I’m a Mother-in-Law, but I Dislike Conflict with My Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 55

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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 55

Thanks to the fact that the Emperor was visiting this time, the banquet became much more lively than in previous years.

Unlike the Western Region which valued etiquette and tradition, the Eastern Region shared joy with its characteristic freedom.

After the Congratulatory Speech for the New Year banquet ended, the nobles of the Eastern Region formed their own groups and enjoyed the banquet noisily. Of course, the protagonist of the banquet was the Emperor.

“Your Majesty, your beauty still shines like the sun and blinds my eyes!”

“This is precious jewelry from the mine in our region. Please accept this…”

Even though it was freer than the Western Region, the characteristic sentiment of nobles didn’t disappear.

Each one greedily offered bribes to gain favor with the Emperor, and lavished sweet words as if honey had been spread on their tongues.

The Emperor was receiving their words in a domineering and elegant manner.

On the opposite side of the crowded and chaotic banquet, a man stood on the terrace of a small room that servants used as a rest room.

Wearing a simple tunic that didn’t match the banquet, he just quietly looked up at the sky. Then he opened his mouth with a subdued voice.

“Don’t hide, come out.”

“Oh my, did I interrupt your contemplation?”

Another man who had been hiding in the shadows of the rest room suddenly emerged onto the terrace.

Crimson hair that bewitchingly reflected the moonlight, and a man wearing gorgeous costume adorned with jewelry and gold thread. It was Emperor Theorne.

He showed an affectionate smile and approached the man.

“You used a clone again? You’ll get caught someday.”

“As if there would be a foolish assassin who would attack the Emperor at a banquet hall.”

“We’ve met several times at the Imperial Palace, haven’t we?”

“Well, that’s true too.”

The Emperor didn’t mind the man’s rudeness in not offering proper greetings. He leaned against the terrace railing and looked at the man.

“Still, you attended the New Year banquet. I thought you’d be stuck there without being able to move.”

“My subordinates do well even without me, but still, I can’t save face if I skip events like this.”

“Not because I came to Venice?”

“Do you want me to answer that way?”

“Haha, no.”

The Emperor let out a hollow laugh and glanced toward the noisy banquet hall.

“By the way, Venice has become much more stable too. It feels like yesterday when it was being compared to Layton.”

“It’s still far from complete. There’s a lot of backlogged business.”

“You’ll do well. Now there’s no one here to interfere with you, is there?”

Instead of answering, the man stood beside the Emperor and leaned against the railing together. Knowing that it was the man’s habit to avoid eye contact when asked difficult questions, the Emperor shrugged and changed the topic.

“Year-end party in the Western Region, New Year banquet in the Eastern Region – I’m quite diligent, aren’t I?”

“It would be better if you showed that same confidence with document work.”

“Imperial work is too boring. If I hadn’t become Emperor, I would have become a traveler.”

“…”

The man sighed. It was a widely known fact that the Emperor, who had good execution skills, preferred field inspections where he could run around directly rather than document work.

“Speaking of the Western Region – I met that person.”

“That person?”

“Wilhelmina Layton.”

“….”

He could feel the man’s body stiffen like ice.

The Emperor continued speaking while hiding his amusement, even though he knew.

“She’s a charming woman. Just as you said. Bold, capable, and composed. Nothing in the Intelligence Department’s report matched reality.”

“…What did you discuss?”

“We had a very private conversation.”

At that moment, hostility flowed from the man. The Emperor let out a short exclamation at the chillingly cold aura that made his body tingle.

“That’s more of a reaction than I expected. Don’t you think you’re seeing me as too much of a scoundrel?”

“Theorne, I told you not to approach her anymore.”

“It ended well anyway, didn’t it? Let’s let the past flow away.”

The man hadn’t forgotten the fact that the Emperor had used Wilhelmina.

Of course, if the Emperor hadn’t pressured Helene, Wilhelmina might be living as a commoner rather than a Grand Duchess by now… But in any case, it was true that she had been caught up in the Emperor’s schemes.

Moreover, the Emperor was a womanizer. Though he was known publicly for living an ascetic life, among those close to him, there was no one who didn’t know the Emperor’s temperament.

