Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 15

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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 1
Prologue. Offered Up as a Concubine
“Depart.”
The carriage rolled forward.
Forty carriages in total, laden with silk, jewels, and precious works of art, creaked into motion.
Outside, the murmuring of voices never ceased.
“So Princess Lorelthiana is truly being sent away.”
“I heard the Emperor of Pasa originally wanted the Second Princess…”
“Hush! Keep your voice down! The Second Princess is our kingdom’s treasure! How could His Majesty ever hand over the Saint’s daughter to that old emperor’s harem?”
“His Majesty loved the Saint more than anyone.”
“Looking at this, all that talk of the First Princess—born of the queen, legitimate daughter—turns out to be worthless. She was just a back-chamber princess after all.”
I rolled my eyes toward the empty air.
The carriage’s ceiling was sealed shut. And that was only the beginning. Large locks hung heavy on the carriage windows and doors alike.
On the outside.
Not to protect me, but to keep me from escaping.
They feared I might not endure being offered as a concubine to that aged, greedy emperor—that I might flee in secret.
That this novel’s precious “female lead” might run away before being dragged into the imperial harem.
“But Pasa is at war with the Allied Forces right now, isn’t it? I heard the empire’s fortunes are waning. If they’re destroyed, do you think that princess will die holding the emperor’s hand?”
“It’d be kinder to die without it. The emperor is already seventy.”
“At that age, can he even…?”
“Tsk. Poor thing.”
Poor thing.
Poor First Princess.
Poor Lorelthiana.
‘Yes. Pitiful.’
This wretched bit-part extra—I pitied myself too.
‘I was just an ordinary terminal patient.’
Why was I transmigrating into this pitiful Lorelthiana, forced to meet my sacrifice according to the original story?
* * *
Have you ever woken up as the half-sister of the female lead?
I have.
It was three years ago.
I was absolutely stunned at first.
In my previous life, I had been a terminal patient.
It was unfair enough to have wasted away and died—let alone to now live this nightmare existence.
The life difficulty setting of Lorelthiana, into whom I had transmigrated, was a complete disaster.
First, there was my father, the king of the Northern Kingdom.
He did not love his wife, Lorelthiana’s mother, the queen.
Because the king already had his true love.
A beautiful mistress?
The queen’s cousin?
Neither.
The king’s genuine love was none other than a Saint who descended from the heavens.
‘But what does it matter if she’s a saint?’
I thought it was utterly pathetic, honestly.
What difference did it make that the king and the Saint were lovers?
They were just an adulterous man and an adulterous woman.
What about the people’s gossip? The nobles’ stares?
And my mother.
My mother was pitiful too.
Betrayed by the man who lay with another woman, she descended into terrible insomnia, anorexia, depression, and obsessive thoughts.
My mother prayed to heaven every day—that she might bear a son before the Saint, that the Saint’s child would simply die.
Both my mother and the Saint were pregnant at the time.
‘Insane king.’
And insane heavens too.
Mocking my mother’s prayers, I—Lorelthiana—was born instead.
A daughter, no less. A useless princess who failed to manifest the royal family’s abilities properly.
A few months after I was born, the Saint gave birth to a daughter as well.
She was the female lead of this world: Ayu.
Ayu inherited the Saint’s exotic beauty and was exceptionally fair, and above all, she wielded the Purification Ability—the royal family’s gift—more powerfully than anyone else.
The King was exceedingly fond of Ayu and registered her as the Second Princess. Had it not been for her mother’s noble bloodline, he surely would have replaced the Queen as well.
‘Truthfully, if the Saint hadn’t stood in the way, Mother would never have been cast aside like that.’
Meanwhile, Lorelthiana’s disposition grew fouler by the day, and she often tormented the Female Lead, her half-sister, in places where no one could see.
And eventually, she incurred the King’s wrath, was offered up to the decrepit Emperor of the Pasa Empire, and was poisoned by the First Empress….
That was the lifetime of the Lorelthiana I had transmigrated into.
‘But something feels wrong. I’ve acted nothing like the original.’
In any case, that was the Lorelthiana from the novel, and I wanted to live.
How hard had I worked to survive the moment I grasped my situation?
