Obviously, It’s My Child - Chapter 131

He didn’t respond and continued walking.

“Dad!”

Iris tried to run to him, but Robert intercepted her.

“Father is tired, Iris.”

“Brother!”

Iris’s cry and scream echoed.

It was then that the Count’s stride stopped for the second time.

The butler rushed over urgently.

“Master, the Police Department has sent someone!”

“What’s the matter?”

Count Schneider turned to the butler with a weary and drained voice. As the pale-faced butler stepped back, the visitor who followed him took a step forward.

“I am Inspector Baus, dispatched from the special investigation unit. I regret to inform you of some unfortunate news, Count Schneider.”

He removed his hat in greeting and spoke.

“The Countess’s body has been found.”

“What?”

Robert reacted more violently than the exhausted Count Schneider.

Baus slightly bowed his head.

“The estimated time of death is around 7 o’clock this morning. It appears she was murdered during a love quarrel at the hideout of the fugitive Thomas Borjans.”

Count Schneider’s eyes widened. When he turned around, he saw Iris collapsing.

“Iris!”

He exclaimed in shock.

* * *

Augusta reported.

“It was treated as Thomas Borjans and her killing each other. Katya poisoned Borjans’s drink, and in a fit of rage, Borjans killed Katya before drinking the poisoned liquor himself.”

“Isn’t there a difference in the date of death?”

“Borjans’s body wasn’t disclosed and was preserved. Since it was ultimately burned, the degree of decomposition won’t be distinguishable.”

“I see. You’ve handled it well.”

The Empress murmured indifferently while flipping through the faded documents with her glasses on.

“This clears the daughter of murdering the father. She was sent off without suffering, wasn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“She had achieved merit, so she deserves that much. Take some care of Iris too.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

With this, the opera house incident could be concluded. All living parties involved were mere pawns.

“But Augusta, there’s something that really concerns me.”

She said, lifting her gaze from the documents and lowering her glasses to the tip of her nose as she looked at Augusta.

“I suspected Jared had a lover with him.”

“Yes.”

“It seems he got signatures. From two people. Marvin Schneider was one of them.”

“Two people?”

Augusta blinked several times. Receiving signatures from two people indicated that the document required witnesses.

But it couldn’t be a business document. Prince Jared was barely twenty at the time and didn’t have any separate organizations or businesses under his control.

If it were a political contract, they would have added the signature of a trusted legal advisor for confidentiality. Not a secretary’s.

“A document requiring two signatures is either a will or a marriage contract. It’s quite clear which one a twenty-year-old would have written, isn’t it?”

“Surely not. Even so, he’s the Crown Prince. It’s not something to be taken lightly.”

“If a marriage contract seems too far-fetched, how about an engagement? Sometimes those are documented.”

The Empress read a line from the record with an intrigued demeanor.

“This name belongs to a traditional noble family of Arren. Although of very low status, there is no issue in terms of the succession laws.”

Augusta listened carefully but didn’t understand what the Empress was hinting at.

The Empress clicked her tongue in frustration.

“Southern Arren, a low-status yet traditional family with no issues regarding the Rommel-Arren succession laws. I’ve heard this description several times recently.”

That’s when Augusta gasped.

“How old was Claire Delford’s younger sister at the time when she gave birth?”

“She was twenty-one years old.”

“That was about 5 years ago. Jared would have been twenty at the time, just graduated from the academy.”

“Yes.”

“Jared frequented the academy, didn’t he? Have you heard about Grand Prince Arren weeping in the marketplace, holding a child?”

“I have.”

“Good. Now it’s starting to make sense.”

The Empress leaned back leisurely on a cushion, removing her glasses as she spoke.

“Both Erich and the Baron are being overly secretive about the child. If the child is indeed Erich’s, he would inherit Duchy Klausener as the eldest son.”

“Yes.”

“This incident too. Why did the story about Count Schneider’s daughter emerge during the wedding reception? Because of the diamonds?”

The Empress couldn’t accept that such a trivial matter would overshadow her presence.

It was Claire’s first day stepping out as Duchess Klausener. There were far more politically advantageous moves to be made.

Yet, Claire chose to bury the wedding story under a massive scandal instead.

“What follows marriage is a child. If this was done to bury that story, it’s quite a skillful move.”

The Empress muttered to herself.

* * *

True to the Empress’s words, not a day had passed, Duke Klausener’s wedding had completely vanished from the topic of conversation.

Even those who attended the wedding reception were only whispering about the Schneider family briefly before dispersing, fulfilling the minimum time they stayed for politeness.

Romantic affairs involving social disparities, love triangles, infidelity, abduction, drugs. All these intrigued people.

But nothing compared to the mystery of one’s birth. Especially when it involved a change in the child of a noble family, that had been defined by lineage.

Even the nobility, who had elegantly ignored various scandals gracing the newspapers until then, reacted to this issue.

Want to read more? Up to [24] advanced chapters are available on Patreon: