The first princess had changed. To be exact, rumors about her ‘getting her act together’ were spreading within the imperial castle. Even I thought that she had become different from before, so I was sure that those who were even more familiar with her reacted more dramatically to the change. The ones who had noticed the change first were the maids serving the first princess, and I was sure that they would be even more surprised as time went on. Nowadays, Charlia was overlooking the things she was sensitive to before, and she even turned a blind eye to small mistakes. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the happiness level of her maids who had been dealing with her craziness had immensely increased. Funnily enough, the maids were waiting for me to ask for the first princess and they had to be thinking that I changed her because I noticed their strange actions before me. Regardless of the first princess’s order, they moved in an organized manner to bring the first princess and me even closer. For me, their actions were cute, so I didn’t really mind it. Actually, I pitied the maids because they had to do this.

‘Yeah, I’m sure you guys suffered the most…’

I didn’t want to ruin their happiness. It didn’t have anything to do with me, but their organized movement was basically their fight for survival. Since even I felt a strange, cheap sympathy whenever I was with Charlia, I would sometimes give the maids a thumbs up based on their deeds, and it actually was more effective than I thought.

When I encountered the maids the next day, the maids looked at me as if they were going to pledge their allegiance to me. I just made those comments because I pitied them, but they were effective. After some time, it came to the point where the maids started reporting to me about how Charlia was doing when I wasn’t there to visit her. Of course, they weren’t ordinary reports. Whenever I asked about Charlia’s condition as I entered and exited the living room of Charlia’s palace, their answers were sincere.

‘Yesterday after you retired, she seemed very happy.’

Or…

‘She spent some time reading, and she found it hard to sleep.’

I was receiving this kind of report, but the fact that Charlia’s maids were liking me was definitely good news. No matter the ingredient, they would end up being useful and even if the maids had no power, I was sure they would still be useful. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest beneficiaries of this situation were the first princess’s group of maids. Obviously, it wasn’t only the people she had been bullying who were happy about Charlia’s changes. The emperor was especially happy about it as well.

Honestly, it wasn’t a big change, and I didn’t use magic to completely change Charlia’s mindset. It was easy for human beings to break bad, but it was hard for them to become good. Even if their attitude could be fixed, it wasn’t something that could be done in just a short period of time like this.

‘Of course…’

Changing Charlia and making her the next empress was almost impossible, so all I did was suggest the kind of image she should portray to the public. I coaxed her gently and told her how she should act. I even created a list of things she had to do and even managed her schedule for her.

Charlia was just as spiteful and tenacious as Charlotte, and the sense of defeat she had been feeling since she was young was eating away at her self-esteem. Even though she was incompetent and filled with inadequacy, she still grew up as a person who wanted to be acknowledged more than anyone. I couldn’t imagine the amount of stress she was under when everyone ignored her and focused on her younger sister. I was sure she had been waiting for someone like me for a long time; someone who would acknowledge, support, and tell even trash like her that she was amazing; someone who could promote her and make her most trivial actions look grand; and someone who could sell bags of chips half-filled with air.

“She gave her maids a vacation.”

“Seeing that she has been going to the shine every day, the first princess must have pulled herself together.”

“I heard that she also attended the cabinet meeting in the morning. She sat at the end and listened quietly…”

“I heard the first princess has gotten curious about the lives of her people. I heard that she wants to check on them herself, so she included that in her schedule.”

“I heard that she hasn’t been drinking lately.”

“At the last dinner party, I saw her rejecting wine with my own eyes.”

Exaggerating the first princess’s trivial actions was really easy, and when I spoke quietly, everyone’s eyes landed on me.

“Like father, like daughter, hahaha.”

The satisfactory comment was enough to instantly grab the attention of the old nobles. The slogans in election campaigns would usually speak for the candidate.

‘Candidate number one, Charlia. Like father, like daughter.’

Of course, the empire didn’t have slogans like this, but to make Charlia’s trivial actions look amazing, this kind of work was required. There was a reason why the politicians back on Earth made bullshit comments about doing something for the people or improving the economy. The candidates doing it for the people were focused on the people and those who wanted to improve the economy focused on the economy. Their policy, publicity, and campaign looked the same, but there was a difference, and in my case, the difference was even more ridiculous. The image I wanted to create for Charlia was neither for the people nor was it to improve the empire’s economy. In addition, it wasn’t even a slogan representing the candidate. The phrase was baseless and illogical, but it was like magic to some idiots.

