The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 349

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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 196

In front of the First Prince’s chambers.

“I must see Her Imperial Highness.”

Duke Leniar’s voice was heavily hoarse.

Cold sweat beaded on his wrinkled forehead beneath his graying white hair, and his feet betrayed his impatience.

“Step back, Duke.”

As Duke Leniar took a step forward, Garo blocked his path.

When the Duke didn’t give up and turned to step in another direction, Garo showed no more mercy and stood right in front of his face.

The Duke stumbled and lost his balance after colliding with Garo’s iron-wall-like solid body.

“What are you doing! Leader of Facade, have you forgotten that His Grace is an elderly man? He could have been seriously injured!”

When the Duke’s knight protested, Garo shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh my. What to do about this, but it was His Grace who forcibly pushed his way in.”

“Young Duke.”

The knight turned his head toward Terrence as if indignant.

However, far from scolding Garo, Terrence answered Duke Leniar as if nothing had happened.

“Your Grace the Duke. Her Imperial Highness is with His Highness. It’s inconvenient right now, so please come later.”

“How many times has that been now! Today I absolutely must speak with her!”      

At Terrence’s refusal, Duke Leniar couldn’t contain himself and raised his voice.

“Do you think you can avoid this matter forever by blocking like this? You’re only making the situation worse. This is not the time to block your master’s eyes and ears in the name of loyalty.”

“What’s wrong with the situation. Your Grace, if I may be so bold, wouldn’t it be better to spend this time finding a more excellent Divine Healer instead?”

“Terrence! Why are you acting like this too!”

Their voices grew louder and louder.

“What’s going on?”

At the commotion, the First Prince’s Wife finally emerged from the bedroom.

Though her complexion was slightly pale and she had lost some weight, her characteristic noble aura remained undisturbed.

Duke Leniar unconsciously caught his breath.

In just a few weeks, a harsh oracle had come down ordering her husband to marry another woman, and her husband had collapsed under divine punishment for refusing that oracle,

Yet it was difficult to find traces of despair or agitation in her.

That boldness, unwavering against any storm, made even the Duke admire her every time he saw it.

‘Truly, she has the vessel of an Empress.’

It pained him to his bones that they could no longer see that unwavering composure on the Imperial Throne, no matter what storms might come.

But.

‘Not everything in this world flows according to one’s will.’

So it was with Leniar’s daughter, the Former Empress.

With the sole desire to place her bloodline on the throne, she even had a forbidden relationship with her brother-in-law, but died of illness before she could see the fruits of her labor.

‘It’s the same now. Someone must play the villain.’

His daughter’s unbreaking stubbornness ultimately led to losing even herself.

He couldn’t let Chezare follow the same ending.

‘How did His Highness come this far… How did he endure that terrible curse and persecution from all sides three years ago!’

He couldn’t lose such a conqueror, unprecedented in history, so helplessly.

“Your Imperial Highness, I beg you.”

Duke Leniar hurriedly bowed his body.

His straight back, which rarely bent, was now lowered infinitely.

Because he knew the words he was about to speak were excessive pleading.

“Please, I beg you. Please allow the First Prince to accept the oracle.”

“…”

Medeia silently looked down at the Duke.

Was it because of the few tears on his beard that this great tree that had firmly supported the First Prince’s faction looked so small and weak?

As the First Prince’s Wife remained silent without saying anything, the Duke grew increasingly anxious.

Thud!

Finally, he knelt down.

“Your Grace!”

“This old man pleads with you so earnestly.”

Though his guard tried to help him up, the Duke knelt before Medeia and even bowed his head.

“I know I’m speaking disloyalty that I shouldn’t as a vassal. I know I’m asking too unfair a patience of the First Prince’s Wife. But, His Highness is,”

The Duke’s throat choked and he couldn’t continue, then finally poured out his heart with trembling lips.

“He is, if I may be so bold, my last remaining blood relative.”

“…”

“When the First Prince awakens, he will never forget Your Imperial Highness’s sacrifice. Please, just this once, just this once turn a blind eye. Isn’t saving his life the priority?”

“Duke. What shall we do if you’re becoming senile now too?”

Then, Garo roughly forced him to stand up.

He didn’t care that the old man’s body swayed.

His usually smiling face was hardened fiercely.

Terrence also shouted sternly.

“Who saved Chezare’s life? Three years ago, and in this iceberg accident too, if not for Her Imperial Highness, he would already be dead. Yet how dare Your Grace think such thoughts!”

“That’s exactly why I’m pleading like this…!”

Duke Leniar’s voice trembled.

“The wise Her Imperial Highness cannot be unaware of the gravity of the situation…!”

Medeia let out a short hollow laugh.

