The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 110: No More Caution

In a private room in the royal palace, two young men were seated opposite each other around a grand meeting table. This room is the Council Room, the place where the King holds his Privy Council with his advisors: the Court Wizard Lord Benedict Morgan, the Prime Minister Lord Alister Grayson, the Industry Advisor Lord Julian Moore, the Steward Lord Alexander De Clare, the Military Advisor Lord Henry Marshall, and the Spymaster Lord Lucius Black.

Aside from them, there were two chairs for Queen Margaret and Queen Janette, but no third chair for Lady Shuhya, the King’s third, yet most powerful, wife.

As these seats were reserved only for the top brass of the Empire, not just anyone could sit in their place. But right where Lord Alexander and Lord Lucius would sit, their firstborn sons occupied their seats—namely, Richard Marshall and Edmond Black. The two were set to inherit their fathers’ positions; unlike the rest, where the competition was fierce over their house positions, those two were the first to secure themselves one way or the other. Richard, the only son of his father, while Edmond did fully resolve the inheritance by winning a family competition. Aside from them, even the Crown Prince, Prince Liam, isn’t the most apparent heir just yet, especially with the rise of the other two princes, Adam and Thomas, sons of Queen Janette.

Nothing was as expected in the Royal Palace. The power shifts inside its walls would stir storms on the outside, and even though everyone and everything in this place looked exquisite and elegant, they were nothing but rabid dogs that would gnaw on each other the moment they smelled weakness.

Part of the reason why Edmond and Richard were here was for that reason. A weakness has been exposed, one that can be fatal to everyone, and it felt like needles poking through their hearts at the moment. freēnovelkiss.com

To those who follow him, Crown Prince Liam is an incredible young man. While his mother is the first Queen, someone with strong backing and position in the palace, he is her only son, and he keeps himself in power despite having four other half-siblings from the second Queen.

The eldest son of the King was the late Prince Charles, who died a few years back due to an unfortunate accident. As he was Queen Janette’s eldest, she made everything revolve around him and managed to birth three other siblings, two boys and a girl, whom she tied together with marriages in powerful families to support Prince Charles. The Moore’s daughter was supposed to be the Crown Prince’s betrothed, while other houses like House Morgan and two other noble houses were tied in the affair.

And the rest is known: Vivian was to be the Princess Consort because of that old alliance. Prince Liam never cancelled the marriage, which was to his advantage like no other, but in the last year in the academy, he started dating Matilda instead of Vivian, whom he coldly ignored.

Still, Prince Liam had the apparent heirs of the great houses in his pocket and the position of Crown Prince as his rightful title, since he is currently the eldest male prince. While Queen Janette tried her best to shift all the support Prince Charles had to Prince Adam, the latter was too young and hadn’t even entered the academy just yet, whereas Prince Liam had displayed many achievements so far.

It has even reached the point where Prince Liam started assisting the Bureau of Security and the Royal Knights in catching traitors and insurgents, especially the group that was discovered lately that had its roots extending deep among members of the nobility.

With every achievement, the Prince’s faction became more powerful and reeled in many nobles to its cause. Rather than doing something really big and remarkable, Prince Liam’s idea was to create a network of small favours to keep a steady supply of small achievements, which eventually led to his current-day activities.

One can argue that one thing led to another, but using the Royal Treasury is something that any member of the Royal Family can have access to. However, whenever someone makes a move on the Treasury, others would be watching very closely. That’s why Prince Liam started organising small convoys without the knowledge of the Royal Knights in order to move what he needed and keep his network of favours active.

That network, which had the Royal Treasury Convoys as its core, made everyone happy and allowed its subscribers to have whatever they dreamed of in and out of the city.

All Prince Liam needed to do was appoint some of his men to certain positions, forge some documents for maintenance, and relieve some armoured carriages from service. After that, it was Edmond’s job to find the right men for the job, and then it was Richard’s job to make the Royal Knights hear nothing about these convoys. As for Ian Grayson, his role was to make sure the streets were safe by holding an agreement with all the top dogs of the city’s underworld, the biggest of all was the Underking. As for Ronald Morgan, Robert Moore, and even Matilda Ambrose, they were all people who paid to and benefited from the system, as well as serving other roles in the Prince’s network.

