My Sweet Deceiver - Chapter 72

Elliot crumpled the letter in his hand.

 

“Such worms…”

 

It was a letter from the temple.

 

Words of regard and congratulations were written in phrases, but the main message was one.

 

It was about withdrawing the Crown Prince’s appointment.

 

Even tearing it to shreds wouldn’t cool Elliot’s anger.

 

The nobles were also raising petitions to reconsider the appointment of Fabrice as the Crown Prince every day.

 

It was forbidden to be dragged around by temples or nobles until the appointment of a successor, which was the King’s absolute authority.

 

Didn’t they take his private property to cover up the pagan case? And offered them to the temple?

 

Elliot felt his teeth tremble at the thought of it.

 

How much money had he accumulated all this time?!

 

How much trouble did he go through to collect that wealth?

 

Even so, it was a fortune made by stealing bribes and budgets from nobles.

 

In Elliot’s mind, the past few decades had passed in a flash.

 

He threw the letter in his hand to the floor. Even though the good quality paper with the temple seal was crumpled and rolled on the floor, his mood did not improve.

 

When the Duke of Briem was overthrown over pagan affairs, he had to keep in mind that the old noble forces would collapse.

 

It was his defeat.

 

After Duke Briem was hung in the square, quite a few nobles moved to Dennis.

 

“What the hell…?”

 

Elliot’s head was pounding.

 

He chose the lesser evil of the lesser evil and the worst, but now he doubted whether the lesser evil he had chosen was correct.

 

Even thinking about it, he felt pathetic.

 

“Did I choose the right one…? Or does that mean my judgment was wrong?”

 

His weak monologue echoed through the quiet room.

 

Rarely, but Elliot was sober now.

 

Most of the time, he was drunk.

 

He was either drunk or passed out.

 

Still, he didn’t do too much.

 

He knew better than anyone how dangerous it was.

 

Because he even sent his brothers away with dr*gs.

 

All those who shared blood with him returned to where they came from. The brothers were sent to eternal paradise, and the sisters were sent to another country so they could never return.

 

Decades passed like that, and the obituaries of his sisters came one by one, and now even that had stopped. It meant everyone was dead.

 

Of his siblings, only Elliot was left.

 

Only.

 

The fact that the Fifth Prince, who had no power, could become the King was thanks to his endless desire for the throne.

 

Who would have imagined? That the one furthest from the throne eventually sat on it.

 

Elliot smirked.

 

He had long white hair, and these days, it was hard for him to see the letters up close.

 

He remembered the past, and Fabrice kept reminding him of Elliot’s younger days.

 

Again, he realized that he was very dull.

 

If at least one part of Fabrice’s face, eyes, and hair differed from his.

 

Elliot’s choice may have been a little different.

 

He might have abdicated the throne to Dennis.

 

Charlize.

 

Taking that woman was the only deviation he ever made as she was unwilling to get herself out of her orbit.

 

Looking at the woman’s face, Elliot had the illusion that she was not broken.

 

She was a sunny person. No, a woman who was the sunshine herself.

 

Those who are immersed in darkness yearn for the sunlight. And that was why he wanted to have her so much.

 

“I love you, Charlize.”

 

“Do you really love me?”

 

“Really. I love you always and forever.”

 

At Elliot’s confession, the woman burst into a laugh.

 

To get the woman out, he gave quite a bit to the temple.

 

But in the end, the woman he held in his hands was broken.

 

Cracks started from a small place.

 

So, what would he have done about the fact that the child born out of that woman did not resemble him in the slightest?

 

“Why doesn’t this kid look like me at all?”

 

“Look at his nose. Does it not look exactly like His Highness?”

 

The woman gently pushed her child against him, trying hard to create a corner for him.

 

“…”

 

Seeing the smiling baby, Elliot felt like vomiting.

 

“Charlize, be honest. Is there any other man besides me?”

 

“What are you talking about?!”

 

The woman answered with a blood-drained face.

 

“He doesn’t look like me at all!”

 

The delusion, which began once, grew in size, and soon pretended to be true.

 

He began to believe that Charlize had another man. After that, every little thing of Charlize started to bother me.

 

She just smiled stupidly, not knowing how to speak with nobles.

 

The dimples that pierced every time she smiled.

 

Charlize’s flaws, which seemed small, gradually became bigger as time passed.

 

And it was the aristocrats who were quick to dig into that fine gap.

 

“Your Majesty, a queen, born as a commoner, only brings harm to His Majesty’s prestige. Let’s have a new queen.”

 

The strong opposition from the aristocrats made Elliot, who made Charlize his queen, collapse like a sand castle in an instant.

 

“That’s how it should be,” Elliot responded like a man reluctantly agreeing to the nobles’ petition.

 

However, he also agreed to the fact that he had to marry the right queen.

 

By then, Elliot hadn’t gone to see Charlize in quite some time.

