Oh! My Empress

"The rules are simple. Young master Christopher Whittemore will be tested on basics of reading and writing. Since he has never had formal education, we just want to evaluate whether he is ready to start now," Earl Laurent started laying down the rules. Kim Su Won heaved a sigh of relief. She had judged as much and prepared Chris accordingly. No one could be asking for unreasonable demands in his case.

But for herself, she was half on the verge of throwing up from nervousness and half looking forward to it.

Chris was given a sheet by Alexander Laurent which had very basic questions based on alphabets from Krislabet's language. It was more of a test for a kindergartner in Kim Su Won's modern world.

She glanced at the exam sheet, satisfied. She nodded to herself, this was not a problem for Chris at all. Rather, his knowledge was far more advanced, she had applied modern techniques to teach him writing his own mother tongue. It helped that he was already nine years old.

Kim Su Won now focused all her attention on the earl for it was her turn. What was he going to ask her?

"For young lady Emmeline Whittemore, I will be giving you situations that pertain to everyday life in duchy. You need to think about them and provide me solutions. It will be more like a conversation between you and I, but everyone else is free to chime in. What do you think?" Earl Laurent smiled gently, to assure the young kid that he was not out to have her neck. He wanted her to feel comfortable and respond best to her abilities.

He had wanted to keep the questions simpler for her sake. He actually wanted her to pass, there was no harm in letting a kid who was interested in learning to let her be. But duke Whittemore had decided to make the exam tougher on purpose. Earl Laurent was not sure if it was because of his wife or if he really had something in his mind regarding this child.

Even if she failed, he was going to see it himself that she got what she desired. For some reason, he wanted to bet his entire career on this kid. She was going to do great, he just knew it.

Kim Su Won nodded. This was also somewhat within her calculations. She was an introvert in her past life and probably would have shuddered at the thought of presenting in front of people like this. But for some reason, she felt confident today. Was it because she was sure of her experience in her past life?

If it came to politics, she could talk about ideas from the modern world, something that would be completely new to these folks. The people in modern world were hyper aware of their rights as citizens of their respective countries. They talked politics and economics left and right. She might fumble in history here but other fields related to social sciences should be okay.

"Any questions?" Isaac Laurent asked the girl.

"By anyone chiming in, do you also mean that the folks who have gathered here to listen to our ideas over there can participate too?" she asked as she pointed to the crowd of servants and maids. From the novel, she knew that quite a few of them were not satisfied with how duchess Whittemore, her mother, was running the household.

In the future, they would be the first ones to leave when Ivan would take over the duchy. It would be a mess. But if she could pull them over to her side now, she would have more servants and maids in her own wing. It would be so much easier for Anna as well.

The crowd started discussing again. Was this girl mad? Who in their right mind would want to get into trouble by speaking for or against anyone sitting for this exam today? Why drag them in?

"I mean, if you are going to give me realistic situations, then I reckon they would be related to our household or our duchy. That means those situations directly affect the citizens and as such, our staff. Would it not make sense to hear directly from them what they think?" Kim Su Won smiled towards the earl.

She just wanted more support because she knew her views could contradict that of the duke and the duchess, but not the common folks. From the bottom of her heart, she belonged with them despite being the rich daughter of the duke in appearance.

"We cannot allow that, the two judges of the exam are Ivan and Cecilia. Do not try to pull of any scheme here Emmeline," duchess rebuked her slightly. But who would hear to a woman in decisions like these?

"I permit," duke Harold Whittemore had an eye contact with the earl and decided to go ahead. There was one duchess and so many of working class. Anyway, they would not dare to speak against their owners anyway.

"I thank you father. But I am afraid that they would be too afraid to speak their minds. So, I would like to ask you for something. Regardless of me passing this exam or not, if you could ensure that the staff who speak out today, whether in my favor or not, are protected. And if I do pass the exam, if you could assign those staff to my wing, that would be the best," Kim Su Won spoke politely and calmly.

Everyone was stunned. This girl… not only did she put the duke in a grave predicament, she also infused some courage in the servants. They might actually end up participating.

Duke cleared his throat and called Isaac Laurent towards himself.

"What is this girl doing? How can we allow this? I give her an inch and she takes a mile. This is preposterous!" Duke spoke in a furious tone. The folks working in his castle were people who talked, talked to outside people. What if this girl ended up humiliating the whole Whittemore family in front of his citizens? Wasn't she raising the stakes too much?

"Do not worry my lord. I have made enough preparations for this. The people present have signed a non-disclosure agreement with their lives on stake. They won't be able to say even a word about this outside," the earl assured the duke. He had to take all the precautions.

"Y-You… you knew something like this would happen?" the duke was shook.