The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 47

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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 47】

 

“I’m the only one who proposed the marriage arrangement, and these people came along as witnesses.”

 

Rianel’s explanation only added to the confusion.

 

‘What kind of wedding requires thirteen witnesses?’

 

The butler barely managed to collect himself.

 

“P-please come inside.”

 

The only reason they weren’t turned away at the door was because the mansion’s young master had informed them that guests would be coming.

 

‘Though he didn’t mention it would be such a large group!’

 

The servant was also flustered but spoke while skillfully hiding his expression.

 

“I’ll bring more chairs.”

 

The reception room had basic guest furniture prepared, but it was nowhere near enough to accommodate fourteen visitors.

 

Just as the reception room became packed.

 

The director’s son, Ersen, poked his head in.

 

“Why are there so many people?”

 

“They said they’re all together…”

 

Rianel raised her gaze to look at him.

 

Norman Rikel had been quite fond of the son he gained in his old age, and when she was Empress, he would live his later years with the pleasure of frequently bragging about his son to her.

 

However, he never brought his son out in public.

 

[He had an accident when he was young and his health is weak.]

 

Due to a poisoning incident by relatives who coveted Norman’s wealth, his wife died and though his son survived, his health was too weak to be taken outside.

 

[Still, he’s a precious son.]

 

And now.

 

That son was right before her eyes.

 

‘His skeletal development is at an appropriate level. His nutritional state is also decent.’

 

However, he didn’t resemble Norman at all, apparently taking after his wife who was said to be a beauty.

 

The boy looked at Rianel and smirked.

 

“New mother?”

 

“Not yet.”

 

Ersen plopped down across from Rianel and called for a servant to bring cold water.

 

After downing it in one gulp, he slammed the glass down on the tablecloth hard enough to splash droplets.

 

“But you’ll tell me to call you that soon, right? Since that’s how you can devour this house and its assets. Isn’t that right?”

 

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by two degrees.

 

As everyone froze, Til whispered in shock.

 

“Isn’t he supposed to be fourteen?”

 

To him, coming from fallen nobility, the boy’s rudeness was utterly unacceptable.

 

‘Even a servant’s son would behave more cultured than this…’

 

Mel answered.

 

“He’s still a minor. Kids that age are all like that.”

 

“But the Princess was…”

 

“That’s because she’s exceptionally mature.”

 

Imperial family members are raised under pressure to set an example for others from a young age, so they inevitably become more mature than their peers.

 

Only Rianel maintained her composure.

 

“The Empire’s inheritance laws aren’t so lax as to allow property acquisition through marriage alone. Property is divided considering the sustainability of the marital relationship and the degree of contribution to asset formation, and if there’s a legitimate heir in the family, one can be pushed to a lower priority in succession.”

 

“So you need me gone to devour the Rikel Family?”

 

“That’s correct.”

 

“Team Leader!”

 

Seeing the conversation take an ominous turn, Wilbrin was horrified.

 

We came here to gather information by scouting the interior and to meet the director who’s in hiding.

 

But instead of winning the son’s favor, she’s earning his resentment?

 

“So when are you going to kill me?”

 

“That would be an unprofitable act. Those who murder others to acquire property are stripped of inheritance rights.”

 

Unable to watch any longer, Til poked Rianel’s side.

 

“Team Leader, isn’t it a bit much to say it like that?”

 

Only then realizing something, Rianel explained.

 

“Murder and concealing corpses are crimes with high risk of detection. Taking such risks to obtain a bank on the verge of bankruptcy would be irrational.”

 

Having heard the unnecessarily detailed explanation, Til sighed.

 

‘Oh dear, I should have kept my mouth shut.’

 

It was his mistake to demand human sensitivity from a machine.

 

Meanwhile, Ersen was caught up in a subtle feeling.

 

‘What’s with this woman?’

 

Everyone else watched his mood around him, and even his father pitied him.

 

Rianel, who made not the slightest effort to please him, was fascinating.

 

Her expressionless face resembled the cold, stiff expression of opening an unfriendly encyclopedia. There was even a sense of violence in her one-sided listing of knowledge.

 

But.

 

‘She doesn’t seem to have any ulterior motives.’

 

Strangely, he didn’t dislike her.

 

‘That’s probably because of her incredibly honest attitude.’

 

Seeing someone who laid everything bare actually put him at ease.

 

Ersen straightened his posture.

 

“So why did you come?”

 

His sullen tone remained the same, but still.

 

“I came to see the director.”

 

“So the marriage proposal was just an excuse?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Duke Vincenheim, who had been secretly hoping, breathed a great sigh of relief and patted his chest.

 

“No, there are normal methods available, so why did you use such a method? Do you happen to like shock therapy?”

 

“I expressed my intention to visit normally but was rejected.”

 

“Then normally you’d give up! You wouldn’t think of forcing your way into someone else’s house!”

 

“It seemed like someone other than the director rejected our visit, so I came to be rejected directly by the director himself.”

 

She didn’t come to see the director, but to be rejected directly by him.

 

This meant she came suspecting that the director had some ‘circumstances’ preventing him from meeting people.

