Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 62: First Visit

Chapter 62: First Visit

"It’s beautiful!" Arabella gasped when they arrived at Prudencia.

Alwin had teleported them atop a mountain with a good view of the capital of Prudencia. The palace at the center of the capital was beautiful and grand in a different sense to Valeria Palace in Riva.

The Prudencia Palace looked like it was built for beautiful ladies to enjoy. The colors were vibrant and it was surrounded by beautiful flower gardens.

She recalled from her yearly attendance at the assemblies in Medeus that Prudencia was once known to have one of the most beautiful palaces in Eliora.

From afar, the buildings in the city were beautiful as well and it was teeming with life. People were busy going about their daily lives.

"Alwin, can you enhance my eyesight? I want to look closer," Raymond requested and Arabella was wide-eyed.

"Sure," Alwin said and Raymond’s eyes glowed.

’He can do that?’

"Me too!" she instantly demanded. She wanted to get a closer look too. With Alwin’s abilities, she truly wouldn’t need to get close to get a good look at how Prudencia was and how were its people.

Alwin used his magic to enhance her eyesight as well and she was so amazed as she could suddenly see far-off things as if they were near. It made her a bit dizzy at first but she soon got used to it.

She looked around the city and nothing seems to be a miss at first. However, upon closer inspection, she noticed that even children were helping their parents work. She did not see even one playing around as children should.

In her previous life, she had teleported to various territories with Dimo, and most of the time, she had seen children playing around everywhere she went.

Even in Riva, she could see children playing on the streets. But strangely, in Prudencia’s capital, she did not see a single child playing on the streets or even in the shops and stalls. Everyone was helping with some kind of work.

’Is it the culture here in Prudencia to make the children work at an early age?’

Aletha did tell her that to lesser nobles and commoners, living in the capital of territories was not so easy. They have to work hard since even though the pay for jobs was also higher, the prices of goods and living expenses were more expensive compared to living in the countryside.

Arabella decided to look around more and noticed that the color of a lot of buildings were actually faded. Some structures also looked old and dull as if they haven’t been repaired in a while.

In Riva, every building looked new and vibrant. Even the pavements and streets in Riva were always maintained to keep them functional and beautiful.

But in Prudencia, she could see that most of the streets and pavements needed maintenance.

Only the palace looked so perfect and new.

The estates that were obviously owned by the powerful nobles in Riva looked in better condition than the other buildings in the city but it doesn’t come close to that of the residences in Riva, Lobelius, or Medeus.

It was noticeable just from looking that Prudencia was facing financial challenges. Especially since even the noble households cannot maintain their estates to keep looking new and vibrant.

’But the palace itself looked mighty fine. Why would Princess Odette need to work in Riva and even consider staying an in a shared room with someone she just met just to cut on expenses?’

Was even the princess not given enough budget? Was the financial problem so great that even the palace was short on money and resources?

She took a closer look at the palace and everything was maintained well. She did not notice any parts that needed repair or refurbishing.

Arabella’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth to silence a gasp when her eyes went to one of the highest rooms.

’What is he doing in broad daylight?! It’s not even a weekend.’

In one of the rooms, she saw a muscular man having his carnal desires getting satisfied by three women.

’Wait! Isn’t that Marquess Gulliver?!’

She had asked for his portrait yesterday to know what he looked like.

"Isn’t Marquess Gulliver already engaged to Lady Odette, supposedly the first princess and oldest daughter of the Prudencia Household?"

Alwin and Raymond both flinched at her question.

"My apologies you had to see something so unsightly, Your Majesty," they both apologized.

"It’s fine. It’s not your fault."

"From the records, he was indeed engaged to Lady Odette, Your Majesty."

"Does Prudencia allow having other spouses before the main wife? Or are these ladies just his future concubines?"

"I don’t understand either, Your Majesty. From what I know, Prudencia doesn’t allow engaging in such acts before marriage. The husband was also not supposed to engage in carnal acts with other women before the first wife gets pregnant. But since this is happening in the palace itself, perhaps it was an exemption since Marquess Gulliver was not from Prudencia," Raymond explained.

’Shouldn’t he adapt to the culture here since he was the one marrying into the Prudencia Household? This is simply shameless.’

"I see. He must have quite capable men to be able to busy himself satisfying his carnal desires so early in the morning on a busy weekday. Even the Emperor himself is always busy on weekdays. He only ever visits my chambers at night," she commented and Raymond and Alwin flinched.

[Is she saying we are incompetent?!]

[Does she want to spend time with Majesty in the mornings too?!]

"My apologies for being incompetent, Your Majesty. I will do my best to improve myself and everyone else so His Majesty wouldn’t be riddled with too much work that he cannot even visit you in the morning," Raymond apologized and she almost laughed.

"That’s not what I meant. I was just amazed that Marquess Gulliver could laze around as he pleased."

Even when Arabella was just a princess in Lobelius, she didn’t spend her days just flirting with Andrew. She was almost always busy with something. She could only write her letters to Andrew during the night.

"Ah, right. Marquess Gulliver is not the ruler. He doesn’t have to do all the work himself, right? He was here just to guide Prudencia so he doesn’t really have to do anything unless he was needed."

"Yes, Your Majesty. His task was just to oversee things. If Prudencia was having difficulties in adapting to Valeria’s general laws and regulations, it was when he needed to step in," Raymond responded stiffly.

[But I thought Marquess Gulliver was supposed to be doing the task of the ruler since the King of Prudencia perished in the battle years ago when they were conquered and the princes were still young. . . Right, they must have come of age already. Did the marquess already return the power to the Prudencia Household? Did he hand it over to the eldest son? I guess we truly have to investigate. What Alwin discovered in the residences in Riva wasn’t a good sign.]

Raymond was also puzzled by the situation. He thought of returning to Prudencia later to investigate closely with Alwin.

[How can Her Majesty be so calm with this scene? Was it because she already had experience with her former lover and His Majesty so she was not at all fazed by all this?]

Alwin was frowning at her for calmly looking at a sex scene involving several people.

[Ah, right! She had a lot of experience with this in her former life. After all, she slept around with several men. But I don’t remember her sleeping with more than one man at once. And she doesn’t have a recollection of the past either. Why is she so calm?]

’What?! Does Alwin even know the men I have slept around with?!’

Arabella suddenly felt embarrassed. She thought Alwin only knew about Icarus.

[Oh, she’s embarrassed but she’s trying to look calm and collected.] Alwin misunderstood her embarrassment.

She glanced at the palace in Gulliver’s room again and it was then that she saw several ladies enter the room after he was done with the three ladies.

’Why do they have iron collars around their necks?’

Some were naked while some were barely wearing a thin piece of cloth. The expression on their faces didn’t look happy at all. Their hands and knees were also wrapped with chains.

’What are they? Why does this look familiar?’

She could recall seeing them in one of the kingdoms she visited in her past life.

’Are they prisoners? But why would the Marquess involve himself with prisoners?’

Marquess Gulliver beckoned for one of the ladies to come forward and he made her go down on him. He seemed to not like it and strangled and slapped the lady violently to the point she lost consciousness and her lips bled. She was carried by servants out of his room.

’Is this what he did to Odette in my past life?’ Arabella shivered at the thought.

She once thought Ferdinand was mean and cruel but he never beat her like this nor any lady in the palace. He did sentence some of the servants to death or killed them himself but he didn’t beat them like this. He gave them instant death without having to suffer such beatings first.

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A/N:

Thank you for your support everyone!

We only need several more privilege Chapter unlocks to reach the first tier of win-win event. Encouraging everyone to unlock privilege Chapters.

Thanks much in advance!