The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 100

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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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Episode 100

Chapter 8

Wherever you go, you’re in the palm of my hand.

“…What did you just say?”

It was when the coronation ceremony had ended and the commemorative banquet had begun, with the atmosphere reaching its peak.

A servant carefully entered and informed the Empress, no, the Former Empress, that the Imperial Guards who had followed Lionel had returned and that something had gone wrong.

So the Former Empress carefully slipped out of the banquet hall to meet the Imperial Guards. What they reported was truly astounding news.

“Lionel didn’t enter the temple? And it’s because of the Duke’s daughter of Roheim?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“You just stood there and watched? How dare a mere Duke’s daughter ignore you when you carry the Emperor’s command!”

“Well, the thing is…”

The Imperial Guard broke out in a cold sweat as he recalled what had happened earlier.

First, their mission had gone wrong from the start. They had immediately lost track of Lionel, who had rushed out of the Imperial Palace, right outside the drawbridge.

They went straight to the temple, but were told that Lionel had not yet arrived. So they searched the entire capital looking for Lionel.

Unable to find Lionel anywhere, they had no choice but to go back to the Central Temple. If they couldn’t find Lionel by the next morning, they planned to return to the Imperial Palace and report that he had defied the Emperor’s command.

But when they arrived at the Central Temple, they witnessed the Duke’s daughter’s maid putting Lionel in a carriage and taking him somewhere.

The two men immediately tried to stop the carriage, but failed due to interference from the Roheim knights. Meanwhile, the carriage departed far away.

Even when they tried to chase the carriage, the Roheim knights blocked their way, leaving them with no choice. So they ran to Cecilia to protest.

“Duke’s daughter! Where are you taking His Highness? This is kidnapping!”

“Did it look that way to you too? Good. That’s exactly what I was doing.”

“What?”

“No… Duke’s daughter. You seem not to have heard yet, but His Highness has received an imperial command to devote himself to the temple. This is an imperial command.”

“That’s right. I didn’t hear about it. But does that make sense? Sending my fiancé to the temple without even asking for my opinion as his betrothed?”

“But this is an imperial command…”

“Even if it’s the Emperor, no, even if it’s Her Majesty the Former Empress, she can’t invalidate an engagement contract that was officially sealed with a personal stamp, can she?”

“What?”

“The engagement between His Highness the Second Prince… Lionel and me, Cecilia, has not been broken yet. If you want to make him devote himself to the temple, you’d have to break the engagement first, but the penalty clause for unilateral termination by one side has such an enormous amount that I still remember it.”

“…”

“Please tell Her Majesty the Former Empress this. Until she pays that penalty, the engagement cannot be broken, and if the engagement is not broken, Lionel is still my fiancé even if he loses his imperial surname, so I will take him in as an adopted son-in-law at Roheim.”

Although it seemed like she was being unreasonable, Cecilia’s argument had validity.

Above all, they didn’t know what kind of engagement contract had been drawn up between Cecilia and Lionel.

So they had no choice but to return empty-handed, knowing they wouldn’t hear good things from the Former Empress.

“…That’s what we were told, but we couldn’t verify whether the Duke’s daughter’s statement was true or not, so we couldn’t forcibly execute the imperial command.”

“What, this is…”

The Former Empress was dumbfounded and let out a hollow laugh, then immediately bit her lips.

Honestly, she felt foolish. She had completely forgotten about the engagement contract that had been made with the Roheim family.

After sending the Imperial Guards away, the Former Empress had the Maid Manager bring the engagement contract that had been made with Roheim.

And after examining it carefully.

“…This is ridiculous! What is this!”

The people who had primarily drafted this contract were her husband, the Former Emperor, and the Duke of Roheim’s wife.

The Former Emperor had created the draft, which the Duke of Roheim’s wife had refined in detail, and the Former Empress, tired of the repeated revision work, had only skimmed through it later.

Since she couldn’t pair Cecilia with Cayen anyway, she thought it didn’t matter to her whether this engagement led to marriage or was broken off midway.

So a clause she had carelessly overlooked came back to bite her.

