The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 102

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

102.

Salice Advisor,

transfer him where?

Francis Ashwood barely managed to move his sluggish thought process to respond to words he hadn’t even considered.

“Pardon?”

“That’s why I came to tell you to absolutely refuse, though of course I’m prepared to sacrifice myself as a princess of this nation!”

Sacrifice what?

Francis had questions but possessed enough sense not to voice them.

“You’re just an ordinary noble, so you don’t need to bear such sacrifice, so refuse. Then I’ll reluctantly accept it.”

“So…”

“You understand, right? You absolutely must not accept the proposal to transfer your position to my palace, since you don’t need to endure the sacrifice of having to get engaged to someone like me whom you don’t even want!”

At the Second Princess’s words, Francis’s thoughts seemed to stop again.

Somehow, this seemed to be happening too frequently lately.

Was it from overwork…?

As he struggled to somehow move his sluggishly turning mind, the Second Princess pressed for an answer again, so Francis barely managed to say he understood.

Because that really wasn’t something he wanted.

But…

‘Salice Advisor is trying to send me to another palace…?’

Because my work skills aren’t improving quickly enough?

Memories from around last summer surfaced in his mind.

When he was trying to find interest in work, Rozelita mercilessly telling him to return to the Summer Palace.

‘I want to stay by her side a little longer.’

Throb—a strange pain was felt in one side of his chest.

‘That day, did I run away without properly organizing the documents?’

Come to think of it, why was he so flustered that day?

He still couldn’t find an answer to that either.

Francis Ashwood thought that his condition lately was indeed very strange.

*

This really won’t do.

I sighed while glaring at the pile of documents stacked as high as during the busiest settlement period.

“As expected, this won’t work!”

“Right?”

Casian shamelessly responded to words I hadn’t even properly pulled from my heart.

“…Do you know what I was going to say?”

“Of course, I haven’t worked as Rose’s superior for over two years for nothing.”

Casian said this while waving a reasonably thick document folder at me.

“Just yesterday, I got proper permission from His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Really, why does that person only make life difficult for us?”

When I tried to stand up to receive the document folder, Casian gestured for me to stop and got up to approach me himself.

“Well, he said that as Emperor, he couldn’t help but consider fairness.”

Since when did the definition of fairness change?

Maybe I read the dictionary wrong, or perhaps His Majesty the Emperor misunderstands the meaning of words.

Seeing my face completely crumpled with such thoughts, Casian laughed quietly.

“I almost lost my composure in front of His Majesty the Emperor too.”

“Only almost?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry.”

Casian reached out to fix my disheveled hair as I opened the document folder.

“If it had broken, Joel would have shown me that nasty face he only shows me, but he was cheerful the whole time.”

I was relieved at those words.

The truly lovable Prince Joel would grumble only at Casian like a real brother.

‘Seeing how he doesn’t act that way with the Fourth Prince, I wonder if he’s still shy only around Casian.’

That was cute in its own childish way.

And it’s not like he pretends not to know either.

Casian Artez also had a demonic reputation known to the outside world, but he quite cherished his brothers, so he would surely find them as adorable as I do.

I thought that surely Empress Trisha and the diligent Fourth Prince had also persuaded His Majesty the Emperor as I checked inside the document folder.

‘This really would have been unthinkable in the old days.’

I was excited just looking at the thickness, but seeing it directly, I could really feel there were quite a few applicants, which was moving.

The Winter Palace was a palace that constantly recruited advisors until Francis Ashwood came.

But during the approximately year and a half I struggled alone, only about two applications came in.

I called for interviews despite the unreliable quality, but one didn’t show up without any contact.

‘And the other one wrote the wrong palace name.’

The absurdity of that time was still vivid even now.

I even wondered if that was part of the Fourth Consort’s scheme.

And as I flipped through the resumes, I couldn’t help but be startled for a moment.

“…Lopez Ducal House?”

“Yeah, that’s why His Majesty interfered more with Winter Palace personnel, which he hadn’t said much about before.”

“The word ‘fairness’ does make sense now.”

It would be even more ridiculous if that cunning snake hadn’t anticipated this.

The timing of our personnel reinforcement coincided with when the Rose Palace was downsized.

Because we ended up taking on most of their workload.

To be honest, I also tried to move quickly before that cunning snake noticed, but the Emperor is still an Emperor, so he blocked us saying personnel reinforcement was a matter requiring careful consideration.

