Chapter 599: Chapter-599
"Prime Minister, there is no magical aura in this empire that simply prevents a man from having children just because he ’doesn’t want them,’" Heena replied, her voice echoing clearly. "If a man wishes to avoid heirs while maintaining a busy courtyard, he takes contraceptives. Or his wives do. But, from my investigation, I found a rather fascinating detail: the Prime Minister’s household has not purchased a single contraceptive draft, pill, or tonic in the last ten years."
The Prime Minister’s eyes widened in sheer outrage. The veins in his neck bulged.
"Did you... did you investigate my private family matters?!" he roared, the sheer audacity of the act completely shattering his calm. "Who gave you the right to investigate my family?!"
Heena didn’t back down an inch. She took a step forward, her aura violently clashing against his.
"Who gave you the right to shout at my family in front of the Emperor and spew absolute nonsense about treason?!" Heena shot back, her voice cracking like a physical whip.
The entire Great Hall flinched. The absolute, unadulterated disrespect was staggering. No one—not even the Emperor himself—spoke to the Prime Minister with such blatant, aggressive contempt.
The Prime Minister gritted his teeth, his hands shaking. "So, you admit it in front of the court! You admit to conducting an illegal investigation into my household!"
"Of course I did," Heena said calmly, instantly dropping her anger and shrugging her shoulders as if she had just admitted to eating breakfast.
She turned to face the Dragon Throne. "Your Majesty, I am absolutely guilty of investigating his household. But I did it with all the proper permissions and court formalities. I consulted the necessary ministers, and I even obtained the Prime Minister’s own written consent to do so."
The Prime Minister froze, his brain screeching to a complete halt.
"Did you just say you took my acceptance?" he asked, sounding genuinely bewildered.
Heena reached into her sleeve and casually pulled out a second folded document. She handed it to the Head Eunuch, who promptly delivered it to the Emperor.
"Your Majesty, in this document, it is clearly written that I am formally requesting to conduct a background investigation on his family’s apothecary records," Heena explained smoothly. "And right there, at the bottom, is his official seal and signature."
The Emperor leaned down, squinting at the paper. "Indeed. The Prime Minister’s signature is quite clear."
The Prime Minister stared at the parchment in absolute horror. His mind raced frantically back through the last few weeks. When did she ever give him a petition?
And then, it hit him.
"You copied it!" the Prime Minister shouted, stepping forward. But then he froze again. He stared at the ink. It wasn’t a copy. That was his authentic, physical signature. He remembered signing a paper with that exact grain of parchment just three days ago!
"Your Majesty, this is a trick!" the Prime Minister panicked, pointing wildly at the paper. "I never signed an investigation warrant! That was a requisition document for the southern food supply! She... she altered the text!"
Heena looked at him, her face a mask of profound, pitying disbelief.
"Oh, yes, of course," Heena nodded sarcastically. "I used my dark magic to make the ink vanish and rewrite the words after you signed it. Right, Prime Minister? Please. Even if I had magic, I wouldn’t waste it on your apothecary receipts."
Hovering near the ceiling, the System was completely losing its mind.
"HOST!" the System wheezed, slapping its digital knees. "You literally slipped a search warrant into a stack of his grocery bills! That is so incredibly illegal and brilliant!"
Heena turned her attention back to the highly entertained Emperor.
"Your Majesty, investigating another official’s household—as long as it doesn’t cross into state secrets—is hardly a grave matter when there is reasonable suspicion," Heena stated, her tone shifting into a deeply earnest, almost gossipy cadence. "And truthfully, it was my husband who first found it suspicious."
The court blinked. Lord Samuel? The brilliant, untouchable scholar?
"You see, Your Majesty," Heena continued, looking entirely shameless, "my husband is incredibly devoted to my health. Because I have many duties, he does not want me to risk the physical toll of childbirth right now. So, he went out looking to purchase the highest quality, safest contraceptives available in the capital."
Several older ministers violently coughed into their sleeves, completely scandalized by the Vanguard Madam casually discussing her bedroom planning in the middle of a treason trial.
"My husband wanted a recommendation from a household that successfully prevents pregnancies without harming the wives," Heena explained, her face the picture of innocence. "Naturally, he thought of the Prime Minister, who has had three wives and no children. But when Samuel went to the apothecaries to ask for the specific drafts the Prime Minister uses, the shopkeepers were terribly confused."
The Emperor was now resting his chin on his fist, absolutely enthralled by the story. "Oh? Why is that?"
"Because they told him the Prime Minister has never, in ten years, purchased a single contraceptive," Heena declared. "My husband searched every reputable pharmacy in the capital. Nothing. He came home and told me this as a funny little fact. But I, being a cautious woman, found it deeply strange."
Heena sighed, looking mournfully at the Prime Minister.
"I wanted to ask him about it privately. But he is a very busy, very arrogant man who refuses to give me the time of day. So, to ensure he wouldn’t be shocked when the truth came out, I simply slipped the investigation petition into his daily paperwork." She offered the court a sweet, deadly smile. "It seems he didn’t read it thoroughly before signing."
The Great Hall was completely silent, save for the sound of the Prime Minister grinding his teeth so hard they sounded like cracking stones.
Heena had just publicly declared that her husband loved her so much he was personally shopping for her medicine, while simultaneously proving that the Prime Minister was an incompetent bureaucrat who signed state documents without reading them—and completely cornering him on the accusation of hiding a male harem.
It was an absolute, flawless massacre.
The Great Hall of Supreme Harmony descended into a suffocating, unbearable silence.
The Prime Minister opened his mouth to answer, but the words completely died in his throat. A cold, terrifying bead of sweat slowly rolled down his temple.
Where was his proof?
His mind raced frantically. He couldn’t present the dead bodies of the shadow guards, because the Vanguard didn’t lose a single man. He couldn’t present the bodies of his own men to prove there had been a battle, because Heena had literally melted the elite trio into drainage sludge, and her shadow guards had vaporized the rest of his network without a trace.
When the Imperial Guards had rushed into the guest pavilion last night, they had found absolutely nothing but wet floorboards and his weeping wife.
"Well?" the Emperor demanded, leaning forward, his heavy golden crown tilting slightly. "The Heiress asks a fair question. You accuse the Vanguard of a military occupation within the Imperial Harem. Produce your witnesses. Present the captured soldiers. Show Us the evidence, Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister’s knees felt like jelly. He looked frantically at the civil officials surrounding him, but his allies were all staring at the floor, actively avoiding his gaze so they wouldn’t be dragged into the blast radius of his impending execution.
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