Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 38

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

Chapter 38
If I had my way, I wouldn’t have spent a single coin.
Shercan was remarkably indifferent to what he ate and drank.
He was the sort of boy who would rise and wield his sword again even if it meant eating ash, so long as he didn’t starve.
What could these neat little gold coins possibly mean to such a boy?
In the end, he’d only drain his entire share without hesitation.
I tucked the gold coins carefully away again and closed the drawer.
With determined resolve, I called for Ratkku. Erihi had said I’d need to wait another month before I could go to the mine!
So I could spend that time doing something else instead!
“Ratkku!”
“Ratkku!”
Ratkku, who had been clinging to my head all this while, rubbed his cheek against mine. I lifted him down and cradled him in my arms.
“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to raise dairy cows!”
“Ratkku?”
With the Breeding Order at my disposal, I was confident I could rear even a scrawny, frail cow into something thriving.
But if I were to purchase a pathetic, skeletal dairy cow, everyone would think me a fool.
“Should I just tell you everything about you? No—the Breeding Order’s power is too dangerous to reveal, no matter how I think about it.”
To get anyone to bring me a frail, emaciated dairy cow, I’d need a reason.
And that reason was precisely my ability to use the Breeding Order.
But to speak of the Breeding Order, I couldn’t avoid speaking of Ratkku as well.
Everything was connected—I couldn’t make any decision lightly.
“Ratkku.”
Ratkku’s tail wagged.
I rested my chin on my hand and sank into thought.
The Breeding Order makes anything breed.
And it makes them breed healthily, whatever they are.
It was an ability that generated staggering wealth with almost immediate effect.
As the saying goes, a weak nation that possesses oil becomes a target for invasion.
And the Breeding Order was an ability incomparable to something as crude as oil.
Though it did have physical limitations, surely there were people who’d want to take me and make themselves the richest person on the continent?
‘Countless ones.’
Of course, I was now officially Shercan’s wife.
The Gonet Knights were the finest order of knights on the continent, so even if someone harbored ill intent toward me, an abduction would hardly be easy.
‘Still.’
There was no need to flaunt this ability that could awaken boundless greed.
There was one more troubling matter.
‘Why was the Daesin Temple so eager to take me, paying such a high price?’
The fact that secret histories concerning the Sun Spirit were stored in the Daesin Temple was likewise suspicious.
I disliked the Daesin Temple, so I didn’t want to draw their attention.
But I did want to make it known that the Sun Spirit favored me to some degree.
That way, people wouldn’t look down on me.
“I’ll just go around petty fortune-telling, claiming you appeared to me in dreams and gave me divine revelation!”
“Ratkku!”
* * *
The next morning.
I rose early, finished my meal, and dressed in clothes far plainer than usual.
The ash-grey wool cuttle was something noblewomen rarely wore.
Rather, it was the practical sort of one-piece dress that well-to-do common girls wore when going out.
And just as I was about to step out, my apron tied on like a maidservant’s—
“That won’t do, Your Grace!”
My skirts were seized. It was Erihi.
“Why on earth are you going to the Cattle Market! And not just that—you, the Grand Duke’s Consort, going in person!”
I spoke as I brushed off my skirt.
“But I told you already—I’m going to buy a calf.”
“You could simply send people below to do it! Why must the Grand Duke’s Consort go to such a place herself! Head maid, please talk her out of this! How could a noblewoman possibly visit somewhere as filthy as the Cattle Market!”
Bridget spoke gently.
“Should the mistress wish to walk even a path of thorns, for a lady’s maid to attend her dutifully—is that not the true calling of a head maid?”
“What on earth is wrong with you!”
“I shall stake my very life to serve you, Your Grace.”
“That’s not going to work!”
Erihi tore at her hair, then grabbed me again.
“Your Grace, you have a lady’s maid, an aide, and even a knight commander at your disposal—and you mean to say you’ll go to such a place yourself? You might as well tell us we’re too incompetent for you to bother taking along. Your Grace! This isn’t some quaint matter of propriety or dignity—it’s treating us as utterly useless, isn’t it?”
‘She’s going to cry. She’s really going to cry.’
In the end, I pressed a purse of money into Erihi’s hands.
