Finally! I think this is the first 8.5 i've read in a long time. I don't like how the female is, once again, a white lotus bitch but i'll get what i can. Judging by the fact that both knew about the scheme and are rather ruthless, it's a tamer "Flowery path of evil" with less modern day...
"He left his mom to get stabbed by a thief"
Bro, he's not a shield generator, him being there wouldn't have changed it. Matter of fact, his mom would probably be haunting your ass if he died as well.
the same reason why Cthulu is not subjected by the law of man, her influence isn't considered outside interference. Suicide as a concept is also dependent on factors outside the victim, from stress or despair caused by outside factors combined with a weakened psyche. Consider someone killing...
I like how she didn't immediately accept and falls head over heel for him, just blushing from sudden physical contact and advance. She's got her head screwed on tight (pun) and isn't a pushover. Plot went a bit fast but the female lead is quite interesting. strong 8
I'd reckon it was the daughter who set the whole thing up and her mother followed along. She played the pitiful girl role in public, engagement entrapment, enticing the target, all her mom had to do is to go in for the strike and get the MC's signature. The mother strikes me more as the typical...
No backings, no outstanding achievement, the one horse she hitched her cart to was literally banished to a distant land and her golden goose stripped of his title. With no wits about her, that signature might as well be chicken scratch. At this point, any nobles who'd backed her would be better...
Lots of conjectures as of the content of that contract and your overestimation of someone whose head is so far up their ass they can't even scam a shut-in properly.