“This is your room, Sister.”
Elena entered the room pointed to by the servant. It was a spacious and beautifully furnished room, worlds apart from the rooms she had been accustomed to in the temple.
“Oh, I almost forgot… I left my luggage in the carriage…”
Elena mentioned her forgotten luggage, the bundles she had left in the carriage. The servant nodded nonchalantly.
“We will have it brought up to your room shortly. Is there anything else you need?”
She doubted there was anything she needed, but just in case, Elena glanced around the room with her round eyes.
The first thing that caught her eye was the large bed in the center of the room. It was elegantly adorned with white and pale ivory-colored bedding, giving it an inviting and cozy appearance.
As Elena ventured a little further into the room, she noticed a private bathroom attached to it. It was even better than the high-end hotel room she had stayed in once, back when she lived a more refined life.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you for showing me around.”
Elena knew firsthand just how demanding service jobs could be, having never worked one herself. Her polite gesture of gratitude, with a slight bow of her waist, seemed to surprise the servant a bit. In all the time many priestesses had stayed in this room as the theological instructor for Duke Levi, not a single one had shown such courtesy even to common servants.
The handmaidens and butlers were mainly from noble backgrounds, assisting the imperial family closely. It was like a kind of secretarial job.
On the other hand, tasks like cleaning, laundry, and cooking were mainly handled by servants and maids of commoner origin. That’s why servants and maids look different. It was a way for anyone to easily distinguish them.
‘Ah, maybe the nobles don’t greet servants?’
When she greeted the servant, Elena was taken aback by his surprised reaction. Fortunately, it seemed that the servant was just startled, and there was no sign of suspicion. He bowed to her once again and then left the room.
What, polite nobles exist, too, sometimes.’
She pretended not to think too deeply and casually began to look around the room. Finally, she heard the soft sound of the door closing behind her. Elena glanced back briefly to confirm that she was alone in the room and then spun around in pure delight.
“It’s a turnaround in life, a turnaround in life!”
I wonder if I’m so happy like I had just won the lottery. Elena, jumping up and down in excitement, forcefully opened the window.
This place was within the central temple, just like the Imperial Capital ‘Avalon,’ but even the scent coming through the window was different. It felt like being on a completely different planet, with the refreshing smell of grass.
“Now all that’s left is to not get kicked out!”
With her fist clenched tightly, determination blazed in her eyes.
The original content of the book was like this:
Sister Genevieve, who had come in for a large sum of money, soon fell out of favor with Duke Levi, and was driven away. Unable to find anyone else to work for, the protagonist, Rosaline, proposes to Hugo, the chamberlain of the palace, that she will teach theology herself. She becomes the only teacher of Duke Levi.
“By the end of the book, Rosaline and Duke Levi didn’t have a very good relationship, to say the least.”
Duke Levi’s personality was so strict and arrogant. Throughout the book, there were more than a few times when it made the reader’s blood boil.
‘It’s like a textbook showing what happens when too much power is given to an eight-year-old brat.’ Due to the accident of the Emperor and Empress dying as soon as he was born, Duke Levi is left under the guidance and protection of his brother, who’s twenty years older than him, and the monarch of the empire. Duke Levi is a character of pure independence.
“Well, since I know a little, I should try to use it as much as possible.”
Elena extracted the story of 『Empress Rosaline』 from her memory and contemplated it.
“At the beginning, something happened… Is it because I worked like a slave for a year? Why is my memory so fuzzy?”
Elena sat by the window, touching her forehead. But that moment didn’t last long, and soon she smiled.
“Well, as long as I don’t do what Sister Genevieve did, it should be fine, right?”
Those actions referred to consistently consistently poking fun at Duke Levi’s ignorance and being snarky. From the reader’s perspective, it made the character quite unlikable at times. But for Elena, it was actually a good thing as long as she didn’t behave like that, as it meant she wouldn’t be dismissed.
The thought of being dismissed, returning to the damp and chilly temple quarters in an instant, made Elena shiver.
‘I can never go back there.’
Since she was in this situation now, Elena resolved to make use of everything she had. Sitting on the warm, sunlit bed, she carefully recalled her memories and realized that there were quite a few things she could use to her advantage.
