Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 13

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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 13
2. The Male Lead’s Domain Is Far Too Poor
The next morning.
I fastened the Grand Duchess’s Ring, which I’d hidden carefully beneath my pillow, my eyes still heavy with sleep.
After all, we were no longer in the wealthy Grand Duchy, bristling with guards and magical wards.
If I lost Sherkan’s family heirloom to theft, he might just take my head for it.
‘I’ll have to sleep with it on from now on.’
Nobility and higher ranks slept and bathed while wearing all manner of hanging ornaments. Of course, precious jewels like this were typically locked away in safes, but……
‘He said they sold off every last safe?’
What truly shocked me was learning they’d pawned even the keys and locks to the castle’s storage rooms—fixtures that any proper fortress would possess.
I tugged at the bellpull while thinking.
‘Sherkan’s parents really were cruel to him.’
After finishing my morning meal of eggs, vegetables, and flour, I stepped into the courtyard with Bridget and the servants in tow.
The first thing I wanted to do in this castle.
“We have arrived, Your Grace.”
Was inspect the Granary.
The Granary stood apart from the main keep, toward the rear of the grounds.
It was a substantial stone building that, from a distance, had appeared perfectly intact—but up close, moss bloomed in patches across its outer walls.
That meant the interior was far too damp.
‘……Oh no.’
I’d suspected as much, but seeing it confirmed drew a sigh from me regardless.
The moment I opened the door, the earthy smell of grain and straw rushed in. I caught too the distinctive sweet note of moisture-laden grain.
I surveyed the vast granary and asked, “How much food do we have?”
“How much food do we have?”
At Bridget’s signal, the servants assigned to the Granary stepped forward and reported.
“Thirty-two measures of barley, fifteen measures of oats, and eight measures of wheat, Your Grace.”
“Twelve measures of dried beans remain, and two full jars of salt. As for autumn radishes and cabbage, we may still procure them, though supplies are not abundant. We have seven jars of honey, and the sugar……was compromised when rainwater leaked through during the last storm.”
I examined the Granary while listening to the servants’ report.
‘It’s so empty. Terribly empty.’
Standing in the center of the storage room, I turned slowly. The Granary was far more vacant than I’d imagined.
The measures of grain that should have filled this space were instead huddled together in one corner.
“Bridget.”
“Yes, Your Grace?”
Was it possible I’d grown ignorant of the world, having spent three years as a princess?
Might there be some hidden method to subsist on this quantity of food for a prolonged period?
“How long can we survive on this food?”
Thump-thump.
Perhaps a miracle would occur—five baskets of fish feeding five thousand souls?
“Approximately……two and a half months, Your Grace.”
No miracle came.
‘How will we endure the coming winter?’
I exhaled silently.
Winter was the season the poor feared most.
Food had to be stored in advance, and fuel for warmth had to be secured.
“Is there no other food besides what’s here?”
“We do have the Chicken Coop as a secondary food source, Your Grace. There are approximately fifteen chickens, and they produce roughly eight eggs daily.”
‘Eight eggs……’
“How many people in the castle depend on this food?”
“Excluding Your Grace, and including two knights, there are fifty-three mouths to feed, if I may be so bold, Your Grace.”
I furrowed my brow, thinking quietly before shock struck me.
That came to 0.148 eggs per person.
Rounded up: 0.15 eggs.
0.15 eggs!
‘What am I supposed to do with 0.15 eggs?’
And that wasn’t counting the eggs that reached my own table—of which there were more than one or two.
Once I factored that in, the available eggs diminished dramatically.
‘This won’t do. Even if Sherkan sends money……’
In the original story itself, the debt was so enormous they couldn’t pay it off until well past the midpoint.
And now, on top of everything, I’d gone and married him—suddenly he had a beautiful wife to provide for as well……
‘No. I absolutely refuse to starve.’
Because of the nobles’ eyes, I couldn’t go to the Iron Mine right away.
