165. The Ability of Yuan Pelliese

2024.03.13.

Lancelot suppressed his despair and gently comforted Clade with the softest voice he could manage.

“To speak frankly, if your wife no longer loves you, it will be extremely difficult for you to remain here like this.”

Yuan Pelliese no longer loved Clade.

Lancelot’s unilateral conclusion plunged Clade’s already darkened heart into the depths. Perhaps it was the painful truth he had long evaded.

Lancelot tightened his grip on Clade’s shoulder.

“There’s no guarantee our plan will succeed. Even if you grow close to your wife again, there might be hope for progress—but if we fail…”

Fail.

The taboo-laden word startled Lancelot himself, making him flinch and tremble.

Yet he couldn’t allow Clade to keep circling a hopeless relationship until he completely collapsed.

“You saw your wife in the square yesterday afternoon. The people around her now might make her much happier than we ever could. I fully understand you refusing to acknowledge your feelings as love. There must be many things between you two that I don’t know. But unless you’re doing this to take revenge on her or truly destroy her, then accept the situation as it is—for her sake.”

This was a gentle yet piercing remark, different from Eddie’s scolding.

A heavy silence settled before Clade, whose eyes remained hollow and distant. Calmly, Lancelot waited for Clade’s response.

How much time had passed?

Still showing no intention to reply, Clade sat slumped in his chair, elbows on knees, face buried in his hands—when a knock came at the door.

Soon after, the door opened cautiously.

Maksim, who would normally act discreetly in such a solemn and silent atmosphere, entered with a stunned and bewildered expression.

“Your Highness! Sir Lancelot! Count Gerret Pelliese requests a private meeting.”

“What? When?”

Lancelot responded immediately, prompting Maksim to reply hastily.

“He’s here now, right outside the Count’s mansion.”

Lancelot’s eyes widened in shock.

***

Gerret Pelliese thought he would faint upon seeing Enoch Pelliese suddenly appear at the estate.

At first, he assumed some vagrant was lying and didn’t even bother to go out.

But when a man entered the estate with terrifying force and flung open the door to Gerret Pelliese’s study, he had no choice but to leap to his feet.

“E—E—Enoch?”

A gaunt, emaciated frame. Unkempt hair and beard.

Skin dull and lifeless, lacking any noble grace, and a shuffling gait.

There were more than enough reasons to drive him away—reasons that could be discussed all night—but no matter how many he could list, there was absolutely no reason why he wouldn’t recognize his own elder brother.

When those piercing black eyes flashed at him from beneath the tangled hair, judging and reproachful, he was forced to recall the memory of Enoch Pelliese, the once-sensitive and rebellious second son of the Pelliese family.

“Is it really you, Enoch?”

He shook his head repeatedly, asking the question not because he didn’t know the answer, but as if he refused to believe it—didn’t want to believe it.

Yet, despite his barrage of questions, Enoch’s sharp, gleaming eyes swept across the entire study—a space that had transformed into the domain of a third-rate medicine peddler, and even then, a quack at that.

His demeanor was like an owner returning to reclaim a property he had entrusted to a caretaker. Gerret Pelliese’s expression twisted.

He screamed as if he had encountered the most vicious demon in the world, his voice shaking the study.

“How dare you come here! Get out immediately! You erased your name from the family register and abandoned this estate—what right do you have now to enter my study without my permission as head of the family?”

“Who said you’re the head of the family, Gerret?”

Behind Enoch, whose ragged appearance contrasted sharply with his regal aura, Priscilla and Regina stood with uneasy expressions, peering cautiously.

Gerret Pelliese, unable to back down with his wife and daughter watching, puffed out his chest proudly.

“I am the legitimate successor who inherited the title through proper procedures—the current Count Pelliese! I am the head of the Pelliese family, a lineage of physicians respected throughout the Empire! No matter how much you were once family—even if you were my elder brother—you vanished from the family register. I am the one leading this household now! Even if you came begging to return, my authority would naturally take precedence!”

“What kind of family head exercises power without holding the family’s official seal?”

Regina’s face turned deathly pale.

Only Gerret Pelliese, still oblivious to the gravity of the situation, scoffed and mocked Enoch.

“That’s none of your concern, brother!”

His oily, shameless face gleamed with arrogance.

But only for a moment.

When a single sheet of paper emerged from Enoch Pelliese’s robe, Gerret Pelliese’s face turned as ashen as his daughter Regina’s.

[From this moment onward, all authority of the Pelliese Count family is transferred to Yuan Pelliese and Enoch Pelliese. Gerret Pelliese and his direct family members shall not interfere in any way with the actions of the above two individuals within the Pelliese estate.]

A brief document of authority transfer.

And beneath it, the seal stamped in the signature line.

There was no mistaking it—it was the family’s official seal that Gerret Pelliese himself had personally delivered to Bollonico.

