Imperial Maid Leona's Life - Imperial Maid Leona's Life Chapter 02
Leona’s Life – 1
‘Leona Felbers’ is from a middle-class family of baron in the Hamel Empire.
Her father was Ose Felbers, a man of lowly rank in the aristocratic world but with a natural talent for handling money.
Although he was a viscount, he had amassed wealth comparable to that of a count.
O Se was a man who placed the highest value in the world on wealth.
Bloodline was just a list of assets to him.
He judged his children by whether they were beneficial to him or valuable to him.
Leona was the eldest daughter of Ose Felbers’ two sons and one daughter.
Although she was the only daughter in the family, she was actually an illegitimate child that the Count had accidentally given birth to outside and brought home.
So Leona was an unwelcome presence in the household.
Not only the countess, but also her two older brothers and even the maids looked down on her and despised her.
If Leona had been a beautiful woman, her situation would have been very different.
If that was the case, the count would have considered his daughter as an asset worth investing in and would have cherished and looked after her with great care.
But unfortunately, Leona had no beauty.
She wasn’t ugly, but she had an ordinary face, with brown hair and blue eyes, as common as street weeds.
To a viscount with a keen eye for beauty, such a daughter was nothing more than a plaything that had to be sold off, even with a dowry.
Although Leona was not particularly pretty, she had extraordinary wit and intelligence.
So she knew from a young age what kind of situation she was in.
Every time her father looked at her things as if he were evaluating them, she felt deep in her bones that she would one day be sold for a pittance somewhere.
Leona worked hard to protect her future.
Growing up neglected, she secretly listened to her older brothers’ classes to gain some knowledge, and when she was 12, she started sneaking out of the mansion to earn money.
In fact, there wasn’t much for a young girl to do outside.
At first, she earned some money by doing odd jobs at a vegetable store. After doing this for about two years, she realized that she would never make money that way.
From then on, Leona started stealing and selling things from the house.
They didn’t have any great treasures, but rather, they used to repair and polish toys from their older brothers’ childhood, or things like worn-out gloves and shoes, and then took them to the market to sell for a good price.
He also took the Countess’s discarded nightgowns and out-of-style dresses, untied all the threads, dismantled them, cut them into neat pieces, and sold them to fabric stores.
Since it was an item for the nobles, the profit was quite good.
Once she had some money saved up, Leona started investing with brokers.
The land where Leona lived was barren, but had mines.
Most of the people living in the territory were miners. There were few farmers who farmed, so the amount of grain harvested was small compared to the number of people living in the territory. So, licensed middlemen bought food from other territory and sold it at high prices.
Knowing this situation, Leona became friendly with a broker and invested all her savings in him, making a smooth and high profit.
As the money grew, Leona’s hopes grew.
She hoped that if she ever made a fortune, her father would see her again.
***
At the age of 16, Leona’s dreams are shattered as she celebrates her coming of age.
Leona showed her father the money she had earned to gain his approval.
However, her father harshly reprimanded her, saying that she was just showing off her talents.
Ose Felbers was a man who had only a talent for making money, but no ability to rise to a higher rank, and so he could never overcome the wall of status of a baron throughout his life.
Leona’s abilities were of no value to him.
After some time, Leona learns that her father intends to marry her off to an old merchant.
The dowry that Ose had set for his daughter was so meager that no noble family wanted to take her. Only an old man with eight children wanted to buy her.
Leona begged and pleaded with her father for days.
But it was no use.
Only ‘profit’ could move him.
Leona stayed in her room for three days and nights, thinking.
How can I get out of this difficult situation?
Then it occurred to me.
As a woman of noble birth, the only way to break free from the shackles of her family and stand on her own.
It was to become a maid in the palace.
Leona knew quite a bit about the Felbus family’s old nanny, who had served as a palace maid in her youth.
The servants and maids who served the Hamel royal family were hired exclusively from noble families, and were mostly children of fallen nobles or poor noble families who chose the job to entrust themselves to them.
