Abandoned Empress's Survival Manual Beside the Male Lead - Chapter 81

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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 81
I pressed my hand against the wall of the mine shaft.
The rock met my palm with the bite of ice. The damp coal seam seeped between my lifelines, thick and clammy.
Whoosh.
Beonsik-ryeong spiraled from my fingertips as my hand grew colder and colder.
I’d learned recently that the more I used Beonsik-ryeong, the more it drained the warmth from my body.
Starting from my fingertips, spreading into my arms, my shoulders, my spine—frost creeping inward, slow and deliberate.
‘It’ll be nice in summer. Winter’s going to be rough, though.’
As Beonsik-ryeong stretched outward, silver-white veins began to rise across the black coal seam.
“Oh?”
My eyes widened.
I’d used Beonsik-ryeong on chickens and cattle, on medicinal herbs, but I’d never seen a visual change like this before.
It was breathtaking—like frost flowers blooming up through soil, rare and impossibly beautiful.
The lantern at my feet caught the veins and sent the light scattering. It was as though an entire dark wall had been filled with luminescence.
Tick. Tick.
Each time a vein formed, a tiny sound accompanied it—the sound frost makes crawling across a winter window pane at dawn.
The texture beneath my palm had changed too. The damp, rough coal seam smoothed as it hardened.
Where it had fully set, the cold was almost piercing.
That chill traveled back up my fingertips to me.
‘Winter really is going to be difficult.’
Still, the coal mine laid out like a white winter landscape was utterly captivating.
“Relei?”
“Mm?”
I snapped back to myself, dragging my gaze away from that beautiful vista.
“It’s so lovely, don’t you think, Ratku?”
Ratku tilted his head and replied.
“Relei’s prettier.”
I giggled and got to my feet.
“We should gather some.”
All the coal had transformed into silver-white, making it feel like I was mining chunks of actual silver.
I selected a few silver-white pieces and wrapped them in cloth.
As I left the mine shaft, pale sunlight had begun to sink where the clouds had parted. Dusk was erasing the stockade’s shadow entirely.
Erichi came hurrying toward me. He peered at the bundle in my hands and froze solid.
“Is—is that silver?! Is it silver?! Your Grace!”
“It’s not silver.”
“But it looks like silver! Was it a silver vein?! Did the Spirit Contract Holder truly find a silver vein——!”
“It’s coal.”
“……Coal?”
Erichi’s shoulders visibly sagged. I could almost hear the sound of his silver vein dream shattering.
“But why is the coal this color?”
Because I’d poured Beonsik-ryeong into it.
I smiled mysteriously.
“It’s a secret, but I had a dream.”
“……!”
This is why I love being a Spirit Contract Holder.
People let their imaginations run wild no matter what I say.
Erichi was so eager he was practically a jewel thief, fishing the silver-white coal out of my bundle until he stepped on my foot.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
“Just one! Please, just one! I’d like to have it!”
“It’s mine!”
We haggled until we finally settled on my giving him a handful.
“It’s so beautiful…….”
Erichi cradled the silver-white coal in his arms like treasure, eyes gleaming.
“There, Erichi. Now that you have it, we should get to work. This evening right away——.”
I trailed off mid-sentence and closed my mouth.
‘I don’t have the stamina for it.’
I’d overused Beonsik-ryeong today.
Before evening came, I’d likely need to crawl under a blanket—or I’d collapse wherever I stood.
“Come to the Reception Room in a few days.”
Erichi grinned without a shred of suspicion.
“Yes!”
* * *
The trouble erupted the moment we returned to the castle.
“Your Grace!”
The instant I stepped down from the carriage, Atil came scampering from the Main Gate and threw his arms around me.
‘Heavens. What have I done to that child.’
My heart ached every time I saw him.
The mutism seemed to have shocked him so badly that he was eating far less than before, which worried me whenever we met. The boy had a sweet tooth, as children do, but sugar was impossibly expensive.
The real problem was that Atil understood just how expensive it was—better than anyone else.
Even when I gave him sweets with sugar, he ate only the tiniest amount, hoarding it like a squirrel with winter acorns.
I wished we could produce sugar here in Gonet.
I’d thought about cultivating sugarcane, but it only grew in warm climates.
It was a crop that could never survive in Gonet.
