Saving The Abandoned Empress

116 “Promotion”

‘W-What?’

Eleanora almost choked on the water that she was drinking because of her father’s sudden question.

“Why are you asking me that so suddenly, daddy?”

“Just curious.”

“...”

‘You want me to believe that, daddy?’

‘But why...?’

Eleanora’s eyes widened a little as a sudden realisation hit her mind.

‘Don’t tell me that he is planning to match me with someone else...!’

.....

‘Is he trying to find a replacement for the emperor and match me with that person?’

‘Noo... I don’t accept that!’

“Haha, What I look for in a man, you ask?”

Eleanora’s sudden chuckle made Alexander look at her with a confused gaze but Eleanora didn’t cared about that.

Alexander’s attitude to break of the marriage between her and the emperor seems really firm.

But even if the marriage agreement breaks, she still has to marry someone to continue the family.

It’s not like Eleanora doesn’t want to marry someone else but right now, it feels a little hasty to her.

If possible, she don’t want to get married!

“Well, someone who is stronger then you?”

‘Nobody is stronger then him, I just simply don’t want to get married after getting rid of one.’

“Are you serious?”

Alexander asked in a serious tone which made Eleanora wonder if her thoughts has been seen through by her father.

“Ahaha, That is what I would like but there is no one like that, My father is the strongest!”

Eleanora’s voice become lower as she saw the twitch on Alexander face and thought if she has pissed him off or not.

Where, Alexander who has been taking notes in his mind about her daughter’s preference didn’t knew that his facial expression was so misleading.

‘I need to pretend that I want an impossibly perfect man while not getting caught...’

“For me, it’s looks, money, honour, family, ability. If the man doesn’t have this all in the highest level- I won’t get married!”

Eleanora spoke in a serious tone.

Except the emperor, none of the guys in the empire have all this five qualities.

And the emperor is out of Alexander’s list from the very beginning.

Alexander pondered for a moment and nodded as he opened his mouth to speak.

“Hmm... I see.”

Eleanora heaved a sigh as she thought she has successfully passed the trouble.

But soon she was even more shocked as Alexander spoke again.

“Let’s go on an outing with me.”

‘...Eh? Outing? With whom?’

“Why?!”

Eleanora, who has never been to an outing with her father in her whole past 40 years jolted as she asked.

[A/N: Eleanora’s past 22 years + Present almost 18 years = 40 years]

But Alexander got up from his seat as he looked at his surprised daughter.

“To get you a new dress, the dress you are wearing looks cheap.”

“...”

Eleanora was speechless. The dress she is wearing is from the imperial palace, which seem to always have a suitable dress for her to change into.

Here, Alexander was saying the dress was cheap; which meant he was indirectly calling the imperial palace cheap.

Or maybe the emperor’s taste?

Eleanora didn’t knew anymore as she also stood up and followed her father outside.

Central Street~

“Come here! Discount on anything you buy!”

“Sale! Sale! Sale!”

“We have high quality fabrics here! Take a look!”

It’s been four years since Eleanora last visited the central streets but everything looked more upgraded and lively.

The people’s lives has been totally changed from her past life, where people was suffering from the war damages.

But now people are living happily.

So, Eleanora kept looking around as she walked behind her father.

“This one!”

“...”

“That one!”

“...”

“And all of those!”

“...”

‘Why are you doing this, Daddy!’

Eleanora became speechless as Alexander literally pointed at everything that she looked at even casually.

Then her gaze fall on an ugly black cat doll with red eyes, which she picked up as it looked like the emperor to her.

‘Who would even buy such an ugly cat?’

“That one too.”

“...”

Eleanora flinched as Alexander pointed at the ugly cat doll in her hands.

‘Why is he buying everything i look at?’

Eleanora sighed and stopped looking at other things from then on as she walked, to prevent Alexander from buying unnecessary things.

‘I wanna go home...’

But then, someone brushed aside her and went to the duke to talk.

The person had black cloak she couldn’t see the face but the body shape was a women’s, who had a sword hanging on her waist.

‘A woman with a sword? Did they already finished their training and also started to work?’

As per Eleanora knows, currently she is the only known female knigh, who will become the leader after she takes her knights vow in this years knight ceremony.

So who is this female knight?

The girl wasn’t that taller then her and as she approched the duke, Alexander turned around to look at Eleanora.

‘Do they know each other?’

“Wait here, I will be back soon.”

With that, Alexander immediately disappeared from the crowd with that female knight; leaving Eleanora’s mind wonder in thoughts.

Alexander returned sooner then Eleanora had expected, but she was also happy that he returned sooner.

