Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 51

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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 51
The war spoils confirmed by the Emperor were staggering in amount.
Gaiard’s share of the spoils from this war came to twenty thousand Ribe, and the remaining ten thousand Ribe was Sherkan’s independent military achievements converted into coin.
My mental calculator spun to life.
Just how dangerous was Sherkan playing at?
Part of me was curious about his thoughts.
Wasn’t he resentful?
It wasn’t even a debt he’d incurred himself—he was repaying the debts of people who’d been too busy abusing him to do it.
Sherkan Gonet was mostly sharp-tongued, prone to outbursts, and often cruel in his words, but still…
He was steadfast nonetheless.
Steadily repaying such unreasonable responsibility without complaint.
I exhaled a long breath and turned the spoils ledger back around. Then I unfolded the Council of Elders’ accounts that Briget had plundered alongside it.
Written there were the debts the previous Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Gonet owed to the Council of Elders.
It was just as painful to look at as the ledgers the accountant had first handed me.
I’d need to organize this properly later, but as I squinted through the figures, I tilted my head.
Principal: five hundred thousand.
Interest rate: thirty percent annually.
This was the maximum interest rate permitted under continental law.
The legal cap, they called it—the highest interest rate the law allowed.
‘Did the previous Grand Duke and Grand Duchess really go mad together?’
It was an astronomical sum, a debt that was utterly catastrophic.
As I traced through the old-fashioned ledger with my finger, its entries hard to decipher, I furrowed my brow.
‘Is it just my imagination? Something about this ledger seems odd.’
It felt as though someone had tampered with it, but I couldn’t confirm anything from here.
The ledger was an absolute mess—as if someone had jumbled together scripture, medical texts, and legal knowledge all at once.
That’s why accountants work by the dozens and hundreds, all attached to manage these things.
Old ledgers are the kind of thing that makes you sigh just looking at them.
‘Hmm.’
Suspicion arose, but I couldn’t march straight to the Council of Elders and demand answers over it.
The Emperor’s spoils hadn’t even arrived yet, so I’d need to wait and watch a bit longer.
While I was furrowing my brow, knights who’d been laughing boisterously came over.
They all held goblets in their hands.
“Grand Duchess! We wish to offer you a toast!”
“This is the finest celebration we’ve received in Gonet!”
“Please accept our drink!”
Right.
Enjoy the banquet now, settle accounts later.
“Gladly!”
I smiled and raised my goblet.
“Huzzah!”
* * *
Several days had passed since the banquet ended.
I prepared to depart for the abandoned mine.
Truth be told, my heart had never been at ease from the start—even less so when I thought of Earl Oswald.
Whatever bizarre death befell him in the original story, he was currently the Council of Elders Chairman.
Since the Grand Duke’s House of Gonet carried such enormous debt, the Council of Elders’ influence was beyond imagination.
‘But by rank, he’s only an Earl, isn’t he?’
A position far below a Grand Duke, no matter how you looked at it.
Yet to all appearances, Earl Oswald seemed to carry greater status than I did.
The carriage his father and daughter arrived in was fitted with golden curtains, and they’d even brought eight guards or whatever they were!
‘Honestly, I looked more like a minor noble by comparison.’
But that was different now.
I spoke from where I sat at the dressing table.
“Can you really make me look proper today?”
The maids preparing me suddenly paused mid-motion.
“Pardon?”
“I have somewhere important to go. I need to look at least as impressive as Lady Mona Oswald when she came before.”
“…!”
The maids’ eyes lit up all at once.
True enough—I rarely had places to go. The ladies of Gonet had ignored me, and I’d never even received a single invitation to their tea parties.
There had been nowhere to show off their skills, no one to admire them—these girls must have been itching to work, with nowhere to direct that energy.
When I asked them to dress me up, their faces brightened as if I’d just granted them discharge papers from a hospital.
“Let’s gather the accessories, everyone.”
“……?”
Perhaps I’d misread their expressions after all.
The maids began moving with solemn purpose.
“We thought you wouldn’t wear this dress until next year, but you’re finally trying it on!”
