Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 68

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

Episode 68
‘What is this? Someone connected to the Empress Dowager?’
I gathered my thoughts and rose from bed.
“Show her in.”
The moment I stepped outside the bedroom, a noblewoman in a Coral-colored Duchess Dress stood waiting, attended by her servants.
She caught sight of me and immediately gathered her skirts, dropping into a graceful curtsy.
“What an honor to make your acquaintance, Grand Duchess of Gonet. I am the Countess Shana, sent here by the Empress Dowager herself.”
“Please, rise. Countess Shana.”
At first glance, the countess appeared modestly dressed, but anyone with a discerning eye would have noticed that the jewels she wore were far from ordinary.
Her flawless smile turned toward Briget, who stood beside me.
“Briget! It’s been such a long time! The Empress Dowager has been so fond of you that she’s been beside herself with longing.”
“That Her Majesty would remember one as humble as myself…”
Briget’s eyes glistened with tears.
I felt my nerves tighten.
This was nothing less than a clash between the old favorite and the current one.
I smiled graciously, belying the flutter in my chest, and gave Briget a gentle push at the small of her back.
“Then we mustn’t keep Her Majesty waiting. Go and pay your respects, Briget.”
“Your Grace!”
Having offered Briget my warmest smile, I turned to the countess with a question.
“Countess Shana, when do you think I might have my handmaid returned to me?”
The countess hesitated for just a moment before her smile slid back into place with practiced ease.
“The Empress Dowager’s condition is not grave, so it shouldn’t take long.”
‘No promise, then.’
Worry began to creep in.
What if.
What if!
What if she didn’t return Briget?
Then I would gather every egg in the castle and win over the Empress Dowager myself if I had to.
I spoke gently to Briget.
“Tell Her Majesty that I wish for her swift recovery.”
“I shall return shortly, Your Grace.”
After Briget left, I rushed straight to the mirror.
“Your Grace?”
“Beibe, bring out all the hair ornaments we have.”
“Yes, at once!”
My servants moved with practiced precision at my command.
My eyes gleamed as I sat before the mirror.
I would never let my Briget be taken from me.
‘No one knows the Empress Dowager’s tastes better than I do.’
Perhaps I understood her preferences even more intimately than she understood them herself.
I would absolutely win her favor and secure her protection by whatever means necessary!
After hours of deliberation over what to wear to tomorrow’s banquet, I finally rose from my seat seven hours later, satisfied with my selection.
* * *
The next day.
My eyes snapped open.
An unfamiliar ceiling…
I remembered, a beat too late, that I was in the Imperial Palace.
Outside the window, the sky was still dim. Light filtered through the curtains barely enough to illuminate the back of my hand.
‘Not again?’
The habit I’d formed tending the poultry yard in Gonet was the culprit. Rising before dawn each day to check on the chickens had synchronized my body to that hour.
Forgetting I was now in the Imperial Palace, my eyes had simply opened of their own accord.
‘And there aren’t even any chickens here.’
I closed my eyes, trying to return to sleep. But once sleep has fled, it rarely comes back so easily.
After tossing in bed several times, I finally gave in and sat up.
The bed was draped in muslin curtains like spun mist, hanging light and translucent—it seemed to shimmer like a dream.
“Hmm.”
The Imperial Palace, which had been a shambles during the Coronation Ceremony, was now properly set in order.
The Central Palace assigned to me was surely among the safest places in this Gaiard Imperial Palace.
“Ratku, shall we take a walk?”
“Ratku!”
Ratku, who had been sleeping soundly at my bedside, sprang up and flew over my head in a swooping arc.
I threw on an outer robe and stepped outside.
But Gabin was waiting beyond the threshold. He looked startled to see me.
“Your Grace? Where are you going so early?”
I was equally surprised.
“What are you doing here?”
“The Prince once gave an order that I must attend you whenever you leave the Separate Palace.”
His unexpected words made my chest tighten strangely.
‘Sherkan?’
So I would see him within days, then.
When would he arrive?
Would he have grown taller?
I hid the flutter in my chest and spoke to Gabin.
“I thought I’d take a walk. Back home I made a habit of visiting the poultry yard early each morning.”
“I shall accompany you.”
Gabin and I left the Separate Palace together.
The Imperial Palace at this early hour was transformed from yesterday.
The bustle of carriages that had clogged the grounds all day had vanished, leaving only thin mist hanging low in the corridors.
Frost that had fallen through the night lay thin across the fallen leaves, crumbling finely with each step.
Crunch, crunch. That was all I could hear.
‘How peaceful,’ I thought.
I strolled along with my hands clasped behind my back.
I looked exactly like an old woman who never slept past dawn.
The Imperial Palace sprawled vast and boundless.
And the farther I walked, the more an inexplicable sense of liberation filled my chest.
When I was a concubine, every time I passed through these corridors my body would shrink inward.
Eyes fixed on the ground, shoulders drawn in, footsteps muffled to silence.
That was the propriety, the discretion, the very survival a low-ranking concubine had to observe.
But now I walked with my head held high and hands clasped behind my back.
A feeling of generational change, as they say.
The same stone floor, yet it feels entirely different beneath my feet. Is this what they mean by saying even a walk can be delightful?
I was walking on contentedly when I suddenly stopped.
“……?”
A sharp, acrid smell of iron had drifted on the wind.
‘That’s blood,’ I realized.
And at this concentration, there had to be a considerable amount of it.
“Ratku.”
I spoke barely above a whisper.
Ratku had the peculiar gift of understanding me no matter how quietly I spoke.
“Ratku!”
“Can you see what’s ahead?”
“Ratku!”
Ratku darted off swiftly and returned just as quickly.
“Relei! It’s nothing much!”
“Nothing much?”
Then why was such an overpowering smell of blood hanging thick throughout the gardens……?
“One woman’s beating up a thousand women!”
One woman beating a thousand women?
What does that even mean?
I looked at Gabin.
“Shall we head back, Gabin?”
He was a knight, so he was more accustomed than I to the smell of blood and killing intent.
“Your Grace. If there should be any remnants of rebellion, we must summon the Gonet Knights at once. If it becomes known that we avoided this, it could cause serious problems for the order’s standing later. So…….”
Without warning, Gabin scooped me up and hoisted me onto his back.
“……?”
“My apologies.”
He had apparently judged in an instant that leaving me alone would be too risky, yet there wasn’t time to escort me back to the palace and return.
Without a sound, he moved toward the source of the blood-scent.
I flattened myself as much as possible against his back so as not to hinder him, keeping only my eyes forward.
As we rounded one corridor, a wide courtyard opened before us.
We froze in place simultaneously, pressed as close as we could to the pillar.
At least ten women were kneeling on the frost-covered ground in a neat row.
‘This has to be one of Ratku’s exaggerations.’
In any case, the state of these women was nothing short of a disaster.
Their carefully made-up faces had turned a sickly blue-white, their shoulders heaving in distress. With tears streaking through their makeup, they looked like clowns painted in mockery.
The dresses they wore hung like tattered rags in various colors, and their hair was so disheveled that it was impossible to imagine their original appearance.
At first glance, they resembled concubines who had received the imperial order for sacrificial burial.
Before the kneeling women sat an elderly woman radiating an entirely different aura, lounging in her chair with an indolent smile.
Eyes drawn up at an impossible angle.
A sinister smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
The woman adorned in gold from head to toe emanated such overwhelming presence that she seemed like a walking fortress.
“Your Majesty the Empress Dowager! Save us, we beg you!”
As expected.

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