The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 141

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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 141

Everyone’s faces turned pale. Especially the Former Empress.

“You, you…!”

“Now then, His Majesty tried to kill me while knowing that I’m the person who can save the Emperor. Congratulations! Now His Majesty could die at any moment and it wouldn’t be strange!”

In the end, she would die.

But she wouldn’t die alone. She could die together with the child of her parents’ enemy.

Wasn’t this quite a successful revenge?

“Cough! Damn it, how long will that nonsense… Take her away! Kill her right now!”

“No, you can’t! You absolutely cannot kill her!”

“Hahaha, ahahaha!”

“Can’t you hear me! Take her away right now and…!”

“No! You all, take that woman back to the Empress’s Palace! You absolutely cannot kill her! Absolutely not!”

The Emperor raging to kill that woman immediately, the Former Empress struggling desperately to stop such an Emperor. Even the Empress bursting into mad laughter.

It was literally pandemonium.

In the end, watching the Emperor collapse again after coughing up blood and the Former Empress holding such an Emperor while screaming at the alchemist to do something, people thought this:

Perhaps the wrong person had truly ascended to the throne.

* * *

The first day of a new week.

The nobles of the capital visited the Imperial Palace early in the morning to attend the state council meeting.

Unless someone was caught embezzling, or relations with neighboring countries were poor, or natural disasters like floods or droughts struck, there was no reason for the atmosphere in the meeting hall to be bad before the state council meeting began.

However, despite the absence of such issues, today’s atmosphere in the meeting hall was quite uncomfortable. There was one reason.

“Have you heard? About the Roheim family.”

“Of course I’ve heard. At first I thought it was an absurd rumor, but listening to it, it really has credibility, hehe.”

“It’s not just credible, I confirmed it myself. The Imperial administrative officials are really visiting every trading company and business related to Roheim and going through all their books!”

Of course, it wasn’t an impossible occurrence. The Emperor periodically selected specific nobles to investigate whether they were embezzling or committing criminal acts strictly forbidden by law to pocket money.

Especially since Roheim had fallen out of favor with the Former Empress over the matter of taking Lionel as an adopted son-in-law, hadn’t he?

They thought it was something the Former Empress, who found him detestable, had orchestrated to break Roheim’s spirit.

So at first, they certainly thought it was someone else’s business.

“If it’s such a suddenly started comprehensive investigation, wouldn’t it be natural for something to be caught, whether embezzlement or whatever? But nothing was caught, nothing at all!”

He was the Empire’s greatest wealthy man. Mines, farmlands, trading companies – there weren’t just one or two businesses that Roheim invested in and operated.

But even when those meticulous Imperial administrative officials and investigators thoroughly searched, not a speck of dust fell?

What this meant was clear.

The Former Empress had given advance notice. She told them an investigation would come soon, so if there was anything problematic, they should clean it up beforehand.

In other words, the Former Empress and Roheim were pretending to oppose each other in public while secretly joining hands behind the scenes!

“Is that really true? Then, after Roheim’s investigation ends…”

“Next will naturally be us. Isn’t that obvious?”

Even an Emperor couldn’t just barge into other nobles’ estates or businesses without any circumstances or evidence.

However, the other nobles had already watched Roheim being investigated and just stood by, thinking it was someone else’s business.

But if they were to be investigated next? If they protested then that this couldn’t be done without any evidence, Duke Roheim would surely step forward.

“I had no crimes and was upright, so I cooperated with the Imperial investigation! But why won’t you cooperate! Do you have something to hide!”

Honestly, public sentiment toward the Former Empress and current Emperor wasn’t very good. To put it nicely, they were just indifferent.

But Roheim’s popularity was still tremendous. This was because six months ago, Duke Roheim had donated another massive amount on his daughter’s wedding day, saying good deeds should be done on good days.

If Duke Roheim, backed by such public sentiment, joined hands with the Emperor to pressure the nobles, how could they possibly endure?

“Wait a moment. Is that really true? That the Former Empress and Duke Roheim’s apparent opposition was all an act?”

“Until yesterday it was speculation. But today, right here, it became certainty.”

“Why?”

“Look.”

The bald nobleman’s gaze pointed to a seat near the head table.