I’d exhausted myself trying to win the favor of my brother the Crown Prince, my father the King, and even Ayu, the female lead. All of it for their affection.
And yet I still ended up offered to the decrepit Emperor of the Pasa Empire.
‘Ah. There is one difference, though.’
In the original, Lorelthiana was cast out because she angered the King, but now I….
“Lorelthiana. When have I ever hated you? It’s only that… Ayu is still so young, isn’t she? You’ve always been so sensible. Haven’t you?”
If he’d simply driven me away in anger like in the novel, at least I could have felt wronged.
The King patted my back with tenderness, gently pushing me over the cliff.
I didn’t cling to him. I climbed into the carriage of my own accord.
Every child wishes to be the most beloved of their parents.
Because one’s parents are the first beings one loves in life.
And so the wound the King inflicted, even if I had never truly been Lorelthiana, cut deeper than it should have.
‘Still, what does a transmigrant know of paternal love?’
I had never experienced such a thing in my previous life, after all.
‘Ayu has it easy. The whole world loves and protects her.’
Besides, there’s barely a few months between us—how young can she possibly be?
I’m young too, aren’t I?
By Korean standards, we’d practically be the same age?
I complained all I wanted, but reality doesn’t change so easily.
The only consolation, such as it was, lay in this novel itself.
The fact that it’s riddled with devastation for Ayu?
And that the Northern Kingdom’s royal house—where I’d lived—also faces such dire poverty that it goes bankrupt?
When I first transmigrated into this novel, “Beside the Male Leads,” I’d naturally intended to prevent the tragedy that would befall the Northern Kingdom’s royal family.
Who would wish to see the place where they live crumble?
Using my knowledge from my past life and the Lorelthiana’s memories to the fullest, I’d tirelessly laid groundwork for this and that.
‘But it all fell apart when I ended up offered as a Concubine to the Pasa Empire.’
Still, none of that mattered now. The immediate danger was my own future, now that I’d been sent to Pasa.
And the proof of that was happening right now….
“The Allied Forces are attacking!”
“Ahhh! Save us!”
“The Pasa Empire is finished! Everyone, prostrate yourselves!”
The Pasa Empire had fallen, and the Imperial Palace of Pasa was burning.
Exactly one month and one day had passed since I’d entered the palace as a low-ranking Concubine.
‘Burn more! Burn it all down!’
Though I cursed like a devil in my heart, I was crouched low, scanning my surroundings.
‘But in the original, it said the empire didn’t fall until half a year after Lorelthiana entered the palace.’
Why is the story moving so much faster?
I was puzzled, but then again, this was good news for me.
‘I thought I might starve to death, but I’ve survived.’
Of course, in the chaos of war, I had no intention of fleeing the palace.
I had neither the skill to evade so many soldiers, nor any hope—a Deposed Concubine of a fallen empire, fleeing would only get me caught and executed.
So I had.
Made the decision to surrender to the Male Lead!
‘This has to work.’
Hidden securely in my possession was a “tribute” I’d procured by drawing on every scrap of knowledge from the original story.
My tribute.
My everything.
For surrender.
* * *
“What is it you’ve brought?”
A cold voice echoed above my head.
After tumbling this far, my appearance was a mess.
And I couldn’t open my mouth, either.
Because…….
“Your Grace, Grand Duke. This young concubine here produced the map.”
I lifted my head slightly, peering through my lashes, and saw the Grand Duke’s aide raise a torn half of the map with trembling hands.
Yes.
Half of it.
“The Imperial Palace Map?”
“Indeed, Your Grace! We confirmed it quickly, and it truly contains the complete geography of the Pasa Imperial Palace! Even the secret passages are all there without exception! If this is genuine, we can capture the remnant forces immediately, seize that old Emperor dog running about, and claim the greatest spoils of war among all our Allied Forces…….”
“Where is the other half of the map?”
The aide’s excited voice cut off abruptly.
Through my lowered lashes, I could almost see the aide pointing at me.
“It’s in this concubine’s mouth, Your Grace.”
“……In her mouth?”
For the first time, I felt the cold voice waver.
“Yes. But no matter what we do, she won’t open it. We’re afraid she might swallow it, so we can’t extract it by force, and thus we had no choice but to bring her before you, Your Grace?”
