Sebastian was pampered since he was kid and was much loved by the emperor and Concubine Gerita who would fulfill all his wishes. No woman had dared to provoke him until now.
Sebastian suddenly felt a strong interest towards the woman in the forest who antagonized him. He only met the fourth mistress, Luna and the fifth mistress, Mary from the Debeur family, the rest of the two mistresses were said to be stunning as well, especially the third mistress, Amy who was renowned as talented in the capital.
What a waste. Sebastian looked at Kace with contempt whose face had turned pale. What a waste to have such a beautiful lady to marry the paralyzed guy in front of him.
Sebastian’s eyes lit up instantaneously, if Amy was said to be talented, and the drawing was drawn so vividly, could it be that the one who drew it was actually Amy?
Of course!
Sebastian almost clapped his hands. Kace was meeting with his fiancé in the apricot blossom forest during late night. Sebastian considered himself still knowing Kace well, he was like his second brother, Iago who was muddled from reading too much and must have high expectations towards his future wife as he was only interested in talented women.
Kace was the youngest son of the Gladstone family and was already treated as a precious jewel by the people of Gladstone household. Now that he had fallen sick, nobody would dare to go against his will. Kace would not want to marry Amy if Amy was not talented and there must already be chaos in the family.
Interesting. Sebastian nodded secretly and suddenly chuckled softly, “Lady, if I dare to go with you and talk things out in front of father, what are you gonna do?”
Hearing Sebastian’s frivolous tone of voice, Mary knew he deliberately wanted to make her come out of the forest. Seeing Luna’s anxious face, she was secretly apprehensive too. There was no way to ask the maidens to find some help at this moment and the side consort could not wait to see things happening on both of them. She would be so delighted to know both of them had caused trouble.
The forest had only one exit therefore it was impossible to sneak out secretly, not to mention her drawing was still in Sebastian’s hands. The drawing was fine as Mary had not signed yet, the problem was the character drawn on top was Luna. If people knew the portrait of Luna had fallen into the hands of a bunch of princes, Luna could only choose to end her life.
What Mary did not realize was she was not the only one being in an awkward situation now, but also Ralph who was in the palace.
“Tell me, what information have you gotten?”
Ralph was sitting behind his desk in the Oakley Hall at the front court, staring expressionlessly at two rows of people sitting under and in front of him. One of the officials of the ministry, Wade Weasley raised himself slightly and said, “The eighth prince has done something big recently.”
Ralph raised his eyebrow. He felt impatient listening to the stuff regarding the princes, yet the emperor seemed to have a new love and not wanting to pay attention to the state affairs nor letting the princes to deal with them but chose to push all the work to Ralph.
Every single day, the officials would have a small meeting with him at his home when Ralph returned from the royal palace. People often said that Ralph was the backbone of the family and was only beneath of one person but on top of millions of people. Ralph was terror-stricken whenever he heard such a comment, having this kind of rumor was not a good thing to him.
If things went smoothly as planned, the crown prince, Henry would inherit the throne sooner or later. Ralph wanted to serve the emperor wholeheartedly and might appear impartial and stern sometimes, therefore who knew how much he had offended the crown prince and the queen. Once Henry ascended the throne, Ralph would be the first one to suffer.
Ralph knew this deeply well too, yet he was not able to rebel against Henry. Ralph was the fellow apprentice of the current emperor, Julius Stuart under the same teacher, and both of them had also gone through life and dead during war before, therefore there was an impregnable bond between them. Ralph always saw the emperor’s sons as his own nephews, therefore it was impossible for him to treat them badly.
Thank god the emperor trusted him very much, yet his trust to him at all expenses would sometimes scare him inexplicably.
The princes had all grown up and had their own power, those little thoughts that should not be possessed would also sometimes appeared. Every prince’s attitude towards Ralph as Lord Regent who was much trusted by the emperor was different.
There were Iago and Jesse who treated him as usual, Hector who saw him as his own father, Ivo who respected him very much, James who was submissive to him, Leonard who seemed to be deferential towards him, Henry who was hostile to him, Jared who was always cheerful and Sebastian who never cared about him.
No matter how was the princes’ attitude, their aides and staff were all the same, appeared as respectful and flattering.
It was fortunate that Ralph did not have any son until now so the princes’ hostility towards him decreased a little. How many years can a person without son enjoy when the throne was taken away?
Having thought of this, the princes began to curry favor with Ralph and wanted to draw him in as Ralph was now the one making decisions at the royal palace after all. If one of them got to receive Ralph’s support, the throne would no longer be far from reach.
