A Holiday Afternoon
“Ugh, seriously.”
Elizabeth grumbled. Gone was the groggy, sleep-tousled appearance from when she first woke up; she was now perfectly groomed for the morning.
“Why on earth didn’t Adela wake me up……”
She had, but you hadn’t budged.
I heard her muttering, but for the sake of Elizabeth’s dignity, I pretended not to hear.
After a moment of grumbling to herself, Elizabeth looked at me. She cleared her throat with a soft, “Ahem,” and spoke.
“……My apologies. I didn’t expect to sleep in this late.”
“It’s fine.”
She had been working without a single break, after all.
It was a miracle she hadn’t collapsed from overwork yet. Now that I thought about it, I felt a pang of guilt for having worked her so hard.
I made up my mind.
“Let’s just take the day off.”
“Pardon?”
“I need a break, too.”
“P-pardon?”
Let’s consider today a day for slacking off.
“A sudden vacation……?”
Though flustered, Elizabeth quickly grasped the situation. She sat back in her chair and let out a long, deep sigh.
“But, how exactly is one supposed to spend a vacation?”
Indeed.
That was the problem.
It had been quite a long time since she first entered the Imperial Palace.
Unfortunately, she seemed to have forgotten how to play, having spent all that time doing nothing but work.
“How did you spend your holidays in the past?”
“In the past, well……”
Elizabeth pondered, holding up her fingers one by one.
“Sending out tea party invitations to the young ladies of my faction, or perhaps verifying the authenticity of rumors circulating in high society……”
“Wait.”
That’s not a holiday.
“That was simply how I spent my holidays.”
Then how did she spend her normal days?
“That is……”
“No, never mind. I can guess without you saying it.”
Seeing her like this, she was a woman for whom overwork was a daily routine even before entering the Imperial Palace.
When I thought about it, it wasn’t even strange. Especially considering the scale of the things she did in the original story.
It couldn’t be helped.
“First, you need to learn how to rest.”
“How to rest? Things like that are just……”
Elizabeth was at a loss for words. Now that she was asked, she couldn’t think of anything either.
Resting and playing are skills that must be practiced to be mastered.
In that sense, I was a perfectly optimized talent.
“Elizabeth, you are going to be a ‘Resting Youth’ for the day.”
“Resting Youth, pardon? What is that?”
First, step one.
“We’re going outside the Imperial Palace.”
“What? Wait a moment, Your Majesty. Even so, we should stay in the palace in case of an emergency─.”
She sure had a lot to say.
I ignored her and brought her out of the palace.
If something urgent happened, Lily would come to inform us anyway.
“Is there anywhere you want to go? I’m only asking out of courtesy, as I know you don’t have one.”
“What exactly do you take me for? …….”
I guess not.
After mumbling for a while, Elizabeth spoke up cautiously.
“……Ah, the Academy?”
“Hmm.”
Fair enough.
Before I summoned her, she had been a student attending the Academy just fine.
Though I had stopped by once or twice regarding Serena’s affairs, I had never wandered around leisurely.
“The Academy isn’t a bad choice.”
The Academy was quite large. As the setting of the original work, it was big enough to be called a small city.
“This is a place I used to frequent for rest.”
The place Elizabeth led me to was a park with a small lake. It was a location that hadn’t appeared in the original work.
“I liked being here because it helped me clear my complicated thoughts.”
“Complicated thoughts, you say?”
“Things like worrying about how to deal with young ladies who defied my will.”
Terrifying.
And more importantly, wasn’t that just work, not rest?
“Hehe.”
Elizabeth laughed softly. She lifted the hem of her skirt slightly and gently slipped off her shoes.
Then, she tapped her toes against the surface of the lake and said,
“As Your Majesty said, I’m a woman who doesn’t know how to rest properly. For me, even this is as good as a vacation.”
Thinking about how to dispose of subordinates who displeased her as a form of rest—that was certainly like her.
“It feels good to dip my feet in the lake here. How about you try it too, Your Majesty?”
Should I?
I took off my shoes and dipped my bare feet into the water. The cool chill of the lake crept up my skin.
“Refreshing.”
“Hehehe. Isn’t it?”
Splish, splash. Elizabeth shook her snow-white feet, making ripples.
After doing that for a while, she tilted her head.
“It’s strange.”
“What is?”
“Usually, even when I came all the way here, I could only think about work, just as you said. But now, I don’t really have those thoughts.”
“It means your consciousness is rejecting work that much.”
“Is that so?”
Elizabeth nodded as if convinced.
“I have been doing nothing but work all this time. Because of a certain someone.”
“I don’t know who that someone is, but you’ve worked hard.”
“…….”
Splish, splash! Water splashed everywhere.
“Elizabeth, your clothes are getting wet.”
“Hmph.”
Look at her, turning her head away so primly.
Still, she stopped splashing. Her slender legs slowly waded through the water.
“……”
“……”
“Thank you.”
It was Elizabeth who broke the silence that had lingered for a while.
