Faced with the diplomat’s desperate attempts to clear themselves of any ‘suspicion’, Emilia couldn’t help but tilt her head with a curious smile. ‘It’s almost admirable how loyal he is to the country that used him as a disposable pawn, isn’t it?’
Unfortunately, the poor man’s efforts were bound to be ruined by the indignant Linda. “I cannot believe it! AHHH! How dare they, how dare they?!”
Her companion tried to reach out to cover her mouth in a panic, but before he could, a painful kick from Dixie sent him flying right through two chairs as he slammed into the wall with a dull ‘thunk’, his fate unknown.
Luckily for her, the female diplomat was too agitated to pay attention to such ‘minor’ details. “It’s one thing to use me as a disposable pawn, but how could they approve my request to have my daughter sent over when they had something like this planned?!”
Of course, although it pained her to acknowledge it, the woman could very well guess the ‘reason’ behind it all. Since they went so far, the presence of her daughter around the area would surely only add to the tragedy, giving even more weight to whatever narrative the Red Dusk was trying to build.
As for the eventual fate of the girl… perhaps they didn’t care at all.
Moreover, not only did they screw over the two of them, the government of Red Dusk even tried to snuff out the shining light of this world, their beloved Idol Ev—Emilia!
”Unforgivable!”
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Although Emilia had long since expected the Commonwealth of Red Dusk to fall into her trap, she hadn’t been able to finalize just how she would deal with this ‘prey’ until just a few days ago.
The initial plan had been to just let the ‘assassination’ play out to the end, wait for the commonwealth to bare its fangs in full, and then ‘catch them with their pants down’, so to speak.
But after considering the strength of both parties carefully and discussing the matter with Noelle and Alexandria, Emilia realized that it may not be the best way to deal with the situation.
After all, whether was due to the lack of ambition or the restrictions imposed by the government, the White Deer Corporation’s expertise in military technology was far from being able to equip the Empire of Blue Dawn to the standards Emilia felt were needed for them to be ‘ready’ for anything.
In their current state of having salvaged whatever they could from the previous government, perhaps it would still take them a few more years of research and development to truly reach the state-of-the-art… if they were lucky.
Naturally, even if the Commonwealth of Red Dusk had a level of threat much lower than that of some of the more powerful countries, it was still not something they could just roll over with their current level of strength even if they had the advantage of catching the opponent completely off guard.
While she may not mind getting a few scratches to deal a fatal wound to the enemy, that didn’t mean she was happy to sacrifice numerous soldiers of Blue Dawn for minor gains. And indeed, in the grand scheme of things… the Commonwealth of Red Dusk was hardly worth mentioning, as far as Emilia was concerned.
Plus, if the news of her ‘death’ were to be spread, even if it was only for a few days… wouldn’t all the people she had just managed to cheer up go back to being gloomy and sad?
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It wasn’t clear whether it was the doing of the commonwealth, or because of Emilia’s rising popularity, but the news of gunshots being heard near the diplomatic building in Huono spread throughout the world like wildfire.
Capturing a few images as proof was naturally nothing difficult for the nearby commonwealth thanks to the convenience of Huono town’s location, instantly causing the credibility of these rumors to shoot through the roof.
And with both the Red Dusk and Blue Dawn’s official channels not responding to refute these ‘baseless rumors’, more and more people couldn’t help but believe that something must have happened.
Of course, while many expressed concern and worry for the life of the young empress, others didn’t hesitate to gloat over her presumed misfortune.
”People reap what they sow. As a tyrant who murdered thousands to get where she was, I say this is poetic justice at its best.”
Naturally, those who supported Emilia didn’t believe it would be so easy to take her down, and continued fighting back against these ‘unreasonable bullies’ fiercely.
”Moron! Our princess isn’t a tyrant, but a liberator! She freed the people of Blue Dawn, and is clearly leading them to live a much better life now. Or do you live under a rock and can’t even see that much?”
”No need to argue with idiots, fellow knight! They’re clearly too dumb to understand the statistics of Blue Dawn’s recent growth. All they know is to be envious of the beauty of our empress!”
”I believe she is alive and well!”
The fierce debate had barely even started, however, when the official social media account of the empress herself sent out a bombshell of a message in the form of a short video.
Wearing an extremely skimpy nighty made out of some teal gauze-like material, Emilia was clearly ready for bed, almost causing many to fail to hear her next words in a daze.
”I’m very happy that all these little angels are concerned for my well-being, but don’t worry, I’m alive and well, not a single scratch on my skin!”
Her statement was followed by Sam running a finger up Emilia’s smooth arm and giving a thumbs up.
The crimson-haired beauty grinned. “As for those wished to harm me… hmph! Try harder next time!”
Although the first part could be seen as ‘refuting’ the rumors, the final part of Emilia’s message clearly revealed that things weren’t so simple!
”Did the empress really get attacked?!”
”Shit! Who has the guts to try laying hands on my princess?! If I don’t soak my katana with their blood, my name won’t be Jackie Daniels!”
Of course, with the worry for her safety out of the way, a few of Emilia’s ‘fans’ couldn’t help but notice some ‘extra’ details.
”Wait just a minute… am I the only one who cares about her sister being there?”
”And that would be an issue because…?”
”I mean… isn’t it kinda weird? The empress is clearly dressed in such sexy clothes, even if the other person is an older girl, it can’t be easy to restrain herself, right?”
”You think too much. Our princess is pure and untainted. Though I definitely wouldn’t mind if she were open to change that… it might increase my chances from definitely zero to almost not zero.”
”Upstairs, can I ask if you are a boy or a girl?”
”I’m a boy, professor!”
”Then please give up hope, our princess only allows the cutest of cute girls to be more ‘friendly’ around her.”
”Wait a minute! Don’t change the subject… I still haven’t got any good answers to my original question!”
”Why are you so against intimacy between the princess and her sister? Isn’t it just normal?”
”What’s normal?! That outfit is clearly meant to seduce, no, resurrect the dead!”
”Ehhh…? It’s just a normal nighty, isn’t it? It just looks so much sexier because our princess is the one wearing it.”
”If you ask me, she can probably make even a torn newspaper look sexy.”
”Normal nighty…?! There’s three liters of blood on my floor to prove otherwise!”
Of course, their ‘fierce’ discussions were completely blown over when Emilia issued another statement, this time it just being a link to one of her empire’s official websites.
What was hosted there, however, completely blew everyone’s mind.
Not only were there multiple images and videos of the ‘terrorists’ who attacked the Empress of Blue Dawn, but there were also ‘profiles’ of each and every individual on the same page!
Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant!
If the information posted on the site was true, then not only were all these individuals the cream of the crop when it came to military talent, but also had the same common origin — the Commonwealth of Red Dusk!
And most shocking of all was the final profile on the page along with the clearly displayed face of a middle aged man — Tom Hark, the chief intelligence officer of the Commonwealth of Red Dusk!
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