The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 146

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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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146.

“…Are you saying that I acted as if I had been designated as Crown Prince, Advisor Salice?”

“Are you planning to deny it?”

The Fourth Consort burst into laughter.

“Do you have any evidence that I did such a thing? I said you were driving me with speculation, but you are doing the same—”

“I didn’t say I had no evidence, did I?”

Who does she think she’s dealing with?

When I looked toward Wilhelmina, she approached me with elegant steps and opened a neatly organized file.

“Around September 22nd, Your Highness the Fourth Consort went to the Grand Cathedral to pray and met with several noble ladies. Among them, you said this to a lady who was consoling Prince Charley:”

“You can make up anything—!”

The Fourth Consort immediately shouted at Wilhelmina’s words.

But Wilhelmina continued reading the next part without the slightest waver.

“You said that His Majesty the Emperor promised to make Prince Charley the Crown Prince, and that no one else could take that position, asking her to help Your Highness the Fourth Consort.”

At Wilhelmina’s elegant and clear voice, one of the ladies standing on the nobles’ side collapsed as if fainting.

“I, I… I was so terrified… If Lady Lopez hadn’t comforted me, I truly wouldn’t have known what to do!”

At that sight, the Fourth Consort shook her head as if it was absurd.

“No! This is all a conspiracy! Advisor Salice must have threatened her to say such things!”

Why is she trying to pin on me the very thing she’s good at doing?

Since she’s always schemed in such ways, I kindly prepared this so she could experience it once and see how it feels.

Of course, the crucial difference was that I prepared the evidence with only fair and honest facts.

At the Fourth Consort’s denial, Wilhelmina received a jewelry box from a waiting administrator and opened it for display.

“Will you still deny it after seeing these? That day, Your Highness the Fourth Consort wore an emerald necklace and earrings, and two thin gold bracelets when you left.”

“…”

“However, on your way back, Your Highness the Fourth Consort was wearing only the emerald necklace. All the other items are here.”

“I lost them.”

The Fourth Consort’s arms trembled.

Wilhelmina shook her head at those words.

“This isn’t all. The nobles Your Highness contacted while Prince Casian and Advisor Salice were away from the Capital, and the money and goods you gave them. We’ve confirmed and secured everything. Will you continue to deny it?”

Wilhelmina’s tone wasn’t aggressive.

But because it was calm yet noble, it shook the Fourth Consort even more.

Even if she attacked, she probably thought she’d only have to deal with me alone.

She never would have thought that Wilma and all the other nobles she believed she had won over would betray her.

“How, how…! After all the conveniences I’ve provided for decades…!”

Scaletti’s expression crumbled completely.

Like someone whose castle gates, defended with great difficulty, had been breached in an instant.

“To treat me this way… All the things I’ve done…”

And toward such Scaletti, Francis Ashwood spoke in a hard tone devoid of even sympathy.

“You were an Imperial Consort, so you shouldn’t have done such things. The Imperial Family has a duty to make the Empire prosper, but Your Highness the Fourth Consort abandoned all those duties long ago for the benefit of nobles and yourself.”

At that monotone voice, the Fourth Consort hung her head completely.

*

Scaletti Zamotti’s treason charge was as good as confirmed.

The Emperor also acknowledged this entire situation by nodding his head.

But.

‘Why…’

The corners of the Fourth Consort’s mouth, with her head hung low, bothered me.

It’s all over, there should be no hope of recovery. So why exactly…

While despairing, on one hand, she seems somewhat… relieved?

The moment I had that thought, my head felt hot as if struck by lightning.

As if suddenly uncovering the sense of unease I’d been feeling all along.

‘Could it be…’

Over the past three days, I had examined all the Imperial documents I could find just in case.

These included documents written when the current Emperor was still Crown Prince.

The domestic and foreign situation when His Majesty had just ascended the throne was extremely chaotic, and His Majesty had to deal with the rampaging Imperial Family members.

As a result, among the Imperial Family, there was someone who committed crimes but survived until the early reign…

What if the timing when that survivor disappeared and died for uncertain reasons is suspicious?

That suspicion brought up various thoughts and moments I had experienced.

‘To Prince Casian, who has no Imperial blood and isn’t even your biological child’

‘If you had denied Prince Casian as not being your biological child’

Maribel’s persistent denials.

The checks against Casian that seemed excessive to be explained merely as rejection due to being the Empress’s son, even though Charley was the First Prince.

I felt uneasy about all those actions.

Moreover, at that time Casian had lost both the family to protect him and his father’s power.

The actions of checking Casian, as if it had to be done, were insufficient to be explained by simple lust for power – could it actually have been the burden she should have faced herself…!

So she tried to shift it onto someone else…?

[July 1731, Fifth Prince confined for attempted assassination of Crown Prince, placed under strict temple supervision…

September 1732, Crown Prince Ernest’s declaration of war against the Regent, participating nobles… Marquis Zamotti family…

August 1733, Lady Zamotti enters palace as First Consort on temple recommendation.

October 1733, confined Fifth Prince goes missing for unknown reasons, decided to process as deceased.]

