Don’t Ask For Mercy From The Villainess - Chapter 15. Salipe Ert

Salipe loosened the strength he put into his tightly-clenched fist. He never expected that he would feel this way because of a woman. There was no woman in his life.

Salipe Ert, the First Prince of the Empire and the closest to the position of the imperial crown. There was a reason why he couldn’t stay in the Imperial Palace and chose to wander outside instead. He lost his beloved mother due to the veiled enmity happening inside the Imperial Palace and couldn’t find a place to settle in. He had nothing to cherish anymore whether in the capital nor within the Imperial Palace.

However, Salipe wandered around the border under the excuse of leading the forces to defend it. The number of his followers began to increase little by little, and so did the number of people who were amazed by his power in the military.

Marquis Viterne was one of those people. They had met on the battlefield, which in turn showed that he truly had a heart for the empire. Salipe, who thought he should have such a person next to him, then recruited him. He was recruited directly by Salipe because he thought the man was truly loyal to the Empire and someone who he should keep by his side after they met on the battlefield.

Every time he returned to the Imperial Palace, even when the Empress and Darten stared at him in an offensive manner, it meant nothing to him. After losing his mother, who was the most important person to him, he looked indifferently at everything. Either someone disturbed him or not, but regardless he would not respond to anyone.

‘This is a kind of disease.’

He didn’t neglect his duties as part of the Imperial Family; anyone could sense that he was indeed a loyal member of the Imperial Family regardless of how others were trying to drag him down. Meanwhile, Darten was acting ridiculous although he was the one who was actively pursuing the imperial crown.

Although he personally thought that becoming the emperor was a good idea, the highest position always came with responsibility. It was useless to ascend the Imperial Throne with the support of the nobles while without any power. Those who did wouldn’t be able to carry out their goals and could only be controlled by the power of the nobles.

Salipe didn’t want to live like that. If he intended to ascend the throne, he wanted to create the highest position with absolute power that no one could dare to overlook.

His father had been controlled by the power of the nobles, therefore he was unable to carry out state affairs properly. The reason behind his willingness to accept another Empress was also because he was oppressed by the nobles.

His father, who proclaimed that he would only love his mother for the rest of his life, disappeared just like that, leaving a middle-aged man who could only do his best to protect the throne.

“Well.”

The unnecessary thoughts continued to grow even more longer and complicated. Jessica was still sitting in the garden. It was time for Salipe, who was just watching her play with her newly obtained fan as if she liked it, to approach her determinedly.

“Your Highness.”

It was his aide, Vivace Splito, who called him.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ve finally found the person you were talking about.”

“Did you find the person who knows where the white spinel is?”

“Yes.”

“Who is it?”

Vivace pointed with his eyes after contemplating his question for a moment.

“Yes, it’s Jessica Viterne.”

“What?”

Salipe’s eyes, which were directed towards Vivace, turned to Jessica again.

“So she just came to know about the white spinel?”

“No, Your Highness. With that information, she made a deal with the witch of the Monzarto General Store.”

“A deal?”

“She asked for information on a Baron family in return for that information.”

“Baron family?”

Salipe’s eyes became sharp. He was astonished knowing that Jessica knew the location of the white spinel, but under the reason that she ‘only’ wanted the information on a Baron family. If she knew that huge piece of information, Isanna had no choice but to give what she wanted even if she asked for the entire Monzarto General Store.

Salipe’s eyes had overlooked Monzarto’s General Store not because all this time they weren’t deemed dangerous to the Ert Empire by buying and selling information, but because all information had come directly into his hands.

He didn’t need to be concerned about them because they entered Monzarto’s General Store with a certain ‘purpose’ and searched for people, and those people would be around if they were able to find them.

If they were to vanish again later on, obviously the information would’ve already belonged to Salipe. The situation had been set up that way so all the matters were under his control.

‘And suddenly, it’s Jessica Viterne?’

Salipe frowned as he thought about the person who appeared out of nowhere. He felt the need to change his plans as the situation was slowly unfolding in a completely different way than what he had expected.

Before Isanna from the Monzarto General Store knew about the location of the white spinel, he had to find out about it first in order for the general store to also fall under his control.

“You said she asked for information about a Baron family?”

“That’s correct.”

“Which one is it?”

“It’s Baron Russel.”

“If it’s Baron Russel, why did she ask for information about that baron even though there is nothing in particular regarding them?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t pay even the slightest bit of attention to the baron family, but the situation changed as soon as Jessica said that she wanted information on them. In the meantime, he would guess the situation like this: that this could have been the reason why the young lady of the Marquis Family, who hadn’t yet made a move, suddenly changed.

