The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 91

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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 91】

 

The reason Asil wasn’t at the site was due to the Emperor’s orders.

 

“My mother’s family is having difficulties with tax issues. If I delegate this to just anyone, word might leak out, so I called for you.”

 

After producing an Empress, the Empress Dowager’s family had lived quietly, occasionally engaging in charitable work. Half the reason the Emperor’s reputation hadn’t plummeted to rock bottom was thanks to the Empress Dowager’s family.

 

“Go and assess how much tax has been delinquent.”

 

In any case, it was a secret order from the Emperor that couldn’t be ignored.

 

Moreover, it wasn’t completely unrelated to his duties.

 

It was just way too personal!

 

Asil, who felt uncomfortable investigating without the party’s knowledge, contacted the Empress Dowager.

 

“What are you talking about? No such thing happened.”

 

Thanks to the Empress Dowager’s firm assurance, he was able to avoid a wasted trip to the border region.

 

However, it took that much time, and ultimately he couldn’t prevent Rianel from being ousted from her team leader position.

 

“It’s good news that my mother had no worries.”

 

The Emperor, whose lie had been exposed, shamelessly brushed off the situation with just this one sentence.

 

The reason the Emperor went so far as to lie to get Asil out of the way was obvious.

 

‘At the crucial moment, he intended to make me a Bureau Director with no influence whatsoever.’

 

He probably also wanted to give Rianel the impression that he couldn’t protect her.

 

Having noticed at the dinner gathering that the Emperor harbored personal feelings for Rianel, Asil could be certain.

 

‘When in reality, you were more excited than anyone else in the world.’

 

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time when the sun’s luminosity was as appropriate as today.”

 

It roughly meant the world looked bright.

 

It was something Rianel might well say. Her becoming team leader wasn’t by her own choice, but because of the department members’ and Asil’s greed.

 

‘Because you have a strong sense of responsibility.’

 

He knew that if given a position, even if she wanted to run away, she wouldn’t abandon it and disappear.

 

Because you’re someone who knows that ‘manager’ isn’t a position for passing off work, but for taking responsibility.

 

Sure enough, Rianel, who had just thrown off the burden of being team leader, wasn’t planning to stay at the Tax Bureau for the time being.

 

“Are you going down right away?”

 

“Yes. I received orders from the Deputy Bureau Director.”

 

[A large number of VAT refund applications have come in from the Opleng District. Could you check the site and help with document processing? The local civil servants are apparently having difficulties.]

 

For a work instruction, it was far too trivial a matter.

 

Asil frowned, displeased that Rianel was following it so obediently.

 

“Don’t you think you don’t need to go?”

 

That was something the local tax officials should handle.

 

‘Why do you try to take on burdens yourself when a single word from me could resolve it?’

 

Opleng was even far from the Imperial Capital.

 

It was land left neglected in an awkward spot between the Eastern and Western regions.

 

It was hard to understand why Rianel had to go to such a place just because dozens of rental business operators had suddenly appeared there.

 

“There are some suspicious aspects, so that’s why.”

 

“You mean the real estate fraud case?”

 

“You noticed? That’s right.”

 

The commercial real estate fraud that had become popular recently.

 

It was a scam that attracted private investors by claiming there would be development opportunities on barren land or land without such value, then sold commercial spaces at ridiculously high prices, creating many victims.

 

‘The VAT refunds must have been applied for by victims who purchased the commercial spaces.’

 

If there was anything noteworthy about this common fraud case.

 

“I confirmed a connection between the mastermind of that case and the culprit who poisoned me.”

 

Poison…?

 

Asil, who had been urgently approaching to check Rianel’s condition.

 

“This is about when I was Ensilen.”

 

His eyes widened upon hearing the following words.

 

* * *

 

“Previously, when I was in charge of Prince Zarban’s protocol, there was a maid who embezzled profits by inflating supply prices through a trading company owned by her relative.”

 

“I remember. Her name was ‘Lina,’ wasn’t it?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

In the midst of this, Rianel praised her disciple’s excellent memory. She always felt proud and pleased whenever she saw the excellence of the disciple she had taught and guided.

