The Price is Everything of Yours (76 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 245

Count Islani did not look pleased. He was well aware that the Crown Prince seemed unlikely to fancy his daughter.

After all, Abelus only ever associated with debutantes famed for their beauty in high society. And that was precisely what Marquis Rikeandros wanted—

a woman whom Abelus would never take a liking to, placed upon the throne as Crown Princess. With a smile still fixed on his face, the Marquis pressed for an answer.

“I understand your second daughter is not yet betrothed. If this were to come to pass, would it not be a splendid match? It is the noblest position in this realm.”

*If* it were to come to pass.

The Marquis’s proposal was unrealistic—and illogical, considering that Alecto had recently and publicly denounced Megara. Count Islani eyed the Marquis warily.

After a moment, a possible motive dawned on the Count: perhaps the Marquis wanted Alecto as Crown Princess for a specific reason.

‘To make her a puppet?’

Even if every unmarried noble daughter from the great houses suddenly developed some flaw, Alecto would not automatically become next in line.

There were several young ladies far better suited than she. Moreover, Valentine had no direct involvement in the current Duke’s offense of deceiving the imperial family, so the palace likely had not stricken her name from consideration entirely.

Thus, if Alecto were suddenly named Crown Princess under these circumstances, outcry would be inevitable. Nobles who believed their daughters superior would object, and the Crown Prince himself would surely reject his new bride.

Though the title of Crown Princess was noble, the courtiers knew all too well how to bind a person’s hands and feet completely—even while maintaining a veneer of courtesy. This was especially true now, when the Crown Prince’s affections were so firmly fixed upon a single woman.

What the Marquis was recommending was not a woman fit for the throne—but merely a sacrificial lamb destined to endure hardship in that seat.

Realizing this, the Count grew furious at the underlying assumption in the Marquis’s proposal. The Marquis was utterly confident that the second daughter of House Islani would passively accept her fate as a sacrifice—despite holding a legally impeccable and exalted status, she would simply bend to the whims of the Crown Prince’s favorite!

And yet—who could truly claim that such arrogant calculation was wrong? At this very moment, the court truly belonged to Marquis Rikeandros and his daughter.

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