The last was Valentine De Clare, whose job was the most crucial. He had many warehouses prepared on the city’s outskirts. His role was to receive these convoys and finally distribute the "packages" between network members.

Unlike him, Edmond and Richard, being the ones who organised the whole manpower for the operation, had their fingerprints all over it, which eventually led to the discovery of Prince Liam’s involvement and their summons to the Privy Council Room just outside the Royal Office.

An hour ago, some individuals were called in as they were waiting. The first was the Royal Chamberlain, followed by Prince Liam; a while later, Queen Janette entered the Royal Office, leading in her tail Sir Edric Marshall, lord commander of the Royal Knights.

"I see your uncle isn’t leaving you any room to breathe," Edmond said while staring at the door of the royal office, guarded by two knights of the Royal Guard.

Richard looked menacingly at Edmond while suppressing every urge inside him to retort, but the veins on his hand were almost popping as he squeezed them hard.

Edmond knows how to strike a nerve. With Richard, it is his family that turned him into the animal he is today. His father, the grandmaster of the knights and the strongest superhuman in the Empire, is a hard man to look up to, and Richard is his only son; however, he is not the only male heir.

Richard’s father, Lord Henry, was already fifty years old when he had him. For all that time, it was his younger brother Edric who was to succeed him as Lord of the Marshalls and the Commander of the Empire’s armies. Still, when Richard was born, he wasn’t born to the official wife, as Lord Henry wasn’t the kind of man to keep it in his pants; after all, for most of his life, he thought his seed would never sprout.

Yet despite being the long-awaited male heir, most of the Marshalls doubted his ancestry. As there was no way to verify it at the time, Richard was mistreated by his relatives, especially his uncles and cousins. Still, he grew to be the spitting image of his father, the thing that slowly caused all hostilities toward him to cease, but the damage was already done, and the bridge was too damaged for water to pass under it peacefully.

Worst of all, his father wasn’t the type who was interested in raising a child. So to sum it up, none of the male relatives of Richard were ones he was fond of, and vice versa.

Richard and Edmond remained quiet and composed until Sir Edric Marshall exited the Royal Office, casting a gloating look at Richard. The sight displeased the two young men, but ten minutes later, Queen Janette emerged, turning to them with a knowing smile.

Wearing a red velvet dress, Queen Janette was a woman who wasn’t known for showing off, yet seemed fully dressed for the occasion. While in her fifties, she looked like she was in her late thirties and carried an air of youthfulness and grace.

"My oh my, if it is not Edmond the Swift, the shadow of our crown prince," the Queen approached the two as they stood up and bowed in unison.

"Your Grace," Edmond said and looked her in the eye.

"How is your mother’s health, young Edmond?" Queen Janette asked.

"She is improving, ma’am. Thank you for asking so kindly," Edmond replied.

"Oh, please! Send her my best and tell her I will personally visit the book club sometime next month. I really wish to meet your sister too. Edith was her name, right?"

"Indeed, Your Grace. Both my mother and sister will be honoured to receive you."

Seeing as her smile got only wider, it seemed that she was far from done.

"I heard there is talk of cancelling her engagement, though. If that’s the case, I think I may bring Prince Adam with me. He’s fourteen this year, but I hope he makes a quick friendship with young Edith."

Something snapped!

Nobody knew where the sound came from, but it was clearly close. Both Queen Janette and Edmond needn’t guess, as it was obvious to the two.

"And who might this young gentleman be?" the Queen said, turning to Richard.

"An honour, Your Grace!" Richard said with a formal bow, swallowing the blood from the molar tooth he had just ground, "I am Richard Marshall of Venbridge."

"Oh!" The Queen covered her mouth in a fake and obvious act, "You must be Lord Henry’s only child. I should have recognised you by your appearance. Please, excuse what I said earlier."

"It was nothing... Your Grace."

