Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 11
* * *
The tags attached to Beside the Male Leads, the novel I’d possessed, went something like this.
#Spicy
#Destitution
#Palace Intrigue
#Pregnancy Plot Twist
#Let’s See How Far a Naive Heroine Goes When She Blackens
Countless other tags clung to it, but those were all I could recall at the moment.
‘The ending is what matters. The ending.’
Ayu, a princess who grew up beloved by her father, free from worry or care, would later suffer terrible torment when she journeyed to the new empire of Gaiard.
Chief among the villains who tormented her was none other than the Dowager Empress of the Gaiard Empire.
The Dowager Empress despised Ayu, calling her a seductive fox who bewitched men with her wanton beauty, and through her lady’s maid Bridget, she inflicted all manner of punishments.
Needles driven between Ayu’s fingers and nails, kneeling on iron plates studded with nails, force-fed drugs to render her barren—the list went on.
That terrifying Bridget, bound by a promise to the late Grand Duke and his wife, had served as head maid in Gonet for several years.
And that time was now.
But…
Sherkan despised everything entangled with the late Grand Duke and his consort. It was no accident that Bridget, despite being head maid, did not remain at the castle but stayed at the Elder Council instead.
Yet that Bridget had returned to the castle.
‘She’s probably come to see the Grand Duchess who appeared so suddenly.’
I’d played the princess before the merchants, but Bridget was different.
She was the closest confidant of the Dowager Empress of Gaiard—still the Queen Dowager, technically—her right hand.
She surely possessed her own means of communication.
A Grand Duchess from a deposed imperial harem.
Bridget, who had abused even Ayu for her lack of dignity, would certainly be desperate to devour a Grand Duchess sprung from such a fallen place.
She’d be displeased at her sudden arrival too.
‘What do I do?’
My head suddenly pounded.
I couldn’t intimidate her away with cruel, dazzling wit as I had before the merchants.
Because.
Because!
Bridget was a villain with far too much experience…
‘Damn it.’
If the Dowager Empress was the final boss of this novel, Bridget was a mid-boss—a villain of an entirely different caliber.
A rank that someone like Lorelitania couldn’t possibly hope to face.
I furrowed my brow, recalling the original work where Bridget had driven needles again and again beneath Ayu’s nails.
I had no confidence I could win.
‘Ayu does eventually manage to have Bridget executed.’
But that’s only possible because Ayu undergoes a mad Blackening.
“Grand Duchess?”
The maids gently pulled me from my thoughts.
I caught my reflection in the mirror: I was now impeccably dressed, with a large Velvet Ribbon perched prettily above each ear.
‘Right. I have to survive.’
“I’d like some strong tea this morning. Would you prepare it for me? Right away, please.”
“At once, ma’am.”
Fortunately, I did have hints.
Such as, say, the villain’s enormous weakness?
Before the battle began in earnest, I clasped my hands together and stretched them out fully, limbering up properly.
Let’s do this.
* * *
Bridget had already steeled herself as she walked down the corridor.
‘The princess of Fasa, my foot!’
Quick-footed nobles had already spent considerable coin to uncover the true identity of that fox-like creature.
‘A deposed imperial harem? How dare she—becoming a Grand Duchess? The very thought!’
Bridget herself couldn’t believe it, so she’d secretly sent someone to the Gaiard palace to hear the truth for herself.
‘How could someone from a deposed harem—how could she! The world is ending, truly ending!’
Just yesterday, countless retainers had come to her begging her to cast out the Grand Duchess from the deposed imperial harem immediately.
All of them were nobles Sherkan’s age with beautiful daughters—among them even Oswald, the brother of the previous Grand Duchess.
The purses she’d squeezed from them weighed heavy. Bridget intended to go at once and leave that woman from the deposed harem with no place to stand.
Though the Grand Duke’s house was drowning in debt and offered no profit, rank was rank after all.
The nobility could not abide the thought of a mere deposed imperial consort standing above them.
And she felt precisely the same way!
Before the Grand Duke’s chamber door, Bridget smoothed her dress and knocked twice.
“The head maid, Your Grace. I’ve come to attend you. My lady.”
Hmph!
As if a deposed imperial consort would ever receive such courtesy from the Dowager Empress’s own head maid!
