He burst out laughing, his beautiful face distorted to the max.
“Ha, hahaha.”
Everyone was taken aback by the Emperor’s sudden outburst.
His hand gestured towards Sepia and hugged Titi’s waist.
He felt the part where his name would be engraved.
“...Mine, yes. You are mine.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I am Your Majesty. I will take care of you now. Don’t worry.”
Titi hugged him as if it was a given.
Sepia had to stare frozen at the scene.
Demios, who had been burying his face in Titi’s chest, raised his head.
His cold gaze was directed at Sepia.
“You look like you’ve encountered a monster.”
Sepia didn’t respond to those words.
No, she couldn’t help it.
His bloodshot eyes kept coming to mind as he strangled her.
The Emperor, who had ignored Sepia as if he had known, declared the fortune of the new year.
“This year’s fortune is Unfair.”
Starting from the purification ceremony, one of the five fortunes could be divined as the fortune of the new year.
Great Good Fortune.
Good Fortune.
Peace Fortune.
Unlucky Fortune.
Great Unlucky Fortune.
Great Good Fortune is when a special light is seen in the abbreviated temple, and it symbolizes the greatest fortune.
Next are Good Fortune and Peace Fortune. Up to two of these, the fortune of the empire can be safely predicted, but Unfair Fortune and Great Unlucky Fortune were different.
Unlucky Fortune was a warning to the entire empire to be careful of bad fortune, and Great Unlucky Fortune was a national crisis that foreshadowed war or a great disaster.
The year in which the oracle of the birth of the Ishtar star came down was the Great Good Fortune, and in the first year after Sepia became Empress, the seawater of the abbreviated temple where she was baptized by the high priest mysteriously shone, signaling two great good fortunes.
After that, there were always good fortunes.
If the Emperor or Empress did not complete the purification ritual and came out, that year was declared the Great Unlucky Year, and Demios, who came up to the surface on time, declared the year as the Unlucky Year. Unlucky Years are years to protect oneself from the coming misfortune.
As large festivals and events were scaled back, donations and acts of charity also decreased. The palace officials were silent at the ominous fortune that came out after ten years. Titi as if she didn’t care about the national fortune, hugged Demios’s arm.
“Ha, hahaha.”
Everyone was taken aback by the Emperor’s sudden outburst.
His hand gestured towards Sepia and hugged Titi’s waist.
He felt the part where his name would be engraved.
“...Mine, yes. You are mine.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I am Your Majesty. I will take care of you now. Don’t worry.”
Titi hugged him as if it was a given.
Sepia had to stare frozen at the scene.
Demios, who had been burying his face in Titi’s chest, raised his head.
His cold gaze was directed at Sepia.
“You look like you’ve encountered a monster.”
Sepia didn’t respond to those words.
No, she couldn’t help it.
His bloodshot eyes kept coming to mind as he strangled her.
The Emperor, who had ignored Sepia as if he had known, declared the fortune of the new year.
“This year’s fortune is Unfair.”
Starting from the purification ceremony, one of the five fortunes could be divined as the fortune of the new year.
Great Good Fortune.
Good Fortune.
Peace Fortune.
Unlucky Fortune.
Great Unlucky Fortune.
Great Good Fortune is when a special light is seen in the abbreviated temple, and it symbolizes the greatest fortune.
Next are Good Fortune and Peace Fortune. Up to two of these, the fortune of the empire can be safely predicted, but Unfair Fortune and Great Unlucky Fortune were different.
Unlucky Fortune was a warning to the entire empire to be careful of bad fortune, and Great Unlucky Fortune was a national crisis that foreshadowed war or a great disaster.
The year in which the oracle of the birth of the Ishtar star came down was the Great Good Fortune, and in the first year after Sepia became Empress, the seawater of the abbreviated temple where she was baptized by the high priest mysteriously shone, signaling two great good fortunes.
After that, there were always good fortunes.
If the Emperor or Empress did not complete the purification ritual and came out, that year was declared the Great Unlucky Year, and Demios, who came up to the surface on time, declared the year as the Unlucky Year. Unlucky Years are years to protect oneself from the coming misfortune.
As large festivals and events were scaled back, donations and acts of charity also decreased. The palace officials were silent at the ominous fortune that came out after ten years. Titi as if she didn’t care about the national fortune, hugged Demios’s arm.
“You are not feeling well. Let’s go now, Your Majesty.”
“...Yes.”
Demios nodded. The Emperor’s attendants followed him. Sepia did not move from her spot until the Emperor and his government disappeared. The maids came over and examined her complexion, perhaps worried about the Empress.
“Your Majesty, what happened inside?”
“Is Your Majesty okay?”
Sepia slowly shook her head. Her face was pale.
“...Yes. Let’s go now.”
The purification ceremony was over. Sepia rode the prepared carriage back to the Empress's Palace. She kept thinking about the beast's eyes that had glared at her as if he had been hurt and betrayed.
