CH 58

Returning to the main palace and his own study, Raymond turned to the butler.

“Marquis Paren left for his estate?”

He completely forgot Paren’s very existence when he hurried out of the office.

At that moment, he didn’t notice anyone or anything around him.

Now, since sunset was already approaching, the Emperor thought that tomorrow he should summon the Marquis to a new audience, and was going to send a small gift to him on the estate.

However, the butler’s answer didn’t match Raymond’s suggestion.

“No. He is still waiting for Your Majesty in the office.”

“Still… waiting?”

Raymond entered his office, wearing a mask of indifference on his face, which after all was colored with complex emotions.

Marquis Paren, who was sitting on the sofa, got up and tried to say hello to him.

“It’s okay. Please sit,“ Raymond said.

When the Marquis sat down, the butler placed hot tea in front of them.

Instead of reaching for the cup, the Emperor turned his head to the Marquis.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. I went to… I was very busy. ”

“I was just waiting here for Your Majesty. Is something happened?”

Marquis Paren looked at Raymond innocently, as if he couldn’t add two plus two. Raymond laughed.

“Nothing happened. I said it without thinking.”

“So, can I report on the process now?”

“Speak.”

“The testimony of Count Barten’s servant saved the Duke from the chopping block. According to the servant, Count Barten and Viscount Metas conspired to frame the Duke, and Count Barten partially pleaded guilty.”

“Partially?”

“That’s right. The count admitted that he had slandered the Duke, but stated that everything had happened under the blackmail of Viscount Metas.”

“Was the Count threatened by a simple viscount?”

“I also can’t believe that one simple viscount threatened the count, but Viscount Metas is dead… The servant also said that he had never heard Count Barten directly declare how eager he was to deal with the Duke.”

Raymond frowned.

On the positive side, the Duke’s innocence was established, but in the end it was annoying that the thread was cut off on the murdered Metas.

It makes no sense that the Count was threatened by the Viscount, and it makes no sense that this was all planned by Viscount Metas and Count Barten.

“What did Count Barten do? How did he confess?”

“He screamed, cried and crawled on the floor. He insisted that he was threatened, that he couldn’t do anything, but… he didn’t deny his involvement. It looked as if he was going to court, ready to confess.”

The confession of this fool only reinforced the belief in his role as only a humble performer.

Count Barten would never have thought of such a thing.

Marquis Sios.

Did you smell the catch in advance and surrender a pawn to me?

If so, it won’t be easy to bring the Marquis to justice.

“And, Your Majesty. There was such a commotion in court today.”

Raymond, lost in thought, suddenly turned to the Marquis.

“Some troubles?”

“Well, a commotion. With Ellie Croft’s appearing.”

“What’s happened?”

When Ellie was mentioned, Raymond’s eyes grew sharp.

“There’s no big deal… It’s just that Lady Croft made a big donation to the Empire.”

“Donation?”

Raymond’s eyebrows went up at the unexpected words.

“A whopping 4 000 gold was delivered directly to the courtroom and donated. Such a large sum… Rumors will live on about such a spectacle for a long time to come,” said Marquis Paren with a smile. But Raymond didn’t smile with him.

“4 000 gold…?”

In no way could it happen that their family had an extra four thousand gold.

The Croft family were, in fact, the most prominent house of the Empire, but they didn’t enjoy such incredible success in terms of money.

Duke Croft lived an ascetic life and, moreover, didn’t flaunt his fortune.

Even if he sold his estate, where would the four thousand come from?

And Ellie didn’t claim property after the divorce.

After all, she left everything and ran away. Even clothes, jewelry and shoes were still gathering dust in the palace.

Where does this money come from? At that moment, Raymond remembered the young merchant he had met last night.

The man said he runs the Phoenix branch. He was with Ellie, and then he disappeared.

“Those flushed faces of the nobility were really worth seeing. And all thanks to the Lady Croft’s game.”

Marquis Paren laughed, as if he was happy to the core.

“As a result, the money went to the treasury?”

“Right. And thanks to the young lady, our leaky budget was filled. Now no one can claim that the Duke is responsible for the damage, even if he was slandered.”

No one other than Lady Croft donated money. So the mouths of annoying nobles will shut up for a while.

“So one fire has been extinguished. You did a good job today. May I ask for one more favor while you are in the capital?”

Marquis Paren said, as if he had already guessed what the request would be:

“Do you want me to lead the investigation against Count Barten?”

Raymond laughed in the Marquis’s keen eyes.

“Yes. I no longer trust the investigators in the Croft case.”

If they had dig deeper in their investigation, these four months of fuss would not have come out.

Everyone in the group must have been handy to Marquis Sios.

I had no idea at the time that Marquis Sios was aiming at Croft, but I won’t repeat the same mistake twice.

“Okay. Let’s finish for today.”

The red sunset outside the window went out, and darkness fell.

“Then I have to go, sire.”

Marquis Paren said goodbye and left the office.

Raymond ordered the butler.

“Tell Carter to stop fussing and come to me in the morning.”

“Sire.”

The butler left the office. Raymond was left alone.

In peace and quiet, he took a deep breath and buried his face in the sofa.

“Ellie.”

She returned, but his anxiety didn’t calm down in the least. Rather, only his thirst grew.

I only came to my senses after you left.

I couldn’t say that because I didn’t care.

He called her name in a trembling voice and soon closed his eyes in disappointment.

Did I miss her so much even though I didn’t care about her?

* * *

Ellie looked up from her desk and saw the landscape outside the dark window.

There was still a lot of work to do, but she felt it was time to finish today.

I pulled the string and called the butler. Door opened.

“They called Milady.”

“As I sign these papers, send them tomorrow.”

“Yes, Milady.”

“In addition, all the confiscated property assigned to the peasants will be released within a few days at the latest, and you can pay them their salaries in advance using the money I gave in the day… Is it okay for the butler to resolve such issues?”

“Since the Duke’s assistant deigned to hastily retire after the crisis that overtook us, I took upon myself the urgent questions.”

When the incident broke out, all of the Duke’s property was frozen. So, naturally, half of the workers quit and left.

Everyone thought the Duke’s fate was already decided, so I didn’t want to impute their guilt to them.

In this situation, I was grateful to the butler and the maids who remained.

“Then report everything to me, not to my father.”

For now, I will work as my father’s representative and take over all the work.

“And… During this time, you have had a lot of problems, butler.”

I smiled and slipped the pouch into his pocket.

“A small gesture of gratitude. Share with the maids.”

The butler saw a pocket full of gold and widened his eyes.

Not surprising, because there was his salary for ten years.