 

“When embezzlement is discovered, confirming the scale of illegally accumulated assets is a natural procedure. But here, a questionable point was discovered.”

 

Namely, that the assets formed were excessively large.

 

In addition to the embezzled amount, even if she had saved her maid’s salary to the maximum, there were art objects found in her mansion that were too expensive to explain.

 

The maids’ salaries were obvious.

 

As someone who had managed the Empire’s domestic affairs, Rianel knew better than anyone what their salaries were like.

 

“When I tracked those art objects, I was able to confirm that they were won by the same person using the same pseudonym at the same auction house.”

 

The owner of the pseudonym was Lina.

 

The winning bid period extended from one year before the Former Empress’s death, to the day of her death, and continued for several months after her death.

 

Unlike real estate, art objects were assets that were easy to conceal. This was especially true given their small size.

 

However, there was one thing to be careful about when purchasing art objects: non-experts could easily be fooled by forgeries. There were even painters who painted fakes targeting this.

 

So Lina used the method of purchasing paintings through auction houses. Large-scale auction houses have their own appraisers, and the auction house takes responsibility if something is a forgery.

 

She probably didn’t know this safe choice would trip her up.

 

“Thanks to the winning bid records, I was able to learn the timing of the bids, the method of payment, the pseudonym used, and so on.”

 

Among these, what Rianel paid most attention to was the method of payment.

 

“She used the method of transferring large sums to the account of a trading company that has now closed down.”

 

When this trading company was investigated, a peculiar history emerged.

 

“There were records of purchasing large quantities of the same poisonous herb every quarter.”

 

The poisonous herb they purchased was Rubensia.

 

Consuming small amounts caused mild symptoms like slight chills and light coughing, but consuming large amounts caused the accumulated poison in the body to drive the subject to death.

 

From that point on, no medicine could provide an antidote, and only death could provide release from the suffering.

 

It was the same poison that Ensilen had been poisoned with.

 

“Since purchasing special poisons leaves records, I judge that they made indirect purchases through trading companies that were going to close down.”

 

Since the trading company closed down and three years had passed since Ensilen’s death.

 

They probably didn’t expect that history to be uncovered now.

 

Especially because of art objects found in a single maid’s house.

 

‘Truly remarkable.’

 

Asil was genuinely impressed.

 

He too had investigated many things to uncover his master’s death. He had somehow managed to learn the name of the poison that killed his master and even the trading company involved.

 

But Rianel had instantly connected what it took him years to figure out, and even caught the tail called ‘Lina.’

 

Of course, he had questions too.

 

“I understand that the maid named Lina is connected to Master’s poisoning. But how is the real estate fraud connected to this case?”

 

Unless Master’s insight was so great that she could see a thousand li while sitting…

 

“I obtained a confession. When I asked Lina whether she had poisoned the Former Empress, she said it was her cousin who purchased those medicinal herbs.”

 

Asil felt embarrassed at the rather mundane conclusion.

 

“You don’t think that maid is innocent, do you?”

 

“Of course not. Whether she directly poisoned me or indirectly aided it, she’s clearly an accomplice, isn’t she?”

 

Since pretending to be fooled to extract information wasn’t very difficult, Rianel had even figured out information that the problematic relative was committing fraud.

 

Asil thought the situation was quite coincidental.

 

‘The Saint probably thought she could control the Special Tax Bureau just by removing Master.’

 

She wouldn’t have known that clues to unravel Master’s past were hidden in Opleng.

 

Asil wasn’t concerned about the foolish thing the Saint had done.

 

‘The Agency Bureau won’t function without Master anyway.’

 

What the Saint had done would ultimately come back to bite her own feet.

 

That’s why he could rejoice with peace of mind.

 

“Master has truly come to want to live.”

 

When you first entered Rianel’s body, you had so little attachment to your new life that ‘whatever’ was practically your catchphrase.

 

“But now you’ve come to love me enough to yearn for life.”

 

That realization, that joy, burst forth from deep in his throat and spread like rapture, blooming at the corners of his mouth.

 

You decided on revenge because you feared losing the ordinariness of eating meals together and exchanging trivial jokes with me.

 

Because you no longer wanted ‘them’ to take your life away in the same manner ever again.

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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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