Oh! My Empress

Isaac Laurent could only smile and shrug. "I was just covering all my bases, my lord. After all, I am not the one who allowed the servants to be the witnesses. I wanted this to be a closed door evaluation," he gave a side eye to the duchess, who was the one who had granted permission to let the servants in.

She had probably done this to embarrass her own daughter but who would have thought that the situation could be turned around by a twelve year old like this?

"What do you suggest then?" Harold asked Isaac. He was already unhappy that he had to leave his work to be a part of this thing that could have easily been taken care of by the duchess. And now this!

"I would advise to allow it. If you back out now, the servants will think you do not care about them. I am sure even if you permit it, they will not speak up. They fear their lives more than their rights," Isaac replied. His last sentence soothed the hearts of the couple. He was correct, they still feared for their lives. They would not do anything to lose it.

"Alright, that is fine by us," the duke announced and the crowd cheered. Of course, if they were to give individual opinion, they could lose their lives. But they could at least agree or disagree with whatever was being said. No one would fire them all altogether. They were about two hundred strong force.

"Thank you, father and mother. You are so magnanimous," Kim Su Won almost said it in a sarcastic tone. It was only this Isaac Laurent who could twist anything into his own favor. She was sure he would help her out. After all, his priority was the citizens and that was where his loyalty lied.

Isaac Laurent had an eye contact with Emmeline Whittemore and his smile spread wider. This girl, she was making people dance in the palm of her hands. How did she never show such brilliance before?

"Hah! I hope you remember that a lot of what you said depends on you passing this exam," Cecilia finally spoke up. She had been seeing this whole drama and realized she was not the center of attention anymore.

That Isaac Laurent, the only person she had ever begged to, to be her teacher, was favoring her younger sister. What did it mean? It meant that he saw potential in her. Cecilia Whittemore was not as clueless as everyone made out her to be. And she could clearly see how heavily he was favoring that wench.

"That is correct, my lady, a lot depends on you passing this exam. I hope you remember that," Isaac Laurent repeated with a lot of emphasis on 'you'. That added a lot of pressure on Kim Su Won. She could only agree with the two at this moment. She was already knee-deep in this whole ordeal.

"Alright then, let's get started!" Isaac Laurent announced.

Chris was focusing on his assignment and was trying to finish it as fast as possible to witness his sister's stellar performance. He had seen her studying continuously for five days straight, even sacrificing her sleep. He was very confident that she was going to crush everyone here today.

"Your first situation is this. You are roaming around in the streets and suddenly see a carriage charging towards a kid. The kid's leg is crushed and the mother demands a compensation. The carriage happens to be of a Marquis under his lordship. His coachman states that the kid jumped in front of the carriage precisely because he wanted to extort money. What would you do in this situation?"

"All three young lord and ladies will write their answers down first in five minutes and then young lady Emmeline will speak up. Young lord Ivan and young lady Cecilia, then will tell us if they agree or disagree and their reasoning. If anyone else has anything to say, they can say it afterwards."

The three kids busied themselves writing down their responses. Isaac was already standing just like an emcee of a variety show or a teacher in an exam room. He then started roaming around, peering into what the three young lord and ladies had to write.

He was surprised to see the beautiful writing of Emmeline. He knew from his sources that this kid had never shown interest in reading or writing and thus, probably never learnt them. But she was able to do such amazing calligraphy? It was not possible to learn it within a few weeks! And he had not even seen this writing style, that meant she had developed this on her own?

For Kim Su Won, it was a relief that although the script was quite different from Korean, the alphabets followed the same system – a combination of lines, circles and arcs to be written in a particular order.

Isaac was further impressed by her rational argument on the paper. Even from the first answer, he could tell that he had made the right choice!

Five minutes were up and the sheets were collected by Alex who was basically helping his dad conduct this exam today.

"Lady Emmeline, please go ahead and tell us what you think."

"I believe that the question is incomplete. There are a lot of points that need to be investigated. First of all, why did the coachman not see that there was a kid on the street? Was he going at a speed that was not fit for that particular street? If so, then it is the fault of the Marquis and his coachman," Kim Su Won took a breath.

"If he was not, then it might be the kid's fault. But what about the witnesses? But again, if they are all in the same income class as the kid's mother, they might just side with her. That is not mentioned in the question. Regardless, the marquis should cover at least the bill of treatment. He must have much money and should be magnanimous. There is a kid whose life and career just got much more difficult than they should have been had he been healthy," Kim Su Won analyzed.

Hah! This was easier than she had thought. She was a daughter of the duke. If she were to uphold justice for either side, she needed to use the facts.

If she only spoke in favor of the kid, the servants would have been happy but there was a chance for the duke to be offended. Losing a marquis over such a 'small matter' would not be good.

If she spoke in favor of the marquis, then the servants would feel offended. And anyway, the kid was a life, he needed to be treated like one.

"What do you think young lord and young lady?" Isaac was very pleased with the reply but could see that both duke and duchess had a frown on their faces, but for different reasons. Duke was not sure how his daughter had changed so much within past few days. After all, from what he had heard, she was not like this.

Duchess was in the state she was because the answer made sense but she knew that Cecilia would never be able to respond in such a way. Did this earl and her daughter cheat? How could she reply so eloquently if she never studied properly? It must have been like that, right?

But if they cheated, then what was the reason for the earl to help her youngest daughter out? Was he really seeing talents in her? That would be an issue for both Ivan and Cecilia and she could not let that happen!

"Well, I do agree with my sister that the facts are not complete. To make a sound judgement, we need to look at both the sides. Plus, if the marquis is blaming the kid to do it on purpose, does the kid and the mother have a history of doing so? I would also look into that," Ivan replied, winking towards his sister.

To be honest, he would not have thought about it so deeply himself. He was almost glad that he was not sitting at the exam desk. What if he had said it was the marquis who was right because he couldn't be wrong? He would have probably lost his right to heirship right then and there.

"But how can the marquis be wrong? It must have definitely been the kid's fault!" Cecilia spoke.