Chapter 31

Translated by Wook

by Wook

At first, Elisha thought that what she had in mind was quite useful, but apparently it wasn’t.

It seemed to have a ‘great ripple effect’, but far beyond ‘good enough’.

Elisha looked at the Great Throne Hall before her.

A high and glorified space.

The hall, in which even aristocrats suffocated the moment they entered, and their heads bowed under the pressure, was rather the most familiar to Elisha in this Barossa.

Not the shabby 2nd Empress Palace or the fancy banquet hall with the smell of perfume and flowers…

Who would know now that this battle of flesh and blood, where people scratch each other with their tongues and drop them into pieces, is the perfect place for Elisha?

“The 2nd Empress has arrived!”

When the servant chief, who had come to call for Elisha, reached the front of the Great Throne Hall, he shouted loudly. At the resounding voice, everyone inside looked at Elisha at once.

Elisha looked up at the man standing at the top of the milky-white marble staircase that was newly ascended from the other side of the carpet, not the nobles who were divided on the left and right of the red carpet that cuts through the middle.

The distance between the Emperor and Elisha was still so far away.

As Elisha took her first steps on her red carpet, muffled, hoarse, and dissatisfied glances poured from all around.

There were also whispers about what a mere woman knew and what she could do to bring her all the way to the Great Throne Hall.

However, they are not doing this simply because Elisha is young and a woman.

If it had been the 1st Empress standing here, even if they had thoughts like that, they wouldn’t have dared to say it.

They just don’t like Elisha to have influence.

It did not matter if Elisha was younger or older, even if she was a young man, they would have devalued her as a child and pointed out Elisha’s background.

Depending on each person’s inclination, some parts may be a little less or more, no matter what.

And Elisha knows how to break their insistence and make everyone equal.

Most people find parts of themselves that they didn’t know when they were roasted in a fireball with a sword stuck in their flesh.

Of course, as long as they don’t upset Elisha by blocking Elisha’s path, threatening her, or touching things they should never touch…

She’s not going to put it into practice.

However, Elisha was more concerned about something else than something she didn’t have to do right away.

She climbed up the red river, which one could not go without making achievements with blood squeezed from corpses, so easily.

The emperor, Kaiden de Rappelcia Atien, was watching with interest, not just staring at her indifferently and trying to crush her!

He opened his mouth.

“2nd Empress, I read the letter you sent yesterday. Your loyalty for worrying about the Empire and finding what you can do for the Empire is unparalleled. So, I told the nobles of my empire about what you’ve suggested, and they don’t believe it. What should be done? How do you prove what you said with your mouth?”

If the fire spirit is the embodiment of maximized destructive power, the water spirit has the same basic usage, but is a little more gentle.

Even in places where there is no water, it draws moisture from the surrounding area so that the summoner can use it, or smells the water from a distance and informs the summoner.

Although the limit is set according to the spirit’s grade, it is true that it is of little use.

Elisha, who remembered that far, suddenly thought.

Then what about the waterways under this land?

The Tanya River, which enriches the east side of the Atien Empire, with its tributaries that extends deep into the depths of Pavezzo Mountains and stands tall in the central part and stretches out to the west, flows throughout the empire.

It was like the root of the great tree of the empire.

And what Elisha wants to do is draw a map of it.

Not all of them, but if one can figure out the flow and create a new waterway…

What will happen?

In a situation where the ground is drying up and splitting in an unprecedented drought…!

“How peculiar. I looked it up and it is not unheard of for a spirit to help the people by navigating through the water veins, so what is the thing that you can’t believe?”

Elisha asked the Emperor back, but no one didn’t know who it was really for.

“Even if it remains on the record, when is that from? At that time, most people didn’t even know how to use the spirits. Besides, aren’t the spirits that weren’t many at time now even fewer? Are you going to let those precious existences do the same thing, digging through the dirt?”

So it was no surprise that the answer came from the other side.

When Elisha turned around, there was a man standing with bitter eyes, but an ordinary looking face.

He is the son of Duke Cherkah and the brother of the 1st Empress, Raymond.

Elisha, who tilted her face crookedly, opened her mouth.

“If it doesn’t work, what would you do?”

“What? Why should I do anything?”

For a moment, Elisha almost couldn’t think of what to say, which is very rare.

What is that idiot…?

“Are you being serious, Archduke Raymond?”

“You are asking the obvious. Precious beings are already valuable in themselves, and isn’t it worthwhile not to be taken away and become an enemy’s strength? There are already a small number of summoners hiding one after another, and if the Empire tries to use them in a trivial way, it will hurt their pride.”

From what Elisha heard, that seemed like a really trivial reason.

Moreover, Archduke Raymond did not fully grasp the gist of Elisha’s question.

What Elisha put in her mouth was not limited to just the spirits.

But also the nobles who had to persuade the summoners even if they refused, along with the pointers of why it had to be that way.

It was about the minimum responsibilities and obligations the nobles had to fulfill, living in this empire and living in luxury with their land and their people.

However, considering that the answer was biased to one side without any thought, it means that he had never thought of it that way.

Elisha didn’t attack him back saying how could he say such a thing for the people of the Empire as a nobleman of the Empire, because she also went out with a purpose.

Instead.

“Thanks to the blessings of the Tanya River, the eastern region is still alive. If so, how about other places? Does the central region still have the water Pavezzo gave it to? Then what about the west region? If you didn’t need me, how would you have called me here? Why do you need confirmation?”

She didn’t want to talk to that idiot anymore.

Elisha scoured the place where the nobles of other factions were located, not the eastern nobles.

The Imperial faction, the Western nobles, and some of the Crown Prince faction looked at each other.

The most urgent of them stepped up first.