Hector who was naturally close to Ralph was simple-minded and did not think too much therefore he still treated Ralph the same as he used to while James had a weak body and always feared Ralph.
As for Iago, Ivo and Jesse, they were not interested in the throne and had no intention to draw Ralph in.
The rest of the princes pondered over and finally laid ideas on Ralph’s daughters. The third mistress of Debeur family was already engaged, leaving the rest of the three mistresses becoming hot items to be sold from the shelf. Unfortunately, Henry had gotten a wife among them but he planned to marry one of the daughters as a concubine as a mean to draw the Debeur family in.
Ralph had received news just now that Henry, Jared and Leonard was ready to propose to his daughters and he was in the middle of a headache. His headache worsened when Wade started up with Leonard’s stuff again.
Ralph nodded softly at Wade and asked, “What has the eighth prince done this time?” Leonard was as mysterious as the deep ocean and nobody knew what he actually had in mind although he always appeared gentle and courteous. It was just his action to compete with the crown prince made people felt a bit disdain towards his thought.
Wade weighed his words and said, “Some officers who were honest and uncorrupted all their lives had pensioned and returned home yet they could not even afford a few acres of unfertile land, therefore the eighth prince used his private property to give them money to guarantee their living.”
Ralph exclaimed in his heart, how clever was Leonard’s thought, he was still able to remember those pensioned officers. Who would have thought to draw a bunch of useless old guys at the palace in? Nobody would but the eighth prince.
His action could not be underestimated. Those old officers had worked in the palace for several decades and had known countless number of their fellow officers. Their relationship web extended to all directions and was densely packed, from their students to the children of their friends. Even though they had pensioned, those young juniors were still serving at the palace. Although they were just some officers with low positions, but when the amount was great, the power brought up would also be incredibly great.
As long as one person took the lead, the crowd would make appeals to the emperor to praise the eighth prince, and his prestige would soon overcome of the crown prince. Even if no one made the appeal, his good reputation would be spread across the palace and the country.
Ralph snorted and asked, “I remember that the officers were given allowance, isn’t that already enough to let them live a good life?”
Wade replied, slightly embarrassingly, “There is allowance, and it’s enough to live for, yet……”
Ralph raised his hand signaling Wade need not continue further. He had already understood that the allowance given by the palace was enough for them to live a life but was still far from enough to live a luxurious life for those old officers who used to be on high horse in the palace.
Ralph sneered and said, “Those who are truly honest and uncorrupted would still be able to live a vivid life with the allowance given by the palace. Go and find out whether these people were truly honest or not, find out if they had received bribes and violated the laws or not, and also……”
Ralph paused and his thought went deep, “Find out whether the officers who gave the allowance to the pensioned officers had deducted the allowance or not.”
Every aspect of the matter needed to be considered in order to expose the eighth prince’s trick and avoid letting him get a hold of the evidence against him.
Ralph’s eyes fell onto a letter on his desk, it was regarding the information received by his aide that the eighth prince wanted to marry Grace as his formal wife.
Ralph snorted at the intention of wanting to take advantage from him by marrying his daughter. These princes were still too naïve. He would not let his daughters become the sacrifice of politics even it meant to let them become single forever.
While Ralph was feeling worried in Oakley Hall, the situation of Mary and Luna was also dangerous. Mary held Luna who was trembling and sneered, “If your Highness dares to argue with me in front of the emperor, I’ll tell him the words said by your Highness just now. Let’s see if the emperor possesses the same opinion that the people of Debeur family are all contemptible.”
Sebastian’s face slightly changed, he dared to make fun of the lady in the apricot blossom forest but he dared not to make fun of Ralph. Although Sebastian was not scared of Ralph, yet he knew clearly Ralph and the Debeur family’s position in the emperor’s heart. If his offence towards them was exposed in front of the emperor, he would definitely be chastised and punished.
Yet Sebastian was unhappy if he had lost to a small maiden in front of the crowds, he thought for a while and rascally took the drawing from the desk. He sneered, “A man like me would not argue with a small maiden like you. How about this, if you apologize for offending me, I’ll pretend that this never happened.”
Mary sneered, “What a good dream you had, your Highness. Sadly I don’t think that I’ve done anything wrong. As for your Highness, I think you should be the one apologizing to us for being so obscene in your words. If your Highness is willing to apologize to us, I’ll pretend that nothing happened today too. But if your Highness doesn’t……”
Sebastian lifted his jaw and laughed, “If I do not, what would you do?”