I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 167

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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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I’m a Mother-in-Law, But I Don’t Want Family Conflicts Episode 167

The place Mikhail headed to was not the Imperial Palace, but a hotel.

He already knew that the Emperor stayed at the annex building of this hotel after finishing his work.

Without taking a carriage or horse, Mikhail moved secretly using the darkness of night and quietly asked Nata who was following behind.

“Sir Nata, will you live as Mother’s knight?”

“Of course.”

Though it was a sudden question, Nata answered immediately as if he had prepared for it in advance.

Mikhail smiled with satisfaction at his resolute voice.

“Then, I hope you won’t report what’s about to happen to Mother.”

“…Grand Madam is my commanding officer.”

“I’ll tell her separately, so I mean don’t say it with your own mouth. I hope it won’t come to that, but… in the worst case, it might go against your sense of justice.”

“You mean it has nothing to do with the Duke’s sense of justice?”

Walking through the darkness, Mikhail smiled slightly.

“For me, it might be something I’ve already experienced.”

“…?”

Unable to understand, Nata only blinked quietly.

The two quietly passed the hotel entrance bustling with guests and proceeded to the inside of the heavily guarded annex building.

Nata was inwardly amazed by Mikhail’s stealth ability.

Mikhail’s stealth was so natural that one would believe he had performed espionage missions before.

Noticing Nata’s admiration, Mikhail squinted and said.

“Keep this a secret. When Father was alive, I practiced a bit to sneak out of the castle to play.”

“Ah, yes.”

Though he wondered if this level could be achieved through practice, he quietly nodded remembering Wilhelmina’s words that he was originally that kind of person.

The two who arrived at the annex building headed to the top floor room.

When they opened the door and entered the room, silence greeted them as the Emperor had not yet arrived.

Mikhail sat across from the sofa that appeared to be the Emperor’s seat.

“Guard by the door. He’ll arrive soon.”

As soon as Mikhail finished speaking, footsteps could be heard from outside the room.

Nata held his breath, and Mikhail calmly leaned back on the sofa to greet his guest.

Creak-

The door opened, and the Emperor entered the room with an irritated expression unlike his usual demeanor.

“Welcome, Your Majesty. Did you finish your work without incident?”

Watching the Emperor freeze upon checking the room, Mikhail smiled brightly.

“You are…”

After a moment of confusion, the Emperor instantly put on a mask and walked calmly into the room.

“How surprising. I didn’t expect Duke Layton to visit without any prior notice.”

“I apologize for the sudden visit. Something came up that I needed to ask Your Majesty about, so I had no choice.”

“Then you could have just visited the Imperial Palace.”

“You can’t tell important secrets to a clone, can you?”

The Emperor, sitting across from Mikhail, crossed his legs and clicked his tongue with a tsk.

“You’re quite perceptive. I didn’t know the Duke had knowledge of magic.”

“You flatter me.”

“Given the matter with the Grand Duchess, I’ll forgive this rudeness just this once. So, what is it you wish to ask me?”

Mikhail observed the Emperor with narrowed eyes.

The expression from when he first discovered Mikhail had completely vanished, replaced by the Emperor’s usual composed demeanor.

‘He doesn’t feel threatened. Is he bluffing, or does he have something to rely on?’

He must have noticed Nata guarding by the door as soon as he entered, yet the Emperor’s attitude remained unperturbed.

Thinking there was no need for the usual conversation to gain the upper hand, Mikhail went straight to the point.

“Your Majesty, I just returned from visiting my mother’s ancestral home with her.”

“Hmm, yes. The Windsor Family, wasn’t it?”

“And there, I discovered strange traces.”

“Traces?”

In fact, Mikhail had already completed his investigation of the Windsor Family long ago.

It was only natural to investigate the background of someone he would accept as family.

The investigation report completed by John Doe was brief.

The Windsor Family fell due to debt.

Though they were originally a poor family, their downfall began when the Family Head’s younger brother borrowed money from various banks and nobles in the family’s name.

Eventually, they couldn’t even pay taxes and lost their noble title and mansion.

Up to this point, it matched what Wilhelmina had said.

The problem was what came next – the whereabouts of the Windsor Family Head and his younger brother.

“I heard from my mother that the Family Head and his younger brother disappeared without a trace. That they abandoned their daughter and fled, unable to bear the debt.”

But John Doe’s opinion was different.

He reported that it seemed someone had intentionally erased the traces of the two men.

It was such a perfect disappearance that even his information network couldn’t find a single clue.

“Actually, I thought the two had been murdered out of resentment or had taken their own lives. Stories of parents dying from debt troubles and children struggling with debt are common everywhere.”

If they had died long ago, there might be no traces, so Mikhail judged further investigation would be useless and lost interest in the Windsor Family.

He thought a fallen family couldn’t possibly have any significant secrets.

