The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 204

“It’s unfortunate for Natasha, but we cannot let that girl become Crown Princess.”

“There must be a Crown Prince Heir, mustn’t there?” Abelus, who under normal circumstances would have grumbled at such a calm remark as if he were being treated like a stud horse, remained silent—too shocked to speak.

It had been barely an hour ago that Natasha, claiming she wasn’t feeling well, had headed toward the lounge. Yet now, the court’s balance of power had been irreversibly upended.

Many had been flattering Duke Grunehals, anticipating the day Natasha would become Crown Princess. They had already imagined the decades ahead, envisioning their future seats of influence once Natasha’s child inevitably became the next Crown Prince.

Since there had been neither need nor reason to restrain them, the imperial court had simply watched their maneuvers. And despite such factionalism, the court had carefully maintained its internal equilibrium through deliberate policies.

Until the very brink where a future emperor, born of both Grunehals and Vista bloodlines, would become impossible.

Kaymil had explained to him ‘why’ Natasha had suddenly upended the banquet tonight and ‘how’ it came to pass that she could no longer bear children. Abelus felt that he, too, bore ‘some’ blame for all this.

After all, wasn’t it precisely because two women—the court’s most beautiful, intelligent, and well-born—had fought over him that things had come to this?

Had Kaymil been able to read her younger brother’s thoughts verbatim, she would have been rendered speechless by how absurd his interpretation was. But no matter how clever she was, she lacked such an ability.

Thus, she fretted solely over her immediate future: how to suppress the nobles who, even at this very moment, would be clamoring wildly, their senses sharpened to determine who the next Crown Princess candidate would be.

Though Vista had many nobles, those who met all criteria—excellent lineage, good health, and an age suitably matched to Abelus—numbered but a few. The House of Duke Ganiello had no daughters, and the daughter of Marquis Kendal had died; her father, driven mad with grief, clung desperately to her corpse.

In truth, aside from Natasha, Megara, and Aidalia, there was only one candidate left among the high nobility.

“Valentine.”

House Elantria had dared oppose the imperial family. As punishment, the court had legally stripped the house of nearly all its political rights, imposed crushing taxes to burden it for the next century, and forbade its collateral branches from marrying without imperial consent for fifty years. Even their private guards had been confiscated down to the last sentry.

Yet such punishment did not signify the house’s end. The cunning duke and his heir, along with generations of ancestors, had surely amassed considerable hidden assets beyond the court’s sight. And Kaymil intended to let them keep those—for a cornered cat will scratch even a mouse.

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