”Are you sure? Didn’t you previously say that anything he wanted to say would be a waste of time anyway?”
Emilia giggled, finding the skeptical look on Noelle’s face inexplicably cute. “Oh, I did say that, didn’t I? But you can’t blame me for changing my mind after you mentioned how his face turned purple like a suffocating pig after you told him I ‘didn’t have the time to waste on irrelevant people’ last time, can you?”
The gray-haired girl opened her mouth to refute, but she couldn’t really say that she expected Emilia to have matured a little after being an ’empress’ for so long, could she?
After all, her naughty nature was also really adorable… is what someone stupid like Sam would think! Definitely not her.
Her reasoning was, um, yes. It would waste more time and effort trying to make such silly girls ‘mature’ than it was worth. Right!
Anyway, it didn’t really matter, so Noelle just allowed the soon-to-be ex-president of Red Dusk to finally communicate with Emilia directly, though it was not without giving him a few warnings.
”I will allow you to talk to her, but remember, your live feed will be delayed by two seconds, and I’ll cut off your call if there is any hint of profanity or unpleasantness towards the empress, understand?”
The president almost spewed out a mouthful of old blood from anger.
Over the past few days, this woman had treated him like some homeless vagrant trying to talk to someone he clearly wasn’t worthy of meeting. It pissed him right off!
Unfortunately, in the position he was currently in, getting through with a few compromises was already good enough. After all, even some of his old ‘confidantes’ had ceased talking to him now.
When his video call finally got through, the president couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief after seeing the young crimson-haired girl. “Emilia, you—”
The haughty girl huffed. “That’s ‘Empress’ Emilia to you, mister!”
Although her attitude was as bad as ever, at least the girl was wearing a somewhat normal white sundress this time.
The president coughed awkwardly. “Yes yes, yes, Empress Emilia, I understand. Anyway, look… I know there have been a lot of misunderstandings between us, and—”
Emilia blinked at him, seemingly in disbelief. “Misunderstandings? Did I hear that right? You tried to get me killed! Not only that, after you failed, you even refused to compensate me in any way!”
Knowing how much his opponent operated on emotions, the president couldn’t help but panic when thought of their conversation ‘ending’ before he could accomplish what he wanted. “No no no, that’s not it! L-Listen to me—!”
Emilia flicked her hair back with a sneer, clearly displeased. “If you won’t acknowledge it even now, we have nothing more to talk about—”
Resisting the urge to grit his teeth in frustration, the president quickly convinced himself that he had to be flexible to succeed. Ego, reputation, respect… everything could be set aside at this time, when he was about to lose everything he had worked so hard for.
Even if he had to bend his knee or slap his own face in front of this unreasonable little child, the president knew he had no choice. “Wait wait, I was a fool! A stubborn old fool who made moronic decisions! Can we please just forget about that and look forward to the future?”
Before Emilia could respond, he thumped his chest loudly. “I promise, as long as you’re willing to help me out this once, I’m willing to fulfill all your conditions and demands, as long as they’re within my power!”
The gorgeous girl seemed to be carefully considering his words, which made the president breathe a sigh of relief… before she tilted her head curiously.
”I have a question…”
The president gulped nervously. “Y-Yes?”
Emilia narrowed her eyes, looking incredibly suspicious. “Why in the world are you responding so slowly? Is there someone else back there writing down what you should say or something?”
The president almost screamed in frustration. ‘Isn’t it because of your unreasonable gray-haired bitch?!’
Not to mention having someone help him with the responses, there wasn’t even a single security guard by his side! His responses were as prompt as they could be, but with a two-second delay…
The president had the sneaking suspicion, though, that if he so much as mentioned it, his call might just be ‘dropped’.
And with how incredibly stupid this little girl was, that gray-haired ‘puppeteer’ would probably not have any trouble convincing or distracting her at all.
Just thinking about it, the president felt like beating the pretty little face of this phony empress to a pulp, and the fact that he still had to swallow his anger made him even more furious internally. “I-I… Forgive me, it takes a while to think about what I have to say.”
But since he had already been humiliated, the president thought he might as well take the chance to please this unreasonable bitch. “As an old man, how can I keep up with someone as young and smart as Empress Emilia?”
Emilia hummed thoughtfully, looking a little pleased for the first time since their conversation started. “It’s good that you finally acknowledge it, but….”
The president couldn’t help but nod hopefully. “B-But…?”
As long as this bitch was willing to compromise and stand by his side, he could quickly refute everything else as baseless rumors, and also ‘repair’ all the ‘broken’ relationships those bastards kept accusing him of!
Whatever compensation he had to pay in exchange was no longer his concern. Since working so hard for the commonwealth still landed him in such a spot… he might as well finally do something for himself.
In the worst case, it wasn’t impossible to solidify his position, siphon off enough resources for ‘retirement’, and then completely go off the radar for the rest of his life. Having learned this lesson, the president swore that never would he ever be foolish enough to put all his eggs in one basket again, never!
Unfortunately, Emilia dashed his hopes before they had even finished bubbling completely as she grinned. “But… it’s too late!”
”…?!”
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