“Who was she, daddy?”

“Someone who is not worth of mentioning.”

.....

“...”

‘What a great way to introduce someone!’

The next day~

Eleanora got ready to go to the imperial palace along with her father as a knight.

Everytime Alexander sees Eleanora wearing their duchy uniform which is almost same as him, he feels proud.

Both of them had the same shiny silver hair and identical blue eyes, so wearing the same uniform made them look more identical.

Today, Eleanora would start her first day of working as a senior knight in the imperial palace.

Even though she has yet to take the knight vows and ordination ceremony, she could start worling because of her contributions during the war.

[A/N: Ordination ceremony is an event of ordaining or conferring holy orders on someone after they swears something on their name. Simply knight oath ceremony]

Eleanora was not frustrated by the limitations of her physique, she tried her best and had spent more time training than anyone else.

She had polished her strengths, but did not turn a blind eye to her weaknesses even during the war.

Even those who ignored her because she was a female knight gradually changed their view of her, thanks to her efforts.

The carriage with blue and white flage passed through the gates of the central palace, but kept travelling for a long time to reach the training grounds.

As soon as Eleanora got off, she could see Cedrick running in the distance.

He stopped in front of her with a gasp of air.

“Long time no see, The future moon of our empire; Dame Dalton. Have you been at peace?”

Cedrick talked formally with Eleanora which stunned her as people was watching them before he turned to greet Alexander.

“Nice to meet you, Duke Dalton.”

“You too. I have something to do, if the young duke is not busy, can i trouble you with showing her around a little?”

Alexander spoke as he had some important matters to discuss with Duke Heartz.

“You can be rest assured, Duke. I will show her around.”

“Yes, you do your works, Daddy. Am okay.”

With a nodding is response, Alexander left after leaving Eleanora with Cedrick.

“Shall we go, Dame Dalton?”

“...You can speak comfortably with me, Cedrick.”

Cedrick didn’t speak anything and just smilled at her as they started to walk.

Although Eleanora was not officially appointed because she didn’t had her coming of age ceremony yet, she was still promoted to a senior knight.

She would work under her father, the first Commander of the imperial army till she become the commander of the third squadron of knights.

Eleanora wrinkled her brows and showed discomfort as they walked around the training field.

Next to her, Cedrick was also nervous.

Eleanora felt the pricking sensation of gazes from everywhere. If she turns her head, she could see every human passing by as they looked at her.

Some have even come from afar just to confirm seeing her face and that she really become a knight.

They wanted to see how a female knight would look.

In her last life, she was promoted during the war as she had the most contribution in that war with her ideas, which she revealed during the negotiation with Kingdom Rua.

After she returned, she immediately become the empress and the leader of the third squadron as the war with Kingdom Rua started.

Before that war, she was busy with the empress’s duties and slimming down to look pretty to impress the emperor; so she didn’t knew about the curiosity of the people’s around her.

Eleanora’s patience was beginning to wear thin. She didn’t like to stand out.

The Emperor’s fiance, the future moon suddenly become a knight and as soon as she returned from the war, she became a senior knight and then will become the commander directly.

But the problem was that she was not a pleasant sight for other knights to see because of this, especially since she was also a woman.

A girl who has a great family background and who is also the future empress, the combination of those two things did not seem to be very good!

Everyone has to finished their probationary period, then was promoted to junior knight and then senior knight, vice commander and then finally commander position which is like catching a star from the sky.

But Eleanora got a promotion with an appointment as a senior knight directly from the emperor’s orders without even going through all of them.

As she was still one of their colleagues and the future empress for no less, nobody blatantly said that they hated the news.

The senior knights did not like to see a knight with insufficient qualifications and abilities rolling in.

The lesser knights were angry that they had lost their chance.

Where the apprentice knights did not doubt that Eleanora obtained her current position because of her family’s power.

As they didn’t saw her fighting in the battlefield.

To them, how can a girl who didn’t even had time to pass the probationary period can become a senior knight without even taking her knight vows?

The many eyes that looked at Eleanora filled with those emotions.

‘The upper class is full of duality.’

Eleanora knows that they think she got her position because of the emperor and her family but she believes her ability would prove everything.

Cedrick rolled his eyes and looked around. The lesser knights who made eye contact with him hurriedly left.

Seeing people who couldn’t congratulate someone who returned from the war but were instead gossiping behind her back made Cedrick sigh.

What’s with those groups of stubborn, young elites who carried their swords around with pride but acted in contradiction to the code of knights that they had spent hundreds of days memorizing?

Their work all seemed to have gone somewhere meaninglessly.