Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 473: Not Used to Human Society

Chapter 473: Not Used to Human Society

’They must have moved to Estrella that time since the children probably began to be able to transform.’

But more importantly, for now, Arabella had to worry about her assistants.

She hoped they would be able to eat well so they could do their best again later since Ferdinand would continue observing them.

"I see. Then please, dismiss them on time later. If you don’t dismiss them, they won’t leave. Because as assistants, to Ivan and Ronald, it was common courtesy for them not to eat nor leave before their superior does, unless they were told to do so," Arabella reminded.

That was what she heard from the thoughts of those two. Even when they felt like they might pass out from hunger due to upping their work pace, they did not want to take a break while Ferdinand was still working.

"Ivan and Ronald felt obligated to work since you are still working. Even if they were hungry, they held it in and kept working because they did not want to seem incompetent or disrespectful by taking a break before the Emperor does," she explained.

[Right. I forgot about that because I wanted to finish as much work as possible.]

"Yes, I’ll do that next time. I’m sorry I forgot about it," Ferdinand admitted.

Arabella smiled and almost gave him a peck but recalled Rowan was there.

She didn’t know much about Rowan yet, so she was embarrassed to act sweetly in front of him.

"It’s alright. Thank you for giving me a rest today. And please do remember to dismiss them later," she said instead.

"Yes," Ferdinand offered his hand so they could walk hand in hand.

Arabella settled her hand on his and a smile crossed his face.

[I see. No wonder she is my lord’s mate. She speaks her mind without fear even though my lord is a Primordial Dragon. And she could make him smile just like that.] Rowan silently observed them. He wasn’t dismissed yet, so he hadn’t left.

{If I get too engrossed with work again, do remind me this time.} Ferdinand instructed Rowan before sending him to have a break as well.

"Why are you passing the blame on him?" Arabella chided when it was just the two of them. Ferdinand also sent Rendell to have a break.

"I wasn’t. He should have reminded me especially since I was too focused to notice the time. Since he knew it was lunchtime for your assistants, he should have told me," Ferdinand defended himself.

"Oh, right. That’s also true. He knew how things worked since today was the sixth day he was working with us."

Thus, Ferdinand wasn’t wrong either especially since Rowan was also his assistant.

But Arabella noticed that Rowan wasn’t used to how humans pass their time since he had been living in Estrella for a while.

When Arabella gave them breaks every two hours of work, Rowan was surprised at first but recalled that was how human society functioned.

Raymond said Rowan was educated about the current human society, but he hasn’t experienced it for himself. Thus, he wasn’t used to their practices. He only experienced it recently when he had to work with Arabella.

Arabella pointed it out before Ferdinand let up.

"Ah, right. He hasn’t been to Valeria since he was doing Raymond’s work here."

[I guess I have to bring Rowan to Valeria soon so he would get used to human society before he replaces Raymond.]

. . .

Arabella and Ferdinand then had their meal together.

Once they were done, Ferdinand told her to do whatever she wanted before he returned to her study.

Arabella decided to read a book in one of the gazebos in the flower garden.

While she was reading, Riley suddenly appeared beside Rendell and walked to her.

"Greetings to Your Majesty," Riley greeted. "I have something to report."

Arabella figured it had something to do about the matter regarding Narcissa’s bullying.

"Please speak."

"I have verified the matters Your Majesty’s assistants told us last time. Narcissa Ryvaleh had indeed committed the things Ivan Meyer said. And she was currently ostracizing Odette Prudencia and Nadia Safiro and bullying them when the others are not around. She was not physically violent to them, but her words and actions were quite rude."

Riley reported what he gathered and showed her evidence through a magic crystal.

With this, Arabella could ask for an official investigation. But that would mean causing a rift with the Ryvaleh Household when what she wanted was to be on friendly terms with them.

’I have to speak with Narcissa first and punish her on my own terms. If she’s not willing to stop what she’s doing, apologize to Ivan and the others, and accept punishment from me, then that’s the time I’ll ask for an official investigation and have her punished openly.’

Arabella decided on what to do. She could not let Narcissa go unpunished, but she had to give her a chance to redeem herself.

"Thank you for your hard work, Riley. Please ensure Odette and Nadia are guarded so Narcissa won’t be able to do anything more to them."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Arabella thought that was the end of their talk but...

"Your Majesty, I also have one more thing to report," Riley said.

"Oh, please do. What is it?"

"The one we assigned to watch over Duke Olivier reported that there were repeated attempts on the duke’s life, but he was able to avert and survive them since they were prepared for it," Riley explained.

’I thought so. Sonia and the butler are on the move.’

"Did you also report this to Ferdinand?"

"I shall report to His Majesty once he was done working," Riley didn’t want to disturb Ferdinand since he was so focused once again.

"I see. You can return to Valeria. I’ll tell Ferdinand," she knew Riley had to return quickly since he was swamped with work since Alwin was not around.

