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(Anastasia’s 3rd Person POV)
“Are you not the commander of the Emperor’s Royal Guard?”
“I apologize for the late introduction, Your Majesty. My name is Eric Fiennes, the 2nd Division Commander of the Central Palace Guard.”
“Please stand up, Sir Eric….but I wonder how you manage to find out about this place?”
Anastasia asked in disbelief.
“Even though I did send a messenger directly to the Imperial palace, there’s no way that His Majesty would have already received the news. To think that he was able to send troops immediately is amazing.”
“It was a good decision that you sent out a messenger, Your Majesty.”
Eric said to Anastasia in a delighted voice.
“Actually, we have been secretly escorting Her Majesty from the moment you left the Imperial Palace.”
“But…how?”
Anastasia couldn’t comprehend his words for a moment, but then she realized something and asked.
“Was it ordered by His Majesty, the Emperor?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty.”
“…Why?”
[pr/n: He a simp for his wife.]
“The Emperor was worried that since Her Majesty would be travelling in a very remote area, he thought that you might only bring a small number of escorts. That’s why he sent us along as well, and I’m glad that we did because we are able to protect Her Majesty like this.”
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
“Ah……”
“Are you very surprised?”
“…I’m okay.”
Anastasia answered calmly.
“I am very grateful that you all came. Rather, I couldn’t have imagined what Viscount Santoro might have done to us if you all didn’t come when you did..”
Anastasia explained the reasons why she came to this place, and Eric nodded after hearing everything.
“I see, Your Majesty. We will send some of our troops to the place you mentioned right now.”
“Yes, please.”
“Please rest here for a while until the situation has been settled down. Ah, please wait. You may feel uncomfortable if you stay here, after what just happened. Would you like to stay in the carriage instead?”
“No, I’ll stay here because it would be too crowded there.”
“I understand, Your Majesty. We will go now.”
Anastasia sent Eric and some of his troops away then immediately checked on the conditions of those who were with her.
“Is everyone okay?”
‘That is what I have asked, but I can see clearly on their faces that they don’t look okay at all.’
It must be because of the shock of what had happened earlier.
“Y-yes, Your Majesty……”
“How about you, Your Majesty, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
‘Maybe because I had already experienced being arrested by rebels before that I can handle it better now.’
(T/N: She was referring to what happened when she was taken by the rebels in chapter 1.)
‘I was definitely surprised, but not to the point of losing my mind.’
“Did anyone get hurt? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. No one was injured.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Anastasia let out a sigh of relief.
“I’d really like to apologize to all of you. You were almost in danger because of me. I should have thought of this possibility…”
“What do you mean by that? Your Majesty was not at fault.”
“That’s right. Who would have thought that Viscount Santoro would dare to do such a thing?”
“Yes, please don’t feel guilty. Your Majesty’s plan was excellent. You even thought ahead of sending a messenger directly to the Imperial Palace.”
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
As the maids had their initial shock wore off, they quickly stated their thoughts on what happened. Seeing them like this, Anastasia felt grateful and apologetic at the same time.
‘They are definitely good people.’
“Melina, you too. You must be in great shock as well since you had followed me today for something different.”
“Oh, no, I’m okay, Your Majesty…”
Melina, who was very nervous, barely managed to answer Anastasia’s question..
“I’m just glad we’re all safe.”
“Right, it is of great comfort.”
“Ahm, about earlier..…”
Melina hesitated as she slowly spoke with a reddened face.
“I am very sorry because I did something very useless…”
“No, it’s not your fault. Viscount Santoro was just very quick-witted. Don’t worry too much, okay?”
“Still…if I had known that Your Majesty was aware of the situation, I should have remained quiet.”
“Don’t you think that Your Majesty already knew about the situation before Lady Melina?”
At that moment, someone suddenly spoke up.
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
Melina was startled, as she looked at the person who had expressed their thoughts towards her.
“That’s right. A person must be sensible in that kind of situation….”
“We could feel that Her Majesty, the Empress had noticed that something was strange and was about to stand up and leave.”
[pr/n: Could you guys have really felt that or are you all pulling something out from where the sun doesn’t shine?]
“That’s right. Especially if you whispered so openly in front of Viscount Santoro, even  he would be suspicious. Did you even attempt to lower your voice because everyone could hear it. When you were supposedly whispering your words, right?”
“Everyone, stop.”
Anastasia warned the maids in a low voice.
“Young lady Lutent didn’t do that on purpose, so it would be better to refrain from harsh criticism. Since she was concerned about all of our safety, that’s why she unintentionally did those things without realizing it. If a person was in shock, your voice would normally increase without you knowing about it, right?”
[pr/n: Expectations of what a person can do in xyz can differ from what they will actually do in that moment. It wasn’t her greatest moment not gonna lie but it’s not like any of you did any better.]
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty the Empress, I didn’t mean to…”
Melina looked like she was about to cry, and was immediately comforted by Anastasia.
“It’s okay, Melina. Now, let’s stop talking about this and let’s take a rest. I’m sure there are some among us still in a state of shock.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. We apologized.”
