Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 21

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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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Chapter 21
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To put it plainly, my expectations were completely off the mark.
I had underestimated the King’s profound devotion to Ayu.
“We pay our respects to the Minor Saintess.”
“We pay our respects to the Minor Saintess.”
At the priests’ salutation, the gathered crowd immediately began to murmur.
“A Minor Saintess?”
“Did you say Minor Saintess?”
Whispers rippled through the hall.
The high priest at the fore cleared his throat and spoke.
“The Saintess declared before her passing that you are to revere her daughter in the future as the ‘Minor Saintess.'”
Minor Saintess.
The crowd’s agitation spread in waves at this unexpected revelation.
“Furthermore, in accordance with the Minor Saintess’s sacred will, she shall henceforth be cherished and revered not as a princess of the Northern Kingdom, but as a treasure of the Grand Temple.”
“Good heavens!”
“Is this the advent of a new Saintess?”
“Hush! How could the Saintess who descended from the heavens and her daughter be entirely the same?”
“But the priests are already surrounding that young lady as though they were attending the Saintess herself, aren’t they?”
A few cynical voices cut through the crowd.
“The King of the Northern Kingdom is quite devoted. He’s sending her to the temple to escape his bankruptcy debts, isn’t he?”
“The ones left behind will be the pitiful ones…….”
I clicked my tongue softly in agreement.
‘That man is truly remarkable.’
The title Minor Saintess was something I’d never encountered in the original story.
“Sherkan.”
“Mm.”
Sherkan, who had just finished speaking with an aide and returned, lowered his head slightly.
I spoke in a low whisper.
“Did you perhaps demand an enormous dowry from the Northern Kingdom?”
“A dowry?”
Sherkan tilted his head.
“What makes you think I would do such a thing?”
“Didn’t you demand a staggering dowry, which is why the Northern Kingdom went bankrupt like this?”
Otherwise, what reason would there be for them to collapse sooner than in the original story?
Sherkan let out a low chuckle.
“If I’d known my wife expected so much, I should have torn away half the Northern Kingdom’s palace beforehand.”
So he hadn’t extracted a dowry after all.
I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Then…….”
“Then what?”
“Didn’t you tell them that I married you?”
Sherkan fell silent for a moment. He stared directly into my eyes, then spoke slowly.
“No.”
“You didn’t, then.”
As I thought.
So that explained the silence.
“I should have sent word tomorrow. I’ve been too busy and forgot.”
“Never mind. There’s no need.”
Just as I turned my head away.
“His Imperial Majesty enters!”
A resonant voice filled the Grand Banquet Hall.
The Emperor had arrived.
His appearance was unexpectedly plain.
I had vaguely imagined he would look fierce, given that he was an ambitious schemer who had swallowed an empire whole,
but the Emperor resembled a large, round-faced gentleman brimming with good humor.
As the saying goes, clothes make the man.
The crown upon his head was magnificent, and the crimson cloak draping his shoulders was solemn beyond measure.
Thanks to golden thread embroidered along every edge like flowing rivers, the Emperor appeared as though wreathed in golden mist.
“All kneel before His Imperial Majesty!”
Those assembled offered their respects in unison. Once he completed the ceremony from the platform, the Proclamation of Emperor of Gaiad was finally announced to the world.
“The long wars have ended!”
The Emperor’s voice rang through the vast hall.
“Pasa, that tyrannical empire, has fallen. Now this continent shall be united beneath a new sun. I wish to take that first step with all the blue-blooded gathered here.”
At this solemn declaration, everyone bowed their heads.
“Bring it forth!”
At the Emperor’s command, the chamberlain appeared bearing something aloft—a casket lined with crimson velvet.
Upon it rested a blue stone.
“Look at that! It’s not just any stone!”
“It’s a Spirit Stone, isn’t it?”
“Can a Spirit Stone of such magnitude even exist?”
“Surely not…….”
From the massive Spirit Stone, no larger than a man’s head, blue flames rippled endlessly.
It was a profoundly strange thing—captivating, yet suffused with an inexplicable dread.
“This is the Spirit Stone that was once called the Sun of Pasa!”
“The Sun of Pasa!”
“The national treasure of Pasa!”
“The greatest treasure on the continent!”
Murmurs rippled through the assembly. The Emperor continued.
“To rename a spirit, there must be a new master whom the spirit recognizes. I wish, therefore, to ask the Minor Saintess here—if I may be permitted.”
“That’s right! The Saintess possesses Divine Power stronger than anyone!”
“With such power, she would surely be able to form a contract with such a mighty spirit as the Sun of Pasa!”
“And the Minor Saintess, being her daughter, is likewise renowned for possessing extraordinary Divine Power from birth.”
The crowd grew excited, raising their voices.
“Come then, Minor Saintess. Do us this service. Show us the miracle that awaits!”
With the Emperor’s courteous request, the chamberlain brought the Spirit Stone before Ayu.
Everyone held their breath, awaiting the miracle that would follow.
But something was wrong with Ayu.
She gazed at the high priests with a deeply frightened expression, and then…….
“……?”
She suddenly hid behind a nearby priest.
The entire assembly was taken aback. The Emperor was no exception.
“Why—why are you doing this?”
The high priest, his expression troubled, hastened to support Ayu.
“Are you quite well, Minor Saintess?”
“I’m all right…… Let me explain.”
