Intersecting Intentions

Princess Yupe had seemed somewhat melancholy since then.

Her hands were moving properly, but she kept sighing.

She had seemed like the type who only cared about herself, but apparently she did feel guilt.

The people Mike introduced were scheduled to come for interviews today.

Since the nature of the work meant Princess Yupe would be spending a lot of time with them, I decided to have her present as well.

Four women arrived at the office right on time.

Since it was everyone's first time inside the royal castle, they kept glancing around then quickly bringing their eyes back forward.

Nostalgic. I remember doing something similar until I got used to it.

The backgrounds of those who came had been properly verified.

If there were no issues, we planned to hire all of them, but we would conduct a final check of their responses just to be sure.

"Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean you need to be nervous. Simply answer the questions honestly. Let's begin."

"Thank you for having us."

What we wanted to confirm was how long they could work.

Whether they could keep secrets. Whether they had any debts.

Questions like those.

As expected from people who came through an introduction, all four had clean backgrounds with no apparent issues.

All four had families in difficulty or had lost their jobs due to the meteor incident, and I could feel their enthusiasm to work as stable palace servants if possible.

"I've heard most of what I wanted to ask. So… Sister Yupe, do you have anything to ask them?"

This wasn't in the planned schedule.

She was only supposed to be present, but Princess Tianis deliberately directed the conversation to Princess Yupe.

Princess Yupe didn't appear flustered, touching her neck choker with her silk-gloved right hand.

"How do I look to you?"

"Um… I don't understand the question."

"It's exactly what it sounds like. Answer what you see."

"I think you are quite beautiful."

That was probably mixed with flattery.

She had struggled with how to answer and somehow squeezed that out.

The others nodded in agreement.

"My, you have good eyes. I'm in favor of hiring all of them."

"Well, if Sister is fine with that… You all wanted to start working as soon as possible, correct?"

"Yes. The sooner the better would help."

"Then all four of you should come to work starting tomorrow. I'll inform the head maid… please give them their settling-in money."

"Understood."

I handed them two gold coins as settling-in money.

This should help them get by.

The royal household would provide uniforms, but they still needed to maintain their appearance.

I could tell they had been trying to keep themselves as presentable as possible, but had been economizing since they couldn't afford to waste money.

"Fortunately, none of you live far enough to require residing here. Please get accustomed to the work and help me out."

"Thank you very much!"

They left, carefully holding their settling-in money.

"Hey, won't giving them money first make them run off with it?"

"They won't. They can earn more than that over a long time as palace servants, so running off would be a loss."

"Is that how it works…?"

"What do you take the citizens for, Sister? You should think more carefully about the people you let close to you."

"Oh, be quiet…"

With this, it looked like we could finally release Azu and the others.

The Royal Shadows that Princess Yupe had commanded would apparently handle counterintelligence, so we wouldn't need to keep watch anymore.

Incidentally, the Royal Shadows had become too weakened, so Alexia and Finn were going to retrain them.

The reason was because Princess Yupe had done as she pleased… actually, no. The Secretary of Military Affairs had apparently been cutting their budget through parliament for a long time.

He claimed they only needed the minimum since the military existed.

That the real reason was to eventually eliminate the royal family wasn't funny at all.

Loyalty cannot overcome prolonged poverty.

With poaching and other factors, their expertise had declined, leading to this state.

If anything, Princess Yupe had been providing some assistance.

That was why they had followed her all the way to the convalescent retreat and served her with absolute obedience.

Princess Tianis formally recognized them as a proper department and guaranteed their salaries, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Ann had apparently wanted to work as a palace servant too, but was rejected for being too young.

Well, that girl could run a respectable business anywhere.

While Yohane and the others were doing this, the Imperial side was making progress on their work.

The Imperial craftsmen were building many cottages as temporary housing.

With help from Kingdom craftsmen, they could apparently construct several houses a day as long as they had lumber.

The Kingdom would purchase these houses and lend them free of charge to those who had lost their homes.

If they liked them, we were also considering selling them at reduced prices.

This rapidly restored the Royal Capital's townscape.

Once the houses were done, manpower could be directed to repairing cobblestones and shops.

Before long, everything would be completely restored.

In this state, we could receive the Alsarm Army when they returned.

Princess Tianis and Chancellor Anatia breathed a sigh of relief.

"I honestly wondered what would happen, but looking back, it was really helpful."

"We've incurred a huge debt, though… not to the Empire, but to Yohane-san."

"I didn't do anything special. Besides, I went to the Empire on Princess Tianis's orders."

"Does that mean it's my achievement?"

"Don't get cocky."

Honestly, without the Empire's cooperation, we would have been delayed by over a year.

Even though it was by Emperor Kelves's orders, they had really done so much for us.

The Imperial delegation led by Ideri was to return to the Empire for the time being, taking the craftsmen whose work was complete with them.

"We can't leave craftsmen idle, after all. I'm glad we could be of service."

"We are grateful. Please give our best regards to Emperor Kelves."

"I will be sure to convey that. Next time, I hope we can have talks as nations."

They remained friendly until the end as they departed.

"Lord Ideri. Was that acceptable? With a little movement of Imperial forces, we could have occupied the Kingdom, couldn't we?"

"You don't seem to understand His Majesty the Emperor's thinking."

"You mean about that merchant? He certainly was useful, but not enough to warrant such favorable treatment."

"Wrong. His Majesty is not the kind of person who makes decisions based on such personal feelings. The Kingdom must serve as a shield against the Church of the Sun God. Those people are… abnormal. His Majesty's thinking is that it's best to have the Kingdom stand at the front while we support them, keeping casualties away from the Empire. If we had occupied them, that would make them part of the Empire, and the Imperial army would have to defend them. The current Kingdom wasn't worth that much."

"Ah, I see."

"We can think about what to do with the Kingdom after that's all over."

The Imperial delegation returned home without looking back at the Kingdom.