Being the royal archmage is, of course, an extremely responsible position. But it also comes with a lot of benefits. For example, since the royal archmage must be close to his Majesty at all times, she’s granted an estate near the palace. Not only does this make the royal archmage very responsive to any summons, but it also makes her far less dependent on her family, making it much easier for her to realize where her true loyalties should lie.

Hazelmere made the most out of it, much more than the previous royal archmages did.

Thanks to how close her estate was to the senate, she arrived on time. The Senate floor was already bustling when she walked in but. Luckily, her position in the state also meant that there was always a special, reserved seat in the room for her.

All the senate members had to walk through the entrance alone, no servants or personal security was allowed. There was a time when such restrictions were unnecessary, but a certain bad experience made those restrictions unavoidable.

So, Hazelmere strode alone towards her seat, trying to hear what the other senate members were chattering about. She quickly realized that everyone else was as lost as she was.

However, she knew a certain someone who always knew what was going on. And luckily, that person had a seat right next to her.

Reaching the first row, she made eye contact with the person in question. It was a female, a bit younger than her. And, although Hazelmere always considered herself to be unusually beautiful, she knew she could never compete with this girl.

Not only she had stunning looks, but she also had a few essential things Hazelmere lacked. Something a pretty face and feminine mannerisms can never compensate for.

And she also had that dark-golden hair everyone is so crazy about, a true sign of royal heritage.

Seeing Hazelmere, the girl smiled. But it wasn’t a typical warm smile the people get when they see someone they like. It was a smile of satisfaction a person gets when the pieces start falling in their place.

“Ahoy, Hazelmere!” The girl saluted.

“Ahoy, Rowena!”

“Getting married yet?” The girl couldn’t wait to tease her.

“Really?” Hazelmere said while rolling her eyes, but she did respond politely, “You know, anyone else can ask me that. Anyone but you! You’re almost the same age as I am!”

Rowena’s long, canine ears twitched in amusement: “I’m the Emperor’s personal advisor. I don’t get to marry yet. Having a husband could compromise my loyalties.”

“Now that’s a convenient excuse if I’ve ever heard one!”

Rowena chuckled at that: “Oh, come on. You know I’m just teasing you. It’s only amusing because you’re so easy to rile up. Come, take a seat!”

Hazelmere did so: “You didn’t have to stay a virgin for an entire century! Forget that, two centuries! One to become a mage and another one to become an archmage! I spent almost half of my promised lifetime restraining myself, and now, when I finally have a chance to enjoy life, everyone is giving me shit for it!”

Rowena smiled inaudibly with a huge grin over her face, turning her head so Hazelmere wouldn’t see it: “Sorry … sorry. You’re just too amusing when you’re annoyed.”

Hazelmere sighed, unconsciously taking a glance at Rowena’s cleavage while her face was turned away: “Forget about me. What is this all about?”

After a few moments, Rowena’s face was serious once again: “You’ll see.”

“Aww, come on! I will know it soon anyway! At least give me a hint!”

“Nope, I can’t tell you.”

“Really?” Hazelmere’s voice betrayed her annoyance, along with a hint of offense, “I thought we had a mutual understanding going on.”

Rowena faced her: “If I tell you what’s going on, you may come up with some reasonable counterarguments. I can’t let you in on this one.”

Hazelmere opened her mouth in surprise: “Huh?”

“I’ll give you one hint, though. Let’s say that, from now on, you’ll have your hands full. So, I hope you enjoyed your galas to the fullest because you won’t be getting any more of them anytime soon.”

Hazelmere blinked several times without saying anything.

Rowena turned her face away from her while lifting the nose unusually high: “As you’ve said it yourself, you’ll soon know about it anyway. Don’t worry, it won’t be anything you can handle.”

That only made Hazelmere’s eyes go even wider, but the conversation ended with a loud bang of the gong.

“All rise up for his imperial Majesty!”

Rowena almost jumped straight up, with practiced ease. Hazelmere was much slower and carried a stupefied look on her face.

There was a pause before anyone showed up. In fact, the labored huffs and puffs could be heard long before anyone could be seen.

Eventually, a figure did show up, and what a figure it was! It was so rounded, one could even argue it was an as perfectly round figure as a mortal could be. A ball of meaty lard encased in the skin was slowly and tiredly making its way towards the podium. It was adorned with all kinds of fine clothing, except in one place.

Its belly.

The ceremonious cloak covering the figure was tied below its neck from which it fell freely on both sides, ensuring that its gargantuan stomach could move independently from the rest of the body. So, as the body was dallying forward, the belly danced left and right at its own pace.

The roundness of the figure was only disrupted by the huge crown sitting on top of it.

As soon as the crowned figure appeared, everyone on the senate floor started clapping.

“Isn’t our Emperor the very personification of wealth?” Rowena said through the noise the applause made.