Heavy footsteps.
The sound of military boots stopped. Directly in front of me.
And then something happened that startled me completely.
Sherkan—that male lead—
had knelt down before me.
“……!”
As I lifted my head in shock, my gaze met those crimson eyes directly.
A cold stare.
An air of indifference.
I had never felt the word “beautiful” to be so utterly powerless.
He truly seemed like the work of heaven itself.
‘Now I understand why the continental nobility can’t think straight around Sherkan Gonethe.’
Sherkan Gonethe.
The Grand Duke of the Gaiard Kingdom, the linchpin of the Allied Forces that had come to destroy the Pasa Empire.
Many aristocrats in society had scorned Sherkan as a half-blood savage.
Yet at the same time, they coveted his unrealistic beauty.
Even Ayu had been described as losing herself when she first laid eyes on him—a lengthy passage devoted to that very reaction.
I was no different.
Had my mouth been free, I surely would have stammered and been flustered.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I had crumpled half of a massive map and shoved it into my mouth.
Saliva? I certainly couldn’t swallow it. This precious tribute couldn’t be damaged.
My parched throat felt rough. Sherkan stared at me intently before asking.
“What do you want?”
I immediately pointed at my throat with one finger. Worried one wouldn’t be enough, I raised both and gesticulated at myself earnestly.
Sherkan lowered his gaze to my throat.
In the silence that stretched between us, cold sweat began to seep down my spine.
Just as I thought I might faint from his overwhelming presence, Sherkan spoke.
“Are you asking to spare your life?”
I nodded frantically.
“Fine. I’ll do that.”
Before I could even process his coolly casual agreement, his warm hand grasped my jaw lightly.
My eyes widened.
Sherkan applied pressure and opened my mouth, then simply extracted the map.
“Sh-Sherkan Gonethe…….”
Sherkan, who had paused to examine the crumpled map, met my eyes again.
“Do you know my name?”
I wanted to speak, but my tongue had gone numb and the words wouldn’t come properly. It felt as though all the moisture had been stripped from my body and scattered across a desert sand dune.
‘I don’t know.’
“Yes…….”
I answered briefly and watched his reaction. Sherkan continued to stare at me intently.
That coldly detached face was honestly frightening.
What good is such a beautiful exterior when the eyes are this frigid?
The aide, who had approached behind Sherkan at some point, spoke up.
“Your Grace? What shall we do with this concubine?”
“I suppose.”
Sherkan tossed the half-map to his aide and spoke.
“Check the map first. Will fifteen minutes be enough to restore it?”
“More than sufficient, Your Highness! Heavens, the gods have truly blessed us! What extraordinary fortune!”
Sherkan’s adjutant beamed at me with unbridled enthusiasm.
‘I know him.’
Erikh—the male lead Sherkan’s chief of staff.
Among the countless supporting characters in the original story, he was one of the rare few who didn’t fawn over Ayu.
It was unusual, given that all those around the male lead were supposed to be devoted to the female lead.
Yet this adjutant Erikh didn’t regard me with any particular favor either.
Rather, it was something else entirely.
Yes—the look in his eyes was precisely as if he were gazing upon a foolish angel.
At least his gaze was full of goodwill, so it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, but….
‘When should I get up?’
I was still taking his measure when it happened.
Suddenly, my body was lifted like a doll.
In the same instant, my feet left the ground.
Before I could blink, I found myself cradled in Sherkan’s arms, and instinctively pressed my hand against his chest.
Sherkan’s voice resonated from directly above my head.
“Inform the commander’s office that we’ll be claiming one deposed concubine as an advance allocation from Gonethe.”
“At once, Your Highness!”
“And….”
Perhaps it was my imagination, but I sensed a faint hesitation in Sherkan’s voice.
Still, I lacked the courage to lift my head and face the man with those scarlet eyes.
“Your Highness, shall we place this concubine in Gonethe’s assigned prison then?”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Pardon? Ah, then the general detention—ow!”
Erikh, who had been eagerly pressing his suggestions, cried out as Sherkan struck him, sending him tumbling across the floor.
Oddly enough, my chest felt suddenly lighter.
“Prepare a carriage. Send her directly to the Grand Duke’s residence.”

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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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