The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 147

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

147.

“A paternity test! There’s no need to accept it, Charley! What are you lacking!”

The Fourth Consort suddenly gained strength and jumped up from her seat, trying to rush toward Charley.

But she was immediately stopped by the Royal Guards nearby.

“Your Majesty! You cannot do this. How much have I done for Your Majesty! A paternity test – if he’s suspected like this, what will become of Charley’s dignity!”

At the Fourth Consort’s wailing cry, the Emperor simply stood before Wesley, who was preparing the paternity test, with heavy steps.

And Charli Artez, whom I had pointed out, looked at me briefly.

I was prepared to accept any resentment from him.

When His Majesty the Emperor collapsed from poisoning, and even now.

I acknowledged that I had been somewhat too harsh on him.

But Charley only smiled faintly.

As if the reason he had remained strangely silent despite the continued exchanges about the Fourth Consort in this audience chamber was because he had been waiting for this moment.

“Mother, even young brother Casian did this. It’s not painful, so please don’t worry so much.”

“…Charley!”

And Charli Artez called the Fourth Consort “Mother” for the first time, instead of “Your Imperial Majesty.”

‘…Did he know?’

At that sight, Casian dry-washed his face beside me.

“…Really, I don’t understand my brother.”

“Yes…”

I completely agreed.

If Charli Artez, not the Fourth Consort, had been the one plotting against us, I was certain it would have been more than twice as difficult as now.

Because his actions had subtle similarities to mine and Casian’s.

Wesley’s holy power poured down toward His Majesty the Emperor and Charley.

The moment the pure white holy power poured down, Charley finally showed an expression as if he had laid down all his burdens.

*

Thud-

After several minutes, the identification stone fell from the red glowing orb.

Charley accepted it without any sign of denying reality.

“-Salice Advisor.”

“Yes, Prince Charley.”

When I looked at him with some tension at his call while looking at the identification stone, he shook his head as if to say not to do that.

“You just need to finish your work.”

Finish my work?

“Don’t try to cover things up just because of this situation.”

What on earth was that person thinking?

I was confused because he had mentioned “debt” to me several times.

Shouldn’t he be wanting assistance at a time like this?

While I was pondering, Charley turned and spoke to the Emperor as well.

“Your Majesty, please reveal all the facts clearly so that the late Empress who suffered for so long and my beloved brother Casian will no longer be lonely.”

“…Charley.”

The Emperor also couldn’t hide his confusion.

Because the one who should be most flustered was instead composed.

Charley, who had been standing apart from the Fourth Consort all along, finally headed toward her.

The Royal Guards hesitated briefly, but soon gladly made way for Charley, who wore a harmless smile.

“…Charley, why.”

“Because Mother raised me as this nation’s First Prince.”

“…”

When Charley spoke calmly, genuine tears formed in her eyes.

It was the appearance of someone mixed with frustration and resentment toward her son, emptiness about what she had done, and all kinds of emotions of loss.

I looked at her face briefly, then slowly opened my mouth.

“Then, to reveal everything clearly, I will now tell a rather long story. Starting from when the current Pope, who was the Minister of the Southwest Imperial Temple 30 years ago, met the Fourth Consort, who was then a marquis’s daughter.”

The scroll on my wrist grew hot as if something was being activated.

But what I was telling here today was not something I had learned with the scroll’s help.

So I began to tell the story that everyone in the Winter Palace had pieced together like a puzzle over the past days, adding only one fact about Charley.

It also included the obsession of Samuel Moti, the son of the younger brother that Scaletti Zamotti had eliminated long ago because he was an obstacle to her power.

Everything he had gathered to bring down the Zamotti family.

*

The meeting between a cleric who desired greater power and a marquis’s daughter who didn’t want to be sold off in a marriage arrangement had influenced many things for 30 years, leading to today’s results.

The two used the turbulent internal situation of the Empire to build their own power.

However, they also knew their limitations.

‘Prince Ernest will soon try to shake off the temple’s influence.’

‘Is there anything I can do, Minister? You saved us when we were stuck in the countryside living miserably.’

‘Can you do anything, even if it’s something Miss Zamotti hated?’

‘Of course, if it’s something that can elevate our family further.’

Their aim hit the mark because Maribel happened to have the weakness of not having a child despite being in her third year of marriage.

Since there were hardly any royals left due to long succession wars and rebellions, the nobles were pressuring for concubines, saying a successor was needed for their foundation.

These two forces completely devoured that opportunity.

Thus Scaletti Zamotti, who was a marquis’s daughter in name only, entered as the Emperor’s concubine under the temple’s protection.

‘Miss Zamotti, no, if Your Consort bears a child, the temple will spare no effort to make that child Emperor. Then Your Consort will…’

‘I will never forget the temple’s grace.’

Though she made promises to the temple, Scaletti knew.