[In case of breaking the engagement or changing the engagement partner without significant fault on the other party’s part, a penalty of 100 billion gold shall be paid.]

100 billion!

It was such an absurd amount that it seemed like both the Former Emperor and the Duke of Roheim’s wife had treated the contract as a joke.

In fact, it was Cecilia who had proposed this penalty clause. To prevent a situation where her fiancé would be changed to the First Prince, as in the novel’s plot.

Anyway, Sophia, who felt sorry for proposing an engagement her daughter didn’t want, accepted her daughter’s proposal, and the Former Emperor also readily accepted it, thinking that with such an absurd penalty clause, Roheim would never break the engagement first in the future.

If the Former Empress had carefully checked the contract clauses at the time and objected to reduce the amount, she might have been able to throw it away and tell them to take it or leave it, but…

“100 billion, how can I pay such an absurd amount as a penalty!”

The Former Empress immediately summoned the Minister of Justice.

And when she asked if this contract clause could be invalidated, after reading the entire contract, he shook his head saying it was impossible.

“The Former Emperor’s personal seal and the Roheim family’s stamp are clearly affixed. Above all, considering the total amount of dowry and trousseau promised by both families, the penalty of 100 billion gold is not an unreasonable amount…”

“The dowry and trousseau are just amounts on paper, they haven’t been exchanged yet. Can’t we use this as an excuse to do something?”

“What? …Did you perhaps not know?”

The Former Empress’s heart grew uneasy at the Minister of Justice’s surprised face.

“What are you talking about?”

“The support funds that Duke Roheim has been sending to the north for the past 3 years and 6 months.”

“Why are you bringing up those support funds now?”

No way. …No way!

“Because His Highness the Second Prince was dispatched as the Northern Commander. Duke Roheim proposed to send part of the dowry he was supposed to send to the Imperial Family as support funds to the north, and His Majesty the Former Emperor judged it better than emptying the national treasury immediately and accepted the proposal.”

The fact that the Minister of Justice knew this meant that it wasn’t a secret agreement between the Former Emperor and Duke Roheim, but that the transaction was officially documented.

The Former Empress’s face turned completely red as she shouted.

“Exactly how much did they support!”

“In terms of amount… 30 billion gold.”

“Th, thirty…!”

The Former Empress’s legs gave out and she collapsed on the spot. In fact, it was admirable that she didn’t faint outright.

The money needed to send Lionel to the Central Temple was 100 billion gold. She would even have to return the dowry received first, so an additional 30 billion was needed.

It was money she obviously couldn’t handle with her personal funds, and the ministers would never allow taking such an amount from the Imperial treasury.

So she couldn’t break this engagement… And naturally, it was also impossible to make Lionel devote himself to the temple.

There was only one method left.

Breaking the engagement by mutual agreement with the Roheim family.

However, the Former Empress instinctively knew this was also impossible.

Everyone knew that Cecilia’s feelings for Lionel had gone beyond admiration to almost the level of obsession!

* * *

The coronation of the new Emperor and Empress was over, and the next day at noon.

As we all sat down to have a meal together, I held a family meeting. The topic was the fate of Lionel, whom I had seated next to me.

“…So I chased away the Imperial Guards like that, you know? But I thought Her Majesty the Former Empress might treat this as this person’s individual transgression and find fault with it.”

So? my family asked with their expressions, and I put Lionel’s handcuffed hands on the dining table.

“Officially, I’m going to say that I kidnapped and confined this person.”

“Hand, hand, handcuffs?”

“My goodness, Cecil! What have you done to His Highness!”

To be so shocked by something like this. If they had heard the conversation I had with Lionel this morning, they might have fainted.

“A narrow room, or a room without sunlight. As long as it’s a place you return to, I’m fine with anywhere. Please confine me when you want to.”

‘He even said he wanted to be confined by me.’

Of course, I didn’t believe those words.

The countless runaway female protagonists in romance novels I had seen in my previous life always fled the moment the male protagonists let their guard down.

‘In that sense, I can’t remove those handcuffs from his wrists.’

My last mercy was only removing the shackles from his ankles.

If I had the strength and stamina to carry Lionel around in my arms, I wouldn’t have removed those either!

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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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