Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 46

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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 46
“If I send some mushrooms to the Grand Duke, do you think he’d eat them?”
“Pardon? You mean to send a package, my lady? That place burns even the Emperor’s personal letters without a second glance…… Ahhhhh!”
Erichi’s knees buckled, and he crumpled to the floor.
Behind him, Briget bowed respectfully and smiled.
“He will certainly be delighted, Your Grace. No—he will be overjoyed!”
I nodded reluctantly.
“I shall keep this one’s mouth firmly shut, so let me prepare the package at once. If it gets any colder, the food will freeze on the way—you’ve chosen the perfect timing!”
“Then let me gather just a few things to send…….”
“Go at once, Your Grace! Beibe! What are you doing?”
I headed toward the warehouse, feeling oddly uncomfortable.
By the time I’d gathered this and that, I’d amassed a bulging bundle.
“Did I pack too much?”
“Not at all, Your Grace.”
Perhaps Briget was the one orchestrating me after all…….
In any case, once I decided to send something, I found myself carefully tucking in item after item.
Dried mushrooms sorted by variety, eggs roasted in a pot—I packed them all thriftily.
‘It’s a shame I can’t send cheese.’
We’d only recently started milking, and the kitchen still had only soft, moist fresh cheese. There wasn’t a single wheel of aged cheese.
Thin-skinned cheese would spoil completely on the journey. By the time Sherkan received it, cheese would have transformed into poison.
Still…….
‘……He won’t laugh at me, will he?’
Before I lay down to sleep, I sat at my dressing table and twirled a strand of hair around my finger. After a moment of thought, I asked Ratku, who had been circling around me.
“Ratku, what do you think?”
“Ratku?”
“Will he like it?”
“Ratku likes Relei!”
“Yes, what would you know about it…….”
Sherkan drifted through my mind. I pondered for a moment, then shook my head.
“Sleep, Ratku?”
“Ratku!”
I wrapped my arms around Ratku and threw myself onto the bed. Then I fell asleep at once.
* * *
‘I even dreamed about making cheese…….’
My sleep had been restless, and I’d woken early, rolling around on the bed with Ratku.
Briget entered with her usual composure, but her expression was noticeably darker than usual.
“Your Grace, it seems a visitor will be arriving at midday.”
“A visitor? Who?”
“The Council of Elders Chairman, Earl Oswald, and his daughter, my lady.”
My eyes brightened.
The Council of Elders Chairman!
Those who showed not a shred of interest whether or not a Grand Duchess existed were finally coming to pay their respects!
But Briget seemed hesitant about something.
“What is it, Briget?”
“It is not a trivial matter, Your Grace…… There is something you ought to know.”
“What is it?”
Briget added her explanation in a serious tone.
“Earl Oswald is the brother of the Previous Grand Duchess.”
“……The Previous Grand Duchess’s brother?”
“Indeed, Your Grace.”
‘My goodness?’
I wore an intrigued expression.
It’s true that the Previous Grand Duchess had a brother.
But he doesn’t appear in the original work.
Because he died early, betrayed by his own daughter.
“Briget, how many daughters does Earl Oswald have?”
“Currently, only the Lady Mona who is arriving today, my lady.”
“Is that so?”
So I’ll get to witness them both in one place—the father who dies betrayed by his daughter, and the daughter who kills him?
“What is this Lady Mona’s temperament like?”
“How vulgar of me.”
I burst out laughing. Briget’s earnest tone was amusing, and the way she compressed her words made it even funnier.
“I see. So a vulgar daughter, and now the Council of Elders Chairman comes calling to pay his respects. How entertaining. I’ll have to welcome him without a single flaw.”
I stood quickly to prepare, but then a great question struck me like a thunderbolt.
“Oh, wait a moment…… Briget?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Don’t we have all our reception rooms locked up?”
“…….”
That was right.
This disgraced Grand Duke’s House didn’t have a single reception room open!
* * *
“The Grand Duke’s House must be in quite dire straits, Your Grace.”
The Earl Oswald’s daughter spoke with her lip trembling.
“Even so, to simply place a table and chairs in the Grand Banquet Hall on the first floor—Father, this is the first time Mona has had tea in such a cold place.”
She was right.
The finest room in the castle?
That would naturally be the Grand Duke’s bedroom.
The second finest?
In my assessment, it was the kitchen, but I couldn’t very well usher guests there.
So the third option: the Grand Banquet Hall on the first floor, which had the advantage of overwhelming scale, and I’d hastily placed a table and chairs there to receive them.
The father and daughter sitting side by side looked like they’d come from different seasons.
The Earl wore a grave, unadorned ensemble: deep crimson velvet trimmed with ash-colored fur.
Beside him sat his daughter, Lady Mona, as she was called.
It was difficult even to look directly at her.
Her billowing crimson dress was densely embroidered with lilac silk, and her neck, ears, and arms were utterly bare of empty space.
Whenever she moved her head even slightly, the jewels across her entire body caught the sunlight in unison, scattering light in handfuls—my skin ached from looking at her, not just my eyes.
She seemed like someone trying to prove her family’s treasury with her own body.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace. I am Earl Oswald, brother of the previous Grand Duchess, and…… well, I suppose that introduction suffices.”
“Delighted to meet you, Earl Oswald. What brings you here?”
“To pay my respects, of course.”
It was mere pretense.
If he meant to pay respects, he should have appeared the very day I became Grand Duchess.
What sort of respect was this, arriving so much later?
I arranged a flawless smile at my lips and spoke.
“Your respects are noted. I hope you’ll forgive us for offering only honey water, given the castle’s circumstances.”
