I’m Going to Change My Husband With a Predatory Marriage - Chapter 88

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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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Chapter 88

Countess Epial, the Lady-in-Waiting, composed herself without wavering and answered immediately.
“She is in excellent health. I shall return and inform Her Highness the Crown Princess that you are concerned for the Empress’s wellbeing.”
The Empress certainly knew how to choose her attendants.
I smiled faintly and nodded.
“Very well. Do so.”
The maid rose to her feet and immediately moved toward the exit.
“Then I shall take my leave and convey Your Highness’s sentiments to the Empress.”
Where did she think she was going?
I waved my hand, blocking her path.
“Not so fast. Our business is not yet concluded. You may return to inform the Empress of my regards only after we have finished here.”
“….”
The maid lowered her head in silence, asking nothing. She had already anticipated what was coming.
Of course she had.
I proceeded directly to the matter at hand. The Empress’s pride and our power struggle could wait for another time.
“You manage the platinum key, do you not?”
The platinum key—a symbol of imperial domestic authority.
It was the emblem that granted access to the imperial treasury and all the palace storehouses.
Carved upon the key was a silver dragon cradling the moon, the symbol of the Empress herself.
Yet it was unseemly for a noblewoman to carry such keys directly.
Thus, by custom, the Empress’s most trusted attendant always kept the key upon their person, never parting with it.
Currently, the platinum key was managed by Countess Epial, the Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace.
She could not claim she did not possess it and therefore could not produce it.
Keeping the key inseparable from oneself was the very duty of a maid steward.
The maid hesitated briefly before nodding, unable to refuse.
“Yes, that is correct.”
I smiled gently and spoke to Anny.
“Then, Anny, take the platinum key from the maid.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
As we had arranged beforehand, Anny walked forward boldly toward the maid steward.
She extended both hands and spoke.
“You are aware that there is an imperial decree, are you not? Present the platinum key to Her Highness the Crown Princess.”
Unable to meet my gaze, the maid glared at Anny and furrowed her brow.
“Surely Your Highness does not intend to entrust the management of the platinum key to this maid?”
“Why should that concern you?”
The Haughty Maid Steward stepped forward and protested to me.
“Your Highness. The platinum key is the symbol of imperial domestic authority. Do you not understand how precious and weighty this authority is?”
Without speaking, I crossed my legs in the opposite direction.
The Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace continued her protests without pause.
“Yet you would entrust the management of that platinum key to someone so young and of insufficient rank? I absolutely cannot hand over the platinum key to such a person!”
I asked calmly.
“Is that the Empress’s wish?”
When I questioned whether the Empress now intended to defy the Emperor’s will, she quickly backtracked.
“How could that be? This is merely my judgment as the current manager of the platinum key.”
“A mere administrator acting on her own judgment to defy an imperial decree?”
At that, the Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace laughed softly.
“How could I do such a thing? It is an imperial decree, after all. I merely wish to hand over the platinum key to a manager befitting her qualifications.”
She spoke with deliberate gentleness.
“If Your Highness has been unable to find a manager with appropriate qualifications, I am more than willing to take on the role myself. After all, you will soon need to return the key to the Empress, will you not?”
I had anticipated her using my lady-in-waiting’s lack of rank and youth compared to convention as a pretext.
She had almost certainly discussed this beforehand with the Empress.
‘My weakness is that the palace attendants and imperial inner circle have not yet been properly filled.’
She had struck precisely at that vulnerability.
‘Yet I cannot accept the key directly myself.’
That was likely one of the outcomes she hoped for.
If I took the platinum key directly now, my authority would plummet.
To the level of merely the Empress’s lady-in-waiting.
‘The Empress is truly formidable.’
In that brief moment, she had calculated this and moved to prevent my seamless assumption of power.
Even if I put forward Isephin, the highest-ranking among my ladies-in-waiting, a similar objection would come.
‘She would claim that Isephin is unmarried, or too young to be entrusted with such duties.’
It was customary for the lady-in-waiting to a member of the imperial family to be a noblewoman of considerable age and experience.
In that sense, I truly did not yet have an appropriate lady-in-waiting.
Until now.
I exhaled a long breath.
“You’re not wrong, certainly.”
The Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace brightened.
“Thank you for understanding. Then, if I continue managing the platinum key as before….”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
I clapped my hands to summon the person waiting in the adjoining room.
“Bring my lady-in-waiting.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Anny and Isephin bowed and withdrew.
The Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace wore a puzzled expression.
She had orchestrated this knowing I did not yet have a lady-in-waiting.
Her surprise was understandable when I suddenly mentioned one.
As the door to the adjoining room opened and someone entered, her surprise transformed into shock.
For a moment, I found myself concerned about Countess Epial’s jaw health.
“Ah, ah, the Dowager Duchess of Axion?! Surely not…!”
Indeed.
The woman who had been waiting in the side room and entered surrounded by Anny and Isephin was none other than Martine, the Duchess of Axion.
She approached me and knelt respectfully.
“I, Martine, have come at the summons of Your Highness the Crown Princess.”
“Thank you so much for taking on the role of maid steward. I never expected you would actually accept it, even if only temporarily.”
Of course.
The Duchess of Axion was of imperial blood, and moreover, the mother of the Former Empress.
No matter that I was the Crown Princess, it made no sense for her to assume the role of maid steward.
It wasn’t that it violated protocol, but rather that there was no precedent for it.
‘Well, to be precise, there actually is a precedent. Among past empresses, there is one.’
The Third Empress had once appointed her younger sister, who had married into the imperial family, as maid steward.
During her pregnancy, she had found it difficult to manage the affairs of the Imperial Palace and entrusted them to someone she could rely on.
If we follow that precedent, it’s not unreasonable.
I invoked it.
“Three empresses ago, Empress Urania entrusted the platinum key to Duchess Luden when she served as a lady-in-waiting. I intend to follow that same precedent.”
With this, she couldn’t evade the matter by claiming my maid lacked qualifications.
Countess Epial protested in a trembling voice.
“B-but… that was a precedent set when the Empress herself chose her maid steward. It is not appropriate for Your Highness the Crown Princess to follow it!”
She was saying I shouldn’t presume to equal an Empress.
‘But I fully intend to.’
Naturally, I had no intention of returning the key to the Empress either.
The Duchess lifted her head high and looked down upon Countess Epial.
“Precisely. The ‘owner of the platinum key’ designated a steward. What is different now?”
Whether Empress or Crown Princess, the ownership of the platinum key remained the same.
The Duchess and I were asserting exactly that.
And if I didn’t bring out a heavyweight like the Duchess to suppress her, it was obvious she would delay handing over the platinum key with every excuse imaginable.
‘I cannot waste time on such matters.’
So I had summoned one of my strongest cards.
The Duchess of Axion acted exactly as I had hoped.
She pressed the Empress’s maid steward forcefully.
“Well then, here stands Your Highness the Crown Princess’s maid steward, lacking neither in age nor in station. Hand it over at once.”
“Y-Your Highness! How can one of imperial blood so willingly diminish their own authority!”
Countess Epial was practically in her final throes of resistance.
Resentment was evident in her voice.
‘Yes. Since the Duchess of Axion has never acknowledged the Empress, it must feel unjust and infuriating to see her bow before me.’
For her close associate, watching the Duchess who had always scorned the Empress prostrate herself before me would surely be galling.
“Her Majesty the Empress is the rightful mistress of the empire! How can you subject her to such an insult….”
I tilted my head and asked.
“How does the Duchess of Axion becoming my maid steward constitute an insult to Her Majesty the Empress?”
“Indeed, I’m curious as well.”
The Dowager Duchess of Axion was clearly mocking the Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace.
“That said, there’s no reason I should become Her Majesty the Empress’s lady-in-waiting.”
“Mind your tongue, Your Highness!”
The Dowager Duchess’s expression hardened like stone, and she swung her hand.
Crack!
Countess Epial’s head snapped to the side.
A vivid handprint bloomed across her face.
The Dowager Duchess, her cold eyes fixed upon Countess Epial, whose face had flushed crimson with humiliation and rage, issued her command.
“Kneel.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
As if they had been waiting for this moment, the burly maids rushed forward and forced the Head Maid of the Empress’ Palace to kneel before me.
Only then did I realize that all of this had unfolded according to my design, and the lady-in-waiting cried out in a shrill voice.
“I am the representative of Her Majesty the Empress! This treatment is unjust!”
The Dowager Duchess’s voice, colder than ice itself, cut through the air with razor-sharp precision.
“Regardless of Her Highness the Crown Princess, I am merely punishing you for your personal insolence toward me.”
“Your Highness!”
“If you feel wronged, go plead your case before His Majesty the Emperor.”
The Dowager Duchess herself unfastened the crimson sash hanging from Countess Epial’s waist.
A sash adorned with an elongated case bearing silver embroidery of a dragon cradling the moon.
When she opened the case, a brilliantly gleaming platinum key was revealed within.
She lifted it and presented it before me.
“Your Highness. The platinum key.”
With this, authority over the Imperial Palace’s internal affairs had passed into my hands.

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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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