The maids that were dissatisfied with Melina, quickly apologized to Anastasia and then sat back down. However, their gazes towards Melina were still quite hostile.
“……”
Meanwhile, Melina kept an anguished look on her face, but occasionally glanced at the maids who showed hostility towards her with an unfathomable look.
-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-
(Anastasia’s 3rd Person POV)
The interior of the mansion was quickly organized.
Viscount Santoro and his main vassals were to be transferred directly to the capital, and the remaining troops would still remain in the Viscount residence. They would watch over the remaining servants until they were able to be sent to the palace.
“Her Majesty’s words were correct. Thousands of people were sold into slavery and being exploited on the Santoro family’s farms.”
While searching for evidences to be used against the Viscount, they were able to find several documents related to slave trading.
Just as Anastasia expected, he was dealing with numerous slave merchants.
Eric Fiennes had gone to the place where the slave auction was held and had returned back to the residence.
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
“Your Majesty, as ordered, all those present at the scene have been arrested.”
“Good job, Sir Eric.”
Anastasia gave congratulations to the Imperial Knights on their hard work and then gave the order to wrap up the case immediately.
“Those who came to buy should be handed over to the local courts for a fine according to the Imperial law. Those that have sold them, should be transferred to the capital together with Viscount Santoro.”
“What about those who have been sold as slaves?”
Initially, she wanted to send them back to their original place, but she couldn’t do it recklessly without further investigations.
Because the goal was not simply to catch the slave traders who were active in that region alone.
“I would like to keep them here in Santoro’s mansion in the meantime. Until the Imperial Palace sends someone out to investigate them. Can the number of victims be accommodated here in the mansion?”
“Even if it’s tight, it seems to be possible.”
“That’s good. We will start again as soon as the situation is settled.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
If it was up to her, she would have wanted to spend the night at the mansion and leave early the next morning.
Anastasia was already exhausted, since it was already late at night by the time it was temporarily resolved. Even if they leave now, it was obvious that they would be arriving back at the palace by dawn.
However, due to the current circumstances, they had to depart for the Imperial Palace as soon as possible.
‘Perhaps the messenger had already arrived at the Imperial Palace by now and Wilhelm would have already known about the situation here.’
‘Would he be so surprised…once he knows what happened today?’
Anastasia was disturbed by the sudden thought.
‘I wondered what kind of reaction I would be facing, I returned back home and met him. ’
‘Will he laugh at me for not listening to his advice before? For not increasing my Imperial guards when I go out?’
‘Or…would he be condescending to say that he saved my life today?’
[pr/n: He won’t, he is a simp for you but if he does, we’ll slap him.]
‘If it’s not that then….’
‘Should I be relieved?’
Suddenly, she remembered the conversation that she had with him the last time in the carriage.
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
“I’m not worried.”
When she asked him about what he was worried about, he adamantly denied he was at all.
“Thank you for your concern.”
“…Again, I’m not worried.”
“Yes…of course?”
“It’s just….”
‘Oh, I think it ended right there. After that, he immediately changed the subject.’
‘Is he worried about me now?’
Anastasia thought for a moment, and instead of answering, she just prayed instead.
‘I just hope that you won’t worry.’
‘I just hope that you would be, even just a little bit, anxious once you receive the letter.’
‘And please don’t worry yourself by asking when I’ll be coming back. All I want is for you to go to bed with a peaceful mind.’
‘By the next morning, I would like you to just wake up as usual and then ask for my regards with just flowing words.’
‘I hope that you won’t reply with short replies such as, “I’m fine” or “That’s good”…and try to check if that’s really the case.’
(T/N: Oh my gosh Anastasia, your love for Wilhelm is too much. Wahhh!)
After having so many ‘I hope’ wishes, Anastasia suddenly realized something.
That in the end, all of her wishes were the result of her true feelings for Wilhelm refusing to stay buried.
‘The truth is…I really hoped that he was so surprised, that he’ll be beside himself with worry for me.’
‘I hope that you won’t be able to sleep until dawn as you wait for me to return, safe and sound.’
‘I want to see you in person as soon as you wake up. You, who had barely slept while being so anxious, and to ask me if I’m really okay.’
‘Just like how you loved me…before my regression.’
‘But…I know for a fact that I will have to hide my true feelings.’
‘But it’s okay though…since, I promised myself not to show him my true feelings.’
‘There’s no need to make it that hard for myself.’
[pr/n: *gestures to all of this going* …and this is making it easy on yourself?!]
‘So no matter how hard I tried to harden my heart, I knew that it would always melt for him.’
Anastasia neatly admitted her true feelings to herself, but nevertheless she knew that it wouldn‘t do them any good if she let herself be influenced by those feelings.
Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.
Of course, it would be very heartbreaking and hard to endure, but wasn’t that what she had decided to do from the beginning?’
“Your Majesty, everything has been settled now for our departure. ”
Her meaningless imagination ended with that word.
‘I’m just happy that I was able to help him, even just a little, in regards to the slave auctions problem.’
Anastasia quickly blinked her moist eyes for a moment and then proceeded to put a smile on her face.