Fiddling with her fingers, she continued.
“You followed me out because I looked like I was struggling, right? To keep me from thinking about other things.”
“That is true, but.”
Considering I was the one who made her overwork in the first place, isn’t this not something to be thanked for?
Perhaps reading my expression, the corners of Elizabeth’s mouth curled up slightly.
“It’s work I chose to do. I don’t think it’s because of Your Majesty.”
I see.
As someone with a strong sense of responsibility, she seemed to think that since she chose the work, it was entirely her own burden to bear.
I watched her splashing in the water in silence for a moment before speaking.
“I think that aspect of you is cool.”
“……Pardon?”
Good things are due to her own excellence.
Bad things are due to her own shortcomings.
What one chooses for oneself must be borne entirely by oneself.
That consistent stance was one of the reasons I grew to like the villainess Elizabeth.
Well……
Conversely, I also like her shady side, where she pretends to be fair while pulling all sorts of strings from behind the scenes.
“Oh, th-that, yes. I also think Your Majesty is a cool person. Yes, indeed.”
Flap, flap. Elizabeth’s legs shook violently. Rough waves rose on the surface of the water.
Then, she stopped abruptly, pulled her legs together, and buried her face in her knees.
“……What is it? Suddenly.”
“I thought I expressed myself quite often.”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. An expression of trust.”
“…….”
Elizabeth glared at me with a terrifying look.
It was brutal. I wondered if this level of intensity could even exert physical force.
“……Haa. Forget it. Still, I really do feel like my head has cleared up.”
That’s good.
It was worth bringing Elizabeth out for a vacation.
She dipped her feet back into the lake and silently enjoyed the quiet.
“……Hehehe.”
Humming, even?
I pretended not to hear.
After enjoying the leisure for a while, Elizabeth opened her eyes wide.
“Come to think of it.”
“Hmm?”
“There were documents I needed to process, what should I do?”
“Just.”
I told you today is a vacation.
I grabbed her shoulder as she tried to jump up and made her sit back down.
“Assume they’ll handle it themselves and forget about it.”
“But.”
“Forget it.”
“Ugh.”
She hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded up and down slightly.
“O-okay. Everyone has gotten used to things by now, so it shouldn’t be a disaster if I’m gone for a day.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Quite some time had passed since the new bureaucrats filled the vacancies. If they still hadn’t adapted by now, that would be a problem in itself.
Besides, the other high-ranking officials, including the Minister of Finance, would have all gone to work.
If a real problem arose, Lily would come to inform us.
“Now that you mention it, what is your opinion, Your Majesty? Of the newly recruited bureaucrats.”
“You would know that better than I do.”
“Well, it might look different from Your Majesty’s perspective. Especially since there are quite a few commoners this time.”
“What do you think?”
“Well, they are competent, aren’t they? If they weren’t competent, they wouldn’t have passed despite being commoners.”
Then that’s enough. If they looked competent from her perspective, they passed.
“I heard you helped the commoners adapt.”
“If they can’t adapt and their efficiency drops, it’s ultimately my loss.”
Elizabeth said it primly, as if it were obvious, but it wasn’t an easy task.
Mixing groups that didn’t naturally blend was no small feat.
Thanks to her, the aftermath of the purges in the Imperial Palace had almost completely subsided.
“I only did it because it was within my reach. Looking at the entire Empire, there is still a long way to go.”
As she said.
The Empire was still in a state of chaos. It was the aftermath of the Great Purge.
The Imperial Palace had been the first to stabilize quickly, but that was only possible because the Empire’s greatest talents, including Elizabeth, were gathered there.
“I heard the North is also gradually stabilizing.”
At least the North, where Siegfried was, was a relief.
He was reliable in times like this, if only for being the male protagonist.
I just wish he’d date a bit.
While places where order was being established stably were emerging one by one, there were still more places where the opposite was true.
Discordant notes were still being heard throughout the Empire.
A normal, benevolent monarch might have thought here:
‘Ah, I was too hasty! I should have prepared more thoroughly. I have no face to show my subjects.’
And perhaps regretted it, but.
“It couldn’t be helped.”
I am not that person.
I did what I could.
I had anticipated this situation from the very beginning.
“Great achievements cannot be attained without sacrifice.”
After packaging it roughly like this, I would crush any backlash that emerged. That was the plan.
There might be critical public opinion.
The victims created by me might hate me.
Then let them hate me to their heart’s content.
I was a trashy tyrant from the start.
The only thing that bothered me was.
That I felt sorry for Elizabeth, who was being condemned alongside me.
“Forget it. It’s not like I didn’t know.”
Elizabeth let it go coolly, but.
I would have to repay this debt somehow later.
“Hmm……”
For some reason, Elizabeth was looking at me with meaningful eyes.
But I couldn’t ask the reason.
“Your Majesty.”
Lily, who appeared from the shadows, handed me a letter.
“It is a letter from an unknown sender, but I thought Your Majesty should check it.”
When I opened it, it was a letter from Hecate.