Chapter 360

Luke immediately ordered two guards to take Eric to the local authorities. Terrified, Eric cried out, “Your Highness, please spare me! It wasn’t my idea. Lady Jessica instructed me to make these false accounts to deceive Lady Helen!”

“What?” Helen was enraged and smashed a cup. “Jessica used fake accounts to deceive me?”

Carissa pressed Helen’s hand to calm her. “If the previous account books were false, then there must be genuine ones.”

With the guards holding him, Eric’s arms ached as if they might break. Fearing further punishment, he nodded vigorously. “Yes, of course! There are real ones.”

Since Carissa was preparing to visit Northwatch Estate, she didn’t want to waste more time arguing. She called Luke in and instructed, “Please take two people with you and return to The Gilded Tower. Retrieve all the account books from these years and have them verified one by one by the accountants. Confirm on-site whether they are genuine accounts. If they continue to falsify records, there is no need to report back. Send them directly to the Royal Citadel.”

Luke responded, “Understood, Your Highness!” He signaled for the guards to act swiftly. The carriage outside was already prepared, and they departed for The Gilded Tower immediately.

Eric had never faced such a situation before and trembled in fear. He silently cursed Jessica. Hadn’t she claimed that dealing with Helen would be easy? It had always been manageable in the past. Why was it different now? And facing the Hell Monarch’s princess consort was even more terrifying!

Carissa was known for her decisive and ruthless nature. Plus, the governor of the Royal Citadel was her late sister-in-law’s brother. If Eric ended up at the Royal Citadel, he would be lucky to escape with his life if he didn’t face severe punishment.

Helen was fuming. “Jessica deceived me? How dare she?!”

Carissa had someone come in to clean up the broken pieces of the cup and sighed inwardly. How dare Jessica? How could she not? Usually, Helen was terribly intimidated by them. If not her, then who would be deceived? Besides, Helen always stayed in the inner palace and never went out. So, it was easy to deceive her without her ever seeing the truth.

“Mother, please calm down. We can handle this. You had contracts in place, didn’t you? When I return from my visit, we can go over them together. Getting angry won’t solve anything,” Carissa said.

Helen felt tears welling up in her eyes and was almost unable to hold them back. Jessica and Dakota had been in business together for years. Dakota always received profits, while Helen found herself pouring money in to cover losses. She felt inadequate in comparison to the other concubine.

Chapter 361 (Corrected chapter number)

Helen never expected Jessica to deceive her. Jessica hadn’t cheated Dakota, but had tricked her instead. The injustice and hurt surged within her, and it took all her strength to keep from crying.

Upon hearing Carissa’s words, she remembered how her daughter-in-law had stood up for her yesterday and retrieved the pearls. Now, Carissa wasn’t distancing herself from this situation either. A small sense of reliance began to grow in Helen’s heart.

However, Helen knew this wouldn’t be easy. To be cheated out of so much money—how could they possibly recover it without a fight? There was a good chance they wouldn’t even get their hands on the real account books. Going to The Gilded Tower might end up being a wasted effort.

After that brief comfort, Carissa nodded respectfully before taking her leave.

Rafael didn’t involve himself in this matter. Today, he had something even more important—visiting his in-laws’ home. While it was the servants’ job to prepare the gifts, Rafael insisted on handling them himself, loading the gifts onto the carriage piece by piece. How could he not take this seriously?

One of Adrian’s apprentices was Winona, a true expert in stealth. For all he knew, she could be hiding somewhere near Hell Monarch Estate and was watching his every move.

It wasn’t that he lacked confidence in himself, but he understood all too well how doting the Pathfinders Guild members were toward Carissa. In fact, if not for the strict discipline enforced by Everett, Carissa would never have been punished for any of her mistakes within the guild.

There were times when Carissa would return after a misdeed, and before Everett could even reprimand her, Adrian would already be punishing her. But was it real punishment? No, it was just for show, meant to appease Everett so that Carissa wouldn’t receive a harsher punishment from him. As soon as Adrian started punishing Carissa, her guild seniors would rush in to plead for mercy, taking a portion of the punishment, leaving her with only a few superficial strikes.

But if Everett got involved, that was when Carissa truly suffered. She had indeed endured several severe punishments, which was why she kept her distance from Everett whenever possible.

Changes Made:

• Corrected chapter numbers: Chapter 300 was likely a typo and corrected to 361, assuming a sequential chapter order.
• Grammar and punctuation: Corrected numerous grammatical errors, improved sentence structure, and fixed punctuation.
• Word choice: Replaced some words for better flow and clarity (e.g., "bonks" to "books").
• Sentence structure: Broke down some long, run-on sentences for improved readability.
• Consistency: Ensured consistent capitalization and hyphenation.
• Removed unnecessary words: Eliminated redundant words and phrases.
• Added hyphens: Added hyphens where needed to improve readability. (Sister-in-law, in-laws).

The revised text is much clearer, more concise, and grammatically correct.