The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 138

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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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138.

“A dragon’s… lair, you say…?”

“Are you now daring to say that you sent His Holiness the Saint to such a place! Clupea Margrave.”

“You filthy heretic!”

“To begin with, it’s absurd that a human could become the owner of a lair!”

As if a reaction switch had been pressed at the mention of dragons, the priests shouted in anger.

There was also inferiority complex and jealousy toward me included in that.

Because those bastards really wanted to get their hands on the profits from the lair.

It really wasn’t even funny.

“Do you realize that what you’re saying right now is contradictory?”

“What? Now you’re defending dragons, and even calling us to a place where a lair has turned into an abandoned mine…!”

“Calling us to such a dangerous place that hasn’t even been purified and saying such things?”

“I had an ominous feeling!”

The priests who were part of the investigation team also shouted excitedly.

Like people who had escaped after being cornered.

One of the investigation team priests even spoke to the Chamberlain.

“Look at this, the temple has properly found the heretic.”

“Didn’t he just affirm dragons himself? Saying that vicious magical beasts like dragons aren’t evil, how ridiculous!”

However, far from agreeing with their words, the Chamberlain simply gestured for me to continue speaking.

He was indeed different from the clueless priests.

It was the reaction of someone who had watched very well how I had stirred things up in the Imperial Palace.

“What you performed on us was none other than the judgment of the chief deity, the highest form of heresy trial.”

“Since you deserved to receive it, you received it…!”

One of the attending priests, who had been reacting habitually even to my kind words, now made a face as if realizing his mistake.

“And the result of that judgment has come out, as you can see.”

We completely revealed ourselves in the place where light reached.

Compared to before we entered, none of us looked worse for wear.

Rather, since we were people who had always been tormented by heavy duties, we even looked more vibrant thanks to the leisurely rest we had spent for a week.

“We received judgment and became even better. Isn’t this also proof that we are abundantly loved by the chief deity?”

At my words, the surroundings were enveloped in silence.

The attending priest who had spoken of excommunication sat down heavily in disbelief at the unbelievable result and looked up at us.

“How on earth… You couldn’t have eaten properly or rested properly, surely, surely…! You must have done something evil—”

“After arbitrarily distorting the will of the chief deity, are you now denying even the methods established by the temple? You said you would excommunicate us.”

Wesley Morel opened his mouth toward him as if devastated.

“You were the one who should have been excommunicated from the beginning. Trying to deny even the will of the chief deity, isn’t that right?”

Wesley stepped forward, passed the Chamberlain, and approached the front where the Elder Priest was.

“Minister.”

“Yes, Your Holiness…”

“How fortunate, that you still acknowledge me as Your Holiness.”

“It’s only, natural.”

The Elder Priest showed the experience of having lived a few more years, even while unable to hide the agitation blooming all over his face.

Just before, when everyone had bristled at the keyword ‘dragon,’ he had just anxiously kept his mouth shut, and even now he was stammering while distinguishing between what he should and shouldn’t say.

“Surely you wouldn’t still call us heretics, would you, Minister?”

When I asked as if seeking confirmation once more, he looked at me with hollow eyes.

As if weighted down, his mouth remained closed for a long while.

At the end of the silence, what remained for him was not the salvation of the chief deity, but only acknowledgment of the facts.

“…That’s right. You are people whom the chief deity has acknowledged as not heretics, as innocent.”

“My statements about dragons must also all be true.”

“Yes, I will take responsibility and excommunicate the priests who spoke privately—”

“Minister!”

At those words, the attending priests shouted as if it were absurd.

But I was angrier about a different part.

This snake-like human was trying to escape by cutting off two loose-lipped people?

“No, the reckoning should start from now.”

I cut off the Minister’s words and spoke.

“Have you forgotten what His Highness the Prince said when entering the abandoned mine a week ago?”

“…”

“We don’t care about those strange bunch who deny even the existence of the chief deity despite being priests. But the temple must take responsibility for driving innocent us as heretics without proper evidence.”

At my words, the Elder Priest hung his head low like someone who had heard something he really didn’t want to hear.

Eventually, the Chamberlain, who had watched the entire situation, handed us a document with the Emperor’s orders written on it with a relaxed attitude.

“His Majesty the Emperor trusted you to the end. I will take charge of escorting these people, so please return to the capital comfortably.”

It was a firm declaration that the gamble the temple had thrown at us and the Imperial Court had ended in failure.

*

“Charlie is… safe…”

The Fourth Consort, Scaletti Zamotti, clenched her fists and raised her gaunt face.

