The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 92

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 92
The most likely culprit was Katie Teyson, who had visited the palace that afternoon. Upon receiving the report, Lucas ordered her arrested immediately.
Yet that order went unexecuted.
“Tell me again.”
Lucas spoke with a grave expression. The Tower Master bowed his head, his face equally serious.
“When we conducted the surprise raid, Lady Teyson had already vanished—along with the Duke and Duchess.”
At this absurd report, Lucas let out a hollow laugh. The situation was plainly orchestrated. He barely suppressed the rising bloodlust that threatened to consume him and spoke with careful precision.
“What is Rachel’s condition?”
“The most certain method to dispel the Dark Magic would be to eliminate the caster, but…”
With Katie’s disappearance, that had become nearly impossible. At the Tower Master’s hopeless words, Lucas’s brow furrowed.
“However, it is not entirely without recourse.”
“Speak.”
“The matter involves Her Majesty the Empress Consort, so I hesitate to even voice it…”
The Tower Master cautiously probed the atmosphere. But Lucas in this moment could not afford concern for the Empress Consort’s wellbeing. His gaze commanded the Tower Master to continue without delay.
“Do you know of the Protective Stone, passed down through the generations to the Empress Consort of Tirnes? It is a treasure with the power to nullify all manner of curses and Dark Magic.”
The jewel that had always hung at his mother’s throat. Lucas could not possibly be ignorant of it. The image of the Protective Stone, now in the current Empress Consort’s possession, flashed through his mind.
“If we possessed that stone, we could withstand this vile Dark Magic. More than that—we could save her. Certainly.”
The moment the Tower Master spoke with conviction, Lucas rose from his seat. With unhesitating steps, he moved toward the door.
“To the Empress Consort’s Palace.”
By whatever means necessary, he would obtain it. With that resolve burning in him.
As Lucas moved, the entire Imperial Palace held its breath. The Crown Prince had not left the palace since Rachel Swan had collapsed.
Now, as he advanced toward the Empress Consort’s Palace with an icy, murderous aura, the attendants trembled, foreseeing a tempest of blood about to sweep through the palace.
Lucas was relentless. He passed through the Empress Consort’s Palace Garden without hesitation, and the attendants there stiffened with tension. One of them hurried inside to inform the Empress Consort of his arrival.
“Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has come.”
The Empress Consort, who had been reading for the sake of her pregnancy, widened her eyes.
Lucas rarely paid any attention to the vicinity of the Empress Consort’s Palace unless the matter was grave. And with the Rachel Swan incident occurring now, what could bring him here?
“Your Majesty.”
The door opened abruptly, and Lucas strode in.
“Your Highness.”
The Empress Consort greeted him with the most graceful smile she could muster, feigning indifference.
“I will not waste time with pleasantries. I require your Protective Stone.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that there is a person who must be saved with that stone around your neck.”
“Surely you are not speaking of Rachel Swan?”
Lucas did not answer. His silence was affirmation enough.
‘Does he mean to hand over a treasure belonging only to the Empress Consort to some Baron’s daughter?!’
The Empress Consort lashed out sharply, unable to hide her displeasure.
“That is not worth answering. Leave at once.”
“I have not come to negotiate or bargain with Your Majesty.”
The Empress Consort’s eyebrows twitched.
“Then you mean to threaten me?”
“If that is how you perceive it, then so it is.”
Lucas replied in an emotionless tone. The Empress Consort’s lips trembled. To one who had lived her entire life sheltered and refined, such brazen disregard was nothing short of an insult.
“I shall report this matter in full detail to His Majesty at once!”
“Please do. I anticipated as much.”
Lucas threw back her threat with indifference. The Empress Consort, sputtering in outrage, shot to her feet and cried out.
“This Protective Stone is not merely a jewel to protect me! It is the very instrument that proves I am the Empress Consort of this empire!”
“Is the dignity of Your Majesty so fragile as to depend upon a single stone?”
“What did you just say?!”
“I asked whether the Empress Consort of Tirnes is so weak that her position would falter without the Protective Stone.”
His cold provocation hung in the air, and every soul in the Empress Consort’s Palace drew in a sharp breath. None could venture to guess where this confrontation would lead.
“My betrothed, Rachel Swan, is in critical condition. At present, Your Majesty’s Protective Stone is the only means by which she can be saved.”
As Lucas laid bare his hand transparently, something flickered in the Empress Consort’s eyes. In that moment, she felt certain that victory was hers.
If her jewel were not surrendered, Rachel Swan would die. What more perfect bargaining chip could exist?
“That is… most unfortunate.”
The Empress Consort spoke words she did not mean.
“I have no intention of concealing this matter.”
From Lucas’s lips came words the Empress Consort could not fathom. She frowned despite herself.
“All of it—that Rachel is in critical condition, and what it is that can alone save her—I will tell everyone.”
Lucas fixed his gaze upon the Empress Consort.
“Not long from now, all the people of the empire will learn the truth. That the Empress Consort, swayed by private sentiment, refused to hand over the Protective Stone—and thereby caused the death of the Crown Prince’s betrothed.”
“What… did you just say?”
“Rachel’s popularity has skyrocketed under the Common Apprentice System. Imagine what happens when rumors spread that she lost her life due to Your Majesty’s misguided judgment.”
“Crown Prince!”
The Empress Consort’s face drained of color—a woman who staked her very life on her reputation.
“I won’t even speak to how this affair might affect the succession of the child in your womb, whose prospects you guard so jealously.”
The Empress Consort had built her reputation through relentless calculation, but for one purpose alone.
The succession rights of the child she carried.
To sway an emperor easily swayed by popular opinion, she needed the support of the masses. This was why she had maintained her graceful facade with such deliberation.
‘The madman… he calculated everything from the start.’
Humiliation washed over her, yet she could not refute him. She had already fallen squarely into the trap Lucas had set.
All she could do now was coil her mind like a serpent and think her way through.
“…Very well.”
The Empress Consort smiled with renewed composure. Lucas watched her carefully. A woman like this would never retreat without exacting a price.
“I shall hand over the Protective Stone—the Empress Consort’s most treasured possession—to Rachel Swan. For a time.”
She had emphasized the word “time.”
“But I cannot simply surrender such a precious treasure.”
“What do you require?”
Lucas considered what the Empress Consort might desire. A change in the line of succession, mining rights to gold deposits, timber harvesting rights—the list of her appetites was endless.
The Empress Consort laughed softly, running her hand gently across her belly.
“I want something rather special. Something that cannot be purchased with money.”
Spoken by a woman sharper than anyone with coin, the words seemed oddly out of place. Lucas waited with patience for what came next.
“What I desire is this:”
The Empress Consort’s smile broadened like a child’s—yet something unsettling flickered within it.
“That Rachel Swan herself walks before me of her own feet and receives the Protective Stone from my hands. Nothing else will do.”
Having spoken, the Empress Consort turned to Lucas and lifted her chin with arrogance.
As though daring him to try.
Lucas exhaled a hollow laugh. What else could he do?
To demand that Rachel, lying in her sickbed, walk here on her own legs—the Empress Consort’s condition was nothing but petty stubbornness.
Yet her scheme was transparent: to preserve her reputation while cunningly keeping the Protective Stone for herself.
Lucas’s brow narrowed. The light in his eyes turned to ice as he regarded the Empress Consort, who smiled as though she had already claimed victory.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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