Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 72

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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 72
“Lorelltiana!”
Ayu came running toward me at that moment. The nobles around us exchanged startled glances.
Running in an official setting was a breach of etiquette, so her sudden action caught everyone off guard.
Ayu seized my sleeve and spoke urgently.
“Sister! Why are you trying to leave without seeing me?”
“Let go.”
Sherkan coldly brushed away Ayu’s hand that had caught hold of me. Ayu, who had never experienced being cast off so harshly, glared at him with sudden indignation.
But it lasted only a moment. The moment she caught the predatory glint in Sherkan’s eyes, she shrank back in fear. Her voice came out small, like a frightened bird.
“Brother-in-law…… Why are you angry?”
‘Brother-in-law?’
I felt momentarily disoriented. The title hit me like a blow to the head.
Brother-in-law, brother-in-law?
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t wrong—I was Sherkan’s wife now, after all.
But in that instant, something deep inside me—call it my lineage, my sense of right and wrong—seemed to tangle hopelessly.
“Brother-in-law……”
Suddenly all my worries felt utterly pointless.
Sherkan’s gaze was so cold and unfeeling that Ayu’s eyes filled with tears in an instant.
“I’m frightened, brother-in-law……”
She hid behind me, whispering softly.
“…… Ayu.”
I felt a dull throb in my temples as I spoke.
“What did you come to find me for? Tell me quickly and go.”
I’m frightened too, you know?
You’re not the only one.
Ayu flinched at my firm tone, but then her eyes flashed with stubborn defiance and she straightened her shoulders.
“I came because I have a request for you, sister.”
“A request?”
“I want to dance with the Emperor too!”
“What……?”
Ayu hesitated, then added:
“So couldn’t you introduce me to the Emperor, sister?”
“……”
I found myself at a loss for where to even begin explaining what had gone wrong.
Introduce the Emperor to her?
Me?
Am I even the Empress?
No—even if I were the Empress, wouldn’t it be awkward to ask one’s husband to dance with an unmarried lady?
Of course, the Emperor was far older than us, and aside from the Imperial Consorts bound to him by political marriage, he showed no interest in women whatsoever.
“Sister? Yes? I want to dance with the Emperor too, so please introduce me! Even though you know I’m Mother’s daughter, the Emperor hasn’t asked me to dance!”
“Ayu……”
“Have I wandered into a daycare instead of the Imperial Palace?”
His characteristic mocking voice cut through the air.
I turned around reflexively and quickly lowered my head.
“Empress Dowager.”
“…… Empress Dowager?”
Ayu, who had murmured in confusion, suddenly startled and performed the proper courtesy.
“Rise, Grand Duchess of Gonet. And…… the maiden as well.”
The ivory heel of her shoe struck the marble floor with a sound as regular and flowing as water.
The Empress Dowager, dressed in a brilliant crimson gown, regarded us with languid, predatory eyes, like a leopard.
Her fan, crafted from mother-of-pearl, moved lightly in her hand as her gaze fixed on Ayu.
“This one heard on the way that you asked the Emperor to be introduced to you. Is that correct?”
Ayu, watching the Empress Dowager carefully, nodded hesitantly.
At that, the Empress Dowager smiled, lifting only the corners of her mouth.
“It seems in the Northern Kingdom they assigned the maiden a buffoon instead of an etiquette instructor?”
“…… Pardon?”
Ayu questioned, as if doubting her own ears.
The Empress Dowager’s distinctive, cold smile deepened as she continued.
“The Grand Duchess is a lady, so it matters little if she dances with the Emperor. But how does an unmarried maiden presume to ask the Emperor to dance with her? And furthermore, to ask for an introduction? Why, did things work so differently in the Northern Kingdom that the maiden could dance with any man she fancied?”
Ayu’s eyes widened in shock.
“Your Majesty the Empress Dowager! Are you insulting me right now?”
“Insulting? Did I say something untrue?”
The Empress Dowager smoothed her elaborately pinned hair as she spoke, and the noblewomen gathered around her laughed at once in response.
“It seems the Holy Maiden has never attended such a grand banquet before and doesn’t quite understand these things.”
“Or perhaps in the Northern Kingdom, they conduct themselves in such a casual manner…….”
“……!”
Ayu’s face went pale as wax.
The Empress Dowager watched with evident pleasure as Ayu’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish’s, then raised her voice.
“High Priest? Where are you?”
The High Priest, who had already been fidgeting at Ayu’s side, stepped forward hastily.
“Your Majesty the Empress Dowager.”
“The Ministry of State ought to take responsibility and assign the Holy Maiden a proper instructor in etiquette, don’t you think?”
“I…….”
“Why can’t you answer? Was there something unreasonable in what I said?”
“No, Your Majesty. I beg your pardon…….”
The Empress Dowager let out a small laugh and swept her gaze from the crown of Ayu’s head to her feet. Leisurely. Unhurried.
In that moment, I understood the truth.
‘The Empress Dowager is more frightening than Sherkan.’
That’s right—Sherkan doesn’t look at you like that.
He simply kills.
But the Empress Dowager’s gaze was on another level entirely.
Kill you outright?
Where’s the fun in that?
It’s far more entertaining to keep you alive and strip you bone by bone from head to toe, isn’t it?
This kind of skill—embedding such thoughts directly into one’s eyes—wasn’t something built up in a year or two.
The victor among the imperial concubines of the previous generation truly boasted a difficulty level beyond imagination.