Though she could clearly read the old Duke’s intentions, it wasn’t that she couldn’t understand him, so only a hollow laugh came out.

His bringing up blood relations meant he was truly desperate.

“Duke. If one who claims to be the master’s blood relative kneels and bows his head before vassals, can that dare be called a ‘request’?”

Isn’t it pressure and coercion disguised as a request?

At her calm but unwavering voice, Duke Leniar swallowed hard.

“The floor is cold. Don’t overexert yourself, and please return. Since Your Grace worries so much about him, if there’s good news, I will surely not forget to tell you.”

It was her usual tone – calm but affectionate and considerate.

“Your Imperial Highness…!”

“I’ll ask Garo and Terrence to escort you out. Well then, please go carefully.”

The First Prince’s Wife simply turned and left.

Click.

The door closed.

There was not a single word of response to the plea that Leniar had poured out even while kneeling.

How could he not know that the First Prince’s Wife’s silence meant she had no intention of even trying to persuade him?

‘Did you think our Her Imperial Highness would succumb to pressure from old snakes like you?’

Garo glared at Duke Leniar until he rose from his spot in despair, trudging along.

“Ah…”

The Duke groaned and hung his head.

He had abandoned both pride and dignity but failed to get what he wanted.

It was natural that this incident would leave an irreversible mark of distrust with the First Prince’s Wife.

Duke Leniar’s legs trembled.

“I’ll escort you.”

“Get away.”

The Duke roughly shook off Terrence’s arm as he tried to support him.

Terrence spoke coldly.

“Your Grace, you must never forget for even a moment that you too are merely one of Chezare’s vassals.”

“You…!”

The Duke’s eyes widened.

Then he soon let out a sigh.

“Do you think I want to do this?”

“Do you think I want to be doing this?”

The fact that the gentlemanly Terrence had struck Duke Leniart’s reverse scale was proof of just how angry he was.

“….”

He trudged down the corridor.

Heavy regret followed in his wake.

* * *

Click.

Theo raised his head at the sound of the door closing.

Behind the door stood Medeia, standing quietly.

“Your Highness….”

Theo, who had been standing beside the bed where Chezare lay, didn’t know what to do.

One arm of the handsome young man was still wrapped in bandages.

Though some wounds remained on his face, the nobility characteristic of Temple Knights still couldn’t be hidden.

“Your Highness, I’ll escort the Duke out-“

“It’s fine, Theo. You stay here and continue watching over Chezare. I’ll go out myself.”

He had been able to hear everything that happened just moments ago in this room.

Garo and Terrence arguing with Duke Leniart.

Medeia’s firm voice rejecting the Duke’s tearful plea.

‘Was she always like this behind doors?’

Shrouded in the shadows of the wall, she looked so small and precarious as she drew breath.

Ha. Medeia let out her last remaining breath in a short exhale.

Then she walked toward the bed where Chezare lay.

“Continue. Do you feel the same?”

And she continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

As if returning to the situation before Duke Leniart’s voice could be heard.

“…Yes, Your Highness. I don’t sense the same foul odor as Rachel.”

Theo was the only person who had been able to sense Rachel’s corpse-like smell together with Medeia before.

So Medeia had called Theo with the desperation of grasping at straws.

With the hope that examining Chezare might reveal something.

“But it doesn’t seem like there’s completely nothing there either. It’s strange.”

Theo’s brow furrowed deeply.

The energy he felt through his fingertips was strangely tangled.

“I can tell there’s something there, but it seems like something very powerful is covering it, so we can’t identify it….”

“….”

“It’s certain that they’ve done something….”

The more Theo spoke, the more devastated he felt.

He felt utterly powerless. He felt pathetic.

‘If it had been the Captain, would he have been able to discover something?’

Could he have been of help to Her Highness?

“….”

Medeia nodded calmly.

“I understand. You may go.”

There was no blame toward Theo for failing to find a solution.

However, her gaze remained fixed on the lying First Prince.

Theo unconsciously hesitated.

Because he realized that in Medeia’s gaze toward her husband, he had never existed from the beginning.

“…Yes.”

Before leaving the room, with reluctant steps, Theo couldn’t help but turn back for a moment.

Medeia was sitting on one side of the bed, reaching her hand toward the First Prince.

Her white hand grasped the First Prince’s hand.

She was looking down at the First Prince with a fragile and gentle face he had never seen before.

The moment he witnessed her softly cupping his sleeping cheek, Theo’s heart dropped with a thud.

“….”

He quickly quickened his steps and closed the door.

But his heart was still beating violently.

The intense jealousy that surged toward the man who received her touch and gaze,

The thought that if only it were him lying in that place instead of the First Prince-

Whether he could say that all these intense flames were merely reverence toward his proxy.

He couldn’t dare be confident of that.

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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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