Chapter 28

Translated by Wook

by Wook

This was the trap set by Isabelle.

As soon as the maid’s proof becomes a reality, Elisha will have to face tremendous condemnation.

People wouldn’t think that Stoneham was directly involved, but the fact that the 2nd Empress brought in items from the outside and that the record couldn’t be checked properly or the accusation that the fact might be stolen items were not a problem that could be easily overcome.

Now, even if someone tried to retrace the path that Marie, the maidservant of the 2nd Empress Palace, obtained, it would be of no use since the 1st Empress must have already wiped it out.

It was really childish.

But clever.

There’s no better way to incite people to the naked eye than this.

Besides, in the previous life, Elisha was not used to this kind of small trick.

It was also a method that would definitely work well for Elisha when she was around that age.

In other words, not now.

“Because I’ve been beaten so much in the past.”

Elisha, who muttered, looked at the maid and Isabelle, who were holding a box in her arms, alternately.

Then Elisha opened her mouth.

“Do you think the 2nd Empress Palace is related to this matter?”

“How great would it have been if you didn’t do that? Besides, I also didn’t want to make the matter this big. However, it was a pity that there was a problem with the gift that the Prince had prepared to save his mother’s face in front of everyone at this banquet. Surely we can’t just ignore the words of your maid, right? 2nd Empress?”

Isabelle’s voice, which flowed uninterrupted as if the speech was already prepared, was powerful and clear.

She thinks now that all that’s left is Elisha’s turn to be humiliated, she’s in such a good mood that it’s hard to put down her smirk.

“Do you trust that maid so much? Is the 1st Empress sure that the diamond necklace is with me?”

Isabelle thought she was going to have Elisha making her last stride.

As Isabelle glanced at the maid, who was kneeling on the floor, the maid nodded her head up and down, convincing herself of what was inside.

Isabelle will save her life no matter what the outcome. Unlike with the 2nd Empress, if the maid goes wrong, she will die right away, so how can she lie?

“Since it is like this, wouldn’t it be worth checking it out?”

As Isabelle reached out her hand to the maid, the maid approached on her knees and placed the box on top of her hand.

Isabelle, who lifted the box, looked towards the Emperor.

The inside of the banquet hall was filled with Isabelle’s supporters from the beginning, so it was exciting for them.

They must be clapping their hands inwardly saying that this is the highlight that the 1st Empress mentioned…

But no one knew how the Emperor felt.

Isabelle, who was afraid that he might be offended by the sudden event that took place regardless of his will, looked at him, but he didn’t look any different.

The beautiful man, who was still silent and whose expression could not be read, only watched with the face of an onlooker, as if implying it to continue.

With all the eyes on Isabelle’s fingertips, she opened the lid of the box and flipped it open.

Click!

The moment the inside of the box was exposed under the light, it sparkled dazzlingly.

“Wow!”

“It really is!”

“Is it really the 2nd Empress?”

In the midst of the pouring exclamation and astonishment, Elisha stood still.

Isabelle’s eyes twinkled, thinking to see how far she could go… Hmm?

It was strange.

She paused and widened her eyes as Isabelle reached for the necklace in the box.

Ripples in her green eyes grew in disbelief.

Isabelle tried to shove the box quickly behind her back, but she couldn’t.

Elisha was one step faster and stronger.

Elisha put her hand inside the box and pulled out the necklace.

Tsaruk. The golden cords are stretched downwards.

The heaviest diamond decoration wobbled at the bottom.

Whenever the large diamond moves left or right, the light is reflected and shards are scattered around it.

It was said that the 2nd Prince was very concerned about such a large jewel, but everyone felt the strange atmosphere between Elisha and Isabelle, so they kept their mouths shut.

As Elisha held out the necklace to Isabelle, Isabelle bit her lip and reached out her hand to grab it.

At that moment, Elisha loosened the strength of the hand holding her necklace.

Sreuk. The necklace, which had escaped from Elisha, fell to the floor as Isabelle’s outstretched hand passed.

Chaeng-kang!

And the sound of something breaking resounded in the banquet hall.

A real diamond will not shatter and lay on the floor in pieces with a sound that should never be heard like that.

As if expensive champagne had been spilled, Elisha’s feet stepped out onto the powder of light that flowed under her feet.

The powder was crumbling and smashed under the feet.

Elisha walked closer to Isabelle, leaving footprints like stepping on the snow, and looked down at her, who was shorter than her.

“If that’s really the diamond necklace that the 2nd Prince prepared, does that mean that the 2nd Prince prepared a fake? You should also check out the other gems in the gift box. Maybe what the 2nd Prince prepared was not a gift, but a joke, but the 1st Empress misunderstood and made the situation like this.”

It was as if they were just exchanging a story that didn’t really matter when she handed over the obvious ridicule so casually.

It felt more insulting to Isabelle, who was listening to her.

“No. Everything prepared by the 2nd Prince is real.”

“If it is so, it looks like it doesn’t belong to the 2nd Prince. Isn’t it?”

Elisha ran her from top to bottom, just like Isabelle did to her.

Then, in the middle, she stopped her gaze at Isabelle’s slender neck.

Isabelle wanted to overthrow her immediately, but she was in a bad mood.

If she asks to search the 2nd Empress Palace, the real thing will come out. There’s nothing she can’t use to force that woman to agree, but…

Those indifferent blue eyes.

Those eyes that are staring at her are ominous.

Again, Isabelle hesitated because she thought there would be a result that would upset her mind.

Above all else, the eyes of the banquet attendees looking at her are not unusual, and if she persists, not only herself, but also Stoneham will be ridiculed.

“That’s right… That… That maid seems to have misunderstood…”

She blamed the maid, and Elisha did not dig into it further.

