All I Wanted Was the Alimony - Chapter 25

When the time came, the Demon King would start a war, causing betrayal among the people of the Empire and instilling an even deeper hatred toward the demons.

The Demon King did not want peace. Neither did the late emperor nor Sidell.

The longer peace lasted, the more fearless the people of the Empire would become.

They would start voicing various opinions under the guise of constructive engagement.

But in truth, the subordinate class had no right to express opinions.

Whether in the Holy Empire or the Demon Kingdom, the lowly simply had to obey and serve as tools for the upper class to amass more wealth.

The Demon King thought the same.

The Empress knew this well. So if there were ever a chance to kill Paello, she wouldn’t hesitate.

Since the boat was going to sink anyway, she had decided to use the opportunity to poison the Grand Duke and his wife.

‘Even if he has some resistance to poison, his body would slow down, so swimming to safety won’t be easy.’

Recovering the drowned body would take quite some time. The Empress planned to stall for as long as she could. Meanwhile, the poisoned water would flow out into the sea and dilute.

That would make destroying evidence easier.

After calculating everything, the Empress gave a signal behind her to her shadow aide.

The shadow aide usually disguised themselves as a palace servant but transformed into the Empress’s hands and feet at critical moments.

According to her command, the aide swapped the wine on the boat Paello would board.

After confirming the success signal from a distance, the Empress took out her opera glasses and pretended to enjoy the scenery while checking the situation.

She saw Lucienne holding the wine bottle and silver goblet.

‘Damn it.’

The Empress wanted to scold her aide. If they switched the wine, they should’ve also replaced all the silver goblets with a different kind.

Silver reacts to poison.

‘What are they doing handling things so poorly?’

She even wondered if she had given the wrong signal.

The wine bottle passed hands, and Lucienne poured the wine into the silver goblet and drank it in one go.

‘It was supposed to be the Grand Duke who drank it!’

The Empress was frustrated that the poison target had changed. At the same time, she looked forward to seeing Lucienne suffer after clashing with the princess.

But Lucienne kept drinking. She seemed to empty the entire bottle.

‘Why… isn’t she dying?’

At this point, the Empress began to suspect the aide might have given her false information.

When Paello urgently called for a doctor, the Empress thought something might have gone wrong with Lucienne and briefly considered how to manage the situation. But Lucienne seemed perfectly fine.

Then came the unbelievable sight of Paello rowing the boat himself, and, just as Verdi had planned, the boat sank.

The Empress Dowager had been watching Paello without looking away, but due to the distance, she couldn’t properly assess the situation.

Once she realized there was an issue with the boat, she panicked.

An old woman being overly interested in a man more than fifty years younger… To the Empress, it was an incomprehensible and bizarre obsession.

That’s why she hoped even more that Paello and Lucienne would sink underwater.

But Paello displayed abilities beyond imagination. He jumped like a monster and safely returned to shore.

The Empress quickly tried to manage the situation in her own way and told the Empress Dowager that the incident had ended with the boat manager, who had failed to perform safety checks, being handed over to Paello for punishment.

“The doctor said even a trace amount was enough to make someone cough up blood; it was an extremely deadly poison. Though the Grand Duke detoxified right away, something’s odd. Why is the Grand Duchess completely unharmed? Do poisons not affect demons?”

As the Empress spoke, Sidell sat up. “That can’t be. She must not have drunk it.”

“But I saw it all. She completely emptied the bottle. Didn’t our informant also report that the Grand Duchess is a heavy drinker?”

“……”

That was true. But regarding poisons, it differed from what Sidell knew. Even if resistance varied, demons were still affected by poison.

There was only one exception.

Recalling this, Sidell muttered to himself, “What really happened? There’s only one case where a demon is completely immune to poison.”

Tilting his head, Sidell soon scoffed. “Must’ve been a mistake. She probably faked drinking it somehow.”

Frustrated by his disbelief, the Empress thumped her chest. “No, I’m telling you she really drank it all!”

