My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 87

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 87
“Yes, Your Highness.”
It struck like lightning from a clear sky.
The Laberose Territory, all of a sudden.
Agnes gasped and asked for clarification.
“Your Highness…! You mean my family’s estate?”
“That’s right.”
The Crown Prince turned back to Agnes, his eyes narrowing in a sly smile.
“Originally, I’d planned to head to your estate the moment this trial concluded. I assumed it would naturally fall under the Earl’s domain once the proceedings were done. But, well, that hardly matters now.”
“Your Highness…!”
“Don’t concern yourself with preparations—I didn’t come expecting hospitality. I know well enough there won’t be rooms to spare.”
As if showing consideration, the Crown Prince gave Agnes’s shoulder a light pat.
“Your sister will accompany us, won’t she? I’ll need someone to introduce me—your brother who crossed the Rift, the servants, and those intruders still lodging at the estate.”
His tone, which had been flat until now, sounded like a cheerful refrain.
The tedium that had dominated him until now had vanished, replaced by an odd vitality.
Like a spectator who had finally found an interesting scene in an otherwise dreary play.
Or as if vivid color were bleeding into a world of grays.
Agnes became certain that his purpose from the start had never been the trial at all—it was visiting the Laberose Mansion, brimming with fascinating elements.
‘What on earth is he planning?’
Unable to predict anything, Agnes felt a rare stab of fear.
‘If he means to harm my guests and my family….’
But he was the absolute ruler of this Empire.
Agnes looked around at the knights surrounding them on all sides.
If he’d brought this many men, the outcome was decided from the beginning.
“I understand. I’ll go with you, Your Highness.”
It didn’t matter.
There had never been a single easy victory in her life.
‘If all else fails, I can always run.’
She remembered Kesenor’s words from some time ago, spoken in jest—an invitation to visit the tower.
With resolve settling in her heart, Agnes nodded.
* * *
The carriage that the three of them had arrived in carried only Agnes and Rupert now.
The Crown Prince had taken Kesenor with him, worried he might escape via Teleportation.
Had Agnes been able to speak with Kesenor, she might have at least attempted to warn the estate in advance.
Hurried into the carriage, Agnes slowly released a breath she’d been holding tight with anxiety, and leaned back against the seat.
“Miss.”
Agnes stared at Rupert, who tilted his head from beside her, studying her condition.
From the moment the Crown Prince announced he would visit the estate, she had been deliberating.
What should she do?
What could she accomplish right now?
After wrestling with the question repeatedly, Agnes reached a conclusion.
She would set aside the problem she couldn’t yet solve, and instead attempt what she could do in the present moment.
Agnes sat up and pulled at Rupert’s sleeve, drawing him closer.
Once he was near enough, Agnes whispered into his ear so softly that no one outside would hear.
“I need to ask you something, Rupert. But promise me first—if this task would be dangerous for you, tell me honestly.”
No matter how necessary it was, she couldn’t bear to attempt anything that might cost her his life.
Rupert met her desperate gaze for a moment, then nodded.
“I promise.”
“Good. Can you slip away from here and vanish into the city without being noticed? Nothing risky? You’d only need to deliver something.”
The tension drained from Rupert’s face at once.
“That would be quite simple.”
“What are the odds?”
“There’s no chance of failure whatsoever.”
“Even though you came with the Crown Prince’s knights?”
“Yes. You needn’t worry at all.”
“All right, I trust you.”
Agnes nodded and pulled a box from the drawer beneath her feet.
Rupert already knew what was inside it.
It was something the Earl of Laberose had entrusted to Agnes even when his mind was not entirely sound.
The lock that had been sealed shut now hung open.
It had happened two days before.
Word came through the Communication Device that Kesenor had left behind in the Naofa Forest.
—Agnes’s father had regained consciousness.
—He was curious about the box that had been inside his desk.
—He said it contained information about Count Valdemar.
At once, Kesenor set out for the Naofa Forest with the box, at Agnes’s request.
About an hour later, Kesenor returned alone.
‘He hasn’t recovered enough for lengthy conversation, but he asked me to show this to you, Miss Agnes.’
The box, which had been tightly sealed, now lay open wide—truly touched by her father’s own hands.
Agnes lost her voice and spent a moment simply caressing the box.
Inside lay several documents, magical devices, and blueprints depicting a peculiar apparatus.
‘Did he explain what this was?’
