Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 60

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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 60
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When I opened the door to the Reception Room, servant candidates stood arranged in two neat rows.
Twenty of them.
They all wore fresh clothes, and there wasn’t a single thing out of place—not their hair, not their fingernails, not anything.
The moment I sat down, they all bent at the waist in unison.
“We are honored to meet you, Grand Duchess!”
‘They’ve had some practice.’
Just then, attendants from the Council of Elders approached with smiles.
“We’ve assembled only children with keen understanding of proper etiquette, Grand Duchess. They befit the dignity of the Grand Duke’s House.”
“Mm…….”
The children were indeed all pretty, with not a rough edge among them.
To be honest, it was almost amusing.
‘So they took my words about picking by appearance literally.’
They’d clearly ground their teeth in preparation.
On the other hand, I had to admit the Council of Elders showed considerable competence.
After all, despite having no idea what I intended to do at the Abandoned Mine, they’d sniffed out the situation with uncanny precision and went to this much trouble with personnel, determined to plant at least one person.
I tilted my head and spoke.
“I said I’d pick only one, so why did you bring twenty?”
“Hah. Of course, you did say that.”
The Council attendant wrung his hands.
“But since you mentioned you would judge by appearance, we brought a generous selection so you could choose whichever child pleased you most. Every single one of them is exceptionally talented. They’re children fit enough to serve in the Imperial Court itself.”
“Is that so?”
I brought up the important matter first.
“In any case, you did bring the ten years’ worth of wages I mentioned, yes? As you know, the Grand Duke’s House finances are in terrible shape. If I hire a servant but the wages dry up, how am I supposed to hold my head high?”
No money, that’s what I am.
A complete pauper.
A Grand Duchess who could speak of her poverty so brazenly actually existed.
Right here.
“Ahem, of course we brought it. Here, if you would…….”
“Beibe, take it and count it.”
Two maidservants and two Council subordinates immediately crowded around and opened the box.
Clink, clink.
The sound of counting gold coins continued for quite some time. At last, all four of them nodded in unison.
“It’s correct, Grand Duchess.”
A high-ranking noble’s servant typically drew about three ribe per month.
Ten years’ worth meant three hundred sixty ribe had just arrived.
An involuntary laugh escaped me.
‘Ten Abandoned Mines wouldn’t even fetch a hundred ribe.’
The attendant asked.
“Grand Duchess, which child will you select as your servant?”
I slowly surveyed the lined-up children.
Twenty of them.
In truth, picking one today held little real significance.
How impressive could a single small child become as a spy?
What the Council of Elders truly wanted was for me to hire ten more servants a year from now.
I smiled lightly, gazing at twenty—no, twenty-one—servant candidates.
‘Briget really does have quick hands.’
When had she slipped the little one into the group?
Neither the Council attendant nor the other children seemed to have noticed yet.
With twenty lined up, one more slipped in among them was hardly conspicuous, and every eye in this room was fixed on me anyway. How could they notice?
“What are you good at?”
When I asked the first child, a bright reply came back.
“I have talent in harp playing!”
“I am fluent in ancient languages!”
“I have thoroughly studied the Imperial Court Etiquette Manual!”
With each step forward, answers came out snappily.
They’d really been trained well.
And then, the last one.
“What are you good at?”
“I can…….”
The child drew a deep breath.
“I can polish the Grand Duchess’s shoes really well!”
‘Oh, what a mistake.’
I should have coached him on a plausible answer before bringing him here.
At least he didn’t mention cleaning chamber pots or doing laundry, so I suppose that’s something to be grateful for.
The back of the Reception Room began to stir. The Council of Elders’ attendants were visibly flustered.
“Who brought this child?”
“Wasn’t it you?”
“Not me.”
“There were twenty of us to begin with, and now there’s one more. Who in blazes is this kid…….”
I ignored their muttering and lifted my head.
“I’ll take this one.”
“Pardon?!”
The Council of Elders’ attendants immediately objected.
“Your Grace! We have no idea who this child is!”
“He seems to have wandered in by mistake. And look—his legs appear to be impaired.”
“Hmm.”
Erichi, now dressed in formal attire, stepped forward.
“I am Erichi, the Grand Duke’s First Secretary. This child is my ward, Atil.”
“……Pardon?”
The boy’s eyes went wide as saucers.
