Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 173

173. Running a Romance Fantasy with Baby’s Cash

☆ Chapter 173 ☆

‘Could it be…? Using abilities is possible in the Imperial Palace?’

Felix hesitated, wondering whether to act, only after seeing the palace guard standing at the door.

Fortunately, the energy didn’t intensify.

There wouldn’t be any significant problem with Lady Aizelle’s life.

More than anything, recklessly helping without knowing what kind of person Lady Aizelle was would be a rash action.

It might be a trap.

At that moment, the palace guard standing at the door received an order from Lady Chavonne to retrieve a potion bottle and left his post.

It was then that Felix realized.

‘The plan to tamper with the drink was correct. But Lady Aizelle diverted it.’

Lady Aizelle is not related to Muriel Chavonne.

Now that he confirmed it, it was right to save her, but…

‘Muriel Chavonne will find out my identity.’

It seemed better to observe the situation a bit more.

He could intervene when the malice intensified to the point of threatening her life.

However.

“……?”

A pink cotton candy came running, rolling along.

Holding a greatsword as big as her back in one hand.

The cotton candy roughly opened the door and slipped inside.

“……?!?!?!”

There was no time to stop her.

Felix, who had been gaping, jumped up from his seat.

“That wild horse……!”

She needs to know when to butt in!

Muriel Chavonne might do something to Princess Paeraton.

Her target was Princess Paeraton from the start.

Felix gritted his teeth.

Should he intervene, even at the risk of revealing his identity?

But that concern didn’t last long.

Kugugugung—.

“……!”

A disgustingly sticky energy, heavy enough to crush his lungs, surged and rose from the warehouse.

‘Crazy……! Is she trying to kill the kid?!’

At this point, he couldn’t afford to hesitate.

Felix summoned his sword and rushed out.

* * *

“That’s what happened.”

I was a little surprised by what Lord Kaishen said.

“So, you were wary of Lady Chavonne from the beginning?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, I thought you were completely smitten with her older charm, acting all giddy.”

“…….”

“That’s a compliment on your acting skills.”

Lord Kaishen frowned as if he felt wronged.

“Didn’t I stop you every time the Princess approached Chavonne in Metis [the capital city]?”

“Weren’t you just bothering me?”

Lord Kaishen pursed his lips.

Ago-go, I should stop teasing him.

“I didn’t know you were so worried about me. And here I was, cursing you without knowing.”

“Worried.”

Lord Kaishen stared at me intently before averting his gaze.

“It’s just that I have bad dreams when a kid goes through something rough.”

Seeing him furrow his brow and mutter, I understood why Lord Kaishen was so popular.

He covers up potentially cheesy lines with his face.

“But you cursed me?”

“T, that was in the past! The past!”

Lord Kaishen narrowed his eyes at me, who was laughing, and shook his head as if he couldn’t help it.

He reached out towards my hair.

“Anyway. I’m glad you’re safe—”

Clatter.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

The waiter placed a plate full of cookies on the table.

Lord Kaishen frowned, having been inadvertently hit on the back of his hand by the plate.

“I didn’t order this?”

“It’s a service.”

The waiter answered nonchalantly and looked at me.

He was a black-haired man with an ordinary impression.

His eyes met mine briefly.

I naturally looked away.

As the waiter left, Lord Kaishen whispered to me.

“……That man, he seems suspicious.”

“Why?”

“He’s been lingering at a subtly distant yet close range. Someone with good senses might have overheard our conversation.”

“Oh my, really? That’s a big deal.”

“……You don’t seem to think it’s a big deal at all.”

At Lord Kaishen’s words, I shrugged.

And I crunched on the cookies sent by that gentleman over there.

Um, delicious.

“By the way, how did the Princess end up in that place?”

“I saw the sign sent by Lady Aizelle.”

“Sign?”

That day, after squeezing property from my family in exchange for reducing the number of days of kiss prohibition… no, after receiving it.

I saw Lady Chavonne receiving champagne from a palace guard.

I even saw Lady Aizelle speaking to Lady Chavonne right after that.

While talking to Chavonne, Lady Aizelle gestured to me behind her back.

Pointing to the palace guard who handed over the champagne, pointing to Lady Chavonne, and making a circle.

It meant the two were in cahoots [conspiring together].

While leaving the banquet hall with Chavonne, Lady Aizelle tucked her hair behind her ear three times.

“That means she’s been found out.”

“Unexpectedly meticulous. How did Lady Aizelle know she was found out?”

