Chapter 69: 69

“My Lady… wake up…” Michelle woke up to someone shaking her quite roughly.

She groaned in annoyance as she opened her purple eyes. “What?” she yawned as she looked at the maid waking her up. “Why are you waking me up?”

The maid was visibly afraid of Michelle, like everyone else in the mansion except the butler and the Archduke. “My Lady, a letter arrived for you from the Imperial Palace.”

“Already?” Michelle was pleasantly surprised. “That Kieran works quickly…” she muttered. “What time is it?” she asked the maid.

“9 AM,” the maid answered.

Michelle nodded and stretched her body a bit. For some reason, she felt completely stiff, like her body was broken. “When did the letter arrive?” she asked.

“Yesterday morning.”

That made Michelle frown. She glanced at the maid and sat up. “How long did I sleep?”

The maid looked down at the floor. “Nearly a month, My Lady…” she said, her voice a bit fearful. She didn’t know how Michelle would react.

When the maid’s words fell, Michelle froze for a good few seconds, unable to process the information. Then, she shot out of bed at the speed of light. “No wonder my whole body was so stiff!” she shouted as she rummaged through her closet. “How could I sleep for a month? Did no one try to wake me up?” she glanced at the maid as she quickly got dressed.

Seeing Michelle’s hurried state, the maid was afraid that she was angry at her. “My Lady, we wanted to wake you the next day, but we were unable to do so. We called the doctor for you, and he said you were fine. Finally, His Excellence, the Archduke, told us that you are fine and that we should let you sleep for a few days.”

Hearing that, Michelle raised a brow. She took a deep breath to calm down before walking towards the door. “Where is the letter from the Imperial Palace?” she asked as she opened the door.

“His Excellence has it…” before the maid could say anything more, Michelle disappeared using her Shadow Spirit Steps to go to the Archduke’s office.

“Father? Are you here?” she knocked on the large office door.

When the Archduke’s voice came from inside, she entered. “I see you finally woke up!” the Archduke smiled when he saw her.

Michelle entered the room and sat on a couch by the coffee table. “Father, do you know why I was asleep for so long?” she asked as she glanced at the table. The letter from the palace was lying there. The Archduke had been expecting her. She reached toward it and broke the seal.

“You used too much soul energy at once,” the Archduke said as Michelle quickly read the letter, its content satisfying her. “Did you try to form a wisp of consciousness?” he asked as his gaze roamed over Michelle’s face. It was still visibly pale as she was forcefully woken up before she could sleep enough to recover from overuse of her soul energy.

Michelle nodded. “Yes. Father, what do you mean I used too much soul energy at once? Does that mean I’ll never be able to form wisps of consciousness properly?” she asked, a frown slowly forming on her brows.

But to her relief, the Archduke shook his head as he spoke: “Up until now, you’ve never really used your soul energy, so if you want to start using it, you have to do so slowly, or your body won’t be able to bear it, and you will have to sleep for a long time again. It’s like training. When beginning, you start small and slowly work your way up.”

“I see…” Michelle smiled a bit. “Can I come to you for help after I deal with this?” she asked, lifting the letter between her fingers.

The Archduke just nodded. “Of course. Anything for my daughter.”

With that, Michelle stood up and, after bidding farewell, she left the office. She took a quick bath, because after sleeping for nearly a month, she felt disgusting, and then went to the Imperial Palace. In the letter she received, the little Emperor said that Kieran was able to find enough proof of Malrik’s past corruption to have him executed, but Garric had a clean record. No matter how Kieran tried, he couldn’t dig up any dirt on him.

Entering the palace, Michelle headed straight toward the little Emperor’s office. The servants already knew her there, so no one stopped her as she walked around. “Your Majesty, Your Highness…” she bowed her head when she saw the little Emperor being taught something by David Elether while Kieran sat at a desk at the side, sorting through some documents. “I received the letter and came as soon as I read it, so I could be of help to you.”

Though Michelle was abiding by the Empire’s hierarchy and being respectful to the little Emperor, everyone in the room respected her deeply and took her as a leader in their hearts.

David was a bit different, since he was from the upper, if not the heavenly realm, so although at the moment he acted as a subordinate, Prince Regent, to the little Emperor, he knew that soon he would leave the Land of Exile and return to where he belonged. Though, while acting as Prince Regent, he subordinated himself to the little Emperor, and since the one who put him in that position was Michelle, he somehow listened to her. But Michelle knew that it was all just temporary, so she never ordered him around.

“Teacher!” the little Emperor beamed.

Michelle smiled a little at the little Emperor. “Your Majesty, how have you been lately?” she asked as she walked over to his desk.

For quite a while, Michelle spoke with the little Emperor and David while Kieran continued taking care of the documents. When he finished sorting them, he interrupted Michelle’s conversation with the little Emperor. “My Lady, can you help me with something?” he asked with a slight bow of his head.

Michelle walked over to Kieran’s desk and looked at the documents. “Still no dirt on Garric?” she tilted her head a bit.

“Just this…” Kieran sighed as he took out a single document. “But it can’t really be used, as that can also be blamed on Malrik too…”

With a raised brow, Michelle took the document and started reading it slowly. “You’re right…” she nodded slightly after a while. “This can only be used as one of many small pieces of evidence,” she said seriously.

“So what do we do, My Lady?” Kieran asked sourly.

For a while, Michelle remained silent before asking: “Did you already sentence Malrik?”

The answer satisfied her: “Not yet. He doesn’t even know that we have the proof. We want to get both the father and son at once.”

That made Michelle smile. “That’s good!” she sneered. “We no longer need to collect any evidence of their corruption!”

“What do you mean?” Kieran was surprised. “We can’t just get rid of them!”

But Michelle shook her head with a smile. “We can! Easily! It’s not that hard to get rid of a single family as long as one member is corrupt…”

As he listened from the sidelines, David raised a brow, a small smile creeping onto his lips. “My Lady, are you planning on using the unifying law?” he chuckled.

David’s words were like the sound of a gong in the room, making everyone go silent in shock. Just Michelle remained calm, with a bright smile appearing on her lips, her purple eyes narrowing into beautiful crescents.

The reason everyone was so shocked was that the unifying law was used against Kieran’s father when he was stripped of his title. When the law was applied, all family members of the sentenced person received the same fine. Since Kieran’s father was demoted, to a commoner, all members of his family were also demoted. So, if Malrik Sloan was executed under the unifying law, all his family members would be executed too.

It was a nasty law that wasn’t used often, and only the reigning emperor or his regent could use it, but Michelle was too lazy to search for other evidence. Since she had the means to destroy the entire Sloan family, she would.

“But…” Kieran frowned a little. “That would turn either His Majesty or His Highness, the Prince Regent, into petty villains.”

“Not necessarily,” Michelle shook her head with a smile. “As long as, when Malrik is sentenced to death, someone brings up the unifying law and ’pressures’ His Majesty into using it, His Majesty won’t be seen as the despicable one.”

“But who has enough power to ’pressure’ His Majesty into using the uniting law without him looking like a coward?” Kieran asked, still frowning.

Michelle leaned against the wall. “I can get my father to do that… He hates the Sloan family, as well,” she shrugged.

Finally, Kieran understood what Michelle wanted to do. “But is your father eloquent enough to make it sound reasonable, or will he just end up looking like the villain?” he asked his last question.

But Michelle just shrugged. “That doesn’t matter. Firstly, he won’t stay in the Empire much longer, so there is no need to worry about his image. And second, if he wants to, he can be eloquent enough. But I don’t know if he will be feeling lazy that day. If he does, he will just be the villain.”

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