Chapter 38

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Your Highness Isabella, next is the first lesson I want to teach you…”

“I’ll take the initiative to apologize in the court… You don’t need to know the crime. I’m also making up nonsense, but you have to punish me, cut my salary, or reduce my official position.”

“Why? Well… because this is a check and balance.”

“I’m a powerful minister. Many ministers and nobles rely on me, and a portion of them will join… Let’s call it the [Old Noble Faction], okay? I’ll call my side the [Ira Faction].”

“I’m too powerful, so you have to suppress me. It’s the same the other way around.”

“I’ll gladly accept your punishment in the court. This way, everyone will realize that I’m always on your side. Only then can the authority of the royal family continue to increase.”

“You don’t understand? It’s fine. What are your doubts? I’ll slowly explain them to you.”

“You mean that you trust me not to betray the Empire, so you don’t have to suppress me? I know and trust you and me, but this won’t do… Because this is the royal family and the rules of the king and ministers.”

“…”

…

“Oh…”

Amidst a soft moan, Isabella woke up from a dream that had happened a long time ago. She looked at Mariella, who was sitting in front of her, and then at her guards who were guarding her as she fell asleep in the study.

“How long did I sleep?”

Although she asked, Isabella felt that it would not be long… As the ruler, her heart was always suppressed. She did not know what it was, but there was something suppressed. She had almost not slept well after Ira left.

However, she would definitely not admit this.

“Your Majesty, an hour.”

“…”

Isabella gently touched the mark caused by her face leaning on her arm. She nodded at the guards on both sides and said, “All of you can leave.”

Without raising any doubts, these guards left the imperial study in unison, leaving only Isabella and Mariella in the room.

“…”

“…”

“If you have anything to ask, just ask?”

In Isabella’s words, Mariella, who actually did not have much sense of superiority, pretended to nod respectfully and said, “Are the rumors in the Empire true?”

The rumor that Mariella mentioned was naturally the rumor that Isabella and Ira were colluding to act.

“That’s not true.”

Isabella, who was speaking simply, shook her head. She looked at Mariella and said, “If not for that, the more extreme Ira faction would probably have defected from the Empire at the same time, so this is enough.”

In other words, had Isabella ordered such a rumor to spread?

“Of course, if such a rumor can become the truth, I’d rather it be the truth.”

Isabella, who spoke in the same way as Ira, knew no third person could understand them, so she could only shake her head towards Marielle who was in confusion.

“Leave. Let the guards in and call Minister Caligula over. I need to discuss the matter of capturing slaves with him…”

In response to Isabella’s words, Mariella nodded and subconsciously asked, “Does Her Majesty want to discuss terminating the slave catchers? Duke Caligula won’t agree.”

Duke Caligula was almost equivalent to one of the leaders of the noble faction. He was also the endorser of the Empire’s slave trade and the old b*stard that Ira wanted to kill the most but in fact…

Apart from being greedy, lecherous, and fond of female slaves who advocated the participation of nobles, he was loyal to the Empire and the emperor. He never took concubines and was devoted to his wife… Every time, Ira would sigh because of the strange logic in the Empire.

However, no one knew what he was sighing about.

Those who really wanted to rebel had already been found and killed by the Ira and noble factions.

“…”

“They should want to stop capturing foreign races… right?”

“…”

Under Isabella’s calm gaze, Mariella understood everything. She instantly became emotional, but she still could not make any judgment. She said, “Ira will be angry. He’ll be very, very angry.”

In fact, the two of them knew this.

“Everyone is like this. They talk about Ira all the time, as if, if I leave him, I’ll be useless… If he’s angry, let him be angry. If he wants to kill me, come and kill me!”

Isabella clearly looked very unhappy, but she quickly forced herself to return to a calm state and said calmly, “I’ll prove that I’m no longer a child.”

Perhaps all of Isabella’s impatience was only because of this.

“If one day, Ira wants to bring his army into the capital of the Empire, how can I not be stepped on by him?”

Isabella said this because the other party was Mariella, so she said this with relief. For the first time, she said her thoughts and said, “I’ve waited too long with Father… but Ira abides too closely to the rules.”

—Either you step on me and let me kiss his fingers, allowing you, who has seized the Empire, to confidently advance towards a dream filled with beauty! Or you obediently submit completely and don’t always put on an attitude of ‘I know I’m right, so I have to convince you’!

Be it the former or the latter, it was fine, but! However!!!

That lowly attitude filled with arrogance was really unbearable.

“Of course, if he can’t defeat me ~”

As Isabella spoke, she gently stretched out her white feet and smiled, “Then, I want to step on him and tell him that I’ve already grown up.”

Her milky white feet swayed like an alluring ice cream.

“Then, I’ll give him a hug and tell him…”

Isabella imagined the moment she had already won. She smiled lightly and said, “I’ll tell him—welcome back to the Empire. I’ve already removed all the hidden threats in the Empire!”

Then…

“Ira will acknowledge me and praise me for the first time. He will call me by my name and not Her Highness Isabella. He will not say, ‘As the Empress, you can’t be anxious. Maintain the indifference of your expression. You can do better.’ Instead, he will say…”

“Well done, Isabella.”

“…”

In the imperial study where Mariella left, only a lonely Empress, a rebellious and arrogant student, a child who yearned to be recognized by a specific person, and a girl who was sensitive and yearned to be guided… However, there were not four people.

These four people were the same person.