A seat close to the Former Empress’s place. That spot had always been occupied by Count Keller ever since the Emperor ascended and the Former Empress began attending meetings.

“Count Keller didn’t attend.”

“Certainly, he usually attended early in the morning… But today there could have been an accident or he might be ill, couldn’t there?”

At those words, the bald nobleman snorted.

“No accident, no illness. Count Keller returned to his estate.”

“What?”

“Moreover, all the nobles who were close to Count Keller are absent from today’s meeting. Does this seem like a coincidence?”

Not only the person sitting next to the bald nobleman, but other nobles who had been pretending not to listen while actually paying attention to his words, turned their gazes toward the empty seats.

It was certainly true. Coincidentally, those absent today were all Count Keller and his acquaintances.

While several nobles were flustered by this newly realized fact, the bald nobleman said:

“Why would they all be absent at once? Surely they received some hint from Her Majesty the Former Empress!”

“Oh no…!”

Count Keller and the nobles who were close to him had returned to their estates because Count Keller had tipped them off. That the Emperor would change soon.

Those who believed the Empress’s oracle belonged to Nicole had grabbed onto the Former Empress’s coattails and rejoiced that their time had come.

So when Lionel ended the monster wave and just returned from the north, during that brief time when he returned to the Imperial Palace, they had acted arrogantly in front of him.

That was really all it was. They hadn’t cursed or directly spoken words of mockery.

But hadn’t they expressed with their whole bodies that they had grabbed onto the current Emperor and Former Empress’s coattails?

Since it was certain the Emperor would change, it was better not to catch Lionel’s attention. They resolved to live like the dead for the next 10 years and each went down to their estates.

But how could the other nobles know such circumstances? In their eyes, all those currently absent were in cahoots.

“Ah, no. Wait a moment. Was that the story related to Duke Roheim?”

“Then what else could there be?”

At the bald duke’s counter-question, the noble who had initially said it seemed like an absurd rumor but turned out to be credible upon hearing it, answered with a flustered face.

“I naturally thought it was about the oracle!”

“Oracle?”

“Haven’t you heard? About that oracle of bearing a wise ruler. There are rumors that it has a different true owner…”

At the words that the owner was likely Cecilia, nobles who had been unaware of public rumors asked in surprise.

“Is that true? That oracle had a different owner?”

“The rumors are quite widespread. Moreover, Duke Roheim’s daughter has now become the Grand Duchess, hasn’t she?”

Who was the Grand Duchess’s husband, the Grand Duke? What was the content of the oracle he received?

The man who received the oracle of becoming Emperor and the woman who received the oracle of becoming Empress were already married. Since they’d been married for six months already, she might already be pregnant.

“Actually, I’ve heard another rumor.”

“What rumor?”

“Well, His Majesty the Emperor…”

“What, what did you say? Go…!”

He succeeded in swallowing the final syllable, but the nobles seated in the meeting hall had already understood what word was about to come from his mouth.

“Good heavens… Then really…”

“Wait a moment. If this is true, isn’t this too massive a fraud?”

Until the Former Emperor died, everyone predicted the Second Prince as the next emperor. In fact, the Former Emperor had even ordered the Former Empress to prepare the crown prince’s coronation ceremony for the Second Prince.

Actually, preparing the coronation was the job of the protocol minister and protocol department. There was no need to specifically order the Former Empress.

Yet why did the Emperor specifically give such an order to the Empress? It was advice to the Empress, who had been pushing the First Prince as the next emperor until then, to give up now.

But the Former Emperor died suddenly, and the former head maid fled with his will.

Naturally, they should have found the missing former head maid and recovered the Former Emperor’s will.

They skipped that procedure and accepted the current Emperor’s ascension because of the Empress’s oracle. Because he took as Empress a woman who possessed the oracle of bearing a future wise ruler.

But the oracle’s owner was someone else, and the Emperor had a body incapable of bearing children.

If they had known this fact before the Emperor’s ascension, no, if the Former Empress hadn’t put forward Nicole while talking about the Empress’s oracle in the first place, everyone would have opposed the Emperor’s ascension.

At least until they recovered the Former Emperor’s will.</

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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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