Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 990: Involvement

Chapter 990: Chapter 990: Involvement

[Tsk. If he’s doing something like this, he should have ensured he at least succeeded.] His Elder brother thought.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, indeed.

Eugene’s elder brother also thought of him as nothing but trouble, just like his mother did.

They put all the blame on Eugene and his mother when it was Lord Hamel, the head of the household, who had decided to get a second wife to ensure the family line.

Because pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous, if there may be complications or health problems, noble women don’t bear more than one child if they give birth to an heir.

It was understandable for there to be friction between the spouses, but the children were innocent. Maybe Eugene wouldn’t have turned out the way he did if he had been treated better.

Being the Lady of the House is different from being a normal wife. It comes with a lot of responsibility. Among these are to ensure the household doesn’t fall by managing finances, managing the household if the lord is away, ensuring the continuity of the family line, educating the children to become assets of the Household regardless of whether they were her children or not, and so on.

If Arabella had married someone who would get more than one spouse, she would have to do those duties as well.

Of course, there may be jealousy and friction among other spouses, but they must do their duties as adults and raise the children without involving them in their fights.

However, this was not an isolated case. There were also a lot of these cases among noble households. And sadly, the royal family cannot interfere directly with family issues and fights for the lord of the house.

If they did, it could lead to national chaos as noble households become fearful that they might just place any ruler they preferred anytime.

In such cases, the nobles could agree with each other to oust the royal family or jointly agree on assassination.

Cases like that of Count Morbal were special.

In the situation of Morbal County, the people had already tried rebelling several times but to no avail because the Count did not care much about a lot of them dying.

It had gotten to the point that a lot of the population would not survive the winter due to Count Morbal’s corruption. Thus, it necessitated interference, which Ferdinand did.

Further, Ferdinand directly asked them who wanted to rule in place of their father, and it was only Frieda who had the guts to volunteer. Thus, Ferdinand recognized her claim.

Still, they did not announce that it was what happened. It was only behind the scenes.

Just like these talks, they would do now.

Sibruh is already chaotic as it is, so resolving conflicts behind the scenes would help stop more chaos and panic from spreading.

This was a chance for these people to negotiate before a final verdict was given to their sons who participated in the rebellion.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for arriving posthaste. You are all summoned today because of a critical issue we must address..."

Marquess Sibruh did the talking and explained why they were summoned here. He presented the proofs gathered so far, so they would not waste time trying to deny it.

"... Now, what we would like to hear from your side is what your household knows about this?" Marquess Sibruh said.

"Your Majesties, My lord, our household has no part in this. This is the first time we heard about this. We did not know our son was part of the rebellion."

All the households denied their involvement and said they had no idea about what their children were up to. Even the Hamel Household.

The Hamel Household was lying, though. They knew what Eugene was up to, except the part about the illegal mine.

"You do know the punishment for lying to the Crown, right?" Alwin said, and the nobles bowed deeper and once again pleaded innocent.

The Hamel Household did as well, but they were visibly tense.

"The rebellion that occurred a few days ago had led to even more chaos in Sibruh and had led to Imperial Knights getting injured.

Most especially, they even dared insult His Majesty.

They also lied to the people using His and Her Majesty’s name.

All their crimes so far are punishable by execution.

And so is lying to the Crown.

This is your last chance.

Answer very carefully.

Did you know about what your sons were up to?" Alwin asked again.

[This outfit! He must be the rumored magician of His Majesty! The Master of the Magic Tower!]

"We did not know Your Eminence, Your Majesties.

Please have mercy on our household.

We had no involvement with the rebellion.

Our son was lied to and manipulated as well.

Please, have mercy and imprison him instead of execution..."

The truly innocent households bowed their heads and asked for mercy for their children, who would be executed if they did not do anything about it.

Meanwhile, the Hamel Household members were frozen as they glanced at each other. They realized that the truth was already known.

They may not have participated in the rebellion itself, but they had allowed Eugene to keep doing it despite knowing about it.

It was indirectly assisting the crimes he had committed.

[Should I say, we did discover what he was up to and tried to stop him, but he continued despite our words?

I knew he would fail since he was an idiot, so I didn’t stop him.

I would never let him have a higher position than my son.

This is the chance to eliminate him.

But if I admit we lied, we could be punished already.

This is all that brat’s fault!!]

The Lady of the Hamel Household was quick to put the blame solely on Eugene’s.

[I still have an heir even if he’s executed... But, he’s still my son... But if we admit we lied and that we knew about it, our whole family can be executed instead...]

Lord Hamel remained silent as he contemplated.