It had always been a beautifully lustrous face, but now she looked like someone who had stayed up for several nights and completely abstained from food and drink.

No, she actually had.

From the moment she heard that Charlie, who was no different from her only hope, had volunteered for judgment and entered, she couldn’t sleep or eat.

Only after nearly ten full days had passed and the news came in could Scaletti finally breathe properly.

“That’s right, Your Highness. So please have a meal now, I’ve prepared easily digestible food…”

“The temple.”

Even at the plea of her only remaining maid, Scaletti asked urgently.

Right now she was not in a state to feel appetite or sleepiness.

Over her haggard face, only her two pupils blazed brightly.

“His Holiness the Pope says he will personally visit the Imperial Palace. Also, there was a message for Your Highness…”

“Of course there would be, naturally.”

Scaletti slowly rose to her feet.

For her too, this was now the final battle.

No, if things had gone ‘according to plan,’ the final battle should have ended long ago.

In a more splendid ending than now, what should have been placed in her hands was not this toothless, powerless temple, but…

‘It should have been a temple that could wield the Saint, was rich in wealth, and that even His Majesty the Emperor would have no choice but to be mindful of.’

The person who had stolen that from her hands was coming to the capital.

“Really, I should have killed her more painfully.”

“Your Highness…”

Scaletti clenched her fists tightly.

Her roughly torn and jagged nails dug into her palms.

She didn’t care about getting injured or leaving scars.

“Really, the chief deity is too much, if he was going to give me a revelation, he should have done it a bit faster…”

Scaletti looked beyond the window.

It made her teeth grind that the Winter Palace, buried far away and hidden by all sorts of vegetation and buildings, was not visible to her eyes.

“Then I would have twisted that presumptuous bitch’s neck the moment she entered the palace.”

She had let her guard down thinking she was lowly and insignificant, just someone who would make things easier for Charlie and her palace.

To be blinded by immediate convenience.

In the ‘revelation,’ she had been more cunning and sharp.

And that bitch in the ‘revelation’ had also been desperate, making Scaletti more tense.

But she was different now.

While pretending to be thorough, hadn’t she thrown away her social reputation and pretended to only care about money, making her let her guard down?

As if she had stolen all of her cunning.

Crack—

Scaletti ground her molars.

But even if it was late, God had shown me the path to take, so even if it was filled with hardships, I had to gladly walk it.

Didn’t she still have cards she hadn’t played yet?

A card that could shake the very foundation of the Imperial Palace—one that prevented the Emperor from banishing her from the harem no matter how tyrannical his actions—

Scaletti smiled coldly and asked her maid.

“What was Anden’s response?”

“It came. They said they would gladly accept the marriage alliance with Her Highness the First Princess.”

“Yes, after cleaning up within the Empire is finished, Anden should be next. How could that barren place possibly suit my beloved son?”

Scaletti’s maid bowed her head deeply at those words.

The image of the First Princess crying as she signed the document saying they must save First Prince was still vivid in her mind.

She also felt pity.

In childhood, Scaletti had raged and poured out hatred, saying,

‘Why won’t Father see me as a person…! Why must I marry some prince from another country whose face I don’t even know?’

She realized that Scaletti had become far too similar to her own father.

Even so, the maid could find no other way than to simply follow Scaletti.

Even if the end of that path showed nothing but destruction.

*

In the carriage returning to the Capital, I checked the scroll.

As expected, thanks to being confined while undergoing the heresy trial, another ordeal had been completed.

First Prince’s sudden intrusion made things a bit nerve-wracking, but I was truly relieved we got through it well.

Even if I had been confined somewhere other than the abandoned mine, Casian was planning to slip away and bring food and all sorts of magical tools.

For a Master, deceiving a few Royal Guards wasn’t a difficult task.

Everything flowed as expected, so I finished the sixth ordeal quite comfortably.

On top of that, I had obtained everything I wanted from the Temple, so I should feel relieved.

“Why do you have such a complicated expression, Rose?”

Perhaps because I was alone in the carriage with Casian for the first time in a while, my tension seemed to have relaxed.

No, maybe it was just because it was this person that he noticed my inner thoughts from my usual unchanged demeanor.

As I looked at him directly, Casian reached out and took my hand.

“It’s okay, Rose.”

“…What is?”

“Even if everything ends and a heavy burden falls before you.”

His words hit the mark unexpectedly, and strength entered our clasped hands.

Casian supported me with a gentle smile at that touch.

“I’ll gladly ask for the opportunity to suffer together by your side.”

Really, this person always.

Knew me far too well.

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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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