“Grand Duchess?”
“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress Dowager.”
The Empress Dowager swept her gaze over me from head to foot as well.
My jaw was trembling with tension, but I refused to look diminished in this moment of presentation.
There’s no other way to survive.
“Hmm.”
The Empress Dowager made an inscrutable expression, then waved her fan slightly.
“I’m returning Briget to you. Since she serves well, I’ll entrust her to the Grand Duchess for the time being.”
My eyes lit up. Briget gave me a slight smile, then immediately came to stand behind me with a solemn expression.
The Empress Dowager seemed to have only that much interest in me, a mere trifle. She soon turned her attention back to Ayu and spoke in a saccharine tone.
“By the way, Holy Maiden. I have a question about the doctrines—would you come along for a moment?”
“I……?”
“Surely you don’t have a prior engagement more important than the Empress Dowager? With whom?”
“I’m afraid I’m not feeling well…….”
“Oh, how fortunate! I have a treasury of excellent medicines. I shall bestow them upon the Holy Maiden personally. Come along.”
Ayu cast a pleading look toward the High Priest, but his face was ashen as well.
That’s right.
There was no way Ayu could best the Empress Dowager at this moment.
‘Truth be told, even later on, she only won by sheer luck…….’
Ayu had no choice but to follow the Empress Dowager’s entourage with the look of someone being dragged to the slaughter.
Once the people who had drawn the most attention at the banquet disappeared, the quiet hall gradually came back to life. The Imperial Orchestra, eager to shift the mood entirely, immediately began playing a lively Waltz.
I turned my head and surveyed the hall. My gaze came to rest not far away.
‘It’s Deon Baetan, of course. He looks ready to dash over at any moment.’
Our eyes happened to meet with the Duchess of Baetan beside him. When I offered a faint smile, she gave a slight bow in return, a beat late.
Perhaps because Lorelltiana’s birth mother had been a victim of infidelity, I felt a kinship and compassion toward the Duchess of Baetan as well.
Of course, in the original work she had whipped Ayu’s maid number one without mercy, plunged Ayu’s maid number two into cold water in the dead of winter, left her outside all night to freeze to death, and even secretly fed Ayu a sleeping draught…….
‘Stop thinking about it.’
In this terrifying, melodramatic mess of a novel, staying close to Sherkan was the smartest move.
I glanced at Sherkan.
“Sherkan, aren’t you tired?”
“Tired?”
“You, I mean. You came straight from the Subjugation Site, didn’t you? Should we go rest?”
Sherkan looked down at me. My reflection shimmered in his eyes, ripe as the flesh of a pomegranate.
“Yes, let’s rest. I have things I want to say.”
“Things you want to say?”
“Mm.”
“Important things?”
“To me, yes.”
……?
I blinked, but Sherkan didn’t look at me again.
He simply seized my hand with that firm grip and strode out of the banquet hall in long strides.
* * *
The moment we stepped outside, I felt the cool evening air. The sun was already dipping low, yet there were still quite a few people lingering about in conversation.
But as we made our way along the covered walkway, the crowds thinned steadily.
The Imperial Palace of Gaiard, once Pasha, had tall walls encircling the space between the Inner Palace and Outer Palace.
With thousands of Separate Palaces dotting the outside, most foreign guests had been assigned lodgings there.
But the Central Palace that the Emperor had given me this time was positioned precisely between the innermost edge of the Inner Palace and the outermost edge of the Outer Palace—the very palace where the Emperors of Pasha had once resided.
It was, one might say, the choicest of choice locations: close enough to the grand banquet hall, yet completely shielded from prying eyes and noise.
Soldiers stood guard at each gate, preventing anyone from entering or leaving freely.
Not even invited nobles could pass without leave.
When Sherkan and I entered the Central Palace, nothing could be heard but the sound of insects chirring in the evening.
Candlelight, carefully dimmed, cast a warm glow across the crimson carpet spread throughout.
“Grand Duchess … Oh! Your Highness!”
The maids who had come out to greet me started in surprise, quickly bending into bows.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Your Highness the Grand Duke!”
Sherkan paid the maids no attention whatsoever, leading me directly into the bedroom.
As the door closed behind us, I caught a brief murmur of Briget issuing instructions to the servants outside.
Thud.
Sherkan suddenly pressed me against the wall, and I gasped in alarm.
His impatient touch betrayed an urgency—an eagerness not to waste a moment making it to the distant bed.
Behind me, I felt the cool surface of marble.
Trapped and unable to move, my breath caught.
Before my eyes, those crimson irises, sharp as a sword-blade, looked down at me.
Had his madness returned?
My heart hammered against my ribs.
What could he possibly want to say that would drive him to do this?
“… Why are you doing this?”
“Lorelltiana.”
Sherkan’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Why did you ask the Spirit for a Gold Vein?”

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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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