A few days later when I was having breakfast after morning training, my father, who was silently eating with a fork, said, Tia, Im afraid I have to change the hunting place to the imperial

hunting ground instead of our estate.

Pardon? What are you talking about?

Well, the emperor has issued the order. He also told me to open the banquet at the guest house near the palace.

Oh my My eyes opened wide.

Use the imperial hunting ground and the guest house? What the heck is he talking about?

Why did he issue such an order?

Well, he said he could not allow a large number of nobles including the captains of the knights to vacate the capital for long in the early days of his rule, I dont know the exact reason.

Like he said, I felt strange about the order.

Of course, the guest house is nearer to the capital because it only takes half a day to get there while it takes a couple of days to get to our estate. But I couldnt understand why the emperor opened the imperial hunting ground for that simple reason. Besides, the imperial hunting ground has been reserved for the imperial family until now.

I raised my eyebrows in spite of myself. I was afraid the noble faction might find fault with me, citing this matter. No matter how good cause I presented, they, hellbent on nit picking on my back, would not pass over it.

No matter how much I thought about it, I felt I couldnt accept it. So, after I finished my breakfast, I headed straight to the Imperial Palace. I could see him only late in the afternoon because there were lots of people who requested to see him today.

So, I helplessly walked out of the Central Palace. I could see him much earlier with the power of my family, but I didnt want it.

When I turned to the knights building after plodding along, I suddenly saw a knight in a familiar uniform walking toward me. As if he was glad to see me, he bowed with a smile.

Hi, Sir Monique. Good morning.

Hi, Sir Freia.

Oh, I think Ive got something to boast about in the morning. It looks like something good will happen to me today.

Pardon?

Oh, nothing. By the way, I heard a rumor that the emperor would open the imperial hunting ground and the guest house for your coming-of-age ceremony. Is that true?

I smiled in embarrassment at the man who was looking at me curiously.

Has the rumor already spread to everybody? Maybe its too late for me to ask the emperor to cancel it.

I sighed somehow. I didnt want to hold my coming-of-age ceremony ostentatiously. Of course, opening a hunting contest at my estate itself was extraordinary, but using the imperial guest house for that purpose was a different matter.

Sir Freia asked, watching me sighing, Well, I know its rude for me to ask this, but your breakoff of engagement with the emperor has been withdrawn then?

Pardon? What do you mean

Oh, Im sorry if you were offended. Well, I thought he would not have opened the imperial hunting ground and the guest house unless you had withdrawn the breakoff of the engagement

Oh, I see. Thats fine.

Thank you for understanding.

I thought about it for a moment, watching Sir Freia bowing slightly.

Withdrawing the breakoff of my engagement with him?

Come to think of it, I felt many people could think so. By the way, when is he going to announce it officially? The foreign delegations already left.

When I thought I had to double check it sooner or later, one of the servants came over and said,

Are you Sir Monique?

Yes, but whats up?

If you have time, please stop by the government building. The prime minister wants to see you.

Prime Minister? Okay. Let me go and see him now.

I was a little puzzled. Does he want to see me for that matter? But he should handle it secretly without the noble faction smelling a rat.

Anyway, as he wanted to see me, I felt I should see him. After saying goodbye to Sir Freia, I headed to the prime ministers office in the government building. When I walked on the corridors where many people came and went with a bunch of papers, I suddenly recalled my memories of Allendis.

Come to think of it, I often stopped by this place when Allendis was still here.

According to a report recently obtained by my familys intelligence sources, the members of the Verita family were discussing the qualifications of his eldest son Allexis. His condition was getting worse after he got married to Ilya, former Lady Genoa, so they began to search for Allendiss whereabouts in the Lua kingdom. If he, whose health is getting worse, is deprived of his successor status or dies, Allendis would be the only immediate family member to succeed Duke Verita.

I was frustrated. Where is he? How could the Verita family, who boast of the most extensive network of intelligence in the empire, find his whereabouts despite their all-out efforts to find him?

When I let out a big sigh, I saw the dukes executive office in the distance.

As I entered the spacious office, a man with green hair and three men and women who seemed to be his aides caught my eye. The duke, who was pacing up and down while muttering something, welcomed me.

Come on in, Lady Monique.

I heard you wanted to see me.

Yes. I have something to tell you about the use of the guest house and the imperial hunting ground. Also the problem of cost related to that.

Cost problem?

The emperor told me that as the place was changed by his order, the imperial family should make up for the cost that was beyond the original budget of the Monique family for your coming-of-ceremony.

Really? You dont have to.

I could never accept the imperial subsidy. Using the guest house and the imperial hunting ground itself was already a problem. How could the emperor subsidize the cost of the coming-of-age ceremony for me? If this were to be leaked to the noble faction, it could bring about their strong resistance.

Giggling at me when I showed embarrassment, he said, I see eye to eye with you on that, but this is the emperors order, so I cant do anything about it.

Can you hold it for a while? In fact, I was just trying to meet the emperor and ask him to cancel his order.

The rumors have already spread widely, so its useless to cancel it. Just accept his order.

I sighed deeply. When I thought of the repercussions of this, I was really frustrated, but Duke Verita had a point, too.

I sighed again and said, after thinking for a long time, Okay. But please dont take into account the cost problem. I dont want the imperial subsidy. I believe you can handle it in your capacity as the prime minister.

Huh, I have nothing to say as you say so. Let me talk to the emperor about it first. Lets discuss the details then.

Even if the emperor rented the place for me, there was a lot to discuss because a noble family used the private property of the imperial family, such as how to pay for the wages of the workers at the imperial hunting ground and the guest house, how to pay for the maintenance cost and how to reimburse the damaged properties, etc.

Only

Was it because of that? When I paused for breath, it was already past lunch time.

I stood up to go back, but he stopped me and gave me a thick pile of papers.

As he said the documents were about what he wanted to discuss more, I replied accordingly and came out of his office.

When I was about to go home, I stopped by the Central Palace to cancel my request to meet the emperor. As I decided to accept the emperors order, I didnt have to see him.

Going back home, I opened the documents handed out by the duke. As I expected, I noticed the documents contained all kinds of information and questionable points about the members of the noble families.

I gladly read the thick papers one by one.

Ugh?

I noticed something strange. There was every information about the tax evasions of Duke Jenna, Earl Hamel, Earl Lanier, Earl Holten, Earl Dias, Earl Resling, Viscount Apinu who I recently brought into my fold, as well as those marquises who rarely visited the capital. But there was nothing about Marquis Mirwa, to my surprise.