With her older sister by her side, Emilia naturally had nothing to worry about when it came to managing the financial side of things.
After all, the scale of the Empire’s economy wasn’t very vast to begin with, and using the White Deer Corporation’s top resources would already have been overkill. Adding both Noelle and Sam on top, there was simply no way that their economy wouldn’t ‘thrive’.
Of course, if she wanted to develop the Empire itself into more than just a self-sufficient economy, Emilia still needed to be quite careful.
Unfortunately, the judicial reforms weren’t quite as smooth sailing.
While it was true that most citizens had bonded over their collective obsession over their ‘princess’, various types of disputes between them were still quite inevitable.
Under such circumstances, it wasn’t impossible for things to escalate and end up in court, and that’s when Emilia’s new system was tested.
Initially, things were going quite well. The handpicked judges were both wise and witty, and knew how to solve most disputes efficiently.
Then, the case of a young couple contesting the custody of their only child came along. Of course, things wouldn’t be so troublesome if this were just a normal divorce.
Unfortunately, this was not the case of both parents wanting to ‘take’ the custody of their child, but one in which they were both eager to push to the other party.
The specifics of the case were enough to write a four-hundred-page dog-blood drama, and it was understandable how the judge almost made a mistake after getting his brain turned to mush.
Not wanting the innocent child to be abandoned, he thought that would be a good idea to force the two parents to stay together and raise the child till he came of age. After all, not only did it solve the issue of what to do with the child, but also ‘punished’ both parents equally.
Fortunately, Emilia happened to be watching over the case and took over in time.
After giving the boy the choice between being trained at the Imperial Academy of Martial Arts and pursuing a normal education under government sponsorship, Emilia decisively cut off the parent-child relationship.
Since his life would be miserable no matter which parent he went with, why not give him another way out?
Moreover, if the two parents were really forced to stay together and raise the child, there was no way to be sure what would happen in the future.
The judge also wiped the cold sweat off his brow after hearing the judgment from the empress, and hurriedly asked for a week’s leave to go re-contemplate life.
While the matter passed without much fuss, it still made Emilia decide to change a few more things.
Thus, just a few days later, the empress made another announcement.
”Crystal Miller will now be the Prime Arbiter of the Empire of Blue Dawn, and will have the same when it comes to dealing with judicial matters.”
The statement cause quite a fuss when it was released, both within and outside the empire.
After all, most people were well aware that Crystal Miller was the blonde girl who was always around Emilia, and was supposedly her good friend.
Wasn’t it too nepotistic and whimsical for her to just make someone so young and silly-looking the so-called ‘Prime Arbiter’?!
Moreover, to go so far as to give away so much of her power to someone else, was she not afraid of betrayal or tricks at all?
Emilia was naturally aware of the storm caused by her ‘bold yet stupid’ move, but she decided to just ignore it.
After all, some things couldn’t be explained effectively with just words, but became obvious to all given time.
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Meanwhile, in the Oriana country, the ‘procedures’ for transferring the students of the Imperial Academy were finally almost over, and the president was pleased, to say the least, with the outcome.
They had expected an uphill battle at first, but as soon as they explained what the White Deer did and how much closer to desperation they pushed their country, their eyes completely changed.
Not only were most of the students very cooperative, but some were positively enthusiastic to help their homeland against these deserters.
If not for them insisting on everyone keeping a low profile, maybe they would even punch Emilia in the face as soon as they saw her!
Of course, while this was good news, it was of relatively little importance when compared with the real issues at hand.
Looking at the status report of operation Black Tide, things weren’t going quite as smooth as he hoped.
With the recent attack from Gray Wolfe, the Black Tiger Corporation had been on an understandably high alert against both sabotage and other underhanded tricks, and it was bringing them no little amount of trouble.
Having already taken a proverbial punch to the gut from White Deer, they naturally couldn’t just let it go and take the risk of really losing it all this time.
Looking at the status report, the president could only sigh. “Since they’re being like this, then we can only intensify our efforts. Of course, if all else fails, we will have no choice but to seize everything by force, but I hope we won’t have to resort to that.”
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Having been finally freed of the ‘torture’ of having to listen to uneducated stooges whining about how their precious princess was the root of all evil, the ‘transfer students’ were naturally ecstatic.
Of course, their excitement reached all new heights when they learned that their flight would be the very next day, and it would lead them straight to the heart of the Empire of Blue Dawn.
Unfortunately, before they headed out, the ‘Royal Knights’ still had to face a dilemma.
”Commander, what are we going to do with all the precious relics that we have gathered so far?”
While it was possible to take some items with them, not everything could be taken away, such as the various horses that the princess had touched.
It was easy for them to ask Penny, but who was she supposed to seek for answers in turn?!
She couldn’t even tell them that all their ‘relics’ combined didn’t even equate to a tenth of what she had ‘acquired’ through various means.
After all, doing that would be suicide, even for ‘the commander’.
Fortunately, some of the members managed to quickly come up with a solution after research.
”We can’t let people who don’t deserve them take the things that belonged to the princess, so why not find some ‘successors’?”
”Why do I feel like I’m about to die?”
”Yeah, just listening to the terms ‘successor’ makes me feel like I’m getting old…”
Although none of them were very excited about the idea, since they had no other choice, the knights decided to just bite the bullet and do it.
Fortunately, they maintained an extensive database of every man, woman, child, and animal that showed signs of admiring Emilia, and quickly narrowed down the suitable candidates.
Of course, with time being so short, they still barely managed to finish the ‘hand over procedures’ in time, leaving Penny feeling like her soul had been lost.
Fortunately, she still had a stolen undergarment from her princess to sustain herself, or the petite girl might really lose all hope in life.
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The next day, the sad and depressed legion of ‘Royal Knights’ assembled together with the ‘stray fans’ who had just recently taken the plunge, ready to board the plane destined to take them to nirvana.
Of course, although they were still glum from losing so many relics, thinking about finally seeing their princess again was more than enough to instill some life in them.
”What do you think is going to happen to the academy now that so many of us have left?”
”What else? Our year will probably all be consolidated into one class, though the teachers will probably be embarrassed to look at the almost empty attendance register.”
Of course, many of their seniors and juniors had opted to come with them as well, but it wasn’t quite as extreme as Emilia’s batch, which was almost entirely ‘migrating’.
One of them couldn’t help but giggle. “I can’t imagine Mr. Jefferson’s face.”
”Meh, I have the feeling that he’ll be more than happy to teach a completely empty class.”
”Hah. More than him, I worry for Mrs. Macmillan. With how obsessed she is with—!”
The ‘knights’ all turned around in unison to see their ‘notorious’ teacher enter the boarding area right behind them, and some couldn’t help but rub their eyes in disbelief.
With their ‘training’, it was naturally impossible to not be able to tell when someone or something was right behind them, and they finally couldn’t help but acknowledge that what they saw was true.
Mrs. Macmillan was still out of earshot, and they were relieved to know that she couldn’t have heard their ‘gossip’ before.
Of course, her arrival still caused the students to pat their hearts with lingering fear.
”Although the charm of the princess does not discriminate between age, gender, and height, but isn’t Mrs. Macmillan being here a little, y’know…?”
”S-She could be here just to send us off?”
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