Because she doesn’t know what Isabelle will do if she gets too cornered.

Still…

“The maid of the 2nd Empress Palace was worried about their master going to the banquet hall without any decorations. I got it from somewhere, but left it in the end. If I knew it would cause such a misunderstanding, I would’ve thrown it away. It’s a pity that the 2nd Prince’s banquet, which the 1st Empress had prepared with all her heart and soul, had cooled down due to such a fuss.”

She should say something like this.

Isabelle’s complexion across her face grew worse as Elisha wagged her tongue, but that’s it.

However, her anger, which was barely fluttering, was so full that even a little more would overflow and spill everywhere.

If Isabelle stops, Elisha has no intention of touching her anymore.

This was also the last part of the plan that Elisha, who received jewelry from unknown sources for the first time, used as a trick to clean up afterwards.

It would have been rather confusing if only one diamond necklace had come, but as the other items came together into the Imperial Palace, Elisha was able to think of the banquet that was going to be held soon, and thanks to that, the rest was easy to guess.

At first, Elisha thought she would wear a fake necklace and attend the banquet, but Isabelle is a noble woman whose father is the richest man in the family.

There’s no way she doesn’t recognize a fake made of glass.

Since the real diamond has just disappeared, she thought that if she pretended that there was no necklace at all, she would get caught in trouble…

In that case, Elisha hid a fake necklace in the 2nd Empress Palace and left it deliberately undisclosed, so when Isabelle found it there, she could use her tricks.

Isabelle saw the empty neck of Elisha as she looked at her and sneered at her for not having her necklace on, noticing the situation.

However, she didn’t care because she had heard from the maid in advance that the necklace was in the 2nd Empress Palace, so she just had to bring it out at the right time.

No, she must have laughed louder inwardly.

She only escaped danger once, now she’s raising her head firmly thinking it’s okay.

Elisha honestly thought it was fortunate to stop here.

Isabelle couldn’t really throw away a real diamond in an impoverished place like Elisha’s 2nd Empress Palace, and there was no circumstance that it was thrown out.

Since the diamond had already turned to dust and can never be found, Isabelle, angry while looking for it, will pour her anger on Elisha at once.

Elisha did not yet have the strength to wage an all-out war with the Eastern nobles, including the 1st Empress.

While it is unclear whether Isabelle’s sense of humor or Elisa’s luck is unknown, the situation suddenly takes a turn that nobody expects.

“Aaaaah!”

It was the maid of the 2nd Empress Palace, who had uttered her screams, kneeling on her knees and shoving her head to the floor.

The fact that Elisha did not manage her subordinates properly and contributed to the rise of a conflict could have greatly reduced Elisha’s face.

Elisha looked down at the handmaiden with her cool eyes, without emotion.

She has been picking them out, but the rotten roots in the 2nd Empress Palace have not yet been thinned out.

The handmaiden looks up at Elisha resentfully.

No one knew why her gaze towards Elisha was more fierce than the 1st Empress who abandoned her.

The maid shouted as she swung her index finger up and pointed to Elisha.

“The 2nd Empress is summoning demons!”

At that moment, most of those gathered in the banquet hall remembered the same thing.

Today’s banquet will be talked about for a really long time.

Even if one looks back quite a bit in the past, not just recently, there has never been such a worst banquet.

“It is true! Your Majesty the 1st Empress, you’ve heard about it too, right? Something strange is suddenly happening in the 2nd Empress Palace. In the middle of the night there is a sound of splashing water, the garden is wet, and suddenly a child’s face pops out of a cup suddenly…”

The explanation was specific.

Moreover, the maid was not the only one who witnessed various incidents in the 2nd Empress Palace.

“It really is. Has the 1st Empress heard of it?”

The maid looked up eagerly to the 1st Empress, asking her to sympathize with her.

Isabelle immediately recalled the report she had received a while ago without thinking.

It was nonsense, so she snorted over it, but hearing it like this felt weird.

The fear that appears on the maid’s face at first glance is too clear to be seen as just a way to avoid a crisis that is imminent.

So, is it true?

Once she began to have doubts, she thought about the sudden change of the 2nd Empress.

At about the same time, the eyes of those who were in the banquet hall are focused on Elisha.

“It’s going to be a needlessly long banquet.”

Elisha stroked her silver hair back lightly and clicked her tongue.

Translator’s note:

I changed a few sentences because it’s hard to understand when translated into English. Believe me it’s way worse before.

Okay, so, as usual, my short take on this chapter.

Remember the three gems of sapphire, diamond, and pearl that Marie got for Elisha in Chapter 23? It was mentioned that “it is a transaction that cannot be made without someone’s plan in mind…”

So, the pearl was given by Countess Jaylene to intimidate Elisha.

And the diamond was given by our prissy Isabelle here to trap Elisha.

This chapter is basically explaining that since the diamond is destroyed in Elisha’s experiment, Elisha had to use a fake diamond and put it back into the box, because, if the diamond just disappeared completely, it will invite more trouble from Isabelle, because Isabelle won’t want to leave something as precious as a diamond to the “impoverished 2nd Palace”.

As mentioned, Elisha is not strong enough to beat the Eastern and Isabelle’s power.

Like this, Elisha is just borrowing Isabelle’s trick to trick her back, by stating non-explicitely that the fake diamond is Elisha’s and that she did not know a shit about Isabelle’s diamond. Isabelle herself won’t claim the (fake) diamond in 2nd Empress Palace as hers, because that means acknowledging that the 2nd Prince has prepared a fake diamonds for his mother, which will make Isabelle loses face.

Yup, I explained 10+ fancy looking paragraphs into 2 simple ones. You’re welcome.