Don't Be Kind Rashly (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16
The next day was unusually free for Lu. All she had to do was briefly attend a tea gathering at the neighboring Nirva embassy at three in the afternoon.
After returning home utterly exhausted from yesterday’s meal with Hayden, she had wanted to make the most of this short break and work diligently. She had wanted to work, that is.
“From the very first day Ambassador Calleta arrived in Shalea, she entered the palace for three consecutive days to meet His Imperial Majesty. It is said that each time her meetings ended, she emerged pale-faced and staggering…”
Lu retorted to the newspaper article Aldwin was reading.
“I never came out staggering!”
“You were staggering when you got back to the embassy. You were just like that yesterday too. Anyway, I’ll keep reading… ‘Given that her attire upon entering the palace yesterday differed from what she wore when leaving, some speculate His Imperial Majesty may have committed some bloody act before her.’ Is that true?”
Lu replied with an expression that said she’d heard just about every absurd thing imaginable. Blood? Nonsense. She’d danced until she sweated, gotten hungry, and simply eaten her fill of delicious food.
“You’ve been reading that Eastern Bullet especially intently.”
“Oh, this paper mocks the Emperor better than any other. It openly dislikes him. But all the articles about you are pretty much the same, right, Eliza?”
Lady Eliza Barcova, seated across from them, nodded as she flipped through her newspaper.
“Just what kind of reputation does the Perseita Emperor have, anyway? I assumed that as Calleta’s ambassador, I’d be getting absolutely roasted.”
Lu shook her head in bewilderment and spread a generous amount of butter on her bread.
Even Martin looked so pityingly at her that he’d prepared her meal with exceptional extravagance. She sighed, stopping herself just before asking aloud.
“Being dragged to the palace every day leaves no time to grasp the situation. To be asking something like this…”
As Calleta’s ambassador, she should have first ascertained the Perseita Emperor’s reputation. Moreover, she ought to have immediately arranged numerous talks and negotiations and been bustling about busily.
“It’s your job to go to the palace; it’s ours to find out these things. Simply put, the current Perseita Emperor is a madman—especially so.”
Aldwin tapped the Eastern Bullet he’d been reading.
“The East fears and despises him.”
“Why? Did he do something in the East?”
“No, he hasn’t done anything recently at all.”
Huh? Then what? Lu took a bite of her bread, puzzled.
“Until the Emperor ascended the throne, the eastern nobles had completely devoured this country.”
Ah. Now she understood. She nodded as she chewed her bread.
“But then the Emperor suddenly appeared, and the balance of power began to shift.”
Hayden certainly wasn’t an easygoing emperor. It was as if a tiger had appeared in a mountain once ruled by foxes.
“But I heard the Emperor never had a crown prince period? He said so himself.”
“So I’ve heard.”
It was Eliza, not Aldwin, who answered.
“He appeared out of nowhere and was accepted solely based on bloodline, leaving his position rather awkward, and his personality…”
Eliza held up another newspaper she’d been holding.
“He must be quite something. Hence, even here we find an article like this: ‘…Judging from past experiences of the eastern coalition nobles, one might speculate His Imperial Majesty has also granted Ambassador Calleta an unforgettable and unique experience.’”
The newspaper thus carried a tone suggesting it was satisfying and amusing that Ambassador Calleta had suffered at the Emperor’s hands.
In any case, everyone was certain that the Calleta ambassador, dragged into the palace, had certainly not fared well.
“Are you all right?”
Even at the Nirva embassy, where Martin had brought a box of baked cookies and a Calleta Empire fountain pen, the reaction was identical.
Sir Felix Keika, the embassy’s chief representative from Nirva, greeted her with a face full of worry. The young man, neat and tidy in appearance, looked as if he were checking whether she was still alive.
“It’s better you didn’t go today.”
Oh dear. At Lu’s reply, Sir Felix Keika hurriedly seated her.
“The Perseita Emperor is simply someone impossible to approach.”
“That’s actually the mildest assessment I’ve heard so far. Even newspapers tread carefully when mentioning the Emperor.”
Lu handed Sir Keika a neatly wrapped gift.
“Except for the Eastern Bullet and other eastern regional papers. Thank you. Cookies, I see. And this…”
“Calleta is famous for its fountain pens.”
It was an item hastily pulled from the gift shipment specifically brought for their arrival in Perseita. Felix’s face brightened as he opened the box; it clearly pleased him greatly.