***
It was late at night. Sepia had been spending the past few days in her office. The first month of the year was the time to decide the national budget. Once the exact budget was set, the allocation would begin in late spring. The Empress's Palace's budget had remained the same since she first became Empress. What Sepia had to keep in mind in particular was the new budget for the newly established charity business department.
'There's not much left.'
To allocate the imperial budget for a new business, she needed performance data for several years. If she wrote the budget in advance and filled in the performance for this winter and early spring, she would be permitted to establish a new business department and would be allocated a national budget proportional to the appropriate performance.
Even if the Empress's Palace's budget was sufficient, there was a limit to operating the charity business. Although they had received donations from nobles due to their past performance, as the business expanded year by year, the number of poorhouses increased, and various charity-related projects increased, the time had come to receive help from the state.
'We will be able to reach out to areas far from the capital.'
Unless it was a powerful territory, there were many areas farther from the capital that were poor or had poor education. Digging wells in areas where droughts continued throughout the summer or building state-supported schools would also be part of the charity department's work. Up until now, Sepia had been handling all the charity-related work.
However, after the financial support increased, they would have to gather people to work in the department.
The table was filled with documents needed for budgeting.
Sepia sighed as she looked over the current list of funds going into the poorhouse.
'At least it's not a Great Unlucky.'
The Great Unlucky Year would ban all new businesses in the Imperial City.
Although it was a year in which all the people of the Empire were warned to protect themselves, there would be no problem in establishing the Charity Department.
Donations from nobles may decrease, but it was fortunate that they would not have to reduce their charity work.
Sepia felt a little relieved.
The reason why the Beastkin Empire was so sensitive to national fortune was that most of the fortunes predicted by the purification method were correct.
In fact, the Great Unlucky Year was a situation right before the war, and the Great Unlucky Year was a time when the highest level of flooding in history hit the entire empire.
Because of that history, many nobles believed in the national fortune, and many nobles locked up their assets in the Great Unlucky Year.
'But the more disasters hit, the more we have to open the national treasury.'
Misfortune begins at the lowest level.
The upper classes thoroughly controlled the money leaking out to the lower classes to protect their own class, but they had to know that if there was no bottom, then the middle, the upper, and the empire itself would disappear.
Sepia closed her eyes.
Her eyes were burning from having looked at the documents for so long.
Whenever she closed her eyes like this, she thought of the day of the purification ceremony.
The hand that had wrapped around her neck.
His wounded eyes.
And...
‘Have you been resenting me all this time?’
His eyes were so hateful that they were strangling her.
‘It’s suffocating.’
Her breath was suffocated as if her throat had been strangled.
Sepia could not escape the memories of that day.
She was about to get up from her seat to open the window.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty’s attendant has arrived. Should I come in?”
At this hour?
Sepia rubbed her heavy eyes in confusion.
“...Please let him in.”
The sudden appearance of the attendant made her feel as if the Emperor was not allowing her even a moment of rest.
The attendant relayed the Emperor’s order to Sepia along with a large number of documents.
“His Majesty strictly orders that charity work cannot be included in the national budget.”
Deep in the night.
Duke Leopold and his knights were living in the western annex of the imperial palace.
In front of Roxanne, the head of the general department, Groer, and the second division commander, Biltman, continued their report.
“This is the final part of the entry and exit records of the Droik Palace.”
Groer placed a pile of old documents on the table.
The Droik Palace was the former home of Prince Laximus before he left the imperial palace after receiving the title of Red King.
Since his departure for Leopold, the Droik Palace had been rented out by various nobles and was currently empty.
Roxanne instructed them to search through everything from the recent history of the Droik Palace to the records before Laximus left the imperial palace.
Roxanne looked down at the old documents with an unreadable gaze.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Of course, it was hard work. There were more than ten nobles who passed through the palace, so how much trouble did it take to pull out their usage records? That’s the end.”
Groer grumbled.
The entry and exit records were a list of all the palace servants who passed through the palace, from decorations to even individual plants.
There were more than ten pages of records for a week, and if that were for thirty years, it would fill a small warehouse.
The rule was that entry and exit records were discarded every ten years, but in the case of the royal family, they were kept permanently, and in the case of palace rentals, they were to be kept separately as abbreviated rental records.
Even though it was an abbreviated record, the entry and exit records of valuables stored in the palace and the palace servants who had stayed there for more than a year were all there, so the amount was like a mountain.
The Duke was thoroughly examining the entry and exit records of the Droik Palace that Groer had taken.
Roxanne, who had picked up the documents, asked Biltman.
“What information did you get from the servants?”
“They say that the western outer palace is decorated with a stone statue of a wolf that left the Droik Palace. They say they didn’t find anything else unusual.”
“...Yes.”
Of Roxanne’s knights, those who did not attend the victory ceremony were all servants who entered the palace and were scattered throughout the castle.
They were Roxanne’s ears and eyes, and in addition to bringing him information about the items he was looking for, they were also recording in their heads the big and small events that occurred in the palace.