Today, she’d have the woman weeping and crawling out on all fours!
Bridget opened the door and entered.
The only quarters in this castle that weren’t shabby. As she stepped into the Grand Duke’s vast chamber, Bridget bent with practiced grace.
“My lady, Grand Duchess. Allow me to present myself. I am Bridget, head maid of this castle. It is my honor to attend the new Grand Duchess. I trust you slept well after your journey…….”
No answer came.
Bridget lifted her head and opened her eyes wider.
The curtains had been drawn back. Morning sunlight poured through the expansive windows.
And in the center of the bed sat a delicate silhouette, attended by servants…….
‘……What?’
Bridget’s eyes widened.
The infamous deposed imperial consort—or rather, the First Princess of the Northern Kingdom—was drinking tea. Wisps of steam rose gently from the cup.
“Bridget, how few of the nobility truly master the tea ceremony as prescribed in the royal etiquette books! In my day, those peasants who extended their pinky finger while drinking were merely aping their betters. Tsk, tsk!”
Her thumb and forefinger held the handle with subtle precision.
The princess’s middle finger supported from below, while her remaining fingers curled naturally toward her palm.
Not a pinky raised—perfect refinement…….
“Bridget, how many young nobles have forgotten the dignity taught in the royal etiquette books! In my day, when one sat in a chair, the spine had to be perfectly straight, never slouching or allowed to slacken. Tsk, tsk!”
Her back was held rigid yet her shoulders fell naturally. That elegant distance—precisely a handspan from the chair’s back……!
“Bridget, how can the nobility have forgotten even the proper etiquette for adding cream to tea? The moment the cup touches one’s hands, not a single sound must be made! Even the direction of the teaspoon has been lost to so many. Tsk, tsk!”
The teaspoon stirred in a straight line from six o’clock to twelve…….
Those perfectly angled fingers!
That honest posture!
A dignity bestowed by heaven itself!
She was done for.
Bridget could not possibly refuse this new Grand Duchess!
* * *
To know a weakness meant, in other words…….
‘To know the other person’s charm points, wouldn’t it?’
In the original story, seeing this cruel head maid now become so obsequious toward me was rather strange.
“Head maid, shall we walk together?”
“How dare you use such formal speech with a mere servant! Please, speak at ease!”
“Then, may I call you by name?”
“This old woman is called Bridget!”
Yet the woman calling herself this was only thirty-five years old.
At thirty-five, she considered herself thirty years more aged than she actually was. Thirty years in service to the Dowager Empress had elevated her manner of speech by two generations.
Objectively, Bridget’s abilities were impressive. To have secured the position of head maid to the Dowager Empress at so young an age was extraordinary.
It would have been impossible with the capabilities of an ordinary person.
“My lady Grand Duchess. Your hair is like the finest golden thread, spun and dyed over ten years by the royal court’s master weavers.”
Hair.
“My lady Grand Duchess. Your eyes are as clear and beautiful as a heavenly pond rippling with pure light.”
Eyes.
“My lady Grand Duchess. Your voice is as pure as silver pearls rolling across a golden tray.”
Voice.
She even addressed me alone as Grand Duchess “Your Highness,” and continued to do so without wavering.
As I listened to Bridget’s endless compliments with a smile, I asked her a question.
“Bridget, would you consider returning to the Grand Duke’s household? Having the head maid nearby is quite convenient, after all.”
“I shall pack my belongings at once!”
The sole senior employee of this Grand Duke’s holding.
And having successfully recruited someone whose combat prowess was even guaranteed as a great villain in the original story, I released an inward breath of relief.
Because…….
‘With Sherkan gone, Gonet Castle is like Ownerless Land.’
In the original story, Ayu had suffered greatly from endless debt collectors. This was despite Sherkan having scoured countless battlefields and amassed enormous treasures as spoils of war.
‘Loans and debt guarantees are terrifying things.’
I felt a twinge of unfairness that Sherkan had to labor so hard to repay the extravagance of his predecessor and his wife…….
But one thing was certain: Bridget, this top-tier employee—and soon to be promoted to Dowager Empress, the veteran villain head maid of the current Dowager Empress—would become a most reliable shield.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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