The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 227

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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 227

For several days, Gannett wandered around the inner quarters like a ghost.

She spent most of the day in bed, and when she couldn’t bear the stuffiness anymore, she would go out to the living room and look out the window.

Royal Guard soldiers were still standing in the garden. Seeing them brought reality back.

The servants decreased by dozens each day. Gannett could feel it even from the inner quarters.

The house that had always been bustling with guests became quieter than midnight.

The maids were also gone. Like other attendants, they had been dragged away as attendants who had accompanied the special envoy.

Gannett did not stop it. Even if she had tried to stop it, it would have been useless.

Prime Minister Lin came once to offer words of comfort.

“Although His Majesty is angry, he probably doesn’t think Your Highness conspired with them. At times like this, you must steel your heart.”

Gannett did not answer him.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know Prime Minister Lin was genuinely concerned. But she thought she should appear to be out of her mind.

That way, he wouldn’t suspect her for not looking for the children.

She needed to buy time.

Gannett trusted Countess Camellia. Although she hadn’t answered yes when asked to take the children away, she would surely do it.

When she just stared out the window without answering, Prime Minister Lin offered a few more meaningless words of comfort and left.

Gannett lay in bed for two more days after that.

Then on the morning of the twelfth day, she got up, bathed, and changed clothes.

It was because investigators were mixed among the people coming and going in the garden. If so, she could no longer hide that the children had fled.

Gannett took out the necklace and tiara she had used at her wedding, then put them back in the box and set it down.

Those two items were wedding gifts she had received from Duke Loigar.

“At times like this, I should give you jewelry passed down through the family for generations, but since I cannot give you what I inherited from my mother, I had these made new. I hope these will become our family’s treasures, starting with you.”

Those two items were truly beautiful jewels. Gannett had worn them often during her newlywed days.

But after her first child was born, she kept them carefully stored in a box. She had planned to pass them down to her child when they grew up and got married.

After stroking the box once, Gannett came outside.

The guard knight protecting the inner quarters spoke with an apologetic attitude.

“You cannot go out, Your Highness.”

“I’m going to the Imperial Palace.”

That didn’t seem to be forbidden, as the knight hesitated for a moment.

“I will escort you.”

That was another way of saying he would monitor her.

Gannett nodded and slowly walked outside.

The cloak draped over her shoulders dragged on the ground.

Duke Loigar was confined in the Imperial Palace.

Although it was called confinement, he wasn’t in prison. He was staying in a spacious and luxurious room overlooking the garden.

Going out and visits were forbidden, but the service was thorough. The meals were also delicious.

He had dined with the Emperor three times. It was a strategy of appeasement.

“If it’s just the agreement, there’s no problem. Your subordinate officials did quite well.”

“I’m truly sorry for having to return urgently due to the Kingdom of Eimel’s rebellion at the start of the actual three-way negotiations.”

“Loigar, you don’t need to try so hard to make excuses. Do you think I don’t know that you drafted the agreement with grand intentions?”

The Emperor said with a smile.

There was no way food could go down Duke Loigar’s throat.

“I already knew when you presented the agreement. You must have needed various clauses to shut the mouth of that pig-like King of Eimel.”

“…”

“If I had intended to punish you, I would have skillfully manipulated him and won over the Kingdom of Ientz. Even without going that far, I could have just eliminated a few of your attendants. Nevertheless, I turned a blind eye.”

Duke Loigar couldn’t answer even to those words.

Saying sorry or thank you would be admitting guilt.

But he also couldn’t say that it was because the Emperor didn’t want only Cedric and Leticia to remain as royals with succession rights.

“I truly want to spare your life. However, because Ian Camellia accused you in a public place, I can no longer cover up this matter. Since you’re someone who leads a ducal house, you understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

“What do you want me to do?”

Duke Loigar asked stiffly.

The Emperor gestured. A waiting servant ran over and placed a jewelry box in front of Duke Loigar.

Duke Loigar didn’t bother to open it.

He had never seen it directly. But since he had already heard about it from Gannett, he could guess this was evidence.

‘She said she had it thrown into the sea. In the end, the executor betrayed us.’

Duke Loigar thought that if Skyla had stolen it, it must have been on Countess Camellia’s orders.

The Ian Camellia issue might have been a disguise too.

Duke Loigar regretted trusting the wrong person. He should have eliminated her when she seemed to be leaning toward the Duchess Evron.

When Marquess Luden said he would eliminate her over the Ian Camellia issue, hesitating because of Gannett was a mistake.

The Emperor said.

“Your wife received it because she was immature and greedy. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

That was telling him to pin everything on Gannett.

