While Penny could be considered a hopeless pervert, she wasn’t actually a complete idiot who couldn’t sort her priorities right… most of the time.
”Those scumbags! Ahh! Just thinking about it makes me mad!”
Emilia sighed as she pulled the furious girl to the nearby sofa and pulled her into her lap. “Calm down and explain everything to me slowly, alright?”
Penny was naturally happy to be able to enjoy being in such an intimate position with her princess, but when she recalled how their own home country was plotting against them, her mood plummeted once again.
But since it was the order of her princess, she naturally tried her best to control her temper.
As one of the first to apply for transferring schools, Penny naturally became one of the first few targets of the government of Oriana to attempt to pull to their side.
Of course, their approach was extremely subtle, and had it not been for the exceptional circumstances, Penny may not even have realized before she revealed herself to be a ‘red flag’.
The ponytailed girl puffed out her chest in pride. “Once I realized something was wrong, I obviously played along and pretended that I only follow the crowd due to peer pressure, and secretly hate you in my heart. Once they ‘realized’ that, they slowly started inciting me for revenge, and then eventually revealed what I had to do to ‘bring you down’ while ‘helping the country’ at the same time.”
Of course, since Sam had been able to let her know about it, Emilia knew that the first thing Penny must have done after that must have been to tattle about it.
But while the news of Oriana’s president plotting against her had obviously already been passed along thanks to Penny getting in touch with her older sister, it was only now that Emilia was able to hear the full account of what happened.
However, after listening to her explanation, Emilia couldn’t help but tilt her head curiously. “I get that they called you all in one by one using the excuse of some scholarship program’s screening, and you were one of the first few to be ‘checked’, but how did you notice what they were trying to do?”
Penny coughed as she looked away in embarrassment. ‘T-There’s no way I can tell her that I read one of the fan submissions on the internet in which she was betrayed by everyone but me, right?’
She hadn’t known about it at first, but after being made aware by one of the knights, Penny naturally had to look through it thoroughly from the start to the end. After all, even if it was poorly written, it was still a love story between ‘Emilia and Penny’!
In addition to the romantic plot, the most prominent thing about this story was that, except for Penny and Emilia, everyone else was a complete scumbag. And the worst of them all was the government of the country they lived in — Oriana.
Since the story was still fresh on her mind, Penny naturally ended up looking at certain things in a completely different way when compared to a normal person, and much to her shock, her ‘paranoia’ actually managed to unearth something so insidious!
Maybe if the president of Oriana knew that his clever plan had been revealed in advance because of a poorly written fanfiction… he might just resign on the spot.
Of course, Penny didn’t care about that, and after being delighted at the discovery of such ‘treasure’, she continued looking for similar stories for ‘inspiration’.
Unfortunately, she was sorely disappointed to know that there were very few stories of similar nature.
And to add insult to injury, the stories that featured Penny with Emilia were seemingly the least popular when compared to her pairing with the likes of Crystal and some major celebrities.
Even if she wasn’t the most intelligent or the most beautiful of Emilia’s admirers, she was definitely one of the most dedicated, right?! She couldn’t believe how little people believed in her ‘compatibility’ with the princess!
Had she not known that she would be able to meet her princess soon, Penny might even have entered depression.
But when she thought about it seriously, it might not be because they were incompatible, but because not many knew who ‘Penny’ was!
Since very few people even knew of her existence, wasn’t it obvious that there would be fewer stories about her being with the princess?
After all, while Emilia was already quite famous, the names of her friends were still relatively less known, though Crystal was already on her way to becoming a prominent figure as well.
As for Sam… well, except for their innermost circle, who could possibly imagine that she would have any romantic involvement with her little sister?
Looking at the petite girl’s rapidly changing expressions, Emilia couldn’t help but squeeze her cheek in amusement. “Just what is going on in that silly head of yours? Even if it was just your intuition, it’s fine, you know? No need to rack your brains trying to find a logical explanation.”
Penny opened her mouth in surprise, but then closed it shut just as quick.
Hey, since the princess misunderstood on her own, no one could blame her, right?!
More than happy at being able to skip the topic, the ponytailed girl then proceeded to proudly explain how she managed to rally all the knights together to collectively fool the government officials into thinking they were just a horde of gullible children.
”Princess, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to create this kind narrative where everyone was just following the crowd to admire and praise you, and some of the more bullheaded knights were really difficult to convince!”
Of course, she didn’t mention how most of the officials were so dumb that they probably didn’t even have two brain cells to rub together. After all, wouldn’t her princess think she was too conceited if she said that?
Emilia patted the girl’s head with a smile. “Penny has worked hard, hasn’t she?”
The ponytailed girl beamed in delight. “No matter what difficulties I face, aren’t they all trivial in front of the infinite power of my love for you?!”
Although she was already used to Penny being over the top, the crimson-haired girl still blushed from her straightforward words. Sometimes, the heartfelt admiration of a child really made her realize just how deep of an impact she had on some lives.
Of course, Emilia wasn’t the type to balk at such thoughts, and only strove to do better. It wasn’t just her own future she was carrying on her shoulders anymore, after all.
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After sending Penny off with a bag full of candies and sweets, Emilia got back to work with renewed fury, intent on completely obliterating all the major and minor obstructions in the way of her empire as soon as possible.
Of course, she didn’t forget about the issue of Oriana’s conspiracy against her. But she already had a solution in mind for that.
As long as the government of Oriana continued trying to dig a grave for her, she just had to wait for the right moment, and then bury them alive in the fruits of their own labor.
Naturally, such a thing would be impossible if not for the foresight and insider access provided by the ‘spies’ that they had sent her way.
With the help of her girlfriends and ‘knights’ all kind of minor hiccups in the empire’s economic and judicial system were soon smoothed out in a matter of weeks, and Emilia’s workload also finally started dwindling.
After all, while she was a perfectionist in many ways, the crimson-haired girl still knew when to trust others to have learned to do their jobs.
Once all the basics were smoothed out and she was more free, Emilia naturally shifted her focus to improving the quality of life of her people.
Fortunately, this wasn’t something that required her active involvement, and she only needed to pass instructions on what needed to be done and where, and everything else would be taken care of by others.
Of course, with Sam already working on their ‘economic growth’ project, most of the glaring flaws that had been left behind by the withdrawal of corporations and neglect of the government were already in the process of being fixed.
Still, many things such as the construction of roads, welfare projects, and allocating funds to people in urgent need could only be promptly finished thanks to Emilia’s careful observation.
Moreover, all the public facilities that had been damaged or gone out of service also had to be repaired, and the construction of multiple new railway lines was also in progress.
After all, good public transport was essential to improve both the people’s quality of life, as well as the country’s economy.
But while there were still many major projects that would take a lot longer to complete, such as several renewable energy power stations, those waiting to watch the failure of the empire already felt like they had been smacked across the face.
Even her neighboring country’s leaders had to begrudgingly acknowledge her terrifying ferocity.
Unfortunately, their acknowledgment didn’t mean anything good for the empire. If they were still waiting to watch their joke and take advantage of the empire’s collapse before, now they were seriously reconsidering their previous stance.
The most panicked of them all had to be the Commonwealth of Red Dusk. After all, if Emilia actually turned out to be a competent empress, it certainly didn’t bode well for their future.
And as she expected, the news of the representatives of the commonwealth requesting to meet her soon arrived, along with a golden letter.
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