Pregnancy Is Too Much For The Villain - C147.2

“Once the documents are processed and legal procedures are finished, I’ll report back. For now, the most important task remains.”

As Reynard nodded, thinking of the clergy’s leisureliness, Benson handed him some papers.

“This is the formal letter of protest. Once you’ve confirmed it, we plan to deliver it to the 3rd Prince’s side immediately as a warning.”

Reynard scanned the documents, which were in perfect legal form, then handed them back to Lord Benson.

“Good. Proceed as planned. We can protest using this article as evidence.”

“Since they openly said it came from their own mouths, the justification and pretext are perfect.”

“Surprisingly, Number Five is doing his job properly.”

“That guy may look like that, but he has loyalty.”

Reynard found a small note on the desk and read it again.

…so he’s not in his usual state now. This is the perfect timing.

There was no sender’s name and it was in rough handwriting as if hastily scrawled, but it was a report from Number Five who had infiltrated the other side. By his strategy, the 3rd Prince had inhaled a type of drug that elevates mood and makes people emotional.

As soon as Reynard learned that Valentin had been poisoned through clever deception, he decided. To make him taste the same hell.

The plan was executed smoothly and Clifton was now slightly addicted to drugs and in a state of somewhat lost reason. Everything planned had been completed.

“We’ll carry out the final stage as is.”

* * *

A formal letter of protest from the Marquis of Valkyries’s side was delivered to the 3rd Prince’s side.

Starting with content about invading his companion’s privacy, leaking false information to the press and damaging honor, it ultimately staked the Duke’s own honor.

Reynard not only delivered the letter of protest, but also leaked the content of our protest to the press and released articles that Clifton’s side had been blocking. With a little pressure and financial compensation from a side with power almost equal to the imperial family, the press easily did the job.

Society was in a state just before a typhoon to that extent. It had reached a point where press control was no longer possible through pressure from royalty. As if a dam had burst all at once, evidence of the harm New Poppin’s had done to society and related evidence, articles condemning the 3rd Prince poured out all at once.

Excited citizens rushed into Clifton’s pharmaceutical company, and most of the workers fled or went on strike themselves. Rumors that the building had been turned into a wasteland struck Eldon.

The parliament wasn’t idle either. Protests followed from lower house members representing citizens, and stories circulated by word of mouth that upper house members consisting of the House of Lords had secretly met at gentlemen’s clubs.

There was a brief uproar with a story that the 3rd Prince, enraged at seeing articles and situations that could no longer be contained, shot and killed one of his servants, but it was quickly transformed into a different circumstance by the Emperor who cared about the imperial family’s dignity and honor. The poor victim, the servant, was changed to have attacked the Prince first and was only briefly mentioned in a small article at the end of a daily newspaper.

And the very next day, a challenge to a duel, the standard product of a bygone era to protect gentlemen’s honor, arrived for Reynard.

Who speaks of honor

The day of the duel came quickly and even the location was coincidental.

‘Ronwood Hill…’

It was where he and Valentin had come riding on horseback for a walk a few days before their wedding.

Reynard stood with both feet on the field below Ronwood Hill. Unlike then when it was summer, it was winter now, so the scenery was completely different, but it was still a place holding memories. After tying his black horse, which made short rumbling sounds, to a tree far from the dueling site, he slowly walked.

When he finally arrived at the dueling site, he took out a pocket watch from his vest pocket. The second hand of the watch ticked busily. As every gentleman in Heston typically arrives 20 minutes early to the site of an honor duel, he too came early.

But Reynard was alone.

Because the 3rd Prince’s side hadn’t arrived yet, and no witnesses accompanied this side.

Reynard put the watch back and, as he had once gazed endlessly, raised his eyes to look far up the hill. And he put an unlit cigar in his mouth.

Coming here reminds him of Valentin.

The face of the beautiful one who longed for freedom, yearning for the east beyond the hill. It naturally drew like an afterimage in his eyes. So it was a place he hadn’t visited even once since his husband left. If he came here, the longing he had secretly hidden as if it didn’t exist would instantly amplify and he felt he would be consumed by that emotion. If that happened, he might have thrown everything away and gone to find Valentin.

My love, Valentin. Listen to me. Just as you said, everything went wrong. We loved each other, but there were many parts we couldn’t understand about being together. It was my fault for bringing you to this position in the first place. Forgive me. But now it really seems impossible. Look at me, Valentin. And let’s forget everything and leave together. Let’s live just the two of us.

Words he wanted to beg saying, as if he would go find his love right away, passed through his head. If he relaxed even a little, he might end up prostrating himself at those delicate feet and begging like that.

It seemed like he would throw away all the meticulously built-up plans and goals, purpose and revenge and selfishness, and do that. His body, crying out in pain every day from the side effects of one-sided imprinting, further encouraged such feelings.

‘But even if I did that, it would just be a selfish wish.’

He remembered words Valentin had once said to Reynard. It was sometime around when they visited this Ronwood Hill, just before they got married.

[Reynard. Your love is like the leader of beasts. You just put your pregnant mate in a cave and only hunt and bring the best prey. Because you think that’s the best, that that’s the greatest love you can give.]

That voice that spoke lightly like a joke with just a slight bitter smile on his lips. Not knowing if it was an insult or praise or joke, he frowned, and Valentin gently smoothed out his brow with his white index finger.

Now he seemed to know exactly what those words meant.

That’s why he sent Valentin far away.

My love has now regained its rightful place. Valentin, letting you live the life you want is the final stage of completion of my love. Wishing for your happiness, not my greed. Because that’s what I can give you, I gave it to you.

He endured solely for Valentin’s happiness.