Once you became a servant or maid, you could stay in the palace and work for a salary for the rest of your life unless you got married. If you were lucky and favored by a member of the imperial family, you could even gain great power.
power.
Leona savored the sweet words.
Because I was a woman, because I was ordinary-looking, because I was a middle-class noble, because I was an illegitimate child, and because my father was a cold-blooded man without any mercy or compassion, I suffered so many injustices.
“I’m going into the palace!”
Leona vowed to enter the palace and gain power.
So that no one can trample on me, so that no one can control my life again. I will hold the power in my hands.
As soon as the sun rose, Leona went to see her father and made a deal.
She promised that if she was allowed into the palace, she would give all the money she had saved up to that point, as well as the entire deposit from the ‘Lifetime Oath of Being a Handmaiden’ to the family.
The maid/servant’s lifelong oath is a pledge to never marry and to serve the imperial family for the rest of one’s life.
Anyone who signs the pledge will have their family name extinguished and their ties with the family forever severed. The palace paid a large sum of money as a deposit to anyone who made the pledge for life.
So, most of the people who had a lot of debt at home and needed money urgently made a lifelong pledge.
As soon as he heard Leona’s conditions, Ose accepted the request without saying a word.
There was no need to pay an unnecessary dowry, and the wealth would come rolling in as soon as he got his daughter, so he had no reason to refuse.
Besides, it was the time when the palace was recruiting maids.
Ose immediately prepared the necessary documents and procedures for Leona to become a maid and gave her a carriage to take her to the capital of the empire.
Leona left home alone without any farewell.
After a month of arduous journey, she successfully entered the palace of the Hamel Empire as a maid.
***
The year Leona entered the palace, the Emperor’s eldest son and crown prince died suddenly from pneumonia.
Soon after, the second prince, who had been recuperating in the remote regions for a long time, returned to the palace.
Leona becomes a full-time maid after completing her two-month training period.
At the same time, the second prince, the only prince remaining in the empire, ascends to the throne.
The following year, the new crown prince marries the prime minister’s daughter.
Three months later, the crown prince takes the prime minister’s daughter as his crown princess.
And at this time, a woman who had the emperor’s favor entered the palace.
‘Biota Helsian.’
Owner of splendid beauty.
A radiant, beige woman.
With her beauty and youth, she immediately captured the heart of the old emperor and entered the concubine’s palace. At that time, the emperor was 60 years old, and Biota was only 22 years old, only 2 years older than the crown prince.
***
Leona was shocked when she saw Biota.
I was amazed and impressed not by her beauty but by her skill and sophistication.
Biota was incredibly bright and insightful for a young age.
Leona instinctively knew, seeing the blazing torch of passion in her eyes.
It’s that woman!
That woman is never one to be satisfied with that position.
Soon she will rise higher.
If I stay with that woman, I will also be exalted.
Leona, who thought this way, tried to catch Biota’s eye from then on.
And the effort soon bore fruit.
Just as Leona recognized Biota, Biota also recognized Leona’s abilities and ambitions.
Biota took Leona into her palace as her closest maid, and gave her strength by giving her wings.
After that, Leona used every means at her disposal to control the people in the palace for Biota.
Before long, Biota, who had been a mere concubine, became the real power holder in the palace.
Not only that, but with the emperor’s favor on her back, she ascended to the position of empress the following year, less than a year after entering the palace.
At this time, the Emperor’s seed was growing in her stomach, and at the same time, the Crown Prince was quickly losing the Emperor’s heart.
Behind all this was Leona, acting under the Empress’s orders.
In October of that year, the empress gave birth to the third prince, and the crown prince was deposed and abdicated from state affairs.
But coincidentally, at this time, it was revealed that the Crown Princess was three months pregnant.
On the day the Crown Princess’ pregnancy is revealed, Leona receives a secret order from the Empress.
To get rid of the baby in the Crown Princess’s womb.
