The following day, inside the grand conference room of the governor-general's official residence.
Officials assigned to instant communications were once again standing by around a massive board, accompanied by Zoe and me.
The difference from yesterday was that the giant board had been painted entirely black.
"Give it a try."
"Yes, Sire."
At my command, one of the officials took a white stick about the thickness and length of a finger and wrote words across the black board.
After scribbling a few arbitrary characters, another official wiped them away with a cloth.
"It disappeared!"
Zoe gasped in surprise, turning to look at me.
"What... is that?"
"It's a local specialty from a certain province known as chalk. Originally, it was inspired by a children's game of drawing on rocks with stones; someone eventually got the idea to gather those white mineral elements and compress them into a solid stick."
While I explained, the official continued writing and erasing lines of text.
When I said, "That's enough," he stopped.
"Instant communications can drag on for quite some time. If we're going to use this system continuously, I figured it would be much better to have a surface we could easily wipe clean."
"Indeed! That is brilliant, Master!"
Zoe looked visibly impressed.
"His Imperial Highness the Prince Regent has arrived," one of the officials reported.
I nodded and said, "Begin."
The transmission started, and white characters appeared across the blackboard in chalk.
"Forgive me for disturbing you while you are busy."
"Think nothing of it."
As I spoke, my words were inscribed onto the blackboard and relayed across the line to the Prince Regent—Oscar.
And so, our "conversation" began between Enlil and the imperial capital, two places separated by vast distances.
"It is presumptuous of me to bring this up, but it concerns the budget."
"Are we short after all?"
"Yes, the national treasury is already stretched to its absolute limit. If matters continue as they are, we will face a massive deficit this fiscal year."
"What about the inner treasury?"
"That, too, has reached what one might call a critical level. Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has warned as much, yet we cannot reasonably subject her to extreme austerity."
"That is reasonable. It's a difficult situation... Only now do I truly appreciate the late Emperor's struggles."
"Do you refer to the matter of the fine?"
"Indeed."
An old memory surfaced in my mind.
Back when I was still the Royal Minister of Justice, Father had once sought my counsel.
A member of the imperial family, whose son had committed a crime, had offered to pay a fine out of his own pocket on the grounds of negligent supervision.
The act itself was merely an empty gesture—essentially saying, "I'll apologize first, so please forgive me"—and was trivial at best.
The issue was that Father had been sorely tempted by the offer. Since it stemmed from a crime, he had asked for my opinion as the Royal Minister of Justice.
At the time, I had firmly rejected it.
Speaking as the Royal Minister of Justice, I stated that under Imperial Law, there was no such crime as parental negligence for a son's transgressions.
Therefore, there was no legal justification to penalize him.
Instead, I had proposed the idea of the honorary knight as a way to "sell prestige."
I hadn't thought deeply about the underlying reality back then.
No, the truth was that I simply hadn't understood.
Now that I stood in Father's shoes as Emperor of the Empire, however, I understood all too well.
I realized that there were moments when a ruler desperately needed to drum up funds, no matter how petty the source.
"Thanks to Your Majesty's benevolent rule, money circulates abundantly among the common populace. Given this state of emergency, what would you think of raising taxes slightly?"
"Only during an emergency, and strictly as a last resort, it is not entirely out of the question."
"Then what shall we do?"
Oscar countered.
Since my reply was a roundabout rejection, he was essentially bouncing the question back at me: "Well, what now?"
What should I do?
"Prestige... to sell..."
I muttered beneath my breath.
Noticing the communications clerk react to my murmur, I told him there was no need to transmit those words.
"Give me a day. We will conclude here for today."
Having that final message sent across the line, I stood up.
"Zoe, I'm leaving everything in your hands for about half a day."
"Where are you going?" Zoe asked.
While she had no qualms about taking charge as the de facto deputy governor-general, her tone made it clear that she needed to keep track of my whereabouts.
"I am going to see Her Majesty the Empress Dowager."
"Pardon?"
Evening, at the Imperial Capital Royal Palace.
Soaring back from Enlil Province to the imperial capital in a single flash on Ziz's wings, I caught an utterly flabbergasted eunuch and instructed him to announce my request for an audience with the Empress Dowager—my mother.
It was common knowledge throughout the palace that the Emperor was far away in Enlil Province, so his shock was only natural.
Even so, the fact that he hurried off to deliver the message without protest owed much to the Empire's identity as a warrior nation.
Historically, past emperors had frequently staged sudden, phantom-like appearances across the realm for tactical reasons during wartime.
Because of that precedent, while my abrupt return came as a surprise, no one deemed it impossible. They likely assumed I was simply executing another such elusive maneuver.
Before long, word arrived that the Empress Dowager had granted me an audience, and I was escorted by the eunuch toward Mother's detached palace.
Entering the detached palace, I proceeded into the chamber where Mother awaited.
Though not quite as grand as the Emperor's quarters, the Empress Dowager's private room was exceptionally spacious.
The Empress Dowager herself sat regally upon an ornate seat resembling a throne, flanked on either side by attending court ladies.
I stepped forward, sank to my knees before Mother, and bowed my head low.
"It has been far too long, Mother."
"My, what a surprise. Such utterly unpredictable movements make you the spitting image of the late Emperor in his youth."
"You flatter me, Mother."
I replied, keeping my head bowed.
"It seems affairs in Enlil are not yet fully settled. What brings you here today?"
"I have come because there is something for which I must beg your forgiveness."
"Forgiveness? Raise your head and tell me what troubles you."
"I am deeply sorry."
I kept my forehead lowered.
Considering what I was about to ask, I could not bring myself to simply look up just because she bade me do so.
I could sense the surrounding court ladies growing noticeably restless.
And understandably so; regardless of imperial status, this was a private meeting between mother and son.
When that mother told him to raise his head, the son instead remained prostrated, offering nothing but apologies.
Witnessing such a scene would leave almost anyone thoroughly unnerved.
"...What kind of matter might this be?"
As expected of Mother; as expected of the Empress Dowager.
The sheer volume and gravity of the crises she had weathered throughout her life were on an entirely different level.
In a voice far calmer than those of her anxious court ladies, she addressed me without a trace of panic.
"It concerns the 'villa' where you and the late Emperor used to spend the summers every year."
The villa.
That was the common moniker for the summer retreat situated in the northern lands, a short distance from the imperial capital.
Shortly before I was born, Father—no longer able to endure the sweltering heat of the capital's summers in his advanced age—had ordered its construction.
Though labeled a villa, it accommodated the Emperor, his accompanying consorts, the servants tending to their needs, and the imperial guards.
All told, the retinue never numbered fewer than a thousand people, making the estate closer in scale to an entire town than a simple private residence.
Back when I was first granted full imperial authority as regent.
Back when all my status modifiers were elevated to SSS.
At that time as well, Father had traveled to that very "villa," accompanied by Mother and the other consorts.
"What about it?"
"I would like your permission... to sell it off to the private sector."
At those words, the surrounding women gasped in unison.