Noble meetings that would normally be held once every few days were now being held every morning lately.
The nobles rose at dawn without knowing why and lined up before the emperor, and when the meetings began, they received harsh reprimands even for a single small mistake. As if their dignity and pride meant nothing, the emperor publicly insulted and ridiculed them.
Today’s noble meeting was especially like walking on thin ice. The nobles tried not to even breathe. Everyone had shrunk back from the emperor’s anger that had continued for days.
Adrian sat at the head seat and scrutinized the nobles’ faces one by one. They didn’t dare meet his eyes and only stared at the ground. However, the emperor knew. The greed and flattery, envy and jealousy melted into each wrinkle carved on their faces.
He had thought them disgusting before, but never had his revulsion surged up to the point he couldn’t bear it like now. Compared to the innocent fox’s eyes, their existence felt like the dirtiest filth in the world. He was about to command them to withdraw immediately, feeling he wouldn’t be able to hold back his nausea if he looked at these faces any longer.
“Your Majesty! May I present one opinion?”
Just then, Baron Lorend suddenly stepped forward. He looked at the emperor with a face full of excitement and confidence. Though that face displeased him, Adrian gestured as if to say go ahead and spout whatever. Then the baron’s face brightened as if a light bulb had been turned on.
Baron Lorend put strength into the hand gripping a bundle of papers. He had observed and analyzed the emperor’s movements more closely than anyone over the past two weeks.
The emperor had changed. A fastidious attitude that wouldn’t tolerate even minor mistakes, neurotic reactions unable to bear disheveled appearances. The baron interpreted this as a signal for ‘establishing discipline.’ Emperor Adrian must have felt doubt about the lenient governing style he’d shown until now. So what was needed now wasn’t mercy but strict rule of law and efficiency.
The baron was confident his judgment wasn’t wrong.
“Your Majesty, the ‘special tax reduction’ currently applied to the farmers in the western border region has fulfilled its effectiveness. Despite eight years passing since the war ended, this system maintained by custom causes the empire to miss enormous tax revenue every year.”
Baron Lorend cleared his voice and pointed to one part of a chart. His tone was calm and his logic was orderly.
“If we abolish this reduction benefit and apply regular tax rates, the national treasury will immediately stabilize. Also, we can expect the secondary effect of motivating lazy territory residents to work, thus increasing productivity. Wouldn’t this align with the strict and thorough state administration policy Your Majesty has recently shown?”
The audience grew quiet. The other nobles swallowed dry saliva while gauging the emperor’s mood. It wasn’t wrong. Looking at the numbers alone, Baron Lorend’s calculations were perfect. The tax reduction was a temporary measure that should be abolished someday, and there would be no problem implementing it right now.
However, perfect logic didn’t mean it was the correct answer. Especially not before that emperor sitting on the throne, who looked like he hadn’t slept a wink for days.
Adrian rested his chin on his hand. His gaze slowly swept over the documents the baron had presented. Dense numbers. Efficiency. Profit. Motivation. If it were him in the past, he might have gladly accepted this proposal. Since eight years had passed since the war ended, abolishing the tax reduction was a rational progression.
But right now, every letter in the documents grated on his eyes.
‘Lazy territory residents.’
The fox he’d picked up from the forest was lazy. It whined when hungry, burrowed only into warm places, and spat out medicine because it was bitter. You couldn’t find productivity even if you washed your eyes and looked. According to the baron’s logic, that fox was precisely the ‘inefficient existence’ that should be eliminated first.
Then why did that inefficient beast’s absent spot feel so enormously large?
Adrian’s finger tapped on the desk with a thud. The regular sound cut through the silence.
“Lord Lorend.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Baron Lorend raised his head with eyes full of anticipation. Though the emperor’s voice was unsettlingly low, he took it as a sign of serious consideration.
“Your logic is perfect.”
“You flatter me. I merely pondered day and night for the imperial family’s well-being.”
“Right. Eight years have passed. They may have already enjoyed enough benefits.”
Adrian picked up the documents. The rustling sound of paper was exceptionally loud. He brought the documents before his eyes and pretended to read slowly. The clueless baron’s lips curved up faintly.
“But Lord, do you happen to know?”
The emperor cast his gaze from beyond the paper. A dry gaze penetrated the baron.
