After I told everyone at the abandoned house that I would be visiting the Empress at that mont, they all reacted surprised as one of them said that it was bold of to say that.
"First, you can’t just go and talk to the Empress. You need to get an audience, and that could take up to a month to get accepted..." said Jen, who was the most knowledgeable when it ca to these procedures.
"Second, it’s extrely late at night. Going to the palace now to ask for an audience is just going to anger the guards..." she continued.
I was glad that she explained their customs to , but I didn’t care that much about it since I had no ti to waste just to talk to the Empress. She may have had a significant status, but she was still just a person.
I didn’t mind if people called self-centered or sothing, but I treated everyone equally without caring for their background or status. If soone was nice to , then I was nice to them.
With that sa reasoning, I wasn’t going to treat the Empress any different than the others and wait a month to talk to her.
This was an urgent matter, and if she truly were a good person and ruler, she would understand. Probably.
"Jen, where exactly is the Empress’s bedroom?" I asked the noble alchemist.
"W-why do you want to know?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with suspicion.
"Co on, just tell . I promise I won’t do anything bad." I replied, slightly annoyed since we were still wasting ti.
Jen sighed in defeat and walked with to the main road, where the palace was visible in the distance, towering over the city.
Pointing at one of the side towers that were the tallest of the building, she explained that the Empress’s chambers were at the very top of it.
"I see. Thanks!" I said, promptly using my poncho to levitate, and flew straight towards the tower she pointed at.
"Wait...!" she exclaid, but I was already flying away, so I couldn’t hear the rest of her sentence.
When I got closer to the palace, I noticed the amount of security was pretty heavy, so I ascended into the air to the point where I was barely visible from the ground.
I had to fly above a few gardens that looked quite srizing from all the way up in the air, but I had no ti to appreciate the area as I kept flying up until I reached the balcony at the top.
The first thing I did was turn around to look at the view, and it was absolutely beautiful as I could see the entire city from that spot.
’Having the room all the way up here may feel like a hassle, but this view makes it worth it to be the ruler’s bedroom, no doubt...’ I thought, also wondering if lina would have liked to see this with .
I gently slapped my face to bring back to reality and walked toward the glass panel that led to the Empress’s bedroom. However, I didn’t want to barge in since that would have been rude, so I knocked on the window instead.
I could see the woman waking up in so sort of panic, which made realize that knocking on the window wasn’t my best idea.
Before she could yell for the guards to enter her room, I slightly opened the window and used sound magic to mute the sound coming out of her mouth.
"Shhhh, I didn’t co here to hurt you or anything. I need to talk to you urgently..." I said, almost whispering.
However, the Empress glared at with anger and disdain and started yelling sothing at . I couldn’t hear what she was saying because she was muted, but I could guess it wasn’t anything pretty.
"Please calm down. I can’t have you screaming right now. This is important..." I said with a serious tone that seed to reach her ears.
When the Empress cald down, I removed the sound spell and introduced myself.
"My na is Ichiro. I’m not from this country, but I have been here for a few days and found so stuff that you might be interested in..." I said.
The empress was a tall, blonde woman with red eyes, which looked quite enchanting since they were as red as Vespera’s eyes, sothing I didn’t know was possible for humans to have.
"You are not a subject of mine, huh?" the Empress said with a low but commanding tone.
"Right. I was passing by because I heard about the war-..." I tried explaining, but the Empress cut off.
"Boy, do you know who I am?" she asked.
"Are you not the Empress? Did I co to the wrong room!?" I asked, wondering if she was trying to stop from divulging information to soone who wasn’t the ruler.
However, I realized I was wrong when I noticed how annoyed she looked at that comnt.
"My na is Lysandra Argentum, Empress of the Droman Empire and the Imperial Master Swordswoman..." she said with an elegant tone that would have made guess that she hadn’t just woken up.
"You say your na was Ichiro? Are you a commoner?" she asked calmly.
"Is that a problem?" I replied with another question since, depending on her answer, my opinion of her would be swayed.
The empress shook her head in denial. "I just don’t think any noble would be bold enough to barge into the Empress’s bedroom in the middle of the night," she replied.
"Where are you from, then?" The empress continued.
"Hmm, I don’t know if I want to tell you that right now. I still don’t trust you enough..." I replied, making the empress glare at with annoyance.
"You don’t trust !? You are the one who barged in here. I’m the one who doesn’t trust you!" she exclaid.
I an, she had a point, but I still couldn’t bring myself to fully trust her until I talked more about the Crimson Scorpions situation and see how she would react to it.
"Lysandra, do you know of the Crimson Scorpions?" I asked, making the empress switch her expression of annoyance to interest.
"I’ll let go of the fact you called by my na since it looks like you have sothing important to say..." she muttered.
"Right, so are you aware of what they are doing?" I asked.
The empress crossed her arms, her deanor suddenly turning severe and heavy.
"Of course I do. Those pests have been giving even more trouble than I was already dealing with..." the empress muttered as she clenched her teeth.
I opened my void pocket for a mont, alerting the empress as she readied herself in a defensive combat position. However, when I brought out the bag filled with the scorpion pins, her eyes lit up as she inspected it.
"H-how many are here?" she asked, grabbing one of the pins and looking at it closely.
"There are around fifty..." I replied, starting my story of how I ca across them and how I had managed to gain control of their underground tunnels.
When I told her that the main culprit was the noble by the na of Romanov, Lysandra clenched the pin on her fist tightly with anger.
From what she said, Romanov had been acting friendly with the Imperial family since the war started, and she had her suspicions about him, but she didn’t expect he would be the gang’s leader.
I also told her I had found Jen Lovegrad and her grandfather, lighting her eyes with joy.
"Did you really find Jen!? Is she okay!? She asked hurriedly, grabbing and shaking my shoulders.
"She is fine. I took her to a safe place." I replied, calming her down as she let go and sat on her bed with a tired face.
"I’m glad. My little sister has been looking for her incessantly after her disappearance..." she said.
"Oh right, Jen did say that the princess was her best friend..." I said, rembering what the alchemist had told about the imperial family.
The empress nodded, explaining they had been friends ever since they were little, as they were the sa age, and the princess hadn’t been eating and losing sleep over her friend.
After I gave her the good news, I delivered the bad ones as I showed her the letter I found in Romanov’s office detailing his plan to sell the people he enslaved to other countries.
The empress placed her hand on her chin as she started thinking of a plan. Considering the travel days, her soldiers wouldn’t make it in ti to arrest Romanov before he sent the slaves away.
Nonetheless, I told her that I could probably make it in ti, but I didn’t have any authority to place anyone under arrest, so my idea was a little different.
I wanted to free and teleport the people to the capital before Romanov could return to his mansion.
He had left with his right-hand man and around fifty bandits, but we couldn’t have all those people co into the city with him.
"After I bring all his captives here, I’ll intercept his group on the road and get rid of the bandits. That will make him hurry to the capital..." I explained.
"And that’s where we capture him, in front of everyone so they can all see the true culprit." the empress continued, finishing the sentence.
"Exactly," I said with a smile, making the empress laugh carefreely.
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