“Um, Iris. I wasn’t strong from the beginning either. You might not believe it, but I had to stand alone and handle everything on my own, and it was really overwhelming.”
It’s a story from my previous life.
In this life, I had parents. And even though our house was old and you could say we were somewhat poor, I had had a close-knit family, which made it much easier to take on challenges.
That’s why I think of them as truly precious people.
I’ve realized this time, with my parents, that if there were even a few people who believe in you, a person could grow stronger much faster than they might expect.
If I hadn’t had that, if I had been an orphan all alone in this life as well, I might not have even dared to think of standing by Iris and Estelle like this.
I would’ve just told myself, “Who do I think I am? What can I even do?”
“If you have someone who believes in you by your side, and if you share your burdens with them and look for solutions together, it might not make things completely easy, but it’s far better than carrying it all by yourself. So why not talk about it? What’s it that’s troubling you, Iris?”
Even though I had a rough idea of what was going on, I couldn’t just act like I knew everything, so I ended up saying all this to prompt her to talk.
Thinking about it, the things coming out of my mouth are a bit cringeworthy, but ahem.
Still, seeing Iris struggle so much…
I genuinely wanted to say something that might help her.
After all, one way or another, Iris and Estelle have now…
Become my precious friends, the ones I want to protect.
“I don’t know what else I can do. His Majesty is trying to outright steal credit for my achievements.”
“Steal credit for your achievements?”
The Emperor is doing that?
In the game, while the Emperor did show some interest in Iris’s achievements, he never outright tried to take them for himself.
However, there is a part in the game where the Emperor illegally diverts the Imperial budget for personal use. At first, Iris pushes back against this with her personal funds and investments from the Holy Empire…
“The Empress is pregnant, it seems.”
I was left with my jaw hanging open at the shocking words that came out of Iris’s mouth.
What? P-P-Pregnant? The Empress?
What the hell?! What was she even talking about?!
“Wh-What? Really?”
“Yes. They’re even planning to hold a celebration for the pregnancy soon. I saw the Empress’s swollen belly with my own eyes.”
Wait, what kind of development was this, for God’s sake?!
This wasn’t in the game at all!
No, seriously! No matter how many times I’d played through it, the Emperor barely made an appearance, and as for the Empress? She wasn’t even a character.
She was just some invisible extra, like part of the background.
And now that same Empress was pregnant? Carrying an heir?
What the hell was even going on here?!
“So… is the Emperor trying to stop you from building up your achievements because he wants to pass on the throne to the child the Empress is carrying?”
It wasn’t something I’d normally dare to ask, but given the level of trust between us, I decided it was okay to bring it up.
Iris too didn’t seem particularly bothered by the question. Instead, she answered with a weak nod.
“Hah, but still. Doesn’t Iris already have a solid foundation as the Crown Princess? That’s not something that can be overturned so easily, is it?”
“I think the Empress is planning to use some kind of means to achieve that. If anything were to happen to me, Father would naturally shift the succession to her child.”
Even though it was unlikely that the Emperor would openly take the lead in changing the line of succession, Iris spoke with certainty that the Empress would set things up to make it happen.
“Is the Empress really the type to come up with such elaborate schemes?”
“She’s not exactly the scheming type, but when there’s something she wants, she pushes forward recklessly until she gets it. And she has His Majesty’s love, which makes her even more audacious.”
Well, that made sense. The Emperor had endured a loveless marriage with Iris’s mother, the former Empress, for years. The current Empress who he had fallen for after that must have been a breath of fresh air.
Because of that love, it seemed he turned a blind eye to some of her more foolish actions.
But even so, suddenly getting pregnant with an heir was just unfair.
How old was the Emperor at this point, anyway? And now they were having a baby?
Was this… an affair or something? No, wait, what the hell was I even thinking?! I sounded like a traitor right now!
“Well, um, the only reason I’m asking this is because it’s you, Iris, so…”
“Yes, what is it?”
“His Majesty the Emperor still seems… to be in good health.”
“…Well, he eats and drinks well, so there’s that.”
But even so, the Emperor was already over 60 years old.