At least three months would have to pass before I’d have an excuse to visit.
‘I need to check the ledgers first.’
If I cut spending elsewhere and set aside whatever I could—even bran—perhaps we could endure this mad winter.
I stole a glance at Bridget.
Normally, newly married ladies spent at least several weeks at the castle, learning to manage the household. Of course, it was also a performance of propriety.
If the new bride asked to see the household ledgers the moment she arrived, suspicion and territorial resistance would flare up immediately.
They’d certainly make excuse after excuse, delaying and postponing.
‘And before I knew it, winter would be upon us.’
But right now—couldn’t I see the ledgers immediately?
Because…….
Because right now I had Bridget, an absolute villain, at my side.
Bridget’s eyebrows were raised sharply upward. It wasn’t intentional; her natural expression was fiercer than a feral dog’s.
One could truly call it innate wickedness, venom, and madness.
Having gauged Bridget’s combat strength, I turned my body toward her.
And then…….
I lifted my forefinger lightly and rested it gently against my right jaw. The nobility that Lorelthiana radiated was beyond reproach, even by my own standards.
Because Mother had shown only the faintest satisfaction when Lorelthiana was perfectly graceful.
“Bridget?”
“I await your command, Your Highness!”
I continued, my smile radiating refinement.
“As mistress of the Grand Ducal House, I’d like to see the household ledgers—a bit early perhaps, but all of them, not just the summary. May I?”
Bridget’s eyes, which had been gazing up at me with something like dribbling eagerness, suddenly gleamed with cunning.
“Is there any question, Your Highness?”
* * *
“I offer my respects to the Grand Duchess.”
In stark contrast to the castle’s poverty, a rather well-dressed Accountant spoke with unmistakable mockery.
“In all my years, I have never seen a lady of the house seek the ledgers so urgently upon arrival. Your Highness is truly diligent, I must……. Hack!”
“It seems the Accountant’s mouth and body work independently. How dutiful of him to kneel and offer his respects to the Grand Duchess at once. Hehehehe. Now, place them on the Grand Duchess’s desk.”
Bridget, having subdued the Accountant with a palace-grade brutality technique in an instant, laughed with a torn grin, and his subordinates moved with ashen faces.
I set down my teaspoon and raised my eyelashes lightly.
“Leave us.”
“Pardon?”
I can’t possibly review so many ledgers in a single day. I’ll examine them carefully and return them, so go on now.”
“But Your Highness, the ledgers must always remain in the accounting office…….”
“Sigh.”
As I exhaled softly and pressed my temples, a scream suddenly escaped.
“Hack! Head Maidservant! Why, why are you……! Hack! No matter what, customs are customs……!”
“Sigh.”
“Hack! Your Highness, are you trying to coerce me? No matter what……!”
“Sigh.”
“Gasp…… Gasp……. I understand! But in exchange…….”
The Accountant’s face was soaked with tears. Meanwhile, Bridget remained perfectly serene, not even a tremor in her skirts.
Truly, there was no villain quite like a gift from the gods themselves.
“One week! You must return the ledgers to us within one week……!”
“Fine.”
“Pardon?”
“I understand. Now go.”
“……?”
The Accountant could no longer stand upright. Braced for another sigh from me, his expression was utterly bewildered.
“Did you perhaps not hear me correctly? Within one week…….”
“Yes. I said I’d review everything and return them within one week. Bridget?”
Bridget spoke with a smile.
“Can you not hear the words of this exalted person? If your ears aren’t blocked, then be off with you.”
“Y-yes…… I’m going. I’m going at once…….”
I gazed at the massive ledgers stacked on the desk.
“Your Highness, might these ledgers be returned one year from now instead?”
“No. One week will be enough.”
Bridget’s expression was puzzled for a moment, but she soon left obediently, saying she’d bring fresh tea.
‘Yes. That will be quite sufficient.’
In my previous life, I’d spent so long confined to a hospital ward that I’d had to work hard to fill the endless hours.