Gerret Pelliese could do nothing but be overpowered by the sheer force of that single sheet of paper.

Afterward, a quiet but sweeping transformation swept through the estate.

Enoch Pelliese took his place in the vast library, meticulously examining every single book.

Moreover, all distribution of the medications Gerret Pelliese had manufactured and sold using outdated prescriptions was cut off.

Nobles who had already been furious over the closure of Gerret Pelliese’s side-room clinic sent him constant letters, and an increasing number began threatening to withdraw their investments.

Thanks to the remaining funds from the discarded Crown Prince’s dowry, immediate crises were kept at bay, but it was clear that if things continued this way, he would soon incur the wrath of major nobles, including the Duke and Duchess of Western Selitina, his most important clients.

Day after day, Gerret Pelliese trembled in anxiety, wondering what Bollonico could possibly have been thinking when he sent Enoch with such a document—until one day, Regina quietly approached him, and he felt his heart stop.

Yuan Pelliese.

That ungrateful nephew of his was the rightful owner of the family’s official seal! Only then did he recall the warning he had heard the last time he saw Yuan:

“Now I am the master of the Pelliese name, so stay out of my way.”

Furious, he roared in anger, but he didn’t fully trust Regina’s words.

What kind of man was Bollonico? He wouldn’t hand over a seal in his possession so easily.

Yuan must have flattered and manipulated Bollonico, scheming to push him aside.

After days of agonizing, Gerret Pelliese finally gathered most of the remaining dowry funds that Enoch hadn’t yet seized and headed east.

If he stayed put, he’d lose the family headship to that scheming wench Yuan.

He didn’t know how she had gained access to the seal, but legally, the head of the family was still unquestionably Gerret Pelliese himself.

Under these circumstances, the only option was to pretend to return the dowry to the Crown Prince while secretly negotiating a separate deal with him.

“Yuan. Do you dare scheme to push me aside? Not a chance.”

He sent his secret agent, Giotel, to investigate and learned that the dissolute Crown Prince was staying as a guest in Count Kimfri’s domain, bedding young women who had gathered for the harvest festival in the east.

Rumors abounded among informants that the elderly Count Kimfri, despite his age, was personally following the Crown Prince around to maintain protocol, all to protect the eastern women.

“Excuses. The Crown Prince is only doing this because he misses Yuan.”

He could fool the whole world, but not Gerret Pelliese.

Using what he prided as his sharp intuition, he guessed the Crown Prince’s true intentions—always lingering near the Empress’s procession.

“No matter how much he indulges in women, once he’s tasted Yuan’s ability, he won’t be able to give it up. That’s why he hasn’t divorced her and is enduring this situation.”

With a determined expression, Gerret Pelliese looked up at the magnificent Kimfri estate.

Bollonico wasn’t the type to keep a woman close for long.

If Yuan had any sense, she wouldn’t have revealed her ability to Bollonico at all.

There were only two people in the world who knew of Yuan’s ability.

If Gerret Pelliese and the Crown Prince aligned their stories and negotiated properly, they could legally divide Yuan between them permanently—now that she had been abandoned by Bollonico.

A cornered mouse will bite a cat.

What could Bollonico do if her husband stepped forward?

Following Maksim, he finally arrived at the guest chamber. Bowing nearly in half, he greeted the Crown Prince as the door opened.

“Your Highness. I apologize for not properly greeting you sooner. I heard long ago that your health has greatly improved. Though late, I offer my congratulations!”

Seeing the Crown Prince silently observing him without responding, Gerret Pelliese sensed something was amiss but pressed on without easing his tension.

“Indeed. When a household welcomes the right woman, all affairs prosper. My beloved niece—Yuan, the pride and treasure of the Pelliese family—used her rare, once-in-a-generation ability to cure Your Highness’s illness. As her uncle, I am truly proud!”

Gerret Pelliese continued with exaggerated gestures toward the silent Clade.

“But that stubborn girl has dared to leave home and refuses to return. How deeply troubling this must be for you! Yet, I fully understand your reasonable position—you cannot divorce her. That’s why I’ve come personally to propose a ‘negotiation’ I believe you’ll welcome.”

At the word “negotiation,” a smirk, almost a sneer, spread across the Crown Prince’s face.

Gerret Pelliese, assuming this was the natural reaction of a man unwilling to give up Yuan’s ability, smoothly lowered himself further.

“If you peacefully agree to divorce her, as a token of gratitude, I will allow you to keep her by your side for about one season out of the four. I’m offering a generous concession.”

Emboldened, Gerret Pelliese whispered with a secretive smile.

“There’s no need to awkwardly hide anything now. I’ve turned Yuan’s ability into gold. You, of course, being a man of status, will keep her for yourself—but the Pelliese family…”

Gerret Pelliese’s dark eyes gleamed as if piling up a mountain of gold before him.

“…could use it on a much larger scale and turn it into even greater wealth. Wouldn’t that be a waste?”