The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 228

Neris was momentarily speechless as she read the report from Morier Trading Company.

‘Already this much?’

She had long known that once Megara ran out of her own reserve funds from lending money to Abelus, she would seek external financing. And Morier Trading Company was precisely the kind of target Megara would set her sights on.

Thus, before the report even arrived, Neris had already given Joan a heads-up: if Megara reached out, lend her the money without hesitation—but quietly take collateral from the Marquisate and the Crown Prince’s personal assets, without provoking their ire.

Yet the amount listed in the report—stated as ‘borrowed by Megara’—was far larger than expected. As Neris’s eyes drifted to the list of assets held as loan collateral, a smile appeared on her face.

Joan, as expected, had skillfully secured exactly the items Neris had prioritized as collateral.

A silver-producing mine, a lake serving as the source of countless rivers, and a castle in a bustling trade region…

‘Crucial territories traditionally managed by the Crown Prince across imperial generations.’

It was both amusing and preposterous. Apparently, most of the Marquisate’s assets had already been pledged, so the collateral Megara offered Joan consisted primarily of the Crown Prince’s personal holdings—properties that, by principle, no government official could ever touch. Even Neris herself, who had been Crown Princess in her previous life, had never laid claim to these lands.

Had it been the Neris of her past life, she might have felt bitterness upon realizing just how dearly Abelus cherished Megara. She might even have felt a flicker of anger—not out of love for Abelus, but from the painful clarity of how foolishly she’d been treated by him.

But the woman she was now felt nothing at all. Only this thought:

‘It was rotten to the core.’

Now that she’d escaped its grasp, she finally saw how deeply decayed the imperial fortress—once radiant for so long—had truly become, teetering on the brink of collapse. An empire built on falsehoods, basking in borrowed glory, had reached the moment of its pitiful end.

Neris smiled coldly. Then she picked up her pen and began writing an urgent message to Joan.

Once she finished her final task, she was to bring everything and come straight up.

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