“The words of Archduke Raymond are not entirely wrong, but isn’t it the stability of the Empire that takes precedence over all of them? The people of the Empire of the west region are suffering tremendously from the drought. We would like to know if the 2nd Empress has any insight.”

He was Marquis Rwanda who led the West with Duke Verdin.

Marquis Rwanda showed less hostility, perhaps because he believed in Elisha as they had the same ties with the Western Tower backed by the Western nobles.

Elisha looked up at the Emperor at the top of the marble staircase as if asking for permission.

The first thing that came to mind was the one that she sent to the Emperor, because she still had no power to move the nobles, but…

In order to move directly, the Emperor’s permission is necessary.

Whatever it is, now Elisha is the woman of Barossa and has the name of Rappelcia.

Elisha expected the Emperor to nod his head or gesture to get out, but the Emperor stood up from the throne and went down the marble steps one by one.

Then, suddenly, like Elisha, he put his feet on the red carpet and held out a hand.

“Where should we go?”

The Emperor said as if he had come to meet her at the banquet hall.

Even to those words that sounded quite affectionate, Elisha responded without much emotion.

“Mana will guide us.”

Elisha’s hand rested on his palm.

“It’s good to deal with the nobles.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, if you were my servant, you would have definitely become the head of the Imperial faction. It would’ve been easy for you to rise to the rank of marquis.”

It was as if he was talking about a fun, short workshop he had just visited.

“I see.”

“So keep being smart. Do you think the previous emperors really just watched the drought without having a thought like yours?”

“No.”

“Correct. No. Mages and summoners are treated on the same level as nobles, and the nobles don’t like to behave humbly. They think that it will lower their level. Previous emperors did not feel the need to change such a thought. For what reason would you do a job that will only make those arrogant nobles more hungry? Isn’t it right?”

“Aren’t the people of the Empire suffering?”

“Nobles have the same thing in their hands even if the people suffer or not. They squeeze it somehow and exploit it as much as they want. They don’t want to worry about anything any more. On the contrary, many people think that listening to all the whining sounds will worsen their habits.”

“Not the nobles, but Your Majesty. The people of the Empire are your people before they are the realm of the nobles.”

The Emperor stopped walking at Elisha’s unexpected words.

“That’s right. They’re my people. They’re mine.”

Elisha kept her mouth shut without answering, as she thought she was saying something meaningless because of the discomfort caused by Archduke Raymond.

The Emperor lifted the tip of his other hand that was not holding Elisha’s hand, and pressed the faint frown on Elisha’s forehead.

“That’s why, 2nd Empress, I think I’m going to use you. It’s a drought like never before, so let’s make a history that no emperor has ever done before. There must be a lot of praise for you in the Empire.”

Even though she was not a person who knows feelings, she didn’t think the person who said it lightly made it up, so Elisha smiled inwardly.

As of now, the only summoner that would definitely move was Elisha, with a lesser spirit. It would not be enough to help the western nobles as a whole, but even a tributary would be helpful.

Even though it is not enough to change the situation, it will be a breath of fresh air for the west region, which is said to be in the most dire…

The eastern aristocrats, who are maintaining their wealth alone in the blessings of Tanya River, have come up with the best hand to keep them in check, so how can she not use them?

As the spirits disappeared, instead of a small stone, the stone thrown by Elisha became a large stone due to overlapping situations such as the power struggle between the Emperor and the nobles.

Therefore, now…

Feeling that she was thinking about something different for a moment, the Emperor lowered his fingertip, which was holding her forehead, and wiped the corner of Elisha’s eye.

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not for those who are moved, but for those who want to move. There are times when a smart servant can be used somehow, but there is no owner in the world who can tolerate a servant who tries to get ahead of him.”

Those who discovered the appearance of the Emperor and the 2nd Empress walking inside Barossa holding hands, shoulder to shoulder, were astonished.

Then, seeing the nobles following the Emperor and the 2nd Empress, they opened their mouths in surprise again and again.

Then, when the two people who were leading the way stopped and did not move, the whole atmosphere became vague and the tension gradually increased.

Then, Undine, which Elisha had released, returned and pulled Elisha’s silver hair.

“I think it has found it. The scale of Barossa is so large that there are places where the water veins are buried and flowing, but it will not be a usable amount. So, please keep in mind that we are only checking things here.”

As Elisha went in the direction Undine led her, everyone chased to follow.

Then, Elisha stopped in one place and did not enter.

Eastern nobles, who were looking for something to nitpick from behind, flocked to the front and were startled as they recognized the place before them.

“What should be done? This is the garden that the 1st Empress cherishes very much.”

Elisha’s murmuring thundered in the ears of the people.

Translator’s note:

Here comes the thought–

It’s pretty straightforward, honestly. Elisha wants to use Undine to make new waterways to help the regions that are suffering from drought.

Archduke Raymond is against it, so Elisha asks him if they don’t do this, what else can be done?

“If it doesn’t work, what would you do?”

“What? Why should I do anything?”

Basically the eastern is against this idea because they don’t want Elisha to have influence, while the western is now more or less willing to hear her because their region is where the drought hit the hardest.

It is implied that Elisha is taking advantage of the eastern rejection to keep the western and eastern in balance as well with this passage.

The eastern aristocrats, who are maintaining their wealth alone in the blessings of Tanya River, have come up with the best hand to keep them in check, so how can she not use them?

The story continues with Kaiden taking the whole court out with Elisha in his hand.

Elisha summons Undine to prove the water spirits’ ability to sense water veins and finds one in the Imperial Palace, which leads them to… Isabelle’s garden… I hope they destroy it in the next chapter.

The way the story is being told in a roundabout way is a bit confusing at times, but I hope you’re as intrigued as I am~~