The Youngest Member Filming a Parenting Show is Adorable - Chapter 149
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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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【149】
Waiting for marriage was thrilling yet tedious, agonizing yet blissful.
I yearned to grow up quickly, yet adulthood stretched endlessly while childhood flickered past—so I found myself wanting to glimpse Superti’s girlhood just a little longer.
‘I know she’ll become my wife eventually, but the jealousy burns.’
Every moment her gaze doesn’t turn toward me is agony.
Crack, crackle.
Small bolts of lightning erupted around Rasifer Laximon.
His mana resonated with his darkening mood.
“Hey, the Sub-Household Master seems awfully displeased today, doesn’t he?”
“Mind yourself.”
“Right, the weather’s terrible too. It feels desolate, like something’s about to happen.”
Darkness descended once more upon the Imperial Palace.
Children and countless others retreated to their chambers to rest, while only the key figures of the Four Great Ducal Houses gathered at the Imperial Palace.
To discuss the incident that had unfolded today.
The Friendly Competition had proceeded as scheduled, but several additional matters had emerged in the interim, necessitating urgent deliberation.
Specifically, the succession of Isthel.
The matter of Blake Isshel’s disposition.
* * *
At that very moment.
Blake Isshel lifted his eyelids, which had been closed.
Hoot, hooooot.
An owl cried mournfully from somewhere within the Imperial Palace Garden, which resembled a forest.
Lying on the bed to conserve his strength, he rose quietly and withdrew the ring he’d kept in his breast, examining it.
A platinum ring shaped like wings.
A treasure one of the countless jellyfish had carried moments before.
An object I’d often seen on Superti’s finger during the days when I lived as Mongdol.
That it came to me now… somehow.
It felt like encouragement.
‘As if telling me to be strong. That she’s by my side.’
I ate every morsel of the meal sent to me.
My belly was full, and I’d rested. After sleeping for a couple of hours, my mind had cleared.
‘I know what I must do.’
Blake’s emerald eyes captured the moon rising beyond the small window.
Clouds veiled the night, so the moon’s force wasn’t overwhelming—but that was fortunate.
I could transform into my bestial form while maintaining my reason.
‘If I stay still, I might formally lose my claim to the succession. Then I truly can never reclaim Isthel.’
But if I escape from here?
If I vanish and become “missing,” the situation changes entirely.
After all, one cannot strip the status from someone who has disappeared.
‘Of course, I have nowhere to go. Slipping out of the Capital with so many Awakeners swarming about will be difficult.’
But he was Ishel.
Concealing his tracks was something he excelled at.
What if he transformed into a beast to escape, then shifted back into a dog’s form and lived among the maids, scrounging for scraps?
They wouldn’t search the servants’ and maids’ quarters, he suspected.
And after that… he would have to reclaim Ishel somehow.
‘Stop thinking. Just do it.’
And… I won’t let them take this ring.
Blake pressed his lips to the wing ring, and with newfound resolve blazing in his eyes, he positioned himself before the wall.
Not the door. The wall.
Now was the hour of escape.
* * *
Household Master Galiazard Fasayen and Sub-Household Master Violet Fasayen.
Household Master Ixid Belarion and his eldest son, Terence Belarion.
Household Master Proxy Jeffrey Ishel.
Household Master Proxy Rasifer Laximon.
And finally, Emperor Nordbert Glory Baratheum.
Seven figures gathered in one place.
The agenda was singular.
A murder that had transpired within the Imperial Palace.
Since all had already received reports on the matter that morning, there was no need for tedious explanations.
“That such a heinous act should occur during this auspicious Friendly Competition is truly lamentable.”
The Emperor finally spoke.
From his opening words, those seated in the Council Chamber could discern which ‘direction’ the Emperor had decided upon.
Blake Ishel would be expelled under suitable pretense.
The question was: what had Jeffrey Ishel sacrificed to achieve this?
And what ramifications would it have on the other Ducal Houses?
“He is yet young, and confining him to prison seems rather harsh. Moreover, given the nature of his household, such ‘mistakes’ are entirely plausible.”
