The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 116
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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 116
“How different your words are from before and after. Disgusting, so disgusting.”
As soon as the Queen Mother finished speaking, the Valdinians all rushed out.
It was a clear indication that there was no room for negotiation.
Someone spat. Jason’s face reddened at the undisguised insult.
This couldn’t be happening. Not only had he failed to win the Valdinians’ favor, but he had earned their resentment. This was exactly what he had hoped to avoid.
With even the delegation turning their backs on Jared, wasn’t this Valdina his only remaining hope?
“Brother Jason, please return to Kazen as soon as possible. I hope there will be no further disgrace.”
“Angelique, do you think I don’t know what you’ve done?”
Jason couldn’t contain himself and glared at her. The 4th Princess snorted.
“You think I don’t know? That you deliberately tried to get dirt on me?”
“…”
“Jason, just live as you have been living. Don’t dream pointless dreams. No, even that will be difficult from now on. I have no intention of letting you dream comfortably.”
The 4th Princess was triumphant, her eyes filled with venom.
On the other hand, she thought it was truly wise to sacrifice Jason as Medeia had suggested.
How shameful was the charge of being caught trying to harm a Valdinian princess and being expelled? Thanks to this, even her defeat in the duel where she lost her rescue would be overshadowed.
The 4th Princess’s eyes glanced at Medeia.
Their gazes met, but the 4th Princess, perhaps wounded in her pride, immediately turned her head away coldly.
“Duke, please prepare yourself.”
The royal knights approached. They didn’t even try to hide their aggressive and threatening aura.
“Let go. I’ll leave on my own feet.”
Jason shook off their arms. His handsome face was roughly distorted.
* * *
In the evening as the sun was setting, the royal knights’ horses stopped at the edge of Valdina’s royal palace.
“We’ll escort you this far. Well then, Duke Castulo. May we never meet again.”
The polite yet resentment-filled farewell was the minimum courtesy they could offer.
Clatter. Clatter. The sound of hoofbeats echoing without looking back, as if they couldn’t wait to leave, left deep wounds on Jason’s pride.
His eyes reddened as he tried to suppress his rising anger. With murderous intent and rage filling his already red face, he looked extremely fierce.
“Damn it-! Curse it all!”
Unable to contain his fury, he repeatedly punched the carriage door.
This wasn’t the first time he had experienced such humiliating moments.
When he had yielded the throne to his uncle, when he had pretended to be foolish to avoid his uncle’s vigilance, Jason had always endured the rising humiliation by biting the inside of his cheek.
But he had never imagined he would become miserable even in this distant, small nation of Valdina.
“Y-Your Majesty, please calm yourself.”
His flesh split against the iron door, but he couldn’t stop.
“I cannot leave like this.”
He muttered with bloodshot eyes.
“I didn’t come all this way to return empty-handed like this.”
Valdina was supposed to be his brilliant beginning. Not another point of repeated humiliation.
“Turn the carriage around and send word to Count Laju.”
“Pardon?”
His aide asked in surprise, then hesitated upon seeing Jason’s fierce eyes.
“Tell him we’re going to Claudio’s estate.”
Count Laju had recently informed him. That the ducal house seemed to be secretly preparing a rebellion without the others knowing.
“I shall personally help their rebellion.”
If this foolish country ungratefully rejected him, then Jason had no need to hesitate either.
* * *
Valdina.
At the top of a gorge hidden by dense forest and trees, several mounted men stood.
“That distant dot is Valdina’s royal palace.”
A middle-aged man on horseback muttered.
With red hair and full of ambition, he was Horolls, the leader of the rebels.
“Those palace folks will be so shocked they’ll lose their minds when they see us.”
He chuckled.
“That’s right. Your words are always correct, leader.”
His subordinates agreed flatteringly.
Horolls looked down at the base of the mountain, lost in sweet dreams.
The black dots filling the plains were all rebels.
Most were ordinary people who had been holding farming tools, but mercenaries who incited and managed them were scattered among each group.
“It’s enough force to recapture the royal palace and catch that leech-like princess to display her. That witch will now experience firsthand how terrifying the people’s anger can be.”
The leader spoke triumphantly.
“Isn’t that right, Theo?”
Horolls asked the brown-haired boy riding beside him.
He was a remarkably handsome boy with distinct features, a build close to an adult’s, and masculine lines.
“Theo?”
“…”
Only then did the boy turn around.
“What were you thinking so deeply that you couldn’t hear me calling?”
