The Abandoned Empress Chapter 209

Chapter 209: Chapter 209

A few days later when I was having breakfast after morning training, my father, who was silently eating with a fork, said, “Tia, I’m afraid I have to change the hunting place to the imperial

hunting ground instead of our estate.”

“Pardon? What are you talking about? ”

“Well, the emperor has issued the order. He also told to open the banquet at the guest house near the palace. ”

“Oh my…” My eyes opened wide.

Use the imperial hunting ground and the guest house? What the heck is he talking about?

“Why did he issue such an order?”

“Well, he said he could not allow a large number of nobles including the captains of the knights to vacate the capital for long in the early days of his rule, I don’t know the exact reason. ”

Like he said, I felt strange about the order.

Of course, the guest house is nearer to the capital because it only takes half a day to get there while it takes a couple of days to get to our estate. But I couldn’t understand why the emperor opened the imperial hunting ground for that simple reason. Besides, the imperial hunting ground has been reserved for the imperial family until now.

I raised my eyebrows in spite of myself. I was afraid the noble faction might find fault with , citing this matter. No matter how good cause I presented, they, hellbent on nit picking on my back, would not pass over it.

No matter how much I thought about it, I felt I couldn’t accept it. So, after I finished my breakfast, I headed straight to the Imperial Palace. I could see him only late in the afternoon because there were lots of people who requested to see him today.

So, I helplessly walked out of the Central Palace. I could see him much earlier with the power of my family, but I didn’t want it.

When I turned to the knights building after plodding along, I suddenly saw a knight in a familiar uniform walking toward . As if he was glad to see , he bowed with a smile.

“Hi, Sir Monique. Good morning.”

“Hi, Sir Freia.”

“Oh, I think I’ve got sothing to boast about in the morning. It looks like sothing good will happen to today.”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, nothing. By the way, I heard a rumor that the emperor would open the imperial hunting ground and the guest house for your coming-of-age ceremony. Is that true?”

I smiled in embarrassnt at the man who was looking at curiously.

Has the rumor already spread to everybody? Maybe it’s too late for to ask the emperor to cancel it.

I sighed sohow. I didn’t want to hold my coming-of-age ceremony ostentatiously. Of course, opening a hunting contest at my estate itself was extraordinary, but using the imperial guest house for that purpose was a different matter.

Sir Freia asked, watching sighing, “Well, I know it’s rude for to ask this, but your breakoff of engagent with the emperor has been withdrawn then?”

“Pardon? What do you an…”

“Oh, I’m sorry if you were offended. Well, I thought he would not have opened the imperial hunting ground and the guest house unless you had withdrawn the breakoff of the engagent…”

“Oh, I see. That’s fine.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

I thought about it for a mont, watching Sir Freia bowing slightly.

‘Withdrawing the breakoff of my engagent with him?

Co to think of it, I felt many people could think so. By the way, when is he going to announce it officially? The foreign delegations already left.

When I thought I had to double check it sooner or later, one of the servants ca over and said,

“Are you Sir Monique?”

“Yes, but what’s up?”

“If you have ti, please stop by the governnt building. The pri minister wants to see you.”

“Pri Minister? Okay. Let go and see him now.”

I was a little puzzled. Does he want to see for that matter? But he should handle it secretly without the noble faction slling a rat.

Anyway, as he wanted to see , I felt I should see him. After saying goodbye to Sir Freia, I headed to the pri minister’s office in the governnt building. When I walked on the corridors where many people ca and went with a bunch of papers, I suddenly recalled my mories of Allendis.

Co to think of it, I often stopped by this place when Allendis was still here.

According to a report recently obtained by my family’s intelligence sources, the mbers of the Verita family were discussing the qualifications of his eldest son Allexis. His condition was getting worse after he got married to Ilya, forr Lady Genoa, so they began to search for Allendis’s whereabouts in the Lua kingdom. If he, whose health is getting worse, is deprived of his successor status or dies, Allendis would be the only imdiate family mber to succeed Duke Verita.

I was frustrated. Where is he? How could the Verita family, who boast of the most extensive network of intelligence in the empire, find his whereabouts despite their all-out efforts to find him?

When I let out a big sigh, I saw the duke’s executive office in the distance.

As I entered the spacious office, a man with green hair and three n and won who seed to be his aides caught my eye. The duke, who was pacing up and down while muttering sothing, welcod .

“Co on in, Lady Monique.”

“I heard you wanted to see .”

“Yes. I have sothing to tell you about the use of the guest house and the imperial hunting ground. Also the problem of cost related to that.”

“Cost problem?”

“The emperor told that as the place was changed by his order, the imperial family should make up for the cost that was beyond the original budget of the Monique family for your coming-of-ceremony.”

“Really? You don’t have to.”

I could never accept the imperial subsidy. Using the guest house and the imperial hunting ground itself was already a problem. How could the emperor subsidize the cost of the coming-of-age ceremony for ? If this were to be leaked to the noble faction, it could bring about their strong resistance.

Giggling at when I showed embarrassnt, he said, “I see eye to eye with you on that, but this is the emperor’s order, so I can’t do anything about it.”

“Can you hold it for a while? In fact, I was just trying to et the emperor and ask him to cancel his order.”

“The rumors have already spread widely, so it’s useless to cancel it. Just accept his order.”

I sighed deeply. When I thought of the repercussions of this, I was really frustrated, but Duke Verita had a point, too.

I sighed again and said, after thinking for a long ti, “Okay. But please don’t take into account the cost problem. I don’t want the imperial subsidy. I believe you can handle it in your capacity as the pri minister.”

“Huh, I have nothing to say as you say so. Let talk to the emperor about it first. Let’s discuss the details then.”

Even if the emperor rented the place for , there was a lot to discuss because a noble family used the private property of the imperial family, such as how to pay for the wages of the workers at the imperial hunting ground and the guest house, how to pay for the maintenance cost and how to reimburse the damaged properties, etc.

Was it because of that? When I paused for breath, it was already past lunch ti.

I stood up to go back, but he stopped and gave a thick pile of papers.

As he said the docunts were about what he wanted to discuss more, I replied accordingly and ca out of his office.

When I was about to go ho, I stopped by the Central Palace to cancel my request to et the emperor. As I decided to accept the emperor’s order, I didn’t have to see him.

Going back ho, I opened the docunts handed out by the duke. As I expected, I noticed the docunts contained all kinds of information and questionable points about the mbers of the noble families.

I gladly read the thick papers one by one.

‘Ugh?’

I noticed sothing strange. There was every information about the tax evasions of Duke Jenna, Earl Hal, Earl Lanier, Earl Holten, Earl Dias, Earl Resling, Viscount Apinu who I recently brought into my fold, as well as those marquises who rarely visited the capital. But there was nothing about Marquis Mirwa, to my surprise.