Chapter 109
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109.
Indeed, he was no small-time operator—even with Duke Lopez's arrival, he maintained his composure.
"It seems the Winter Palace Advisor lacks confidence in protecting herself alone."
He didn't forget to deliver his cutting remark either.
That man truly had a gift for verbal lashing.
If only his work matched his eloquence.
I could have made good use of him then.
While I was lost in thought, Duke Lopez beside me provided the rebuttal instead.
"Your inability to grasp context hasn't changed from before to now."
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean?"
I found his response utterly absurd.
This man was discriminating—speaking casually to me while using formal speech with Duke Lopez.
Duke Lopez burst into laughter, apparently noticing the same thing.
"You still can't read the situation, and you don't even realize who holds your lifeline."
"What?"
"I needn't correct your misunderstanding, but since I'm the type who enjoys watching people's insides turn out, I'll make an exception and tell you."
Duke Lopez boldly revealed his ugly nature.
"The Salice Advisor can protect herself perfectly well without a useless old man like me. That day, she should have been grateful the knights surrounded her instead."
"That makes no sense whatsoever—!"
He showed some reaction to Duke Lopez's words.
"Unlike you with your lacking skills, my daughter Wilhelmina Lopez, who rightfully claimed first place, was about to blow your head clean off."
Oh, I missed that magnificent moment.
Hearing it from Duke Lopez made me regret it deeply.
That I couldn't witness my precious Wilhelmina's brilliant display while dealing with this criminal.
"Well, even if my daughter hadn't acted, the Salice Advisor wouldn't be so incompetent as to be unable to protect herself, unlike you.
"Words are cheap."
"Salice Advisor, wasn't what I said correct? This man repeats his mistakes twice over."
"Indeed, he asked for proof, I provided it, and now he wants proof again."
As I spoke calmly, the color drained from his face as he sat in the prison cell.
"You're truly useless for actual work."
"I couldn't agree more. This man has frustrated me more times than I can count. Of course, our Wilhelmina is different."
"You needn't say that—I'm well aware. Besides, the advisor position will be decided after interviews."
"Are you saying there's an applicant who scored better than our Wilhelmina in the interview?"
"I didn't say that, but will you allow me to maintain fairness as an interviewer?"
I was truly exasperated.
Since when did he dote on Wilhelmina like some besotted father?
I've read novels before, so I know that when a father treats his daughter coldly and then suddenly tries to be kind based on her usefulness, a price must be paid.
Regret and a tumultuous path.
Watching Duke Lopez smile with that slick expression, I decided that once the interview schedule ended, I would send Wilhelmina Lopez a carefully curated collection of family drama stories.
"Besides, if we keep dragging this out, they'll just try to slip away even more. Could you wrap this up?"
"My apologies. Naturally, a conversation with Salice Advisor would take priority over this."
He certainly had a way with words, smooth as silk.
As befitted the Duke Lopez's House, which had maintained such a firm grip on diplomatic affairs all these years.
"In a situation like this, spending time on you feels like a terrible waste, but since Salice Advisor's time is even more precious, I should wrap up this guessing game quickly."
"No matter what you say, my only crime is causing a disturbance in front of the Imperial Palace."
"Well, if you're a shameless fake baron's son who wrote down twenty-eight as your age, then I suppose that's all."
At Duke Lopez's words, the man calling himself John (28 years old, alias) stiffened momentarily.
"Again, mere words without evidence don't make something true."
But at what came next, Duke Lopez couldn't help himself and let out a short laugh.
"That phrase really got to you, didn't it? Repeating it like a parrot. You should have done better—attached some actual evidence or proper logic to what you're saying now, for instance."
"...I truly don't understand what you're saying."
"You don't need to. You'll remember soon enough. I searched for you for such a very long time—I was so delighted I nearly wept."
Yet you're laughing far too much for that to be true.
You're clearly playing the villain here.
The more Duke Lopez speaks, the more this man called John withers like neglected cabbage, struggling to maintain his composure.
Of course, I had no intention of stopping him.
"It's been a long time, deposed prince of Basmakh."
"You've mistaken me—"
"Or should I call you the petty fool who, blinded by power, drove your half-sister to her death?"
Duke Lopez's words, delivered with cutting precision as his smile vanished, shattered what little composure the deposed prince had managed to maintain.
Duke Lopez turned to the deposed prince of Basmakh—who now stared at him with eyes screaming how he'd discovered this—and spoke slowly, each word deliberate.
