Pregnancy Is Too Much For The Villain - C153.2

Evener sighed and immediately dismissed all the attendants. The few who were clinging to the walls, enduring the prince’s madness due to his confinement, quickly fled at the princess consort’s gesture.

Although Clifton usually waited quietly for news from outside when his partner came, this time was different. Having received an ultimatum and heard news of his defeat, he was like a dog that had lost a fight. Clifton then began to vent his anger towards Evener, foaming at the mouth like he had rabies.

“Why aren’t you answering? Do you think my words are nonsense too?”

“Calm down, Your Highness.”

“Calm down my ass! This is all because of you!”

Evener shook his head at his words blaming him, and took out another medicine bottle from his bosom, placing it on a silver tray.

“What on earth are you doing outside? I clearly ordered you to stick close to His Majesty!”

“His Majesty said he was tired and dismissed everyone around him.”

“You should have found a way to stay close anyway! I’ve been slowly weakening father with drugs for a year, and you still can’t use your ability better than that?”

He had crossed a line.

There were eyes and ears on the walls of the imperial palace. But Clifton was not in a state where he could exercise restraint as he usually did. The foolish madman was loudly confessing that he had been secretly administering special drugs to weaken the emperor’s constitution and cloud his judgment for the past year…. Perhaps if he had taken a sedative as usual, it would have been better. Evener clicked his tongue secretly while looking at the broken medicine bottle.

In fact, at this point, Evener didn’t care about any of it. No, more precisely, all of it had been possible because Evener had used his ability to charm the emperor’s closest aides, so it wasn’t entirely unrelated, but it meant that it didn’t matter if all of it was revealed now.

“If you’ve been weakening him like that for a year, there should have been enough results!”

Clifton still claimed that all his failures were because Evener hadn’t properly used his ability on the emperor.

“There were results. Why do you think His Majesty still hasn’t cast you out?”

“What are you trying to do with those wide eyes? Are you raising your voice to me for using just that much ability?”

Clifton approached as if he wanted to strangle Evener while leaning on his crutch. Then, seeing him still with those pretty eyes wide open, not behaving submissively to him as usual, Clifton soon changed his mind. Evener Leopold. His partner who belonged only to him. Wasn’t he the final means he could use most effectively until the end? He thought it was time to give the carrot instead of the stick.

“My pretty Evener, come here.”

He soon changed his demeanor to that of a gentle lamb and began to act like a patient. He lay down on the bed, making groaning noises, throwing away his crutch and calling for his omega husband. Evener approached Clifton’s side with the medicine on the silver tray, letting out another small sigh at his call.

“Are you in pain?”

“It hurts… It feels like I’m dying. Those damned Dennox bastards…! Valkyries! If I don’t kill that bastard right now, I feel like I’ll never recover!”

As if he had forgotten about pretending to be a gentle lamb, Clifton trembled with anger rising again towards Reynard. Madness boiled in his eyes.

“But that’s not the problem right now! Hurry and go to His Majesty the Emperor. Go and use that ability to prevent the revocation of succession rights from being finalized!”

Evener gently shook his head at his words to enchant the emperor again and have him reverse the revocation of succession rights.

“That matter has already been completely settled. And His Majesty has retired to his chambers, saying he has a headache and suspending all official duties.”

Many things that the aide who came earlier hadn’t dared to tell Clifton were already in progress.

The emperor was frightened by the people rising up during his peaceful reign. As the angry protesters began to show increasingly violent tendencies, this petty man among petty men was struggling not to lose his insignificant achievements and reputation. So even Evener’s ability to gently persuade him had reached its limit. Wasn’t it an ability that didn’t work well on Formers to begin with?

“If only that issue is resolved, there will be opportunities again as time passes. I must first kill those who interfered with me, and this time I’ll completely remove my sister.”

He muttered that the parliament kept looking to the other powerful heir, so he needed to get rid of him. It was obvious that he was deeply immersed in his own world.

Clifton grabbed Evener’s wrist as he sat at his bedside, with wild eyes. The force with which he gripped and pulled, like a devil’s hook rising from hell, revealed his seething attachment and greed.

“So as soon as you leave this room, crawl into father’s bedroom. Take off your clothes and cling to His Majesty’s legs if you have to.”

The nature of a person driven to the very edge spilled out disgustingly. The worst human nature, ordering his own spouse to lobby with his body towards his father-in-law…. Without even noticing Evener’s furrowed brow, Clifton continued speaking.

“You want your husband to succeed too, right? You’ve always wanted that. To look down on people from the highest position.”

Evener gently took Clifton’s arm and made him let go of him. Then he spoke coldly in a resigned tone.

“You’re mistaking your desires for mine.”

“What?”

“What I’ve always wanted from beginning to end was just to be by your side, not to be in some high position looking down on people.”

“…”

“I would have been fine if you were just the second son of an ordinary noble family. No, even if you were a common farmer plowing fields. I’ve always done as you ordered, as you wished, simply because I liked you as a person.”

“…”

“But look at us, Clifton. Where exactly is that end? Where exactly have we come to?”

“Don’t dare speak of an end…!”

Clifton, who had been listening to his spouse speaking calmly, began shouting again, enraged at the word ‘end’ implying his downfall.

“I’ve only fallen into Valkyries’s trap right now! We still have a chance to recover! So don’t babble about it being the end. I won’t forgive such words, even from you! Urgh… This damn leg…!”

It seemed he had unconsciously tensed his thigh while speaking. Clifton clutched his leg as if he had been shot and trembled, unable to bear the pain. He had thrown away the painkillers he needed to take every hour in his anger…. Evener glanced at the remnants of medicine rolling messily in the corner of the inner chamber before fixing his gaze back on his husband.

“I’ve brought new medicine.”

