“That, that’s the case. The count’s family cannot return the money…….”
“I will. I will do it.”
Seemingly not understanding, the viscount kept questioning, and the emperor seemed suddenly annoyed. Not only the viscount, but I too felt my head go numb.
The emperor is returning the money. What’s going on here?
“……Your Majesty?”
“Right. And if I return the money, doesn’t everything go back to as if it never happened? Isn’t your claim of ownership over Isabella because you paid her? Then if I return the money, it’s over.”
At that moment, everyone in the room opened their mouths wide, unable to close them. What does this mean? He’s going to help me by paying back that huge amount?
The sum is incalculable, but the fact that the viscount came out so confidently means it must be an unimaginable amount.
But that an emperor of a country would spend such a sum for one noble young woman was unbelievable.
However, the emperor was still confident and had not yielded his will.
“Pay it right away. So stop harassing her.”
“Ha, harass? I only claimed my rightful ownership.”
“A rightful claim?”
It seemed that he couldn’t push with money, so the viscount raised his voice. Whether he was mentally fluctuating or had lost his fear, it was a roar from someone who seemed to have forgotten that the person before him was the emperor.
“Yes! That woman must go with me!”
That old man seems like he’s about to collapse as he shouts like that. The shaky figure of him coughed with a wheezing sound.
His body wobbled for a moment. Men will do that if they only have the strength to climb stairs; in such a state, he wants to take a young woman as his wife.
Even paying a huge sum of money to do so.
At the sight of the viscount who now seemed to be insisting without reason, the emperor slightly twisted his lips. A delusion that his pupils seemed red appeared, eerily.
“If I return the money, there’s no reason she has to go with you, is there?”
“That……!”
“If you age, your judgment becomes blurred, it seems. It seems the viscount’s judgment has weakened considerably?”
The viscount, who had been mumbling, acted like he was trying to make an excuse. For quite some time, the viscount said nothing. Waiting as if to hear him out, the emperor clicked his tongue towards him.
“Moreover, viscount, you haven’t married yet, have you?”
“Not married, but… even so…….”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“You are correct. But I was going to bring her home right away without a ceremony…….”
“Yes. In that case, if Isabella officially became not only your fiancée but legally your wife, then there ‘might’ be a reason she must go with you. Even so, I wouldn’t have sent her. But it’s not like that, is it? It’s not an engagement made between families a very long time ago, right?”
The viscount, who had been giving me sinister looks just before, began to gradually back down.
“That’s…right.”
“Then you know you must directly submit the documents to the emperor, right? Even if the parents are involved in the engagement between families, ultimately the emperor’s approval is needed.”
“…….”
“You must have married once or twice, so there’s no way you wouldn’t know such things. Then you must also know that what you’re doing now makes no sense. That you have no reason whatsoever to detain Isabella.”
According to imperial law, even if an adult, parents are involved in engagement, but when nobles marry, the emperor’s final approval was needed.
The emperor was talking about that point. If it was a situation where it had already been processed on paper, there would be some justification to detain me, but the viscount wasn’t.
Only then did the viscount seem a bit discouraged.
“Yes.”
“So let me ask you again. Who exactly approved the two families becoming one under the sacred name of engagement? Or did you get approval from someone else while I’m here?”
With the stammering viscount, the emperor raised his chin with a more oppressive expression than ever.
“That’s not the case, but…….”
“Is there another way to marry without asking for permission from Your Majesty?”
The duke shook his head incessantly. There were two ways for nobles to have their marriage recognized under imperial law.
One was to make a betrothal agreement in advance and have it approved by the emperor. Then, when getting married, the two people would become a couple without having to submit any paperwork.
Usually, this was possible when families exchanged betrothal agreements when they were very young. It was something akin to a strategic marriage. It was obviously impossible that the duke and Isabella had exchanged betrothal agreements from childhood.
Another was to have the marriage approved by the emperor afterward. In the end, it was a matter of preapproval or postapproval, and in the relationship between the duke and me, neither of these two ways were feasible.
‘The man who will be my husband is the emperor, after all.’
In the end, either way, the emperor’s approval was required.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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