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(3rd PERSON POV)
“I know that everyone was shocked by my sudden change, but I’m very grateful that it has not made everyone awkward and that makes me so happy.”
“It’s only normal for us to be happy for you. Not only that, we also heard that for the past few days you’ve been showing leniency towards your subordinates.”
“I just realized that I should not be abusing my position, even if it’s late. I don’t want my father to be worried about me anymore.”
Anastasia dragged them down deeper and deeper.
“I think now I’m going to get rid of my past self completely.”
“You’ve made the right decision, Your Majesty. We are very proud of you.”
“Though, I don’t think we can hold parties or gatherings as often as we used to. From now on, I will try to live a more sincere and frugal life.”
“It can’t be helped. Changes must happen in order for us to grow but of course we would always be there for you whenever you call upon us.”
“Thank you so much. That’s why….”
Anastasia then said, as she swept her hair behind her ear.
“When I was re-organizing my dressing room these days, I found that I have a lot of clothes and accessories. There is far too much that I can’t possibly manage to wear it all. Even if I have the rest of my life to do so.”
“Her Majesty always has impeccable taste in regards to whatever you wish to wear.”
“Who wouldn’t do that? Especially if you have the perfect body and beauty like Her Majesty.”
“But now I’m going to dispose of all of them.”
“What? Disposing all of them?”
“Didn’t you all receive the invitation that I sent you?”
Only then did the ten invited people remember the phrase that was written in the invitation.
“You too can be an Empress.”
‘No way…?’
Everyone became tense and their eyes beamed with anticipation.
“I was surprised to receive that type of invitation. I didn’t understand what it meant….”
“Besides, I am already married and have children.”
“I’m also married.”
“Haha! That phrase doesn’t mean that I will be giving up my position.”
Of course, everyone present didn’t assume that it was meant to be that direct.
“It means that I will make it so that you can also shine like me.”
“Like Her Majesty…?”
“Yes.”
Anastasia said with a graceful smile.
“I am going to put my collection up for auction here today.”
Anastasia’s explanation was quite simple, but there were already a lot of calculations running through the minds of the ten people present.
The Empress, the most precious woman in Rosenberg, has been the envy of all the women in the empire.
For as long as the Empire existed, the Empress was always considered the pioneer who led the fashion scene. It didn’t matter if the Empress was beautiful or not. Even if they had no fashion sense, people would still imitate her fashion sense no matter what.
In short, you could say that she was considered as the top celebrity of the empire.
And since the Empress was not only beautiful but had a good sense of fashion, that only served to increase her influence.
Anastasia had always been famous as she was not only a princess, but also for her outstanding looks and good sense of fashion. She was the type of person who only chose things that would suit her well.
As such, Rosenberg’s fashion industry exploded rapidly after Anastasia had become the Empress.
In some severe cases, there were even people who tried to imitate the Empress from head to toe.
However, the law stipulated that any design can be similar but never identical to what the Empress wore.
‘It was because of that law that’s why I limited myself to imitations…’
‘If I could wear the collection of the Empress, I can be just as beautiful as Her Majesty.’
‘Since it’s the only work in the empire, no one can duplicate it…right?’
‘I need to buy them no matter what! If I wore it to the next party, everyone would definitely be looking at me, right?’
There was no such thing as age distinction in the desire to feel beautiful.
‘I would definitely look ten years younger if I wore the collection of Her Majesty.’
‘Besides, these are the things that the Empress of the Empire wore. That alone is worth it in itself.’
‘If I can pass it down from generation to generation as heirlooms, we would never know how far the value will go up in the future!’
Some people thought from the perspective of financial ventures.
It didn’t matter if it came from any  of those viewpoints. It was, however, clear that this was a precious opportunity not to be missed.
Anastasia opened her mouth with a smile as if she could read the minds of those who were silent.
“Shall we begin?”
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(3rd PERSON POV)
“200,000 osen, 350,000 rosen, 150,000 rosen….”
Madame Rochester’s hands were busy calculating all of the profits that they had gained from today’s party.
A satisfied smile drifted across Anastasia’s lips as she looked at her.
“1 million rosen… .”
At some point, the calculations were completed.
Madame Rochester’s eyes widened at the final count of all of the money that was gained.
“It was exactly three million rosen, Your Majesty.”
Anastasia smiled brightly, looking satisfied.
‘Rosen’ was the monetary unit for Rosenberg. To put it simply, 1 rosen is about 1,000 in Korean Won.