I learned quite a lot during that time.
One of those things was this:
‘A 6-Hole Diary with replaceable pages is, surprisingly, cutting-edge document management technology.’
The ledgers stacked like a tower before me were nothing but hopelessly inefficient relics of an earlier age.
If errors crept into the recorded figures, there was no way to disassemble a bound book, so the administrators could only append lengthy commentary in the margins.
Finding the most current figures meant flipping through hundreds of pages back and forth until you nearly suffocated.
The Metal Binding had been invented to escape this tedious, dreadful document labor, and it became the ancestor of the diaries I’d later collect with such enthusiasm.
‘How revolutionary an invention it was for that era—to be able to slip new sheets directly in the middle.’
And how much it improved efficiency.
This towering ledger pile would likely be no more than half of half its current height in reality.
Just then, a knock sounded, and Bridget came in with fresh tea.
“Your Grace, shall I summon all the children?”
“Not all of them—just find me three who have good handwriting.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I shall bring them at once.”
I opened the box I’d placed on my desk.
Thanks to Sherkan sending my belongings from the Phasa Imperial Palace in their entirety, all the small things I’d used in the North Kingdom had come with me.
‘My diary Binding Punches!’
Lorelthiana had a keen mind, befitting a heroine of a fantasy novel.
Fortunately, though Lorelthiana couldn’t manifest the royal Purification Ability, she had many other talents that were no inferior to Lorelthiana’s own.
After possessing her body, I’d devoted myself to royal tutoring to make the most of Lorelthiana’s strengths.
Even this Binding Punch that could bore 6-hole or 9-hole holes in paper was custom-ordered and made back then.
‘I couldn’t manage stickers, but at least I had the other materials decent enough.’
“Your Grace, I’ve gathered girls with quick hands and beautiful penmanship as you requested.”
Bridget arrived, attendants in tow.
“I’d like to help as well, if I may…….”
“It’s fine. This is enough. Bridget.”
Bridget spoke in an angelic voice.
“Not to worry, Your Grace—I’ll make sure to persuade the Accountant quite well.”
“Thank you…….”
“Then I shall withdraw, Your Grace.”
Bridget departed with a smile so sinister it looked as though she might tear the Accountant limb from limb on the spot.
The servants, who’d been trembling with their heads bowed the whole time, finally dared to open their mouths.
“Your Grace, is it really possible to organize the ledgers in just a week?”
“Should we call more girls who can write?”
“No. You’re enough.”
I rested my chin on the desk and drew lines and columns on fresh paper with quick, confident strokes, then smiled.
“Just follow this and you’ll be fine.”
“This is…….”
“What is this?”
‘Analog Excel—that’s what existed in the memory of some bored terminal patient.’
After a few explanations and demonstrations, the servants’ eyes went wide.
“The principle is simple. Draw columns on a new sheet. Dates on the vertical axis, categories on the horizontal. Go through the ledgers one by one and copy the numbers into the corresponding boxes.”
“Then…….”
A cartload of ledgers would shrink to a single sheet of paper.
Reading down, the same category would appear date by date; reading across, all money in and out for that day would show at a glance.
The servants looked at one another.
“Not difficult, is it?”
After a few explanations and demonstrations, the servants’ eyes went wide.
“Don’t worry if you make mistakes. Everyone does at first. Come on, all of you, sit. If you stand while working, you’ll look like you’re helping that arrogant Accountant.”
The servants started in surprise and quickly pulled up chairs.
They each gripped a quill pen and began organizing the ledgers one by one.
At first they were slow, but their pace quickened as they went.
In a world with such high illiteracy, pretty handwriting meant you’d read a fair number of books, and it meant you weren’t afraid of letters or numbers.
Not being afraid—that was a very important attitude.
‘Everything depends on momentum, after all.’
I smiled darkly to myself and scratched pen against paper.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
How dare some paper-shuffler torment me—I’ll crack their skull with the most efficient blow imaginable!

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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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