After that, Salipe seemed to figure out the reason behind the completely different attitude shown by Jessica. She might’ve encountered a problem regarding her position.

‘I can’t believe that was the reason.’

“Then, if that was the case, why don’t we buy information from her first?”

“It won’t be easy, Your Highness. Please take a look.”

Vivace made a pointing gesture with his chin, directing to where Jessica was sitting while smiling brightly by herself. Salipe had never seen her face smile so brightly while holding a fan in her hand.

“If that lady, the one who has that kind of expression after receiving a gift, passes over the information to us instead of the Vonzarto General Store, everything would go well.”

“Let me talk to her.”

“Are you going to do that now?”

“No, next time.”

Lunchtime was approaching. Salipe turned away once he remembered the noble etiquette of not paying a visit during mealtime.

“I mean, you usually don’t bother yourself with etiquette or other things like that…….”

Salipe walked and turned a deaf ear to whatever Vivace was saying. The man didn’t mutter any sort of response to Vivace who was following him while babbling on his own.

***

Jessica was in a good mood throughout the day. She kept unfolding the fan. She folded it again and didn’t even let go of the fan for even just a second. She liked the thwoorping noise which came out of the fan. Daisy asked her lady with a smile while watching from behind.

“My Lady, who gave that to you?”

Hearing her question, Jessica’s face hardened and drew a brighter smile than before. Daisy didn’t notice because it all happened in a flash.

“Why are you so curious?”

“Because it seems to me that you like it a lot.”

“My friend gave it to me as a present.”

“Friend?”

“Yes, she’s a good friend of mine.”

Daisy smiled beamingly at Jessica, who was also smiling brightly. It was because it was different from the fact Daisy heard. According to the information that she received a while ago, Jessica Viterne was the type of friend who was desperate for affection from others, and that her only close friend was Sheila, a daughter of the duke. But this was from another friend.

She had another friend. The Third Prince, who frequented the marquisate. Darten, the Third Prince, was adored by the noble girls due to his dazzling appearance and eloquent way of speaking, but he frequented the marquisate, even though there was nothing in particular.

‘Should I tell them about this?’

Her master, the daughter of Baron Russel, told her to report even the smallest thing, so she should report what happened today as well.

“You have a very kind friend.”

“Of course, do you know how much this costs?”

Jessica deliberately asked so. The fan might have seemed luxurious to the commoner. Jessica’s eyes lit up when she secretly hinted at the fact that she had a rich friend. She did that because she realized the intense look Daisy gave her for a moment.

‘Yeah, now go and tell her that.’

Jessica’s smile deepened even further.

“Maybe she will invest in our marquisate.”

“Invest?”

If she thought about it carefully, she would know that it was most likely not going to happen. The Marquis of Viterne was a house where knights were produced from generation to generation, and the heir of the current family was only Jessica.

She was just a young lady and could not succeed the family. Even though Marquis Viterne needed a man to maintain and lead the family, he didn’t bring another wife because he loved her mother so much.

The only reason why he decided to bring another wife was Jessica. He was worried about Jessica, who would be left alone when he was given an order to return to the war, so he decided to do so.

He never would have imagined that his wife would destroy the family and even go as far as selling his daughter.

‘Go and tell the marquis that she can sponge off many things from me.’

The daughter of Baron Russel would most likely become interested and eagerly listen to the information when she heard that Jessica had a rich friend.

If it was rumored that the daughter of the Marquis had a rich friend and that she would be working together with the Marquis Family to open up a new business, the chance of Baron Russel’s family turning towards the young lady of Marquis Viterne would’ve also increased.

‘Marianne Russel.’

Even though she didn’t know who was watching her, it would still be difficult for her to avoid the eyes of Isanna’s informant as well. All she had to do was wait for her. Jessica swore over and over again that she would not let them live peacefully when she finally figured out who that person was.

“Such a good friend.”

“I know, right? Thanks to her, our Marquis status will probably rise to a higher one soon.”

Daisy’s eyes lit up as words kept coming out of Jessica’s mouth. If she told the young lady of Russel about this, she would get quite a lot of money from the information she had gotten.

Her pocket would be filled with a lot of money soon. Just imagining her thick pocket made Daisy already feel a lot better than before.

“I’m sure my Young Lady is happy right now. You have a strong marquis and an escort knight who watches you from behind all the time.”

“Yeah. isn’t the First Prince the only one in the Empire who’s better than my father in terms of swordsmanship? If someone tries to hurt me, my father will gladly punish them.”

The word ‘punish’ coming from Jessica’s lips sounded scary, but Daisy failed to notice it because she was so delighted. Meanwhile, Alter was the only one who realized and looked down at Jessica with a frown on his face as he listened from behind before putting on his firm expression again.