I’m Trying to End This Possession - Chapter 27
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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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Chapter 27
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“I simply didn’t speak because I had no concrete evidence, Viego.”
“You must have had reasons for your suspicions.”
Viego calmly countered.
“Juan Rolland is a talent that the head of the family personally assigned to the Moonlight Flower business. And yet you’re saying he was the mastermind behind the Moonlight Flower crash.”
“I’m not certain. It’s just my thoughts.”
“What’s your reason for keeping those thoughts to yourself until now?”
What do I do!
Alice, who had been eavesdropping outside the door, couldn’t bear it any longer and turned away. She didn’t want to hear her father being interrogated anymore.
Alice ran to the garden, crying loudly.
“What do I do. What do I dooo…”
Father has gotten into trouble.
That wasn’t my intention.
I just wanted to punish the villain. I just wanted to give the villain his due punishment.
That was truly all I wanted!
After crying for a long time, Alice prayed.
‘Oh God, why do you give me such trials?’
So please, please just this once, grant my request.
Juan Rolland. That person…
‘Please call him to your side.’
So he may never wake again, please make him your angel.
So that no one knows I let him into the estate.
‘Please. Please. Please!’
Unfortunately, God did not grant Alice’s prayer.
The next morning at dawn, Juan Rolland finally opened his eyes.
* * *
“What?”
In the burning pain of his arm, Juan frowned.
What did I just hear?
“What did you just say, Duke?”
“There’s been a tip that you were the mastermind behind the Moonlight Flower crash.”
Viego looked down at him tied to the bed with indifference.
“Is it true?”
Juan was dumbfounded.
I’m already angry about how things turned out!
‘Who would frame me with such false accusations!’
Juan coughed dryly and shouted.
“No! I didn’t do anything like that!”
“You tried to make Danae Windsor drink a love potion.”
Juan flinched in surprise. How did he know that?
“Not only that, you tried to kill Danae.”
“I, I wasn’t trying to kill her. I just…”
“You even proposed eloping with her.”
“…”
Informal speech? Did he just use informal speech with me?
No, he’s probably just asking, right?
Juan broke out in cold sweat and forced a smile. Either way, this man held his lifeline, so he needed to stay on his good side.
“It’s true that I loved Danae. But Duke, am I the only man like that? It’s just that we can’t show it because of His Highness the Crown Prince, but I’m not the only one suffering in secret.”
“So you threatened her with a gun?”
“…”
That was informal speech.
Now there was no room for doubt.
Juan realized that his opponent would show him no mercy.
“Ah, well, I said no!”
Then he had no reason to act servile anymore either.
This bastard was the crazy one who put two bullets in the same spot on his arm!
“I don’t know about other things, but I didn’t mastermind the Moonlight Flower crash! Where the hell did you hear such nonsense!”
“Alice told me.”
“…”
Why is he using formal speech again now? Juan was confused by the Duke’s unpredictable attitude.
No, more than that.
“Alice, that little bitch said that?”
“That’s right.”
“Ha!”
Laughter welled up inside him. Juan burst into laughter at the absurdity of it all.
“Ahahaha!”
That little bitch is trying to frame me!
Since I’ve fallen this low, she’s trying to pin all the blame on me!
You think I’ll just take it lying down, Alice!
“Don’t believe what that bitch says. Alice, she’s more cunning than you think.”
He knew the Duke was listening intently to his words. Looking straight into his face, Juan shouted.
“Alice was the one who secretly let me into this house!”
Loud enough to echo throughout the entire room.
“You think that’s all? She even secretly sold Moonlight Flowers to her close friends!”
No, loud enough to echo beyond the room to the corridor, to the garden.
“If that’s not black market dealing, then what is!”
His cry struck the Windsor Estate like a thunderbolt.
* * *
“If that’s true, we can’t let this slide.”
At the Retainer Council held that day, the retainers were gripped with shock.
“How could the person in charge of the business engage in black market dealing?”
“Moonlight Flowers can only be traded at the Windsor Family Official Trading Post. How could she do this!”
Then Eric, the practical manager of the Moonlight Flower business, stepped forward and added a word.
“As a matter of fact, Lady Alice Windsor once asked me about this. Whether she could sell them privately to friends.”
