The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 70

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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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70.

 

From then until the end of the year, the temple was truly bustling with activity.

 

Naturally, in the process of reorganizing the treaty, they tried to intimidate us by reciting their obvious repertoire—

 

‘You weren’t planning to proceed with the treaty negotiations that will determine the temple’s future without me, were you? Your Holiness?’

 

‘S-Saint, how are you already in the capital…’

 

‘Unlike the useless priests, the kind Clupea Margrave who always cares for Wesley informed me that something important was happening at the temple.’

 

It was blocked by Wesley Morel’s return to the country.

 

Thanks to this, the subsequent negotiations proceeded with sensible and logical dialogue.

 

Wesley also seemed to handle the balancing act with the Emperor well, as his title of Saint wasn’t just an empty name and he had ambitions to create a poor and righteous temple.

 

And our Winter Palace…

 

‘This is an opportunity for everyone to gain prestige. Please do your best to conduct a fair and clean investigation.’

 

‘Yes, Second Aide!’

 

For some reason, we were able to safely complete the funding investigation thanks to the efforts of Francis Ashwood and the new administrators, who were excited in an even stranger direction than I was.

 

[Honest Winter Palace Demon, Clupea Margrave! Steps forward for temple reform…]

 

[Temple forced donations completely abolished, announced to operate on donations and state funding going forward…]

 

[Exclusive coverage, temple donation operation records!]

 

[Shocking! The heretical witch was on our side.]

 

And somehow I ended up with the nickname ‘heretical witch,’ which was no different from a terrible insult.

 

Seeing this morning paper, I couldn’t help but fall into an extremely complicated state of mind, but when I actually went to work at the office,

 

“…I suppose I need to work harder after all.”

 

“Ashwood Aide, at least you have a line written here! It says ‘Winter Palace apostate Ashwood also showed thorough handling skills.'”

 

“But this is still just this much, isn’t it? I’ll polish my more decisive and merciless work skills going forward, Salice Advisor.”

 

“We’ll work hard too, First Aide!”

 

Francis Ashwood and the new administrators somehow looked at me with envious eyes as they talked, so I couldn’t bring myself to voice my grievances.

 

The only one who noticed my feelings this time was also my superior—

 

“I guess I need to work harder too, to be called demons alongside Rose.”

 

He mercilessly teased me.

 

He really was an annoying person.

 

*

 

Anyway, while the Winter Palace members and I were being ground down by the temple investigation, some results from the magic scroll investigation we had entrusted to the criminal mages also came in.

 

However, if there was a problem…

 

“This is really strange, when we try to track it, the formulas run away here and there.”

 

The results were strange, and the scroll’s contents were also strange.

 

“Isn’t surveillance of people illegal?”

 

The recipient’s name was corrupted, but my title was properly written in the subject line.

 

Even the content was subtly criticizing me for having no sense of mission.

 

‘I don’t want to participate in charity or environmental protection.’

 

As long as I don’t become a fraud…

 

When I was dumbfounded, the criminal mages grumbled to me with hurt pride.

 

“Salice Advisor, you’re not going to stop giving us strange tasks saying we’re incompetent people who can’t even do this, are you?”

 

“If you just give us time, we can prove we’re better than this gloomy guy!”

 

“Right, right! Even if we can’t read the atmosphere and have no tact, we’ve never been told we’re behind in magic anywhere.”

 

“So you should entrust difficult and complex things to us! Don’t give him ideas!”

 

They even showed strange competitiveness.

 

“Since they say they’ll answer if we ask, we should use it. Being surveilled feels bad too.”

 

Of course, I had no obligation to listen to those who couldn’t properly fulfill their commission.

 

“Too much! Witch!”

 

“Right! You’re the Winter Palace witch! You don’t even take our side, it’s too much! How obediently we’ve made so many strange things here until now.”

 

“These are really gloomy people! Even if you’re a witch, you might get involved in strange experiments!”

 

“Right, we use noble formulas, but they use strange character arrangements!”

 

But at the words that followed, I couldn’t help but open my eyes wide.

 

“Even if we couldn’t track them, we know who they are?”

 

“All mages know. They’re exiled from the Magic Tower!”

 

“Right, if you’re tactless and can’t read the atmosphere like us, you can prove your usefulness through research, but they were exiled after fighting over the Tower Master position.”

 

“They were exiled because they lost! We were caught by the Winter Palace witch while doing what we were told.”

 

The criminal mages began talking as if they could also be helpful.

 

And in that conversation, I felt a premonition that I might be able to vaguely grasp the thread of the discomfort I had been feeling all along.

 

The cause of that sensation that something seemed off somewhere, despite being a story I knew so well after being born as Rozelita Salice in this world.

 

*

 

“Are you tired?”

 

Casian asked, gently brushing away the hair that had fallen near my forehead.

 

Before I knew it, the busy and hectic year had reached its last day, and I was attending the Imperial Year-End Ball.

 

Since I was no longer just the Salice Advisor who was a baron’s daughter, but the Clupea Margrave and the Second Prince’s fiancée, I had to have many conversations with various people.

 

After the title conferment ceremony, I had completed preparations for mining and distributing lair byproducts while suffering from heavy workload, making it even more so.

 

While I was being worn down like this, Casian pulled me out from among the people at just the right timing, just before I felt I’d reached my limit.

 

He willingly offered his embrace so I could recharge even a little energy in silence.

 

“…A little. I was prepared for it, but it’s more than that.”

 

“The temple matter got involved too, so there are many more people grateful to you.”

 

Casian handed me warmly mulled wine now that I had the energy to speak.

 

Though there were many times he was annoying, at times like this I was truly grateful for his ghostly intuition.

 

I was slightly craving alcohol, but my body was so tired that it was obvious I’d fall asleep quickly even with just a little.

 

Instead of immediately putting it to my lips, I felt its warmth with my hands for a moment.

 

“You know, Your Highness.”

 

Yesterday, after talking with the mages, the sensation I felt began to coldly color my fingertips.

 

Strangely, even though the warm mulled wine glass was wrapped in my hands.

 

‘…I hope the reply comes quickly.’

 

I wanted to clearly find out the discomfort I had been feeling, so I wrote a question on a scroll and sent it.

 

Very simply.

 

I was too much of a common citizen and too full of Korean sentiment to solve things one by one like protagonists in other fantasy novels.

 

Was it because the answer to my question was difficult, or because I sent the message at dawn today? A proper reply hadn’t arrived yet.

 

But before that answer came, I somehow wanted to tell him.

 

Whether I was a protagonist or not, he was like an unwavering signpost to me living here.

 

“Whatever reply comes from the scroll, please don’t change, Your Highness.”

 

“You mean me, who is cunning and shrewd rather than righteous, and only piles work on you?”

 

“Yes, Your Highness, who reads my mind like a ghost and takes care of what I need, making it creepily touching.”

 

At my words, he laughed low and brushed my cheek teasingly.

 

“Of course, that’s my joy.”

 

At that quiet voice, my fingertips that had been cold to the point of pain regained their warmth.

 

I drank the mulled wine in peace and took a deep breath.

 

Thanks to his answer, I felt relieved and confident about dealing with the people who would come at me immediately.

 

“We should go out soon, if we don’t want to get scolded by the Emperor—”

 

Just as I was about to speak while psyching myself up, I felt a reply notification from the magic scroll and Casian pulled my waist tightly into his arms.

 

“Wait, Rose—”

 

His languid and gentle atmosphere instantly became like a wary beast.

 

“The air has distorted.”

 

The moment he whispered that like a warning.

 

—Kyaah!

 

The incident occurred.

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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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