“She saw a palace guard in the hallway when she came out of the Empress’s private lounge. She didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when she came to the hall, she saw that palace guard handing champagne to Chavonne. It’s harder not to be suspicious.”

“But realizing it was the same person is impressive. When they’re wearing uniforms, you don’t tend to recognize their faces.”

“Lady Aizelle has a really good eye for detail. She’s even identified someone by the shape of their ears before.”

Ahem.

I puffed out my chest and boasted.

“Why is the Princess more proud?”

Lord Kaishen said, dumbfounded.

“But why were you monitoring Lady Chavonne, Lord Kaishen?”

At my words, Lord Kaishen’s expression turned serious.

He glanced at the waiter and said.

“It would be better to talk about that later.”

The waiter, sensing his gaze, glared back at Lord Kaishen.

‘Why is he acting like that again?’

I sighed.

* * *

The Empress’s face was radiant.

As promised to deliver even the whispers, the content that the guild reported to her was truly detailed and thorough.

The Empress frowned after reading the entire report.

She paid a large sum to commission the request, so it was good that the guild did a good job, but.

“Hmm, I didn’t know Lord Kaishen was such a womanizer. Still, he’s the most renowned young nobleman among his peers, along with Zion Paeraton.”

“People always have a hidden side.”

“Hoo, a cougar killer…… It’s a waste to call him the White Rose’s Nobleman.”

Tsk, the Empress clicked her tongue.

The report detailed how completely Lord Kaishen had fallen for Lady Chavonne.

“To say such scandalous things in front of a mere child. What? He missed you so much all night…… Oh my, oh my my!!”

The Empress couldn’t bring herself to read the sentence to the end.

This meeting was practically a secret rendezvous [private meeting] between Lord Kaishen and Lady Chavonne.

Taking Princess Paeraton along was merely to deceive the eyes of others.

“Hoo, to be a shield for adulterous lovers. I’ve never felt so sympathetic towards Princess Paeraton as I do today. She’s still young, so she probably doesn’t even know she’s being used as a shield.”

Although Lady Chavonne’s husband, Count Chavonne, had been dead for a long time, Muriel was acting as the master of Chavonne.

And yet, she was frolicking with a young man like this!

The Empress glanced at the detailed conversation with a displeased look and slammed the report shut.

“I feel like my eyes have been dirtied. But I must give credit where credit is due.”

The Empress spared no words of praise for the person standing at attention.

“Indeed, the Echesis Mercenary Corps. Worthy of being the number one ranked S-class guild. Their work is fast and reliable.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“I was secretly worried because I didn’t entrust it to an information guild. But they’re even better than an information guild.”

She had deliberately entrusted it to a powerful mercenary guild because she might have to subdue Muriel Chavonne by force.

She had seen the tremendous power Chavonne used when she placed a restriction on Sidrian before.

‘This confirms it. Lady Aizelle is innocent, and that damned Muriel Chavonne dared to play with this Empress!’

Even the Imperial Knight who had saved Lady Aizelle before had come forward, making it even clearer.

After investigating the knight’s movements from behind, they matched perfectly.

‘Muriel Chavonne…… I will surely hold you accountable for daring to betray this Empress.’

The Empress, gritting her teeth at Muriel, opened her mouth.

“May I call upon you again when I need you?”

“We cannot pledge allegiance. We cannot unconditionally obey just because Your Majesty the Empress calls us. However—”

It was an excessively presumptuous statement to make to the Empress of the Empire.

“We certainly deliver on what you pay for.”

However, the Empress smiled in satisfaction.

Allegiance.

How much trouble had she gotten into by trusting that flimsy thing?

She still hadn’t forgotten how her cherished close aides had betrayed her in an instant.

That’s why she had checked on Lady Aizelle in this double and triple manner.

Rather, the statement that they would follow the money was more trustworthy.

At least it meant they would perfectly carry out the commission they received.

“Hehe, I like it. I’ll see you again.”

The guild member bowed and left.

The Empress elegantly drank her tea, watching him leave.

And the moment the door was completely closed.

“Ahem…….”

The Empress cleared her throat for no reason and picked up the report she had covered as if she didn’t want to see it.

And.

“Oh my! Oh my my! What’s this! Oh my! How scandalous!”

Despite saying it was scandalous, the Empress couldn’t take her eyes off the report.

Adulterous, scandalous dramas were popular here too.

* * *

The magician of the Echesis Mercenary Corps, Nemesis, teleported immediately after completely leaving the Imperial Palace.

