The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 43

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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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43.

After Francis Ashwood left, our palace was able to finish the settlement earlier than usual.

Even so, well….

“It’s, it’s a miracle. Salice Advisor.”

“We didn’t go past midnight the day before the settlement deadline!”

This was about the level of what we were moved by.

The administrators linked arms with each other and talked while very cautiously—since the servants were also comrades—scattering a few sheets of documents that should be discarded, as if they were about to perform a circle dance.

“I have a colleague among the Summer Palace administrators, and they say those guys are always complaining these days!”

“It’s already been a week since they couldn’t go home, or something like that!”

“We go home regularly though!”

“They sleep by putting three chairs together! Even the sofa isn’t enough!”

“Hey, that’s just up to the advisor level, and I heard the administrators just roughly lay down papers to be discarded on the floor and sleep.”

The Summer Palace had no choice because unlike us, they had many people.

The Empress’s Palace did send over some sofas, but that would only be one or two at most.

“They even can’t do overtime checks.”

“They can’t look incompetent, or something like that.”

“At least Ashwood worked here for a while, so I heard only those administrators can be singled out.”

It was the kind of thinking those mediocre advisors at the Summer Palace would have.

Even so, the entire Imperial Palace now knows. That the Summer Palace kept pushing work to the Winter Palace and properly took it on this time.

Admirably, it was thanks to Ashwood Advisor not hiding it.

‘Right, you should at least repay the value of the time spent teaching you here.’

And handle miscellaneous tasks well in the future?

I was just nodding while reviewing the reports they handed over, but the administrators gradually got excited and raised their voices.

“This is all thanks to Salice Advisor!”

“Unlike someone else, you’re efficient!”

“Until now, we were always annoyed by talk about us being inefficient and incompetent, without even looking at performance records.”

Seeing them talk as if they were holding a grudge, it seemed they had received word from the knights about what I heard when I went to return work to the Summer Palace.

“Please go home quickly, everyone. The remaining work can just be finished tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Advisor!”

“See you tomorrow!”

No matter how I looked at it, they seemed excited from excessive overwork, so I calmed them down and sent them home.

I need to send them off first so I can also leave work comfortably.

*

When I finished organizing the last document and stood up from my seat, Casian had also finished his work and was standing there waiting for me.

“Your Highness should rest too.”

“Mm.”

Why are you approaching while saying that? I want to go home right now though?

You’re not planning to do something cruel like overtime work here, are you?

When I looked at him with suspicious eyes, Casian burst into quiet laughter.

“I’m going to take Rose home. Do you dislike that too?”

“No.”

This was sincere.

There’s no better top-level praise for a superior.

That taking time after work hours isn’t a burden.

“What an honor, receiving permission to be taken home by the hero of the Winter Palace.”

Casian hugged my body tightly like a puppy that had been separated for several days.

We had been in the same office throughout our entire settlement period though.

Although we didn’t have time to talk.

“…You said you’d take me home.”

“Mm.”

He answered well, but Casian held me tightly for several seconds.

Since our conversations had decreased even more because of Francis Ashwood, I also stayed quietly in his embrace.

My desire to go home was burning, but since I didn’t dislike him being clingy like this either, I wondered if I had become too soft with him.

Soon I heard a shallow sigh by my ear, and Casian whispered in a languid voice.

“Everyone likes Rose too much.”

“I think I hear more talk about being like a demon though.”

Because of a superior who’s only exceptionally handsome?

“The words of those without eyes aren’t words to begin with.”

He instantly turned everyone who called us demons into people who couldn’t speak.

“You didn’t see Ashwood’s expression when he left the Winter Palace.”

“Because there’s no need to see it.”

Me? Why would I bother?

At my matter-of-fact words, Casian laughed as if pleased.

“That’s somewhat comforting.”

“…What are you upset about?”

“That my lovely fiancé’s charm is being recognized everywhere?”

It doesn’t particularly seem like that though?

At my questioning gaze, Casian pulled my hand to rest on his arm and spoke playfully.

“I should think of this as the price I must rightfully pay to obtain a hero.”

I couldn’t understand everything he said.

But one thing was certain.

That Casian Artez worried and was concerned about me much more than usual.

‘Since he even sent a letter to Duke Ashwood in advance.’

He was someone who usually avoided contact with dukes because he didn’t know how the Empress would react.

