Chapter 2109 The Secret Objective
In other words, Federico was more concerned about commercial opportunities and building networks than William and the eighty lives in his castle.
When the sad truth finally dawned upon her, Francesca’s pity for William intensified.
Suddenly, she could understand why William had been suffering in silence all this while. It wasn’t because he was an incompetent coward, but because he knew that even if he fought for what he wanted, it was simply pointless.
Even now, he couldn’t even initiate an investigation despite having lost the lives of eighty men in the castle.
What made things worse was that his only hope lay in her relationship with Danrique.
How absurd was this?
More importantly, the fact that Federico could brazenly playback the conversation in front of William and Francesca meant that he didn’t see any problem with it at all.
At that instant, Francesca finally understood why her mentor had repeatedly emphasized that she shouldn’t get involved with politicians and members of royal families.
At the end of the recording, Federico got straight to the point. “William, was it your intention to send Robin to see me?”
“No,” William answered softly. “But I’ll take responsibility for everything he said.”
“Good, that should be the way.” Federico smiled faintly. “In that case, did you also order him to lie?”
“Robin didn’t lie,” William quickly said. “It’s true that the water source at the castle was poisoned together with my essential oils…”
“And is Dr. Felch’s identity also true?” Federico questioned directly.
Stunned, William gave Francesca a conflicted look, not knowing what to say.
“Your Majesty, and which of my identities are you asking about?” Francesca threw the question back at him. “Is it the one where I’m Francesco or the one where I’m Danrique’s fiancée?”
Francesca didn’t sound as if she was speaking to a king at all. Instead, it was as if she was fearlessly arguing with a common man with no intention of backing down.
The gravitas in her voice intimidated Federico to the extent he needed a few seconds to recover from the shock. “Barely anything was publicly known about Francesco before this morning. Also, details of Mr. Lindberg’s fiancée were scarce until now…”
There was a certain weightiness to his words.
After all, Francesco’s identity had been such a tightly kept secret that even a king wasn’t able to verify it. Previously, Federico didn’t have any doubts because he didn’t find it important at all.
What he was truly concerned with was Francesca’s relationship with Danrique.
However, the proud Francesca was incensed by his words. “What does whether I’m Danrique’s fiancée have anything to do with this matter?”
“Francesca…” William quickly held her hand. “Calm down. Let’s discuss this civilly.”
“Am I wrong?” Francesca’s temper flared. “Your Majesty, please answer my question!”
“Insolence!” Silas bellowed. “Don’t be rude to His Majesty.”
“It’s fine.” Unexpectedly, Federico didn’t mind Francesca’s attitude. Instead, he commented with a smile, “From the way you speak and behave, you’re really similar to Danrique.”
“Why would I want to be similar to that b*stard?” Francesca blurted.
“Francesca…” William panicked.
Noticing the nervous look on William’s face, Francesca dialed down her ferocity and rephrased, “Your Majesty, the water source at William’s castle was poisoned, resulting in the deaths of eighty men. From an official perspective, you should seek justice for them. And on a personal level, you, as William’s grandfather, should all the more protect and stand up for him. At such a crucial moment, you must order the matter to be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrator to be severely punished instead of dwelling on unrelated matters.”
“With regards to the matter, you can rest assured that I’ll thoroughly investigate it.” Federico broke into a slight smile. “If someone has really tried to poison William and the men in his castle, they’ll definitely feel my wrath. However, I still can’t allow an outsider to manipulate William to achieve his secret objective.”