Only the necessary parts from the Imperial documents I had rummaged through in recent days came to mind.

A series of events that weren’t visible when scattered in pieces.

‘Pea!’

I immediately called the lizard in my pocket.

I realized this even before confirming that Casian and His Majesty the Emperor were biological father and son.

‘His Majesty the Emperor and Prince Charley, by any chance…’

-…You really intend to overturn everything.

I wish you wouldn’t use dragon speech at times like this.

I’m well aware that whatever results come from overturning things will be my responsibility!

Hearing my almost forceful words, Pea sighed and showed agreement.

‘…Now everything finally feels like it fits together.’

He loved Maribel Reardon so much, so why was Charli Artez born first?

What was the reason the Emperor had to tell Maribel he had committed adultery to protect Casian?

‘The Fourth Consort and the temple must have pressured him. In the early reign, His Majesty the Emperor needed both the temple’s power and the power of nobles on his side.’

Unlike now when we’ve proven that dragons are not denied, it wasn’t so when Maribel was alive.

Just affirming the existence of dragons, or even being slightly connected to them, was perfect grounds to be branded a heretic and judged.

The temple wasn’t as weak and powerless as now either – it was strong enough to pour holy power on Maribel even when the Crown Prince’s mother was protecting her.

Even now when they’ve lost considerable power, until we just emerged from the trial, the dominant consciousness was that dragons were negative beings and affirming them was tantamount to admitting you’re a heretic.

Honestly, what madman would gamble like us, willingly accepting divine judgment to make dragons acknowledged as positive beings?

So it would have been entirely possible to threaten Casian’s safety using Reardon’s secret.

Because if you’re found to be a heretic, death is the only thing waiting at the end.

‘So if they vaguely announced that only Casian had earned God’s displeasure and made recognizing him as a prince the condition…’

His Majesty the Emperor would have had no choice but to make such a decision to save his son’s life immediately.

It was exactly the kind of thing they would have done.

But should I reveal this?

Though I was nearly certain, speculation was still just speculation.

If I’m wrong, my head will roll.

I might end up giving the Fourth Consort a chance to survive.

While I was wavering like this,

“Rose.”

Casian read my mood like a ghost and whispered to me.

“Whatever it is, you can do as you wish.”

Really?

Even though I might become a fugitive for life?

When I looked at him with anxious eyes, Casian encouraged me with a gentle smile.

“I’ll support you no matter what it takes.”

Those were truly reassuring words.

Especially for me, who was about to set fire to the Imperial Palace.

If it’s Master Casian, when things go wrong, he’ll somehow take me and run away.

Courage welled up inside me. The courage to gladly throw a bomb at this Imperial Palace.

-It seems like you should be the Flare Dragon instead.

I straightened my head while listening to Pea’s astounded voice.

Then I tensed my stomach and opened my mouth wide.

“It’s not all over yet, Fourth Consort. There’s a truth that really needs to be revealed.”

“…Ha, you’re going to be this cruel to me when I’ve already been charged with treason? Well then…”

The Fourth Consort sneered.

“You were always a heartless person who drives people to the very edge of hell.”

“Thank you so much for praising my thoroughness, but no matter how heartless I am, I don’t think I’m as much as Your Highness the Fourth Consort.”

I ignored the Fourth Consort’s cold glare and turned sharply toward the Emperor.

“Your Majesty, I have a question.”

“Are you going to interrogate me now as well?”

“For the sake of the Empire, by all means.”

The Emperor just chuckled at my deliberately rude words.

Then he opened his mouth with a slightly more lively expression.

“Speak.”

“Is Prince Charley truly Your Majesty’s son?”

The Audience Chamber was enveloped in silence at my deliberately casual question.

Everyone seemed to doubt their own ears.

“Salice Advisor…!! Even if I committed crimes against the Empire, my innocent son again! Again after last time!”

The Fourth Consort was the first to react.

As if her previous appearance of acting completely drained was a lie.

I ignored her screaming and looked only at the Emperor.

The Emperor’s face darkened frighteningly.

“-Do you know the responsibility of those words? Even if I cherish you, there are limits.”

“Your Majesty, do you perhaps remember your first night with the Fourth Consort?”

When I countered his question with a question, he let out a sound of disbelief.

“Charley is His Majesty the Emperor’s son! I who gave birth to that child in pain know this fact well!”

Instead of the silent Emperor, the Fourth Consort screamed as if wronged, thrashing about.

“Even if Prince Casian is legitimate, it hasn’t been proven that Maribel Reardon wasn’t unfaithful, so are you trying to pin that crime on me now!”

I tried to ignore all the screaming, but I immediately responded to those words.

“The late Empress could never have been unfaithful. This is a fact that anyone loved by the Liarden Clan must know, so stop trying to frame her.”

At my words, Casian looked proud, and the Emperor smiled emptily.

“-I’ll answer. Salice Advisor. I can only assume Charley is my child. Because as you said…”

At the Emperor’s embarrassed mumbling, I immediately looked at Wesley.

“Your Highness, please conduct a paternity test.”

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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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