I leaned slightly against Casian’s body and conveyed my honest gratitude.

“I’m by your side because you’re Your Highness.”

Probably what would make him happiest.

*

With the settlement finished, although the Winter Palace would never become completely idle, fairly peaceful days continued.

On the other hand, the Summer Palace seemed to get noisier by the day.

“Do you know what my colleague says? How is it possible to not have any leisure except during designated break times?”

“I also heard them saying shouldn’t there be at least one tea time per day without fail.”

The administrators clicked their tongues and spoke as if dumbfounded.

Since the settlement period, the Summer Palace seemed to have entered administrator and advisor training under Francis Ashwood’s command.

‘When actually Prince Charley has the least complaints.’

He apparently just grumbled to Francis Ashwood as usual.

In that characteristic drawling tone of his.

‘Really~ our prospective Count is too boring.’

About that level of words.

As for the increased workload or the more thorough work methods, whether he was convinced or it was just his original nature, he apparently didn’t say much about it.

“You know what, Rose?”

“What?”

After the administrators who handed over reports finished chatting and returned, Casian spoke while personally handing me tea he had brewed.

Since I don’t particularly enjoy black tea, most of the tea he gives me was herb-based.

“Her Majesty the Empress is apparently pondering what to give you as a gift these days.”

His lips were full of laughter.

“…Should I hide around more?”

Of course, I thought I would stack more resentment with the Empress while causing trouble this time….

“Probably?”

“What did His Majesty the Emperor say during this morning’s time?”

Having stirred up the Summer Palace in various ways, I did not attend the imperial breakfast today.

While Casian made excuses about my absence, saying I couldn’t come because I was busy with work, I actually was working and sent documents to enter the Imperial Palace as soon as breakfast ended.

“He praised you.”

“Me? Why?”

“He said that thanks to you, the Summer Palace can finally function properly, and he even praised his own judgment for keeping someone as clever as you by his side.”

At Casian’s words, I let out a small sigh.

“Why does His Majesty really act like that?”

“It’s his hobby.”

Only His Highness could describe the deliberate act of inciting succession competition in such terms.

I truly thought so.

‘Though it’s certainly better than in the original story.’

In the original, no matter how much merit Casian earned returning from battlefields, the Emperor was only busy keeping him in check.

Asking if he dared challenge the Emperor’s authority, the more Casian became a national hero, the greater the Emperor’s antipathy grew.

It was unfair to the original Casian, who had only struggled desperately to survive.

But now it was different.

Casian not only earned merit on battlefields, but also took initiative in handling tasks the Emperor disliked, adding appropriate notoriety to maintain balance.

While the Empire’s citizens respected and followed him, he also deliberately incurred their resentment by leading efforts like tax collection.

‘Not to mention with the nobles.’

So the current structure would be perfect for the Emperor.

He didn’t want the Zamoti Duchy faction, led by the Empress, to gain excessive power.

He used Casian as a kind of check, but kept the crown prince position vacant to torment both princes with false hope.

That was the picture the Emperor was currently enjoying drawing.

‘For that very reason, having First Prince Charlie’s abilities appear too outstanding would absolutely not be the Emperor’s wish either.’

If public opinion like “the crown prince will be Casian anyway” formed among the Empire’s citizens, it would become troublesome.

Being an authoritarian person, he absolutely hated being pushed into making decisions.

Whether it was his beloved woman, the Temple as both competitor and collaborator, or even the citizens who were essentially the Empire’s core.

This incident would make First Prince Charlie’s work capabilities appear to have risen, so from the Emperor’s perspective, he needed to boost Second Prince Casian’s position again.

And the target for that was me, the cause of this whole situation.

“But, Rose.”

“Why are you being scary?”

Casian played with my hair while speaking as if delighted.

“It seems you and I will have some troublesome matters ahead.”

“Then why do you look so happy?”

“Thinking of someone whose heart will be crushed makes it bearable, doesn’t it?”

So there would be something to make the Empress suffer?

I briefly speculated about one possibility in my mind, then immediately dismissed it.

There was no way that could happen.

*

“Never say never” really does catch people off guard.

“I would like to apply for the position of Second Assistant at the Winter Palace.”

A month later, around the time news came that the Summer Palace’s education was nearly complete.

Francis Ashwood threw his resignation letter at the Summer Palace and submitted an application to the Winter Palace.

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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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