This part felt suspicious enough to warrant further investigation.
“Iris, this is just a wild thought, but…”
“Yes, Sir Theo?”
“Do you think there’s any chance the Empress might be having an affair with another man?”
There are people who love with unwavering devotion, but honestly, it was hard to believe the Empress could truly love an Emperor more than twice her age, so he asked.
“Well… when I was younger, I did see her getting along quite closely with some knights, but… after that, I haven’t really been to the Empress’s palace, so I wouldn’t know.”
What? She was careless enough to show that kind of behavior even in front of a child?
“Of course, I told His Majesty about it, but in the end, it was me, as a child, who was summoned to the Empress’s palace and forced to apologize.”
How on earth did she manage to manipulate him to the point where he’d act like that, even toward his own daughter? It was truly hard to understand.
If my daughter ever said something like that, I’d investigate it thoroughly no matter what it took.
And especially when it’s about something as serious as a wife’s infidelity, wouldn’t that call for an even more meticulous investigation?
Kids don’t usually lie about things like that.
Especially not someone like Iris, who doesn’t lie at all. If anything, her words should have been taken even more seriously.
The Emperor must really be blinded by love.
It’s like he’s so blinded by love that he’s steering himself straight into a bad ending route.
[Quest Triggered!]
As I was thinking about the possibility of the bad ending route, suddenly, a window I’d never seen before appeared right in front of me.
It was about a quest that had never occurred before.
[The Crown Princess Iris is in danger due to the Emperor taking credit for her achievements! Help her reclaim her achievements and successfully complete the relief measures!]
[Warning: If the quest fails, the bad ending “Kingdom of Ruin” will occur.]
[Reward: 1,000,000 silver, increased mana pool, unparalleled swordsmanship.]
[Time remaining until quest deadline: 48:00:00 ]
What? Was this a joke? If the quest wasn’t completed within 48 hours, the bad ending would take place?!
No way. Did that mean everything I had done to prevent disaster so far would amount to nothing?
And the “Kingdom of Ruin”? That was one of the worst bad endings you could encounter in the early stages of the story.
The Crown Princess Iris would lose her mind, kill the Emperor and the Empress, and the empire would become soaked in blood. Diplomatic relations with the Holy Empire would be severed, and on top of that, a war would break out, plunging the entire population into a living hell. It was, without question, the ultimate bad ending of the early storyline.
“Iris.”
“Yes, Sir Theo?”
“Let’s handle this ourselves.”
“What? Without His Majesty’s permission, we can’t proceed with anything on a large scale.”
“We can at least start with a pilot project, can’t we?”
A pilot project, conducted to gauge results before starting a full-scale operation, was one of the few things that could be done without requiring the Emperor’s formal approval.
The reason was simple. If they waited to receive approval for the project before even starting a pilot program, it would delay things significantly. The Emperor himself preferred when a pilot program was conducted first and its results presented as part of the proposal for approval.
“For now, we’ll proceed with the pilot program and then officially launch the project under Saintess Estelle’s name.”
“Under Estelle’s name?”
“Yes, though we’ll need her cooperation for it.”
The plan was to begin the project under Estelle’s name, just like in the game.
In this empire, almost everyone was bound by the authority of the Emperor, including Crown Princess Iris, who couldn’t undertake any project without his formal approval. However, there were two notable exceptions to this rule. The Holy Empire’s Pope and Saintess.
As allies, they generally sought the Emperor’s permission before proceeding with any endeavor in the empire, but the peace treaty explicitly allowed them to do as they pleased within Ermunt, except for matters involving military supplies or the trade of weaponry.
Of course, this clause worked both ways. It meant that the Emperor or Empress could freely conduct business in the Holy Empire as well.
“So, we’ll turn this to our advantage. We’ll first implement the relief measures under Estelle’s name, and later, we’ll make sure the credit goes to Iris.”
“And… how exactly would that work?”
“All Estelle has to do is make an official announcement. She can say, ‘This was all Crown Princess Iris’s idea. We merely provided funding because she couldn’t access personal or imperial budgets for the project’. Simple as that.”
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