Queen Janette was no fool to not recognise Richard even on their first encounter. While it seemed she was playing dumb, she was just seeing how Richard would react, especially after bringing up the topic of his inevitable engagement annulment with Edith Black.

One would wonder why a grown woman with her position was trying to pull such a trick with a youngster like Richard, but knowing what the temperament and hot-headedness of the young are like, it was plain clear she was trying to make him make a mistake.

If he were so much as a tiny bit rude to her, his position as heir to his family would be endangered, and Sir Edric would be able to return to being the heir. To the second Queen, this would be quite a blow to Prince Liam’s faction.

Crushing his own teeth by gnashing them was a cheap price to pay in order to hold himself in front of such a woman. It wasn’t worth it to act out, as he kept reminding himself.

But at this time, as Richard was about to die from his rising blood pressure...

SMACK!

An unusual sound came from the direction of the King’s Office, and everyone looked towards the door in unison with a shocked expression.

Something must have happened, and they were all sure of it.

As for what happened, none of them was unwise enough to keep their gaze on the door. The King was not known to be a man who liked those who gawked.

On the other hand, Queen Janette—in the good spirit of being a skilled courtier and manipulator—looked at the two young gentlemen and spoke yet another poisonous line.

"Who knows what just happened in there? But as I hear about you, young gentlemen, that you are hardworking and chivalrous. Heh!" She said with a mocking smile at the end, "All I see is a lazy head and a brat who knows nothing but raging and throwing tantrums."

With those sharp words, she turned around and left, with her escort following her and eyeing them sharply.

Before anything could happen, Edmond walked towards Richard and pushed him aside, gagging his mouth with lightning reflexes. He turned and looked at the queen’s bodyguard, whose hand seemed to be touching the grip of his blade. As soon as that happened, the escort guard laughed wryly, shook his head, and followed the Queen away.

She almost got Richard’s so-called calm and chivalrous temperament off guard. When they heard that sharp sound from the king’s office, everyone imagined something in their head, and it made their blood boil, some with worry, some with excitement.

And then, not a few seconds later, the door of the office opened, and Prince Liam stormed out with a hand over his face. Immediately, Edmond and Richard shadowed him and caught him up in a far-off alcove in the king’s tower.

It was bad!

Pretty bad!

The right side of his face was completely swollen, and his eyes were brimming red as he dug his hand into the wall and crushed a chunk of it with his fist. He tried not to turn, but his heavy breathing and his dishevelled hair were enough to tell what had happened in the king’s office.

If the king slapped Prince Liam, it means that he had put enough mercy in his slap for the Prince’s head not to fly right off his body. The King, by all measures, was no ordinary specimen of a man.

Well, not that it matters now.

King August is one thing, Prince Liam is another.

The sting of humiliation, the pain of a slap delivered to a face that had never known such indignity—this was a harsh lesson in the difference between a King and a Prince, a Father and a Son. To those for whom their personal image and self-respect are paramount, such an act could easily push a man towards madness.

Once the Prince spoke, his voice was clear yet chillingly cold. Each word laced with fury and the venomous hues of a mind teetering on the far edges of sanity."

"Edmond."

"Highness!" Edmond replied, looking at him, almost feeling something behind the voice that had just spoken to him.

It was neither warm nor friendly as Prince Liam had always been to him.

It is a different Liam, a colder Liam, a darker Liam.

One that is more wrathful than Richard, more envious than Robert, more malicious than Ronald, more avaricious than Ian, more deceptive than Edmond, and more voracious than Valentine.

One whose pride can compel them to do anything once backed into a corner in their mind like that.

"The Kabal," he spoke the first name.

"The Sump," he spoke the second name.

"The Swan," he spoke the third name.

"We can handle them all," Edmond bowed his head.

"I am done sitting and watching," Prince Liam said as he faced the wall of the alcove with his back to Edmond and Richard. He turned to them, then spoke: "Turn the city upside down. No more room for caution."

Edmond received the three names and dragged Richard with him as he left the crazed prince.

Yet a fourth name remained, trapped in the Prince’s chest, and one he needed to let out only with himself.

"Father!"

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