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The Villainess Lives Twice (Web Novel) - Chapter 278
Chapter 278
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Cobb looked carefully into the bedroom.
He had a new bed sheet in his arms. If there were any knights or servants of the Crown Prince faction in the bedroom, he had to take other measures.
Even the chief attendant was an opponent that could not be reassured.
Cobb wasn’t actively suspicious of the chief attendant. Although the chief attendant did not like Lawrence, he cared for the Emperor faithfully until his death.
He was lucky. The chief attendant was absent.
Cobb cautiously stepped inside.
He mobilized all his might for this moment.
Cobb’s personal connections inside and outside the Imperial Palace, as well as informants recruited by other secret investigators, and weaknesses of individual members of the Guards were all used.
He wasn’t the only one. For this task, Count Brennan and the other noble families took out spies planted in the Imperial palace.
[“It’s an influence that I have built over decades. You must succeed.”]
The old raccoons shrugged like that. It was a sound that Cobb couldn’t help but snort at.
If the Crown Prince ascended to the throne, they would be wiped out anyway. Can Marquis Rosan come to power and leave them alone?
But anyway, they have been a big help now.
The Emperor sat up by his curtain.
His face is severely swollen and his complexion is dark. But in his pupils inside his wrinkled eyes, the light of intelligence did not disappear.
Cobb walked over to him, put down the bed linen, and knelt down on his knees.
“Cobb.”
The Emperor took a deep breath. He tried to clench and open his fist, but it didn’t work.
“Your Majesty, I have something to tell you, so I visited you secretly.”
Cobb whispered in a low voice.
“Where did Bertholdt go?”
The Emperor asked about it. Bertholdt has been guarding the bedroom since this afternoon.
After the chief attendant left, he saw that Bertholdt was nowhere to be seen.
Cobb replied politely,
“He is guarding the door.”
The Emperor’s lips twisted.
If he had been in good health, he would have laughed. But now he couldn’t even control his own expression.
“You have taken the guy?”
“Forgive me. Your Majesty. Sir Bertholdt is Your Majesty’s loyal servant.”
“A loyal servant who dared to bring in an unauthorized person while guarding my bedroom.”
The Emperor thought perhaps threats were mobilized.
Cedric believed so too, so he had made Bertholdt an escort to this bedroom.
And Bertholdt, whom the Emperor knew, was not a human enough to participate in the conspiracy of the opposite faction, as long as he was obedient to the next power, the Crown Prince.
He would have been inclined to Cedric as a soldier and a knight, even mentally.
‘Did his daughter, who married Count Eison’s son, a collateral?’
Child. It’s always been children that mattered.
The Emperor looked at Cobb with hazy eyes. Cobb said,
“Forgive me. How can I not know that I am a sinner? However, with access to the Imperial Palace being severely restricted, and even the roads to inform Your Majesty of important matters were blocked, we had no choice but to ask him of something important.”
“…….”
“Your Majesty is imprisoned by Grand Duke Evron. He has committed treason.”
“…… Who does not know it.”
said the Emperor as if squeezing it out. Cobb continued,
“I am not talking about this, Your Majesty. I am here to tell you that the treason case between Princess Floella and Leopric Evron in the past is not over.”
“What……?”
“At the time, some of the rebels who managed to escape and those involved who should have been punished went into hiding and created a village.”
said Cobb.
“Even if the Grand Duke himself was young at the time of its creation, the village has been maintained to this day. Even before Your Majesty restored the mastermind, he made friends by visiting the village. Many of his close associates are from that village.”
“Kuhk.”
The Emperor took a deep breath and made a strange noise. His chest tightened.
Still, Cobb didn’t stop talking.
“So is Baron Morten Heir Apparent, the Grand Duchess’ lady-in-waiting. Baron Morten was not directly involved in the treason at the time, but he assisted in the escape, after which he took charge of the village’s management and external relations under the Grand Duke’s order.”
Even then, the Emperor still had half faith.
He doesn’t think Cedric was unaware of all this; Ferguson’s betrayal, his court servants fired, and the watchman attached.
But if the Emperor tried to understand, he could understand it.
Recruiting an intelligence organization was the first thing he should have done.
He tried to contain Cedric before he fell, so he was anxious and afraid to be watched himself.
It is the current power struggle. The Emperor was furious, but he took it as a challenge, not a betrayal.
Even if he took power, he was the Crown Prince in the end.
But this was a betrayal.
It hurt like the Emperor had been cut in the stomach.
He thought Cedric had learned to compromise and understand power. He chose the power of the present over the grudges of the past.
So he thought he could compromise.
