Chapter 101

Tara and Kyle make a deal, and Tara voices a theory about the Prince.

This chapter is dedicated to S! Thank you for your support!

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Episode 101. About 1 Year (28)

"...Do you happen to know anything about the Garden Department?" I asked nonchalantly as I wrote my statement. But my voice was shaking slightly.

Kyle chuckled.

"... The Black Society's intelligence?"

"Yes... Aside from Elias, the Garden Department is the only place in the Empire that imports wolfsbane."

"I already know that."

"Ah.. Yes. And what of the senior secretary at the Treasury Department who helped Jason obtain the business licence…”

"Enough! Don't get involved any more than you currently are. All matters will be dealt with fairly."

I clasped my hands together under the table. Although the words were clearly threatening, it didn't scare me.

After a few more minutes of silence, I handed over my finished statement.

Taking the statement, Kyle summoned the guards waiting outside.

"Is there anything to eat in the office?"

"Pardon...?"

"Is there anything to eat?"

"Uh... Yes, Sir. There are chocolate bars that the Palace Chef makes every week for the guards."

"Bring them."

After paying his respects, the guard stopped as he was about to leave.

"Ah. How many do you need, SIr?"

"As many as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness."

.

As the flustered guard quickly exited the room, I turned to Kyle, startled and wide-eyed like a rabbit, unable to contain my curiosity.

"Your Highness...?"

"It is honourable to fall to an enemy's sword, but it is not acceptable to fall to malnutrition."

"...Pardon?"

What was the deal with this exchange?

Was he trying to tell me I looked pathetic? No matter how much weight I had lost, I still looked plump in comparison to most women in the Empire.

I was about to ask, wondering if he'd actually meant to call me fat, but Kyle moved onto the next statement as if the topic was no longer relevant.

“Now. Sign here,” he said. Then, he nonchalantly added, “The final decision maker will be His Majesty the Emperor.”

"Yes. Of course...!"

His tone was casual, as if we were discussing the weather. I didn't fully understand until I glanced up and saw the look on his face.

And dimly realized the full meaning of the words.

"....."

If he truly suspected the Elias family had led the assassination, he never would've said that. He was implying I needed to prepare myself for what would happen after the charges were dropped.

I felt like he was staring at me, waiting for the thought to register.

"In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity."

"Indeed."

"You're prepared, are you not?"

Of course....

His words convinced me that the Elias Family had been exonerated.

“...I have something in mind.”

"Hmph. Yes, I wonder how you will resolve this matter."

I'd had something planned since before I received the order to participate in the investigation- No, since the very moment I realized my father had been arrested.

Of course, my plan hinged on the fact that the Second Prince would be able to resolve my family's charges.

You never came to the Palace unprepared.

I finally threw caution to the wind, thinking I might as well get my money's worth out of this.

"...If I do a good job with this, perhaps I'll be able to get myself a position in Your Highness's inner circle..."

Kyle shook his head in disbelief.

"Hah! Tempting, but be less ambitious."

"Yes, Sir."

I agreed immediately. There was no use in spoiling my chances.*

Just then, a guard entered carrying a basket full of chocolate bars and left them in the middle of the table.

"Take them."

"Whoa, this is way too much. When I get home..."

However, Kyle didn't seem to be listening, and walked straight toward the interrogation room door.

This was enough food to last me a whole month.

I stared at the basket in disbelief, and then turned to stare at the Second Prince.

Was he... a tsundere? He sounded rude, but here he was going out of his way to be thoughtful. This must be why he had taken such pains to visit me in Durben and give me the neutralizer plant, which slowed down the progression of the poison. And why he had personally picked me up and carried me to bed...

I decided to ask him outright.

"Your Highness, do you have special feelings for me?"

"...What?"

"No, I mean, hmm. Perhaps romantic love is too much of an exaggeration... How should I put it? You act like you like me... Hehe!"

I leaned back as far as I could and pressed my back against the chair.

Kyle slowly turned back to face me, and his expression was....

Oops.

It was murderous.

He could kill a man with his eyes alone.

An eternity seemed to pass.

As he stared at me coldly, one corner of his mouth slowly lifted.

"... Was your brain addled by that poison?"

"Ah...hahahaha. Or... Or not."

Kyle threw open the door to the interrogation room.

"Stop talking nonsense and get out!"

Oh no... I shouldn't have asked... But was liking me really so horrible? He shouldn't look at me so cruelly for it...

I pushed the hunch I'd felt deep down inside of me, and smiled with embarrassment.

Then, I quickly picked up a chocolate bar and tore the wrapper open.

"Haha... Ha... Just let me... finish this... first... Yes, haha..."

***

The same day. Afternoon.

As soon as Kyle finished meeting with Josh, the first thing he did was to investigate the Garden Department where the wolfsbane had been delivered, and the First Secretary of the Treasury department, in order to exclude the Elias family from the investigation.

When Kyle had emerged from his interview with Tara, Walter and Chris were waiting to debrief him.

"There's been no sign of the Garden Department's Head Gardener, who was in charge of all of the wolfsbane entering and leaving the Palace, since the day of the banquet."

A certain amount of wolfbane had been supplied to the Garden Department every month to eradicate pests, and the caretaker in charge of it had never changed.

Kyle nodded for them to continue.

“We sent an undercover team to his current residence to check and found that he was dead.”

"... What's the condition of the scene?"