“Oh, the nib doesn’t wobble at all, and it feels excellent in the hand. Thank you.”
“I should thank you for inviting me. It’s given me a chance to catch my breath.”
And building rapport between fellow diplomats is very important. At Lu’s words, Felix couldn’t hide his look of pity.
“He’s incredibly famous. The reason the young Emperor has managed to hold his ground against seasoned old nobles without being driven out is precisely because of his temperament.”
Temperament? Did he even have one? Lu reflexively pictured Hayden’s brightly smiling face, then quickly dismissed the thought. He was someone who knew how to instill terror in others through sheer, overwhelming presence.
If that counted as temperament, then yes, it did. Warm tea was poured into the cup before her, and Felix Keika offered her an assortment of desserts.
“Eat. You must endure, even if it’s just by eating well in front of the Emperor.”
“Thank you. But it’s rather funny—I’m acting like this after charging in blindly with no information whatsoever. Just who exactly is that Emperor?”
Sir Felix Keika, hailing from the eastern Nirva Kingdom and naturally connected to the eastern nobles, gave a bitter smile.
Coincidentally, Rustica Jenus had asked the very man who could answer her question most accurately and objectively.
“The august name of His Imperial Majesty, who rules the great Perseita Empire, is Hayden Constant Rosstana Bellar. He is the last descendant of the glorious Bellar Imperial Line, which had been missing for 430 years.”
So his name really was Hayden. That meant he hadn’t used a pseudonym when meeting Lu. In a way, it was a bold move befitting an emperor. But missing?
“For 430 years, there was no heir?”
“Exactly. At least, that’s what this country’s historians claim. Someone kidnapped or abducted the Bellar bloodline and stole countless treasures and powers of the Perseita Empire.”
“The nation of thieves—ultimately subdued by diplomacy!”
She recalled the headline of the newspaper that had sold like hotcakes at the street stalls on her first day in Perseita.
“So that someone was from Calleta?”
“Precisely—the Emperor of Calleta himself: Carlos Arthur Ingram.”
“I see.”
She’d need to look into this further.
“You’re not surprised or angry.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore.”
Truth be told, Lu didn’t care at all where or how Carlos Arthur Ingram was being insulted. But a thief? That was rather fresh. The seemingly flawless, sacred His Imperial Majesty involved in theft and kidnapping?
If the citizens of the Calleta Empire heard this, they’d foam at the mouth in rage. Right now, there were three such people at the Calleta embassy alone. They might already know and be furious.
Anyway, if this story was Perseita’s official history, it was only a matter of time before she learned of it.
“According to Perseitan claims, Carlos took everything and then erected that barrier. A great wall appeared between Perseita and Calleta, which were originally one, thus reducing their territory.”
Hmm. Lu sipped her tea. The aroma was quite pleasant.
“Therefore, the Perseita Emperor’s official title always includes authority over Calleta.”
Lu even recited aloud the titles appearing on the very first page of the peerage almanac Sir Felix Keika had brought.
The official title of the young Emperor, seated upon the White Imperial Palace in Shalea and ruling the Perseita Empire, was as follows:
Emperor of the Perseita Empire, King of Quilein, Timeland, and Solven, Grand Duke of Bellua, Duke of Anghelas, Turlington, and Giena, Margrave of Marche, etc., etc., Sage of the Central Region, Commander of the Perseita Empire’s ‘Imperiale’ Knights, Master of the Mage Tower, Eternal Guardian of Perseita.
Those two repeated “etc., etc.” included no fewer than thirty-five minor titles below the rank of Marquis. And roughly forty percent of all those titles referred to territories currently belonging to the Calleta Empire.
“It’s dreadfully long.”
“It is long. That’s because Perseita is vast and expansive.”
Carlos Arthur Ingram, who had suddenly appeared in Calleta one day, had also built the vast Calleta Empire. He was a living god in Calleta, the very embodiment of power that had ruled the nation for hundreds of years.
“But I have a question.”
Felix nodded.
“If the heir was missing for hundreds of years, wouldn’t that have been the end?”
“Well, the imperial facade was more or less maintained. Honestly, the nobles themselves wanted to split apart and rule their own lands independently. Who would willingly pay taxes regularly or raise armies for the nation?”
His monocle glinted.
“But Perseita is a nation upheld by Sages.”
“Sages?”
