Translator: Aura / Editor: Maybe
Even after Viscount Roteschu left, her troubled mind did not calm down easily. Rashta paced around her room as she looked at the clock. Sovieshu wasn’t going to come back until later. Rashta nervously stepped out into the corridor, looked around, and headed for the Western Palace. After the empress left, the West Palace remained calm and quiet.
All the bustling ladies-in-waiting of the West Palace returned to their homes while the number of maids and servants was greatly reduced. They only came once a day to clean the corridors, but Rashta knew that it was not yet time for the maids to come and clean. She quickly entered the West Palace.
This was her new hobby. She would enter the Empress’ room to improve her mood.
When she asked Sovieshu for the key, he found it absurd but gave it to her without any problems. It was an empty room anyway, so he didn’t care what she did.
The inside of the room hadn’t even been cleaned because the new empress hadn’t been chosen yet, so Rashta went in and out of that room avoiding people’s gazes.
Today was the same. Rashta quickly closed the door as she entered the room. She felt better after closing the door behind her. Rashta leaned against the door and gazed at the glamorous empty room. The furniture was still there, but it wasn’t being used by anyone. Strangely, this place felt extremely gloomy.
‘It will get better if I use it,’ Rashta thought to herself as she walked around the room. Even if she was just wandering, Rashta felt better already.
Rashta, who felt like the empress, smiled as she imitated the body movements she had seen Navier do before. She was not good at studying. No matter how much she studied, she did not get good results. But her way of speaking and behaving was already quite noble.
One of the etiquette teachers, who had taught Navier, was so surprised that she asked, “How can you look so much like Navier?”
‘The important part is etiquette, the way you speak and the way you behave.’
She was sure everyone comparing her to the former empress would be surprised on the wedding day. This made Rashta’s mood much better. Definitely much better. Since she arrived, Rashta started going through all the furniture in the room one by one. Then suddenly, she found something strange.
‘What is this?’
The top of the chair, which at first glance didn’t seem unusual, stuck out a bit.
When she took the pad cushion off the chair, she unexpectedly came across a wooden box. What she thought until now was a mere chair, actually concealed a wooden box. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing by far. There was a pile of documents inside the wooden box.
‘Are these documents of the deposed empress?’
Rashta pulled out the documents out of curiosity.
‘Application for state funding?’
Some of the documents were related to that topic. Others were related to orphanages.
After looking at the clock and confirming that she still had time, Rashta sat down and examined the documents carefully. The documents were written in easy-to-understand words, so she could tell what they were about if she read them carefully. They included orphanages, nursing homes, support facilities for single parents, free hospitals, meal services, among others.
These were institutions that Empress Navier had personally sponsored under the name of the Imperial Family.
Moreover, there was even a letter at the end of the documents. Rashta held the documents with one hand and the letter with the other.
‘To Miss Rashta…’
The letter was in a quiet style, where she expressed that she could no longer provide support for these places after the divorce because she sponsored them under the name of the Imperial Family. It also mentioned that it was not possible to apply for state funds now, because state funding was renewed every year.
She had prepared an application for state funding in advance for when Rashta became the empress, so when that time came, she should submit this application for state funding under her name.
However, there were now many organizations receiving state funding, so it could be rejected due to budgetary problems. If that happened, Navier indicated that Rashta should go ahead with her own money under the name of the imperial family, as she did before.
Other than that, she spoke of nothing else.
It was a monotonous letter, such as one would give to their successor.
If there was one point she revealed her feelings, it was when she pointed out that Rashta should not sponsor them under her name because things could get messed up. After reading the letter, Rashta felt really strange. As if to exacerbate this feeling, something fell out.
It was two promissory notes of an enormous sum.
If the contents of the letter were true, this was the amount of money needed to be able to sponsor these institutions for two years.
‘The interview was true. She really did know about the divorce.’
Rashta frowned. She felt even more unpleasant about feeling sorry for the Empress deep inside, but she couldn’t admit that Navier had been a formidable Empress.
To acknowledge this would make her feel bad for getting rid of a good Empress.
But Rashta couldn’t think of herself as a bad person.
The empress was lucky enough to be born as such, but Rashta had a hard time getting here. Even after she got here, she was still struggling to survive.
Although Rashta hadn’t caused any harm to the Empress, Empress Navier tried to push her away. Didn’t Empress Navier try to get rid of Rashta, but she ended up being driven out by her own actions?
‘That’s right. Wouldn’t it have been different if she hadn’t used abortion pills or asked her brother to attack me in the first place?’
Then she would have lived without being ousted from the position of empress. The deposed empress had brought this on herself. Rashta could not believe that she had now written a letter that could make anyone laugh. It was hypocritical.
‘She despises Rashta, right?’
Fully convinced, Rashta angrily took the promissory notes, letter, and documents.
‘Shouldn’t they be sponsored under Rashta’s name?’
Rashta snorted in disgust.
‘Things could get messed up? She only said that because she didn’t want Rashta’s reputation to rise.’
Sponsoring these organizations would allow anyone to gain people’s trust.
‘I’ll do it all under Rashta’s name. Isn’t it Rashta who will do it? Why should I write it under the Imperial Family’s name?’
