Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 57

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

Chapter 57
* * *
Ayu stared at nothing, her gaze fixed on empty air.
Her delicate fingers clenched the hem of her dress with such force they had turned white, trembling violently.
She was traveling now in a different carriage.
Until yesterday, it had not been the Grand Temple’s carriage—the one she’d ridden in before.
The carriage she’d switched to was far more luxurious and ornate, yet Ayu found no comfort in it.
The insignia of House of Baetan was emblazoned everywhere inside.
Deon had knelt before her, speaking with desperate resolve.
“Ayu. I don’t love that woman. From the start, she’s been too strong-willed, too arrogant.”
“Only after meeting you did I understand that such pure love could exist in this world, Ayu…….”
“Since we married, she and I have never shared the same room. Please, Ayu.”
Ayu could not refuse Deon’s pleading. As if bewitched, she had stepped into the carriage of House of Baetan.
But happiness was fleeting.
Conflict rose within her like madness.
Loreliana’s face and the face of the Grand Duke kept alternating before her eyes.
‘A mistress…….’
When she was very small, Ayu had overheard courtiers whispering behind the palace, debating whether a holy maiden and a mistress truly differed at all.
Not knowing what a mistress was, young Ayu had asked the King, and the King, enraged, had the gossipers hunted down and executed.
‘A mistress. In the end, isn’t that what I am?’
Ayu suddenly sprang to her feet and pounded frantically at the window that connected to the driver’s seat.
“Stop! Stop the carriage!”
The carriage lurched to a halt.
The sudden stop nearly threw her forward.
She wiped away her tears and leaped from the carriage in one motion.
Deon, who had been riding ahead on horseback, quickly turned and rushed toward her.
“Ayu! Ayu, what’s wrong?!”
“I’ve reconsidered. I want to go back to the Grand Temple. I won’t go to your lands!”
“What? You promised me yesterday you’d come with me!”
“I’ve changed my mind! Let me go!”
“Ayu!”
The priests following behind also scrambled out of the carriage.
“Lord Deon! Release the Holy Maiden at once!”
“Ayu! Just listen to me, just once! Please!”
“If you do not depart immediately, we shall regard this as a threat to the Temple! Lord Deon!”
“Ayu! Ayu!”
As Deon clung to her desperately, Ayu felt her heart constrict with pain.
“Let me speak to him alone.”
“……Yes, Holy Maiden.”
Ayu looked up at Deon, who stood before her. He was tall and broad-shouldered.
In all her life, she had never seen a man as handsome as Deon.
But not long ago, the moment she saw Sherkan, she realized there existed a man more beautiful still.
No—it was difficult to express it merely as beauty.
That young Grand Duke possessed something devastatingly piercing that seemed to wring the heart itself.
Remembering Sherkan stirred something within her.
She had to admit it: Sherkan had been born with a beauty bestowed by the gods themselves.
Deon could not compare to him.
‘No. My sister’s husband is merely decent-looking, after all—just a lowborn half-breed.’
And yet Ayu felt she had decided her fate far too easily.
There must be many men who possessed an outward beauty like Sherkan’s.
As a Holy Maiden, she ought to have been able to meet someone far better!
The thought that Deon was nothing—absolutely nothing—became unbearable.
Ayu spoke coldly.
“I’ve thought it over. I’ve reflected again and again, and I’ve come to see that destiny does not bind us together.”
“Ayu, just yesterday you said you might forgive me…….”
“If I follow you, I’m nothing but a mistress! Just as your sister said!”
“Ayu!”
“Let’s end it here……. Deon!”
Ayu gasped as she watched Deon kneel suddenly before her.
“What are you doing! Get up!”
“Ayu, I understand what love is now that I’ve met you.”
“Deon!”
“I only entered into a political marriage because it’s the duty of the nobility! But the moment I see you, my heart races like madness — what am I supposed to do about this?”
“You deceived me!”
Ayu spoke, her voice trembling with fury.
“Does your wife know you’re like this? Your heart racing wildly? And then what? So you’ll divorce her!”
“I will.”
“……What did you just say?”
Ayu’s heart began to pound uncontrollably.
Deon clung to her feet, pleading.
“Only give me one year. Her father is a duke like myself. If I draw up divorce papers immediately, it will spark a territorial war — and worse, I’ll be liable for an astronomical alimony settlement.”
Alimony.
Ayu’s eyes trembled wildly at the word.
She was remembering the bankruptcy of the Northern Kingdom’s royal house.
Bankruptcy was a word more terrible than any curse.
It meant watching her warm, beloved home crumble to dust, watching her always-gentle father and half-brother shouting at each other in despair.
No shock, no wound had cut deeper into Ayu’s heart.
If she could help it, she wanted to flee poverty forever.
It was nothing but the terrible, demonic hand that shattered beautiful homes and happiness into fragments.
“Let me keep my promise to show you only beautiful and lovely things for the rest of your life…….”
Deon suddenly pulled Ayu into his embrace.
He wept, gasping for breath.
“One year is enough. Please, please stay by my side.”
Ayu’s tears finally began to fall.
“One year? In what capacity am I supposed to live in your castle for a whole year!”
“Ayu, you’re the Holy Maiden. Every house of the Centurion Family has a great cathedral for prayer. I swear to you, I’ll make the temple where you stay several times more magnificent than it is now. Better yet, I’ll make it grander and more beautiful than my legitimate wife’s own bedchamber.”
Ayu felt as though her heart would tear apart.
Rationally, she knew there were many men far finer than Deon Baetan in this world.
Yet she couldn’t shake him off. This man who loved her so blindly, so utterly. And the man she had first fallen for…….
Ayu’s reason ultimately could not overcome her emotion.
“All the tributes that enter the castle will go to you first, not to her! You can choose anything you like, and all you need do is accept my love…….”
“…….”
“Ayu, please…….”
At last Ayu wiped away her flowing tears with both hands. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t push away from this embrace.
She felt a surge of resentment toward Loreliana.
‘Why did she tell me he was married? Why did she……?’
She must have been jealous of such a fine, devoted man clinging to Ayu alone.
Ayu understood her sister, but bitterness lingered. She couldn’t suppress this throbbing ache in her chest without blaming someone.
Later, Ayu resolved, she would find Loreliana and offer her a word of sisterly counsel.
Fool.
Her sister was a fool.
Such jealousy, such pettiness — it didn’t befit the dignity of a Northern Kingdom princess!
At this rate, truly no one would remain at her side.
Though Loreliana had been cruel to her, if the Grand Duke’s House of Gonet fell into bankruptcy, Ayu was prepared to rescue her sister gladly by bringing her into House of Baetan.
That was the compassion a daughter of the Holy Maiden ought to possess.
“Ayu…….”
“I understand.”
Ayu finally drew Deon Baetan into her own embrace.
“Ayu? Do you really mean it? I didn’t mishear you, did I?”
“As the Holy Maiden, I will go to the Baetan Territory. Since I’ll be tending to the Centurion Family, the Grand Temple won’t forbid it.”
“Ayu!”
The Duke of Baetan pulled her close and swore an oath.
“I, Deon Baetan, swear here and now: within one year I will settle everything, and I will certainly welcome you as the most magnificent and happy bride.”
Ayu wiped away her tears.
“One more thing.”
“What is it?”
“If Gonet falls into bankruptcy, I will bring the Grand Duchess — my sister Loreliana — and make her my priestess. You’ll allow that much, won’t you?”
“Why is your heart so tender……?”
Deon held Ayu close with great tenderness.
“As much as you wish. You’re as good as the Duchess of House Baetan now.”

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