The Readymade Queen - Chapter 4

I could tell just by looking at their pathetic faces.

An 18 year old, who was completely isolated.
I remember it crystal clear, how that child once rushed in my arms, she was but my daughter before she was the princess of this nation!
I hadn’t visited her for years, and by the time she was doing a little better physically, her mental illness was discovered and she was immediately confined.”*
(*T/n: if it makes you confused, the whole two paras above are the empress’s thoughts)

“I do not know whether the emperor knows.”

“……That’s right!”

“The empress also needs the princess.”

When he said that, she bit her mouth. To think that the princess is needed so much, that the empress is ready to tolerate her fake daughter. Somehow the room had a sad mood, her eyes were sore from all the tears she shed earlier.

“If it is the emperor, it would be nice if he doesn’t know anything about this, but it doesn’t matter after all.”

“She’s a mother. What makes you think she would believe I am her daughter?”

“……Yes. It doesn’t matter though.”

However, 13 years is a long time. There are hundreds and thousands of cases in the world, which prove that a child may look comparatively different after adolescence, they may change: physically or mentally. Even if she doesn’t recognise me, it’s not necessarily her fault.

Then……

The empress is such a pitiful human.

“At this point, yes. I know it very well. I appear to be very similar to the princess, I can assure no one’s going to know. But-”

“But?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you need me.”

“Huh!?”

“Didn’t your father committed suicide, recently? And your mother is sick too, your younger siblings are still very young, your father’s debts are still a pile up, you have no roof to live under…”

Suddenly, Abigail fell silent, not knowing her intentions are going to repeat her misfortunes. The man spoke with his legs crossed, pushing his body a little forward.

“I’ll get your mother treated with the best attending physician.
Your brothers and sisters will receive the best education available in the empire. They will be admitted to the best academy. Wellaun, Zippen, and Gertenyu. No matter which country, choose what you wish.

They can grow up and fulfill their dreams. Your debts are also getting clear. The title that will be given after declaring Abigail dead, the title issued allows your younger brother to formally succeed, and if you are uncomfortable with your hometown,I’ll find a way. It also reinstates the family’s worthiness and the next three generations get a wealth of luxury. All of that, just to act as the princess.”

The man’s bid went up, drawing an attractive line. Looking at it from a distance as if possessed, Abigail recalled the demon she had seen in her childhood painting a picture book. Obviously it wasn’t him, but they looked similar.
With that expression, the devil had seduced and swallowed the woman.

Abigail’s job got her mind up. That was obviously a damn prize for the three generations if it was woven wrong.

“……But, what if I don’t like it?”

“No way.”

The man laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke.

Abigail continued, “It’s too dangerous. Anyway, I can pay off my debts if I work for another thirty years, and I’ve already been prepared for that and entered the Princess’s palace for my life. I also almost paid up for my mother’s treatment.
No, it’s not about power or title, but you can get medical care anyway. Even my younger siblings, I can’t give them enough education to cover for my pathetic self anyway.”

I can have it all. But why am I…

“It turns out that I didn’t say the most important thing.” Rakiel stated as if he gave her the keys of the palace but forgot about the treasure room, he spoke a little freely.

“The princess was assassinated. But the maid survived. So, how many dispositions could be given to the maid? First, she flocked as an assassin and died after torturing the princess, slaying her, you die. Second, she crowded as an accomplice of the assassin and killed the princess mercilessly after torture, once again you die. Third, she said that the princess died, but the maid dared to survive, after the death of her master. They’ll be disgusted…and you’re dead.”

“What, do you have more? Ways to think up how I die? To be honest, I think they are all the same.”

“Do you think she would get a prize for surviving the assassins alone?”

Abigail’s stiff face suddenly burst into laughter. Rakiel grabbed Abigail’s wrist and pulled it towards him.

“The bottom line is, as soon as you get out of this carriage and go to the Imperial Palace, you die too.”

The sound of his whisper low into her ear was bleak. Abigail trembled shallowly. She felt goose bumps all over her body.

“In other words, this is the only way you can survive. Hide? The moment you run away, the imperial family will send a search team, then you get assasinated and all your family dies alongside.”

Abigail opened her mouth as she tried to talk. The man who was staring at her face quickly let her go.
Abigail, barely sitting at the end of her seat, blankly looked down at the floor of the carriage, and raised her eyes again. The man was still looking at her. Abigail struggled to keep calm.

She did it, she opened her mouth, pretending to be as sloppy as possible.

“What are you going to do?”

“If you try anything it will end with you dying. The plan is sorted and you are going to rewrite your destiny. That is the only way out.”

“Why don’t you get it! This is my life, it’s not a game, life!”