The destination was a coffee house on Tulerose Street on the outskirts of the capital.

It was the very place where Ruatisha had met Lord Kaishen.

On the outside, it looked like a typical coffee house, but this was one of Echesis’s hideouts.

In the hideout, the mercenary leader, Echen, was sitting slovenly with his long legs crossed.

Nemesis tilted his head.

“Leader, you seem to be in a bad mood?”

“I’ve been in a bad mood since earlier. Well, ever since a tiny kid, a pale, handsome guy, and a sexy lady came and went.”

The answer came not from the leader but from Baren, who had a bandit-like physique.

“Ah, you mean Princess Paeraton and her party. But why are you in a bad mood?”

“How would I know? He was glaring at that guy like he was going to kill him. Well, I don’t feel good when I see guys who are so pretty they smell like baby powder either.”

“That’s just your problem. Is the leader the same as you?”

Nemesis sat on the sofa and asked Echen.

“Why did the leader even bother to directly monitor Princess Paeraton’s party in the first place?”

“That’s also true, but wasn’t the content reported to the Empress completely fabricated?”

“False?”

Nemesis frowned.

“When I peeked, he made that guy out to be some kind of gigolo [male escort]. But didn’t that guy only talk to that tiny kid and not the lady?”

Nemesis’s expression changed.

“Leader, doesn’t this mean we failed the request? We, who have never failed even once, are making a false report like this!”

Echen, who had been silent until then, opened his mouth.

“It’s not a failure. There was a prior request.”

“Prior request?”

“It was a request from Surah to deceive in response to the Empress’s request.”

“T, then…….”

Did that mean that the Empress commissioning this request to the Echesis Mercenary Corps was not a complete coincidence?

No, more than that—.

“Are we allowed to accept such a request?! This is a matter of trust! If word gets out that we accepted a request and deceived another client, who would hire us!”

“We still have to take care of our regulars.”

“Regular?”

“Don’t tell me, the prior client is…….”

“Yes, Surah.”

“Ah…….”

Sighs came from the mouths of Nemesis and Baren at the same time.

“Well, if it’s Surah, it can’t be helped.”

“I’m sure she’ll quietly resolve it so that our reputation isn’t tarnished.”

“Surah is a merchant who knows trust.”

“Ms. Surah’s skills are truly amazing.”

Echen narrowed his eyes and looked at the two.

When he first saw Surah, he was so anxious and suspicious.

‘Now it seems like they trust Surah more than me?’

But that didn’t make him feel bad.

Rather—.

‘Hmph, took you long enough to realize.’

—he felt.

Why did he feel so proud when people followed her?

“Come to think of it, Ms. Surah seems more and more attractive the more I see her.”

“She’s a true gem.”

“The man who marries Ms. Surah would be very lucky.”

“I agree. Don’t you think so, Lea— Ack!”

Baren, who turned his head towards Echen, swallowed his breath.

A Yaksha [a fierce, demon-like figure].

There’s a Yaksha here.

Echen tilted his head.

“Marriage?”

“Uh…….”

“Attractive?”

“T, that’s…….”

“Are you going to propose to Surah if you keep this up?”

Echen’s pupils darkened.

They were the same two who had shown fighting spirit rather than backing down even in front of monsters the size of houses, but now their hearts felt like they were shriveling up.

‘I’m going to die!’

‘I might actually die!’

Suddenly, they felt sorry for the monsters that Echen had caught until now.

To think they had to face such a monster.

The two desperately moved their mouths.

“T, that can’t be!”

“We just thought the Leader and Surah looked good together—”

At those words, Echen’s expression, which had been like a Yaksha, softened in an instant.

“……Really?”

A faint smile and a gentle gaze.

“…….”

“…….”

Baren and Nemesis stared at Echen, who was exuding an almost saintly atmosphere, with sullen faces.

How could a person be so shallow?

There was a time when they thought Echen was someone they couldn’t understand.

That no matter how much they spent time together and crossed the line between life and death, there was an insurmountable wall.

That was still the case now.

However.

‘He becomes more transparent than glass whenever Surah is mentioned.’

‘A person more turbid than a swamp becomes clear and pure water when it comes to Ms. Surah.’

There were always exceptions.

At that moment, Echen, who looked at his watch, got up from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“I have an appointment with that client.”

At those words, Baren’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, I’ll go see Surah for a bit too…….”

His voice quickly faded as he saw Echen’s face.

“—I, I don’t need to see her! Hahaha!”

Baren laughed with tearful eyes.

How dirty and cheap, really!