The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 214

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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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Chapter 214

The first thing the Emperor’s investigators did was confiscate the Duke Riagan’s mansion and villa in the capital.

“Confiscation? What do you suddenly mean by that?”

Riagan Duke’s Brother and relatives who had been living in the capital and managing the mansion asked in shock.

However, the investigators didn’t even give them a proper answer.

“Drag them all out and arrest them. Take the head of household to the interrogation room, and detain the family members. Only children under five years old should be sent to the designated temporary nursery.”

The mansion was already completely surrounded.

Those who knew the situation shut their mouths as soon as they heard the word smuggling. Those who didn’t know wailed and cried out.

“Employees are no exception!”

Boerts was the first to realize that things had gone wrong.

The moment the Emperor’s investigator threw open the mansion gates, he tried to escape by switching clothes with a servant.

Even though he didn’t know exactly what was happening, he couldn’t afford to be caught.

He was the one who had mediated the secret agreement between Duke Loigar and Duke Riagan.

If he were interrogated and spilled information, too many people would get hurt.

However, he was caught in the warehouse where the secret passage was located. The Emperor’s investigators had already known about all the secret passages in the Riagan mansion since 19 years ago.

The low-ranking investigator who caught him shouted with an ecstatic face.

“I caught a servant trying to escape through the secret passage!”

Investigators came pouring in.

Someone who knew secret passages that even the Duke’s brother, who was currently acting as the mansion’s master, didn’t know about – this must be a big catch.

Boerts squeezed his eyes shut.

The smuggling incident spread throughout the capital that very day.

However, even the gossipmongers all kept their mouths shut. It was such a terrifying situation that it couldn’t be discussed as entertainment.

It was more frightening now than when they had charged the Evron Duchy with treason for trying to kill their heir at the temple.

Back then, those involved were clearly defined. Even when soldiers blocked the gates and knights surrounded the temple, citizens weren’t dragged away.

But now, those implicated were dragged away almost daily. A bloody storm blew through the very streets where citizens walked.

From treasury officials who had taken bribes from Duke Riagan and cooperated in ledger manipulation to those who had once worked at salt manufacturing plants – all were dragged to prison.

The investigators tortured without distinguishing the severity of crimes to extract confessions.

After being interrogated for about three or four days, even those who were released with a verdict of no charges often died.

The Emperor hadn’t treated this matter as political from the beginning.

This was being bitten by a dog he had raised. Before calculating financial losses, his anger was immeasurably deep.

“I bestowed great favor upon Duke Riagan. I helped someone who would have been nothing more than the lowest member of a ducal family inherit the title and rebuild a crumbling duchy, and entrusted him with the nation’s most important business.”

The Emperor spoke as if spitting out the words.

“Even after paying the salt tax, the remaining income must have been enormous. On top of that, I gave him the freedom to use one-tenth of the South Sea salt, which should have been enough to conduct business for his family, yet he dared to deceive my eyes?”

A confiscation order was issued for all of Duke Riagan’s assets.

Since the imperial decree had been issued, it was only a matter of time before all of Duke Riagan’s family would be dragged from the south.

If it had been when the Empress’s family was still strong, this wouldn’t have been possible.

Even trying to confiscate assets in the capital would have met with extreme resistance.

The nobility and courts would have united to block such actions by the Emperor’s investigators, saying they shouldn’t move in such a manner. If only to protect their own rights.

Even if ordered to escort all of Duke Riagan’s family from the Southern Army, they wouldn’t have obeyed.

But Duke Riagan’s family now was nothing without the Emperor’s support.

The Southern Army was in a state no different from collapse. Fortunately, the Southern Subjugation Army was an army sent from the center.

Everyone looked toward the Empress’s Palace.

When Duke Riagan’s family was attacked by the Kingdom of Eimel, the Empress had turned away.

However, this time it was the Emperor who wanted to sweep away Duke Riagan’s family. He was truly treating the ducal family like his slaves to be disposed of.

Many people thought the Empress would be angry enough to stop it.

However, no one dared to approach the Empress and ask what she intended to do.

The Empress lived quietly as usual. She took walks, read books, drank tea, and looked after the Pesher family children.

The Chamberlain delivered the Emperor’s letter, but the Empress didn’t write a reply. No one knew what was written in that letter.

The Empress’s Palace was as quiet and peaceful as always. Like a world detached from reality.

Until Rigan Count’s Second Daughter, who had married a nobleman in the capital, prostrated herself in front of the Empress’s Palace holding her six-year-old child, pleading for their lives.

“Please show mercy, Empress.”

When the Emperor’s investigators came, her husband and in-laws risked their lives to help the mother and child escape.

The other family members were fine. They were nobles. Interrogation wasn’t grounds to kill all nobles simply for being relatives.

They would be interrogated and have their homes searched. But once it became clear they weren’t involved in the smuggling business, they would only face banishment from the capital for a certain period or have their assets confiscated.

But Rigan Count’s Daughter and her grandson were different.

