(3rd Person POV)

“Besides that, when are you planning to host the next auction?”

Melina changed the topic naturally .

“Many people are disappointed that Her Majesty has not held any gatherings recently. Of course, I’m one of those people.”

Frequent social gatherings were considered a part of managing the Empress’s reputation and authority.

However, Anastasia had deliberately refrained from holding any social gatherings in order to emphasize that she was completely different from her old self. To maintain the image of enigma that had been cultivating from a certain point.

‘But now it’s time to start them back up.’

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“Probably soon. Since His Majesty’s birthday party is not far away, I plan to focus on that for the time being. I will host gatherings again after the birthday party is over.”

“Everyone would definitely love that! I really hope that you could open up another auction. I even thought that Her Majesty would buy a new set of dresses after you received the money coming from the auction…” Melina was smiling.

“But you never fail to surprise us! To have heard that you donated it towards children from poor families! It’s a pity that I didn’t raise the price higher last time.”

“Your bid was already high enough and since the auction was well received, I am willing to open another auction again. Naturally I would extend the invitations again to those that had come once before.”

“That’s great! Will you invite me again next time as well?”

“Of course. I would keep inviting you if you would like.”

“Really? Now, I’m so excited!”

Melina cheered and then asked.

“Are you going to continue to do volunteer work?”

“Yes. I plan to continue it.”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“Then the next time you go out to volunteer, can I come with?”

“You too?”

 

“Yes. When I heard that Her Majesty had done some volunteer work, I also wanted to do it as well.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. It’s good practice. If I go with you, I think I would feel quite rewarded and satisfied.”

“That’s definitely true.”

‘The more hands to help, the better.’

Anastasia nodded her head without much thought.

“Great. I’ll call upon you the next time I volunteer.”

“Really, thank you!”

“No, I should be thanking you instead. I would be grateful if you would go with me.”

Anastasia smiled happily and said.

“I think Melina is very kind.”

“Me? Oh, thank you.”

Melina blushed shyly and continued speaking.

“But the same applies to Her Majesty.”

“Me?”

“With your volunteer work? You are the only Empress who has personally reached out her hand to provide assistance to those who need it. No one has done that before.”

That is true. Most of the previous Empresses were reluctant to do something that required them to personally reach out their hands, compared to a simple donation.

However, after knowing the previous actions of the previous Empresses, Anastasia was still embarrassed to hear that kind of compliment.

“Oh, I should be leaving now.”

Melina said after she took out her pocket watch and checked the time.

Anastasia asked in a very disappointing tone.

“You’re leaving already?”

“Yes. I forgot that I had dinner planned with my mother today…I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You can’t be too late then, go ahead.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Then I’ll see you again!”

Melina bowed politely to Anastasia and then departed.

Anastasia also returned to her office, and was immediately confronted with documents related to Wilhelm’s birthday.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

As the birthday party is next week, the preparations were almost completed. There were still some things that needed to be coordinated properly until the end.

While Anastasia was looking at the papers without much thought, Madame Rochester spoke to her from the side.

“By the way, Your Majesty. The Emperor’s birthday party is just around the corner.”

“I know.”

Anastasia replied indifferently, with a slightly furrowed eyebrow.

“I will have to stay up all night because it seems that I have been disregarding all my palace work, so I need to make up for it.”

“What? No, Your Majesty, you don’t have to…..”

“I insist. I’m worried that I might make a mistake during the final preparations for His Majesty’s birthday, just because I’m rushing my other duties.”

“You are paying a lot of attention to the birthday party.”

Madame Rochester looked at Anastasia with a meaningful smile on her face. But Anastasia, who was concentrating on the paperworks, did not notice it.

“What should I prepare as a present for the Emperor at this time of the birthday party?”

At those words, Anastasia immediately looked up for the first time.

Anastasia had her eyes wide open and asked with a curious voice.

“Did I by any chance prepare a gift for His Majesty’s birthday last year….?

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Just as I expected.”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

Anastasia muttered in a voice as if she was already expecting this answer.

In a situation where the relationship between the two was not really good, Anastasia wouldn’t have prepared a birthday present for Wilhelm.

 

“Then I will not prepare one as well for this year.”

“What? But…..”

‘Wasn’t it going well with His Majesty the Emperor? The expression on her face when she asked me seemed so desperate.’

Anastasia sighed briefly and continued to say.

“I will do what I have always done. Since when did I ever prepare a gift?”

“But…Her Majesty’s behavior is no longer as it was before. You’ve changed.”

“……”

“So I was hopeful and looked forward to seeing some changes in your relationship as well.”

“There was nothing like that present.”

Anastasia said firmly.

“Don’t expect anything to have changed because I will continue to be the same way as I was before, towards His Majesty.”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

At those words, Madame Rochester’s face frowned in disappointment.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(3rd Person POV)

Meanwhile, at Wilhelm’s office.

