Chapter 20: 20

Seeing the Crown Prince lunge at her, Michelle’s cold smile widened, and she swiftly reached into her sleeve and took out a simple folding fan. A strange thing to do when someone is attacking you.

When the Crown Prince was about to stab her, Michelle unfolded the fan and swished it horizontally, leaving a stream of blood behind.

The Crown Prince felt a terrible pain in his chest, and when he looked down, he saw a deep gush which damaged even the bones of his rib cage. One could see the white of his bones through the wound.

Feeling such intense pain for the first time, the Crown Prince screamed in pain, falling to his knees. He pressed his hands to the wound, in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.

Seeing his son in so much pain, no matter how enraged the Emperor was, he felt pity for the Crown Prince, but not enough to call a doctor for him.

The guards at first rushed to the Crown Prince’s side, but when they realized that the Emperor didn’t say a word, they retreated back, not daring to help stop the Crown Prince’s bleeding.

It was a gruesome sight to watch the Crown Prince writhe on the ground, groaning and with blood spilling out of his chest, but no one said a word or moved an inch. All the people in the room watched the Crown Prince bleed out on the floor.

Everyone’s expression was sour or worried, but Michelle was still smiling like she didn’t even take notice of what was happening to the Crown Prince.

When the Crown Prince stopped writhing around, and it was clear that he was either dead or nearly dead, Michelle took the green stone Mare gave her a while before and inserted her spirit energy into it. The green stone was a vision stone, so a projection appeared in front of Michelle, showing a very interesting scene.

It was a scene where the Emperor’s concubine, a.k.a. the Crown Prince’s mistress, bought poison in the black market and then went to threaten one of the Emperor’s maids to poison him otherwise the Crown Prince would kill the maid’s family.

The scene was recorded by Mare when she was acting as a spy in the Imperial Palacez and one day, she found the concubine’s movements suspicious, so she followed her only to discover this.

When the recording stopped, the Emperor stared at Michelle in rage. He was indeed enraged that the Crown Prince poisoned him, but the Crown Prince was still his son, so he didn’t want to kill him. But Michelle killed the Crown Prince, and in one hit at that.

He was enraged, and knowing that the slow poison in his body had no cure, he decided to do something radical. “Michelle Grace, you are guilty of killing the Crown Prince and poisoning the Emperor!”

The guards were shocked when they heard the Emperor’s words as they had heard and seen the two recordings, so they knew the truth, but since His Majesty, the Emperor, said that Michelle was guilty, they could only go arrest her. But after how she easily killed the Crown Prince, they were cautious.

Seeing the knights approaching her, Michelle smiled coldly at the Emperor. “Your Mahjesty, do you really think that I only have two copies of the voice stone?” she asked with a playful smile.

“Before I left home, I gave one to my father, and one to the General of the Golden Order of knights, so they could apprehend the criminal trying to poison you. If my daring guess is right, the information that the Crown Prince and Your Majesty’s concubine tried to poison you should already be spread around between the people.”

Michelle’s smile was a thorn at the Emperor’s side, but after her words fell, he knew he couldn’t touch her recklessly. But he could still punish her for killing the Crown Prince. “Michelle Grace, you might not have been involved in the poisoning, but you killed the Crown Prince, which is a serious crime you have to pay for!”

Hearing that, Michelle didn’t move an inch, remaining sitting lazily on the couch. “Your Majesty, I deeply apologize for letting my rage consume me, but I can’t apologize or accept a punishment for killing a traitor who was endangering Your Majesty with a sword in his hand. No matter if the Crown Prince is royal or not, he deserved to die for poisoning Your Majesty.”

Saying that, Michelle basically made it impossible for the Emperor to touch her, because he knew that if she was able to come up with such an excuse for killing the Crown Prince, if he punished her, her father, Archduke Grace, who was a great diplomat, would come up with many more excuses to make him retract the punishment.

Staring at Michelle sitting lazily on the couch, the Emperor was enraged, but he was helpless. He could only swallow back his rage and smile at Michelle. “Lady Grace, please, don’t say things like that. How could I ask you to apologize for being a good citizen and punishing a treasonous traitor? You should be rewarded for this.”

The Emperor couldn’t afford to anger the Archduke if he wanted to live, because the Archduke was the richest aristocrat in the Empire, so if he wanted to find a cure for the poison, he had to be on good terms with him. The Emperor might have loved his son, the Crown Prince, but not enough to give up his life to avenge him, when the Crown Prince was the one who poisoned.

“Thank you very much for your generosity, Your Majesty!” Michelle finally stood up and bowed her head. “But there’s no need to reward me for fulfilling my duty as a citizen of this empire. I shall take my leave now!”

“Go! You are a busy person, Lady Grace!” the Emperor said with a smile, but his eye was twitching from suppressing his rage.

“Have a nice day, Your Majesty!” Michelle bowed before turning to leave with Mare behind her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep