Chapter 209 (2/2)

“Yes, but what’s up?”

“If you have time, please stop by the government building. The prime minister wants to see you.”

“Prime Minister? Okay. Let me go and see him now.”

I was a little puzzled. Does he want to see me for that matter? But he should handle it secretly without the noble faction smelling a rat.

Anyway, as he wanted to see me, I felt I should see him. After saying goodbye to Sir Freia, I headed to the prime minister’s office in the government building. When I walked on the corridors where many people came and went with a bunch of papers, I suddenly recalled my memories of Allendis.

Come to think of it, I often stopped by this place when Allendis was still here.

According to a report recently obtained by my family’s intelligence sources, the members of the Verita family were discussing the qualifications of his eldest son Allexis. His condition was getting worse after he got married to Ilya, former Lady Genoa, so they began to search for Allendis’s whereabouts in the Lua kingdom. If he, whose health is getting worse, is deprived of his successor status or dies, Allendis would be the only immediate family member to succeed Duke Verita.

I was frustrated. Where is he? How could the Verita family, who boast of the most extensive network of intelligence in the empire, find his whereabouts despite their all-out efforts to find him?

When I let out a big sigh, I saw the duke’s executive office in the distance.

As I entered the spacious office, a man with green hair and three men and women who seemed to be his aides caught my eye. The duke, who was pacing up and down while muttering something, welcomed me.

“Come on in, Lady Monique.”

“I heard you wanted to see me.”

“Yes. I have something to tell you about the use of the guest house and the imperial hunting ground. Also the problem of cost related to that.”

“Cost problem?”

“The emperor told me that as the place was changed by his order, the imperial family should make up for the cost that was beyond the original budget of the Monique family for your coming-of-ceremony.”

“Really? You don’t have to.”

I could never accept the imperial subsidy. Using the guest house and the imperial hunting ground itself was already a problem. How could the emperor subsidize the cost of the coming-of-age ceremony for me? If this were to be leaked to the noble faction, it could bring about their strong resistance.

Giggling at me when I showed embarrassment, he said, “I see eye to eye with you on that, but this is the emperor’s order, so I can’t do anything about it.”

“Can you hold it for a while? In fact, I was just trying to meet the emperor and ask him to cancel his order.”

“The rumors have already spread widely, so it’s useless to cancel it. Just accept his order.”

I sighed deeply. When I thought of the repercussions of this, I was really frustrated, but Duke Verita had a point, too.

I sighed again and said, after thinking for a long time, “Okay. But please don’t take into account the cost problem. I don’t want the imperial subsidy. I believe you can handle it in your capacity as the prime minister.”

“Huh, I have nothing to say as you say so. Let me talk to the emperor about it first. Let’s discuss the details then.”

Even if the emperor rented the place for me, there was a lot to discuss because a noble family used the private property of the imperial family, such as how to pay for the wages of the workers at the imperial hunting ground and the guest house, how to pay for the maintenance cost and how to reimburse the damaged properties, etc.

Was it because of that? When I paused for breath, it was already past lunch time.

I stood up to go back, but he stopped me and gave me a thick pile of papers.

As he said the documents were about what he wanted to discuss more, I replied accordingly and came out of his office.

When I was about to go home, I stopped by the Central Palace to cancel my request to meet the emperor. As I decided to accept the emperor’s order, I didn’t have to see him.

Going back home, I opened the documents handed out by the duke. As I expected, I noticed the documents contained all kinds of information and questionable points about the members of the noble families.

I gladly read the thick papers one by one.

‘Ugh?’

I noticed something strange. There was every information about the tax evasions of Duke Jenna, Earl Hamel, Earl Lanier, Earl Holten, Earl Dias, Earl Resling, Viscount Apinu who I recently brought into my fold, as well as those marquises who rarely visited the capital. But there was nothing about Marquis Mirwa, to my surprise.