Chapter 184

Chapter 184: Chapter 183

Ober put the tilted cup down on the carriage table. When he looked at Shahar across the table, there was suspicion and a bit of annoyance in his ash eyes.

“It looks like you’ve heard the rumors in the street. Who is this guy Yurt?” Ober asked.

“Oh, it seems you don’t love her. Then, is she the woman you need for your interests?” Shahar asked.

“Well, If you love, you need her.”

“Hummm…. you thought you came to love the woman because you needed her.”

Shahar grinned. Be it coincidence or inevitability, his judgement of Ober was very accurate.

Ober clenched his jaw tightly. When he devised this plan, he predicted how Shahar would react, but he realized that Shahar was a very sophisticated guy when he sized him up in person. There was a faint but intense ambition behind Shahar’s gentle expression. Ober turned his mouth up, feeling a strong displeasure.

“I hear that the emperor loves her dearly. I wonder if he needs her all the more because he loves her. If he wants to embrace that woman with such a lousy reputation, he wouldn’t love her just because she is cute. Usually the members of the royal family bet their lives on their honor.”

“Of course most of them do, but what you are saying seems pretty contradictory.”

“Me? Well, I’m not in that league. My title is not proper enough to put me in a league in which I would value my honor more than anything else.”

While talking about himself, Shahar acted casually as if he were indifferent. However, there was still something significant in his seemingly banal words.

Karim, the current emperor of Faisal, took power after winning the bloody fight for succession. He killed not only his half-brothers but also his blood brothers in the process. After the terrible battle, Karim hoped that there would not be any more bloody fighting among his descendants. He believed that securing a firm successor in advance was the most efficient way to suppress the ambitions of the potential successors.

Accordingly, after Alessa’s first son, 1st Prince Rashid, was named as the crown prince, the imperial instructors taught Shahar that freedom and indulgence were more valuable than honor. Karim’s children born to his concubines were also taught the same.

Shahar naturally liked drawings more than books, women more than the sword, and alcohol more than the horse. Many of the pleasures and nightlife of the empire were his, but he couldn’t claim any justice or great cause. If anyone earned respect and fame that was great enough to challenge his authority as the next successor, that would be regarded as treason.

“Well, don’t you think the order of succession can be changed at any time? ”

Ober gave him a glass, saying something significant.

Shahar glanced at Ober, knitting his brows. After a moment of silence, he answered with a cheerful voice, “That’s funny. I like you, Ober, and that woman, too.” Ober frowned slightly at his reply.

He was Aslan’s foreign minister. Regardless of how many innocent people had to be killed before he took his position, his talent as the minister of foreign affairs was outstanding.

There was no one better than him in terms of identifying the diplomatic documents favorable to their own interests or mixing subtle words and the motivations of foreign envoys trying to take a handful more of land and wealth.

Based on his years of experience and long precedents, he discovered that the likes and dislikes of the imperial family of a country didn’t not necessarily mean simply good or bad.

In short, Ober knew that Shahar wanted to “own” Marianne.

“Marinane is going to be a very useful card in the future.”

“Now you tell me how you frankly feel about her. You love the value of the woman rather than the woman herself, right?”

“Sure, because her value is also part of her.”

“Really? Then, I’ll ask you one thing. Which is more important to you, that woman or my value?”

“How can I dare to compare her with your value? I think your suggestion is overkill.”

“Oh, you know that’s not what I mean, right?”

Feigning a smile, Ober clenched the glass in his hand. By nature, he would have pulled him out of the wagon and cut out his tongue, but Shahar was the one that the late Duke Hubble tried to promote as the next successor of Aslan instead of him. As long as Ober intended to use him as a card to achieve his goal, Ober couldn’t act recklessly. No matter how disgusting Shahar’s actions were, Ober had to curry favor with him. Until it became clear that Shahar was aiming at Faisal’s throne instead of Aslan’s, he was also a cumbersome relic that the late Duke Hubble left behind.

“Do you want to take her as booty?”

“Yes. I loved her at first sight. I like her clear eyes, her cheerful voice like the bird’s chirping, and her fair skin. I’ve slept with many pretty women, but she is the first woman I’ve ever wanted to have sit next to me. ” Shahar extolled the merits of Marianne in excitement.

While talking about her, he even had the nerve to evaluate the taste of the alcohol, which rubbed him the wrong way again.

“So, won’t you give her to me? Let me give you a new card that can meet all your needs instead of her.”

Ober did not answer rashly. His smooth fingers touched the cold surface of the glass.

He felt bad, looking at Shahar rolling his olive eyes, which exactly resembled the late Duke Hubble’s. Duke Hubble, Empress Alessa, Grand Duke Christopher, Duchess of Lamont, and her daughter, Rane… None of them who had olive eyes like Shahar made him happy.

“You know I have five sisters, right? It doesn’t matter whether they have been born to my mother or to my father’s concubines. All of them are single. Meet them in person later and pick one that you like. Maybe they will like you immediately. They know it’s much better to be the empress of Aslan than to marry the ordinary nobleman in Faisal. ”

Ober liked Shahar’s proposal very much.

Above all, he felt great about the fact that Shahar assumed him as the next emperor of Aslan. Furthermore, the woman Shahar had in mind in terms of exchanging Faisal’s princess was Marianne, which was a perfect solution.

Marianne was purely Ober’s card, nothing more or less, but Ober felt displeased that Shahar was coveting his card.

But could she continue to work for him even after she became Faisal’s empress?

“Well, Marianne won’t have any regrets even if she becomes Faisal’s empress. It will be much better for her if she gets married to a good man like you,” Ober said.

Would Marianne, who already betrayed Eckart, be afraid to betray her second husband?

Ober thought she would not. Her stupid love of him was blind. Ober was confident that he could degrade her as much as he wished. The brighter the color of the drawing paper, the more fantastically it would absorb dark paint. If he could persuade her well, he could have her poison the tea of the emperor of Aslan’s ally.

“Okay, I have no choice. Let me yield her to you. Instead, please keep your promise.”

“Sure. I am a man who keeps promises very well. You can trust me.”

Ober and Shahar laughed heartily, facing each other. The glasses in their hands made a clicking noise. The scent of premature celebratory drink wafted into the wagon.

* * *

The three wagons that left Ober’s mansion soon arrived at the late Duke Hubble’s mansion.

Elias and his wife, who had been informed beforehand, welcomed them. Ober introduced Shahar as Faisal’s nobleman Akad, and Elias received his condolences with a stern expression.

They brought up lots of memories of the late Duke Hubble, the same old stories and junk episodes about him.

“It’s a pity that a man with such a discerning eye like Duke Hubble died a sudden death,” said Shahar. He was serious. Actually, the late Duke Hubble recognized the desire that had been boiling in him earlier than his parents and brothers. Although he was in the same boat as Ober, who killed the late Duke Hubble, because things got screwed up he would not have come to this point if the late Duke Hubble had not recognized his ambition in the first place.

“I wish you rest in peace forever.” Shahar mourned with all his heart.

The moment he entered the private parlor of the mansion, he forgot everything.

His flexibility in any situation was one of his great advantages.

“Now, why don’t you tell us what you really want to say instead of your heartless words?”

Mrs. Chester gave an attractive smile, looking at the rest of them sitting at the table.

She sent the servants and maids down to the first floor earlier because it would be most beneficial to have as few people as possible when they discussed something secret.