How the Villainous Consort Avoids His Death Ending

From this point on, it was a crucial juncture. There was a need to utilize their fear and suspicion in reverse.

I nodded my head and confidently proclaimed.

“The batatas is indeed a devil’s plant. Otherwise, how could one explain that tremendous reproductive power and vitality? Therefore, it casts a curse upon you, causing confusion so you would mistakenly think that I am a demon. The purpose of the demons must be to destroy Hezekia.”

A look of dread spread among the estate residents.

“As expected…”

“As expected, that was it. I thought it was strange for some reason.”

Tristan, who had been listening quietly, stared at me with startled eyes. An earthquake had already broken out within his pupils.

“G- Grand Consort? What on earth are you doing right now…”

Just hold on, this big brother has everything under control. There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about, Tristan.

I subtly closed one eye toward him in a wink, then raised my voice even more powerfully.

“However, look at the current situation yourselves. Hezekia is facing an unprecedented crisis. Food can nowhere be found, and if things continue like this, everyone will end up starving to death. Is that not so?”

“That is t- true, but…”

“Then, in this desperate situation, what is to stop us from utilizing the devil’s fruit? If we make use of it like this and Hezekia survives safely, this is exactly what screws over the dev…”

I quickly let out a dry cough, clearing my throat, and corrected my words.

“…Is it not exactly how we can thwart what the devil desires?”

The peasants carefully looked at one another’s reactions. The woman at the very front asked cautiously.

“If so, is it indeed true that the devil’s touch did not reach that, uh, root, Your Highness?”

I nodded my head resolutely.

“Of course. Have you ever seen any crop where you eat the root until now? The devil is the same. No demon has any interest in things beneath the ground.”

It was a pity that the potato had suddenly become a food that even demons wouldn’t eat, but I pushed forward calmly with a brazen face.

“Of course, if that were all, I, as the Grand Consort of Hezekia, would not have distributed the devil’s fruit to you. However, while searching through the records of ancient texts in the Grand Ducal Castle’s library to overcome this crisis, I learned a significant fact. That is…”

I took a deep breath. Then, looking straight at the estate residents, I slowly continued my words.

“A special efficacy is embedded within the batatas. Hidden in that root, which even the devil does not touch, is a blessing bestowed by God.”

The estate residents opened their eyes wide and looked at me with gazes harboring amazement and expectation. A subtle atmosphere began to spread among them.

“Oh, so that is why you told us to eat the root…”

“That is right. If you consistently consume the batatas root, you can easily escape from the demons. Is that all? Your eyes will become bright, your body will become healthy, and your entire body will overflow with vitality.”

Well, that was simply because the batatas, which is to say the potato, was a highly nutritious crop to begin with. But who cares what the reason is…

“That was precisely the move God hid to screw… to humiliate the devil. Since a blessing is embedded in the devil’s fruit spread to cast a curse, and that blessing has ruined the demon’s plan, how can one not call it perfect?”

“I- Indeed, that is so.”

“Ignorant as we are, we failed to understand the deep intentions of the Grand Consort, Your Highness…”

“We should have eaten the root, but we ate from the part the demon touched and caused this disaster, Your Highness…”

Waving my hand back and forth, I cut off the peasants’ words. Then, taking advantage of the momentum, I added whatever random words came to mind to heighten the atmosphere.

“If you cannot believe my words, I will have it verified for you from the ancient texts preserved in the study of the Grand Ducal Castle.”

Naturally, no such ancient text existed in the study of the Grand Ducal Castle. But there was no way any estate resident had the guts to come looking for it, claiming they couldn’t trust the Grand Consort’s words and wanted to see some evidence.

It felt like Tristan’s astounded gaze was piercing the back of my head, but all’s well that ends well. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

“Even so, if you are anxious, fine. His Excellency the Grand Duke and I will personally teach you how to eat the batatas root and directly show you how to draw out God’s blessing from this devil’s fruit.”

As I declared this while raising one hand, a sense of relief finally began to spread across the faces of the estate residents who had been anxious the entire time. Thanks to that, I too could secretly breathe a sigh of relief and catch my breath. If anything, it was as if a stage to naturally promote the potato had been set up, all thanks to the outbreak of the riot.