The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 148

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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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148.

After a brief moment, the Emperor’s sentencing began.

Every detail I had announced alongside the Winter Palace had evidence or testimony to support it.

Therefore, the Emperor could proceed to handle everything according to proper legal procedure.

“The Pope and the Temple have thrown the Empire into chaos and contributed to the downfall of the late Empress Maribel Reardon and the Reardon family. The Pope, who was the mastermind, shall be sentenced to death by hanging, and the priests who conspired with him shall be sentenced to lifelong hard labor in monster-infested regions.”

Furthermore, the Temple itself was fined an enormous sum while being stripped of all privileges including extraterritorial rights.

From now on, all temples within the Empire would be subject to punishment under Imperial law without exception.

Additionally, the Sacred Knights could no longer be stationed within the Empire.

From now on, they would have to rely on the Empire’s help even for military forces.

The priests showed despairing faces with each lengthy sentence the Emperor pronounced, but none dared to protest.

Though there were occasional resentful glances directed at Wesley, he maintained a silent attitude as if he thought it was his responsibility to bear all of this, thus preserving what little dignity the Temple had left.

After pronouncing all punishments for the Temple, the Emperor slowly turned his gaze to Scaletti.

The Emperor seemed lost in thought for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.

“I hereby depose Fourth Consort Scaletti Zamotti. Moreover, since all her crimes are severe, her life cannot be spared. Therefore—”

Just as the Emperor was about to pronounce sentence,

“Your Majesty the Emperor.”

Charlie rose from beside Scaletti, who had been hanging her head in resignation.

“Charlie…”

The Emperor called his name with a voice full of complexity.

As if telling him not to say anything.

Because he wouldn’t be able to grant it.

But Charlie, without hesitation, stripped away all his usual carefree attitude and knelt before the Emperor.

“I humbly request to save my mother’s life.”

Scaletti looked at her son with a face full of bewilderment.

“What on earth…?”

She too, like us, looked completely unable to understand her son.

The Emperor frowned and shook his head.

“Charlie, Scaletti Zamotti has committed far too many crimes for her life to be spared. No matter how much you plead.”

At the Emperor’s words, Charlie smiled briefly.

“I thank you for your generosity in not mentioning that I am not your son, Your Majesty.”

“Charlie…”

The Emperor called out as if sighing.

Even though today’s paternity test revealed that he was not his son but his brother’s son, it wouldn’t be easy to cut off affection so cleanly.

Casian seemed to feel the same way.

Though he always said he couldn’t understand his older brother, their relationship wasn’t bad, contrary to what his mother had hoped.

Casian knew well that Charlie had been acting as an older brother in his own way.

Charlie gently turned his head to look in our direction.

“Please help me, Casian. And Miss Salice.”

Charlie asked in the same friendly manner as when he spent a week with us in the cave.

“I’ve helped you both in small ways several times, haven’t I?”

Rather than small ways, it had more often been crucial help at key moments.

Charlie then once again petitioned the Emperor.

“Also, I know that Your Majesty has used my mother to some extent. So please spare only her life.”

He bowed deeply.

Scaletti looked down at her son as if she couldn’t understand what was happening.

“…Why, now of all times… Weren’t you the one who always slightly disrupted what I was trying to do, despite how much I cherished and invested in you? So why now…?”

“I didn’t hate you, Mother.”

Charlie read the hidden meaning in Scaletti’s words and answered.

“Just like how you couldn’t help but love me despite knowing all of that.”

At that calm expression of affection, Scaletti’s expression changed rapidly.

Then, as if unable to contain her frustration, she shouted.

“…Why!!”

At that single cry containing so much, Charlie quietly took Scaletti’s hand.

“Because it wasn’t truly the path to your happiness, Mother.”

“…What?”

“Because I realized that even if I ascended to the throne, you wouldn’t have been happy.”

At those words, Scaletti couldn’t hide her even more bewildered emotions.

“Not happy? That was my life’s goal. How could you think such a thing…!”

“You never showed any joy even when your authority in the Imperial Palace grew, Mother. I saw how you sank deeper into a quagmire the more you gained.”

Charlie spoke tenderly about how greed had bred more greed, making her unhappy.

Scaletti held onto Charlie with eyes that seemed unable to understand.

“Then if I had been happy, would you have followed my wishes?”

Charlie smiled bitterly at those words.

“It’s an unnecessary hypothetical, but…”

Charlie helped up Scaletti, who had collapsed forward, as he spoke.