“Indeed, Your Majesty. I am grateful for your magnanimity.”
Jeffrey Ishel received the Emperor’s words.
While fingering his cunning mustache.
“If his blood runs so hot, we must allow him to expend it in an ‘appropriate place.’ The vengeful spirit of the wrongfully slain must be appeased, after all. What are your thoughts?”
Decoding the layered implications, it amounted to this:
Blake Ishel would be sent to the battlefield.
Since it had been agreed among the Four Great Ducal Houses that the Ishel Family should serve as commanders on the mainland should a second war break out, there was nothing unusual about it.
Save for Blake Ishel’s age.
‘Emotionless, mad old bastards.’
Rasifer smiled crookedly, glancing around the chamber.
While hurling curses silently in his mind.
Naturally, not a single eyebrow among them twitched.
It meant they cared not, so long as it benefited their own household.
‘Of course, I have no intention of stopping this myself, but it is genuinely repulsive.’
Moreover, if Superti were to learn of this, she would be devastated.
She must never know. Not about this.
“As you all know, the Other Races will not cease their advances. I wish to expel them from my realm and establish a world of humans alone.”
“….”
“Should they not conduct themselves with such arrogance, we might avoid it. But we will not shy from a war they bring to our doorstep. We shall prepare for the next conflict in advance… and Isthel will be at its vanguard.”
Such negotiations had already transpired.
In exchange for sacrificing Isthel’s forces, Jeffrey Ishel would secure his position.
By imperial decree.
A perfect transaction where each provided what the other required.
Viewed rationally, the pieces fit flawlessly.
‘Ah… yet what truly irritates me…’
It must be because Superti holds such affection for him.
Still, I had no desire to intervene and collapse this arrangement.
To do so would require Laksimon to offer something of equal value, and though Rasifer Laximon may be willful, selfish, and stubborn as they come….
‘I too bear responsibility for an entire household. Should I act purely on whim, all beneath me would face peril.’
Indeed, save for Jeffrey Ishel, all the Household Masters likely harbored similar sentiments.
Being a Household Master is truly a tedious profession.
In that moment, I found myself resenting my father deeply for abandoning his position to me and fleeing in search of his Companion.
“Let us see—what if we strip him of his status as heir to the Ishel Family, demote him to a mere servant, and induct him into the Imperial Palace Knights? Since the crime occurred within the Imperial Palace, the debt must be repaid to the Imperial Palace.”
“An excellent notion.”
Jeffrey Ishel brightened at the Emperor’s cunning proposal.
“Does anyone harbor objections?”
The Emperor stroked his beard, his crimson eyes gleaming.
Translated, that meant: ‘If you dislike it, present something better.’
The Emperor had summoned the members of the Four Great Ducal Houses at this hour specifically to put Blake Isshel’s punishment up for negotiation.
To see if anyone might offer something superior to what Jeffrey Ishel had proposed.
‘Naturally, no one would.’
And Jeffrey Ishel, surveying the silent Household Masters, suppressed an inner smirk.
What mad Household Master would ever advocate for another family’s heir?
‘I need only survive this moment. Then I shall become the Household Master of Isthel. In other words, a Duke!’
A Duke!
How intoxicatingly sweet a title.
Born of the same womb, yet his brother became a Duke while he received merely an Earl’s rank.
It was profoundly unjust.
He could not fathom the suffering of living an entire lifetime beneath such inequity.
‘At last, my long-cherished desire shall be realized!’
Khahahaha!
What did he care for some future war that might or might not come to pass?
Even should conflict truly erupt again, with the formidable Isthel Family now within his grasp, he was assured of safety.
So many knights!
So many soldiers!
Swords and bows, arrows—an endless supply no matter how many were used.
At the very least, he was confident he could lead the Household far better than his brother and sister-in-law, who had perished on the battlefield.
‘Come now, make the final declaration at once.’
He swallowed his impatience, his gaze boring into the Emperor’s lips with desperate intensity.
The moment those lips parted into a perfect circle.
That was when it happened.
CRASH!!
From somewhere within the silent Imperial Palace, a thunderous roar erupted—a sound that should never have been heard.
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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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