Harvest Time

The Imperial Family.

The undisputed highest authority in the empire that coordinates politics, economy, and military affairs on behalf of the Emperor.

And at its center.

The imperial palace imbued with the Emperor’s majesty.

There, today as well, without fail.

The Second Imperial Princess Elia was thoroughly reviewing administrative documents pouring in from all regions and making key decisions that supported the empire.

Her brilliant golden hair swayed back and forth with the movement of her head.

“Your Highness. News from the south.”

An aide cautiously approached Elia, who was organizing documents in her office, and handed her a document.

“Aide, you’re always working so hard.”

“Not at all, Your Highness.”

“There’s no further news, is there?”

“No.”

At Elia’s gesture indicating he could leave, the aide bowed deeply and left the room.

As the office door closed, Elia’s gaze turned to the letter.

“News from the south… Surely it’s about Loen.”

Elia unfolded the letter and her eyes moved quickly.

Hm?

‘She already annihilated the Southern Alliance?’

Elia’s pupils began to tremble gradually.

‘And she even repelled not just an ordinary demon, but a high-ranking demon?’

Each piece of content was extraordinary.

“Ha… this is giving me a headache.”

Loen Franz was clearly approaching the core of imperial power.

Whether intentional or not, this was an unchangeable fact.

This would accelerate even further due to this incident.

Tap, tap.

Elia’s fingertips slowly tapped on the desk.

“Why did you have to be born a woman, Loen.”

At times like this, Elia truly regretted the fact that Loen was the same gender as her.

Generally, love between a man and a woman is the most certain form of alliance.

Furthermore, marriage is a bond that no one can deny.

But this approach wouldn’t work with Loen.

“Wait. Come to think of it, she has a younger brother, right? Johan Franz, was it?”

Elia’s eyes flashed.

To obtain the imperial throne, one must use all means necessary.

The moment one loses in this competition, only a miserable end awaits.

It seemed she would need to have a deep conversation with Loen soon.

‘Before that, I should first ask Father. I’m really curious about his purpose in bestowing the position of Southern Corps Commander on Loen.’

Elia rose from her seat.

Putting on her coat, she left the office and immediately headed toward the imperial audience hall.

She walked along the palace corridor with brilliantly shining marble walls and red carpets.

But indeed.

Perhaps it was because they shared the same blood as siblings.

It seemed Elia wasn’t the only one who had such thoughts.

“Elia. Where are you rushing to?”

A man walking from the opposite direction stopped in front of her.

It was the First Imperial Prince Regnum.

Regnum looked down at his sister with eyes full of arrogance and authority.

‘Always so pretentious.’

While mocking him inwardly, Elia outwardly displayed a bright smile.

“I’m on my way to see Father. And you, brother?”

“Yes, I am as well.”

“Shall we go together then?”

“Let’s do that.”

They walked side by side.

Silently, maintaining an appropriate distance.

---

Thus, they arrived at the imperial audience hall.

Under the massive dome of the ceiling, he sat on a golden throne sculpted from pure gold.

Their father and the absolute power ruling the empire.

The Emperor of the empire, Imperius Imperator.

But for some reason.

The prince and princess couldn’t feel that the being before them was their father at all.

Rather, they only felt a sense of alienation, as if facing a transcendent being different from humans.

Elia and Regnum simultaneously knelt and bowed their heads.

The Emperor’s eyes turned toward them.

It was a strictly businesslike gaze rather than a warm look directed at his children.

“Rise.”

At the Emperor’s word, they both stood up.

Soon, the Emperor’s voice broke the brief silence.

“State your business.”

Regnum stepped forward first.

“I hear that Loen Franz has annihilated the Southern Alliance.”

“That is something I already know.”

Regnum, with sweat forming on his forehead, continued.

“Due to that incident, a significant power vacuum has occurred in the imperial south. It has been observed that some families are moving to fill their own selfish desires during this time.”

‘Some families’ naturally included the Franz family.

In other words, Regnum implicitly criticized their preemptive actions as movements to fulfill selfish desires.

On one hand, he was thinking of quickly filling the power vacuum to put a brake on the Franz family’s expansion.

“Therefore, I believe it is necessary to quickly appoint new nobles to govern the ownerless cities and territories. After deliberation among the highest members of the imperial family—”

“I will handle that myself.”

The Emperor decisively cut him off.

“…Pardon?”

“There’s no need for the imperial family to worry about that matter. I will decide.”

Since the Emperor had distributed power to his children and entered seclusion, the authority to appoint cities, territories, and nobles had been managed by the imperial family.

But suddenly, the Emperor declared he would wield the appointment authority himself, leaving Regnum thoroughly bewildered. Regnum bit his lip.

Giving up, he reluctantly moved on to his next business.

“Your Majesty. And I ask this out of concern. Regarding the appointment of Loen Franz, who has no experience, as Corps Commander, there are various voices of concern internally as well. May I ask what was the reason for placing her in that position…”

Under the Emperor’s gaze, Regnum’s words trailed off.

The Emperor, who had been quietly watching him, opened his mouth.

“Regnum.”

His low voice resonated throughout the audience hall.