“I was raised as the First Prince of this nation. That’s my answer.”

It was a clear answer that he would never have stood by and watched.

“Moreover, as the First Prince who could only accomplish this much, I don’t think I’m suited for the position you desired for me.”

At Charlie’s words, tears dropped from Scaletti’s eyes.

“What could you possibly lack… What could you lack compared to Maribel Reardon’s son…!”

Scaletti grabbed Charlie’s arm.

“How could you be lacking compared to the son of someone who lived her whole life treated as a princess, as a duchess, and received abundant love from her husband! You’re my son!”

Even at those words filled with inferiority complex, shouted as if it shouldn’t be so, Charlie maintained his gentle expression and spoke calmly.

“I lack the ambition that Casian has, and I’m not worthy of hoping for a lover like Miss Salice. I’m naturally laid-back and can’t even fully grasp what’s placed right before my eyes.”

Gently holding Scaletti’s hands that gripped him so tightly her knuckles showed, Charlie spoke as if confessing.

“If I had been that kind of person, I would have somehow prevented you from taking the wrong path, Mother. My failure to do so is my sin, and having to wait until now shows my inadequacy.”

“Charlie…”

“You planned so much for me, Mother, yet you never told me what you were doing, and I failed to notice in advance.”

Meeting Scaletti’s trembling eyes directly, he smiled bitterly.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you joy, Mother.”

Charlie then helped Scaletti sit properly in her place.

Everyone gathered in the audience chamber watched in silence as he carefully smoothed her wrinkled skirts, as if determined not to cause her even the slightest harm.

It felt like they should.

Scaletti watched Charlie turn away like someone whose soul had left her body.

Soon, the gentle and relaxed First Prince knelt once again before the Emperor.

“Though I was the First Prince of this nation recognized by Your Majesty, I failed to fulfill my duties. I know that not being Your Majesty’s biological son is not the important fact here.”

Charlie addressed the Emperor with an attitude suggesting he would bear his mother’s sins together.

“So please spare only my mother’s life and punish me alongside her instead. If you sentence my mother to confinement, I will never leave that place. I will absolutely never do anything harmful to anyone in the Imperial family.”

At his words about being punished together, Scaletti gripped the armrest tightly and screamed.

“No! You mustn’t! Charlie has committed no crime! Your Majesty, I did everything! What sin could Charlie have, who was merely born!”

The Fourth Consort’s voice was deeply earnest.

But because of that, I felt my heart growing even colder.

‘…Why didn’t you realize that others were the same, you fool.’

What wrong had Casian and the children who couldn’t even be born before being erased from the Imperial Palace committed?

Fortunately, the Emperor didn’t show the foolishness of being swayed by that earnestness at this moment.

“If you beg for your mother’s life with that as the price, I will gladly grant it. Not because I pity your mother.”

The Emperor spoke as if coldly cutting off all emotions.

“But because I know it will torment your mother more. Also, as the price for granting this, the place of confinement will be Soremte in the southeast. Will you still ask for her life to be spared?”

At those words, several people in the audience chamber let out stifled groans.

“…Soremte is.”

“It’s a place where I nearly died too.”

Casian answered indifferently to my muttering.

Soremte was a region where many monsters appeared, and with its sweltering heat, endless rainy seasons, and dim sunlight, it was a place where infectious diseases frequently broke out.

It was also the most undeveloped place in the Empire, and it was such a lawless territory that most who lived there were said to be criminals or fugitives.

It was also the place Casian had been forced to go to due to Scaletti’s schemes when he was enduring alone in this Imperial Palace.

But First Prince nodded without much hesitation.

“As someone who held the position of First Prince, I owe this country far too much. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to repay that debt, Your Majesty.”

He expressed his gratitude to the Emperor with such composure and bowed deeply with respect.

Scaletti’s heart-wrenching scream echoed through the Audience Chamber once more.

“No, no! Your Majesty…! Please spare First Prince, please spare First Prince! I don’t care if I die hundreds of times…! First Prince…!!”

This was the end for her, who had desired and used others’ pain as her stepping stone.

*

When the Emperor declared the end of the court session, the people in the Audience Chamber poured out like a receding tide.

We commanded the Royal Guards and handled the cleanup, such as instructing which prisoners to confine in the underground prison.

And First Prince also willingly remained to silently help with that work.

Later, when all the Royal Guards had left and we had sent away all the other people from the Winter Palace, First Prince approached us.

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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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