For example, Duke Levi’s traumas, among other things.
Now eight years old, Duke Levi, who almost got assassinated by an intruder when he was younger, had a trauma towards men. Therefore, he is afraid of adult men, especially those who wield weapons.
Due to this, the duke never learned the basic martial arts skills of the nobility. Instead, he spent most of his time indoors, reading books and confining himself to his palace, known as the ‘Palace of Dawn.’
The biggest problem is that this trauma extends even to the emperor himself.
People referred to Vakran I, who ascended to the throne at the young age of 17 after the former Emperor’s accident, as the god of war or the conqueror of battlefields. As soon as he took the throne, he conquered the three nations surrounding the Ifren Empire, which is why the book describes Vakran I as a charismatic ruler with a strong scent of blood.
Therefore, it was impossible for Duke Levi, who is fearful of adult men with swords, to be at ease by the emperor’s side. As a result, the relationship between the two brothers was distant, and they couldn’t even be in the same space together.
In the book, Rosaline, who came to know about this, insists that they should overcome such things if they are to win and dragged Duke Levi out of the palace. By chance, they encounter the emperor. At that moment, Duke Levi has a seizure and blames Rosaline, who forcefully took him away, resulting in a complete rift between the two.
Of course, it was also the seed of their meeting, as Rosaline went to see the Emperor in person, which led to an exchange between the two that would later develop into love.
“I should stay in the background when Rosaline does such things.”
Since Rosaline is the heroine, it was fine. She continued her palace life even after that incident and received love from the male protagonists and supporting characters.
But Elena knew very well that it was all part of the protagonist’s adjustment¹. Elena, who was originally like an extra passing by briefly in the early parts of the story, knew that she wouldn’t receive such protagonist adjustments.
“I’m going to stick around here as long as I can, save up my money, and get out of the temple when my teaching job is done!”
The money Elena received while working as the duke’s theology teacher was an amount that’s twenty times the amount she received at the temple.
A quick check with another low-ranking priest revealed that with the money she’d saved and her salary for the next year or so, she could buy a small house. It wasn’t amazing, but it would serve as a foundation for starting a new life here.
“Let’s endure for just one year!”
That was her goal.
“As long as I stay out of Duke Levi’s sight, I won’t have anything to worry about.”
Eventually, the servant who had gone to fetch the luggage returned with Elena’s modest baggage. She held onto the servant who was about to leave.
“Um… I heard there is another teacher besides me….”
“Ah, you must be referring to Baron Francis’ daughter. I heard she will arrive this evening.”
Upon hearing the servant’s words, a blush spread across Elena’s face as she nodded.
Elena had read 『Empress Rosaline』 multiple times, not only because the three male characters were charming but also because she liked the protagonist, Empress Rosaline. She couldn’t wait to see the character she adored like a fan waiting for their favorite celebrity.
She had finished packing her luggage with just a few sets of priestly robes and a few religious scriptures. Elena was fortunate that her intermediate priestly robe from before was still intact. Without any identification to prove her status as an intermediate priest, the priestly robe played that role for her.
Slipping out of her new robes, which were a bit rumpled from the carriage ride from the temple, Elena left her quarters located at the side of the Palace of Dawn.
“Now that I’m settled in, should I take a look around the palace?”
Elena recalled a rough map of the palace in her mind. She hadn’t paid much attention to the map of the palace that was tucked into the front of the paperback copy of 『Empress Rosaline』, so she couldn’t remember the detailed contents, but she remembered the locations of the Emperor’s bed chamber, Duke Levi’s Palace of Dawn, which served as the main backdrop of the story, and the Ifern Palace, which acted as a kind of external reception area.
“Maybe I’ll go out to the central avenue, take a look at the Ifern Palace for a bit, and come back?”
The priestly robe that had felt like a prisoner’s uniform when she did laundry and cleaning at the temple now served as a sort of free pass. As a priest of the state religion, Rahan, and someone with access to the palace, Elena had relatively unrestricted freedom of movement, except for private areas like the Emperor’s bedchamber.
¹보정 in literature is the process of adjusting or enhancing a character’s qualities or the overall narrative to make them more appealing or favorable
