The Villainess Lives Twice

Numerous things happened during the night.

However, the nobles of Grand Duke Roygar faction were not completely unbothered.

It was impossible to prevent the envoy party member from being dragged away.

However, in the case of those who were simply sending in a distant relative or employee of a collateral, the procedure for obtaining a confession was waiting.

Of course, if they were taken to the Emperor’s investigator, it was only a matter of time.

“In broad daylight, the body of a dignified count, gathered like a mouse, what is this?”

Count Lesden came in wearing a gray hood and sighed.

Count Brennan, who had provided the place, invited him to sit down without a word.

He was the last to attend the meeting.

Count Lesden looked around the audience and said,

“There are many who have not come.”

“If they weren’t taken to the Imperial Palace, it would be either a betrayer or an escapee.”

“I checked in the morning just to be sure, and Count Luther was taken away.”

Even after reading what Count Brennan wrote, he said so with a distorted face as if he had chewed it.

“County Luther is a mess right now. It is said that the investigators shoved their feet into the ground and overturned the Count’s study and bedroom.”

“What about the family?”

“The Count’s Heir Apparent and his second daughter were taken together. The youngest son seems to have run away. Both the elderly Grand Madam and the Madam were detained in their guest rooms.”

Everyone on the spot seemed to be in shock.

Count Luther was not like a small noble who had lost his authority. He was a venerable family among the Eastern nobility.

“What a tyrant…….”

“Has Grand Duke Roygar returned?”

“He hasn’t come back yet. His Majesty seems to be just saying that he will hold him in the Imperial Palace and we’ll find out soon.”

said someone who was trying to contact him.

“It cannot be like this. He claimed that he was acting as if he was the Emperor, but His Majesty did not show any evidence.”

“It’s absurd that he was talking about a foreign country. Didn’t the Grand Duke just bring the results of the negotiations as a special envoy into the written agreement?”

“At the beginning, when he went to the South as a special envoy, it was promised that he would come back having diplomatic relations with small countries, and His Majesty himself said that he was also looking forward to it!”

“The identity of the accuser is also unclear!”

The one who said that stared at Marchioness Camellia.

Considering Ian’s association with Camellia, they were suspicious of Marchioness Camellia.

“If Ian Camellia, with his grudge against me, got involved in this, does that matter? He wasn’t the main culprit in the conspiracy, anyway.”

said Marchioness Camellia.

The crowd was quiet again. It was because they were thinking about the main culprit of the conspiracy.

Marchioness Camellia had other thoughts on one side of her head.

Ironically, Marchioness Camellia was the least accused of treason among them.

She did not send any of her people as a delegation with the envoy. She sent her daughter as the lady-in-waiting, but she could not be the suspect, as it was the daughter who was the accuser.

Of course, those who attended this meeting did not know, yet.

Her mind was also confused as to whether she should hide this or not.

Perhaps, it was Skyla who had used Ian as the accuser.

If Skyla decides to survive by giving in to Artizea and betraying her, it must also be Skyla who finds evidence of the treason and hands it over to Ian.

It hurt Marchioness Camellia more than anything else.

Making Skyla an impeccable and ruthless Marquis has been Marchioness Camellia’s lifelong goal.

It was the greatest sign of Marchioness Camellia’s love for her daughter, and it was also the desire to fulfill her own dream through her daughter.

But then her daughter herself held hands with Ian.

With Ian, Skyla’s legitimacy is bound to be compromised no matter what.

Even if she survives, besides,

‘Once a stigma is put on it, it never goes away.’

She will be branded a lady-in-waiting who betrayed her mistress, just as she cannot remove from herself the stigma that she was the illegitimate child born from a maid.

Marchioness Camellia was as tormented as if grinding her five internal organs in the millstone. Bitter water came up inside her stomach without a break, and the food didn’t go over well.

She knew Skyla and she understood why Skyla made such a choice. For Skyla, it was a choice to protect her family, and she had also guessed that it was a decision Skyla made because she loved her mother.

But betrayal is betrayal. Skyla made that choice even though she knew what Marchioness Camellia wanted the most.

This betrayal has no value. Far from making her pay with revenge, she had to protect Skyla.

And it’s not just what she wanted to do, it’s something she gives in return for the other person’s heart, as Skyla did.

However, no matter how much she loves or is loved, in the end, she realizes that her child is not her own alter ego, but a separate human being.

At Count Brennan’s question, Marchioness Camellia tried to concentrate.

“How is Her Grace?”

“It’s because they haven’t invaded the Grand Duke’s mansion yet; she’s just nervous. So I’ll go back there when the meeting is over.”

After that, she was silent again for a moment.