 

This woman was worried about his father in her own way.

 

‘I get that, but why does she have to say it like that?’

 

“You know your personality is really weird, right? Be honest. You don’t have friends, do you?”

 

“Before answering that question, you must first specify what kind of relationship you define as ‘friends.'”

 

“Huh?”

 

“If you define friends as relationships where you can share your true feelings, then I could say I have many friends.”

 

“No, isn’t that just garbage?”

 

How could one-sidedly dumping whatever you want to say be called ‘friendship’?

 

Ersen was dumbfounded but searched his memory. He strangely felt a sense of déjà vu.

 

‘Didn’t father say the Former Empress had this kind of personality?’

 

His father often said that the Former Empress was the sharpest, most eccentric, yet kindest pen in the world.

 

Thinking that way, it became difficult to simply push her away.

 

Most importantly.

 

‘I haven’t seen Father in quite a while either.’

 

When the Former Empress died, Father had been running around somewhere claiming her death was suspicious, but then suddenly grew close to the Vice President and his wife before gradually withering away.

 

Then for nearly half a year, he shut himself up in his room and wouldn’t even meet his son.

 

I thought the shock would be great since someone he had served with loyalty for so long had suddenly died, so I waited.

 

‘But I can’t keep waiting forever.’

 

Above all, I was worried.

 

The last time I saw Father, he looked terribly gaunt.

 

Still, I couldn’t easily approach him because Father refused to let Ersen come near.

 

‘But he never said not to let these people in, did he?’

 

Even if it was forcing it, I didn’t care.

 

Ersen wanted to place his hopes on this eccentric variable.

 

“Follow me. Father is this way.”

 

* * *

 

When Ersen knocked on his father’s bedroom door for the first time in two months, Doctor Lucy blocked him as if she had been waiting.

 

“The President needs rest. Even if you’re the young master, doing this is…!”

 

But that was only momentary.

 

“Then are you going to let my stepmother in?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“Are you going to let this woman marry Father?”

 

Ersen gestured toward Rianel with his chin.

 

Lucy flinched greatly.

 

She had become the President’s personal physician under the pretext of knowing a little medicine, and had been brainwashing him.

 

Getting the drug ‘Holy Water’ was easy. The excommunicated priest would do anything if you gave him money.

 

‘I didn’t plan this from the beginning, but…’

 

It couldn’t be helped.

 

‘As soon as the Former Empress died, the President said he would handle bank business again!’

 

Dudban, Lucy’s husband, had been gradually embezzling funds from the bank while the President was at the Special Tax Bureau. But he was about to be caught before he could erase the traces.

 

Fortunately, the timing was good. Even if the President didn’t show himself, they could use the excuse that he was in seclusion due to despair over the Former Empress’s death.

 

So her husband took the Vice President position and plundered Arsen Bank, also embezzling Norman’s personal assets. They planned to eliminate the President and his foolish son at an appropriate time.

 

‘Suddenly a mistress of the house?’

 

At a time like this, they couldn’t let in a variable that would look into the family’s internal affairs.

 

“Even you think it doesn’t make sense, right? So let me see Father.”

 

Meanwhile, Ersen’s voice had validity.

 

“At least she should see what kind of person the man she wants to marry is.”

 

Lucy looked back at the President. His hazy gaze was wandering in dreams rather than reality.

 

He couldn’t even recognize his son right in front of him.

 

‘Surely she won’t find out?’

 

She had some inner expectations too.

 

Except for having an overly expressionless face, Rianel was no different from other noble young ladies.

 

There was no way a delicately raised girl like her would step forward to marry a living corpse.

 

‘She’ll obviously run away. Or faint.’

 

“Very well, then.”

 

That was the permission given.

 

“Who might you be?”

 

Surprisingly, as soon as Rianel entered the room, the President blinked several times and stood up.

 

It had been almost half a year since he had properly heard his father’s voice.

 

Ersen’s eyes grew moist.

 

“Father?”

 

“President?”

 

“What! H-how…!”

 

Like someone unrelated to all that scene, the President slowly looked around.

 

Like someone trying to gauge where this place was and where he was.

 

Then he looked at Rianel again and asked.

 

“What brings such an honored person here…”

 

“I came to propose marriage.”

 

“?!”

 

The President shot up to his feet.

 

* * *

 

What the scene was like at the time and what conversation took place was a secret known only to those involved.

 

However, there were many people who spoke of their eyewitness accounts from that time.

 

“It was a miracle.”

 

A sick person had risen and walked, so what else could it be if not a miracle?

 

The President even raised his voice and moved his body vigorously, showing his good health.

 

“It was my first gamble and hope. Of course, it was the right choice.”

 

Even Ersen agreed with the servant’s words.

 

“That person is surely a god.”

 

The butler, who had desperately hoped for his master’s recovery of consciousness, also said.

 

On the other hand, Wilbrin offered a different opinion.

 

“If a non-believer is a god, then I suppose she’s a god… Well.”

 

Til smirked.

 

“How can anyone be so irreverent?”

 

Well, that was roughly how it went.

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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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