In other words…about 3 billion won came into Anastasia’s hands today.
The party was a great success.
“Good job, Madame Rochester.”
Anastasia praised Madame Rochester for her hard work for it was her who helped with today’s auction.
Madame Rochester replied shyly, as if she was still not used to Anastasia’s sweet words.
“Your Majesty had the most hardships.”
The Duchess of Rochester’s eyes glistened, and admired Anastasia’s ability.
“That was such a brilliant idea! How did you come up with all these ideas?”
Anastasia, who was nonchalantly listening, suddenly became embarrassed by the Duchess of Rochester’s praise.
Because it wasn’t that great of an idea…
‘If you need money, of course you’ll be selling what you don’t use.’
Even modern people use a lot of second-hand merchandise to help with costs and save money.
However, since she was the current Empress, she could amplify the premium of her items in the form of an auction.
“It’s good for me to earn the money that I lack, and it’s also good for everyone else as well. The people who bought those items, manage to get the things that they otherwise couldn’t purchase.”
“That’s right. Everyone seemed to be very satisfied.”
However, the word ‘satisfaction’ was not enough to describe today’s event.
It was because the ten women who participated in the auction were very enthusiastic in their pursuit.
It became such a competitive auction that I immediately doubted if they were truly close friends.
“It was the first time I’ve ever seen those ladies rushing in like that with such intense focus in their eyes.”
The auction took much longer than expected. This was because the prices continued to rise until a successful bid could happen. The participants continued to fight tooth and nail to win as many bids as possible.
‘It was my first auction, so I purposely set the limit to ten people only. ’
As the participants were much closer to each other, it was also a preventative measure to keep them from feeling disappointed. It would have been a disaster if any misunderstanding arose from that auction.
“When will the next auction be held?”
Madame Rochester asked with her eyes shining. The skepticism, which had appeared at first, was now nowhere to be found.
“Maybe a little later. We have to give it time to spread the word around on what happened today.”
We have to wait for the ladies present today to wear their winning dresses and jewelries, as they socialize with other nobles.
Only then, will there be an immense anticipation and attention on when the next auction hosted by the Empress will be held again.
“For the time being, we will have a lot of time to prepare for the next auction. There are still some places that I need to go to.”
“Yes? Where are you going?”
“Here.”
Anastasia handed over the paper that she had prepared in advance to Madame Rochester.
Madame Rochester took the paper that was handed over to her, and as she checked the contents, she then asked with a puzzled expression.
“You’re going here?”
Anastasia nodded her head. While Madam Rochester looked even more confused.
“But why here?”
“Please arrange my schedule Madame Rochester. I think that I will have to invest one day each.”
“Are you really going here?”
“Is there any problem?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
There’s no problem about the location but the place doesn’t fit well with Anastasia.
To be honest, it wouldn’t even pass the standard for nobles to visit this kind of place, including Madame Rochester.
“Okay, Your Majesty. I will make an appointment right away.”
However, now that the Empress had finally changed for the better, she just followed suit without a question.
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Madame Rochester’s 3rd PERSON POV)
A few days later, Anastasia prepared to go out early in the morning.
Today’s destination was quite far from the Imperial Palace, which is why she had to leave early considering the time scheduled.
“Your Majesty, I think it would be better to increase the number of escorts.”
Madame Rochester advised Anastasia in a very concerned tone.
Anastasia had told her to keep the escorts to a minimum during this outing.
In fact, this was also unprecedented. The original Anastasia always had an excessive number of escorts when she went out, just in case of any possible danger.
‘I didn’t know that there would be a day when I would be begging Her Majesty to increase the number of her escorts.’
There’s nothing wrong with being an excess of escorts. That’s why she didn’t say anything in particular before but it was different now.
“You are travelling far from the Imperial Palace. What if something bad happens…..”
“Who would want to harm me?”
The current Anastasia was so carefree that Madame Rochester thought that she had no self preservation at all.
“You don’t have to worry too much, Madame Rochester.”
Anastasia laughed and reassured her, but it didn’t work very well.
‘I would have to make sure you are followed by the other knights.’
Madame Rochester couldn’t accompany Anastasia today.
It was because someone had to guard the empty palace and be prepared should anything happen as a contingency plan.
Perhaps that’s why Madame Rochester was very anxious as if she had let her only child go out on her own.
‘I don’t have to worry that much…..’
However, Anastasia also naturally believed in something else.