“Ah… That’s right. Those indulging in luxury and pleasure will come running out in panic.”
Horolls laughed heartily and patted Theo’s shoulder.
“Are you already thinking about when we reach the royal palace? Well, you said you’re from the royal palace. It must bring back memories.”
“…”
“When your sister sees her brother who became a hero saving the people from despair, she’ll be very proud. Hahaha!”
Horolls was very satisfied with himself for discovering him.
In this massive operation funded by the Regent’s money, this guy was the most cost-effective acquisition.
He had picked up this dying fellow from the streets by chance.
Having a retired soldier as a father, his anger toward the royal family was tremendous. When gently coaxed about overthrowing the rotten royal family and saving the people, he immediately fell for it.
Filled with passion to overthrow the royal family, he worked himself to the bone without being paid a single coin.
Horolls’s closest associates were, in fact, high-class mercenaries hired with expensive money.
Unlike the mercenaries who demanded payment at every turn, Theo, who moved well on his own with just a little scratching where it itched, was like his personal wind-up doll.
“We’ll stay here tonight. Thinking that place will soon be in chaos from fire, the liquor will go down very well!”
Horolls laughed heartily. His hearty laughter spread across the sky.
The plains between the gorges where twilight had settled deeply.
Theo lit a candle. He was alone in the tent.
Everyone was heavily drunk, and the leader was near the bonfire with a flushed face, fervently discussing the royal family’s corruption with the soldiers.
Amidst the bustling commotion, Theo succeeded in sneaking into the leader’s tent alone.
“Not only threatening me with my family, but trying to deceive me as well…”
He gritted his teeth at the cunning schemes of the Valdinian royalty.
“You’re being fooled. Open your eyes and look carefully. Otherwise, they’ll cut off your nose in the blink of an eye.”
Recently, a freckled youth wearing a straw hat had come to find him.
With sleek yet sharp eyes, he tapped Theo’s nose and left.
When he regained his momentarily dazed senses, a strange box was clutched in his hand.
Containing a token he had shared with his sister and a lock of hair.
‘Saya… My sister really became that witch’s maid.’
Theo didn’t believe it at first. So he secretly investigated through someone who had connections to the royal palace.
“The Princess recently took in a girl she rescued from the slums as her maid. Her name is Saya, and she’s quite famous for being favored by the Queen Mother as well.”
‘I should have brought Saya with me.’
But belated regret was meaningless.
Theo crumpled the letter in his hand.
The letter, no, the threat that the Princess of Valdina had sent him through the freckled assassin.
The Princess already knew everything—both my identity as someone moving as a leader of the rebel forces, and the fact that Saya was my only family.
Sending a lock of hair along with it was a threat, holding Saya’s life and presenting it to me.
…You’re being deceived. Theo, the beliefs and justice you trust never existed from the beginning.
The Princess said that the leader was a subordinate following the Regent’s orders, and that the rebellion was also a massive scheme for their own interests, meant to shake the nation.
“That can’t be true.”
The words leaked through Theo’s clenched teeth.
“Theo, let’s join hands and change this filthy world together. Let’s live well enough that the poor can stand proudly with their chests out, not falling behind those who have wealth!”
I had come this far drawn by that rough yet pure passion, but behind it all, he was receiving support from the Regent?
“The Princess is trying to drive a wedge between us. She’s using Saya as bait to separate me from the leader.”
Theo was well aware of his own influence too.
In fact, the leader being able to grow the organization to this scale was entirely thanks to his efforts.
Most of the rebel forces were ordinary people who had only handled farming tools. They were drawn by Theo’s persuasion, firmly believed his words, and joined the organization.
He kindly taught them what he had seen and heard from his father, a retired soldier, helping them improve their skills.
The fact that they had passed through several cities without major casualties was entirely Theo’s achievement.
“Damn it….”
He muttered.
There was no other reason for coming here. Only to confirm the truth and show it to that vicious Princess.
The sound of opening and rummaging through something quietly echoed inside the military camp.
“…There’s no such thing, the Princess is just trying to drive a wedge between us….”
Then he stopped.
Theo slowly raised his hand. It was a small parchment stamped with Prince Claudio’s seal.
When the rebel forces face off at the city walls, I will send the Princess outside. You wait and then kidnap the Princess to show her to the people inside the castle. Say that you will execute the witch who abandoned the country and fled.
The Regent’s orders and a chest filled with gold bars.
Thud, he collapsed to his knees.
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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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