“Who am I?”

“You are the Emperor of the empire.”

“Yes. I am the empire, and the empire is me.”

A moment of silence.

“And yet, voices of concern…”

The corner of the Emperor’s mouth lifted slightly.

It was an expression that could either be a smile or a sneer.

“I bestowed the position of Corps Commander upon her because I judged her to be qualified.”

“……”

“This is merely a temporary position, so do not place too much meaning on it.”

“I understand.”

Having grasped the Emperor’s intention, Regnum stepped back.

As the Emperor’s gaze turned toward Elia, she smiled brightly and said.

“My brother has already asked what I was going to ask.”

At Elia’s words that she had a purpose but it disappeared, the Emperor chuckled and waved his hand.

“You may withdraw now.”

Despite having heard answers from the Emperor, the thoughts of the prince and princess only multiplied.

After leaving the audience hall side by side, they parted ways in opposite directions at the end of the corridor.

There were no greetings.

---

Immediately after the Southern Alliance was annihilated.

Team Leader Ead expressed her intention to return.

“You’re leaving already?”

“Yes.”

“Actually, we rushed here straight away, abandoning the cleanup~ So we need to get back quickly to contain the chaos in the duchy, don’t you think?”

As Senior Ria said, an operation is only truly complete when the cleanup is perfectly accomplished.

The very next day.

The Inspection Department team, except for Loen, returned to the duchy.

It was to clean up the scene with support personnel and to exterminate the remaining traitors and families in the duchy.

And Loen…

She decided to rest for just half a day, to organize her thoughts as well.

This much should be fine, right?

“I’m exhausted…”

Loen sprawled out on the bed in her quarters.

It wasn’t a joke—she felt like she could fall asleep immediately.

Just as Loen’s eyes were about to close gradually.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Lady Loen~?”

Seeing Psyche peeking her head through the slightly open door, Loen sighed.

It was clear she had come because she was bored.

In the end, Loen gestured.

“Come in.”

“Yes!”

Swoosh!

Psyche, who came running, flew through the air and landed on the bed where Loen was lying.

‘Hey, you…’

Startled, Loen hurriedly rolled to the side.

Thud! Fortunately, the catastrophe of the bed breaking didn’t occur.

Loen thought about hitting Psyche once, but then decided against it.

She didn’t even have the energy for that.

You’re not hitting me? You must really be tired.

Psyche, who rolled over to stick close to Loen, asked a question to her who was staring blankly at the ceiling.

“How’s the wound on your arm?”

“It’s healing quickly due to the healing artifact.”

When they had each taken one wearable artifact from the corps fortress repository earlier,

Psyche had taken a healing artifact that maximized physical regeneration.

Remembering this, Loen was currently wearing the artifact borrowed from Psyche.

“Anyway, you must return it once your recovery is complete. Understood?”

“Of course.”

“By the way… I’m curious about something. What’s the next target?”

“It seems too early to talk about that now.”

“What? Isn’t this operation over once the cleanup is finished?”

“That’s why, because of the cleanup.”

The Southern Alliance was finished.

But the purge of the traitor families remained.

Of course, although they had lost their actual power with the deaths of family heads and private soldiers, they still needed to be dealt with quickly.

“Hmm. Didn’t we decide to leave the handling of traitor families to the corps?”

That’s true, but.

“The aftermath is the problem. As numerous families collapse, numerous businesses, merchant groups, and talents will lose their masters. So the power vacuum will be extremely severe.”

“Ah~ my head hurts. I roughly understand what you’re saying.”

Psyche rolled to the opposite side away from Loen, and then immediately left the bed and walked out. She absolutely detested boring conversations.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see Investigator Seraphine.”

Seraphine was currently managing the chaos in the port city on behalf of Loen.

Could she really alleviate Psyche’s boredom?

Loen was certain she couldn’t.

“Alright. Take care.”

After Psyche disappeared.

Loen sank back into thought.

What was her reason for heading to the south in the first place?

Fulfilling the Emperor’s decree and punishing traitors was certainly important.

However, this was merely a superficial reason.

The real purpose was to expand the Franz family’s influence.

For this, what needed to be done first was preemption and absorption.

Preempting ahead of others the numerous businesses that would lose their owners and drift due to this incident, and drawing the scattered talents into the Franz family.

In fact, businesses in this era are generally like that.

Rather than grand technology and large-scale systems, they tend to rely heavily on a small number of capable managers and skilled artisans.

In other words, excellent artisans are the core of the business.

Therefore, recruiting them was the top priority.

‘I should contact my brother first.’

Based on the materials the Franz family had investigated in advance, her brother Johan would already be actively moving.

Loen, lying on the bed with her eyes closed, calmly organized what she needed to do next.

Plans in her mind were fitting together like puzzle pieces.

‘I need to benefit as much as possible while the Southern Corps is in my hands.’

The power vacuum caused by the collapse of the Alliance was a golden opportunity for the Franz family.

Loen had no intention of missing this opportunity.

If she hadn’t started at all, that would be one thing.

Having come this far, Loen intended to finish it definitively.

Therefore, it was now time for harvest.