The level-headed Viscount Hamelton said,

“For now, let’s all go together and protest to His Majesty. Perhaps, His Majesty does not really plan to purge Grand Duke Roygar.”

“Umm…….”

Shouts erupted from everywhere. No one agreed.

“Even if His Majesty does not purge the Grand Duke, there is no guarantee that he will leave us alone.”

Count Lesden spoke on behalf of everyone’s feelings.

The Emperor cannot miss this opportunity.

They were the great landowners of the East and were the de facto local rulers.

The Emperor has long struggled with them over the question of supremacy in the East. There had never been a justification like now, so there was no way he could just skip it.

Perhaps, he was conspiring treason for that.

“But, what are you going to do if you don’t do what I say? Are you really going to assemble an army and start treason for real?”

“It will be a rebellion, not treason.”

said the militant Count Brennan.

There were quite a few who flinched. They were all people who thought about it at least once.

And one of them said,

“Let’s not talk nonsense. Where is the guarantee that there will be no more traitors?”

Then, the room was filled with silence again.

Rebellion was realistically unlikely.

If they had military power, a civil war would have erupted in no time.

However, the policy that the imperial family has pursued most strongly for hundreds of years has been the abolition of the private army of the nobility.

They still held vast amounts of money and had countless privileges.

It wasn’t even a sin to kill people one by one. It was natural that nobles with titles would not be punished unless they were committing blasphemy against the imperial family or treason.

But they could not have armies. Only Grand Duchy Evron, the shield of the Empire, could own the Northern Army as an exception. Nevertheless, only a limited number of knights were able to operate on the central.

“But it can’t be like this, can it? Do you want us to go to the Imperial Palace and beg for mercy like the common people?”

“How about the escort troops used by each family?”

“Even if we hold to the maximum limit, there will be around fifty people. Even if we gather all the escorts of the families gathered here, it will be less than five thousand.”

If they mobilize all servants and merchant employees, and hire thugs, they can fill the number plausibly.

But they can’t help with weapons. Swords and spears were available, but gunpowder weaponries were limited to pistols and shotguns at best.

It was completely impossible to supply and demand large quantities of gunpowder.

Even if that were the case, how could they possibly rebel against the Emperor’s army?

They didn’t forget. In the past, Grand Duchy Evron was trampled down overnight even with a banner of elite knights.

If the army had not been recruited, the rebellion would have been unreasonable.

Count Brennan said,

“Let’s not hide it, and take out all the cards we have in our hands. How far can we put our hands inside the Imperial Palace, and how many bureaucrats can we sabotage for us?”

“Hmm.”

“In some cases, retreating to the East might be a good option.”

“That’s true, too.”

There were many who agreed with the last statement.

Once they fled east, they would be able to defend themselves.

The leaders, including the commander of the Eastern Army, were directly dispatched by the Emperor. But no one, from the officers below him to the foot soldiers, was not unaffected by them.

If they command the Eastern Army, they can resist. To become a separate and independent entity would also be possible.

The Eastern part was a self-sufficient land.

Although the enterprise stockholders whose main business is distribution would be against it, real nobles like them could survive for decades on land.

The loss of the East, the raw material production center, is even more painful to the Central, which contains an expansive market, and the Southern part, the center of trade.

“Well, in the future, how many decades do you mean ….?”

After the Emperor’s death, they can rekindle the controversy over the right to succession.

They could do that easily enough.

Even before the Empire existed, they were the great landowners and nobles of the East, and became more afterwards

Compared to the years and months the family has lived so far, ten years is not even a long time.

“It is His Majesty who is pressed for time, not us.”

said Viscount Hamelton.

This is because the Emperor’s achievements are accomplished by the Emperor alone, but the prosperity of the noble family is achieved by the whole family holding on to it.

“I will send my son to the East.”

“Then, do you intend to stay here, Viscount?”

“Fortunately, all of my sons are at the age of having children, so they will take care of themselves. I am here to assert His Majesty’s injustice and die. Wouldn’t it be worth doing if the life of this old man could give his descendants a cause in the future?”

Viscount Hamelton’s words caused a stir in the audience.

Most of those whose children had grown into adults nodded their heads.

Viscount Hamelton looked at Marchioness Camellia and said,

“It would be good for Her Grace, the Prince and the Princesses to take refuge as well.”

“I will say something.”

“Not with such a lack of determination, Marchioness. Even if something happens to the Grand Duke, if only the Prince is alive, we can somehow pursue the future.”

Marchioness Camellia nodded her head.

It wasn’t because she sympathized with Viscount Hamelton’s words. But she was preparing to escape with Garnet.

Maybe, it was the last thing she could do.

Since then, the meeting has not reached a very concrete conclusion. However, the participants parted with faces that each made their own decisions.

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