"He was lying in his bed. He appeared to have been dead for several days, and the exact cause of death won't be known until an autopsy is performed. My best guess is suicide, as we found a trace of the poisonous plant you mentioned inside his teapot."

"And his finances?"

"Clean."

"What did his neighbours say?"

"About a fortnight ago, his daughter and her husband left. Rumors spread that they were planning on buying a large restaurant in a small local town. But I heard that it's been less than three months since the couple's previous restaurant went bankrupt. They sold their original home and moved into the gardener's house three months after their restaurant failed. I'm currently inquiring about the daughter and husband, and will report those details when I get them."

"If he had been planning it for at least a fortnight, he must have had little hesitation. He probably planned suicide from that point on. Any witnesses?"

"The old gardener's assistant and the specialty warehouse administrator remember seeing the wolfsbane. The gardener's assistant noticed two months' worth of wolfsbane missing two days before the banquet. He reported it to his boss, the old gardener, but was told not to worry about it."

"And the specialty warehouse administrator?"

"That detail is crucial. The specialty warehouse administrator unlocked the warehouse for the Head Gardener the day before the banquet. The gardener had come in with some garden tree seedlings sent from the Principality of Ga'an. He spent about ten minutes in the warehouse, and the administrator thought he was just watering them."

"... Was the dragon fruit stored nearby?"

"Yes, Your Highness, and it was only when I asked that he remembered that the spot where the saplings were located was right beside the dragon fruit which Jason Elias himself had placed in the basket."

"What about the First Secretary in the Ministry of Finance?”

He was the administrator who handed over the monopoly to Jason.

This time, Chris stepped forward.

“He sold all his possessions and moved in with his mistress. But it wasn't that he was giving up his assets. It would be more accurate to say he paid off all his debts. He had already lost title to all his assets through gambling and had been in debt for a long time. It is said that he was being chased around by loan sharks on a regular basis.”

"And?"

"It looks like he settled all his debts in cash two weeks before the incident, and ran off with his mistress."

"Yes, I see."

Kyle nodded and turned back to Walter.

"And Baron Paliport?"

"He's holed up in a cottage outside the Capital. He's currently under surveillance by one of our undercover teams. The Knights are on a group shift schedule, just in case."

"He'll try to smuggle himself across the border soon."

".... Why don't they kill him? That seems so much easier to me."

"He's a long time vassal of the House of Toulouse and a close confidant of the First Prince. If he's been around that long, he must know many of House Toulouse and the First Prince's weaknesses. Such a man is not easily killed. So go get him!"

"Yes, Sir. I will do so, Your Highness."

"Go now to the Consul's office and tell him that I will inform him at the regular state briefing tomorrow afternoon."

The Consul's Office was responsible for all of the Emperor's scheduling and internal funds (the Emperor's personal funds). Only those who held the highest administrative positions had the honour of working in the office of the Emperor's Consul.

The current First Secretary of the Emperor's household was Viscount Allen Godfrey, the man who had been the top student to pass the Administrator's Examination held five years ago.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

***

Dusk was falling in the Special Teams investigation room.

My father's face was shocked when he saw me for the first time after nearly seven months. After an exclamatory greeting, I sat down across from him.

"The Second Prince is moving fast. I think you will be released soon."

My father was both elated and furious.

The family's reputation had been shaken. Even though it could be passed off as a ruse or a mistake on Jason's part, our House had been formally investigated by the Imperial Palace. To think that our family's opportunities could have been shattered by someone throwing a small stone.

"...How dare he, without my permission! Haah.... It's all my fault. My fault."

He was blaming himself. After all, he had more or less indulged Jason and the Countess up until this point.

"Even if the charges are dropped, the Elias family will never trade with the Palace again, and a family that cannot bring its goods into the Palace will slowly be shunned by the nobility."

After seeing my father's deeply shadowed expression, I slowly opened my mouth.

"Father, we can turn this crisis into an opportunity for our business and use it to rise to new heights."

"What?"

My father's head snapped up as if he had misheard me.

"On top of that, I think we can also appease the Emperor's anger."

"How?"

Ever since Dylan had explained the situation in detail, I had been thinking about a solution.

If there was a way out, I had to put it out there for the sake of the House.

If I did, House Elias would emerge from the eye of the storm unscathed, but if I made it too easy, nothing would change for us.

House Elias would still be beholden to the Philippe family, who owned the most shares in our business, and it was clear that Jason and the Countess would sooner act in their own self-interest rather than the interests of the House.

This incident was a good opportunity to change the family's foundation.

"First, give me a writ of authority, and then I'll tell you."

"A writ?"

The father's brow furrowed.

"Give me the authority to resolve this family crisis."

His face hardened slightly as he realized the implications of my words.

"...You want me to give you full command of this case?"

"Yes. Of course, you must also give me the authority to deal with the offending family members as I see fit."

“Are you asking for the authority of the Family Head?”

Instead of answering with words, I gulped and nodded with determination.

At that moment, the look in my father's eyes appeared sharper than I’d ever seen it before.

____

Editor's Notes -  

I'm eager to hear your comments about whether you think Kyle qualifies as a tsundere or not, since this has been a subject of lighthearted debate among the editing team. Is he a tsundere or is he just angsty? LOL

* Here Tara uses the idiom 못 먹는 감 찔러나 본다 - 'Stabbing a persimmon that you can't eat' which refers to spoiling a good thing to spite others.

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