The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 109

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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 109】

And of all things, he was demanding the ledgers specifically from the year he became president.

‘He’s definitely trying to bring me down.’

His heart sank like a stone, but he soon pulled himself together.

‘No, not yet. It’s not like an official document has come down yet.’

“It’s not yet time to worry.”

A professor beside him also said.

“Perhaps the Empire recognizes your hard work and wants to commend you.”

“That’s right. Haven’t you been continuously petitioning that the grants are insufficient? Support might increase.”

“Yes, that must be it.”

Since he didn’t know that Minister Royhum had been dismissed, he believed there were people in the Ministry of Finance who would protect him.

Then came the news.

“Royhum… was dismissed?”

He staggered and gripped his desk.

All the names he knew in the Ministry of Finance had completely disappeared.

And decisively, a summons arrived from the Administrative Department.

“This quickly…?”

His hands trembled.

‘They must have already marked me.’

Damn it, who ratted me out?

The name that naturally came to mind was Frederick.

He hated Frederick.

‘That lackey of Ensilen.’

Frederick was someone who still revered Ensilen even after her death and bragged about her achievements.

‘Why did heaven send down both me and Ensilen?’

Whether as a student or as a professor, she was a woman he could never beat no matter what he did.

So even when she became Empress, he felt defeated, but.

‘Fine. It’s fine.’

In the end, since he remained as a professor until the end, he had won, he consoled himself.

The professors who remembered Ensilen fondly retired one by one.

The remaining professors, he had won over.

He made sure that those like Frederick who cherished Ensilen’s memory lost influence in the Professors’ Association.

Afterwards, he published the materials left abandoned in her research lab under his own name.

That’s how he became a legend in academia and rose to the position of president.

‘Anyway, weren’t those papers that Ensilen had discarded as useless?’

He felt no guilt.

Discovering value in what was discarded was also insight and effort.

Moreover, the past three years had been miraculous for him.

With Ensilen’s death, the person who could expose his papers as plagiarism had completely disappeared.

Thanks to that, he became president.

But still.

‘I’m anxious.’

Since it was a position obtained by stealing from others.

The anxiety that everything would be taken away again always followed him like a shadow.

He poured scholarships and research funds only on those he favored to build his power and control the Professors’ Association.

However.

‘If this gets caught.’

Embezzlement and breach of trust charges would apply.

Unlike others, he knew exactly what punishment he would face.

‘I’d have to return everything I took, and depending on the case, they might even claim damages.’

He couldn’t take all the responsibility alone.

Most importantly, he didn’t have the ability to return that much money.

‘Isn’t there a way?’

He gritted his teeth and racked his brain.

Then he remembered.

‘Right. There was that former prosecutor turned lawyer.’

He would surely help.

Judges tended to give lighter sentences when former prosecutor lawyers were involved.

‘Yes. This is the only way.’

The retainer fee was expensive, but it didn’t matter.

He was the one who controlled the treasury.

However, he didn’t know that this choice would be a fatal mistake.

“?!”

“Wow, he really came here.”

‘What is this…’

He had clearly only come to meet a lawyer he knew. Why were Imperial Knights waiting for him?

“We’re from the Special Tax Bureau. Are you President Benton himself?”

“Th-that… how…?”

“Our Team Leader said you’d probably come here.”

Our Team Leader is amazing, really amazing.

Til was genuinely impressed.

Meanwhile, Jamie was shocked enough to faint.

This former prosecutor lawyer was someone he only sought out in truly desperate times.

‘But how did they know to come here?’

Til was completely excited and grinning.

“Is this what they call a 2x event?”

Double embezzlement. Double performance.

Jamie frantically looked around.

‘Was there someone who could corner me like this?’

There wasn’t. Except for Ensilen.

‘That woman is dead. She’s definitely dead.’

But how could someone corner him as if they knew all his methods inside and out?

Could it be.

And then he saw her.

“You…!”

A woman with the same expressionless face as Ensilen, cornering him.

“You used school funds to cover litigation costs to avoid your own responsibility.”

Rianel said calmly.

“This also constitutes embezzlement, so you’ll need to come with us.”

If it were litigation related to the school, it might be different, but taking funds to avoid his own punishment was indeed embezzlement.

“Now, please stand up.”

“Oof, you’re quite heavy.”

The knights grabbed both his arms and lifted him up.

“No! Aaahhh—!”

Jamie screamed, but there was nothing he could do.

In the place where his screams had faded away.

Til clicked his tongue.

“Well, who told him to embezzle?”

* * *

The president was expelled.

Since he was arrested in the first place, there was no way he could perform his duties as chancellor.

It was revealed that he had received money and overlooked false credentials while exerting influence on other hiring officials, so bribery charges were additionally applied.

The salaries of the illegally hired professors were fully recovered.

‘Since the hiring itself was invalidated, it’s only natural.’

Frederick was someone who never forgot gratitude, so he approached Rianel and said,

“Thank you as always.”

“I merely corrected the private misuse of public funds.”

This was indeed a civil servant’s duty.

“Still, thank you. If you hadn’t had affection for the Academy, it would have been difficult to go that far.”

Reading legal provisions and reviewing all those ledgers was never easy.

Most civil servants Frederick had observed would either casually brush off problems when raised, or pass the buck saying ‘That’s not our department’s job.’

That’s why people like Rianel who did their job properly were even more welcome.

“When I look at you, Princess, I keep thinking of my professor.”

That person also pretended it was nothing while taking care of him from behind.

As if this much was no big deal.

“But I know you put all your strength into helping. I’m grateful for that effort.”

“I’m always doing my work half-heartedly—”

“…Team Leader, please.”

Mel glared, and Rianel wisely shut her mouth.

Just then, Rianel dropped her handkerchief.

The moment that fluttering form entered Frederick’s sight.

Rianel bent down to pick it up, then folded the corners of the handkerchief neatly at right angles and put it in her bosom.

A characteristic gesture he had seen before, one that reminded him of someone.

‘No, it can’t be. Right. There’s no way.’

Frederick chided himself, saying it made no sense.

The idea of a dead person’s soul dwelling in another person’s body was something that would only appear in science fiction novels.

‘I must be having vain fantasies because I miss my professor too much.’

Just as he was about to turn away.

Frederick witnessed a shocking scene.

‘…Assssiiiil?’

It was actually Asil.

Someone he thought he would never see again.

He was looking at Rianel with the same lively gaze he had when watching over his master.

‘How could that bastard who had a corpse-like face after my master died be like this?’

It wasn’t even a mistake!

There was emotion and life in his gaze.

All of it reaching only one person.

In that instant, his doubts that it couldn’t be completely melted away. With the suspicion gone, only intense conviction remained.

“You, you bastard—!”

But by the time he came to his senses, the Tax Bureau Office door was firmly closed.

‘This bastard left work in the meantime?!’

Frederick exploded in anger while clutching the door.

That night.

“Give me back my professor, you bastard!”

Frederick stormed into Asil’s house.

Witnessing this, Rianel added one more heading to attach to her report.

-Empress (roughly) hides her abilities

ㄴ Identity also (roughly) hidden

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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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