The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 233

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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 80

“Have you been well?”

“As you can see.”

“I heard you’ve returned. Why haven’t you gone to the manor?”

Terrence informed him that the academy where he used to teach young men and the baron’s mansion in the capital still remained.

Indeed, the baron’s mansion was being maintained in perfect condition, exactly as it had been back then.

It was swept and cleaned without a speck of dust settling. As if waiting for the master of the house to return someday.

And the one who ordered this was…

“You already know my answer.”

But Eratosthe’s face still showed no movement.

“I don’t know how you’ve left it alone all this time, but take this opportunity to settle everything.”

He thought it was rather fortunate.

It was an opportunity to firmly demonstrate once again to those young fools who wouldn’t listen to him like stubborn mules.

“Then, please at least take your medicine. You’ve been off medication for too long. It cannot be delayed any further.”

Eratosthe suffered from a chronic illness where his lungs gradually hardened, making breathing difficult. That’s why he always lived on medication.

However, after his daughter died, he refused medicine.

“I’ve lived long enough. I have no regrets whenever I go.”

It was a self-imposed punishment chosen by a man crushed by grief.

“You know he wouldn’t think so.”

“…”

Suddenly, the atmosphere became tense.

As Eratosthe’s withered tree-like atmosphere quickly sharpened, Terrence bit the inside of his mouth.

‘I misspoke out of impatience.’

“I won’t dare ask for much. Just, please don’t turn away.”

“…”

“Even when cursed with the Primordial Curse, he still took care of his grandfather’s medicine. Though he’s never said it aloud, you know that for him, his only real family are the late Empress and Lord Eratosthe—just you two.”

Since Eratosthe left politics over ten years ago, this was his first return.

That meant even when Chezare was waiting for death from the Primordial Curse, Eratosthe had not returned.

“So.”

From his picture-like expressionless face, a voice like a hollow laugh leaked from his wrinkled lips.

“Why didn’t he just die instead?”

Then at least he could have hated him comfortably.

At least he could have used that child’s death as an excuse to shake off the resentment and indignation that had nowhere to go.

The unspoken words found no conclusion anywhere and seeped into Eratosthe’s heart.

“…Lord Baron!”

“Family, you say—how disgustingly thick-skinned.”

“…”

“You be careful too. If you treat those with Kazen blood as human, you might end up drifting around with a noose around your neck like me.”

Eratosthe moved his steps without hesitation.

Terrence could no longer hold him back, feeling the clear hatred from those resolute steps.

Drag. Shuffle. Patter. Patter.

Alongside the footsteps that slightly scraped the ground, small footsteps pattering along overlapped.

Eratosthe finally noticed the presence of the young monk keeping pace beside him and turned around.

A handkerchief was placed on his fern-like small hands. As if telling him to wipe his face, the boy gestured with his other hand, mimicking wiping his cheek.

“Why,”

[Your eyes look sad.]

The child raised his hand to below his eyes and drew a line down his cheek. As if expressing crying.

Eratosthe hesitated.

Instead of being able to hear sounds, the boy was skilled at seeing through people’s hidden true feelings. And he was unhesitant in expressing it.

“That bastard was… like that too.”

His wrinkled hand unconsciously rubbed the boy’s eyes.

However, unlike the boy’s eyes that sparkled with pure innocence, that bastard’s eyes were sinister and deep beyond measure.

Those blazing, sun-like golden eyes harbored ambitions to devour everything.

But not all beasts are predators from birth.

“Grandfather! Please take me with you, okay?”

Even predators were once just lovable and fragile cubs.

Eratosthe was the very person who had been with him through his growth since he was very young.

So he was someone who knew those golden eyes before they contained the abyss, before they held sinister depths.

“…Cough!”

As if punishing the peace of recalling the predator’s vulnerable days, Eratosthe coughed violently.

“Cough, cough!”

The coughing that seemed like it would stop but didn’t grew increasingly severe. The boy stamped his feet worriedly.

Eratosthe grabbed the child’s small shoulder to stop him from calling for people and covered his mouth with a white handkerchief.

The handkerchief became soaked with blood as if it had never been white.

“There isn’t… cough, much time left…”

Eratosthe raised his head.

He could only hope this old body would hold out until he could finish his final transgression.

At the end of the slowly setting sunset, the spire of the Imperial Palace was silhouetted.

* * *

Valdina Elamus Strait.

The appearance of the Claudio family, struck by consecutive misfortunes, was miserable.

After Raju was executed, when they belatedly inquired about the secret assets he had left behind, they found that far from money, everything had been stripped clean long ago.

Samon had no way of knowing that everything had already been recovered under Kensington’s command and had fallen into Medeia’s hands.

Instead, upon learning that the source of Raju’s wealth was the Emperor of Kazen’s treasury, he didn’t even dare to inquire about the missing assets, fearing he might be treated as an accomplice.

The situation rapidly deteriorated.

“Vile Claudio! Get out of our Valdina land!”

With scandals and whispers following them everywhere, they couldn’t easily go outside.

Even staying at the manor, the doors and walls were constantly damaged by stones thrown by the people.

With even the security forces turning a blind eye, the manor’s condition became even more wretched.

“Master, the servants and gatekeepers… are asking for higher wages. They say they’ll leave the manor if not…”

“Damn it!”

He roughly ran his hands through his disheveled hair and let out a short breath.

Those damn parasites. Look how they only care about money.

However, unlike before, Samon couldn’t freely explode in anger.

Because there was no one left to handle the aftermath for him.

Not his father, not his mother, and not Raju either.

In fact, the death of the last person Samon had been relying on both internally and externally was the most painful.

With Raju’s execution, the smuggling business that had been Samon’s only hope became extremely precarious.

“I’m sorry. I can’t supply goods anymore.”

“Ah, our hands are full too! Stealing the Emperor of Kazen’s goods, of all things? Unless you have a death wish!”

When it became known that Raju had been severely punished for embezzling the Emperor of Kazen’s assets, the big players in the smuggling business began hastily withdrawing one after another.

“Still, Master. That aside… shouldn’t we look for Miss Virna? It’s already been several days since she disappeared like that.”

Suha carefully brought up the topic.

Even if Virna wasn’t Claudio blood, she had lived her entire life as a young lady of this house.

Moreover, she was his mother’s daughter, so she was at least a half-sister to Samon, sharing half his blood.

“Who’s the culprit who made things this bad!”

Suha thought they shouldn’t ignore her like this, but Samon exploded in anger and struck Suha’s jaw.

“That wretched thing isn’t my blood. If you have money and energy to waste on such a thing, come up with a plan to overcome this situation!”

Holding his throbbing jaw, Suha finally understood his master’s definition of ‘blood family.’

Whether they were truly connected by blood ultimately meant nothing at all.

What mattered was that Virna, who had destroyed all hope instead of proving her usefulness, would never again be treated as a younger sister by Samon.

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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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