Kesenor offered her a quiet smile as she stood with a tightness in her throat, unable to bring herself to examine the contents.
‘It seems the Earl of Laberose suspected Count Valdemar as well.’
Only then did Agnes begin checking the objects inside one by one, until at last she could bear it no longer and buried her face in her hands.
Everything that had been in the box was conclusive evidence.
Proof that Count Valdemar had murdered his own brother.
She had assumed there would be nothing left from so distant a past, yet the Earl of Laberose had known all along and gathered it piece by piece.
From magical devices that recorded testimony to blueprints of the very apparatus used to kill Count Valdemar’s brother.
As for Romanil, he had no information—only speculation remained written down.
‘How did he—why did he never reveal this to anyone……?’
‘He found himself in impossible circumstances, I suspect. That’s why he asked me to convey his thanks and his apologies to you, Miss Agnes.’
‘My father said that?’
‘He said he made you suffer through his own insufficiency. There were tears in his eyes the whole time.’
Agnes bowed her head for a moment.
Though she could not say she understood, she could imagine the helplessness her father must have felt.
Her father was merely an earl governing a rural fiefdom in the south, while his opponent was Count Valdemar, who enjoyed a station equal to the King’s.
So even if the evidence of his friend’s death was beyond dispute, he could not have confronted him recklessly.
Not when fear of harm befalling his beloved wife and children held him back with such force.
Then to lose consciousness without cause, and upon awakening to discover five years had passed—what must her father have felt in that moment?
‘Though Silmare must have shown him much kindness, it would have been a shock all the same.’
All this time, she had resented her father deeply.
Even now, something dark and bitter remained lodged in her heart.
‘How will I even look at his face……?’
The girl who had been fifteen had somehow become a woman of twenty.
Already she found herself anxious about what she would even say, what expression she should wear.
Perhaps when they met, they would do nothing but weep, unable to speak a single word.
In any case, for now she had to attend to what lay before her.
Agnes could do what her father could not.
She possessed clear evidence aplenty, including information about Romanil, and she had many people to protect her.
More than that, according to Kesenor, there were many who bore resentment toward Count Valdemar.
A presentiment that Count Valdemar was scheming something with the Crown Prince.
An unease that it might be war.
Those grown comfortable in peaceful days would be deeply dissatisfied.
Even if Agnes won at trial, she already sensed that Count Valdemar would not care much for such a small matter.
First she would preserve Laberose’s wealth through the trial, then seek her revenge against Valdemar by other means.
The Crown Prince had left the Capital, which made now the perfect opportunity.
Agnes intended to finally unleash all the materials she had gathered.
With them, she would provoke those in the Capital who had long watched for a chance to strike at Count Valdemar.
Of course, she knew it was a plan whose success she could not foresee.
But if she could do nothing more than bite at Count Valdemar’s heels, that alone would satisfy her.
At the very least, she hoped his crimes would be known to the world.
So that no more victims would suffer.
Agnes whispered the rest into Rupert’s ear.
“From the Crown Prince’s attitude, I don’t think he’ll abandon Valdemar easily. If that’s so, we simply have to force his hand.”
Agnes entrusted the box to Rupert.
As he concealed it against his chest, Rupert asked a question.
“Where would you like me to go?”
“Anywhere that distributes gossip will do. All that matters is this information reaches the Capital.”
“Will you be all right? You’ll have to return to the Mansion alone.”
Rupert asked, his eyes shadowed with concern.
Agnes smiled silently in response.
‘If I told him I was relieved to finally be rid of him, he’d never leave.’
She realized the Crown Prince was likely targeting Rupert rather than Amy.
Amy was young, and besides, she’d said she couldn’t remember what happened in the Rift.
But Rupert was different.
He was merely a servant, yet he seemed to remember everything that had occurred in the Rift.
The Crown Prince would certainly interrogate him.
‘And he might employ methods that are truly cruel.’
He had seized the throat of Kesenor, a marquis of the Empire, without hesitation.
What he might do to a mere servant like Rupert was unthinkable.
Whatever happened to the others, Agnes was determined to keep Rupert away from this place.
“Please, Rupert.”
Once Rupert left the carriage, he vanished as swiftly as his words had promised it would be easy.
No one noticed his absence.
Even Agnes, who had been watching where he stood, couldn’t pinpoint the moment he disappeared.
Still fearing someone might notice Rupert was gone, Agnes drew the curtains firmly shut.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————