Chapter 165

“Duke Witherford has arrived, Your Majesty.”

Patrizia did not say much, but the door was naturally opened. The high-end reception room of the Imperial Palace was quite soundproof, and Patrizia was drinking her favorite peppermint tea while organizing her thoughts.

Duke Witherford greeted her with utmost courtesy, “I greet Your Majesty the Empress, the Moon of the Empire.”

“… Welcome, Duke. Please take a seat here.”

Patrizia faced the Duke of Witherford in a more reserved way than usual. Duke Witherford was beyond scared as he looked at her face deep in thought, and asked her, “Has something happened, Your Majesty?”

“Duke.” Patrizia began to talk about the reason for calling him. “I will ask directly. What do you think of the Duke of Efreni?”

“…”

It was natural that an answer did not automatically come out at this sudden question. She calmly spoke again.

“A lot of people have already been gossipping about the relationship not being good between Duke Efreni and Duke Witherford. Are my words wrong?”

“Your Majesty, unfortunately they are not.”

“Alright.” Patrizia then asked him sincerely, “Duke, if I had a way to destroy the Duke of Efreni for good…”

“…”

“What would you do, Duke Witherford?”

“Your Majesty, what does that mean?…”

“Answer my question. It is literally what I just said.” She asked him to make a choice in a dry voice that did not fluctuate. “I am telling you to choose, Duke. I hold the chance to destroy him. I hold that very key.”

“…”

“I need someone who can help me. If I can help it, I want to avoid as much as possible making my hands dirty..”

“Then, going by Your Majesty’s words, Your Majesty holds the key to destroying the Duke of Efreni…” The Duke of Witherford swallowed in shock. “Do you mean to tell me to choose?”

“Indeed. After all, two have to be better than one alone.” She laughed in a low voice, and said, “That means that even if you provide a negative response, there will be no change in my intention.”

“… Your Majesty.” Duke Witherford pulled up the corners of his mouth, and smiled. “If there is a way to bring him down, I am capable of doing just about anything.”

The Duke of Efreni was from the family of a lowly Baron, and had risen up the ranks as fast as lightning. That alone made the Duke of Witherford, whose lineage was of pure blood, not like the Duke of Efreni.

In fact, the decisive issue had come after that, because the Duke of Efreni had sneakily copied a business previously organized by the Duke of Witherford, and had a great deal of success with it, resulting in great losses and damage to the Duke of Witherford. The Duke of Witherford hated the Duke of Efreni very much!

“Your Majesty, please tell me. What must I do in order to be of help to Your Majesty?”

“…”

Patrizia silently gave him the seventeen letters. He asked her what it was with his eyes, and soon began to read the letters slowly. After a long time, he had a taken aback expression on his face, and his hands began to shake. “Your Majesty, this…”

“Does the Duke know what His Majesty the Emperor experienced?”

“Yes…”

When Duke Witherford replied cautiously, Patrizia calmly continued, “Then the Duke will know what kind of chaos will ensue from this?”

“Of… course, Your Majesty.” He offered an opposing opinion in a trembling voice. “However, these letters will not be enough, Your Majesty.”

“I know that. However, you know, Your Grace…” Patrizia spoke to him in a relaxed manner, “As a matter of fact, these letters are enough, Your Grace. Alyssa has already been executed, and Duke Oswin is not able to talk about this issue, and there is no guarantee that he would even know about it in detail. If so, the only thing left would be the two people in the letters, and the Duke of Efreni. So the evidence, even if you search all over for it, will be difficult to discover.”

“The most effective way would be to inform His Majesty of this, and send this letter to the council meeting instead…”

“Not that way, Duke.” Patrizia shook her head firmly. “You are mistaken about something. This is a crime of treason. It is not even an insult to the Imperial Family. I can show this letter to His Majesty. However, if the Emperor directly punished the Duke of Efreni for this, it would only be for His Majesty’s revenge. He would become a tyrant. Do you want it to turn out like that?”

“Then, how does Your Majesty want things to unfold?”

“The best way to do this is not to go through His Majesty, but have the Duchess of Efreni punish the Duke. Honesty, with this, would he not meet his ruin perfectly?” Patrizia grinned and added on. “It would not be bad if the gossip of the nobles added to it as well.”

“How can I help Your Majesty?”

“I heard that the Duchess of Witherford has a wide social circle of acquaintances.”

“Ah, yes…” Duke Witherford blushed slightly. Patrizia slowly turned the corners of her mouth up, and smiled. The beginning of every wave, was a rumor…

“The content from the letters will become a little more inflated, and released as rumors. As you know, a rumor is always going to become more twisted and bigger the more it travels between the mouths of people.”

“I fully understand Your Majesty’s will. Then how do you plan to go about telling this to His Majesty, and Duchess Efreni…”

“Lady Grochester will take care of the Duchess of Efreni, and His Majesty…”

I will have to directly end everything myself. Because the person who starts is also the one that has to finish it.

“I am thinking of taking the reins, Duke Witherford.”

Yes, she thought that the time had come to really end it all.

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“Is it not too difficult for us to meet these days?” Rothesay asked, complaining a bit.

Petronilla gave a small laugh, as she felt his behavior was strangely cute to look at. “I’m sorry, Ro. There is something important that I have had to take care of these days…”

“Then there is no helping it…” Rothesay planted a small kiss on Petronilla’s forehead, and whispered, “I am just saying that I miss Nil so much that I am not capable of doing anything these days.”

“Ahaha!” Petronilla burst into laughter without realizing it at his explicit expression of affection. She shook her head as if he could not be stopped. “Where did you learn such words?”

“My parents say them to each other all the time.”

So, all this man’s sweet nothings came from the Count and Countess Bradington. She thought they were a very content couple, and then muttered to herself, “I want to live like that later as well!”

“Do not worry, Nilla.” Rothesay gave Petronilla the most affectionate smile in the world, and whispered, “I resemble both of my parents, so I can do this all day, without taking a break.”

“So, do you mean we should be wed now?”

‘Are you going to propose this discreetly like this?’

When Petronila laughed anxiously, Rothesay spoke to her with a playful smile on his face, “Surely, I am not going to gloss over it with just this?”

Did you expect it?, his words seemed to ask.

Petronilla told him honestly, “Well… honestly, a little?”

“Oh dear. This was difficult,” he added, and laughed, revealing his white teeth. “This kind of thing is not a proposal, Nil. You may look forward to it!”

“I have not yet said that I will accept, but are you not too confident with yourself?”

“If it does not work,” he replied to her sweetly, “I will do it until it does!”

Petronilla got emotional in that moment; she could feel the genuine sincerity in his words. Her past self, and her present self. It was a happiness impossible to compare. She tried hard to push down her tears, and whispered to him, “Thank you.”

Truly…

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Translated by Haeli

Edited by RED