Chapter 458 A Hidden Shadow

Chapter 458 A Hidden Shadow

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Neither the request of the empire's neighboring diplomats nor the golden letter's arrival particularly shocked Emilia.

The Commonwealth of Red Dusk had long since been eying the territory of their empire, and it was no secret to anyone. As far as they were concerned, everything that now belonged to the empire was already theirs, and it was only a matter of when they claimed ownership of it that was in question.

In fact, the only reason they hadn't already done so was because they wrongly believed that Blue Dawn would continue getting weaker and weaker, meaning they would need even less effort to take over in the future.

Of course, now that they realized their fatal mistake, trying to swallow this piece of meat that was already supposed to be in their throat seemed to appear more and more difficult with every passing second.

As for what they planned to achieve by meeting her… even Emilia had no idea.

The arrival of the golden letter was a matter of course as well. Since this was the traditional way to invite people to the Golden Crown event, the families controlling the top five corporations in the world naturally had more than enough qualifications to attend.

Of course, had she been keeping their whereabouts secret, the letter would have been sent to her family members instead.

What did surprise her, however, was the fact that the invitation wasn't for 'Emilia White', but 'Empress Emilia'!

Naturally, she wasn't shocked by the fact that they acknowledged her as an empress, but that they considered her qualified to participate in the event in her own name, even without her family.

After all, even if the Empire of Blue Dawn had made tremendous progress in the past few months, its foundations were truly too shaky.

Of course, this wasn't really a bad thing for either Emilia or her empire, since this type of acknowledgment of strength would only elevate their status in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Emilia couldn't help but tap a finger against her lips thoughtfully. "There's no way this invitation came as part of the standard process. But the question is… who would interfere on my behalf?"

Her first 'suspects' were naturally her family members, but neither Sam nor her parents seemed to know anything about it, so that clearly wasn't the case.

Emilia already knew most of what her other girlfriends were up to, and none of them seemed to have gotten involved with the committee overseeing the Golden Crown, so that couldn't be it either.

And although her knights were very passionate, they couldn't possibly have enough strength to pull this off.

The crimson-haired girl frowned. "Could Justine have done this? No… even if she's in Phoenix country, I specifically told her to keep a low profile. She wouldn't do such a stupid thing for no reason…"

After watching her partner rack her brains without result for a while, Cynthia finally couldn't help but sigh. "Why are you overthinking this so much? It's just an event."

Emilia shook her head in denial. "It's not just any event. If something unexpected happens during or after the Golden Crown, I can't be sure that it won't affect my plans. Moreover, the safety of Justine and Dixie's friends is also not guaranteed!"

The raven-haired girl hummed thoughtfully. "Is that so… Let me ask you something, then. Since this is such an important event, not many people must have the right to change the list of guests, right?"

Emilia nodded. "Of course. The prime minister of the Phoenix country approves of the final list herself, and only she has the right to modify the list outside of the standard process."

Hearing her explanation, her partner couldn't help but be dumbfounded. "Wait… then isn't that your answer? Why were you so confused again??"

Usually, her partner was so astute and witty that Cynthia didn't even dare to interrupt her thoughts too frequently. After all, she didn't want to attempt fixing something that wasn't broken, and then regret it later, right?

No way, as long as it didn't concern her so called 'girlfriends', her partner would never make such a stupid mistake!

Facing Cynthia's dumbfounded silence, the crimson-haired girl giggled. "Silly, although the prime minister does add the names, she mostly does that based on 'suggestions' from highly influential people."

The raven-haired girl blinked. "She can still do it on her own if she wants, though, can't she?"

Emilia frowned. "Yes, but… could it really be her? No no, wait, didn't Noelle say she put out a negative statement during my debut? That makes no sense…"

Her partner sighed. "Well, I'm out of ideas, then."

Since she couldn't figure it out, Emilia decided to simply alert Justine and the others to be more careful while operating in the Phoenix country, and to keep an eye out for anything that didn't look right.

