For most people, the truly terrifying thing about monarchs was not that they had too much power in their hands, but that they could make full use of that power with little to no justification at any time.
How little they would tolerate or how far their ‘retaliation’ would go against someone’s ‘offense’ depended entirely on their temperament.
If they were in a good mood, perhaps the offender could be completely let go, while the same ‘offense’ might get another’s entire family executed without trial.
Of course, Emilia’s actions so far made it clear that she wasn’t the type to do something like that. She might be a little playful and petulant, but the girl was clearly more kind than she was malicious.
Faced with her first ‘assassination attempt’, however, who could really tell just how this ’empress’ would react?
Given all the ‘proof’ that had been put out by the official site of the empire, as well as her own public statements, it was clear that she fully believed the Commonwealth of Red Dusk to be responsible for this incident. And her tone made it more than clear that she was fully intent on ‘settling accounts’, though no one could tell yet how she planned on doing that, exactly.
As someone who was clearly willing to shed blood to get to where she was, however, no one would believe her to be too much of a pushover.
Heated discussions on whether or not there would be a war, and who was most likely to ‘win’ if it really happened continued all over the world as people waited with bated breath.
The Commonwealth of Red Dusk was an old superpower of the region, but it had already been a while since it made any major moves, or pioneered anything new in any field of significance.
In contrast, the Empire of Blue Dawn had a very shaky foundation, but was full of momentum as it continued defying everyone’s expectations. Moreover, with the White Deer’s backing, they definitely wouldn’t be at a disadvantage when it came to resource acquisition during a protracted war.
Naturally, such considerations didn’t even enter the minds of Emilia’s fans.
”I think the Empire would definitely win if the two were to fight. After all, they have Emilia.”
”Of course, how can our princess lose?”
But while the people all over the world were debating over the matter in either excitement or anticipation, the same couldn’t be said for those who lived in either the commonwealth or Blue Dawn.
With Emilia’s popularity in her empire, the people were naturally enraged at whoever orchestrated the ‘assassination’, even if it had already failed.
”Do you think just because she’s kind and cute, our empress is easy to bully?!”
”I say we tear through Red Dusk and teach them a lesson! How dare they pick on our princess?!”
The worst part was that not only did they express willingness to go through a war, but many even went so far as to say they might seek ‘their own justice’ if needed!
”Even if she forgives them, this daddy here will make sure that the bastards pay for it, one way or another!”
Fortunately, the empire’s major airlines had already canceled all flights to and from the commonwealth right after the ‘incident’, or the citizens of Red Dusk might not even be able to sleep peacefully.
If the way they talked was any indication of their ‘sanity’, these lunatic neighbors of theirs were definitely unhinged enough to actually come over and do something crazy!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Of course, the government of Red Dusk definitely wouldn’t sit still and wait for others to continue flinging mud on their face. Just as the discussions over potential ‘war’ between the Empire and the Commonwealth were getting heated, they also issued a few statements of their own.
”The attack on the Empress of Blue Dawn is saddening, and we denounce the malicious forces who orchestrated such a heinous thing.”
”We would also like to clarify the misunderstanding regarding the identities of the terrorists who participated in the attack. As anyone who checked would know, the chief suspect Tom Harks used to work for one of our government agencies, however, he had already gone missing weeks prior to this incident.”
Although they didn’t state it outright, the implication that the people of Blue Dawn, and by extension their empress, didn’t even bother to check such basic things was clear for all to see.
As for whether they were implying such an oversight to be from ignorance or malicious intent, no one could really tell.
”Our internal investigators already suspected him of involvement with several foreign forces, and we suspect that this incident must have been planned in advance to smear the Commonwealth of Red Dusk, and also cause a rift between the Empire of Blue Dawn and us.”
”It is our sincere request to everyone to calmly look at the situation and not help spread any further misinformation, as it might plunge the people of our two regions into this unnecessary chaos.”
If the previous statement only caused a few raised eyebrows, this one directly led to a huge uproar.
”Wait, so they are saying that certain ‘foreign forces’ planned everything to frame them?”
”No no no, is it just me, or are they pointing fingers specifically at the Empress of Blue Dawn?”
”Right?! At best, they are implying that she is an ignorant fool who is easily misled by others. And at worst… she planned all of this as an excuse?!”
Regardless of which side they stood on, everyone agreed on one thing.
Once Empress Emilia learned of this… she would definitely be furious.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meanwhile, the ‘furious’ empress was busy straddling and cuddling with her blonde-haired girlfriend in an especially arranged room of their nearest high-security prison.
Crystal couldn’t help but blush in shame as she tried to push the gorgeous girl away. “E-Emilia… e-everyone is watching—!”
The crimson-haired girl only chuckled in amusement as she added another playful bite to her girlfriend’s soft earlobe. “Don’t worry so much, these adorable little children won’t tell on us… right?”
Faced with the flickering gaze of their empress, the two female soldiers quickly nodded while trying their best not to look flustered.
Without a doubt, many of their colleagues would sell both their kidneys if they were told there was a chance to watch their empress in such a state of undress from up close. It was good enough that they got to watch it for free, who would be stupid enough to gossip or complain?
Crystal could only sigh helplessly as she tried her best to keep Emilia’s dress from climbing up too high. Fortunately, it wasn’t the scandalous nighty she had been wearing before, and the girl was also wearing panties, so it wasn’t too hard to keep her butt covered most of the time.
She should have known this was going to happen when she was abruptly called over right after the ‘assassination’.
Crystal couldn’t help but be a little curious. “By the way, Emilia, what about big sister and the rest?”
From what she knew, not to mention Sam and Dixie, Noelle and Alexandria should also have been by Emilia’s side, right?
Emilia leaned back and gazed at her with a relaxed smile. “Oh? Are you finally agreeing to the thing I proposed earlier?”
Seeing her adorable girlfriend’s face turn red like a tomato as she fervently shook her head in denial, the crimson-haired girl couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, okay, I won’t tease you. Big sister, Noelle, and Alexandria are all busy dealing with the aftermath of the situation. As for Dixie…”
She sighed. “Well, I had her come over here in advance, since I was worried about Michelle.”
Crystal blinked at her in surprise. “Wait… wasn’t Michelle waiting for you to return to the capital?”
Emilia grinned. “She was, but when she asked for permission to travel around, I said yes without thinking much, as long as she didn’t come to Huono.”
Although Crystal understood that Emilia usually didn’t prefer restricting her people any more than necessary, she still felt that the gorgeous girl was a little too careless.
With Michelle’s ‘tendencies’ and her status as the personal ‘caretaker’ of the empress… well, she didn’t dare to think about the misery of anyone waiting to be interrogated in their empire.
Moreover, as some of the only few ‘specimens’ available also attempted to take Emilia’s life… Crystal shuddered to imagine their fate if they were to land in Michelle’s hands. ‘If they were to become completely useless before Emilia is done with them… wouldn’t it affect her plan?’
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━