“I heard some embarrassing rumors that are spreading quickly within high society these days.”

Colton had come to give the report and whispered to Wilhelm, who was concentrating on the mountain of paperworks.

“Well…it’s about you, Your Majesty who was in the carriage of….”

“I already know about that story so you don’t have to talk about it anymore, Sir Colton.”

“Oh, you already know?”

His startled voice sounded quite funny to Wilhelm. 

‘Did he think that I wouldn’t know about it?’  

“Everyone in the palace was talking about it. I couldn’t avoid hearing about it even if I tried.”

(T/’N: Hmm.. Wilhelm, kinda fishy.. Hehehe.)

“Oh, that’s true.”

Colton nodded along and then discreetly lowered his voice and asked.

“Is it true?”

[T/N: the next bit are Colton’s dialogues.]

Wilhelm stared at Colton without answering, and Colton quickly shook his head.

“…Why am I uttering such nonsense things? Everyone’s imagination is acting like we are characters in a novel.”

[pr/n: I don’t know how to tell you this Colton…]

“But it was easy to understand why they thought like that.”

Colton then continued with his speculations.

“The cuff buttons wouldn’t come off that easily. Or maybe…you left them behind on purpose?”

“Is that what it was?”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“But why would you do that? Didn’t you hate being associated with the Empress more than anything else?”

Colton nodded as if he had guessed it right.

“What’s more surprising is that I didn’t expect Her Majesty would do volunteer work that day.”

“…….”

“At this point, I guess you must have changed your mind about what other people were saying? Soon it will be close to a month since the Empress had changed her behavior.”

Colton continued with his thoughts.

“Considering her original personality, I don’t think she is capable of being able to continue with her act after a month has passed.”

“…Yes.”

[pr/n: and we’re back to the soon to be simp.]

Wilhelm, who had been silent, finally opened his mouth to speak.

“That might be the case.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he was convinced to some extent by what happened at the volunteer work.

That it might really be the truth that the Empress had really changed.

The twinkle in her eyes and warm smiles that she gave to those children cannot be easily faked.

Above all, the volunteer work itself she had done. Considering Anastasia’s original personality, it was not something that she could easily imitate even with a reference book.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“She definitely has changed…”

Her actions from the past weeks had clearly shown that the Empress was a different person than she was before.

‘Of course, there are still some doubts left…..’

Even her words and actions were like that. The abilities that she showed was something that Wilhelm had never seen before from her. Especially her attitude towards the children wasn’t certainly not this warm previously.

‘Am I being too sensitive?’

‘Still…there was nothing wrong with being overly cautious.’

“Nevertheless, continue to keep an eye on the Duke of Barantes.”

“Yes, of course.”

Colton shrugged and returned to the topic.

“More than that…if Her Majesty the Empress has really changed, she would definitely prepare a birthday present for you this year, right?”

“It’s fine.”

Wilhelm snorted inwardly. 

‘Birthday present? A present coming from that woman?’

“I’m not going to be expecting anything. I wouldn’t even want it. If she comes with any impure intentions, it’s better for her to stick to her appearance as she is now.”

As if he didn’t care at all, he murmured in a relentless voice.

[pr/n: you say that but you know you want one from her. Denial games are strong.]

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Madame Rochester’s 3RD Person POV)

After that, time passed by quickly and Wilhelm’s birthday came in a blink of an eye.

“Your Majesty, you must look brighter today than anyone else!”

“Of course. You’re the wife of His Majesty the Emperor so you really have to be the most splendid one out of all of them!”

“Please please, Your Majesty, even just for today let go of your frugality!”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

Madame Rochester looked awkwardly at the maids who were making a fuss as to how to prepare Anastasia for the big day.

It was an inconceivable sight until just a month ago. The maids came forward to start fixing Anastasia’s attire and appearance.

The appearance of Anastasia with a perplexed look on her face was also a sight to behold.

‘In the past, she would threaten her maids if she had found out that there was someone that is much prettier than her…..’

Until a month ago, parties and social gatherings were what the maids wanted to avoid the most.

It was because Anastasia’s demands for her aesthetics were very high, and if there was something that she’s not satisfied with, she would definitely cause a disturbance.

These days, because they are following Anastasia’s wish for frugality, they haven’t been able to lavishly decorate Anastasia except for the last auction’s meeting.

The maids were rather anxious because of that and said that they would go ahead and adorn Anastasia beautifully.

‘Well, it was definitely better than before.’

In the past, there was also a lot of hustle and bustle that she lost her energy by just simply watching them move in frenzied.

Madame Rochester smiled happily and walked over to Anastasia, who had just finished dressing up.

“You look splendidl, Your Majesty.”

“Really?”

But Anastasia didn’t really feel that way.

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