Ruvelis was in a very bad mood. Three years had passed since the destruction of the Monique Family which was one of the families that had a role in the formation of the empire, and the execution of the Queen who came from the Monique Family. The Queen had been beheaded under the pretext of treason.

When the Queen was still alive, Ruvelis hated her so much that he didn't even want to see a single strand of her hair. But now that the Queen was no longer here, Ruvelis felt her absence desperately. He no longer hated her, instead he was sick of longing for her and missing her.

"Ruve, what are you doing?"

Ruvelis, who was shocked at the document handed over by the palace staff chief, immediately frowned at the sudden voice.

The woman God gave to him, the Emperor's only companion, the blessed oracle's child. In front of him stood Jieun, the woman who made him troubled.

"Empress, I have something to ask you."

"What is it?"

"It's a document that came up today, is this true?"

"Let me see."

Jieun looked confused as she read the contents of the document. She tilted her head.

"I don’t understand what it says."

Ruvelis frowned. Although he began to feel irritated, he repressed his emotions and explained the meaning of everything Jieun asked about.

In the past Ruvelis used to let go of Jieun’s mistakes, but now seeing that Jieun still couldn’t read a document properly was making him feel very upset.

"Yes everything is right. Is there something wrong?"

"What made you think of this?!"

Ruvelis threw the document on the table roughly. The document was a petition delivered to him that morning by the head of the palace staff. The petition contained complaints from the palace staff regarding the new welfare policy that Jieun recently enforced. Ruvelis tapped the table in annoyance. He was getting more annoyed the more he thought about it. This past week, he had seen the unhappy faces of the palace staff, but he could never have imagined his empress was responsible of their discontent. How could she do such a ridiculous thing?

"Don't you know what the problem is, Empress?"

"No, where's the problem? I thought about this policy for days."

From the expression on her face, it was clear she really had absolutely no idea what the problem was. Ruvelis felt his anger fade as realisation struck him. He realised that Jieun would never be able to fit in her position, no matter how long he would explain and teach her.

"Never mind. I'm busy, so go back first."

"Hm, have you been very busy? It's been very difficult to see you lately. You haven't come by my place often lately."

"I'll try to go to the Imperial Palace today, so go ahead and rest."

"But... Ok, but you have to come."

Jieun seemed to realise that Ruvelis was holding in his anger, so she went out without trying to say anything more. After that black hair woman disappeared from his sight Ruvelis, disgusted, stood up and ruffled his hair roughly.

"What the hell is wrong with that woman?!"

Shouldn’t she have adjusted to this world by now? I have assigned the best teacher to teach her for years, but it’s still no use. Of course, I know that she’s much better than when she first came, and that she is trying to adapt, but there is still no task she can do properly. I'll go crazy if I keep seeing all her shortcomings. How could she not understand where the problem was? Why didn’t I notice how she was before? What an idiot.

Ruvelis swept his hair away. When the Queen was still alive, he did not need to worry about the internal affairs of the palace because the Queen took care of all those things perfectly. That’s why Ruvelis never realised that Jieun was so unfit for the position of Empress.

After quelling his anger, Ruvelis headed towards the palace's internal office. People were shocked because of the sudden arrival of the Emperor. They immediately stood up to salute him. Ruvelis waved at them to send everyone back to work and the head of the palace staff approached Ruvelis hurriedly and led the him into the study.

"Your Majesty, Emperor, why has His Majesty come here? Why didn’t Your Majesty just call for me?"

"I won't be long, Palace Chief. Bring all the documents dealing with the policies for court officials made by the former Queen.

"By the Queen… there are no such documents, Your majesty!"

"I suppose so, as it’s the rule. Since she was executed for treason, any documents related to the former queen should have been destroyed. But I know you couldn't have disposed of them. I will not punish you. So hurry up and bring the document to me."

"Please forgive me, Your majesty. I will look for them."

As expected, the palace's internal office did not destroy documents relating to the Queen. Saving documents related to traitors was a felony. In addition, the person who holds the document could be misunderstood and accused of malicious intents.

Despite knowing that, the head of the palace staff did not destroy the documents relating to the Queen. No, he certainly could not destroy them. Judging from Jieun's behaviour, the head of staff must have thought that things wouldn’t work out properly if they were left to her. It seems that the document was hidden in a very secret place for it took quite a while for the chief of the palace staff to return and submit the documents to Ruvelis with trembling hands. Ruvelis opened the thick document and sighed.

The policy proposed by Jieun was that all people working in the palace, both official and servants, were to received treatment from the royal physicians when they themselves or their families were sick.

However, the policy proposed by the Queen was that if the officials or their families were sick, they would receive treatment from the royal physicians, but if the maids and servants were sick, medical assistance from normal doctors would be provided. Nursing costs were to be divided by small amounts and monthly deducted from their salary.