“Sure, sure. I get it. My Empress just wants the Grand Duke and his wife gone.”

Sidell pulled her into his arms.

‘Upset that I was concerned, she tried to act first.’

Though she was saying absurd things like the Grand Duchess downed a whole bottle of strong wine, Sidell found her endearing.

He kissed the top of her head and whispered low, “Tomorrow is the hunting competition, so there will be plenty of chances to disguise it as an accident. I’ve prepared something myself, so let’s get some rest.”

The Empress pouted but then snuggled into Sidell’s embrace with a soft hum.

***

The wide clearing in the forest near the Imperial Palace was already bustling from early morning with the barking of hunting dogs.

It was the day of the hunting competition.

“Good morning, Grand Duke and Duchess Ronatere.”

An imperial knight who saw Joad, Paello, and Lucienne accompanied by a hunting dog greeted them politely.

Paello gave only a curt nod with a blank expression and headed toward the inner part of the competition grounds.

Joad said he would leave the dog at the storage area and walked away. Lucienne, wearing a sullen expression, walked beside Paello.

‘A place like this is originally meant to get drunk and make a fool of yourself.’

She had learned it yesterday.

Lucienne herself didn’t get drunk. She was even highly immune to potent toxins.

‘What kind of body is this? Is it because I’m half demon?’

At any rate, Lucienne had lost her main reason for attending the event. Perhaps that’s why she had no motivation to walk around energetically at the hunting competition.

Then, a man’s voice was heard nearby.

“Oh, Viscount. What a splendid hunting dog.”

A plump man holding the leash of a brown dog the size of a bear was admiring a spotted hunting dog.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

The owner holding the spotted dog’s leash beamed.

“Your hunting dogs are also very large and dignified, Count. Are those the ones you specially imported recently? I heard it wasn’t just one or two.”

“Yes, you recognized them.”

The man with the brown dog gestured with his chin in the other direction.

“I brought five. The rest are being cared for by the trainer.”

“You might just win the hunting competition this time, Count.”

“Hoho, does it look that way?”

The atmosphere was very jovial. As Lucienne turned her gaze elsewhere, she saw other nobles showing off their weapons and sharing impressions.

They were excitedly chatting about swords, maces, spears, and bows.

Soon, the cheerful voices of women were also heard.

“Oh my, it’s the Grand Duke Ronatere!”

Young noble ladies were seated under round parasols lined up in a row. Seeing older women attending to them, they appeared to be minors.

“It was so hard to see him, but now I’ve seen him two days in a row. I’m so happy.”

“Did you see him jump from the boat to the shore yesterday? I couldn’t believe it.”

“It was truly breathtaking. Just thinking about it again makes me swoon.”

“They say he easily took on dozens of demons by himself. His strength is on a whole different level.”

“What? By himself? Doesn’t it take at least ten people to subdue even one demon?”

“That’s why he’s on a different level.”

“The Grand Duchess who was in his arms must have been so happy.”

“Sigh, I resent the late emperor. Why did he send such a man to a demon woman?”

For a while, there was a chorus of complaints about the emperor, the Demon King, and Lucienne.

“You know, if the Grand Duke Ronatere is that strong, doesn’t it mean he’ll win today’s hunting competition too?”

“I think so too. No other man in the Empire could be that cool.”

“Come on, that’s not true. There’s also Commander Emilion.”

Emilion.

Finally, hearing the male lead’s name, Lucienne’s ears perked up. She also realized that she hadn’t seen Emilion yesterday.

‘Huh? Wait, he was supposed to appear yesterday, wasn’t he?’

In the original story, Emilion and Verdi ride a boat together, deepening their romantic atmosphere.

And toward the end of today’s competition, an incident occurs that brings them even closer.

A giant gray bear attacks the competition grounds.

At that time, Emilion saves Verdi and becomes the winner of the hunting competition. He presents the captured bear to Verdi.

‘Why didn’t he appear? Did I mess things up by making Verdi cry yesterday?’