Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 78

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

Episode 78
* * *
By the time I returned from teasing Erichi, the gloom that had settled over the morning had nearly evaporated.
Briget assured me that Atil had eaten his medicine and porridge and fallen asleep, and the physician said that if he remained at ease, he would soon be able to speak again.
Thanks to that reassurance, I was able to have dinner with a lighter heart and finish my bath as well.
“Relei!”
“Ratku?”
The moment I stepped back into the bedroom, Ratku burst out from the Spirit Realm and hurtled toward me.
“Relei! Missed you so much!”
“I missed you too.”
It was clear that Ratku had been deeply impressed by the sight of people dancing at the Imperial Banquet.
He had grabbed both my hands and started spinning in circles.
“Ratku~ Ratku~ Ratku~”
“Ratku, aren’t you getting dizzy?”
“It’s so much fun!”
We laughed together before collapsing onto the bed.
‘When I earn a lot of money later, I should create a private orchestra just for Ratku.’
So that no matter where he goes, beautiful music would always be playing, like in a nice café or restaurant.
Then Ratku could sing and dance in the air all day long, couldn’t he?
The thought alone was unbearably adorable.
Ratku hugged his ears and rolled across the blanket frantically, then suddenly lifted his head with a snap.
Flutter.
“Ratku?”
He immediately floated up into the air and flew straight toward the wardrobe.
“……?”
I lay facedown on the bed, watching his retreating form with puzzlement.
Creak.
Ratku opened the wardrobe door that had been closed.
“Relei! Relei! What is this? What is this?”
“Huh? What?”
“This! Did you get this thing hidden in the dress for me?”
“Hidden in the……dress?”
I tried pronouncing it twice but couldn’t understand what he meant.
“Ratku?”
Ratku didn’t answer.
I got out of bed and walked over to him.
As befitted the bedroom of a Grand Duke and his consort, there was a separate dressing room despite the large space.
Of course, the dressing room had no furniture at all.
Just one built-in closet, and the hanging clothes were sparse at best…….
‘Yes, I’m a pauper, remember?’
What Ratku was sniffing at was one of the one-piece dresses hanging in that wardrobe.
“What do you mean there’s something?”
“Hidden in the dress!”
“Hidden in the……”
Ratku was frantically scratching at the hem of the one-piece dress with his front paws.
The sight was so ridiculous it reminded me of a stray dog digging in dirt.
“You’re saying there’s something hidden in the hem?”
“Yes! Get it out!”
Because Ratku was making such a fuss, I had no choice but to feel along the seam at the lower edge of the skirt.
And I really did feel something hard against my fingertips.
“Huh?”
I turned the hem over with questioning eyes and immediately noticed something suspicious.
The stitching on the hem was subtly different.
It wasn’t the neat, fine work of the maids’ hands, but rough, loose, and uneven stitches.
“Could this be……?”
In that instant, a surge of excitement rippled through my entire body.
“What? What is it?”
Someone had torn apart a perfectly good one-piece dress, hidden something inside, and sewn it back up?
“This must be what’s hidden in here—a lump of infertility-inducing incense or something like that!”
That’s it!
There’s not a single woman in this palace who can be trifled with!
And besides, this method was hardly uncommon among the Imperial Consorts of Parsa!
“Did Relei hurt their head?”
Ratku stared at me with wide, round eyes.
“I told you I’m a spirit creature! Why would poison work on me!”
In fact, Ratku seized the one-piece dress in their mouth, then began tearing at the seams with their small, round front paws in frenzied succession.
A single pebble, no larger than a bean, tumbled onto the carpet.
Click. Roll-roll-roll.
A stone with a transparent body, a red glow burning like a wick inside it. Even without candlelight nearby, that crimson light flickered with its own faint luminescence.
I pinched the softly glowing stone between two fingers and examined it closely.
“A Spirit Stone?”
“Ratku!”
“That’s strange. If things had gone as expected, the Council of Elders or somewhere like it would have been the ones to slip an infertility drug into my clothes in secret…….”
“What did you grow up seeing, Relei?”
“I grew up in a household of ash.”
“Ash?”
I shook my head with a slight laugh.
I examined the stone once more, carefully, but no matter how I looked at it, the Spirit Stone seemed safe.
