“I have no confidence. Even if I were to govern instead of my mother, I cannot trust my decisions. What if I hurt many people because of my foolish decisions?”
“So you are saying that you will hide under your mother’s wings? You are afraid that you will make the wrong decisions so you will use your mother as the shield? Do you not see that your decision to hide behind her as not your own? If the Empress makes the wrong decisions, it’s also your responsibility. So do not hide yourself. Please do not disappoint me. I believe you will become a noble emperor. Because you are a benevolent person. If you think about how it will affect the people when making political judgments, I believe you will never make a wrong decision.”
Valore bowed his head and listened to Sienna. Sienna felt sorry to see him like a child being punished, but she kept telling him.
“If your people look at the Empress at the meeting, order her not to attend the political meeting. She participated in the event to replace the old emperor in his sickbed, but now that you are here, who will be the Emperor, she doesn’t have to be there.”
“But…”
As Valore tried to say something, Sienna cut him cold.
“If you’re going to make any more excuses, please stop. I’m tired. I’d like you to go back.”
At Sienna’s cold command, Valore turned back with a wounded face.
*
Valore’s coronation was held splendidly not long after the day Sienna and Valore talked. Valore visited Sienna again the night before the coronation. He asked that he will try hard as she said, so please don’t hold anything against him.
Sienna soothed him and said that she had never hated him. His shoulders looked prominently narrow today, and it made her feel sorry for him.
She advised him to be a good monarch, but she wondered if she was really qualified to say such a thing. He was a young man who had just turned twenty. Regulating an empire must be a very difficult assignment for a young man.
Unlike Valore, whose face was dark throughout the coronation, Arya’s expression was bright. Sienna had the urge to crush her face. Sienna felt disgusted by Arya’s attitude as if she had ascended to the throne.
The higher you go, the greater the shock when you fall. On the other hand, she hoped that Arya would be tamed by the sweetness of power for at least a short period of time. That way, the bitterness after losing that power will be even greater.
Arya took part in political affairs meetings even after Valore rose to the throne. Valore opposed it, but she insisted on helping him until he got used to the business, which was inevitable.
The chilly wind carried the scent of fallen leaves, signaling that it had entered late autumn. Autumn was the year when a year’s efforts paid off. Autumn was a season of joy, especially in the south, where wheat farming was the main activity.
The crop was not bad this year either. There was a long downpour in early autumn, but it did not have much impact on the crops. Moreover, the good harvest lasted for many years, so the southern warehouse was full of grain and lacked storage space.
The nobles of the South sang a song of joy. Emperor Valore’s new appearance reduced tax revenues from 50 percent to 30 percent, so they were expecting a bigger profit than usual.
But they soon realized how big a crisis they faced.
“What? You can’t send wheat up to the capital?”
Duke of Panacio, Depine’s gallant voice echoed inside the living room. In front of him stood a merchant of the Southern Chamber of Commerce.
“The roads connecting the southern part of the capital were lost, so all the wheat in the southern part of the country is not going up to the capital.”
The merchant looked up and glanced at Depine. There was resentment in his eyes.
Restoring the land route linking the southern part of the country to the capital was Depine’s responsibility since he was the real power of the southern part of the country. To do so, he sometimes drew taxes from the central region. But the problem was that construction has been delayed day by day because of his use of the tax for other work.
Depine coughed out loud and said,
“Hmm. Isn’t there the Hegea River, if not those roads?” Why can’t we use the sea route?…”
“I’ve been trying it all along. But it’s hard to pick a time when the wheat reached the capital because of the pirates of Hegea River.”
“I can’t believe pirates there at times like this!”
Depine struck his chest with frustration. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have signed such a contract. He regretted selling the rights to purchase sixty thousand bags of wheat a few months ago. Even if the road was not restored, he thought there would be no big problem because there was a sea route, but now it was a disaster.
‘I even tied up the land as a collateral!’
He inquired mournfully of the Southern merchant.
“Is there no other way?”
The merchant shook his head and looked embarrassed.
“There’s no way. Other Southern aristocrats have already sold their wheat coupons having their land as collateral, but they are saying that wheat is impossible to transport. Even though it’s a good year, wheat sales are impossible…”
The merchant looked at Depine with irreverent eyes, but Depine could not yell at him. It was obvious who the other Southern aristocrats, as well as the merchants, were grumbling at.
‘If it weren’t for that red gem…’
After rumors circulated that Empress Arya had given the Valore supporters a big red gem by promising them a future, many people visited Depine. He had to somehow bring red jewels to those looking for it from him with an uneasy face. Otherwise, as soon as Valore sits down as the emperor, they will complain to Depine that they had been abandoned.
It was not long after Valore took the throne of the emperor so Depine had to soothe their hearts. So the money made from selling 60,000 bags of wheat was gone in no time. This is because the price of red jewelry has soared as the rumors spread. In the end, he had no choice but to divert the cost of restoring the road.
“First of all, I will talk to the Empress.”
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
Looking at the retreating merchant with his head bowed down, Depine sighed deeply. Red jewelry was sprayed to strengthen the Valore supporters, but it seemed to have further lost the hearts of the Southern aristocrats.
“I’m sure Arya will be angry when she finds out about this…”
His face was filled with anxiety.
Carl sat at his desk, giving a troubled look. He was writing a letter to Sienna. But then he crumpled up the letter and threw it into the furnace.
“I’m not writing war reports.”
The content of his letter was about the progress of the war and the right to buy wheat in the southern part of the country. He was going to write a letter because he didn’t see her for a while, but he was annoyed by the hard content.
“As you said, the heavy rain lasted a long time. I want to see what kind of facial expression you’re going to have when you find out you’re not wrong…”
“What are you doing?”
While writing the new letter, Carl was startled by Pavenik, who suddenly entered the barracks, and he crumpled the letter in a hurry and threw it onto the fireplace.
“What is it?”
Pavenik glanced at the letter burning in the brazier with a curious look.
“What is it? In my barracks without any sign of…”
“No signs? I’ve been coughing a lot outside. I’ve been coughing so much that my throat is hurting.”
He glanced at Carl’s glass of water and said, “So I’m going to need some water…”
“By all means.”
As soon as Carl’s permission was given, he gulped down a glass full of water. Pavenik wiped the water from his mouth with the back of his hand and said, “So you’ve written all the letters you are sending to Her Majesty the Crown Princess?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
As Carl glared at him, Pavenik said with a sly smile.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s your honeymoon. By the way, I didn’t know you were such a romantic. It has not been so long since you’ve been to the palace, do you want to see her already? You’re writing a love letter so hard…”
“When did I ever write a love letter?!”