Me, a Princess? My Lord! - Chapter 63

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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 63

“Why are you so surprised? Like someone caught trying to commit betrayal.”

Anastasia’s violet eyes glinted sharply. It was such a fierce gaze that for a moment, it felt like being cut by a blade.

“Wh-what are you saying! How could I ever betray the Princess?”

“Is that really so?”

“I’m sincere. I swear I’ve never harbored such thoughts. It hurts to hear you say that.”

His voice cracked with bewilderment, as if his throat had tightened. Clovis’s fingertips trembled finely.

‘Like a ghost.’

Of course, he hadn’t completely decided to betray Anastasia. But it was true that he had briefly, very briefly, entertained other thoughts.

He had wondered if it might be more profitable to side with Heidi rather than Anastasia, and whether there might be some way to do so.

“Hmm.”

Anastasia smiled coldly, as if she could see right through Clovis’s mind.

“Fine. I have to believe you, don’t I? What choice do I have?”

“You can trust me.”

Anastasia crossed her long legs and spoke.

“Anyway, those fools who are groveling and wagging their tails in there will eventually come back to me. Do you think I’m going to die alone?”

“…”

“You remember the gifts you brought me, don’t you, Clovis?”

Anastasia chuckled.

“How many secrets am I holding? Openly acting like a devoted wife while secretly keeping a string of lovers behind the scenes – that’s hardly worth calling a weakness. It’s such a mundane affair that they might just suffer some embarrassment and then be forgotten.”

Anastasia’s eyes turned to Clovis. Her red lips curved seductively.

“But a son trying to poison his father – that’s quite a different story, wouldn’t you say?”

At Anastasia’s words, Clovis’s face hardened like stone.

“…”

His two fists resting on his thighs clenched tightly. His nails dug into his flesh so deeply that blood began to seep out.

“…Yes, Princess. I understand what you’re saying.”

That was right.

That was the weakness Clovis had been caught with by Anastasia.

* * *

“My body isn’t what it used to be these days. Even though I’m taking medicine, why isn’t it getting better but only getting worse…”

“Since the medicine doesn’t seem to be working well, I think we should increase the dosage.”

“No. Something feels wrong with my body… I think the medicine doesn’t suit me, Clovis.”

“Father, you know I know more about herbs than anyone else. The doctor said so too.”

“But…”

“Leave the family affairs and business to me, and you just rest comfortably, Father. Do you understand?”

Clovis hadn’t been an unfilial son from the beginning.

No, it was quite the opposite. Clovis had always lived doing his best to gain his father’s recognition.

What shook their previously untroubled father-son relationship and betrayed his affection was his father, Duke Pretium.

“The master is really too much. How long has it been since the madam passed away, and now remarriage…”

“Probably not even a full year yet?”

“I think she’s pregnant. I ran into her in the corridor yesterday, and her belly was already quite round?”

Bringing in a new wife less than a year after Clovis’s mother died?

Well, that much was fine.

Always carrying around Lawrence, the son born with the new wife?

It was unpleasant and irritating, but he could endure it.

“Lawrence is truly clever. His political sense is extraordinary. Honestly, in terms of natural ability, he’s much better than my eldest son who just stares at plants. It’s a shame he’s the second son.”

“There’s no law saying the eldest must inherit everything, is there? You can guide him well.”

“If only I could live long and prosper… I’d like to teach Lawrence various things. That boy. Whether it’s looks or charm, he’s my son but truly has no flaws.”

But he couldn’t tolerate taking what was his and giving it to Lawrence.

Who had been taking on all the difficult work in place of his father until now? Clovis Ervin Pretium, the eldest son of House Pretium, was still alive and well.

Lawrence decided to use the field he knew best.

Plants.

Specifically, poisonous plants.

If he used a strong poison, killing one powerless old man would be nothing. But then it would be easy to discover that someone had used poison.

Actually, there was no need for him to die completely. He just needed to exist quietly like a plant.

So Clovis first blinded him. So he could no longer see the faces of his second wife and son that he so proudly showed off.

Next, he took away his voice.

He would no longer be able to spout nonsense about leaving the head of house position and the merchant guild to Lawrence, or leaving the estate to his wife.

“Just say that and it’s done. I’ll give you twenty gold coins.”

“Tw-twenty coins…!”

To get poison into the mouth of the suspicious old man, he needed a plausible accomplice. Clovis recruited a poor doctor to lower his father’s guard.

But at that time, he didn’t realize.

Someone who could be moved by 20 gold coins might spill everything for 30 gold coins.

When he learned that the doctor had confessed everything he knew to Princess Anastasia, Clovis thought his life was over.

Murder always carries a heavy sentence. That was Panther’s national law.

But he had tried to harm his own father? And he was a duke of this country?

There was no way he could avoid the death penalty.

“Now that you know everything, will you kill me? Or will you use the national law to imprison me?”

“Neither?”

But Anastasia had a slightly different story.

“I liked it. The fact that you’re someone who could kill your own blood relative for what you want.”

“…”

“Want to work with me? You seem like exactly the talent I was looking for.”

“What kind of work…”

“Similar to what you’ve always been doing. Make some money, dig into people’s backgrounds, and when necessary, clean things up completely. You can think of it as doing whatever I tell you to do.”

Anastasia met Clovis’s eyes and smiled like an angel as she spoke.

“It’s not that difficult, Clovis. You have exactly two choices.”

Anastasia held up two long, slender fingers.

“Die.”

“…”

“Or live for me.”

* * *

Since childhood, Anastasia had been skilled at finding people’s weaknesses through various scandals and rumors that Governess Sheila brought her.

The reason such an Anastasia had investigated Clovis’s background was because he was the eldest son of the Pretium family, which dominated the social circles. What Anastasia had wanted was information networks.

Clovis quietly looked at Anastasia’s face as she sat beside him. Her baby fat had disappeared, making her facial lines a bit sharper, but her eyes remained the same as back then.

But this moment felt more frightening than those old days when he had been prepared to die, probably because he had learned just how cruel a woman Anastasia Janette de Panther was.

Anastasia tilted her head slightly and opened her mouth.

“Do you remember what I said? The day we first met privately.”

“…Of course I remember.”

“Then and now, you have two choices. Die, or live for me. Shall I put it differently?”

Anastasia placed her hand on his chest as she spoke.

“If I die.”

Press.

Anastasia’s finger stabbed into Clovis’s chest like a blade.

“You die too, Clovis. Of course, you won’t die peacefully. It will be very painful and humiliating.”

Clovis trembled as he saw Anastasia’s eyes gleaming with madness.

“If you want to live, somehow keep me alive. If you want to hold power, put power in my hands. Place this Royal Palace in the palm of my hand. Instead of stupidly entertaining other thoughts, move for me.”

“Where would you like me to move, Princess?”

At Clovis’s question, Anastasia cast her gaze toward the ballroom where the party was in full swing.

“Heidi. Dig into her background by any means necessary. I need to know exactly where that little rat crawled in from.”

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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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