CH 16

(3rd PERSON POV)

Harming herself will only lead to a severe punishment towards the royal family, since Anastasia was the Empress that was favored by the goddess.

‘And it’s not common for the other people to commit or do such an atrocity.’

Furthermore, no one knew that she would be leaving the palace, since she will be travelling in secret. No one was going to announce it.

More than anything else, neither in the original story nor before her regression, was there ever a case where someone had tried to harm Anastasia.

“It will be a surprise visit. It’s already an inconvenience that I’m visiting them without any prior notice. I don’t want to add any discomfort to our first meeting. That’s why I do not want a large escort.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t that Madame Rochester didn’t understand Anastasia’s will. Eventually, she sighed and took a step back.

“But do be careful, Your Majesty. First is safety, second would still be safety, third…..”

“Yes, I know.”

Anastasia laughed, as if telling her to stop, and Madame Rochester sighed softly.

“Then have a safe trip… I’ll see you in the evening.”

“Okay. Did you prepare everything I asked for?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Thank you. Please take good care of the Empress’s Palace.”

Anastasia left the Empress Palace with a bright smile. Her movements on getting inside the carriage were very elegant.

“Let’s go.”

It was the beginning of a long journey.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(3rd PERSON POV)

“Hah…”

Mrs. Essential’s sigh filled the quiet room.

“This month’s profit was also very low.”

It was no surprise since for the past few months, they had always been having low profits. It has been ongoing all year long.

But they still managed to survive somehow. They survived due to subsidies from the temple, donations from villagers, and food donations.

Her husband also worked hard day and night. Saying things like he wouldn’t let their twenty children starve. Then whenever he had some spare time, he would also sew some clothes for his children to wear.

‘But now we’re at our limit.’

Mrs. Essential was raising twenty children with her husband.

On a cold winter day, when she was so discouraged because she couldn’t give birth to a child, she happened to see a newborn baby inside a basket. She decided to raise the child as she considered them to be a blessing from the goddess.

From that day on, she always seems to have connections with children who have no parents. Some were abandoned while the others had parents who both died due to illness and had nowhere else to go.

Before they knew it, they had already adopted twenty children in total. Even though they all have different life stories, the couple embraced them all as if they were their own children.

However, it was clear that it was not a number that could be sustained by a modest living. There was of course help from those around them, but it was always difficult to survive day by day.

‘We’ll go out and get a job to make some money.’

Children should not be unaware of the difficulties of their parents. That’s how much her heart was broken when she heard these words from the eldest child not so long ago.

The eldest was only twelve years old. That is why the Essential couple stopped the child from working.

‘I have to pay back the interest on the money that I borrowed from Shilo this month… Where on earth would I get that money?’

Mrs. Essential, who was worried about how they were going to pay off their debts, with an anxious look on her face. It was at that moment she was interrupted.

“Mom!”

Someone from outside opened the door and came in. It was her tenth child, Thomas.

“What are you doing mom?”

“Oh, Thomas….”

Mrs. Essential tried to erase her worried expression and smiled back towards the child.

“Oh it’s nothing Thomas. Mom was just writing something. Why did you come here?”

“I’m going to give mom a horoscope for today.”

“Today’s horoscope?”

“Yes!”

Thomas pulled a bunch of cards out of his pocket. It was her second daughter, Kylie, who had recently made the cards for themselves.

Thomas shuffled the cards a few times and laid them out on the desk in front of Mrs. Essential.

“Come on, pick one from here.”

“Mm… Let’s see….”

Still with a worried look on her face, Mrs. Essential picked up the card placed in the middle and looked at the card.

“What does it say, Mom?”

“It says that ‘I will meet a noble woman today’.”

[pr/n: convenient foreshadowing, noice]

“A noble? What is that?”

“It means a good person. It would be nice if this card was really….”

“Mom! Mom!”

An urgent voice was then heard from outside, and someone opened the door and ran inside. It was Lucy, her twelfth daughter.

“What’s going on, Lucy?”

“Something bad is happening mom! Bad guys have invaded our house!”

“What?!”

“Some bad guys are destroying our house! I’m so scared mom!”

“Calm down, Lucy. Thomas, stay here with Lucy.”

Mrs. Essential rushed out of the room and was faced with a horrible sight.

“Ah…!”

It was just as Lucy had said. Some gangsters had broken into their house and made quite a mess inside their home.

“Mister, you have no right to do that! This is our house.”

“You get out of the way, little kid! Where is your mother? Call out your mother now!”

“Argh!”

