The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 17

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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 17】

“Please, Uncle. Isn’t there any way?”

Vanessa clasped her hands together and sobbed.

“You know, Uncle. You know how hard I tried to win his heart. And you said it would be better for me to become the Duchess. Right?”

Royhum frowned as he listened to her words, half-muffled by tears.

‘That stupid girl never contacted me once when she was living like a princess at the Duke’s estate thanks to me. Now that crisis has struck, she finally comes to find me?’

All Royhum had done for Vanessa was arrange a few private meetings with Rupert.

Still, Royhum thought his contribution had been immense.

Just as it takes two hands clapping to make a sound, a man and woman needed to meet face-to-face to find harmony.

If Royhum had had the luxury, he would have put in effort to make his niece the Duchess.

After all, it would have been profitable to present a bill later and claim part of the ducal assets.

However, the situation was different now.

‘That old fox is dying to cut me out right away. What Duchess, indeed.’

He didn’t know what the Empress Dowager was trying to achieve using the Special Tax Bureau, but it was clear that an unpleasant ending awaited him.

‘She’s probably already planning to downsize the Ministry of Finance. Her ultimate goal must be to drag me down from the minister’s position.’

Just like the Former Empress had done.

But the Empress Dowager was more seasoned than the dead Empress, so he couldn’t let his guard down.

Instead of using her own hands, she had chosen the method of cutting him out with an axe named Rianel.

‘Damn it, doesn’t that woman have any weaknesses?’

To put a leash around the neck of Rianel, who was rampaging like a mad colt, he needed a weakness.

Rianel had a reputation for being eccentric, so she couldn’t even be bribed.

‘Isn’t there some way?’

Some way to catch Rianel.

Then Royhum shifted his gaze to Vanessa.

‘That’s it.’

He realized that this niece sitting right in front of him could be more useful than he thought.

After all, there was no family house that didn’t have dust when shaken out.

‘If Rianel has no weaknesses, couldn’t I just dig into House Vincenheim?’

Especially with a great noble house, hidden corruption and practices were bound to accumulate in proportion to its size.

While he was at it, it would be good to strike a blow at the State Minister too.

Duke Vincenheim, who pretended otherwise while protecting his daughter, had been getting on his nerves.

“Niece. There is one method.”

At Royhum’s subtle words, Vanessa, who had instantly perked up her ears.

“You want me to leak the Duke’s estate ledgers?”

She gasped upon hearing that method.

Having grown up as a noble’s child, she knew how serious this was.

“What’s there to worry about? If things go wrong, we can just claim Rianel did it.”

“Still…”

“Besides, didn’t that girl visit the Duke’s estate recently?”

“That’s… true, but.”

“Where else would you find a more appropriate time to frame someone?”

Royhum’s words perfectly aligned with Vanessa’s desire to bring Rianel down.

“Is that really all I need to do?”

“That’s right.”

Royhum patted his niece’s shoulder as if he were a caring uncle.

“Don’t worry. Uncle will take care of everything else. You just need to sit quietly and wait.”

Vanessa leaned her chin on his shoulder and sobbed.

“Thank you, Uncle. I won’t forget this kindness.”

In doing so, she failed to see Royhum’s twisted lips.

Nor the clear mockery contained within them.

‘Stupid girl.’

Rianel had stayed at the Duke’s estate for an extremely short time. If internal materials from the Duke’s estate were leaked, Vanessa would obviously be suspected.

However.

‘What does that have to do with me?’

After being at the Duke’s estate for several years, Vanessa still hadn’t escaped her status as a mere ‘fiancée.’ That meant there was no hope.

‘I have to survive.’

As always.

A few days later, Vanessa sent copies of the ledgers as Royhum had instructed.

Royhum went through them page by page.

Soon, he raised the corners of his mouth at one particular record.

“Found it.”

House Vincenheim’s weakness.

* * *

Royhum’s top priority was always the same.

Survival.

Bringing down Rianel came after that.

After all, you had to be alive to get revenge.

To do that, he had to prevent Rianel and the Tax Bureau people from completing their report.