He also believed that Cedric would not have completely lost the straightness of his nature. Human nature doesn’t change that easily.
But maybe he didn’t know that the judgment itself was wrong.
When he started to doubt, everything became suspicious.
Some believed that fortune had reached Cedric, and some thought that Lawrence and Roygar had done something foolish to earn their downfall.
After facing various problems, did he not compromise with reality, but he was doing his best to aim for the throne from the beginning?
Did he continue to act straight in order to get revenge?
If so, then all of this happened not for the sake of power, but for the resolution of resentment.
It was unacceptable.
Where is the guarantee that the moment the Emperor dies, Cedric doesn’t define himself as a usurper?
Who can guarantee that the Emperor will not be removed from the lineage of the Imperial Family at all, and will instead honor his mother as empress?
He was not a usurper.
The Emperor’s crown was his, though he may be a greedy villain and a traitor to some.
He risked his life and threw himself into the struggle for power. The Emperor’s crown was the spoils, heaped up with hard work and luck, blood and bones.
It was unacceptable to see Floella, who was only born in such a place, be allowed to take over because of her ancestry.
The Emperor knew that Floella was neither a sinner nor a competitor. His little sister was innocent and fragile.
But her existence alone symbolized the totality of all that Gregor had fought up to that point.
That is why he wanted Lawrence to inherit it, even if it was a little too much.
Only when he made his own choice and made a new line of Imperial Family would he be the only real Emperor left in the dynasty.
But after all, it’s not his adopted son who sits in the Crown Prince’s seat, but Floella’s son.
Is revenge the purpose?
The Emperor’s chest rose and fell.
“Your Majesty.”
Cobb called the Emperor, who was staring into the air.
He was not interested in how this would affect the critically ill Emperor.
Because the master he served was no longer the Emperor.
Most importantly, this would anger the Emperor.
“Your Majesty, please grant me the Imperial order.”
Cobb said strongly,
“Your Majesty’s loyal servants are waiting for the Imperial order. We have prepared everything so that we can subdue the traitor the moment you give the order.”
“Haa.”
“The loyalty of the military is not dead yet. Sir Lawrence eagerly awaits the words from Your Majesty.”
Cobb said so.
He didn’t think he was lying. Eventually that’s what it’s all about.
Lawrence was worthy as the Emperor.
The Emperor smirked at those words. He was thirsty with feeble expectations.
“Lawrence, is he here?”
“Yes. Your Majesty’s call did not arrive, but Sir Lawrence came to the Capital a few months ago.”
Cobb said eagerly.
“Sir Lawrence has changed. Your Majesty. No longer Lord Lawrence in his immature days.”
The Emperor did not believe all of that.
It will be different as he gets older. He kept watching Lawrence with such hope. However, people did not change easily.
“Do you serve Lawrence?”
“I am Your Majesty’s servant.”
“I am not trying to scold you. The most disappointing thing about me sending Lawrence away was that he didn’t make a decent follower of his own.”
The Emperor mumbled like a self-talk.
“But…… Enough to enlist one of my investigators.”
It was never enough.
Perhaps, most of those who played tricks outside aren’t loyal to Lawrence. All they need is a center point.
But the Emperor closed his eyes to that fact.
It was never good for future generations to give the noble the experience of overthrowing the government by force with an unorthodox figurehead.
What has been gathered, in all likelihood, will be the most greedy ones.
Even the Emperor knew.
He used such people because he had the confidence to control them. It was also possible because the Emperor’s power was already strong.
“…….”
The Emperor stared at the carving on the roof of the bed for a moment.
The relief of the golden sun rising in the center of the sky looked down on him as if looking down at all things.
Gregor was neither a mature man nor a wise man. He belonged to the rather ugly class of men, and he knew it himself.
If he was in a higher place than others, it was because he had a greater desire than anyone else.
“Bring the paper. Write down what I am telling you, and do it.”
Taking the paper and pen that Cobb had prepared beforehand, he dictated what the Emperor said.
The Emperor settled there.
“Go.”
Cobb bowed down and stepped back.
The door closed, and soon it was quiet again.
The Emperor looked at the ceiling of the bed again for a moment, then closed his eyes.
He was so tired that he was dizzy.
＊＊＊
Even at night, the palace was lit up brightly.
The knights had strangely hard faces. Mielle did not know about the speculation, but she only felt the atmosphere of the Palace was strange.
“What happened?”
Torch blaring from afar. Ansgar said,
“Nothing big will happen.”
“Yes…….”
“Tonight, Miss Mielle and Miss Hazel can sleep here.”
Saying so, he closed the curtain.
trust me, but the next chapters will be very gripping!