Odorless, colorless poisons do not exist in this world.
Poison always leaves a trace. Whether it’s dust, scent, or an unnatural sheen.
On impulse, I rubbed the Spirit Stone vigorously with my skirt, but nothing came off on the fabric.
“So it really is just a safe Spirit Stone?”
But then…….
“What kind of Spirit Stone is this?”
“Gwo!”
Ratku bit down on the Spirit Stone with a soft sound, then rolled it around in their mouth before spitting it out.
“A Tracking Spirit Stone!”
“A Tracking Spirit Stone?”
“Ratku!”
“That can’t be right.”
I reflexively denied it, and Ratku tilted their head in confusion.
“Ratku?”
“Isn’t that genuinely dangerous?”
When I was handed over to the Parsa Empire in Ayu’s place, the ministers of the Northern Kingdom held meetings every single day.
They were terrified that I might flee at any moment.
It was a ridiculous concern, but I was always required to attend those meetings.
They wanted to deliver endless warnings to me.
That I could not escape by any means, and that I should harbor no other thoughts.
“Let us embed a Tracking Spirit Stone in the body of the First Princess.”
“Ah. But Tracking Spirit Stones come in pairs. Suppose we embed a female stone in the First Princess’s body. Do you not know that a Spirit Stone embedded in a human body requires daily feedings of blood—without which the host experiences excruciating agony before descending into madness?”
“Is that not even better? To avoid suffering, the First Princess will voluntarily feed it blood every day. We can track her location eternally—what could be more convenient?”
“……Why must we track the First Princess’s location eternally? Once she is placed among the Imperial Consorts of Parsa, is the matter not settled?”
“Settled? How narrow your vision is!”
The minister rebuked him at once.
“If the First Princess were to flee, would the Parsa Emperor remain idle? He would surely demand Princess Ayu in her place. What then becomes of the poor Princess Ayu?”
“Indeed. We must track the First Princess’s location for the rest of her life. Should she pass on, we must at least know where she is buried. That is the only way to prepare ourselves.”
The ministers argued without pause, their voices relentless.
Watching others deliberate so vigorously about how to safely ‘dispose’ of me was more horrifying than I had anticipated.
“Foolish! Do you not understand this is a double-edged blade? What if the First Princess harbors treacherous thoughts and refuses to feed the Spirit Stone blood?”
“Once she is among the Imperial Consorts, you see.”
“If the First Princess, now a concubine, spirals into madness and dies, will the Imperial Court of Parsa sit idle?”
“……They would open an investigation?”
“Precisely. You all know the Parsa Emperor’s temperament. Should it come to light that we have embedded a Tracking Spirit Stone in the First Princess’s body, how do you think the Parsa Emperor would receive such news?”
“……He would regard it as a grievous insult.”
At that moment, all the ministers fell silent and turned their eyes toward me.
Whenever I was summoned to that room, I had always remained motionless like a doll, my gaze fixed on the table.
Since I could not discern what reaction they desired from me, I chose instead to show no reaction at all.
Had I done otherwise, I think I would have gone mad.
“Yes. It would appear as though the First Princess prefers death to becoming a concubine to an aging emperor, that she would rather descend into madness and perish.”
“The Parsa Emperor will certainly be enraged. He is already displeased that we have not delivered Princess Ayu, and his displeasure with us is not insignificant…….”
“No matter that Parsa wages war with the Allied Forces, the Empire remains the Empire. The Northern Kingdom could never bear Parsa’s wrath.”
“What a pity. I thought it would be the perfect way to prevent escape…….”
That was how the matter had petered out, left unresolved.
It had been slowly fading from memory when I encountered it again, so unexpectedly.
I gazed quietly at the Spirit Stone, its pulse unceasing, and asked aloud.
“This thing’s already bonded with the other side’s blood, hasn’t it?”
“Ratku!”
“Do you know whose blood?”
“Ratku!”
“You do?”
I asked without much hope, but Ratku nodded at once.
“Is it Sherkan’s?”
“That barbarian! Yes!”
My question and Ratku’s vigorous answer came out almost simultaneously.
“Barbarian mixed-blood?”
Ratku’s eyes widened.
“How did you know that?”
…….

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