“Haha…… you are far too modest. The teacup you’ve provided is far too precious, is it not?”
“……?”
Lady Mona, who had sat throughout with cool indifference and arrogance, glanced down at the teacup only upon hearing her father’s words.
Her eyes widened in an instant.
Across the white porcelain, vines wound like silver thread melted into the glaze, and at each point where leaves budded, a jewel no larger than a millet grain was set.
On the gold rim circling the handle sat crimson rubies, and along the cup’s base were scattered deep sapphires.
Whenever sunlight touched it, the cup shimmered like a spirit that had swallowed flame.
At a glance, it was an enormously precious treasure.
“It is a gift from His Imperial Majesty, so naturally it is fine. How could anything from the Imperial Family be inferior?”
I continued in a melancholy tone, like a girl sorry for her poverty.
“Without even this much, I would have had to serve you plain water in a wooden pitcher carved from a log.”
“Plain water?”
Lady Mona’s eyes widened exaggeratedly as she spoke.
“Goodness! When I return home, I shall have to send you some of our newly purchased tea leaves. Even so, plain water—why, even the head of our household servants drinks tea at our house!”
I lifted the teacup to conceal my lips and laughed softly.
“How kind of you, Lady Mona.”
Earl Oswald immediately rebuked Lady Mona.
“Mona! Where are you raising your voice like that! Can you not hold your tongue?!”
‘Indeed. The difference in level is clear with age.’
Lady Mona pouted slightly. Earl Oswald cleared his throat.
“Ahem. My apologies, Your Grace. The truth is, the reason for my visit today concerns the Grand Duke’s House debts.”
I nodded lightly, inviting him to continue.
“Following the incident where you turned away the merchants, there has been quite a stir about it outside.”
“……?”
I paused, my hand holding the teacup still, and looked up.
If I were to translate what was being said, it amounted to something like this.
—Everyone’s talking behind your back, and you don’t even know it?
I raised my eyebrows slightly.
My first instinct was straightforward.
And what exactly am I supposed to do about it?
We’ve managed perfectly well pretending not to know each other all this time—so why come now to inform me that I’m being spoken of poorly outside these walls?
I tilted my teacup gently and asked again.
“Earl Oswald.”
“Yes, Grand Duchess.”
“It seems I have not yet heard the full measure of your station. Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself properly?”
So saying, I set down the cup I’d been holding.
As if I had no further use for it, I released it without the slightest hesitation.
“Or you’re welcome to leave now.”
Lady Mona cried out in agitation.
“Did I not just tell you, Grand Duchess? My father is Earl Oswald, and he is the brother of the Previous Grand Duchess!”
Clack.
Having set down the teacup with deliberate noise, I laughed coldly.
“Quiet.”
……!
I studied Lady Mona with a faint smile, then turned my gaze down to my fingernails.
“Briget.”
“I await your command, Grand Duchess.”
“I have not been long in the Grand Duke’s House, so there is much I do not know. In Gonet, is it customary for young noblewomen to interject into the conversation of their elders?”
“I have never heard of such a thing, Grand Duchess.”
Briget spoke with her eyes gleaming brightly.
“When I served the Empress Dowager, it was absolutely unthinkable. If someone were to cut short the words of a superior without permission, we would—quite literally—cut them down for it.”
……!
“Though the Grand Duke’s House of Gonet may lack such disciplinary measures, I believe the gracious Empress Dowager would be more than willing to lend hers.”
Mona’s face turned as white as paper.
“Are you… are you threatening me?”
I laughed as though amused and shook my head.
“Briget.”
Briget immediately bowed her head.
I rested my chin lightly on my hand and glanced at Lady Mona. Her face betrayed a tangle of defiance and fear.
“There is no need to go far. Everyone knows you serve the Empress Dowager, so tell her everything you have witnessed here today. I shall have a carriage prepared to take you to the Imperial Palace at once.”
“I shall obey your command.”
Briget turned without hesitation and began to move away.
At that, Earl Oswald stepped forward in alarm.
“Grand Duchess! I have failed to educate my daughter properly! Please, I beg you to forgive her just this once!”
I offered no answer, only tilting my chin slightly.
The Earl quickly raised his voice to Mona.
“Why do you not beg the Grand Duchess’s forgiveness at once? Do you wish never to set foot in the Imperial Court?”
At those words, Lady Mona’s face finally drained of all color.
“I-I am deeply sorry, Grand Duchess. I was foolish and have made a terrible mistake…….”
I allowed her stammering apology to continue uninterrupted to its end.
I did not utter a word of forgiveness—only blinked my eyes softly.
As I offered no reply, neither Lady Mona nor Earl Oswald dared to speak.
The silence stretched on, and visibly uncomfortable, they both cleared their throats in succession—while I remained perfectly composed, my gaze cast downward.
After a measured pause, I opened my mouth.
“We must change our seating.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Have two new seats prepared, Briget.”
“Very good.”
……?
While Lady Mona’s expression remained puzzled, Earl Oswald’s eyes showed that he had grasped my meaning.
At Briget’s signal, the servants standing in attendance behind us brought forward two new chairs and a table.
I gestured toward the newly arranged seating with a smile playing at the corners of my mouth.
“Well then, Earl Oswald. Shall we move over there and sit?”
……?
Lady Mona’s mind went momentarily blank.
Confusion flickered across her vacant expression before her face flushed crimson.
“……!”
Blue Blood or not, the etiquette was universal—everyone knew it.
A master did not share a table with a servant.
The vast gulf between a Grand Duchess and an Earl’s daughter was the measure of master and servant—nothing less.
To put it more bluntly: I had just told Mona one thing.
‘Get out.’

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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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