 

He needed a queen who could smile gracefully and cover her mouth when someone spoke to her.

 

‘Charlize, that woman is so stupid. She doesn’t suit me.’

 

That was his conclusion.

 

He did not object when the exasperated nobles imprisoned her.

 

Even when the tear-stained Charlize came to him with the baby in her arms.

 

Even when they said that Charlize had gone mad and stayed up all night drinking alcohol.

 

Elliot just watched with impassive eyes.

 

Charlize’s tear-soaked eyes passed through his mind.

 

Elliot drank the remaining alcohol in his glass and wiped his eyes.

 

He was just doing what he had to do as a King.

 

It was only natural to sacrifice that much to protect the kingship.

 

He had no regrets about what he had done.

 

But for now, he just had to think about what he will do in the future.

 

Even though he tried to think calmly, it was a problem if he kept moving into Fabrice.

 

He hoped that Fabrice would not know of all his hard work to claim the throne in his youth.

 

He wanted the child to walk only on the silk road.

 

For that to happen, this place must be permanent.

 

In the history of Valloise, there had been no royal disintegration at all.

 

It wasn’t all recorded in history, but it wasn’t something that happened.

 

Still, this position had to be preserved.

 

Elliot clasped the handle of the throne he was sitting on.

 

This seat, made of all kinds of precious jewels and gold, was forever the King’s.

 

And cannot be given to anyone.

 

Didn’t his sitting here mean that the revolutions in history had failed?

 

Elliot was, therefore, confident.

 

All the false accusations put on Fabrice would come with time.

 

And when he becomes the King, such trivial things won’t be his flaws anymore.

 

Had anyone ever asked him if he was guilty of killing his brothers?

 

Did they ever think suspicious of him?

 

Never.

 

Elliot was confident.

 

“Deploy the capital’s defence forces to stop the protesters. Catch all the protesters without fail. Keep them out of my sight.”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

The trouble was short-lived.

 

Phillippe, an old friend of his and the head of the capital’s defence unit, went to town, following Elliot’s order.

 

* * *

 

It was snowing every day in Lubern, the capital of Valloise.

 

There were only two kinds of long winter weather in Lubern, snow or no snow.

 

Sunshine or rain was not an option in Lubern’s winter.

 

Snow fell again where it had melted.

 

Snow fell evenly. On the roof of a palace painted with gold, on the roof of a shack in a slum.

 

The snow that fell again on top of the muddy, melted snow made the roads icy.

 

It was a familiar scene that happened every winter, so Dennis looked out the window with an expressionless face.

 

Sylvan glanced at Dennis’ expression at the slower pace of the carriage.

 

Seeing Dennis’ face and unable to figure out what he was thinking, Sylvan, who would typically have been talkative, closed his mouth.

 

It was thanks to his quick judgment after serving Dennis for many years.

 

After a long silence, the voice of the coachman was heard.

 

“We are here.”

 

At the words of the coachman, Dennis got out of the carriage.

 

Splash!

 

Melted, soggy snow splashed on his legs.

 

There were a lot of people in the centre of the capital, so they tended to clean up snow regularly.

 

However, few people passed by on the capital’s outskirts, so the snow was not appropriately cleaned, and the roads were all black and dirty.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

Sylvan came running with a handkerchief with surprised eyes.

 

“It’s fine.”

 

Dennis moderately shook off the trouser hem and walked again.

 

He wasn’t very happy from the start.

 

In front of a dilapidated tavern, he went ahead as if Sylvan was guiding him. When he opened the door that was about to fall down and entered, there were no customers, perhaps because it was daytime. The owner was also wiping the cup with a bored expression.

 

Sylvan and Dennis went up the stairs to the second floor and opened a certain wooden door. Inside, again, a very thick iron gate awaited.

 

When he knocked on the door, a person came out, confirmed the faces of the two, and opened the door.

 

Dennis and Sylvan walked along the dimly lit hallway as if they were used to this place.

 

It was already the third meeting today.

 

Dennis walked and organized his thoughts.

 

It was because he hadn’t made up his mind yet.

 

As he walked down the hallway and opened the door, he saw familiar faces.

 

Those with tanned faces and those without were sitting together.

 

“Welcome, Your Highness.”

 

Olivier, who arrived first, greeted him.

 

And the people with tough faces greeted Dennis.

 

As Dennis sat down, Olivier said with a smile.

 

“Was it hard for you to come when it was snowing?”

 

“There is no day without snow in Lubern.”

 

Before Dennis could answer, a dark-skinned man answered as if talking to himself.

 

Dennis said as the embarrassed Olivier pretended not to hear and raised the teacup.

 

“Soon, His Highness the King will send in troops. Do you have any plans?”

 

The man who talked to himself looked straight at Dennis and said.

 

“Before answering that, your lord, please confirm which one you are now. Are you on the side of the protesters or on the side of the King?”

 

(To be continued in the next episode)

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