George then tried to stop one of the men that was wielding a hammer and smashing the old furniture. But the man’s strength only made him stumble to the floor. 

“George!”

Mrs. Essential ran straight to George, who was frozen from shock, and the man who saw her opened his mouth with a wicked smile.

“Oh, you finally showed up.”

“Shilo, why are you doing this!”

“If you borrow money, you have to pay it back. Now this house is mine.”

“I’m paying the interest every month!”

“Then you have to pay the money back now. But then again how could you possibly pay back the ten gold coins in order to have your house back?”

“Ten gold coins?! The only amount that I borrowed from you was fifty silver coins!”

“The interest rates keep rising. Of course, the amount of money you owe will also increase.”

“Hey, you didn’t say that at the beginning! How is there a way to increase the amount up to twenty times the principal?!”

“Why are you asking this now? Of course you know about it. Didn’t you sign the contract for that to happen!”

Shiloh presented the contract to Mrs. Essential.

But Mrs. Essential was illiterate, like most of the commoners of Rosenberg, that’s why she couldn’t say anything. 

“But twenty times the principal amount is just too much…..”

“Oh that’s enough now. This house is mine, so you better all get out of here. Even if I have this booger house, it won’t even cover the interest. In order to pay back all of the principal….”

Shiloh looked sideways at the trembling children with a sinister look.

“I think I should take some of those kids to cover the interest.”

“No! You can’t take my children!”

“Why not? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for you old lady? Especially if you would have less children to feed.”

“I know what you’re planning to do with them.”

Mrs. Essential was well aware of what would happen to the children in this situation. Young boys would be sold off to be illegal slaves and the girls would be taken to the brothels.

These are the children that she’s been protecting until now. She couldn’t let them fall into such a terrible situation.

“I’m glad that you know me well but at least they won’t starve to death, right?”

Shiloh grinned and looked at the children with creepy eyes.

Then, he pointed his finger at the children and gave an order to someone behind him.

“Get this one, that one there, and him as well. Bring those three along with us.”

“Oh, no! No!”

Mrs. Essential hastily stood in front of her children and tried to protect them.

“I would never allow you to take any of my children. You have to kill me first!”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying. Get out of here!”

Shiloh shoved Mrs. Essential towards the floor. The intensity of the shove made her lose her balance and was trampled on. 

“Mom!”

“Come on, let’s start getting those kids on the other side.”

The children cried loudly and tried to run towards Mrs. Essential, but Shiloh blocked them with force.

“Starting today, all of you will have to earn money on your own, okay? How long are you going to depend on your parents? Come on now, all of you shall go with me okay?”

“Leave the kids alone! Everyone is still so young!”

“Take the kids!”

“Mom! Mom!”

The children cried out to their Mom. Mrs. Essential drew all of her strength and got up from the floor to run over towards the children.

Then she bit Shiloh’s arm, which was holding Lucy’s body, with her bare teeth.

“Ah! You damn woman!”

It was at that moment when Shiloh who was enraged, grabbed Mrs. Essential’s collar and was about to slap her on the cheek.

Bang!

Someone slammed the door open and appeared in the entrance way.

Everyone in the house was stunned and looked at the door with puzzled expressions.

“Argh!”

Soon after, Shiloh’s arms were completely broken by knights who quickly entered the house. His subordinates were also seized, restrained from moving in an instant, and bound.

“Hey, what the hell is this!”

“Take all of them and turn them over to the local court.”

A cold woman’s voice was heard.

Shiloh reflexively raised his head, and  immediately fell down as if his neck was about to be broken by the knight’s steady hold on his head.

“Who the hell are you? Who’s that woman? Ugh!”

Shiloh had spoken blasphemous words, and was eventually hit hard on the back of his neck for his rudeness. He trembled like a fish out of water and eventually collapsed on the floor.

Anastasia frowned and asked the knight that was holding Shiloh.

“Is he dead?”

“Not yet. Should I kill him, Your Majesty?”

“No, let the local judge handle him. He must be punished for all of the things that he had committed. He can’t die that easily, he needs to pay for what he has done.”

In the end, Shiloh’s gang was dragged out of the house, squealing like the pigs that they are, and eventually the noisy house quieted down.

“Phew….”

After the situation was settled, Anastasia let out a long sigh and turned to face Mrs. Essential.

It was hard for anyone to see her there, shivering with her children in a dumbfounded state.

Anastasia approached them slowly with a warm smile on her lips and asked.

“I’m glad that I’m not too late. Are you hurt, Mrs. Essential?”