Riley then thanked her and left since he had nothing else to report to Ferdinand. He had already reported it while Arabella was asleep when Ferdinand summoned him.

.

.

.

_______________________

A/N:

WARNING: This is a rant. Read at your own discretion.

I was supposed to update this yesterday, but I opened the comments section when I opened the writer’s platform and saw hateful comments that were personally attacking me and degrading this book.

This is exactly why I try not to open the comment section yet if I’m not done writing for the day. But I just couldn’t help opening it when I logged in to the writers’ portal.

The toxic and hateful comments simply ruined my pace, my mood, and my entire day to the point I couldn’t continue writing. That is how much comments can affect authors so please do watch your words. And not just for this platform and anywhere else.

In this ailing and exhausted world already filled with negativity and hate, please spread kindness and positivity, not more hate and negativity. There is already too much hate and negativity everywhere so please don’t be among those who spread it.

That one kind word you say could save a life. At the same time, your hateful words could plunge someone to death, so please be careful.

Anything you say in the online community has a receiver. And the receiver either gets delighted or suffers the brunt of your words so please be mindful.

If there is something you didn’t like about this book or the characters, you can say it. But do not generalize and do be violent and extremely rude.

I am a very patient and accepting person. I barely even get angry and people around me usually think I’m some kind of robot for being so unemotional.

But the rude and hateful comments were simply too much.

It’s true that I may be earning some money from this book, and I am very grateful for it. But writing is just my hobby. I write mainly because I like doing it and because I want to once again awaken my creativity that was killed by my former work and improve my creative writing skills – since I’m already programmed to write plainly the way I was trained.

I accept constructive criticism. They help in producing better work.

I was once a journalist so other people commenting and editing my written work is normal to me. I also do it.

Moreover, my words are so shallow, and my writing is so direct since these are a requirement for us in my former job, and I simply got used to it. We were required to use the simplest words understandable even to third graders or younger. It’s hard to shift when you’ve been doing it for years.

If you want to read scholastic classics, there are a lot of other books out there and there are also a lot of books published in print for that genre.

This book is for those who like this kind of story and can accept my writing style.

PS. I accept advice regarding my writing style, corrections on my work, and pointing out plot holes or forgotten parts, etc. You are free to comment on it and I would be grateful since I could use it to improve.

I also understand that we all have different tastes, and we have freedom of speech to say what we want, but once you step on someone else’s freedom/right, you are no longer just exercising your right, you are violating other people’s rights.

And spreading so much hate and toxicity (esp. unrelated to this story) and violent words is verbal abuse. You can be reported (though of course, you are using a fake account).

I have been on other writing platforms, I once used to write fanfiction on various platforms in college, publish news articles online, and publish content on my own website, blog, and vlog, but this is the first time I receive comments so degrading, hateful, toxic, and violent.

This is my hobby, so it is even more reason that I am putting in a lot of effort and pouring hours every day into writing this book.

Even when there are storms and floods and thus, power outages in my locality, I still tried my best to write and upload here daily.

I write every single day whether I upload or not and I sometimes have sleepless nights thinking of what to write next or how to write a scene.

Visualizing it in my imagination is easy. But writing it is hard. Things change once you hold the pen or type on your pc or laptop. And it’s not easy to express what you wanted to write.

There are a lot of times that I read what I published and think I could have written this better, this isn’t what I wanted to express, I could have done this or that, and so on the next parts, I try.

But writing is highly dependent on how I was that day since I usually write before I sleep – once I am done with everyday work, meaning, I am already exhausted and sometimes burned out to the point my brain is barely functioning, but I still want to write.

In the past, I also wrote some Chapters of this during my breaks when I was doing office work or during commutes home.

I want to be able to write at any time of the day, but everyone needs to make a living.

I must work to pay the bills and I have a life to attend to. The same is true for other authors so please do not be violent and utterly disrespectful and rude in your comments.

I repeat, constructive criticism and comments just expressing your thoughts about the characters/Chapter/story is alright. But directly attacking the author, degrading the book in general, and insulting other readers is not right. Please don’t do it.

To the toxic commenters out there, you do not know how much effort we authors put into our books. I simply cannot fathom why you even had to drag other readers down if you simply wanted to say your point. You have no right to insult us and our readers.

We also do not want to publish trash. We authors are most critical of ourselves. We also read our books and say this could have been better, this part is bad, etc.

I wasn’t even thinking of publishing this story at first since I am not yet used to writing creatively again, but this story already had readers, so I decided to continue because as a fan of reading novels myself, I did not want to leave everyone hanging.

And with all the Chapters I have already written for this book, I am already invested in it and I’m trying to write for it as much as I can. Likewise, I also want my characters to reach their goals and achieve happiness.

That’s all. Sorry for the extremely long note. They simply set me off and I had to express it.

For everyone who’s supporting this book, thank you very much!

I know there are silent supporters out there who do not even drop a single comment but are always reading my updates, sending power stones, and golden tickets. Thanks much to all of you! You know yourselves. Hehe.