Abigail gave in to her momentary anger, without realising Abigail raised her voice in front of the duke, for a fact the man didn’t care about how she spoke, except for a brief moment he twisted his eyebrows. It was tiring to repeat the same thing a million times.

”Name?” He didn’t want to keep it long, it was getting tiring, having the same argument for a long time would tire any human after all.

“……My Name? Abigail Diloah.”

“A fire from an unknown cause suddenly broke out in the palace of the poor imprisoned princess. The empress’s nephew, Rakiel Edelgard , who was leaving the palace after visiting the princess late that night, discovered the fire first,
hurriedly he saved his little cousin sister. Luckily, the princess was safe thanks to the sacrifice of the maid. Maid Abigail tried to rescue herself and unsuccessfully died. Later, as compensation for her death, the imperial family reinstated a title, and legally provided compensation equivalent to the Imperial Relief Fund.”

” Pardon?”

“Who is the daughter of the house? Who is this ‘lucky maid’? Regardless of whether she has a ridiculous face or not, the plot of the play, Abigail had passed continued.
I cannot leave the princess, surprised by the fire, after all the imperial bureau had imprisoned her identity, the princess was worried because everyone would be shocked after finding her existence intriguing, Unavoidably, Due to the fire, there was no court to properly serve her, so the Duke acted as the guardian of his little cousin and took her in for a few nights, all that matters is that just as her confinement, she’s secured….This is where we make time. The time when you become a real princess.”

“There’s more to it, isn’t it?” seeing someone’s daughter dying is indeed a painful scene. But…

“But it turns out to everyone’s surprise that she wasn’t an idiot as the rumours mentioned, she was normal. She was a child, there was a brief developmental disability and she had some mental anxiety, all because she had been ill for a long time at a very young age, and shortly after her confinement, she returned to her ‘normal’ state and grew up ‘normally’. However, both her nanny and her entourage maid both passed away before the news got out.Due to her confined state, she was completely disconnected from the outside world, there was no way for her to inform the world about her illness getting cured. She lived a healthy life with her nanny and the maids, Having been educated, she also gained considerable education by reading books alone in the library of the confined palace.”

“No, wait. I don’t know if this is normal, but I couldn’t build up that well of a scenario within this short amount of time, that’s actually quite impressive.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t have any time to waste. I told you. I’m trying to make things easier, for both of us.”

“….. Go on. I’m listening”

“That’s the script. The current succession structure is divided into three people: 1st Prince of Betis, Daughter of the Empress, and the 4th son of 3rd Empress Catherine, this was changed after the death of the Crown Prince.”

Abigail blinked at the topic that suddenly passed. The man laughed at the puzzled look she had.

“Wilhelmina, Calipe, Arianne. Do you know who these people?” Abigail looked as puzzled as she could.

“They are the names of successive empresses.” He said while laughing.

As Abigail turned to look at the man talking, all that load of bullshit it was, the man added with a smirk

“So, now you’ll be resuscitated.”

Abigail’s face quickly changed to an ‘enough already’ look. The man looked at it as if satisfied. He still had that creepy smirk on his face. Unfazed, with his cruelty.

“It’s nice to know that you were paying attention, noticed faster than I thought you would.”

“So, you mean…?”

I skipped all the titles, and I spoke in a hurry. My head was aching as if someone suddenly hit it with a hammer.

“Even if the prince’s given birth by the 2nd empress or anyone else other than the empress, cannot have the direct rights to use the flag*. The empress’s right succession law states that the direct descendants are unconditionally given priority. And that is the imperial law, men and women are equal, but practically there is a deficit.
(*T/n: use the flag = rule)

And if she doesn’t have a deficit, she gets less. Of course, if there were no little girls, it would have been possible to resuscitate under the empress like them. Or the little girl gave way.”

“……You’re crazy. That’s it.”

“At first, I was only going to distract their succession. In fact, I also thought of destroying the empire. If I brought the idiot princess, I wouldn’t even have been able to get close to the succession rights. But you can make things go correct, under the premise of the imperial order, the marriage statute allows marriage between her cousins. Now that it’s you, we can get married, the story will be different.”

Edelgard was the highest contributor to the establishment of an empire along with the great empresses they have produced over the years.

Destroy? That’s a whole different view.

The empresses kept the foundation of this empire stronger and stronger, half of the spouses of successive dukes were empresses. As such, Edelgard was the closest to the imperial family, and in fact, by blood, It was also right to see it as a family.

Although the man presumed to speak with arrogance, this man was a being that even the ordinary people thought of as a man with absolute power, or sometimes they ranked him before the royal Princess’s.

Even though the prince was pushed into the river and the duke died in an accident, the surviving man, his soul cannot be strangled. But he wants to destroy the empire….

He was the owner of the empire’s highest ranked family. After questioning the insanity in this man, Abigail stopped thinking. She needed a break.