“What did you say to her?”

“Are you that curious?”

“Answer me.”

“Fine, then let’s make a deal.”

When asked for something, demanding something equivalent in return. It was one of the Emperor’s habits.

“I also want to know something about Wilhelmina. If you tell me that, I’ll explain in detail what happened between Wilhelmina and me.”

“Stop with the petty jokes….”

“Additionally, I’ll also tell you the name of the noble who made rude advances toward her. How about it?”

“…What?”

“There was a man who approached her saying something like ‘Aren’t you lonely living alone?'”

At the word ‘advances,’ his fierce aura momentarily wavered. But only briefly, as now his hostility transformed into murderous intent that surged forth.

“Who was it?”

“So if you want to know that, let’s make a deal.”

“…What do you want to know.”

“Tell me how you came to notice Wilhelmina, and what memorable encounter you had.”

The man looked at the Emperor with a furrowed brow as if finding it absurd. But the Emperor didn’t seem to be joking. Though his face was full of mischief, his eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“At times like this, I sometimes think about strangling you.”

“You too? Me too. So are you going to make the deal or not?”

“…Fine. If it’s just that much.”

It wasn’t a memory only the man possessed anyway. If he could obtain information by sharing this much of a story, it was definitely a profitable deal.

When the man nodded in agreement, the Emperor listened with an excited expression as if he had returned to his childhood.

“You know that she and I were classmates at the same Academy.”

“Of course.”

“I came to remember her name… during one lesson.”

The man began his story, looking up at the clear night sky as if recalling the past.

The man and Wilhelmina were alumni of Martin Academy, an academy where the notable noble children of the capital gathered.

Unlike the man who had the tremendous background of being a descendant of the Venice Ducal House, Wilhelmina’s academy life as a young lady from a debtor family was far from peaceful.

To the children who had learned political strife from a young age, Wilhelmina was a classmate no different from a commoner.

Where groups form, ostracism naturally follows, and when ostracism intensifies, it leads to bullying.

Those with twisted sense of justice thinking ‘How can we tolerate such a lowly person in our classroom’ began to torment Wilhelmina.

“It started with trivial things. Gossiping loudly enough for her to hear, not telling her about class schedules… childish attacks that kids would do.”

So even the man who was her classmate didn’t notice the unsettling atmosphere in the class.

Children’s bullying is just that secretive and petty by nature.

Some distant foreign scholar argued that being pure means not being evil, but spending just one year at the academy would show you what nonsense that is.

“But she didn’t care. Just like the her you saw, she lived with dignity and composure. Thanks to that, things gradually got worse.”

“Usually things would die down without a reaction, but it sparked their competitive spirit instead.”

“Right, the bullying began to surface openly.”

Ignoring and malicious gossip transformed into physical harassment.

Stealing her notes and tearing them up at the fountain, erasing names on test papers to make her lose points, deliberately spilling wine during meals to dirty her school uniform…

By then, other classmates noticed the serious situation, but no one stepped forward. They didn’t want to help Wilhelmina only to become the next target.

“What were you doing at that time?”

“…I was frequently called to the main house, so I was rarely at the academy.”

“Ah, was that during the succession struggle? Then it couldn’t be helped.”

The Emperor nodded, recalling the man’s complicated family circumstances.

If he had known the situation then, this man would have tried to stop it, even using clumsy methods.

But the only one who could have been an ally wasn’t at the academy. The bullying intensified gradually, and eventually an incident occurred that even the faculty couldn’t ignore.

Someone had pushed her down the stairs.

“Wow…”

The Emperor unconsciously let out an exclamation.

Even though the academy ecosystem was a miniature of high society, he never expected there would be students who would resort to such extreme measures. It was a situation that could have turned into a murder case if things went wrong.

“Moreover, when she returned to the classroom, her chair was smashed and thrown into the trash can.”

“The culprit was…?”

“Of course it was the students who had been bullying her.”

At the time, the man never imagined that chair belonged to Wilhelmina. Just as he was wondering why the chair was broken, someone burst through the door despite class being in session.

It was Wilhelmina, covered in blood.

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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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