My villain wants to save himself, but the yandere heroine disagrees

"Although I don't know what you are thinking of deliberately stirring up conflicts in the family, mother, are you so innocent?"

"Orson, you..." Mary was panicked when she heard this. "What do you mean by saying this?"

"The Toulouse family." Orson said this, and François, Duke of Orleans, who was drinking soup silently at the side, paused.

"The Toulouse family that rules the Duchy of Orleans is your family, mother. During the years that you were the Duchess and controlled the Duchy's finances, you used various means to embezzle almost two-thirds of the Duchy's annual fiscal surplus into your personal property, and then transferred it to the Toulouse family. This is why the Duchy of Antica has always been in a tight financial situation despite its good development over the years."

Having said this, Orson took out the bill in his hand and handed it to the emperor.

After Odysseus glanced at it, he turned to look at Mary.

"Madam Marie, if this bill is true, then your behavior as a Duchess can be said to be quite bad." As he said this, he turned and glanced at François.

"Duke Francois, you are such a fool. Your sister is already married, and you still expect her to help your dukedom?"

"Your Majesty is right." Francois nodded. "But all of this is my sister's personal fault. Although I have advised her over the years, it is completely useless. I can only accept it."

When Mary heard her brother say this, she looked at him in surprise, her eyes full of anger after being betrayed.

Chapter 28: An ant trying to shake a tree

"Your Majesty, strictly speaking, this matter should be regarded as a family affair between the dukes." At this time, Ivan, Duke of Lucia, who was sitting next to François, also spoke up.

The meaning of his words was very obscure.

No matter how you, the emperor, usually show off your presence, or even how the outliers in the Duchy of Antica show their presence, the dukes will not say anything and will even cooperate with you well. But if you extend your hands to other duchies, wouldn’t that be a bit too much?

Therefore, even if Mary was really a traitor to the Duchy of Antica and sold out the interests of the Duchy of Antica to the Duchy of Orleans, all Emperor Odysseus could do was to limit the punishment to where he could interfere, rather than involving other duchies.

“I naturally

I know." Odysseus nodded when he heard Ivan say this.

At this time, Lucius' old rival Giovanni remained silent.

Because he knew that he didn't even need to take any action in this matter. The other dukes, and even the Duke of Antica's absolute ally, Duke William of Prussia, would not let Odysseus interfere in the Duchy of Orleans when considering the interests of their own duchies.

There is no doubt that whether this debt can be recovered depends entirely on whether François himself has a conscience.

"Oh, by the way, mother, aren't you going to break up with me?" Orson said this and took out the recording magic stone.

"Is there anyone present who doesn't recognize this item?"

Mary's heart trembled when she saw this item appear in Orson's hands.

Then, Orson input magic power into it.

As expected, the scene that appeared was Lucius' bedroom. At this time, Lucius was sitting in the middle of the room.

"Although there are not many cases of using video magic stones as a form of will, it has existed in history. Although video magic stones are very valuable, it is worth using them to record more valuable evidence."

As Orson finished speaking, everyone saw Lucius move on the video.

"Ahem, Albert, the video stone is working now, right?"

"Yes." Albert's voice came from outside the image.

"Okay." Lucius nodded, and then said, "My mental state has not been very good recently. I may suffer from amnesia or something like that. In order to avoid confusion about the family succession position, I'll make it clear here."

"I, Lucius, as the head of the Stranik family of the hereditary Duchy of Antica, hereby make a will. If I die or lose the ability to manage the Duchy, the position of head of the family... will be..."

When seeing this, everyone held their breath.

Because in the scene, what Lucius said next meant the establishment of the will, that is, the establishment of the heir to the Dukedom of Antica.

Off the field, Olivia and Lianka looked at each other worriedly.

Chelinina, who was present as a special guest, also had a complicated look on her face.

"It will be inherited by my son, Little Stranik."

As these words were spoken, everyone was shocked.

Although everyone knows that Leeteuk is your biological son, it doesn't have to be like this, right?

How is Leeteuk better than Orson now?

But everyone can understand this. As for the heir, there are two choices, and it is understandable to choose either one. Maybe Lucius has his own considerations.

"At the same time, my son Orson will receive half of the Duke's Palace's property."

"Master, is this the end of the will?" Albert's voice can be heard in the video, sounding unexpectedly surprised.

"No, there's one more thing." Lucius said, looking towards the center of the image.

Everyone could see the anger and dissatisfaction in Lucius' eyes in the video.

"Drive my unfaithful wife, Mary, out of the Stranik family!"

When she heard this, Mary knelt down on the ground in fear.

"Master! Is what you say true?"

"Yes, I am conscious now, Albert." Lucius nodded. "This is my will. I hope you will keep it properly and make it public one day."

"Ok."

Then, the recording of the magic stone ended.

Everyone present didn't know what to say.

This family farce, a family scandal that originally did not want to be made public, will now probably become a rumor in the empire for a long time to come.

And the meaning conveyed in just a few minutes of footage is clear and definite enough.

When Leete inherited the title, Orson could only take half of the property and got no power, while Mary's treatment was even more outrageous.

The word "unfaithfulness" is not a joke. Once it is spoken, it cannot be taken back.

Everyone looked at Mary.

At this time, the butler Albert also came out.

As a witness to the will, it is necessary for him to appear at this time to prove the authenticity of the will.

"As you can see, I was the witness when this video was recorded, and I can vouch for the authenticity of the will."

"As for the superfluous words the master said, it is up to you to judge for yourselves."

Then he bowed respectfully and retreated.

"Mother, you may not think of it, but the person who betrayed you is the one you trusted the most." Orson said this, walked in front of Mary and squatted down.

"Mr. Randall has confessed everything about your relationship with him." He whispered in Mary's ear.

