The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 224

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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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Part 2, Chapter 71

The square became as quiet as if breathing had stopped.

The smile hanging on Raju’s lips rapidly disappeared, and his face froze.

“For committing heinous murder in a foreign country, tarnishing the honor of Zim and Dacazen, and causing discord between the two nations—a crime that is by no means light—I command that 500 lashes be executed on this spot and immediate execution follow.”

“What, what did you say? No, that can’t be!”

Raju cried out in shock.

Confusion and terror were deeply embedded in his voice.

“Execution? Not taking me back to Kazen?”

The crowd likewise doubted their ears. However, they soon erupted in cheers.

“Wow, wooooah!”

“Execution! Execution! Justice! Justice!”

Laughter, cheers, and gasps of surprise mixed together from the many voices. 

“No! Something’s wrong!”

The Lion looked down coldly at Raju and directed his gaze below the platform. 

Two sturdy executioners holding whips climbed onto the platform. 

The thick leather whips had terrifying spikes protruding from them. 

“No! His Majesty would never abandon me! You’re driving me with speculation! This is a false accusation!”

Raju shouted in a mixture of despair and anxiety. 

He stepped backward to avoid the executioners walking toward him with whips that looked deadly just to behold.

However, due to the heavy iron chains bound to his ankles and the crowd filling the space below the platform, he could not escape from this narrow space.

“This is wrong! You promised repatriation! You promised—”

As the executioner approached, Raju suddenly lunged toward the Lion, raising his bound hands.

“Urk—!”

 However, before he could even reach the Lion, he was kicked and rolled on the ground.

And crack! The executioner’s mercilessly swung whip swept across his back. 

“Aaaah—!”

Raju screamed at the pain as if his flesh was being torn apart. 

His agonized wail shook the square.

“Not a bit of remorse. Roberto Raju. You have committed the grave sin of not only disrupting the nation’s diplomacy but also concealing the Former Emperor’s will and embezzling his legacy for private use.”

The Lion spat contemptuously and raised his voice.

Crack!

“Kuk—!”

“How dare you deceive His Majesty and still hope to live—what audacity.”

In particular, the Lion added that the Emperor was extremely furious about Raju embezzling the enormous profits from selling salt from the southern territories, beyond the secret agreement subsidies he received from the Duke of Anspiras.

“How, kuk, how did you know that….”

Anspiras. Southern salt…. 

When words came out that the Emperor could never have known, Raju turned pale with shock.

‘I only revealed in the letter that there was a report from the Former Emperor. How on earth did they… find that out?!’

The exact details of the legacy left by the Former Emperor were written in only one place—the original ledger. 

That ledger was in the depths of the inner chamber that only he could access,

 and moreover, in a safe with recognition magic that could only be opened with his blood.

So how could the Emperor from thousands of miles away know and obtain it? 

‘Absolutely impossible. No one can open that—’

At that moment, a flash of light went off in his head. 

Because he realized the one possibility that could open the safe. 

The only blood relative in this world who shared his blood.

“Virna, where are you going at this hour? Your mother will worry.”

“Let’s do this. How about staying at this godfather’s house? You can stay there as long as you want and then come back.”

No way….

He turned his head. And he spotted Virna watching him from among the crowd. 

His beloved daughter, who had been keeping her head down the whole time, had her lips stretched into a long, crooked grin.

“Ahh….”

Raju’s pale eyes trembled with shock. 

A sigh flowed from his gaping mouth.

“Virnaaa! How could youuuu!”

Amid the falling lashes, his terrible scream-like shout echoed. 

* * *

“For tarnishing Kazen’s honor and causing discord between the two nations—a crime that is by no means light—I command that 500 lashes be executed on this spot and immediate execution follow.”

When the Lion’s words fell, Catherine’s face turned blue with shock.

“Th-that’s impossible….”

Execution, not repatriation! Execution! 

500 lashes. No matter how sturdy a person was, they couldn’t endure that many beatings. 

This meant the Emperor had absolutely no intention of letting Raju live.