“Yes. Fearsome Sages who, though they don’t interfere with the outside world, have sworn to protect the Perseita Empire. Even when magic vanished from this land, they still knew how to wield it—they are beings who have lived for a thousand years. Let’s see…”
Felix Keika began counting on his fingers. Judging by his hands, he’d clearly handled a sword quite a bit.
“There’s one in each region: North, East, West, and here in Shalea. Perseita’s South is now the Calleta Empire. The East has the Dragon Lord, the North is so closed off that almost nothing is known. We’re not even sure if there’s a Sage there, but there probably is. And the West has the Master of the Mage Tower.”
Lu pointed to the peerage almanac.
“But here it says the Emperor is the Master of the Mage Tower.”
“He was the original Master of the Mage Tower until the Emperor appeared. He’s retired now. It’s said he enthusiastically quit everything the moment the Emperor showed up. Though he hadn’t done much before anyway. After all, in a land without magic, why would anyone be in the Mage Tower?”
Calleta was overflowing with mages. Every night, mysterious magics floated through the streets, lighting them up, and items crafted by mages were far more popular than mass-produced factory goods.
“These figures rarely appear nowadays, but they undeniably exist. As long as they stand firm, the imperial facade cannot be taken down. The Emperor, who suddenly appeared a few years ago, was recognized by them as the true heir of the missing Bellar line.”
“So if the Sages recognize him, that’s the end of it?”
“Indeed. How could the nobles possibly defeat the Dragon Lord?”
Lu wondered which page of the peerage almanac before her would list the surname ‘Jenus.’
“They also underestimated him because he was young. After all, even through an empty throne and an era of Grand Dukes, the imperial facade remained intact, so having an Emperor was convenient. But he’s just a kid? They thought they could easily mold him to their liking.”
Was Hayden really the type to be molded to someone’s liking? Lu briefly pondered this and took a loud sip of her tea.
“Oh dear.”
“Yes, ‘oh dear’ indeed.”
Felix Keika gave a small smile.
“The moment the Emperor appeared, he first dealt with the monsters swarming the North. With that single campaign, he proved both his military might and political acumen.”
He seemed to genuinely enjoy telling the story. Nirva, after all, had many bards.
“During the Emperor’s absence, nobles handled monsters appearing in their regions themselves. The central authority was virtually meaningless. The East prospered precisely because the Dragon Lord prevented Monster Waves.”
Monster Waves. She remembered Hayden’s explanation. It was a massive monster outbreak occurring when mana tangled and coalesced on a large scale. Moreover, since mages were rare here, mana would have drifted about freely, clumping together haphazardly.
“So the eastern nobles paid no attention to other regions.”
“For 430 years, exactly. They only occasionally sent token Calleta conquest forces beyond the barrier, and even then, just to appease the Dragon Lord.”
People were the same everywhere. Commonplace events happened here too. Lu easily guessed and easily confirmed the answer.
“They gradually seized land and even dabbled in usury for amusement—then, lo and behold! The Emperor appears and suddenly drives the monsters from the North straight into the Northeast?”
After all, the lands were adjacent, and there were borders between North and East. Within the same Perseita Empire, what did it matter if the Emperor moved about? He could easily cross slightly into eastern territory.
“For the eastern nobles, who only pretended to understand how terrifying monsters were, the Emperor taught them true fear for the first time.”
Felix Keika spoke calmly, but the curiosity hidden in his voice was unmistakable. He clearly viewed the Emperor as a subject of study.
“It caused even greater chaos because many eastern nobles had fled to the North for summer retreats to escape the heat. Monsters literally swarmed right up to their doorsteps. The Emperor simply reacted as if to say, ‘What can I do if they ran that way?’”
Moreover, judging by Felix’s expression as he said this, it was clear many people had long disapproved of the eastern nobles’ conduct.
“And so the Northern monster purge concluded in the East. In merely four battles. The Emperor didn’t even pay attention to the eastern nobles.”
If those cunning nobles had been thoroughly humiliated, how much worse must the inexperienced Calleta ambassador have suffered? Just looking at her youthful face, Felix clicked his tongue inwardly.
Both appeared to be in their twenties, yet the Emperor inspired not just fear but outright dread, while the Calleta ambassador looked so helpless it was obvious Carlos Arthur Ingram, the great thief, had plainly sent her here to die.
“The Emperor is an impenetrable man. No one knows what he truly wants.”
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
I’m not sure where Lu gets the patience to deal with Hayden. He’s like a bulldozer. He seems convinced he’s helping her yet he doesn’t consider her opinions throughout it all.