Now all that remained were completely broken relationships, a lost daughter, their pain, and the name of Dennox rolling around shabbily at the Prince’s feet.

‘Given how things have turned out, I will absolutely complete my revenge.’

Reynard examined the terrain as he walked without stopping. He checked the geology of the ground by kicking his military boots.

Though he thought it would go according to plan when he attempted it, lately it had been too easy. Especially the 3rd Prince, overlapped with arrogance that the throne had almost come to him and impatience that he might lose it, took the bait far too easily. The same went for the “duel of honor”, and the same for the poisoning.

He wasn’t in a proper state now. The collapse of his business over half a year and the social unrest probably played a part too. For someone who had only received praise all his life until now, criticism from citizens and nobles must be quite unfamiliar. The sense of frustration tasted for the first time made people lose their reason.

‘But I thought he would be careful about what goes into his body until the end.’

Whether Number Five did his job exceptionally well, Clifton fell for it lightly without suspicion. Impatience, restless society, crumbling towers of effort… Reynard created all the optimal conditions. The traps were not just one or two, but attacked him from multiple angles while infiltrating. And he didn’t even know he was playing in the palm of Reynard’s hand.

The first start was having Clifton meet Sabina Achal, Number Six, and discover a new drug like a goose that lays golden eggs.

Sabina, the only woman and omega among the close aides with number nicknames. She was actually a botanist and skilled at acting. In fact, since her identity was revealed as is without disguise, there was nothing to call acting. Woman, omega, scholar. There is a unique harmless impression that weak things have. Reynard cleverly utilized that from the beginning.

Clifton instantly fell for the new drug she introduced. And he eagerly snapped up the business partners and research teams Reynard had arranged. It helped that the Dennox family had been researching Poppin’s and New Poppin’s for a very long time.

After that it was easy. It just took a long time to build trust, but everything progressed smoothly.

The reason why the Dennox family secretly developed and discovered the very effective New Poppin’s but then buried it without using it was because of its huge side effects. There are components that can alleviate the side effects, but chemical refinement is tricky and the raw materials are rare. The margins didn’t match.

If Clifton had been a person with more public-minded benevolence and wisdom, he probably would have followed the same path as the Dennox family.

But he went in the exact opposite direction.

He used and discarded the poor class solely for profit.

He distributed it for free to people as if doing charity work to raise his status, and when raw material supply became difficult, he started distributing shoddy New Poppin’s tincture with that removed first.

It wasn’t long before low-income citizens became addicted and suffered from after-effects.

And when society boiled over, he tried to bury it by pressuring the media. He simply covered up the wound festering with pus with a bandage and ignored it. The wound continued to rot and spread seriously in that damp and dirty place as it was.

And now, society could no longer endure and was exploding like a rotten wineskin bursting.

‘He must have attributed the cause of all that to me.’

Number Five, who had infiltrated deep inside Clifton’s business and inner circle from the beginning along with Number Six, did great work. He quickly established his position while building trust by handling all kinds of dirty back alley work requested there. And he finally succeeded in getting the Prince addicted to drugs.

Manufacturing it to work only on alphas was also Reynard’s request. That guy had to personally experience the dirty things Valentin had to go through. What the poor citizens are going through too. He probably doesn’t even know he’s experiencing exactly what he did to others.

He slowly addicted him by adding it mainly to imported high-end liquors and cigars.

‘So he falls for the ridiculous trick of a duel of honor that doesn’t fit the times.’

Clifton, who had recently lost his reason, fell for Number Five’s whispers and eventually sent a duel challenge as planned.

The main reason he demanded a duel of honor was that the Marquis of Valkyries’s side dared to send a protest letter over a trivial matter, treating the Prince as someone who spoke falsehoods and thus damaging his honor. Furthermore, he claimed that the Duke’s companion had previously insulted the Prince by inciting the people with illusory paintings. But rather than being grateful for the Prince’s mercy in tolerating it as the behavior of an ignorant artist, they protested again like this, lowering his dignity, which could no longer be forgiven.

It was utterly ridiculous. This tiresome thing ends today.

Reynard raised his eyes and gazed intently beyond the winter hill where the green had now disappeared.

As if his love who had left towards that direction might appear if he kept looking that way. So he unknowingly kept looking that way as he walked alone.

Coming alone was also due to the vile dueling regulations Clifton proudly put forward.

[It’s obviously a trap!]

[When was the last time just the two parties dueled alone?]

[To mention such an outdated tradition and ask to meet alone! It’s clearly a trap!]

[A vile person like him wouldn’t come alone, I tell you!]

[A duel with no seconds or witnesses, how can this make sense?]

Felix, who insisted there must be something else written about coming with smallswords like men of old and dueling, turned the duel challenge over and over. Reynard let out a small laugh recalling the ridiculous sight of him holding it up to candlelight and sunlight, saying there must be hidden writing.

He was here, leaving behind those worried people.

Seeing Clifton’s duel challenge, which as always arrogantly took a high-handed attitude and simply notified the place and rules, Reynard just remained expressionless without any reaction. The opposite of his aides’ reactions.

He made no special preparations, just took out a very detailed map and looked it over. That was all.

Finally Reynard’s steps reached the dueling site.

Under the red maple trees twisted together like twins.

The surroundings were flat ground with large bushes here and there. Reynard snorted, seeming to know what the 3rd Prince had planned. What a petty and dirty act befitting a small-minded bastard. It’s terrain good for enemies to hide and snipe from. The shallow trick was obvious to the eyes of an experienced commander.

Raising his head, he saw two people brazenly walking together towards him. It was the 3rd Prince and his aide.