“Weren’t you talking about traces? You’re being quite long-winded. As a Duke, you must have already completed enough investigation to understand, so what exactly are you curious about?”

“It’s strange. Then why were bloodstains found in the Windsor Mansion?”

“….”

At the mention of bloodstains, the Emperor’s brow twitched faintly.

“Whose blood is it exactly? After my mother left the mansion, it should have been ruins where no one lived. And in all the accounts of events, there was no mention of casualties anywhere.”

“….”

And all those assumptions were overturned after seeing the interior of the Windsor Mansion.

“I found the traces on the first floor of the Windsor Mansion, in the kitchen. It had been scrubbed so thoroughly that the floor was gleaming from chemicals.”

He pointed to an antique wood decoration in the corner of the room.

“Like that decoration there, the Windsor Mansion was built with wood that only grows in the Western Region. Do you know? Western Region wood, having grown in cold winters, has narrow rings and is hard, and doesn’t discolor easily. Along with wool, it’s one of our proud exports.”

“So what of it?”

“Even such wood tends to discolor. It has no way to withstand liquids mixed with iron, like blood. …The surface was wiped clean with chemicals, but when I peeled back a layer, bloodstains still remained inside.”

The Emperor’s mask had finally fallen away.

Mikhail gazed at his face, frozen cold as ice, with dry eyes devoid of any smile.

Mikhail, who had questioned the excessive cleaning, peeled back the outer layer of the wood to examine what lay beneath.

Though faint, there were definitely traces of blood remaining.

And those traces filled an entire corner of the kitchen. It was a large pool that could never be considered from a small wound.

Mikhail did not miss that clue.

“I heard that the Imperial Family seized Windsor Mansion due to unpaid taxes. If that’s the case, then it must have been the Imperial Family who continued the cleaning and maintenance after Mother left the mansion. But I’ve never once heard of the Imperial Family managing seized mansions like that.”

Mansions or castles seized by the Imperial Family were usually managed by sending representatives, or bestowed upon other Imperial Family members.

Windsor Mansion was neither.

It wasn’t sold to anyone, nor was it decorated. It was simply being obsessively cleaned, erasing traces of human habitation.

As if some tragedy that must never be revealed had occurred there.

“A daughter sold away, a father and his brother who disappeared, an empty mansion, bloodstains they tried to erase… Do you understand what I’m curious about?”

“Stop beating around the bush and speak directly.”

“Do those bloodstains belong to the Windsor Family Head?”

The Emperor did not answer.

In truth, Mikhail had hoped he would deny it and claim ignorance.

That hiring cleaners to manage the mansion, changing the structure of an unused kitchen, and removing the cabinet that should have held kitchen knives… were all coincidences.

It would have been good if he had said he had never seen such traces.

Whether choosing silence over lies was due to a trace of conscience, or simply a reaction born from being flustered, Mikhail could not tell.

Mikhail’s deduction did not end there.

‘Next comes the motive.’

There was no need for the Imperial Family to intervene in an incident that occurred in a mere fallen noble house.

Rather, if this fact came to light, they might become embroiled in unnecessary scandal.

Then why did the Emperor try to erase these traces, even going so far as to control information?

‘It might not have been the Emperor’s will, but Duke Venice’s.’

He recalled Duke Venice’s obsession with Wilhelmina.

Considering John Doe’s investigation results and Wilhelmina’s testimony, she and Duke Venice were complete strangers with no connection whatsoever.

Yet Duke Venice was obsessed with Wilhelmina as if he had fallen for her at first sight.

If he wanted to help Wilhelmina, the Emperor couldn’t just leave it alone either.

‘Perhaps giving her the villa was for the same reason.’

The treatment the Emperor and Duke Venice showed toward Wilhelmina was so exceptional that it seemed like blind favoritism.

Then how does erasing the bloodstains at Windsor Mansion connect to Wilhelmina?

What benefit would that action bring to Wilhelmina?

Mikhail recalled the incident from last year that he had tried his utmost to erase.

And Wilhelmina’s voice, who had deduced that incident and calmly comforted him, echoed in his ears.

‘…So what? Someone who deserved to die simply died.’

‘…Yes, Mother. There must have been a reason why they had to die.’

Fortunately, Wilhelmina’s memories of that time were hazy.

I didn’t know the reason why, but if Mikhail’s deduction was correct, it was better that she didn’t recall such memories.

Mikhail, already having guessed the answer, slowly opened his mouth.

“I want to know who made those traces, who killed the Windsor Family Head.”

The original sin that the Emperor, Layton, and Venice were hiding.

A child who killed their parent.

An unforgivable crime in the Empire, a grave sin punishable by death.

Patricide.

“Is the culprit, by any chance, Mother?”

The Emperor’s silence weighed heavier than any truth.

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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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