"Sometimes I just don't understand. In this big family, if you just fulfill your duties as a mother, won't praise and wealth come easily?"

"You also know that a married daughter is like a helpless duckweed. Over the years, you colluded with the servants and gave money to the family just to gain their support, but what was the final outcome?"

"Even when the emperor came this time, you must have wanted to ruin our reputation so that the emperor would deprive us of our inheritance rights and give them to the child in your belly, right?"

"Your talent is great, but unfortunately, your ambition is so high that you are walking on the most dangerous single-plank bridge. If you make a mistake, there will be no recovery."

As he said this, Orson laughed and said, "What's funny is that you made so many mistakes, and it was Father who pulled you back. But Father is kind-hearted and gave you so many chances, but you ignored them and ultimately lost to your inner desires."

"It's ridiculous to try to shake a tree with an ant. Mother, oh no, should I call you Miss Mary now?"

Orson's words, without a doubt, broke down Mary's inner defenses step by step. Mary just stood there, not daring to speak, and not knowing how to speak.

After saying this, Orson stood up and looked at the people around him.

"There should be no objection to this matter, right?" He first looked at Duke Ivan of Lucia. "Just as Duke Ivan said just now, this is all a private matter of our family. If you guys make arbitrary accusations and make rash conclusions, that would be a bit unreasonable, right?"

Then he looked at Odysseus.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty. This was originally just a minor matter within the family, but it has come to the point where you have to intervene."

"That's all right," Odysseus said, shaking his head.

As for Lucius, Vivian took him upstairs to rest while the video of the magic stone was playing.

Downstairs, it was already the junior’s home turf. He was tired and needed to rest for a while.

Chapter 29: Self-exposure

Downstairs, the reckoning continued.

"Your Majesty, although this is our family affair, if such a thing happened in any other family, the handling would be more severe." Orson said this and turned to look at François, Duke of Orleans.

"Your Excellency Duke François, for the sake of the relationship between the Dukedom of Orleans and the Dukedom of Antica, I will just expel Miss Mary from the Duke's family. What do you think about this?"

"Why are you asking me?" Francois looked at Orson in confusion. "Isn't this your family affair? In fact, even if Marie comes back, I won't take her in."

For François, Marie's exposure meant the complete disappearance of her value.

Before he ascended the throne, his ambitious sister had used some tricks to try to snatch the inheritance rights from him. After she failed in the competition, he married her off. As a result, he also wanted to undermine the power of her husband's family.

To be honest, if Marie could really do it, François wouldn't mind helping her. But now it seems that Marie is completely a drowned dog. Why should he protect her? Is it just because she is his sister?

Among the nobility, the strongest bond is kinship, and the weakest bond is family affection.

Especially a great noble like François.

The inheritance law based on blood relationship determines the order of heirs, but the inheritance law cannot arbitrarily deprive others of their inheritance rights. This also means that if something unexpected happens to oneself, the position of Duke may not fall into the hands of one's descendants. This makes the nobles keep a close eye on their relatives.

Although some nobles did not have to be on guard everywhere because of the close relationship between their families, for most nobles, it was normal to wish that all their peers and relatives would die.

After all, keeping them will only make the world's rice more expensive.

Mary raised her head and looked at her brother François. In order to eliminate her as a hidden danger and to gain an alliance, he married her to Lucius, Duke of Antica, who was twenty years older than her and could be her father.

She was powerless to change the status quo and could only let fate take its course. She did not love Lucius, and Lucius, who missed his deceased wife, did not love her either. For a long time, the two of them only maintained a nominal husband-and-wife relationship.

Even when she married into Lucius's family

At that time, his son Orson was only ten years younger than her. According to age, she should have been his sister, but she was forced to learn to be a mother.

She tried to rebel against fate. She wanted to take the power of the Duchy of Antica into her own hands and then take revenge on her brother.

To this end, she did not hesitate to temporarily devote herself to her brother and quietly transferred the surplus taxes of the Duchy of Antica to the Duchy of Orleans in a clever way.

She was like a helpless duckweed. Only a gust of wind could blow her to the top of the sky. However, she never got the gust of wind that belonged to her.

There was a heavy rain in the sky...

At this moment, she suddenly remembered.

Lucius seemed to have half-warned himself long before.

"If you really feel that you are unable to do it, then please give way to others."

At that time, Mary thought this passage was very confusing, but looking back now, she only felt irony.

Yes, Lucius had warned me, but I didn't give up, I became even more aggressive...

Thinking of this, the taut string in Mary's heart finally broke.

"Ha, ha ha..." Mary stood up, looking a little crazy.

"You bunch of high-sounding people, do you really think you are all clean?!" Marie said, pointing at François, Duke of Orleans.

"Brother, why do you think I used the Dukedom's finances to support you? To make up for the financial shortfall in your territory after you inherited the title?"

"You wrote me a letter at the time, telling me to ask for help if I needed it. You also mentioned that it is the duty and obligation of family members to help each other. You haven't forgotten this, have you?"

"Why are you telling me this? It's as if I asked you to do this." François frowned.

"Oh, yes, you are good at taking advantage of others' misfortune." Mary said this with a smile.

Then he looked at the others.

"Oh, I've been a duchess for so many years. Guess whether I have any leverage over you?"

With this, Mary pointed at Giovanni.

"Duke Napoli, what your child Donnie is doing at the Imperial College is not much different from what you did back then, right?"

Giovanni, who was watching the show, was stunned when he saw Mary suddenly explode.

"Mrs. Mary, I will call you Mrs. Mary for now. Please be careful about your words and actions and keep your mouth shut."

"Oh, so you've done something bad that you don't want others to know about?" Mary laughed when she heard Giovanni say that.