The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 316

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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 163

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“Your Majesty, please wait here for a moment.”

Leaving the lady’s room, Medeia did not return to the banquet hall, but instead moved her steps toward the corridor on the opposite side.

“Neryl, tell Chezare to meet us at the entrance.”

Today’s goals had all been achieved, so now it was time to return to the palace.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I also bring Count Sisear along?”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea right now. Send him to a safe place within the capital city, and bring him to the palace in a few days.”

To naturally conclude the performance she had put on before Perdickas II today, it was better to pretend to keep an uncomfortable distance from Sisear for now.

“Yes, I will bring the First Prince.”

It was when Medeia, having sent Neryl away, was leaving the long corridor with Saya.

“…Duke Eratosthenes.”

Medeia, encountering an old man dressed in gray investigator’s robes, immediately recognized him.

“First Prince’s Wife, Your Majesty.”

“I hope you return home safely today.”

Medeia was the first to offer him a greeting.

This was still the Imperial Palace, and judging from what she had heard in society and observed of the old man’s temperament so far, there would be no long conversation.

It was when she was about to turn away.

“How is it that someone who is not foolish cannot see?”

The old man’s low, deep voice made Medeia stop in her tracks.

“What do you mean—”

“Even if you bring down the Queen Mother and move your homeland to place that bastard on the Imperial Throne, are you certain that Your Majesty’s sacrifice will be repaid?”

Medeia raised her head to stare at Eratosthenes.

Barely supporting his swaying body against a chair, Eratosthenes continued speaking.

“Is it because you don’t know how heartless those with this Imperial blood flowing through them are, or do you know but choose to ignore it? This old man… hopes it’s not the latter.”

“Marquis, I am always grateful for the kindness you have shown me. However, your words seem a bit excessive.”

Though displeasure flickered briefly across her beautiful face, her eyes were resolute.

They were eyes filled with unbreakable confidence and noble dignity.

‘Eleanor.’

In the old man’s eyes, the image of his daughter overlapped with the spirited First Prince’s Wife before him.

“Father, don’t worry. He loves me. We won’t change. So please believe in me and my choice too.”

A faint yet painful hollow laugh escaped from Eratosthenes’ wrinkled lips.

He had been watching as the Princess of Valdina silently widened the cracks in this Kazen Imperial family, just as he had expected.

But today, after seeing her with Chezare, he felt he had to warn her.

“No matter how excellent Your Majesty’s strategies may be, with that naivety of believing that affection will be repaid, you can never defeat that bastard.”

So that this clever woman would not be deceived by the Imperial family’s cunning and sweet poison.

“The moment he grasps the Imperial Throne, your sacrifice will be forgotten, and your existence will be deceived. For a future of mere betrayal, just how far will you mortgage your life?”

Perhaps because those words sounded exactly like harsh criticism directed at her foolish past self.

Medeia hesitated.

“Duke, though it may be presumptuous, I probably know as much as you do about the transience of affection.”

She felt no need to explain why she had chosen Chezare instead of Jason.

However, this old man had shared the years when his daughter endured humiliation while raising a bastard child.

And in the end, he had lost his daughter forever.

Because she could understand that resentment alone, Medeia simply tried to pass by.

“This is my choice. I have my own calculations, so please just watch over me.”

“Why don’t you know what lies beneath that skin?”

However, that sight was enough to remind Eratosthenes of his stubborn daughter who had once chosen a powerless prince in broad daylight.

“Chezare, that bastard can do anything to survive. As someone who has watched him the longest… I can guarantee it.”

On his gaunt, branch-like face, only his two eyes blazed with hatred.

Like a candle barely keeping its last ember alive.

“Kazen blood is inherently heartless and greedy. That bastard too will devour both Your Majesty and Valdina and still not be satisfied. Just as His Majesty… did.”

“…”

“He will devour everyone around him. No matter what skin he hides behind, it cannot be concealed, cough—”

At that moment, Eratosthenes coughed violently.

His body swayed and bumped against the chair.

Something that rolled out from his embrace tumbled across the floor and stopped at Medeia’s feet.

It was a smooth wooden piece.

The moment she discovered it, fire flashed in Medeia’s eyes.

“Don’t be deceived by appearances.”

She looked directly at the old man.

“How is it that someone who receives such respect from society cannot see the simplest truth, or do you choose to ignore it?”

Her voice was subdued, but distinct sparks were carried at the end of each word.

“In his birth, status, and that ‘nature’ you criticize, was there even one thing he chose of his own will?”

Medeia thought of the Empress’s ring still remaining in Chezare’s room and this wooden toy now fallen on the floor.

The affection that the man called heartless could never ultimately shake off.

Even after all relationships had gone terribly wrong, that momentary memory he could never discard—she felt she understood that heart-wrenching feeling.

Why couldn’t this old man, couldn’t the world, see it?

“As for repayment of affection, I too do not believe in it. What I believe in is contracts that return as much as is given. And he has never, not even once, betrayed my trust in that give and take.”

Uncharacteristically, heat rose to her head.

Unlike her chest that felt like sparks were flying, her voice flowed out surprisingly cold.

“At least, you would know better than I whether he’s the type of person to ignore what he’s received and swallow it whole.”

“…”

“If you would deny even that, then you and I simply think differently. But there’s one thing we both know, isn’t there?”

Medeia’s gaze sharply pierced through the old man.

“That the starting point of all this tragedy, and the one you truly want to blame, is not Chezare.”

Defending someone so passionately was unfamiliar even to herself.

Nevertheless, she wanted to do it.

Because no one—not those who shared his blood, not those who shared time with him, absolutely no one—had ever shown him such kindness.

“I apologize for my rudeness. Have a peaceful night.”

Medeia felt no further sympathy for the old man who had turned pale and left the scene.

So she failed to notice.

The quiet presence behind the thin door.

* * *

Medeia had left.

“…”

Chezare couldn’t move his body until even the staggering Eratosthenes had completely exited the corridor.

The smooth fingers that had been gripping the door handle fell into empty air.

It would be a lie to say that his maternal grandfather’s reproach, equating his nature with his father’s, hadn’t left a wound.

However, it wasn’t something completely unexpected.

Because he had known for a long time that no matter how he repaid them, his shameful birth could never completely heal the scars left on the Empress and Eratosthenes.

Still, what made Chezare anxious was something else.

Whether that criticism might shake Medeia’s heart,

Whether she too might try to leave him,

Perhaps that’s why he had followed them like this the moment he saw the two meeting.

“In his birth, status, and that ‘nature’ you criticize, was there even one thing he chose of his own will?”

But Medeia’s voice, resolutely protecting him as she confronted Eratosthenes, made him stop.

It seeped into his heart like sweet rain during a drought.

He felt contradictory emotions mixed with joy and wretchedness.

At the fact that Medeia had discovered that no one could endure being by his side and everyone left him,

Yet also at the fact that she had recognized the loneliness he himself hadn’t realized, or rather, had tried to ignore.

“Medeia.”

The one person who pulled me from the brink of death and understands me completely.

Along with the fullness that made his chest ache, the realization that he would forever fear this emotion enveloped Chezare.

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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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