The Abandoned Empress

“Let me come in, my lady.”

I raised my head at someone’s voice. The butler who appeared with a handful of something in both hands was standing at the door of my office. When I nodded, he approached the desk, putting down what he had in his hands one by one.

“These are the documents you mentioned this morning. Are you going to review all these?”

“Yes. As you know, I was so busy these days that I didn’t pay much attention to my family matters. Let me take a look.”

“I am worried that you might suffer great fatigue from hard work. So, please take it easy, my lady.”

“Thanks.”

I was about to turn my head with a smile when a large box placed on one side of the desk caught my eye. Did the butler bring it, too?

“By the way, what’s this box?”

“It was sent by Sir Carsein to you. Would you like to open it? ”

“No, let me open it a little later. I think I had better check the documents first. ”

I was curious what was inside the box, but I first took my gaze out of the box and checked the stacked documents.

While I was away in the summer palace, and for the past three days since I had tea time with Frincia, I was backed up on paperwork. As I had to learn the basics of becoming the successor of my family, unlike an ordinary noble woman in charge of housework or a young lady, I was really busy.

Suddenly, I let out a sigh.

‘I was preoccupied with work before my return.’

Come to think of it, I had less work back then. At the time, I took care of housework while handling the women affairs of the palace. But now I had to do three jobs, namely attending to household duties while mastering how to be the successor of my family and the next captain of the 2nd knights division.

Besides, I had a more important task than anything else. It was for me to become a full-fledged knight by improving my fencing skills.

No matter how well I managed the household duties of my family, I could not be a formal successor of the Monique family unless I became a full-fledged knight. No matter how much my father loved me, he couldn’t make any exception for me because the head of the Monique family was supposed to be the captain of the knights division in every generation. I had to become a full-fledged knight in order to carry on my family tradition.

“By the way, where is my father?”

“He hasn’t yet come back.”

“Oh, I see. Thanks. Then go back to work.”

After sending the butler back, I reviewed the documents for a long time. My eyes dried out then began to sting, so I slowly closed and opened my eyes. Suddenly, I became tired.

In fact, I had training in the rain in the morning, I reviewed the documents of the 1st Knights all afternoon, and even after coming back home, I sat in my office and worked until late at night.

‘I can’t overwork myself like this. Let me stop here today.’

I stood up and picked up the silver box. When I untied a red ribbon, I saw something wrapped in thin paper and a red envelope with the seal of the Duke Lars family.

‘What the hell is this?’

When I removed the thin paper, a white dress caught my eye.

‘Oh my! Dress? Hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means.’

I was very much surprised, so I hurriedly opened the sealed letter. As I opened it, I noticed Carsein’s unique cursive handwriting.

I folded the red stationery, blushing with embarrassment. Of course, Carsein might not be embarrassed at all, but I was surprised and very embarrassed.

‘Dang it! You really make me embarrassed with this stuff.’

I took out the nicely folded dress, pouting. The muslin dress on a white background had several layers of red ruffles to reduce monotony, and the enclosed white underskirt was decorated with red roses everywhere.

It’s definitely beautiful, but it’s very different from what I would normally wear. I sighed for a moment while looking at the white dress.

‘What should I do? Should I return it? ‘

However, I felt it was strange to return it to him because he didn’t send it for a romantic reason.

‘I don’t know. Let me wear it.”

I shrugged. Others wouldn’t know unless I told them I received it as a gift. I didn’t have to care about it so much because Carsein didn’t send it in that sense anyway. Like he said, I didn’t prepare a dress as I was too busy.

I folded the white dress nicely into a box and turned off the light. I had to stop here and hit the sack to handle the backlog of work tomorrow.

The rain, which had been pouring down for a whole week, seemed to stop finally.

Standing in front of the window that I threw open, I looked out at the drizzling rain and put my hands out the window.

The feeling of cold water dropping on the palms of my hands and the unique scent of soil on a rainy day.

‘What a relief!’

I was really worried that if it rained too much, though it was a welcome rain after the drought, there would be flooding.

I suddenly remembered what I heard at the Imperial Palace yesterday. It was about Jiun.

The noble faction argued that it was clear that Jiun was the true child of God’s prophecy because the rain came down to ease such a severe drought after she was accepted as Duke Jena’s daughter. On the other hand, the pro-emperor faction argued that because Jiun appeared in the middle of the extreme heat and drought, she was very ominous.

I sighed to hear that. Since I was born as a member of a great noble family, I could not help but get involved in politics, but I was frustrated that I was forced to be taken hostage to the interests of the pro-emperor faction regardless of my will.

I made a debut in social circles at the crown prince’s coming-of-age ceremony, so I was supposed to be his partner at parties and banquets. Because of that, I would be under severe pressure today when the crown prince would appear with Jiun, not me, at an official ball for the first time. The noble faction would make utmost efforts to look down on me as much as possible, while the pro-emperor faction would want me to deal with her and at the same time hold on to the crown prince’s love.

I had a headache just thinking about it. If I could, I didn’t want to attend the ball. In that case, it was obvious that there would spread bad rumors about me, something like ‘she was jealous’ or ‘she was narrow-minded.’

So, I had to attend it even though I hated it. I couldn’t allow them to find fault with me because of my impulsive mood.

Only

‘By the way, when is Carsein coming? As he has promised to escort me, it’s about time he arrived.’

“My lady, Sir Carsein is here.”

I smiled lightly when Lisa came to me timely. As they say, the wolf appears when you think about it. Carsein arrived at the perfect timing.

I broke into laughter unconsciously. Is Carsein a wolf? A red-haired wolf? That would be amazing. He might look like a flame if he ran around.

“Okay, let me go down now.”

“Wait a minute, lady. Your hair ornament is a bit crooked. Let me fix it. ”

“Really?”

After letting her fix it, I looked at a strange girl in the full-length mirror. The silver-haired girl in the mirror wore a white muslin dress, featuring red frills and roses, with ruby ornaments on a silver string.