That the Emperor would absolutely never touch her until Maribel Reardon, whom he loved terribly, bore her first child.

So she made a more certain choice.

‘There’s a confined royal, and with the political situation chaotic, no one will pay attention to that royal.’

‘How do we deceive His Majesty the Emperor?’

‘There’s a drug that has been passed down in the temple for ages. Your Consort just needs to hide it and make His Majesty the Emperor drink it.’

And after learning that Scaletti was with child, the two silenced that royal with death.

Having obtained Charley, they gladly pressured the Emperor who had chosen the political weakness of Maribel Reardon.

‘You want to save Her Majesty the Empress, don’t you? What will you do, Your Majesty?’

Making him choose between being branded a heretic or protecting safety despite being wounded.

In that situation, Maribel conceived Casian.

The Fourth Consort and the temple pretended to humble themselves while making the Emperor let his guard down, spreading false information.

To create gaps by turning the appearance of insignificant demons into situations that required the Emperor’s personal intervention.

“-Meanwhile, the Fourth Consort and the temple made Maribel give premature birth. This was truly dangerous.”

At my words, the Pope and Fourth Consort just glared at me like people with no energy left to refute.

“Because the Reardon are a clan mixed with the blood of Gaia, the first dragon, and due to that, Reardon children could only be born after being carried for a full year.”

This was the true identity of what the temple called being born splitting the earth and embracing all seasons.

The Fourth Consort couldn’t even ask if I had evidence.

She seemed to realize now. That when I spoke to this extent, there was evidence that anyone would accept.

Indeed, Casian and I had found him.

The Royal Guard who had protected Maribel Reardon until the end.

The letter he had sent with detailed testimony, and the fact that among those involved in the incident, only Scaletti and the Pope were currently alive, proved all my words to be true.

Thus I brought to the surface many things that Scaletti and the temple had committed, occasionally receiving help from Wilma and Francis.

Naturally, I also told without omission about the schemes of Countess Zamotti.

How they had ravaged the Reardon who had lost Maribel, and cut off the Emperor’s hands and feet.

I spoke out every single story that could become a disgrace to the Imperial Court, without omission.

Despite the story continuing for nearly an hour, not one person gathered in the audience chamber could let any of it pass by their ears.

Because everything revealed was too terrible and consisted only of things that should never have been done.

Moreover, hadn’t the Fourth Consort boldly committed other crimes tantamount to treason?

“Additionally, please be assured, Your Highness the First Princess.”

The First Princess, suddenly called upon, looked at me with anxious eyes.

“This is a message from Her Highness Princess Alexis of the Kingdom of Anden. She expresses deep regret that the Fourth Consort incited the prince of Anden to provoke a civil war.”

The nobles were shocked at my words.

“…She reached out to Anden?”

“What on earth was the Fourth Consort thinking!”

“The Second Prince, her own biological son, is in Anden!”

I completely agreed with that sentiment.

If she had deeply loved Charlie’s biological father, perhaps I could understand, but that didn’t seem to be the case either.

Weren’t the First Princess and Second Prince also her children?

‘…Could she have thought that since these ones are the Emperor’s children, they would have protection?’

If she had made that judgment, she really thought too naively.

I decided to think instead that she had become intoxicated with her purpose and saw everything only as chess pieces.

That way I could feel less sympathy for her other children.

Naturally, the victor of the civil war that occurred in Anden was Princess Alexis, and the prince who would have been the First Princess’s match was also no longer of this world.

Alexis informed us that while the knights sent by the Jaemoti Marquis family should rightfully be executed immediately, she had taken them as prisoners and sentenced them to hard labor out of consideration for the Second Prince, her legitimate consort.

“Keeping the Second Prince as her legitimate consort is because the Princess did not wish to punish the child for the parent’s faults.”

I provided detailed guidance regarding the Second Prince’s treatment.

“However, the Second Prince has been stripped of his authority to manage the Princess’s inner palace, and instead will be forced to select and bring in a concubine from among his own country’s nobles within this year. Please understand this situation.”

At my announcement, the Emperor pressed his forehead as if his head was throbbing, and the First Princess could not even rejoice, merely hanging her head low.

She had been able to avoid misfortune, but her younger brother had not.

After all those stories ended, I finally revealed the truth that the temple had been hiding.

“The dragons known as magical beasts are beings who protect and purify this world. I state once more that it has been revealed through the gods’ judgment that they are not evil.”

Therefore, Riedern could not be denied either.

They were rather a clan born with the blood of guardians who protect this world.

I poured out everything I could do.

After asking the Emperor to make the final decision and stepping back, Casian looked at me warmly.

At that face that seemed to want to embrace me right away, I merely placed my hand carefully on his arm.

Maribel Reardon and Casian Artez had truly waited far too long for this day.

This day when judgment would be rendered not by the gods, but by human power.

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