He arranged for House Vincenheim’s dirty secrets to flow into the Special Tax Bureau.

‘People naturally favor their own family.’

If it was a matter involving her own family, even that brat Rianel wouldn’t be able to act easily.

And the next day.

The materials Royhum had leaked were discovered by other Tax Bureau members who came to work early.

“What’s this?”

Haven’t seen this before?

Mel picked up the documents.

But as soon as he checked the contents, he froze solid.

As Mel just stood there trembling, his senior Til approached with a puzzled look.

“What is it? What are you looking at?”

However, he too soon froze in the exact same position as Mel.

“…”

Wilbrin, who had just arrived at work, was puzzled to see the two of them stuck to the desk in the same pose.

“What’s wrong with everyone? You look like you’ve seen something you shouldn’t have…”

Before she could finish speaking, her gaze landed on the documents.

The moment she realized that the documents they were looking at contained evidence of House Vincenheim’s tax evasion.

The number of stone statues increased to three.

How much time passed like that?

“…Uh.”

“Oh.”

“Hmm.”

They reached a conclusion.

“…Hey, cover it up.”

It was a simpler conclusion than expected.

“We didn’t see anything today.”

How humiliated would Rianel be if she saw her family’s dirty secrets when she was just starting to establish herself at the Tax Bureau?

Most importantly, losing a talent like Rianel would be a loss for the Tax Bureau—no, for the entire Empire.

They had to prevent her from being discouraged and leaving over this single document.

Fortunately, it was the Special Tax Bureau that would be submitting this report.

If they could just reach an agreement, they could make the flaws of one family house disappear as if they never existed.

And so the Tax Bureau people, who had been pulling the “we’re all in this together” card.

“…What are you doing?”

Were caught red-handed by Rianel, who arrived at work right on time.

* * *

“Well, you see…”

Til and the other Tax Bureau people stood at attention.

The way they laid out the details of the incident was reminiscent of receiving an audit from upper management.

They themselves thought their appearance was ridiculous, but they couldn’t relax their rigid posture.

Every time they faced Rianel, they felt as if they were dealing with someone of extremely high rank.

Moreover, since they had done something wrong, they found themselves watching Rianel’s reactions even more carefully.

After waiting for them to finish speaking, Rianel delivered a one-line summary.

“So you’re saying my father committed tax evasion.”

At this direct statement without any sugar-coating, Mel hiccupped in surprise, and Til frantically waved his hands.

“No, this is just speculation! We’d have to investigate the details.”

Wilbrin chimed in as well.

“That’s right, if we cover it up here, who would know? After all, we’re the ones writing the report—”

Wilbrin’s words were cut off mid-sentence.

“…Are you saying you’ll falsify the report?”

Her gaze was so cold and chilling that even Til, the most senior member, momentarily stopped breathing.

“When writing reports, some content might get omitted, right? Don’t worry. Upper management will just think it’s a mistake.”

Rianel was unwavering.

“If there are suspicious points, it’s only natural to record them.”

“…”

“There are no exceptions.”

Her firmly spoken words sounded like legal statutes.

‘She’s technically right, but…’

Since Rianel was being so resolute, they found themselves being the ones watching her reactions instead.

“Are you really okay with this? The State Minister is your father.”

“Even if my father committed a crime, that doesn’t make it my crime, so why should I be concerned about it?”

Her words were righteous, but.

‘Do people in other departments not know this, covering up their relatives’ corruption all this time?’

When relatives’ corruption is exposed, people instinctively want to turn a blind eye.

First, they want to avoid the awkwardness of reporting someone they know.

Second, if relatives get caught for corruption, it negatively affects their own personnel evaluations.

So a culture of turning a blind eye spread as custom. If I receive protection this time, I’ll cover up someone else’s corruption next time.

This is how entire organizations become corrupt.

Suddenly, Wilbrin recalled a rumor about Rianel.

‘Didn’t they say she argued so much about everything that they had to write instructions as official documents?’

She had thought it was strange that the rumor was too specific to be just gossip.

‘Could that rumor have emerged because Rianel wouldn’t accept injustice?’

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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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