“Perhaps a bit too much,” Hazelmere responded.

Rowena looked at her knowingly, her eyes looking Hazelmere through her long eyelashes: “I don’t want to hear that from someone who shows no restraint when indulging in sinful behavior.”

“Oh, excuse me, you oh-so-pure-and-noble bastion of virtue! For a moment, I didn’t recognize you there! What, are you offended? Are you into that? You like well-rounded males?”

“I don’t expect someone with a private estate to understand it, but the roundness is the best indication of a person’s wealth. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of coin to afford such a figure. Not to mention, all the servants needed to take care of such a well-rounded individual.” Rowena responded, not ceasing with the clapping for a moment, “But, I must admit, such roundedness can get in the way sometimes. Lifting such a well-endowed belly can be a real problem when you’re trying to find the tool but, luckily, our Majesty is quite endowed in some other areas too, so it’s not that much of a problem.”

“I don’t need to know everything!” Hazelmere closed her eyes with a disgusted grimace on her face. Then, she started vigorously shaking her head as if she hoped something would fall out of it.

“And here I thought you mages were all about the knowledge.”

Their conversation was interrupted once again, but this time with a violent cough. The Emperor grabbed the podium for support with one hand as he coughed in the other, the sheer volume of his gut making the coughs much louder than one could expect them to be.

He cleared his throat and straightened up, as much as his body allowed him.

“Thank you all for coming, and on such short notice. This isn’t how we usually do things, but there are some good reasons for it. First of all, I have to point out something we all know already. Rash decisions always come with consequences. What I’m going to talk about today isn’t such a decision. We’ve planned this for decades! Very few of you know of it, not because this happened suddenly, but because we’ve taken all possible precautions to keep it as secret as possible. But now, when all the pieces have fallen in their place, we can finally start the most glorious project of our age!”

After clearing his throat one more time, the Emperor continued: “What I’m going to tell you will certainly shock you. It’s something that has never been attempted after the fall. There’s no doubt that a lot of you will feel uncertain about it. Some of you may even find the very notion heretical.”

He paused, fixing his eyes on the particular person sitting in the first row.

“Is he looking at the transcendent cardinal?” Hazelmere asked Rowena with a whisper.

“Oh, he certainly is.”

That made Hazelmere’s tail flutter nervously.

“Nevertheless,” the Emperor continued, “there is no cause for alarm. We’ve planned this for so long, and with such devotion and intensity, that we’ve made sure to completely nullify any possible complications. We made sure to pay attention to each and every single detail, which is why I’m notifying you now, only when we’re absolutely sure of our success. Only now, when our royal archmage has assured me that we can’t fail, have we decided to go forward with the plan.”

As he said that, the Emperor pointed towards Hazelmere with his outstretched hand.

Hearing that, her ears and tail went straight up. She didn’t move though, as she could almost feel the stares of everyone in the room.

After a few moments, the Emperor continued: “What we are about to do will change the balance of power in Greadinall, forever. As you all know, our Empire is struggling against the enemies who employ dirty, dishonorable tactics to get the advantage. The treacherous high-elves are financing the hosagian invasions to slowly, but surely, bleed our coffers dry. They’ve realized that their armies aren’t capable of winning honorably, on the field of battle, so they’re trying to outlast us by forcing us to constantly spend the coin on our defenses. And, since the damn high-elves have a monopoly on several critical resources, they have an almost unlimited amount of coin to throw on their little project.”

“But, that ends today!” The Emperor proclaimed loudly, hitting the podium with his fist, the loud sound echoing all over the senate, “Today, we unleash the new, bold plan to end this foolish war the Hosagians and high-elves have started, once and for all! What we’re about to start today will ensure that we, just like the high-elves, have the unlimited funds to supply our armies properly! Once they realize that we have a new, much better source of income, one that they can never hope to match, those fools will have no other choice but to give in to any demands that we may make!”

With a determined gaze, the Emperor made a pause. One that was clearly dramatic.

“Today, we start building the portal to an alien world!”

After hearing those words, the entire senate went eerily silent. Hazelmere’s jaw unhinged completely, but Rowena closed her mouth quickly, with a nimble move of an index finger. She didn’t even have to look at Hazelmere to do it.

As the silence slowly turned into muffled murmurs, Hazelmere slowly turned her head to look at Rowena, horror clearly painted in her eyes.

“We can’t do that!” Her voice was so low, yet full of urgency.

“We’ll talk about it after the session. Just you and me,” Rowena responded in a disinterested, cold manner.

“But …”

“Hush!” Rowena’s disinterested demeanor turned into outwardly hostile as her eyes pierced Hazelmere. Completely caught off guard and not knowing what to do, Hazelmere obliged.

But, there was someone in the room who clearly had no intention of staying quiet.

“Are you insane! You’ll doom us all!”