I look at the mountain of paperwork before me. I'm overworked. Slowly, my eyes fall shut. I'm so tired of this...

A loud 'bang' caused by dropping off another pile of paperwork made me bolt upright. My maid stands before, scorn in her eyes. Annoyed, I wave her away—this is not the first time that that has happened. And she is not the only one who does that.

'Hated by my own people,' I sigh internally and rub my temples. This is not what my 'freedom' was supposed to look like. My eyes hover over the ring on my finger.

I tried, you know? Right now, I only want everything to stop. Maybe read some books, eat something delicious, and nap as often as I want to. 

Wait...I am the matriarch! Hell, I can do whatever I want! 

Books? I can pocket whole libraries in my domain.

Food? Also, in my domain.

Naps? Well, there are many cuddly nooks in there.

Sooo...my domain has everything I need—dunno why I never thought of this before. All that's left is to relocate its entrance to another totally secret place. How about that hidden forest temple? Yes, let's go with this! 

Goodbye obligations, goodbye people who always want to take over, goodbye enemies, and at last, good riddance to the council that tries to marry me off to one of these fat ugly narcissistic nobles.

Uhh, I just hope nothing will go wrong during my long-term absence. Nahhh, nothing will happen at all; I am totally sure of it...probably.

______

This is the rewrite of the old story: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/273362/seclusion-old-version--dropped/

Alternate Titel: I lived so long in seclusion that everybody forgot about me