Calip was at a loss for words, dumbfounded. The head servant standing in front of the office opened the door and informed that Lady Leak was waiting in the audience chamber.

Lady Leak? Of all times, now.

“Guide her here.”

Calip laid out documents on the Emperor’s office desk. They were ten papers recommended and filtered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance from over thirty proposals.

“This is the proposal from Marquis Mathis’ family. Based on their experience in the mining business, the Mathis family plans to follow the coal mining method. And this is proposed by the Kirchner Trading Company, formed by Count Kirchner’s second son.”

“Didn’t you say the Tane Empire also sent a proposal?”

Calip flipped through the documents and pulled out a proposal from the bottom.

“This is it. It’s from the Lasbur Viscount family, who currently operates the Lasbur Trading Company, responsible for mining and transporting garnet pyrop in the Kingdom of Torun.”

“The Lasbur Trading Company from Tane.”

Knock knock knock.

After the servant’s announcement, Lady Leak entered.

“Julia Leak greets His Majesty the Emperor, the undying golden sun of the Empire.”

Julia picked up the skirt of her pink dress embroidered with flower patterns in bright colored threads and bowed her upper body.

Her black hair, shiny like ebony, was cut straight across her forehead, with the back reaching down to her waist.

So that’s what a lady’s dress looks like. How splendid.

“Lady, what brings you here?”

Julia stared at Calip, who was organizing documents on the desk.

The Emperor handed Calip the document from the Lasbur Trading Company he was about to review.

“Review this document. Give orders to investigate the trading company and the family in detail.”

Calip took the document and left the office. Julia glanced at the sofa. The Emperor did not invite her to sit.

“Your Majesty, I went to meet Carolina and unexpectedly heard that the Tane Princess has entered the capital.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Is it true that the Tane Princess was captured as a prisoner of war, being the leader who started this war?”

“And?”

“Is it true that she was born together with a male, I mean, with His Highness the Tane Crown Prince in the same womb?”

“They say they’re twins.”

“Oh my. How… could that be.”

Julia imagined that the Princess, the enemy commander who wielded a sword and was born with a male baby, would have a masculine appearance.

‘What kind of man would want a woman with such a barbaric appearance as a marriage partner, not just as a subordinate? Surely, it must be a deal for a peace treaty with Tane.’

She was convinced that it was an unwanted state marriage accepted to prevent war with Emperor Kazan, the war maniac.

“Your Majesty. Perhaps, the lady’s dress and items taken to Pana Castle last time…”

“You’re annoying.”

“Pardon?”

“Excessive curiosity and unwanted attention make people tired.”

“I have something to say before the Tane Princess arrives at the palace.”

“Speak.”

“Six years old. We might have met before, but Julia has been looking only at Your Majesty since she was six.”

“……”

“If the late Emperor hadn’t passed away so suddenly, or if Tane hadn’t started the war… Your Majesty and I would have married.”

“…Married, me?”

“My father, Duke Leak, made a verbal marriage promise with the late Emperor…”

“That can’t be.”

Harchen, who was a boy then, lying on an elm branch, decided. From now on, I shouldn’t even make eye contact with that child.

But now, marriage?

Harchen opened a birchwood cigar box placed on one side of the desk. He took out a cigar, cut it with a cutter, and lit it.

There was a time when he was enthralled by a lady in her prime. He had been so busy reorganizing the empire that he almost forgot about it.

The lady in her prime, who was almost forgotten, appeared on her own and held a sword to his neck. Not content with that, she left a red line as if to mark him as hers and fled. And now, a state marriage?

Ha, if this isn’t fate, what is it?

“Me, marrying the lady?”

“With the Tane Princess… I heard it’s an unavoidable state marriage due to negotiations with her, a prisoner of war.”

“Say what you want to say.”

Julia clasped her hands together and lifted her chin.

“Your Majesty. Please divorce in a year and marry me.”

“……”

He didn’t answer, but his cold expression spoke for him. He frowned, clearly showing his irritated face.

“Or. Please, take me as your Empress.”

“Lady, have I done anything that I should be responsible for to you?”

“No, there’s nothing like that.”

“You may go now.”

“Then, do you have something you should be responsible for with the Tane Princess? Are you saying you love her?”

Harchen slowly and deeply inhaled the cigar until his cheeks hollowed, then exhaled.

…Love, me? Love, you say.

“Love?… How ridiculous, talking about love in a state marriage.”

*

Karsik was not a wealthy empire. Despite its vast land, geographically touching the Arctic, half of its territory was a frozen iceberg all year round.

Due to lack of sunlight and low temperatures, most of the land was barren, unable to grow crops, let alone support livestock.

Most of the empire’s economic activities were limited to home-based handicrafts, making things from cotton fabrics, carpets, and leather materials. Naturally, the people of the empire were strictly frugal and accustomed to a humble life.

When Empress Diana conceived, an oracle was given.

A male child who grasps gold in his hand will be born. The undying, blazing golden sun of the empire.

In the summer when Harchen was born, part of the icy mountain Kaoshan melted. In the melted area, heaps of gold were piled up, bright yellow.