I’d even considered pouring the Beonsik-ryeong into the attempt, but Ratku had warned me.
“Mmm. If you use the Beonsik-ryeong a lot—a whole lot—you could make it grow, but…….”
“Would my life span just plummet again?”
“Relei is so smart! So very smart!”
Once I thought of it as planting a tropical fruit at the North Pole, the answer became clear.
‘I’ll have to look for another solution.’
“Your Grace?”
Just then, Atil tugged at my hand, seeking affection.
“Atil, did you eat well today? Did your studies go well too?”
“Yes!”
The servants behind me shook their heads slightly.
He still hadn’t eaten much today.
Ever since that day, Atil had been acting as though his heart were locked behind a gate. He could manage only a bite or two before he couldn’t eat anymore, and if I tried to coax him into eating more, he’d vomit.
This must be what they meant by an illness of the heart.
Every time I saw Atil’s face, I wanted to confront Sherkan.
Though I didn’t even know what I wanted to ask him—I just wanted to be angry.
The rage I had nowhere to pour out was too heavy to bear.
And besides, I knew all too well that my life was mortgaged to Sherkan of Gonet.
A long sigh escaped me, but I hid it behind a smile.
“Come inside with me.”
I bent down to lift Atil into my arms as I always did. My hair spilled over my shoulders and cascaded across the top of his head.
He broke into a bright smile and was just nestling against me when—
“……?”
My knees buckled, and my vision tilted.
Atil’s startled face swam up into my view.
“……Your Grace?”
I felt it coming.
The sensation just before losing consciousness.
‘Should I have used less of the Beonsik-ryeong?’
“Atil, I’m exhausted because of all the trouble with Erichi today. That’s why…….”
The words wouldn’t come.
My consciousness simply went dark.
* * *
“Ratku! Relei has woken up!”
At the familiar voice, I opened my eyes and saw a ceiling I knew well.
“Your Grace! You’ve come to!”
Briget, who had been keeping vigil at my side, cried out with tears threatening to spill.
“Briget…….”
“I was prepared to follow the Grand Duchess to the grave if necessary!”
Even as she spoke such earnest nonsense, a weak laugh escaped me.
“Thank you. But I’m fine. How long was I asleep?”
“A full day and night, Your Grace.”
Which meant Briget had stayed awake through that entire day and night as well.
I sent Briget out to rest, and other servants came to keep watch at my bedside instead.
Looking out the window, I saw it was already dark outside. It truly had been a full twenty-four hours.
“The physician said it was exhaustion accumulated over time that caused you to collapse.”
“You’ve been pushing yourself far too hard lately, Your Grace.”
Ratku settled atop my head, swishing his tail with lazy contentment.
“Used too much Beonsik-ryeong to recover, that’s all.”
Ratku was right. I’d simply exhausted myself casting the technique too many times, so I smiled faintly.
I sipped the warm tea the servants had brought and asked, “Where is Atil?”
The servants exchanged troubled glances at my question.
“He was sitting outside your door continually until an hour ago.”
“Hmm?”
I frowned. So Atil had stayed awake the entire day just as Briget had?
“He’s still so young—how could you let him do that?”
The head servant replied, “We were worried too, my lady.”
“But no matter how much we urged him to go to his room, he refused. He insisted on lying down in the adjacent room instead…….”
I threw back the covers immediately.
“I should go see him. He’s in the adjacent room?”
“Yes, Grand Duchess.”
“Let me carry him in, my lady. You should rest. If you collapse again…….”
“No.”
I’d only fainted from overusing Beonsik-ryeong. I felt perfectly fine now—there was no chance of collapsing again.
Besides, was Atil any ordinary child?
Only five years old, afflicted with mutism, and already in such a fragile state.
Knock, knock.
I went straight to the adjacent room and rapped on the door.
“Atil? Are you asleep?”
There was no answer.
I eased the adjacent room door open—
“……?”
The servants gasped.
The bed was completely empty.
“Atil?”
“Atil, are you hiding?”
“Atil! The Grand Duchess is here to see you! Come out!”
I opened every wardrobe in that small adjacent room, but Atil was nowhere to be found.
I pressed my hand against the bed. It was cold to the touch, with no sign that anyone had lain there at all.

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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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