Ayu stepped forward again, her complexion pale as wax.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty…… I must confess that several days ago I suffered a grave shock and have been afflicted with severe fever.”
“I see…….”
“The Sun of Pasa is the most renowned spirit on the entire continent. To attempt a contract with such a spirit, I would need to expend every bit of Divine Power in my body…… If that were to happen, I too would perish, Your Majesty.”
“Then, might we ask again after the Minor Saintess has fully recovered?”
Ayu’s face stiffened at once. Her expression grew troubled. Tears pooled in her large eyes.
“I understand…… How could I refuse the request of His Exalted Majesty…… Only, I would humbly ask that you grant me sufficient time to rest…….”
“…….”
At Ayu’s entreaty, the assembly fell silent.
None but a fool could fail to notice how the faces of the high priests had turned rigid the moment she finished speaking.
Gaiad had only just proclaimed its Emperor, and to set itself at odds—however subtly—with the Grand Temple was a terrible thing indeed.
The Emperor’s chamberlain, having grasped the situation at once, muttered something under his breath…….
The Emperor’s complexion darkened.
It was not merely because Ayu had refused.
Rather, it was because the very architects of the war filled this hall.
A harsh voice erupted from below the platform.
“How much time? How much longer must we wait?!”
“Tell us, Minor Saintess—until when must we tolerate the name ‘Sun of Pasa’?”
Ayu started and turned her head.
Angry faces surrounded her.
“It is a vanquished empire! The old Deposed Emperor committed such innumerable cruelties! How many of his people died by his hand!”
“We can never accept the name ‘Sun of Pasa’! It is a stain upon the treasure of this continent!”
The Allied Forces had not gathered merely to carve up the empire of Pasa.
The Emperor of Pasa had wrung the lifeblood from countless souls, and in his final years, mad with lust, had filled the imperial palace to bursting with excess.
If a woman had any beauty whatsoever, the Emperor of Pasa dragged her into the imperial harem without the slightest concern for whose daughter, wife, sister, or niece she was.
The Emperor of Pasa possessed no moral conscience whatsoever.
He merely demanded and seized what he desired.
“So you’re suggesting we destroy the Spirit Stone? It’s the Spirit Stone that bears the name ‘the Sun’!”
“If the Sun grows angry and the sun doesn’t rise tomorrow, what will the farmers do?”
“It’s not just the farmers who have a problem—do you think the nobility survives on moonlight alone?”
“Everyone, please calm yourselves!”
The Emperor rapped his staff against the floor with a sharp, emphatic bang-bang.
He turned to gaze at Ayu with grave solemnity and spoke.
“Minor Saintess. I would ask that you specify a concrete date for us here and now. I make this request in the name of the Emperor.”
…….
Almost at the same moment, a high priest stepped forward with an expression of resolve.
“Your Majesty.”
Bowing deeply, he spoke.
“It need not be the Minor Saintess, need it? According to the Secret Edict preserved in the Grand Temple, if one is a direct descendant of Larund, they should be able to contract with the Sun Spirit without difficulty.”
“A direct descendant of Larund?”
“Yes. If we were to seek them out and make the request…….”
The Emperor’s expression twisted sharply in that moment.
“Is there anyone in this hall who would dare approach Larund to ask such a favor? Even if I lived another three hundred years, it would not be possible!”
The Emperor’s sonorous wrath filled the Grand Banquet Hall completely.
“Larund has kept its doors sealed and remained in seclusion for the past twenty-two years—how could anyone presume to knock upon that door!”
…….
“Can you do it? Can any of you do it!”
…….
A silence so profound that one could hear a pin drop.
Larund was one of the most ancient bloodlines, never anything other than nobility since time immemorial.
The Centurion itself—denoting the nineteen great houses of the continent—had originally been nothing more than a knightly family sworn to serve Larund.
But as epochs passed, Larund withdrew from the position of supreme lord and maintained only their standing as an independent great house.
As Larund receded, the Centurion scattered across the continent in all directions.
Each of them became a high noble or member of a royal family.
Larund never stepped forward, yet no one dared forget them or dismiss their significance.
Larund was like the very flow of time itself.
No one could escape them, yet if one chose, they could fade gradually from people’s memory.
The only known direct descendant of Larund was…….
“The Queen of the Northern Kingdom!”
……!
Someone’s sharp cry broke through, and the hall erupted once more into chaos.
“That’s it! The Queen of the Northern Kingdom is here!”
It was in that instant.
My heart, which had been quietly observing from the sidelines, sank into the depths.
Mother was…….
“Ahem. Your information is outdated. She passed away three years ago…….”
…….
The commotion gradually subsided.
Instead, all eyes converged upon a single point.
It was where the Minor Saintess Ayu stood.
They were looking at the Saintess through Ayu.
Ayu’s face had gone deathly pale.
Of course, the nobles were not regarding Ayu with contempt.
All people across the continent revered the Saintess whom the divine had sent down, and so nearly everyone believed unquestioningly in the Saintess’s love.
Yet it was an undeniable truth that someone’s heart had been torn asunder by the Saintess’s choice…….
Just as Ayu’s face had grown pale as parchment.
As if by a cruel twist of fate, our eyes met.
In that instant, olive-colored eyes widened greatly.
At the same time.
“Sister!”
Ayu suddenly cried out and rushed toward me.
The eyes of countless people converged entirely upon me.

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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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