The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 61

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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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Chapter 61

“To think the Minister still believes so firmly in the Prince.”

Sisear shrugged his shoulders.

He had the air of someone bestowing special favor since the Minister hadn’t caught on.

“How do you think I learned that the Black Eye Trading Guild was trafficking palace children to foreign countries?”

“What?”

“Prince Claudio leaked it so obviously that at first I thought you two were using it as bait to lure me in. But lo and behold, a tail you had hidden so carefully actually came out.”

Sisear chuckled softly.

As if pitying him, his eyes swept up and down the Minister’s shabby appearance.

“So I thought you two had completely split apart, but now I see the Minister was just being one-sidedly played.”

“Lies! Don’t you think I know this is sowing discord?”

He bared his teeth roughly as if he would devour Sisear.

“If that’s what you think, there’s nothing I can do.”

“Shut up! Your scheme is obvious! You’re trying to drive a wedge between me and the Prince!”

Despite his confident outcry, Etien’s eyes were shaking violently.

It seemed like he could hear the sound of hairline cracks forming in their once-solid alliance.

Sisear silently swallowed his laughter. If he could, he felt like he could even dance in front of the Minister.

“My, surely the Minister knows how shallow political alliances can be, so why are you acting so naively?”

“…That can’t be. The Prince and I are in the same boat. If I fall, he falls with me!”

“Is that really so? Rather than absorbing your collapsed power and influence to grow stronger?”

Sisear asked back while shrugging his shoulders.

Etien was left speechless.

“Well, the Minister would know the answer better than I would. In any case, I’ve told you the truth out of past affection. So when the executioner’s dew touches you, don’t resent me.”

He lightly bowed his waist and placed a small bottle of liquor under the bars.

“I hear you like vodka. I hope it brings warm comfort on this night of abandonment.”

Having thoroughly upset Etien, Sisear left with light steps as if he had said all he needed to say.

“You bastard! Do you think I’ll fall like this! Soon I’ll get out of here and tear you limb from limb!”

The Minister threw the small bottle Sisear had mockingly left behind straight at the wall.

Crash!

The bottle shattered against the stone wall and the strong scent of alcohol filled the prison.

“Ha, haa. Haa.”

While breathing heavily with anger, Sisear’s words from earlier wouldn’t leave his mind.

His head was frantically calculating the possibility of truth.

‘There are only two people who could move the Black Eye Trading Guild that the evidence points to.’

Prince Claudio and Etien himself.

Since Etien wouldn’t gamble with his own life…

Then there was only one culprit.

Prince Claudio.

Suspicion began to slowly take root in the Minister’s once-firm heart.

Prince Claudio already had a history of trying to use his own daughter to poison and bring him down.

Moreover, before Sisear had barged in, hadn’t the two of them been engaged in fierce power struggles to the point of splitting apart?

Etien suddenly felt anxious. Why had he been trusting only the Regent?

If he changed his mind, I would be finished.

“Ahem, since you had a visitor, my lord… Is there anything you need or any orders you’d like to give?”

A guard walked in where Sisear had left. He rubbed his palms together while observing Etien.

It was an ambiguous situation where punishment for Etien had not yet been decided.

The guard still believed in the power and authority Etien had wielded as Minister of the Royal Household and looked after his convenience.

It was also because the bribes the Minister gave him each time he ran errands were quite substantial.

“Medeia…”

Etien muttered.

“Yes?”

“Bring the Princess. Princess, quickly!”

A thin piece of gold passed under his hand to the guard.

“Of course, my lord. I’ll run to the Princess’s Palace as soon as I leave.”

The guard nodded with a grin. The sound of gold rolling between his grimy fingers could be heard.

* * *

Three days later.

At some point, a clear and clean fragrance began to pierce through the foul stench that had filled the musty prison.

Minister Etien, who had been half out of his mind, raised his head.

Silver hair that seemed to brighten even the gloomy interior of the prison slowly entered his vision.

He was so glad that he forgot his dignity and jumped up, almost shouting.

“Pr-Princess!”

Here! Over here! He grabbed the bars and shouted fervently.

“My, Minister.”

Medeia walked over slowly. Her calm green eyes swept over the Minister’s appearance from head to toe.

“What has happened to you? Where did that spirited and dignified appearance go?”

Medeia clicked her tongue as if pitying him.

It wasn’t meant to offend.

Minister Etien was actually rotting away in prison looking like a lump of flour dough that had fallen from the top of a tower and been crushed and dirtied.

All while nurturing suspicion and anxiety about Prince Claudio, who hadn’t responded to his desperately sent communications.

“They say a fool only knows a tidal wave when he has to shut up, and it seems my advice has become applicable to you yourself.”

“Your Highness, it’s a false accusation. I have never violated military law, nor had any intention to. How could I, a loyal subject responsible for Valdina’s state affairs, do such a thing! That vile Black Eye Trading Guild targeted me and devised a scheme!”

Even at the Princess’s subtle mockery, Etien just prostrated himself. His ability to change tactics was indeed exceptional.

“Well. Of course I believe your sincere excuses, but the matter has grown too large.”

Medeia shook her head.

“Somehow, your story has spread beyond the palace to the entire Royal Palace. Now even common people are clamoring that you should be executed to avenge the children.”

Since Etien had been imprisoned, he knew nothing of outside news.

His subordinates and the Prince were too busy filling chests with gold coins to have the leisure to bring the Minister news from the world.

“So I’m not sure if they’ll believe your excuses. This has become troublesome.”

Etien’s face turned ashen.

The people hated and despised him even more. Not only for kidnapping commoners at will as a person of power, but because his reputation was notoriously bad.

‘Those bastards will try to chew and swallow my corpse.’

Etien fell to his knees and stretched both hands through the bars toward Medeia.

“Your Highness, please help me. If you get me out of here, you won’t regret it.”

Normally he would have tried to contact Prince Claudio somehow.

But somehow he felt uneasy about it.

The seeds of suspicion Sisear had sown had grown abundantly in his heart in just three days.

The Minister would rather hear Prince Claudio’s criticism for ruining later plans than be stabbed in the back by him.

Prime Minister Sisear was determined to punish him, and Prince Claudio could no longer be trusted.

So now the only lifeline left to him was the Princess.

Medeia snorted.

“With just words? Minister, don’t be naive.”

The Minister hesitated for a moment, but soon shook his head as if he had never been flustered.

“Of course not. Your Highness, I have hidden funds. An enormous amount that could be called my entire fortune. I’ll give it all to you.”

“Hmm, hidden funds.”

The Princess showed interest. The Minister inwardly cheered. After all, who would dislike money!

Etien’s weasel-like eyes sparkled.

He crawled on his knees to the front of the bars. Straining with all his might to twist his handcuffs, he barely gained enough freedom to move his fingers.

Etien pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his chest.

‘The Princess has lived her whole life only in the palace.’

Deceiving an innocent young woman with no worldly experience was as easy as eating cold porridge.

Contrary to his inner thoughts, he extended the piece of paper with a rather faithful attitude. It was a checkbook used by the Guild.

“This is a voucher for my secret vault. My slush fund. Since birth, I’ve faced many hardships and saved penny by penny—it’s no small amount. It’s all Your Majesty’s. If only you would get me out of this damned place.”

The Minister of the Royal Household’s secret vault.

If it was the slush fund of someone who had become one of the wealthiest people in the Capital City in an instant, it would be enormous enough to make anyone’s eyes pop out and come running.

Even Neryl, who was listening from the side, widened her eyes in surprise as she looked back and forth between him and Medeia.

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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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