Like it had been a half-day’s dream, Catherine’s rosy world that had been full of hope just moments before shattered into pieces.

‘Why on earth, how….’

Before she could grasp the situation, the brutal whip struck Raju’s body. 

Crack—!

“Urgh—!”

Crack! Crack—!

“Aaaaah! Noooo!”

At her lover’s bursting screams, Catherine clutched her head and reached toward the platform. 

“This can’t be! This can’t be! Something’s wrong!”

“Step aside. Unless you want to die together. His Majesty specifically ordered that punishment be carried out without mercy.”

The Lion signaled to his guards. 

Catherine was held by her arms and legs by them, unable to move and pushed back.

“No, noooo….”

Catherine sobbed roughly. Her beautiful face was completely soaked with tears and pain.

Just when their hearts had finally connected.

After spending so many long years in vain, just when something was about to bear fruit for the first time!

She couldn’t bear to watch her beloved Raju’s flesh being torn apart by the fierce beating. 

Then, 

“Virnaaa! How could youuuu!”

Raju’s scream-like cry echoed long.

Catherine paused. 

She suddenly realized.

That it was too quiet beside her.

Among the crowd where everyone was expressing shock at Emperor Kazen’s sudden change of heart and seeing Raju receiving the painful whipping, her daughter was maintaining silence too naturally.

As if she had known this would happen.

‘No way.’

Catherine turned toward her daughter.

Shock and suspicion. And slowly rising anxiety overlapped on Catherine’s face. 

Her head felt numb as if trapped in a vacuum. All noise faded far away. 

She shrank at the chill as if ice water had been poured over her head.

“Vi, Virna….”

A directionless voice.

Her daughter’s eyes were still fixed on the platform where Raju was. 

“Ahaha.”

She thought she heard a faint laugh.

No. She must have heard wrong. 

That couldn’t be. Virna, our daughter of all people….

Catherine reached out her hand. With trembling hands, she grabbed her daughter’s shoulder.

“No, it’s not true, right?”

Virna turned around.

“What isn’t?”

Her voice was excessively calm. The way it trailed off almost sounded cheerful.

“You, you, you were the one who reported him…”

Snicker snicker.

A sneer leaked from Virna’s lips as they stretched into a long, crooked smile.

“Why, are you disappointed, Mother? Because your affair partner is going to die?”

“What?”

“What are you saying right now-“

“It’s disgusting. Just how long have you been doing that filthy act?”

Virna stared at Catherine with disgusted eyes.

“The maid told me that a few days ago, she heard a woman’s moans from that man’s room. Vulgar and filthy. What exactly are you doing in our home? Mother, but why does your face look like that?”

“Vulgar and despicable. How could Mother choose such a lowly bastard no matter what… Don’t you have any shame?”

Memories of past days when she hadn’t known about their filthy relationship flashed by.

As if she had no intention of hiding the contempt rising from deep in her chest, Virna sneered.

“Still, your husband was a prince, so you should have at least maintained some standards.”

Her father’s final swollen face overlapped with her mother’s beautiful face.

Virna thought it was such an unfitting end.

Her father had died miserably, making the noble blood flowing in his veins meaningless.

The mother who had encouraged that death was even trying to pour filth on this death.

By making someone like Raju her new stepfather!

“What?”

“What are you staring at? That’s right. I was the one who stabbed him. That’s why he’s screaming like that now.”

Virna rattled off rapidly. Her lips twisted maliciously.

“That stupid fool showed me everything, trying to win my favor. So I took the ledger I found there and stabbed Emperor Kazen with it. He had the audacity to embezzle the Former Emperor’s money. He was showing off with stolen money, so how could the Emperor not go crazy-!”

“Aaaaah-! Virnaaa!”

Catherine tried to rush at her daughter with a piercing scream.

“Don’t touch me with those filthy hands!”

But her daughter pushed her away harshly, causing her to collapse on the floor.

Looking down at her, Virna snorted.

Her eyes blazed with flames of betrayal.

“Did you think I would just let the murderer who killed Father go?”

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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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