It’s time for your meal.”

 

“…Right.”

 

Cliff’s contemplation ended at the voice that roused him.

 

He moved to the dining room.

 

The place where he was now was the original Elimis Domain. This place had also changed a lot from before.

 

‘Construction has become active.’

 

That many more buildings had increased.

 

The fields had also increased.

 

And the crops being cultivated in these new fields.

 

Cliff’s eyes lit up as he quietly put the steaming rice into his mouth with a spoon.

 

‘This is it!’

 

Indeed, Koreans live on rice… no, wait, he wasn’t Korean.

 

Cliff made a satisfied expression.

 

Previously, there would occasionally be hard bits when chewing, but now it had become clean.

 

Nigel, who had been watching the meal, opened his mouth.

 

“I never imagined that Tiramil and the mainland would create such good synergy with each other. To think that everyone in the estate can now eat without having to import food anymore…”

 

Nigel had experienced the weakest period of the Elimis Estate.

 

When he first came here, even the estate’s owner wanted to abandon the estate and leave.

 

‘Actually… he did leave after handing over the estate and his daughter to me.’

 

However, on the other hand, that became the previous Elimis Baron’s greatest achievement.

 

Because the newly arrived Cliff had changed the estate greatly.

 

Now it was even difficult to call it the Elimis Estate anymore. In just a short time, the estate had become the center of a nation.

 

However, due to the fundamentally isolated geographical characteristics, the term “Elimis Estate” was more familiar to Nigel than “Elimis Duchy.”

 

And the estate’s development felt more real than the larger titles or territories.

 

One of those things was rice.

 

He became moved.

 

‘It has become an estate capable of self-sufficiency without having to sell children anymore.’

 

Food production had increased significantly.

 

The population had also grown, yet there was enough food for everyone and more.

 

Because of this, Nigel was moved, deeply moved. Cliff, who was watching this, chuckled softly.

 

“You opposed planting Tiramil so much at first… now you love Tiramil more than anyone else?”

 

“Hehe. Let’s stop talking about embarrassing past stories.”

 

So Nigel had reached the point of saying such things.

 

The estate had certainly grown tremendously.

 

Accordingly, incidents and accidents had increased, but there was a separate main culprit behind the biggest incidents and accidents.

 

Cliff turned his head.

 

Two children moving spoons with their small hands, with a nanny attending to them from the side.

 

‘The twins have grown a lot now too.’

 

Because he had been away frequently, he hadn’t been able to watch those children grow often.

 

There was that regret.

 

At least it was fortunate that excellent teachers were by their side. And Apollo was more well-behaved than expected.

 

He occasionally startled people, but basically didn’t cause trouble. The real problem was the tomboy Artemis.

 

‘They say she’s most well-behaved during meal times and sleep times?’

 

The rest of the time, he didn’t know where she might be or what she might be doing.

 

No.

 

Even sleeping moments were never truly well-behaved. If you took your eyes off her for just a moment, she could disappear anywhere.

 

“Papa!”

 

And even after eating the meal prepared for them, she soon put down her spoon.

 

It was useless even when they tried to feed her more from the side.

 

“Sigh.”

 

Priscilla sighed while looking at her daughter.

 

Nigel’s eyebrows also twitched.

 

This was opposite to what the two people knew of little girls.

 

“Papa!”

 

Hop.

 

And then patter patter patter.

 

Artemis left her seat. Then she came straight to Cliff and stretched out her arms.

 

“You want to come here?”

 

He lifted her up and placed her on his lap.

 

And then came tea time.

 

“…Have you thought about this winter’s festival?”

 

“Not yet.”

 

The festival they held every winter.

 

That day was already approaching again.

 

The disappointing part was that this festival hadn’t spread throughout the entire duchy territory. Perhaps because of this, there was a new change from before.

 

There were people who deliberately came to the old Elimis Estate in winter to enjoy this festival.

 

‘It was originally a small festival…’

 

But now it had changed greatly.

 

People came from throughout the duchy. They would enjoy the festival when winter came, and besides that, they couldn’t return in winter and were stuck staying here.

 

Incidentally, most of this winter’s visitors were nobles.

 

‘Commoners don’t have the luxury to spend an entire season on travel in the first place.’

 

Being generally poor was the situation of the Elimis Duchy.

 

Setting that aside, there had been many incidents recently because of this. Since only those with means came, there were issues with finding accommodations for them, and problems frequently arose due to their authoritarian attitudes.

 

So he had issued an order for now.

 

-Within the capital, no one except royalty may command or punish the capital’s citizens.

 

A decree limiting nobles’ rights.

 

‘They can’t completely abandon their high-handed attitudes, but I hope they don’t cause incidents…’

 

He heard that there were still occasionally those who caused incidents.

 

It hadn’t been sufficiently publicized. Still, since there was only one road, they were giving warnings to nobles each time they passed through that road.

 

“For now… I’m just hoping no incidents occur. Compared to last year, the scale has grown too much…”

 

That would be the case.

 

Until last year, it was still an internal estate event. There were no visitors from outside.

 

Rather, even among estate personnel, many were often away during the festival, so how much more so?

 

‘But now there are outsiders, and nobles at that…’

 

Moreover, they frequently wanted to meet with Priscilla.

 

Priscilla made a bitter expression.

 

“I’m still not good with noble ladies…”

 

That was understandable.

 

Actually, Priscilla had no experience in noble social circles.

 

So there was someone excited instead of Priscilla.

 

“Sophia is helping out quite a lot.”

 

Sophia, who was Priscilla’s maid and also from the Ballard Family.

 

Since Priscilla refused meetings with noble women, Sophia’s popularity was exploding instead.

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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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