The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 313
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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 160
“Are the knights of Kazen blind? A knight from another nation attempts to attack royalty, yet they merely stand and watch!”
A calm yet never weak voice rang in everyone’s ears.
At the same time, the Queen Mother’s eyes trembled violently as she raised her head to confirm the owner of the shadow.
“How insolent! How dare you lay hands on me!”
Soon the Queen Mother violently pushed away the man who had embraced her as if burned by fire.
Crack-!
And she struck his cheek fiercely.
“I am the consort of this Empire’s supreme ruler. What are you to dare block my path!”
It was an agitated reaction unlike the always noble and restrained Queen Mother. And this toward someone who had tried to protect her with good intentions.
“Your Majesty, please trust me.”
Immediately after striking the man’s cheek, she looked not at the man who had protected her, but at Perdickas II’s reaction.
“I have only Your Majesty. Only Your Majesty-“
Though the Queen Mother urgently approached and pleaded, Perdickas II’s expression no longer wavered.
“So many seek to save you.”
Mockery was embedded in the Emperor’s low tone.
“Even without me, seeing those who care enough for the Queen Mother to block sword blades openly emerge, the Queen Mother must feel quite fulfilled.”
At the voice tinged with jealousy, the Queen Mother barely swallowed the rising despair and the sigh that threatened to burst forth.
“All of it… is thanks to Your Majesty’s grace, is it not? Thanks to the favor and love Your Majesty has bestowed upon me, they worry not for me but for Your Majesty.”
However, her smooth flattery did nothing to diminish the Emperor’s anger.
If it had been the usual rational Queen Mother, when this final attempt also ended in failure, she would have concluded the situation and planned for another day.
But the man’s appearance had shaken her.
The moment she faced someone she had once loved with all her youth, someone she thought she had erased but had never truly forgotten,
“I have only Your Majesty for my entire life.”
She desperately realized that the words she spoke were lies.
So the urgency to escape suspicion, the desperation that her lies must not be discovered, drove the Queen Mother even further.
“Your Majesty, no. They are strangers.”
The Queen Mother pointed at Menil and the man as she urgently approached the Imperial Throne.
“Please severely punish these wicked ones who tried to cast filth upon my innocence, Your Majesty.”
The Queen Mother went beyond denying her relationship with the man to trying to eliminate him.
But Perdickas II had already heard the name the man called out moments before.
“Catherine!”
And soon, he realized.
“You bastard…”
That man had once been Kazen’s promising Count,
And was the Queen Mother’s fiancé from when she was Count Montfort’s daughter.
“These bastards.”
Suddenly, snap, the sound of reason’s thread breaking could be heard in the Emperor’s mind. Sparks flew from his reddened eyes.
“Do you still try to deceive me before my very eyes!”
The Emperor roughly pushed away the Queen Mother’s hand.
In his hand was gripped a golden staff.
“Ahhh-!”
The Queen Mother was struck by that staff and thrown down below the dais.
The hem of her splendid dress fluttered precariously in the air before the Queen Mother collapsed on the floor, letting out a pained moan.
Her beautifully arranged hair was disheveled, and red marks appeared on her delicate skin.
Her dress was even stained with Menil’s blood from moments before.
It was a miserable sight unimaginable for the always noble Queen Mother who looked down on people.
“…Your Majesty.”
More than the pain from being struck by the staff, people’s shocked gazes left wounds on the Queen Mother’s lofty pride.
No matter how much the Emperor’s mood swung between heaven and earth with his whims, everyone was speechless and frozen at this unexpected situation of even casting out the mistress of the Inner Palace.
Those who had tried to help the Queen Mother all shrank back, fearing the current sparks might fly to them as well.
Even the Queen Mother’s son Juan, and even her father Count Montfort, could not easily speak.
“How dare… huff, huff…”
Perdickas II also hadn’t intended to show such an intense reaction, so bewilderment showed through his ragged breathing.
That was when.
Step, step.
The sound of heels without any hesitation heavily struck the Queen Mother’s heart.
Soon, a deep shadow fell over her collapsed form.
“Just how tyrannical must the Emperor of Kazen be to so mercilessly cast out even the frail woman who has spent her lifetime with him!”
In this place where everyone except the Emperor seemed frozen, the man showed not an inch of hesitation.
Strong hands grasped her arm and lifted her up.
‘No.’
At the same time, a soundless moan escaped the Queen Mother’s lips.
This damned man hadn’t changed even after all those years had passed.
Too upright, unable to see the countless schemes layered in between.
‘If you do this now…’
You’re not protecting me but pushing me into a deeper quagmire!
“…I apologize, Your Majesty. Please forgive us. Alfred, how could you be so rude… Hurry and apologize to His Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen Mother and withdraw!”
A Kazen nobleman who had urgently approached grabbed the man as if to stop him while repeatedly bowing his head to the Emperor.
However, the man stood upright and met Perdickas II’s eyes head-on as if challenging him.
“Now does the Empire’s supreme ruler intend to cast out even foreign envoys? Though there may be no sun that never sets, how long do you trust that arrogance will last forever!”
“Alfred, have you gone mad?!”
As if he couldn’t hear his shocked friend’s voice, as if he wasn’t afraid of Perdickas II’s explosive madness, the man’s voice clearly rang through the banquet hall.
Soon murmuring about the man grew among the crowd.
“Alphie, Alfred… I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere?”
“If it’s Alfred… ah, that man…!”
A middle-aged nobleman of considerable age in the crowd’s eyes sparkled.
“Isn’t that Duke Carlisle’s Heir? The successor who studied with royalty and nobility but suddenly abandoned everything and left…”
“Left? Why would he abandon that golden position? Did he cause some trouble?”
“No, the Duke’s Heir was different from such dissolute types. However, I heard he became obsessed with painting and constantly clashed with his father before finally abandoning his position and leaving…”
Someone scratched their head. They seemed uncertain even as they spoke.
“But I think that timing was around when the Queen Mother entered the palace…”
People briefly exchanged glances.
Could that man be the one who exchanged secret letters with the Queen Mother?
If so,
Perhaps then, the reason the Duke’s Heir left Kazen was because of the Queen Mother? As an act of rebellion against his fiancée who left him to choose power.
And that fiancée still couldn’t forget the Duke’s Heir and finally ended up like this…
Amid the emerging circumstances, the man finally helped the Queen Mother up from where she had fallen.
When the familiar scent faintly brushed past her nose again, the Queen Mother closed her eyes tightly as if moaning.
That sight was fully captured in Perdickas II’s vision.
The image of the two men and women who looked quite well-matched despite wearing different attire.
The Queen Mother still exuded aristocratic dignity despite her shabby appearance, and the man was also dignified and spirited as if defying the passage of time.
The Emperor’s eyes blazed again.
Perdickas II was someone who felt inferior even to the youth of his own blood children.
To such a person, if a peer who had once enjoyed the same youth as him and should now face the same shabby and frail twilight years was shining so vigorously,
How could he not feel inferior?
Veins bulged over the Emperor’s hand that gripped the armrest.
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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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