In fact, there was not a single court lady in the palace where Roxanne and his knights resided. They had to have ears to listen, but no mouths to leak anything out.
The nobles who belonged to the Droik Palace were moved to various places in the castle, or even completely out of the castle, and some were lost in pursuit.
It wasn’t just the Droik Palace that Roxanne was searching for.
In the empty space on the table where the documents were piled up, there was a map of the imperial family.
The castle had 221 buildings, including the main palace, the annex palace, and the residences of the palace ladies, as well as 32 gardens and 5 forests.
The table was filled with documents needed for budgeting.
Sepia sighed as she looked over the current list of funds going into the poorhouse.
'At least it's not a Great Unlucky.'
The Great Unlucky Year would ban all new businesses in the Imperial City.
Although it was a year in which all the people of the Empire were warned to protect themselves, there would be no problem in establishing the Charity Department.
Donations from nobles may decrease, but it was fortunate that they would not have to reduce their charity work.
Sepia felt a little relieved.
The reason why the Beastkin Empire was so sensitive to national fortune was that most of the fortunes predicted by the purification method were correct.
In fact, the Great Unlucky Year was a situation right before the war, and the Great Unlucky Year was a time when the highest level of flooding in history hit the entire empire.
Because of that history, many nobles believed in the national fortune, and many nobles locked up their assets in the Great Unlucky Year.
'But the more disasters hit, the more we have to open the national treasury.'
Misfortune begins at the lowest level.
The upper classes thoroughly controlled the money leaking out to the lower classes to protect their own class, but they had to know that if there was no bottom, then the middle, the upper, and the empire itself would disappear.
Sepia closed her eyes.
Her eyes were burning from having looked at the documents for so long.
Whenever she closed her eyes like this, she thought of the day of the purification ceremony.
The hand that had wrapped around her neck.
His wounded eyes.
And...
‘Have you been resenting me all this time?’
His eyes were so hateful that they were strangling her.
‘It’s suffocating.’
Her breath was suffocated as if her throat had been strangled.
Sepia could not escape the memories of that day.
She was about to get up from her seat to open the window.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty’s attendant has arrived. Should I come in?”
At this hour?
Sepia rubbed her heavy eyes in confusion.
“...Please let him in.”
The sudden appearance of the attendant made her feel as if the Emperor was not allowing her even a moment of rest.
The attendant relayed the Emperor’s order to Sepia along with a large number of documents.
“His Majesty strictly orders that charity work cannot be included in the national budget.”
***
Deep in the night.
Duke Leopold and his knights were living in the western annex of the imperial palace.
In front of Roxanne, the head of the general department, Groer, and the second division commander, Biltman, continued their report.
“This is the final part of the entry and exit records of the Droik Palace.”
Groer placed a pile of old documents on the table.
The Droik Palace was the former home of Prince Laximus before he left the imperial palace after receiving the title of Red King.
Since his departure for Leopold, the Droik Palace had been rented out by various nobles and was currently empty.
Roxanne instructed them to search through everything from the recent history of the Droik Palace to the records before Laximus left the imperial palace.
Roxanne looked down at the old documents with an unreadable gaze.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Of course, it was hard work. There were more than ten nobles who passed through the palace, so how much trouble did it take to pull out their usage records? That’s the end.”
Groer grumbled.
The entry and exit records were a list of all the palace servants who passed through the palace, from decorations to even individual plants.
There were more than ten pages of records for a week, and if that were for thirty years, it would fill a small warehouse.
The rule was that entry and exit records were discarded every ten years, but in the case of the royal family, they were kept permanently, and in the case of palace rentals, they were to be kept separately as abbreviated rental records.
Even though it was an abbreviated record, the entry and exit records of valuables stored in the palace and the palace servants who had stayed there for more than a year were all there, so the amount was like a mountain.
The Duke was thoroughly examining the entry and exit records of the Droik Palace that Groer had taken.
Roxanne, who had picked up the documents, asked Biltman.
“What information did you get from the servants?”
“They say that the western outer palace is decorated with a stone statue of a wolf that left the Droik Palace. They say they didn’t find anything else unusual.”
“...Yes.”
Of Roxanne’s knights, those who did not attend the victory ceremony were all servants who entered the palace and were scattered throughout the castle.
They were Roxanne’s ears and eyes, and in addition to bringing him information about the items he was looking for, they were also recording in their heads the big and small events that occurred in the palace.
In fact, there was not a single court lady in the palace where Roxanne and his knights resided. They had to have ears to listen, but no mouths to leak anything out.
The nobles who belonged to the Droik Palace were moved to various places in the castle, or even completely out of the castle, and some were lost in pursuit.
It wasn’t just the Droik Palace that Roxanne was searching for.
In the empty space on the table where the documents were piled up, there was a map of the imperial family.
The castle had 221 buildings, including the main palace, the annex palace, and the residences of the palace ladies, as well as 32 gardens and 5 forests.
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