Ruvelis sighed once more. At first glance, Jieun's policy seemed more efficient and fairer than that of the Queen, but it was not. Because of the way the Imperial Palace worked.

There would have been no problem with Jieun’s policy if it had been implemented somewhere where there were no differences between workers. But in the palace workers were divided into four different levels. And there were striking differences between officials and servants. The officials were mostly from low-ranking noble families, while servants were commoners.

This was where the problem lied with the policy proposed by Jieun. The royal physicians were very expensive and almost all of them came from noble families, so they were almost always unwilling to treat commoners. Yet Jieun wanted the royal physicians to treat them. In addition to the protests from the palace physicians, the officials must have felt offended at getting the same treatment as commoners. The only ones who could get free treatment from the royal physicians were the emperor's family. Working in the palace did not mean someone had free healthcare from the royal physicians. Therefore, those who received treatment from the royal physicians had to pay for their medical expenses, and the costs were quite expensive.

For servants whose salaries were small, if it was not a serious illness, that would mean they couldn’t receive medical care because they couldn’t pay for it. It was therefore better for them to receive medical assistance from regular doctors as often as needed. (According to established policies, servants could receive treatment from the royal physicians if they had a serious illness and had received approval from the Empress or the Queen).

"You all have petitioned, so you know why I asked for this document, right? Tomorrow the empress will correct this."

"Thank you, Your Majesty the Emperor. May you always be blessed."

Ruvelis sighed and left. It would be better if Jieun were to withdraw her policy by herself rather than him intervening directly. Even though everyone knew that Jieun didn't deserve to be Empress, Ruvelis felt that this way could at least improve people's view on Jieun and allows her to save her pride.

"Ruve, you came sooner than I thought."

"Change this policy back by tomorrow."

"Wh-why? Isn't the policy I’ve made more efficient?"

"Do you really think so?" Ruvelis could no longer contain his anger.

"Do you think the noble family will remain silent if they receive the same treatment as ordinary people? Do you think ordinary people will be happy to get into debt just to receive treatment from famous royal physicians? Do you really want to implement such a ridiculous policy?"

"They have to pay for their medical expenses?"

"Isn't that obvious!? Which royal physician would want to treat people who are not the emperor's family for free!? Empress, please use your brain!"

"Ruve, I-I didn't know. Why are you so angry? You know I'm trying."

Ruvelis, who was greatly displeased at the sight of the tears in her black eyes, shouted louder, let alone calmed down.

"You try again and again. You say you’re trying but nothing has changed. What are you trying to do exactly? At first you were ignorant of our world, so I let you be. But now it's been four years, shouldn’t you know something as basic by now? (as hard as it is to side with him, 1st Ruve has a point here – this is basic common sense) There's nothing you can do right, and if I try to say something to you, you cry. What kind of position do you think the Empress is? You’re not fit to be the Empress. Are you really the one chosen by God for me? Just try to do a least a quarter of what the Queen used to do."

"Ruve, you.." (j*rk? b*stard? sc*mbag? Go Jieun *^^*)

Jieun who was just crying silently suddenly wiped her tears violently when she heard Ruvellis’ last words and scathingly said :

"What's wrong with you? You were the one who dragged a stranger into the Empress’s seat. You said you loved me, and you abandoned your fiancée, who had been trained since she was very young to become Empress! Why, now you're sorry for her? You hated her so much, and then you made her a traitor and beheaded her, and now you miss her? Really?" (Oooooh wow, Jieun can be vicious, lol)

"Stop it" Ruvelis warned her.

Ruvelis was extremely angry because of this brutal stabbing in the back, but he managed to contain his anger. But Jieun continued to vent her spleen on him, not listening to his warning.

"Why, did I say something I shouldn’t have? It's all true. Are you missing her now? Do you have remorse? Do you feel regret because you realised you loved her too late? Do you? No, I don’t think so. You only miss her expertise as a worker because I can't do what you want right? What? I'm not trying? Do you think I’ve been playing and eating all day long? I’ve tried hard to do the work that has been piling up these last three years. Did you ever really help me? I studied hard without being able to see you. I spent more than a dozen hours a day studying almost every day!"

"I told you to stop it" Rublis warned her again while gritting his teeth.

But Jieun carried on.

"This woman. Do you know what I heard from people after she died? Even though they remained silent in front of me, behind me they always talked about her. ‘The Queen this, the Queen that’. I was compared to her every day. A genius? Ah! Do you think she did her job perfectly on her first try? I heard she had been trained all her life to become an Empress. She’s been trying all her life. Maybe her being good was the result of her excruciating efforts. But didn't you ignore her, hurt her, and eventually kill her? And now what? You're asking me to be just a quarter of what she was?!"

" I told you to stop it! "

Ruvelis whose emotions had reached their peak slapped Jieun who sat down, covering her fiery cheek. Turning away from her stunned black eyes filled with tears, Ruvelis left the room with a ferocious expression.