However, that was already about a month ago.

No matter how shamelessly the Sun Palace pushed most things onto the Winter Palace, and tried to distribute work to the newly palace-owning Fourth Prince and Third Princess, there were limits.

There were advisors and administrators who quit entirely due to the Rose Palace incident, and most of those were low-experience newcomers.

Even the owners of those palaces themselves.

Anyway, so the Sun Palace must have decided this situation wouldn’t work.

Actually, I—this was also an element I really wanted to get revenge on the Emperor for—routinely worked overtime and weekends like eating meals, but even Francis Ashwood was accumulating such days.

Of course, there were no complaints from the Ashwood Ducal House, and he wasn’t that type of person either, but they probably read the situation.

Unlike the Zamoti family, which had much less weight as a ducal house, or the Lopez Ducal House busy weighing profits, the Ashwood Ducal House was truly an upright family.

‘The fact that the Ashwood Prince accepted the Fourth Consort’s request with all those conditions attached to work at the Summer Palace.’

Also, though Francis Ashwood probably doesn’t know, the fact that the Duke hasn’t confirmed the young lord’s position all had some reason behind it.

He must have judged it would be troublesome to create the appearance of supporting any particular prince.

But the Fourth Consort lost the power she held within the imperial court and was pushed to the bottom among the concubines.

Moreover, the Lopez Ducal House received their diplomatic authority and openly set up opposition against the Zamoti Ducal House, so there was nothing to be cautious about.

That was this result.

‘…Two applications from the Lopez Ducal House.’

Until now, seeing the Ashwood Prince working at the Winter Palace, no one found fault with the reason that he came when there were few people and it was difficult.

Because it seemed like simple coincidence.

But if one more member of a ducal house was added, the balance of power would also seem to tilt heavily toward the Winter Palace.

As I pondered while carefully handling one of the applications, Casian chuckled.

“Anyway, His Majesty the Emperor said if you’re going to pick one of them, Rose should choose the one she likes.”

“…So there’s at least an excuse to give?”

“Yeah.”

Even that part was really annoying.

“I know the Winter Palace is getting a lot more attention than before, we can’t select someone that way.”

It was different from when anyone sitting as a Winter Palace advisor was a miracle.

As the power of the Fourth Consort and Zamoti Ducal House wavered, the fact that Casian was currently leading in the succession competition was something most people knew.

They were just not rashly bringing up the words “crown prince appointment” out of deference to the Emperor, or some out of deference to the Temple.

‘Well, there are probably people who think there’s still a possibility the Fourth Consort could be restored.’

Of course, I have no intention of seeing that happen.

In any case, this Winter Palace aide recruitment would draw a lot of attention.

And even those who had been favorable toward Casian until now might view things differently this time.

Because Casian Artez was no longer the precarious Second Prince hated by the Emperor and the Temple, but had become the first candidate for Crown Prince with real power.

“So Your Highness, you need to select fairly. Based on ability.”

Of course, even so, someone would speculate, but that was unavoidable as long as one belonged to the Imperial Palace.

Among those who failed, there would surely be people who couldn’t accept it and would voice their complaints.

At my words, Casian picked up one pile from the documents stacked high on my desk and nodded.

“As long as you’re not disappointed, I’m fine with everything.”

“Not at all, I have a responsibility to think about the people who will work together at the Winter Palace.”

Saying that, I flipped the application I had been fiddling with to the next page.

It was my dear friend Wilma’s application.

*

The afternoon I received the applications, I visited Francis’s office.

Since he would be working together with them, I thought it would be good to hear his opinion too.

Though the final decision would be Casian’s, to create evaluation criteria from multiple angles and proceed fairly, other people’s opinions were absolutely necessary.

“Sorry for bothering you when you’re busy, Ashwood Aide.”

As soon as I entered, Francis looked startled and shook his head.

Of course, even in that situation his hands kept moving steadily, making me keenly feel how well he had adapted to the Winter Palace.

“I wanted to discuss with you too, about selecting a new aide.”

Saying that, thinking he who was suffering from overtime work would surely welcome this, I showed him the rather thick file folder.

“A new, aide…?”

For some reason, Francis’s eyes filled with bewilderment.

Then, with a thud.

His fountain pen, which had been moving diligently until just moments before, slipped from his hand and drew a confused ink trail across the documents.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————