When it came to managing her ‘territory’, Emilia very much preferred selecting capable people and letting them do what they were good at to micro-managing every little thing herself.
After all, as long as she made sure that their views on what needed to be done and how she wants things to be handled were clear enough, it would not only be much more efficient, but also extremely effective.
Needless to say, the reason she had picked the leader of the ‘rebels’ in the northern province as her ‘secretary’ wasn’t just because the woman was smart and capable, but because she was able to more or less feel what Emilia wanted without her having to say it out loud.
And perhaps even more importantly, she also knew when to stop, and just listen.
”Noelle will drive my car. You lead the way.”
The ‘secretary’ paused only for a second before she handed the keys to Emilia’s luxury car to the gray-haired girl, and headed to the SUV with the bodyguards.
Moments later, they were already on the road, with the black SUV leading in the front while their car followed behind.
The instant the three of them were in the backseat, Emilia immediately kicked off her shoes and threw her head into Crystal’s lap before shaking her head at the dark-haired girl who was about to touch her feet.
”No need. How can I make my tired knight give me a massage?”
Noelle rolled her eyes while shifting the gear. “Hey, miss double standards, did you not think I would be tired too? But here I am, driving!”
Emilia giggled. “Noelle loves working hard, so it’s fine.”
”… Believe it or not, I’ll beat you if you go too far?”
Crystal just chuckled while combing her fingers through her girlfriend’s beautiful crimson hair. “You can let Dixie at least tease you a little, you know? She’s probably missed you more than anyone else, being the most desperate of us and all.”
”…?” The dark-haired girl had no idea whether she should be happy or offended.
Fortunately, once Emilia hummed in consent, Dixie stopped caring about ‘unnecessary things’ as she happily peeled off the gorgeous girl’s stockings to tease her smooth calf and pearly toes.
Being able to cuddle with her girlfriends in the backseat while Noelle drove them ‘home’ after such a long time, Emilia couldn’t help but giggle happily. “Hey, it tickles~ Oh, but don’t stop. That feels good, too!”
Had they not already started moving at a somewhat decent speed, Noelle would have surely rolled her eyes again. ‘I thought she might have matured a little by now, but I guess not. Those idiots all must have been charmed silly by her and made fake reports on how immaculate she is.’
Not that she could blame them.
Of course, it wasn’t just for her comfort and nostalgia that Emilia asked her ‘secretary’ to change cars.
”By the way, Crystal… what do you think of Alexandria?”
Before the blonde could respond, Noelle almost choked on her own saliva. “I-Is that really her name?!”
The crimson-haired girl blinked in surprise. “Why, is there anything wrong?”
The older girl paused for a while before coughing awkwardly. “N-Not really, no. It’s just… her name is quite similar to that pervert Alexander Gray, isn’t it?”
Emilia paused before nodding begrudgingly. “I guess so? She’s not similar to him at all, so it never really crossed my mind.”
The gray-haired girl hummed thoughtfully. “You seem to have quite a good impression of her?”
Emilia nodded. “Mhmm… she’s efficient, and works hard. I think she’ll do well under your guidance.”
Noelle hummed, noncommittal. “Is that so?”
The crimson-haired girl nodded before she turned to look at Crystal with a smile. “Well, you haven’t answered my question. What do you think of her?”
Crystal ran her fingers through Emilia’s hair thoughtfully. “Well… although she was quite angry before, her thoughts didn’t deviate towards betrayal or maliciousness, at least. She only wanted to work harder and get better. I suppose she can be considered trustworthy.”
Naturally, her ‘affection’ for Emilia wasn’t a secret to the blonde girl at all, but she intentionally chose not to mention it.
Despite that, however, the fact that she didn’t ‘hate’ the people who ‘stole’ the attention and favor of her princess was already a very good indicator in Crystal’s book.
After all, people who find it easy to direct unreasonable hatred at others were also more prone to finding excuses to justify other types of self-righteous actions, as far as she was concerned.
Emilia smiled. “Good. Although I felt she was quite good, I didn’t want to finalize my judgment without consulting you.”
The blonde girl blushed. “W-Well, I-I’m happy I could help.”
Emilia giggled. “Alright. You won’t think I’m working you like a mule if I make you ‘screen’ a few hundred more people later, right?”
With the Blue Dawn Empire being newly established, there were still many important positions that needed to be ‘filled’ with the right people, as who went where might make a major impact on not just the empire’s current administration, but also its future growth!
After all, since the empire was like a baby that was just growing up, Emilia had to be careful with the nutrition and growth path if she wanted it to turn out the way she wanted.
And when it came to seeing through people… who could be better than her darling heroine?
Naturally, Crystal agreed.
Emilia smiled. “Thank you! I’ll make sure you get proper ‘rest’, too.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
While many of her subordinates had proposed that a new ‘palace’ be built in her honor now that she had become their monarch, Emilia didn’t really want to waste the time and resources on such pointless things right now.
After all, not only was her rule not ‘fully consolidated’ yet, the ’empire’ itself was very much still in its ‘infancy’ and needed to be carefully nurtured and cared for with all the resources that she could get her hands on.
Not to mention squandering Blue Dawn’s current resources, Emilia even planned to bring in whatever she could from the White Deer Corporation to help.
Under such circumstances, she decided to simply make the Blue Lotus Villa where she had previously stayed in the temporary Imperial Palace where people could come meet her if needed.
Of course, until the ‘threat’ of General Green was dealt with, her ‘subordinates’ still refused to obey her when it came to how much security this place could have.
After all, going by herself while hidden and not having anyone to protect her out in the open were two completely different things.
Emilia knew that Alexandria and the others may not budge even if they were to be beaten to the death on this matter, so she just acquiesced to it for the time being, even though it made the place seem a lot more ‘unwelcome’ to her girlfriends at first glance.
Not feeling very cozy in either the hall or the garden, the crimson-haired girl led her girlfriends directly to her bedroom before waving Alexandria over.
”Make sure no one comes to disturb us for a while, alright?”
Alexandria nodded obediently, though there were some suspicious crackling noises coming from her tablet.
Emilia didn’t find it too strange, though. It was only to be expected that one of the busiest women in Blue Dawn would get constant notifications, right? Though her choice of tone was a little… out of the norm.
After shutting the door close, Emilia happily bounced over to all three of them one by one, hugging them tightly before she jumped onto the bed.
Seeing her roll over happily while squealing, Noelle couldn’t help but roll her eyes helplessly. “You’re such a silly goose! As an empress, shouldn’t you have more dignity by now?”
While Crystal and Dixie frowned in disapproval, but didn’t refute the older girl outright.
Of course, while their external reactions matched, their internal thoughts were completely different. After all, while the blonde girl felt that Emilia should be free to be who she wanted regardless of people’s opinions, Dixie’s thoughts were more along the lines of her princess already being perfect.
Emilia just huffed. “Are you scolding me? Anyway, I’m pretty much still an uncrowned princess, you know?”
Noelle hummed thoughtfully. “Are you talking about that ‘General Green’ idiot?”
”Yeah!”
The gray-haired girl smiled coldly. “Don’t worry. Now that I’m here… I’ll naturally help you deal with that moron.”
Emilia giggled. “Okay~ But besides that, there is one more thing!”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━