It was clear he was hearing his own name for the first time.
I had to suppress a laugh.
I had chosen the name Atil myself.
It wasn’t from the original work. The son of Duke Molsen and his wife never had a name revealed in the story.
It was simply that Briget…….
Yesterday, Briget brought me a notebook.
It was packed with three thousand names.
I could only gasp.
“Briget. Did you write all of these yourself?”
When on earth did she find the time?
“This Briget is far too embarrassed to say, Your Grace.”
Atil was chosen from among them.
“But Secretary, why did you suddenly put your ward forward as a servant candidate?”
“The attendants are vying to show their loyalty to the Grand Duchess, so I too wished to demonstrate my sincerity to her. We are all nobles under Gonet, are we not? Is there a problem with that?”
“…….”
Erichi was shameless.
His greatest strength was that there was no flaw in the shameless things he said.
You’re all scrambling to get in the Grand Duchess’s good graces?
Well, I want to as well, so I recommended someone. What’s the issue?
Are you the only ones who are nobility of the Grand Duke’s House?
I’m a proper Gonet noble too, aren’t I?
“Well…….”
The Council of Elders’ attendants gaped like goldfish.
One of them turned red in the face and cried out.
“Even so, shouldn’t there be at least some noble blood mixed in?”
“Then should I cut my wrists and have you drink from them?”
“What did you just say?”
“If you’re concerned about insufficient justification, perhaps you should examine the matter more closely—Briget, my head housekeeper, serves as his guardian.”
“That is to say…….”
Erichi covered his mouth with both hands and asked as if astounded.
“Good heavens! Are you truly saying that even the former attendant-in-chief of the Empress Dowager herself is insufficient?”
Surely his audacity doesn’t extend quite that far?
It couldn’t.
How does he manage to be so infuriatingly smooth about it?
Did Erichi not notice the Council of Elders’ attendants looked ready to burst a blood vessel?
Eventually, the attendants began directing their anger at me.
“Your Grace! Isn’t this an overreach of authority?”
“An overreach? How is this an overreach?”
“That’s……!”
“That’s?”
The attendants couldn’t bring themselves to finish.
Right, they couldn’t.
How could they speak plainly? Plant a network of spies in your castle?
I waved the fan Briget had handed me with a languid gesture.
“Grand Duchess! Doesn’t that child have difficulty using his legs?”
An attendant pressed the matter one last time.
I leaned back in my chair and spoke in a drowsy tone.
“That’s precisely why it’s convenient. He can’t run away.”
“……Yes?”
Briget had told me something.
To display all the dignity I wished.
Dignity, she’d said — but what she really meant was…….
-Indulge in all the wickedness you desire.
Wasn’t that what she meant?
How could I disappoint my Briget?
I shaped my smile into something coquettish, the beauty of a woman who could topple nations, and spoke.
“Shall I tell you all how the fallen concubines of the Parsa Empire amused themselves with their servants?”
I opened the fan slowly. Autumn air brushed cool against my skin.
“They’d starve several servants all day, then tear up bread and throw it on the floor. The fallen concubines’ favorite pastime was watching them scramble and devour it.”
“……!”
“And that’s not all. Some servants who developed scars on their faces were bound with stones tied to their feet and cast into the pond. If they survived, they’d be forgiven. If not, they drowned.”
“…….”
“That was how the fallen concubines treated their servants.”
Fear began to bloom on the faces of the servant candidates lined up before me. Even the Council of Elders attendants seemed to pale slightly.
The beauties trapped in the Parsa inner court grew ever more brutal and savage with each passing day, treating people as less than human.
To the concubines, servants were merely playthings.
They were a different breed entirely from the cute, well-mannered servants who attended the nobility outside the Imperial Palace.
“So I need a servant who won’t run away.”
I smiled and surveyed the children before me.
“Or perhaps one of you candidates would volunteer to break your legs right here in front of me? Simply breaking them cleanly won’t do—you’d need them properly shattered so they heal with difficulty, wouldn’t you?”
The candidates all bowed their heads and trembled.
Even the attendants seemed flustered, unable to speak, taken aback by what they perceived as my brutal nature.
I maintained a leisurely smile.
You didn’t know, did you?
I’m someone who survived among such concubines.
What would you know of it, you who were raised so delicately you’ve never tasted anything but Sherkan’s leftovers?

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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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