Anyway, after she had a few more clues, Emilia felt that it shouldn't too hard figuring it out with Crystal's help. Of course, as there was still quite some time before the event, that would be for later.

Calling in her secretary, Emilia quickly instructed her to accept the request of the diplomats from the Commonwealth of Red Dusk.

"Oh, and make sure that the location is set as close to the border as possible."

Alexandria's stylus froze in shock. "B-But Princess… wouldn't that be too risky?!"

Emilia smiled. "That's exactly it. Even if they're plotting something, our silly neighbors are a bit too cowardly to make a move without being sure of their chances, so we at least have to set a good bait, don't we? After all, this kind of opportunity is already hard enough to come by, it'd be a shame to waste it."

The older woman quickly shook her head in denial. "No way, no way! I can't let you put yourself in so much danger, no matter what the reason is!"

Emilia blinked. "But didn't I fight by myself during the rebellion?"

"T-That's different. We had the element of surprise, and the unprepared forces of the previous government are completely different from assassins of Red Dusk!"

The crimson-haired girl just smiled and curled her finger in the indignant girl's direction. "Come here."

Confused, Alexandria did as she was told, and moved closer to Emilia until they were within arm's reach.

Emilia tapped her chin playfully. "Kneel down, will you?"

The older woman blinked in surprise before following her instructions, only to be shocked when the crimson-haired beauty reached around and grabbed the base of her hair bun.

Of course, Emilia's grip wasn't very rough, and she only gently tilted the woman's head to force her to look into her eyes.

"Although you all call me 'princess' affectionately, and your love makes me incredibly happy… don't forget that I'm your empress, alright?"

As Alexandria nodded dumbly, Emilia patted the back of the woman's head before leaning down to press a kiss against her forehead. "Of course, your concern is touching, but if you can't trust my decisions, I can't be a very good empress. Understand?"

"Yes, princess!"

Emilia shook her head in amusement before waving her away. "Okay, you can go out and do as you were told now, can't you?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Red Dusk's diplomats were far from the only ones who wished to meet her, but since Emilia didn't want to 'scare' this sensitive opponent, she could only push them back.

Of course, even if no one wanted to accept that the schedule of this new empress was already packed and that she could only meet them at the Golden Crown, most of them had little choice.

Some of the heavyweights did try to 'convince' her by putting pressure on the White Deer's industry in their respective territories, but they quickly realized the futility of their actions.

After all, the White Deer Corporation seemed to be run by a bunch of fools. Their first priority was Emilia, and the last thing they seemed to care about was money.

When it came to dealing with people who seemed to go against their precious princess, it was as if they were more than happy to lose some money to hurt their opponent as much as possible.

Not many wanted to kick an iron plate just to nurse their bruised egos, so most could only give up and wait for the Golden Crown event to connect with this reclusive empress.

Of course, a few did take this 'insult' to heart, and even made attempts to have their governments completely blacklist both this empress and her empire, but their efforts were largely fruitless.

After all, even if they blacklisted the White Deer Corporation itself, such actions had little to no effect on how the empire functioned.

The only thing they would achieve was giving more breathing room to other private corporations in their territory, but that could hardly be considered a 'win' for them.

Emilia didn't care much about their bruised ego, however, as she was busy making preparations for dealing with the Commonwealth.

If the prey fell into her trap, but managed to struggle out of it and get away, wouldn't it be too embarrassing?

Her first' strike' against an opponent after becoming the Empress of Blue Dawn definitely couldn't be so disgraceful!

Of course, as the orders of the empress were passed down the chain of command, it would be inevitable for her girlfriends to get wind of it. And since Emilia wasn't fond of giving her girlfriends the bad kind of 'surprise', she decided she might as well let them know in advance.

Even if they were against it, Emilia didn't believe it would be too difficult to convince her adorable babies.

Right?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━