"That's why I told you that you can't read situations or understand cause and effect. Gilad Basmarh, you conscienceless forty-nine-year-old."
"Evidence, I—"
"Unlike you, Salice Advisor knows how to see the full context and has organized everything cleanly."
At Duke Lopez's words, the deposed prince's gaze turned toward me.
The Duke simply corrected what the deposed prince had said.
"So the person who failed to do their job properly isn't Salice Advisor—it's me. You fake twenty-something."
He didn't bother hiding his displeasure that someone his age was masquerading as a young man.
*
In the original story, the circumstances behind Basmach Concubine's fall from her horse were never prominently revealed.
Therefore, even after the culprit behind Roselita Salice's abduction was captured, the fact that he was Gilad Basmarh was never exposed.
His identity became known only as a twenty-eight-year-old man named John.
In the original story, a man with streaked hair had lured Roselita Salice to a banquet where he could not help but appear.
It just so happened that Roselita Salice's parents had temporarily returned to the Salice Barony during that banquet period, and he seized the opportunity to coerce her by threatening their lives.
Mere days after they departed by train, with no way to verify anything as far as the distant Salice Barony, she headed to the banquet hall even knowing it was a trap.
But at the venue were not only Roselita Salice, but also the First and Second Concubines who maintained good relations with the Emperor, along with their princes.
'Since things have come to this, I must tell you—a letter arrived threatening to expose our secret. It even contained specific details.'
'I truly had no choice.'
'But if I had known it would come to this... it would have been better to simply have the secret exposed.'
Lured by reasons they could not help but understand, they faced an even more tragic reality.
Of course, Original Roselita and the others did not die—they survived.
It was thanks to Original Roselita having left a cipher known only to herself with Samuel Motty, her loyal information merchant guild master, as a precaution.
However, by the time Cassian Artez arrived to rescue her after tracking her down in cooperation with Samuel Motty, it was already....
'What is this.... Why are Joel and the others like this?'
Even Cassian Artez, who had endured countless battlefields, was left speechless.
The Fourth Prince had sustained a severe injury to one leg while protecting his mother and younger brother, and even the usually vibrant Sixth Prince Joel had lost his words and laughter to shock.
'It is alright, Cassian Artez. Everyone has survived like this.'
The Second Concubine spoke with measured composure, yet everyone could perceive the truth beneath her words.
How much she must be suffering.
This was one of the reasons I had postponed facing the trial.
Abduction and threats to life?
Such matters could be prevented beforehand, but the problem lay in the danger that might befall others in the process.
Thus, the moment we discovered this person's name in the application, we made our position crystal clear to the Imperial Harem and the princes.
No matter what temptations might come, even if they appeared to be truth, we urged them to trust the Winter Palace and wait.
Indeed, Empress Trisha and the First Concubine had informed us that the very crisis we had feared had come to pass.
I was deeply grateful that we had spent so much time building trust.
They chose to believe in us and report the matter rather than fall prey to manipulation.
Afterward, I began to suspect Joel as I retraced the original narrative, noting how he had revealed his motive—that he had been discriminated against due to his status.
Even Original Roselita had found it strange when she heard his justification that he resented how a man had elevated his station through a fortunate match.
The reason was simple: all of his targets were people in conflict with Scarlett Jamoti.
However, in the original story, due to the Imperial Knights' careless restraint, Joel had rushed at Scarlett Jamoti to kill her and was executed on the spot.
As a result, Scarlett had completely cleared herself of suspicion.
But this place, this moment, was entirely different from that time.
Samuel Motty, who had never engaged in wrongdoing and had conducted himself as a legitimate merchant guild master, had failed to properly track Joel.
'Ah, the previous master had mentioned receiving a strange request once.'
The current criminal Samuel Motty, who had engaged in countless misdeeds and had even inherited the Dark Guild, was different.
'There was someone who asked to change their entire appearance without asking any questions. Of course, without asking anything, I just followed them and kept records in the ledger.'
And so the deposed prince Gilad Basmarh, who had altered his age and appearance to live in hiding, was finally caught red-handed.
*
Of course, the deposed prince was reluctant to accept my explanation.
"An Imperial official using information from the underworld?"
Anticipating exactly this response, I had already prepared a countermeasure in consultation with Duke Lopez.
"I thought you would say that, so I brought a guest for you."
"A... guest?"
"Thank you, Gilad. Thanks to you, our Empire can resume trade with the Basmakh Kingdom."
None other than the current king of the Basmakh Kingdom—his own elder brother—had come to the Empire.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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