From then on, Duke Loigar began to tremble. No matter how hard he tried to appear calm, once he thought of it, it wouldn’t easily leave his mind.

His palms and back became damp with sweat. It must have been cold sweat, but Duke Loigar felt as if his body was placed over fire with oil dripping out.

“Then my wife, can she live?”

Duke Loigar squeezed out the words with his stiff tongue.

“She was immature and didn’t fully understand the meaning, and her advisors also failed to fulfill their roles. Punishment is deserved, but she didn’t harbor treasonous intentions.”

“It’s already become public, Loigar. Someone must take responsibility, mustn’t they?”

The Emperor said slowly.

“Whether it was the advisors’ fault or excessive greed beyond her station, she presumptuously tried to play the role of Empress. We will naturally question the Kingdom of Ientz about this matter and punish those who planted vain ideas, but separately from that, the person who violated the imperial family cannot get away with nothing, can they?”

“What happens to the children? Our youngest is only three years old!”

Duke Loigar asked in a half-wailing voice.

The Emperor said without any wavering, fiddling with his wine glass.

“The children of a traitor are traitors. The eldest is already eight years old, so he cannot escape punishment. But I will forgive the second and third by stripping their titles and sending them into exile.”

“Your Majesty!”

“You too, as the head of the family, have the sin of failing to control your wife, so you’ll have to go into exile for a while. But I promise. I’ll let you return within three years.”

Those words were probably not lies.

In three years, Leticia would be three years old. Cedric would have built up considerable power in the capital by then.

If he used Gannett as an excuse to eliminate all of his faction and leave him empty-handed, Duke Loigar could become a useful tool for the Emperor again.

After losing all his children, there would be no reason to eliminate Leticia either.

That must be the Emperor’s thinking.

If he complied, he could live. If he endured until the Emperor died, there was even a possibility of surviving to the end and seizing power as regent.

“You can get another wife. You’re still young enough to have children. If you really can’t get them, I’ll pardon the third child.”

Those words sounded like a devil’s whisper.

Duke Loigar couldn’t say words of refusal.

“I cannot survive by selling my wife and children.”

Those words weren’t even that difficult to say.

But he couldn’t say them until the Emperor left, telling him to think it over slowly.

Only after that did he finally repeat those words several times. But in front of the Emperor, his tongue seemed frozen and the words wouldn’t come out.

Death, especially dying as a traitor, was what he had feared most since he saw his sister’s death.

His mother, who had been the Empress Dowager, had her hair turn completely white on the day that execution was carried out.

She had only been starting to get some gray hairs. He had sometimes found and plucked out his mother’s white hairs for her.

That mother became white-haired and went mad, chanting curses all day long. The servants kept the palace gates tightly closed and pretended no one heard anything.

At that time, fear took root in his bones.

The Emperor smiled as if nothing was wrong and patted his shoulder, saying.

“Since the Empress Dowager’s mood is disturbed and she needs to recuperate, it would be better for you to go far away for a while too. I’ll call for you when the time comes.”

He rode the carriage the Emperor had prepared and left the Imperial Palace.

It was then that he first saw his brother-in-law’s severed head on display.

They had only met a few times. But Duke Loigar often heard stories about him from his sister, whose cheeks would flush red.

According to his sister, he seemed like the most wonderful and admirable man in the world.

But even such a man’s neck would become nothing more than a dried-up mummy when stuck on a pole at the execution ground.

Nothing was more important than staying alive.

Much time had passed. He had thought the Emperor was now old and different from before. He thought he himself had aged and changed from before.

However, the Emperor wore exactly the same expression as back then. He thought he had forgotten long ago, but that image remained vividly in his mind.

It was then.

A commotion arose in the garden he had been staring at blankly.

Nobles had gathered in that garden.

Creating justification was important.

They intended to voice their grievances here about how the treason charges were unjust and unfair.

Even if they died in the process, with justification, the successors who had retreated to the Eastern Region could later reclaim legitimacy and compete again for power in central politics.

They already had a history of changing emperors this way.

It wouldn’t take long either.

Legitimacy had always belonged to the nobles.

They considered themselves to be the Empire.

Who had ruled this land before the Empire was created? Who had gathered their strength to establish the authority of the Imperial Court? Who promoted economic development, increased productivity, paid taxes, and protected the Empire?

They believed all of this was their power and role.

Even if the Emperor was the master of the Empire, he had no authority to destroy the Empire.

Even while listening to such arguments, the Emperor had not yet brought out his jewelry box to sweep them away. He was waiting for Duke Loigar’s answer.

Gannett appeared among them.

Instead of taking a carriage all the way to the Imperial Palace building, she got off at the main gate.

The nobles split in half to open a path for her.

Duke Loigar watched this from his confined room.

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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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