“The fact that a record-breaking cold wave struck the western region last winter.”
“Ah… Yes, I am aware. However, that was a temporary weather anomaly…”
“Because of that temporary anomaly, eighty percent of the livestock froze to death and winter crops were completely destroyed. The year before last, there was a summer flood. Right now, the people of that land aren’t enjoying benefits but merely enduring to avoid starving to death.”
Adrian put the documents back down on the desk. The thud was heavier than before.
“This productivity improvement you speak of—was it to be obtained by draining the blood of the starving?”
The color drained from the baron’s face. Flustered, he moved his lips.
“Your, Your Majesty. I merely sought the treasury’s efficiency… And since Your Majesty has recently been emphasizing strict discipline…”
“Strictness.”
Adrian gave a bitter smile. Right, that’s how he must have appeared. His appearance of pressing subordinates and finding fault as if venting anger must have seemed to them like the plausible justification of strict governance.
His irritation had given birth to such foolish conviction. And that conviction had nearly driven tens of thousands of people to the edge of a cliff.
“You’re right. I’ve been sensitive lately.”
The emperor muttered while leaning deeply into the backrest.
“But I got angry because of you bastards’ stupidity that fell below standards, not because I wanted to squeeze the people. This agenda is rejected. And Baron Lorend…”
Adrian paused and looked at the baron. He trembled in terror.
“Stay on your estate for the time being and personally practice that efficient productivity improvement plan. On your own farm, that is.”
Adrian gestured to the head chamberlain. After the baron was dragged away by their hands, the meeting room sank into heavy silence. Adrian pressed his temples firmly. His head hurt like it would split.
Without removing his hand from his temple, he looked around at the remaining nobles. Their gazes were still planted on the ground, their mouths tightly shut. They didn’t dare even make breathing sounds for fear of becoming the next sacrifice.
Seeing their pathetic appearance, anger surged up in Adrian again. He was truly sick of listening to the nonsense of these beggar-like nobles who only pursued their own advancement.
Adrian opened his mouth.
“All of you, get out.”
As soon as the emperor’s command fell, the nobles hurriedly left the meeting room as if they’d been waiting. Until the moment their footsteps completely disappeared beyond the corridor, Adrian remained motionless, leaning on the head seat in cold silence. With those disgusting faces removed from before his eyes, he definitely felt his anger subsiding a bit.
At the same time, terrible fatigue came. All of this was meaningless. It was absurd that the single ticklish sensation he felt when the fox licked his finger seemed far more valuable than the entire current situation.
To Adrian, the fox was the only existence that didn’t want his power. The fox that just rubbed its forehead against the hand he offered and slept on his lap without the vassals’ flattery, the nobles’ stupid words, or the envoys’ fear. At least before that fox, he could be just Adrian, not the emperor.
But now the fox was gone.
Adrian closed his eyes.
He missed the fox terribly.
***
Theodor’s lodgings were quiet.
The fox was curled up asleep on the soft cushion by the window. That spot was now the fox’s designated seat. Except for meal and sleep times, the fox spent all day looking out the window from that spot, then fell asleep just like that.
Over the past week, the fox had recovered at an astonishing speed.
The divine power Theodor injected little by little every day stimulated the blue light dormant within the fox’s body, making it heal itself. Thanks to that, the cracked ribs mended and the scratched paw pads healed completely in no time. But the curse wasn’t purified. Stubbornly so.
He’d thought the curse would be purified once the body recovered to some degree—didn’t it have that much power? No, that couldn’t be. What he saw wasn’t wrong. The power this fox possessed was limitless. Then was it because it hadn’t fully recovered yet? If not that, was it still young?
Theodor flipped through various books to discover the identity of the power the fox possessed. No matter how useful a power was, it was useless if he knew nothing about it. Only when he knew what its identity was and how to handle it would it have meaning.
But there were no answers in any book. The power the fox possessed was different from anything recorded in history.
Theodor closed the book and looked down at the sleeping fox. Its appearance sleeping with even breathing sounds was exactly like an ordinary beast. But Theodor knew. That inside that small body slept an enormous power beyond imagination.
If only he could make that power completely his own…
Theodor reached out his hand to stroke the sleeping fox’s fur. Then the fox’s ears twitched, and before his hand touched its body, it raised its head and looked at him. Wariness appeared in its clear blue eyes.