The imperial guard knights who went to mine the gold discovered that the glacier flowing down from the upper stream of the deep valley in Kaoshan was sparkling. It was diamond, said to cut even gold.

The Emperor and Empress gave the Crown Prince everything he wanted.

At five years old, Harchen pointed at the sun and asked for it to be brought to him.

By the Emperor’s order, dozens were mobilized for a performance of catching the sun. Alchemists and blacksmiths put their heads together to create an artificial sun with 700kg of gold.

As the first event of the founding ceremony’s opening ceremony, they presented the golden sun to five-year-old Harchen.

Exactly ten days. That’s how long it took for him to lose interest. He ordered the sun, which he had kept in his bedroom, to be removed after ten days, saying it was too dazzling.

Once he satisfied what he desired, that was it. He immediately lost interest and there was nothing he couldn’t have.

He learned ancient languages, philosophy, religion, geometry, physics, mineralogy, literature, horseback riding, swordsmanship, and more from over thirty tutors. Each tutor praised him, competing to say he excelled in the subject they taught.

He mastered all subjects broadly but didn’t delve deeply into any one.

Thus, the blazing golden sun of the empire, Crown Prince Harchen, became a being who always got what he wanted, unrivaled in heaven and earth. Even the winter wind couldn’t carelessly scratch him as it passed by.

But then, Patricia.

For the first time in his life, Harchen was slapped. She left a scar on his neck with a sword. Wearing his shirt, she mocked him as he slept and nimbly escaped over the castle wall.

“Nothing special…, it was just a passing moment for me, like the wind.”

Harchen recalled Patricia’s dry and resolute voice as she said those words.

You’ll regret it bitterly.

Love? I’ll… make you, love me.

“Ha, thinking about it makes me furious.”

“Pardon? Your Majesty?”

Julia completely misunderstood the Emperor’s words. She believed he was angry because of the state marriage.

Julia’s vision blurred with tears as she stood in front of the office desk, looking up at the Emperor. She bit her plump red lips.

“Lady, leave now.”

At the Emperor’s cold dismissal, Julia retreated backwards and exited through the door opened by the servant.

Julia clutched her dress with her gloved hand and walked quickly down the corridor. Two maids from the Leak Ducal family followed behind her.

As Julia was about to ascend the central staircase, she almost tripped as the lace hem of her dress caught on her shoe. The maid following closely on her right caught her arm.

“My lady, are you alright?”

“Why is this dress so awful?”

Julia struck the maid’s face with her fan. The jeweled decoration on the fan scratched the maid’s face, drawing droplets of blood on her cheek.

“I’m going home.”

Julia changed her plan to go to Carolina’s quarters on the third floor of the main palace and went down to the first floor instead.

Boarding the ducal carriage, Julia gnawed on her lips, building up her anger.

They said the Princess was a twin with Patrick. Julia had seen Patrick a few times during their academy days.

The Tane Crown Prince with bright golden hair reaching his shoulders and a slim, tall figure. He always carried several books in his hands.

Though weak due to a chronic illness, he was a heavy smoker and drinker.

He was a regular at the Poeni tavern with Harchen.

Julia had gone to the tavern looking for Harchen and saw him surrounded by numerous male and female students. He was reciting poetry with a cigar in one hand and a bottle of Tane’s liquor, Astrazan, in the other.

He had the image of a beautiful boy. It wasn’t to Julia’s taste, and she didn’t pay much attention as she was looking for Harchen.

The Princess, born from the same womb as Patrick, who looked like a pretty boy.

Julia was anxious.

She glared at the maid sitting opposite her, cradling her bare cheek without gloves and lowering her head, and the maid next to her with hands clasped together.

When the carriage left the Karsik main palace and drove along a quiet forest path, Julia ordered the carriage to stop.

“You, get out.”

Julia ordered the maid whose cheek wasn’t injured to get out of the carriage. As the confused maid alighted onto the forest path, she immediately had the carriage depart.

Julia held out a silk handkerchief embroidered with colorful silk threads to the maid.

Julia instinctively showed it to the maid sitting across from her.

That if you fall out of my favor, you could be abandoned on a forest path, that I’ll give you a secret task.

The maid quickly took the handkerchief but turned her head and hastily pulled up her skirt to rub her cheek.

“Lena. Your family?”

“Yes, my lady. The Baizer Viscount family.”

Julia laughed inwardly.

It was an insignificant family and one that had caused an uproar in the capital a few years ago.

“Wasn’t your family’s incident famous? Tell me in detail.”

In a crime of passion, Viscount Baizer had swung his sword at his wife and her lover, a guard knight.

Unable to control his rage, the Viscount also stabbed himself in the lungs with the bloodied sword. The Viscount and the guard knight died instantly at the scene.

The Viscountess, who survived by avoiding vital spots, didn’t receive proper treatment. Her mind was clear, and she complained of pain to her two young sisters. She endured the years in a hallucinatory state, suppressing the pain with cheap drugs.

The family’s estate was confiscated by the guard, and the sisters lived with their ill mother in a single room in the Oro alley of the capital’s slums.

Julia watched with a twisted smile as the maid Lena spoke calmly about her family’s shame and downfall, her expression unchanging.

An obedient child who can calmly commit big things. Perfect for whatever I assign.