“Is, is that really true?”
“Yes. I clearly told her it wasn’t allowed at the time… but it seems she sold them secretly.”
At his testimony, the retainers’ eyes rolled back in shock.
“Where is Lady Alice Windsor?”
“Why isn’t she attending the meeting?”
The arrows were directed at her father and deputy head of the family, Karl Windsor.
What was bound to come had come. Karl coughed a couple of times and answered carefully.
“Alice couldn’t attend due to severe headaches.”
Even as Karl said this, he felt embarrassed.
Who would believe that? Anyone could see she had fled because she couldn’t take responsibility.
Inwardly, Karl was disappointed in his daughter.
No matter how afraid she was of being criticized, not attending at all was too much.
“And when I asked Alice about it… Alice said she didn’t do such a thing.”
Still, she was his daughter.
Karl intended to cover up Alice’s faults somehow. His daughter’s mistakes would directly lead to his own.
“Alice did not sell Moonlight Flowers to her friends privately.”
So he spoke more firmly than ever.
“Juan Rolland, are you believing the words of such a man? He’s just attacking me maliciously out of resentment.”
“But!”
“Alice didn’t do such a thing. Don’t say such things without evidence.”
Karl gently pressed his palm against the desk.
“You all will have to take responsibility for the words you speak.”
The meeting hall fell quiet.
The retainers who had been pouring out complaints shut their mouths.
All the retainers knew.
The history of what Karl Windsor’s hands, now so refined, had committed.
They were witnesses who had watched Karl Windsor’s military days. Though now he dressed neatly in suits and sat at desks having polite conversations, he had once been such a frightening figure that people hesitated even to make eye contact with him.
Therefore, Karl’s words carried authority. Even if they were complete nonsense.
That’s when it happened.
“May I speak?”
A gentle voice came from the corner of the table. Everyone turned their heads toward where the voice came from.
There, Dana was carefully raising her hand.
“I attended the Retainer Council today as a direct descendant. If you’ll permit me to speak, I’d like to offer an opinion.”
Then Viego, who had been deliberately observing quietly until now, nodded. It meant to go ahead.
“Everyone, the important thing right now is that Moonlight Flower prices have crashed.”
Dana stood up from her seat and began to speak.
“If this continues, Windsor’s credibility will fall to an irreparable level.”
She continued with a light sigh as if feeling regretful.
“There may be various reasons why the Moonlight Flower was auctioned for such a large sum, but trust in the Windsor Family must have been the foundation.”
“That doesn’t mean Windsor needs to be responsible for the buyers’ choices.”
Dana agreed with one retainer’s words.
‘Of course. That’s right.’
But right now, it was also a useless statement to her.
“Moonlight Flowers surged dramatically in the past month. So I’d like appropriate compensation given to those who purchased during that month.”
At that suggestion, Eric, who had been the practical manager of the Moonlight Flower business, asked.
“Compensation, you say. In what form?”
“Financially, of course.”
Immediately, intense reactions poured out.
“That would result in massive losses for Windsor.”
“There aren’t just one or two people who won auctions, how could we compensate them all?”
“Lady, you may not know, but the world isn’t so easy!”
Of course, Dana somewhat agreed with their words.
“Financially, it may be an immediate loss for Windsor, but it would be better than losing credibility.”
Right now, this was the line she needed.
“Building credibility takes a long time, but losing it happens in an instant. Moreover, rebuilding credibility once it’s collapsed requires tremendous time and painstaking effort.”
Dana looked at Viego.
“This incident will be recorded in history.”
Indeed, that’s what would happen.
This would be This World’s first bubble crisis, becoming a good example of market collapse that Economics students would learn about in the future.
The Windsor Family would be mentioned each time.
Viego Windsor could easily predict that much.
Would he really let that happen?
“How we handle this incident will determine the Windsor Family’s reputation. Think of the distant future, not immediate losses.”
“That’s truly an idealistic alternative, but we need to think realistically.”
Eric subtly objected.
“It’s troubling when you speak so easily since it’s not money you’re paying. The compensation amount would be astronomical.”
She had been waiting for those words.
Dana spread both hands and smiled.
“I’ll bear the burden myself.”
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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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