“Then go and buy me some calves with this.”
“Me, Your Grace? Ah, wonderful! I’ll bring back a hundred—no, a thousand calves at once!”
“Given our circumstances, we can’t afford quite that many…”
“In any case!”
Erihi, brimming with confidence, opened the purse to look inside.
Her face fell, and she spoke hesitantly.
“Your Grace? Is this all of it?”
“That’s all. If you can’t manage, I’ll go myself.”
“No! No! I’ll go, Your Grace!”
Erihi hurriedly pulled on her gloves, muttering as she did.
“If I bargain well enough, I should be able to bring back one decent calf…”
“What did you say?”
I blinked and snatched the gloves from her hands.
“One calf? I’m telling you to buy ten.”
“…Did I mishear?”
“Ten calves. Go buy ten.”
“T-ten…calves?”
Erihi’s eyes went blank for a moment before she collected herself.
“Your Grace! Are you saying I should go all the way to the Cattle Market and buy sick calves?!”
“Not sick ones—just the cheapest ones. I’ll raise them myself.”
The maids beside me nodded eagerly.
“Your Grace has such extensive knowledge.”
“That’s right. You raised those chickens beautifully.”
“Are chickens and cattle the same thing?!”
Erihi let out a sharp cry.
“Your Grace! Think about it! Cattle are far more demanding than chickens! And the expense is completely different! So you raised some chickens well? That was pure luck!”
Ha!
I knew she’d throw a fit!
I’d been about to speak with grace and reverence, claiming I’d dreamed of the spirit and that everything would work out—some charlatan priestess nonsense—but…
“Actually, I…”
“To be frank, Your Grace, you’re hardly a country girl, are you? You were raised as the First Princess, and then became a concubine, albeit a junior one, and—cough! Cough-cough!”
Erihi, kicked hard by Bridget as if by a gust of wind, spoke in a voice thick with pain.
“I’ll buy them. I’ll buy the calves. But please, assign Commander Gabin to come with me…!”
“Commander Gabin? But Gabin…”
I tilted my head in confusion.
Gabin, whom Bridget had scratched, had been working on the insulation repairs at the Poultry House until last night.
Bridget spoke in a gentle tone.
“Fear not, Your Grace. The Poultry House insulation work was completed at midnight.”
“Still, is it right to call someone who’s done nothing but labor for over a week?”
Puzzled, I asked again, and Erihi burst out loudly.
“Yes, it is! I’m going, so why can’t Commander Gabin?! Fine! I’ll take him with me!”
Erihi, thoroughly irritated, strode away with long steps.
I gave Bridget a look telling her to follow, and she bowed respectfully.
A short time later.
The maids crowded against the window, exclaiming.
“Look there! The aide and the knight commander are pulling a cart together!”
The maids made room, and I pressed myself to the center of the window, watching the two figures recede into the distance. It was true.
Despite being from a Grand Duke’s household, the commander was pulling a large cart while the aide dragged a small hand cart.
‘If anyone saw this, they’d think we were truly ruined.’
The maids chattered among themselves.
“Commander Gabin must have only ever ridden horses. I wonder if he’s ever pulled a cart before?”
“And what about that carriage behind them?”
Just then, as if in response to their voices, the window of the carriage following the two figures opened suddenly.
An elegantly slender hand emerged and waved with leisurely grace before slipping back inside.
It was Bridget’s hand.
The maids squealed with delight.
I found myself wondering if these were truly the same children who had trembled in fear of Bridget mere weeks ago.
‘If Bridget had been born in the modern era, she would’ve been an absolutely massive influencer…….’
I pressed myself flat against the window and called out loudly.
“Bridget! I believe in you! Take care out there!”
The carriage window flew open again, and this time both her hands shot out at once.
……!
“Oh my! The head maid drew a heart!”
“Oh, oh my!”
At the squealing of the maids, the window closed again with practiced grace.
After the carriage had completely departed, the maids chattered among themselves.
“Your Grace, we tried steaming eggs this time and they turned out quite flavorful. Would you care to taste them while they’re still warm? We had several pouches of walnuts, so we ground some up and mixed them in—they came out fragrant and delightfully crispy.”
“The head maid should return by tomorrow, shouldn’t she? The Cattle Market is usually most crowded on the first day, after all.”
I descended to the first floor alongside the maids.
My thoughts turning toward the cattle that would arrive tomorrow.

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