Make Him Shut His Mouth
Regina straightened in her seat.
“Let him in.”
It was less insolent than the last one, but the maid from the Grand Empress’s Palace still entered with the same haughty air. Her swagger was irritating.
Honestly.
The servant who had delivered Chloe’s letter looked as if he meant to leave the reception room at once, but Regina had no intention of letting him go so easily.
She made him stand a little ways off, then opened the letter. It was an invitation to a tea party at the Grand Empress’s Palace.
She had expected Chloe to call for her again.
The woman had looked ready to summon her at once and take her revenge, but the fact that she had waited this long meant she must have finished preparing everything she needed.
“Hm.”
Confirming the mana filling her body, Regina let a faint smile touch her lips. No matter what trick the Grand Empress tried, as long as she had mana, she had nothing to fear.
At the very least, no one in the Fredericks Empire could suppress her mana here.
“Her Majesty the Grand Empress is waiting.”
Regina turned to the servant who was pressing her to get up as though urging her to hurry. His cold blue eyes were even colder than before.
The servant flinched and shrank his shoulders, then quickly recovered. After all, he was certain that the empress, who had not yet firmly established herself in the palace, could not possibly do anything to him, a servant of the Grand Empress’s Palace.
He had heard rumors that the empress had clashed with the Grand Empress several times, but he had been absent each time on Chloe’s orders, so he felt safe enough to act insolent.
The servant clenched his fists.
I have to carry out Her Majesty the Grand Empress’s orders.
And with Chloe standing behind him, the chance to pressure some backwater-born empress was rather tempting, too.
He cleared his throat.
“Ahem. It seems Her Majesty the Empress still doesn’t know the proper respect due to the imperial elders—”
The moment he opened his mouth, still oblivious to the mood in the room, Regina gave the order.
“Kneel.”
“Pardon?”
“I said kneel.”
Her voice, flat and devoid of inflection, rang through the room. Limutan, standing by at a slight distance, immediately pulled the signal cord.
When the knights came in, he gestured, and the servant from the Grand Empress’s Palace was forced down to his knees in an instant.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Make him shut his mouth.”
At Regina’s command, the knights gagged the servant. He was bound in a heartbeat, reduced to a man who could not even make a sound.
“It seems the Grand Empress has been far too lenient.”
The steady tapping of her index finger against the desk was like a metronome. As her delicate white hand moved, it drew everyone’s eyes.
“To think a man who doesn’t even know the proper etiquette for addressing royalty is still stationed in the Grand Empress’s Palace.”
The implication that Chloe’s judgment of character was poor made the servant panic.
If he had succeeded in crushing the empress and dragging her off to the Grand Empress’s Palace, that would be one thing. But if word of this spread, he would have to pay with his life.
Only then did the servant’s face go pale. He tried to explain through the gag, but Regina merely watched him with indifferent eyes.
“Bind him and send him to the Grand Empress.”
“Shall I draft a letter?”
“No need. If she wishes to see me, tell her to send someone proper.”
“Understood.”
The knights accepted Regina’s obvious intent to make an enemy of the Grand Empress without question.
Conrad had already ordered them to do whatever the empress wanted, and even without that order, the Grand Empress was a public enemy to the emperor’s knights.
“Take him out.”
The servant struggled wildly, refusing to be dragged away, but he could not fight off the knights’ strength.
A few of the knights even wore openly satisfied expressions as they watched him hauled off, so Limutan silently carried out her command.
For all this time, those knights had been forced to swallow their anger whenever the servants of the Grand Empress’s Palace acted outrageously.
Their insides had been burning, but they had been unable to touch Chloe’s people, who controlled the imperial budget.
And because the servants were so careful to commit only minor insults in places where Conrad would not notice, they had not even been able to file formal reports.
“Are the people of the Grand Empress’s Palace always like that?”
As though she could read the knights’ and Limutan’s frustrations, Regina asked. The knights’ eyes lit up as if they had been waiting for this exact moment; they looked like loyal dogs wagging their tails.
Except for the ones who had taken the servant away, the five or six knights still left in the reception room looked ready to tell her everything at once.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The knight with blue hair tied back tightly, Serpina, stepped forward.
“Every time we stand guard in the palace, the servants shove past us and bump our shoulders.”
“That’s right!”
“And they’ve even spilled tea on our uniforms as they walk by.”
“It happens in every palace except the Emperor’s Palace!”
Their faces were red with indignation. Regina’s fingers, which had been tapping softly on the desk, came to a stop as she met each of their eyes in turn.
When her hand fell still, the knights clamped their mouths shut as well. They had finally found someone to complain to, but now they were afraid she would scold them for whining over something so trivial.
“The problem in the palace is worse than I thought.”
But Regina did not blame them.
Now that I’ve got proof, maybe it’s time to start moving.
She had been waiting for an opening, and now they had sent her such a careless fool that he had left a gap wide open.
“For servants to look down on knights is a grave offense—one that shakes the very foundation of Fredericks, the empire of swords.”
Her voice was firm, and the knights present heard every word.
Under their expectant gazes, Regina gestured to Limutan.
“You called for me, Your Majesty?”
“I received the palace financial report a while ago, and the number of servants and maids in the Grand Empress’s Palace, the First Prince’s Palace, and the Princess’s Palace was strangely high.”
“Yes.”
“That would be the Grand Empress’s doing, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Then from now on, we’ll need to make sure the proper number of staff are evenly distributed throughout the palace.”
Regina was plainly hinting that she intended to cut the number of servants and maids.
Limutan, curious how she planned to wrest control of the finances from Chloe while she still did not have her hands on the imperial treasury, listened carefully to every word.
“I’ll bring the matter of how knights are treated in the palace before the administrative council.”
“And who will be the proposer?”
“Why, me, of course—Rena Fredericks.”
“I’ll make the arrangements.”
As Limutan left to gather the documents, the knights shifted uncomfortably and watched Regina’s face.
With Limutan gone, they didn’t know how to speak to her.
“You all—”
“Yes!”
“We’re listening!”
“Please give the order!”
At Regina’s call, the knights shouted all at once. Their eagerness to win her favor made her laugh.
They’re adorable.
It wasn’t exactly a fitting word for men with such massive builds, but Regina couldn’t hide her amusement.
The knights stared at her, dazzled by her bright smile.
“Do you have anything else to report?”
“No, no, we don’t!”
“That’s all!”
“Please tell us what to do!”
Regina waved a graceful hand at their united cry.
“Then you may go.”
“Yes!”
They answered in booming voices and hurried out in a clatter, leaving the reception room quiet once more. Since she had found her opening, she couldn’t stop here.
“I need to create a justification so solid that no one can deny the treasury should be handed over.”
To stop what was happening in this palace, she had to reduce Chloe’s people. If she held the money, then she could fill the palace with her own people.
And if not that, then at least I’ll drive the Grand Empress’s people out.
What nonsense was this, really?
Palace servants behaving as though they outranked knights.
In Fredericks, the empire of knights, that was unthinkable. Put another way, it would be the same as mages in the Ferman Empire being looked down on by servants.
Everyone had to do the work of their own station, and if some people began looking down on others, then the ones above had to correct the problem.
“I’m going to need some rumors.”
Regina pulled the signal cord hanging beside her and waited for the maids to come in.
“You called for us, Your Majesty.”
“I’ve heard that the servants and maids from the other palaces look down on the knights of the Emperor’s Palace. Is that true?”