I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree
Chapter 84 - Pressure

“Orson, what is going on?” In the hotel, Elsa found Orson and asked with a serious face.

Although there was constant internal struggle within the Imperial Family, they had always maintained a consistent and firm attitude towards external matters, which was that local power must not rise.

But now, the Duke of Orleans, in conjunction with three other dukes, was putting pressure on the Imperial Family. They had even started increasing troops at the border, forcing the Imperial Family to withdraw troops from the front line for defense.

“You have an engagement with Olivia, right? Then why is Prussia also putting pressure on the Imperial Family along with Orleans?”

“Your Highness the Princess, I believe someone as intelligent as you must understand, right? The person in charge of governing Prussia now is not Olivia, but her father, Duke William.”

“It is true that Olivia and I are engaged, but what can that do? Matters concerning the fundamental interests of the duchy must be decided by Duke William himself, and the role of the engagement in this can be said to be negligible.”

“After all, I have already confirmed that I will not be the future heir to the Antica Duchy. The marriage alliance no longer holds such great value, does it?”

Elsa heard Orson say this and lowered her head helplessly.

“...Orson, you are right. I was impulsive just now.”

Elsa sincerely apologized to Orson, and then left Orson’s room.

At a time like this, it was indeed not appropriate to blame someone who had been helping her all along.

The current situation was clearly a more serious problem for the Imperial Family.

As Elsa left the hotel, she happened to run into Olivia, who was preparing to see Orson.

“Olivia...” Looking at Olivia, Elsa felt a little awkward.

After all, the power standing behind her was currently on the opposite side of the Imperial Family. It was certainly impossible to have a good conversation.

“Your Highness the Princess, have you just seen Orson?” Seeing Elsa stop, Olivia quickly asked about Orson.

“Ah, yes, I just had something to ask Orson. Apologies.”

“It’s alright,” Olivia shook her head. “What Your Highness the Princess probably wants to ask is about Prussia’s stance, isn’t it? Regarding this, it is indeed not something Orson can decide. Please try to understand him.”

“It’s alright. Of course I understand,” Elsa nodded. “I still have some things to deal with, so I won’t stay here.”

“Mm,” Olivia glanced at Elsa. After saying goodbye to her, she also walked into the hotel.

“Orson...” Olivia knocked on the door. After the door opened, looking at the man standing before her, she murmured.

“What’s wrong, Olivia? You seem a little unhappy?” Orson looked at Olivia, asking curiously.

“Mm, because I couldn’t help you... and, from my family’s standpoint, I cannot help you with this matter either.”

Olivia was naturally talking about the matter of choosing sides.

“It’s alright. On the contrary, what Duke William did is exactly what I expected,” Orson said this, showing a hint of a smile, which reassured Olivia.

“Duke William must have also said that in the current situation of the Empire, you must side with the local faction. Otherwise, a larger-scale war might break out.”

“Mm, Father did say that, but... in that case, won’t Antica have to face Napoli alone?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Orson shook his head. “The situation on the front line is ideal. Even if the Imperial army is withdrawn, the Antica army still has the advantage against Napoli. So it’s alright.”

“On the contrary, in the current situation, it seems the Imperial Family will have to make concessions to the dukes, otherwise the consequences that might arise are something the Imperial Family cannot bear,” Orson said this, looking at Olivia.

Although he hadn’t told Olivia about the specifics of his cooperation with Elsa, during this period, Olivia clearly knew that Orson was on Elsa’s side.

And the Imperial Family being forced to make concessions could only mean two things.

One was to open up private investigation permissions and provide the previously investigated information to the Duke of Orleans’ side free of charge. The other was to directly choose someone from the Imperial Family to take the blame.

And that person had a high probability of being Arthas.

After all, the Toulouse family crest was found in Arthas’s personal property, and this crest, upon identification, was clearly genuine.

Even if someone were framing him, before that person was found, Arthas’s reputation would plummet.

In this way, the obstacles to Elsa’s ascension would be greatly reduced.

Consider this: one is a stubborn conservative, who can protect the interests of the nobles, but has a history of plotting against nobles.

The other is a reformer, but has not murdered any nobles. Even the trials conducted in the Imperial Court before were just and fair judgments based on Imperial law.

Although the nobles would still lean towards Arthas, they would definitely have reservations because Arthas had not been cleared of suspicion.

Furthermore, the rumored traitor of the Empire, Giovanni, also had close ties with Arthas before.

Whether Arthas was truly worthy of everyone’s trust would have to be put into serious question.

Olivia looked at Orson expressing his thoughts and asked in confusion, “Orson, you don’t want the Imperial Family’s influence to be too great either?”

“Mm. After all, no matter what you say, I am not from the Imperial Family. At most, I just have some connections with some of the people in it. The place where I was born and raised is Antica. How could I not consider the interests of Antica?”

...

On the other side, in the Imperial Palace.

Ever since Odysseus learned about the discovery of the Toulouse family crest, he had been dealing with the related aftermath for three consecutive days.

First, he disbanded the original special investigation team and assigned a new group of people to the investigation.

Then, he replaced the archives within the Imperial Court, and took all the very important documents back to the Imperial Palace for safekeeping.

After dealing with these matters, Odysseus thought he could hide it. After all, he had already paid a sufficient amount to keep people silent, and those who knew about the matter would not spread it.

But who would have thought that the Orleans Duchy would suddenly put pressure, insisting on personally intervening in the investigation, and claiming that if the Orleans side was not allowed to participate in the investigation, it would prove that the Imperial Family had something to hide.

It was very strange. In the eyes of Odysseus and the senior officials of the Empire, the new regent of the Orleans Duchy, Sean, was clearly an honest person and could not possibly have the audacity to challenge the Imperial Family.

But not only did he do that, he also rallied other dukes and jointly issued a statement.

The situation had now even escalated to the point of reinforcing border troops.

Helplessly, Odysseus could only have the front-line army return for defense, while also continuously discussing countermeasures day and night.

The discussion ultimately resulted in a conclusion, but it required Arthas’s approval.

And so, today, he was preparing to meet with Arthas again to ask for his opinion.

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