The maids had thoughtfully selected a pale pink gown.
It was woven from the luxurious Changjuang Taffeta that the nobility coveted above all—fresh rose-pink when viewed straight on, yet shimmering with threads of silver that rippled like water when seen from the side. Truly luminous and beautiful.
Over it, I draped a Cashmere Shawl.
The collar was studded densely with tiny pearls, and crimson taffeta ribbons were sewn through them, so that white and red stood sharp and distinct against the pink ground.
It was wonderfully beautiful and warm besides.
“Shall we style your hair to feel a bit fresher?”
“That sounds lovely. We’ll twist only half of it up—to give you that young lady charm with a touch of distinguished grace.”
The maids combed half my hair upward while letting the rest cascade over my shoulders.
They pinned a gleaming ruby comb deep into the gathered section.
When they arranged three combs in an artful pattern, it looked like a tiara from one angle, yet fresh and youthful from another.
“Gifts from the Imperial Family truly have a different quality. So beautiful.”
“It would look lovely if we wove golden threads through the Grand Duchess’s hair as well.”
The maids chattered ceaselessly, their fingers dancing and rustling.
Soon my hair had taken on a charming shape, like flowing clouds, and matching earrings hung delicately at my ears.
Finally, the maids fitted me with white rabbit-fur cuffs.
The soft fur covered my wrists, and warmth pooled wherever it touched—cozy and wonderfully comfortable.
I stood before the mirror while the maids gathered around me in a circle.
One adjusted the shawl’s folds; another smoothed the hem of my skirt; a third stepped back, tilted her head, and examined the overall effect.
“You’ll outshine everyone, no matter where you go.”
“Truly! You might even outshine His Imperial Majesty!”
The maids laughed brightly and asked:
“But Grand Duchess, where are you going?”
“To a salon? Or perhaps to address the knights with some instruction?”
“Neither. I’m going to the mine.”
The maids fell silent for a moment.
“The mine……?”
I smiled and replied.
“Go find Gabin and ask him to select ten knights, arranged by height from tallest first.”
I paused briefly, then elaborated.
“Tell him the sturdier, the more bear-like, the better.”
“Yes……!”
“Have them wear Formal Military Uniforms. And bring swords.”
“Yes……!”
“Tell Erichi to come as well. Have him bring an Abacus.”
Something suddenly occurred to me.
“Is Briget still overseeing the Laundry Facility?”
Since returning from the Council of Elders, Briget had been confined to the Laundry Facility for days.
“She’s reorganizing the Storage as well, and reassigning the Mushroom Gathering duties by section.”
Even though the knight order had returned, Gabin’s Mushroom Gathering hadn’t ended.
By Briget’s accounting, the financial damage from the Laundry Facility incident was something that would take two centuries of slavery to repay.
Gabin continued gathering mushrooms without complaint, and seeing that he also oversaw the knights’ Dawn Training in the meantime made me think he was truly remarkable.
“Tell Briget to rest, and she doesn’t need to come to the mine.”
“Understood!”
The maids hurried off to their tasks.
Just then, the maid fixing my hair asked:
“Grand Duchess, if you’re inspecting the mine, wouldn’t black velvet cuffs suit you better than these snow-white ones?”
“No, it’s fine. I need to dress like this today.”
“Like this?”
The maid tilted her head questioningly but soon nodded without further thought.
‘It is awfully bright for a mine visit.’
Truth be told, the maid’s suggestion was entirely reasonable. What fool would wear such a luminous gown to a dusty, dirt-swirling mine?
But I had to be that fool now.
Or rather, I had to appear to be one.
“No! No, please!”
Moments later.
Erichi’s screams echoed from somewhere nearby.
“What? The Mine? Your Grace! My constitution is delicate, and I cough so easily—cough, cough—surely I should stay at the estate and manage the accounts! No, please!”
Ignoring his pleas, I gestured, and two knights came dragging Erichi behind them.
I climbed into the carriage and gazed out the window.
‘Good. At last I’m going to lay my hands on that black treasure.’

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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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