The Cooking Princess - Chapter 87

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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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The Princess Who Cooks

Episode 87

First, the Temple was simple. Shurya was more than willing to help Chloe.

“If it were the old me, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in this kind of political fight. Especially if it involved spreading bad rumors about someone.”

But the regressed Shurya knew the Empress’s evil nature better than anyone.

“So this isn’t about spreading lies, but about revealing truths that people don’t know.”

Shurya spread the rumors very quickly through the Temple’s priests and the believers who visited the Temple.

And the Merchant Guild.

In fact, Chloe didn’t have much connection with the merchant guilds of the Luzhiere Empire.

She had directly dealt with several merchant guilds from the Southern Continent, and trade involving the Empire’s merchants was handled by the Imperial Court.

But that was because Chloe had been cautious and keeping a low profile while watching the Imperial Court’s reactions. There were already many Empire merchants interested in Chloe, who communicated directly with Southern Continent merchants.

So Chloe selected a few among the merchant guilds that already had connections with the Garnet Estate and secretly contacted them.

‘I’ll give you a chance to trade directly with Southern Continent merchants, so please do me just one favor.’

The merchant guilds that received this news quickly sent people, and the deal was made secretly and swiftly.

And not long after, rumors targeting the Empress began to circulate.

They were rumors that she had embezzled Imperial funds and sowed discord among high-ranking officials.

Chloe watched the unfolding situation with extremely cold eyes.

The rumors first started spreading among commoners. Up to this point, there wasn’t much of a reaction.

But the rumors quickly spread among some nobles who frequently visited the Temple, and among nobles who owned estates with frequent trade through merchants.

After that, articles appeared in newspapers, and it was only a matter of time before the Empress became the talk of everyone from commoners’ pubs to nobles’ salons.

“Well, it’s not surprising. Especially with what happened to His Highness the Prince.”

“Exactly. The embezzled funds were obviously spent on her own luxuries. Oh, maybe she was going to use it as military funds for her son?”

The nobles acted as if they weren’t surprised at all.

“In the end, it turned out to be for the good of the country~”

There were even people joking about the Empress’s rumors.

The Empress seemed to be desperately trying to find whoever spread the malicious rumors about her…

‘It’s useless. If finding such things were easy, the Empress would have been arrested first.’

And surprisingly, the Empress didn’t particularly suspect Chloe.

‘Why?’

Even though there were several motives for revenge against the Empress, Chloe was rather confused that she wasn’t suspected.

Chloe was confused because she couldn’t understand the reason, but she was able to figure it out a little later.

The reason was nothing special.

It was because Chloe had never once fought back before.

She had simply gotten angry or confronted people directly and honestly, but she had never attacked the Empress through underhanded methods.

It seemed the Empress couldn’t even imagine that Chloe, who had shown no interest in the social circle and only focused on cooking, would attack her.

It was true that not getting caught was enough, but unlike the Empress’s persistent attacks on Chloe with false rumors, this was based on solid facts.

So finding the source of the rumors would be the first hurdle.

‘She’ll have quite a hard time trying to manage these rumors.’

The Empress was already being pointed to as the culprit in Shuel’s attempted poisoning case.

If they could just create the right atmosphere so that people couldn’t bring themselves to attend parties hosted by the Empress, they could greatly reduce the Empress’s influence.

Having thought that far, Chloe’s eyes gleamed coldly.

She immediately held a party at her own manor featuring dishes she had made.

‘Directly confronting the Empress would be dangerous.’

But it shouldn’t look like Chloe was taking the lead by speaking up.

‘I just need to plant the perception that the Empress invites people she doesn’t like and poisons them.’

Then people other than the Empress’s closest allies would be reluctant to attend parties she hosted.

While Chloe laughed and built connections, she also devised ways to properly damage the Empress’s reputation.

‘I need to weaken her enough so that the Empress can’t interfere with Shuel.’

The Emperor she had observed so far didn’t want power to be extremely concentrated in either Claude or Shuel.

He seemed to believe that his position was safe when the two maintained balance by bickering moderately.

‘He has no affection for his sons, but he has to pass on the throne, so he’s keeping them in check.’

Then even if the Empress lost power here, as long as she didn’t die, the Emperor wouldn’t rashly interfere.

Why?

Because Claude, who had already built up military achievements, had become quite a threatening force even without the Empress.

Just as the Emperor had continuously used Claude as a card to suppress the legitimate Prince Shuel and reduce his power,

this time it was Claude’s turn to be suppressed.

Wouldn’t the Emperor be more wary of Shuel if he returned victorious from the naval battle?

‘He’s not that kind of person.’

If he were to check his own son who had just returned victorious, he would gain the ugly image of being jealous of his own son.

The Emperor wasn’t one to bear such a dirty reputation.

In fact, when young Claude went to the frontline and achieved merit, wasn’t the Emperor the one who was happy, saying it brought honor to his name?

‘But this isn’t enough. I need a decisive blow. What should I do.’

In reality, those rumors were based on facts, making it difficult to find the original source.

But if Chloe mixed in false rumors here, the Empress would realize that Chloe was behind the rumors.

‘Once she figures it out, things will get troublesome.’

Eventually the Empress would realize that Chloe was the one who attacked her, so she needed to deliver a more decisive blow before that happened.

While Chloe was constantly looking for the right opportunity with these thoughts,

the Empress finally made a move.

The extremely agitated Empress ended up poisoning one of the merchants she dealt with.

It wasn’t even an assassination. She forced him to drink poison, so it was outright murder.

The reason was also absurd. It was a ridiculous complaint that the merchant wasn’t sufficiently respectful when greeting the Empress.

This news spread like wildfire even before Chloe could do anything.

“Even if he’s a commoner, isn’t that going too far?”

When a young noble lady said that, all eyes turned to her.

However, since everyone emotionally agreed, no one said much.

“Even so, she’s Her Majesty the Empress, so you shouldn’t speak like that.”

But the nobles were thoroughly fed up with the Empress, who had once again harmed someone using poison.

“At this rate, won’t nobles be killed too?”

“Oh my, this person. You can’t tell what you should and shouldn’t say!”

A man from the Empress’s faction gave the noblewomen a warning look, but even he seemed unable to trust the Empress, his voice trembling.

Then one noblewoman primly added,

“She did that to His Highness the Prince too, so what’s to stop her from doing it to us?”

The surroundings fell quiet upon hearing those words.

In fact, everyone had emotionally agreed with that lady’s words.

The Empress, who had been making efforts in all directions to somehow suppress the rumors about her, finally made time to host a party and invited nobles.

Having obtained this information in advance, Chloe subtly spread additional rumors.

That the Empress had secretly acquired a lot of new poison.

The nobles who received the Empress’s invitation and heard this rumor each made excuses and sent word of their absence.

They were sick, their children were sick, their parents were sick, they fought with their husbands, something happened in their estates, and so on.

And so, truly no one came to the Empress’s party.

She openly mistreated her maids with a twisted expression.

“It seems you can’t even properly deliver an invitation anymore.”

The maids trembled in fear at the Empress’s cold sarcasm.

If they had to assign blame for why the nobles didn’t come, it was the Empress, not the maids, but the Empress herself couldn’t accept this fact and began throwing a tantrum.

“Why on earth! Is no one here? You can’t even do your job properly, just standing there blankly!”

In the garden with no guests, only herself, the Empress finally couldn’t contain her anger and poured a teacup full of hot tea on a maid.

“Ahhh, it’s hot! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Your Majesty the Empress!”

The youngest maid from a humble noble family screamed and covered her burned cheek.

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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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