‘Legitimacy.’

“Of course! Everyone knows that Princess Charlia has inherited the emperor’s blood.”

“You’re right. Hahaha. Everyone must have felt lost at some point in their lives. It has to be running in the family.”

“Now that I think about it, I think when the seventh emperor was young, he didn’t have the easiest life. He focused on studying when he was in his 40s and ascended the throne in his 50s. But when you look at his achievements, we can say that this might be the start for Princess Charlia.”

“Hahaha. You’re right. Indeed!”

The way they were talking to each other was amusing. I considered my job done after saying that one comment, so I headed to the corner of the room while holding a glass of wine. Naturally, Jung Ha-Yan followed me, as it had been a while since we spent some time together. Lee Ji-Hye, who had been doing the same work as me, slowly approached me after she was done with her work.

“Aren’t you tired?” I asked.

“Ah, I’m fine since we’re together, oppa. Hehe,” Jung Ha-Yan replied.

It felt like it had been a while since we talked. Of course, we met every day, so we basically talked to each other every day. Still, I felt bad that I couldn’t take care of her when she needed me. I wanted to do something for her, but Jung Ha-Yan seemed happy just being with me, and when I patted her head, she happily came even closer to me.

“Cheers,” I said.

“Cheers!” she repeated.

“By the way, how’s the research going?” I asked.

“Ah, I think it’s going well. I was kind of busy because I had to move my schedule up a bit, b-but it went s-smoother than I thought. Max said he’s going to try to make a prototype in a few days,” she answered.

“He didn’t tell you an exact date?” I questioned.

“No, he didn’t,” she answered.

“Hm…”

“Should I grill him a bit?” she asked.

“No, there’s no need. And the second princess…”

“I-I’ve been watching her,” she said.

“Okay. If you notice anything unusual, report it to me right away,” I ordered her.

“Okay!”

When I lightly held her hand, Jung Ha-Yan dropped her head. We were in the middle of a party, and when I took the lead, she happily followed me. Even though I had never been able to learn how to dance properly during social events, I thought I could somewhat dance, and Jung Ha-Yan started spinning with a bright smile. I had no idea what she was thinking, but based on her smile, she probably felt like a princess from a fairy tale, and naturally, it wasn’t a bad feeling for me as well. If I were asked how I was feeling, I would say that I felt pretty good.

Even though Jung Ha-Yan would reveal her scary side from time to time, she had always placed me above everything else. Since we had known each other for a long time, I was getting used to that side of her, and strangely enough, I even found it cute.

‘It does make me kind of nervous how she has been too quiet lately…’

I thought she was going to take some kind of action since her magic stats had increased, but other than using Anemone’s Eyes once in a while, she hadn’t done anything else. Even though we had spent more time apart than together, she was very calm.

‘Does she think it’s not enough?’

Aside from the time she had been spending on the quest I gave her, she was using all her time assimilating the knowledge she had obtained from that legendary-ranked staff. As such, she could be thinking that she still hadn’t properly absorbed the knowledge she had acquired.

‘I’m sure she wants to get stronger.’

I was obviously worried about how she would act after getting what she wanted. Based on Lee Ji-Hye’s story, I had no idea when or where she would act in an unpredictable way, but she would definitely not do anything strange when I could see her.

Anyway, the things I had out, like ordering Jung Ha-Yan to watch Charlotte and asking Max to research the video hologram technology, were going along smoothly. Completing the hologram in time was what was important, but I didn’t need it right now.

Anyway, my plans, which involved having Jung Ha-Yan observe Charlotte and asking Max to research the video hologram technology, were going along smoothly. It was important to complete the hologram technology in time, but I had no use for it right now.

The sisters’ fight over the throne still hadn’t surfaced, and even if the video hologram became available right now, there would be no use for it. Right now, we had to adjust the scale that was heavily tilted to one side. It was time to strengthen the first princess’s favorable image and start performing tasks that would negatively affect the second princess.

‘Those with power usually attract at least one bad rumor in their life.’

I thought about spreading fabricated rumors, but I thought it would be best to be reasonable about it since our regressor seemed worried about the second princess. To Charlotte, this act could make her blood boil, but among the ideas I came up with, this was the best one. The slogan that would give her a negative image was really simple.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

It could be applied to both princesses, but I was certain the meaning behind it would be different for Charlotte. A commoner parent was a big weakness in this kind of society.

‘Like mother, like daughter.’