It was her father-in-law’s friend who hid the mother and child in a carriage and brought them to the Empress’s Palace.

There was no way to escape the capital. Even if they tried hiding in the capital, they wouldn’t last three or four days before being dragged away.

But if the Empress took them in, they might be able to save their lives.

It rained that day, and the weather was cold too.

The Emperor’s investigators couldn’t invade the Empress’s Palace, so they surrounded and watched the mother and child from a distance.

The Empress’s old friends and Riagan’s retainers did the same. They would rather tear their own mouths than call her Princess of Liagan, but they couldn’t let someone claiming to be of Riagan blood be dragged away by the Emperor from the Empress’s Palace.

The woman cried out for a long time in front of the Empress’s Palace until her voice was hoarse.

“Please show mercy! Please save the child!”

Only the innocent child whined to go home. The woman pressed her head to the ground, lifted it, then cried out again.

The gates of the Empress’s Palace opened when the rain that had fallen all night stopped, the morning sun rose, and the rainwater that had soaked the ground dried in the sunlight, leaving only puddles here and there.

The Empress wore a black dress. Embroidered with dark gray silk thread and made with a wide collar and cuffs of bright silver fabric, the dress was elegant and splendid.

But everyone who saw that dress was reminded of the mourning clothes the Empress had worn for so long.

“How long do you intend to cause this disturbance?”

Countess Marta scolded.

“I will pay for my father’s sins in his place! Please forgive us!”

The woman pleaded while crying. Her voice, hoarse from crying all night, was cracked and strained.

The Empress looked down at her with cold eyes.

“What right do you have to stand in for your father when you’re neither his representative nor heir? If you’re sorry, why did you only come to beg forgiveness now?”

“I know this is a shameless plea. So I won’t dare ask for mercy for myself.”

The woman held out her six-year-old child. The child was sleeping soundly from exhaustion.

“But this child is only six years old. Please save him. Please understand a mother’s heart.”

“….”

“What sin does the child have?”

“The child has no sin.”

The Empress looked down at the tear-soaked woman’s face. Then she spoke in a low voice.

“But when my child died, where were ‘you people’?”

“I, I was….”

“When my parents passed away, where were ‘you people’ and what were you doing?”

“Em, Empress….”

“So whether your parents die or your child dies, I won’t be there either.”

The woman screamed frantically.

“It was what Emperor did! How could we have done anything!”

“That’s right. This too is what Emperor is doing. What can I do about it?”

And the Empress turned away.

The maids followed behind the Empress first, and the former retainers of Duke Riagan’s family who had been protecting the mother and child until then followed in a rush.

The gates of the Empress’s Palace closed. That was the answer.

The Emperor’s investigators dragged away the mother and child.

* * *

Cedric, who returned home at dawn, looked extremely haggard.

“I heard you were in front of the imperial palace all night?”

Artizea came out to the lobby to meet him and asked.

Cedric pulled Artizea’s waist close and kissed her cheek. Then he let out a sigh.

“What were you doing staying awake yourself?”

“In a situation like this. How could I fall asleep so easily?”

Cedric sighed once more.

“Are you scheming something again?”

“No. A message came from the Empress’s Palace just a while ago. One of Duke Riagan’s daughters is holding her child and begging for forgiveness in front of the Empress’s Palace.”

“Ah… Is it a child over five years old?”

“Six years old, they say.”

“Oh dear…”

Cedric lamented. In fact, the reason he had been at the Imperial Palace until this hour was because of that very problem.

He had nothing to do with the aftermath of this incident. The ledgers would be handled by the Ministry of Finance, and the investigation was the responsibility of the Emperor’s investigators.

Pressure was being applied to the entire government organization. However, since the Ministry of Finance couldn’t release the budget and all security forces were assigned to support the Emperor’s investigators, the work Cedric was responsible for had come to a near standstill.

But it wasn’t something he could just sit back and ignore.

Prime Minister Lin and he were pleading with the Emperor to at least lift the guilt by association.

“Deceiving His Majesty and embezzling national taxes is a grave sin, but guilt by association is originally applied only to those guilty of high treason. Arresting and interrogating not only close blood relatives of House Riagan or those directly involved in the crime, but even the relatives of employees is too excessive.”

“It is an act of deceiving the monarch. If that’s not high treason, then what is high treason?”

“How about conducting interrogations but having the Security Bureau investigate those with distant connections?”

“If they’re innocent, what does it matter where they’re interrogated?”

The Emperor’s will was firm.

Though it seemed like he was responding emotionally to this matter, that wasn’t all there was to it. The Emperor was also making an example of how he would execute traitors.

Both Cedric and Prime Minister Lin knew this. But that didn’t mean they could give up there.

They had been kneeling in front of the Emperor’s office until now, hoping to at least raise the age exempted from guilt by association from five years old to ten years old.

“Do you think Her Majesty the Empress will take them in?”

Artizea shook her head.

Cedric let out a sigh.

It would be good if she showed mercy, but no one could make such a request to the Empress.

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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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