He removed the seal from the medicine bottle with very concise hand movements. And before tilting it to Clifton’s mouth, from which painful groans were flowing, he asked.

“Do you have any last words?”

Last words….

Clifton interpreted this as asking if there was anything else he wanted him to do. After all, this excessively strong painkiller and sedative usually knocked him out as soon as he took it.

“Shut up, and just hurry and sneak into father’s bedroom and cling to him. That’s your role.”

Evener’s expression didn’t change even as he heard the shameful order. He simply tilted the medicine bottle to his husband’s mouth with a plain touch, making sure it all went in.

Clifton swallowed all the medicine without leaving any and buried his body in the soft pillow. Perhaps trying to sleep to forget the pain, he changed position to lie comfortably and exhaled slowly. But that steady breathing soon lost its calmness and became rough.

“Huk… W-what is this…? I can’t breathe…?”

A strange sensation was coming over him. It was hard to breathe. Moreover, his body was stiffening, his tongue was hardening, and there was a sense of alienation as if his body wasn’t his own, like he had been anesthetized.

“Is the medicine taking effect?”

At Evener’s calm question, Clifton opened his eyelids wide – about the only thing he could still move freely – and glared at his spouse with bloodshot eyes. Then he barely managed to stammer out with his numb tongue.

“Wh… what did… you feed me?”

After confirming that his husband couldn’t move his limbs and could barely move just his mouth, Evener stroked Clifton’s hair. It was a loving touch, as if dealing with a pitiful patient.

“It’s nothing special. You know those researchers we kept at the pharmaceutical company to make New Popinsa? Thanks to them, I didn’t need to find people to help me elsewhere. You gathered so many top talents after all. Of course, they were greedy humans befitting those under you.”

“…Ugh.”

“With their help, and that of that person blinded by money and honor who acted as your spy under you, the imperial physician. I received some assistance from them too.”

“…?”

“Why do you look so surprised? Actually, it’s all my ability. Did you really think those humans were sincerely loyal to you? It was because of my ability, the power you offered, and money.”

Clifton’s eyeballs shook uncontrollably.

“It was nothing to use my ability a little more to make them loyal to me instead of you. This is the medicine those people made for me. How is it? Can you hear me well?”

“Urgh…”

“This is probably almost the last time you’ll be able to make a sound. Clifton, your body is completely paralyzed. Now you can only lie there listening to what I say.”

“…?”

“Of course, that will only be for a few days.”

Evener shrugged his shoulders.

“You know what? While you were confined to this inner chamber sick in bed, I tore apart all your businesses. The investors were in an uproar asking to at least recover their principal. So I sold all sorts of patents, your buildings, research institutes and factories. I gave it all away. It was nothing to steal your seal while you were stuck here just yelling.”

Evener took out the 3rd Prince’s seal from his pocket and placed it on Clifton’s stomach. He was so paralyzed all over that he couldn’t even shake his body to knock it off.

“So now you have nothing left. I’ve cleaned out all your personal savings, the wealth given by your maternal family the Hedderfield dukedom, all those things you had as private funds.”

A bundle of now worthless promissory notes and dirty checks were scattered on his stomach.

“So now all you have left is just your body and me… and neither are very good.”

Shock and dismay were etched on Clifton’s face, which could barely move just the facial muscles. If he had been able to move, he probably would have already gone berserk and strangled Evener.

At that moment, a cry was heard from outside.

“His Majesty the Emperor has passed away!”

“Ah… finally.”

The bustling sound announcing the emperor’s death. And soon after, the imperial bell tower began to ring. It was announcing the emperor’s death to all of Eldon. With the solemn funeral song consisting of a single bell toll as background, Evener continued to speak to Clifton, who was still lying paralyzed.

“Finally, the final measure planned by Valkyries and me has succeeded. Actually, we weren’t going to go this far, but because you couldn’t give up your greed until the very end, things flowed to this extreme. By the way, the timing is really good. I guess that person will live luckily like that forever.”

Working together this time, I felt he was truly an individual with exceptional intelligence and execution. The ingenious strategy and skill of using the drug Clifton was already administering to even cause the troublesome emperor’s death was really applause-worthy. To turn such a person into an enemy. My husband went wrong from there to begin with.

“His Majesty’s soldiers will soon come to arrest you.”

“…”

“That New Popinsa you were offering to His Majesty, conspiring with that ambitious young attendant and the court physician. I told them to raise the dose a bit this time. And they’ll soon confess without even realizing it. Because I ordered them to.”

Evener smirked.

“Oh… why that expression? You knew all about it too. That if His Majesty, who has high blood pressure, continued to take the painkillers you gave him, he would die within a short time. You were always going around saying you wished the old man would die quickly and vacate the throne, were you disappointed because your position hadn’t been restored yet? Afraid you’d lose the throne to your sister at this rate?”

“…”

“If that’s how it was, you shouldn’t have used drugs on His Majesty from the beginning. This arrogant and incompetent human who thought everything would roll along as he pleased in the palm of his hand…”

Dirty saliva now leaked from Clifton’s mouth. There was no other movement at all. His completely paralyzed body imprisoned that turbid mind in a filthy body.

“Even though you were such a person, I loved you, Clifton.”

With those final words, imperial guard soldiers burst through the door into the 3rd Prince’s inner chamber.

“Prince Clifton Leopold! You are under arrest on suspicion of murdering His Majesty the Emperor!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, they approached the bed as Evener moved aside and dragged out the prince’s stiffened body. Then they bound him tightly with ropes and dragged him away.

Clifton’s back view as he was dragged to the imperial underground prison with his powerless body that couldn’t move was as unsightly and filthy as the corpse of a dog beaten to death in sewage. Watching that back view, Evener muttered quietly.

“…I don’t know if this will be any comfort to you. But I’ll follow soon.”