“Find me a royal harem that is harmonious and free of intrigue, and I will eat my shoes. Raw and unseasoned.” - Jafaar Abdul Kalesh, Crown Prince of the Ethwa Khanate in northern Ur-Teros, most famous for having made good on his words and eaten his shoes in public after a visit to Al Shan, circa 695 FP.

“So, any more attempts to… dissuade you or to make you ‘know your place’ of late?” asked Layla as she laid relaxedly on her back in the large, comfortable divan with plush cushions. Her belly was swollen and large, as she was in the final stages of her pregnancy and was likely to deliver within weeks at most. She winced a little bit as one of the babies kicked against her womb. “Oof. They’re getting feisty again.”

“A couple,” replied Ying Xiao with a nod to the Empress. She walked around the large chamber with her posture half-bent, as her hands held little Farah’s upraised arms. The little toddler ran around the place cheerfully without a care in the world. Ying Xiao herself honestly found the little girl cute and adorable, which was a good thing since she’d become the girl’s second mother in the near future. “I have already reported the perpetrators to the honored Prime Minister, Your Imperial Highness.”

“How many were already on our lists?” asked Layla as she gently rubbed her pregnant belly, the kicking from her unborn babies having subsided after a while. Not unexpectedly, after Xain had announced that he would take Ying Xiao as a second Empress more than a few of the nobles not affiliated with his factions had protested the decision.

Some had protested openly, just to have their words and arguments dismissed without mercy. Xain had put his foot down on the protests and made it clear that he would brook no disagreements, and given how his faction dominated the Imperial Court after the traditionalists’ demise, most shut their mouths and dared not say anything more.

On the other hand, some did things more covertly. At the moment Ying Xiao was still commander of the Imperial Guards, as such she had her duties and had not accompanied Xain and Layla all the time. Those times when she was away to handle her duties presented chances for those who disagreed with Xain’s decision to confront her, or at least attempted to do so.

Most were clever enough to send people that had no overt association with themselves, either junior officers in the military or other officials that they sent to berate or try to discourage Ying Xiao. Those she handled by herself, as her current position meant that an official ranked below her - which was pretty much most of them - that did so was someone she could punish on her own authority.

Ying Xiao was not gentle with them, and since she was well within her rights to punish them, nobody took offense to her actions either. She left those stooges half-crippled to fully crippled, depending on what they actually said. The completely disrespectful ones were made into examples, while the more reasonable ones got off lighter.

A few nobles were stupid enough that they sent people associated with themselves to do it, with some even sending members of their own family, probably under the impression that as a peasant Ying Xiao would cower before their noble identities.

They forgot that Ying Xiao had just butchered several nobles of even higher standing not a year ago in Tian-Mao, or that in the incident that had sparked the short-lived rebellion she had also gelded over a dozen young noble scions with her own hands without blinking.

Suffice to say, all that resulted from sending a noble scion to berate the peasant for not knowing her place and reaching beyond her station was one thoroughly beaten up scion and a visit from the Embroidered Guards. Those men and women were a new institution Xain had set up, whose responsibilities were to deal with internal matters, to punish nobles and officials who abused their positions or indulged in corruption or the likes. Every single one of their members were completely loyal to the Emperor himself, as they were recruited from civil war veterans or their descendants.

“Several only sent stooges like usual, two were foolish enough to send their own daughters, as if sending a woman would make me stay my fists,” said Ying Xiao nonchalantly to the Empress. “One was already on our lists, the other was not. Her family stayed neutral during the mess before.”

“More for grandpa to deal with then,” said Layla with a sigh. The expected reaction of the nobles also allowed Xain to further complete the purge that had technically started when he plotted against the traditionalist faction with Ying Xiao’s help. It might have sounded bad to outsiders, but removing those who chose to stand against direct decrees from the Emperor for reasons as outdated as traditions or arrogance was something he always had in mind. Xain felt that the Empire had no need of such people, and that their riddance would benefit the Empire as a whole instead.

While he had also told Ying Xiao to expect such things before, the young Emperor had still apologized to her in private that he had ended up using their relationship as part of the plots. Xain probably wished he could avoid such things, but by nature, should he wish to get together with Ying Xiao it would have attracted controversy either way.

Both Layla and Ying Xiao herself had convinced him to abuse the situation to his advantage instead, since it was bound to happen either way, regardless of how they handled it. The results of that plot had so far seen the removal of over two dozen junior officials - both in the military and amongst the civil offices - and the punishment of nearly half as many noble houses, most of them older ones.

The punishment Xain had given to the noble houses varied. For a few cases where they managed to confirm that the incident was merely the impulsive actions of a young, jealous member of the house, they were given light punishments in the forms of fines, practically a slap on the wrist as punishments from the Emperor went.

Others who were found to be complicit to the actions faced much heavier punishments. Four noble houses had their former heads imprisoned and were made to choose a new family head from amongst relatives of minor branches. Several others faced fines and reductions of territory and privileges that made their heart bleed.

Two were straight-up abolished, with their family heads executed and the rest of the family reduced to commoners, and the vast majority of their assets confiscated. Those moves sowed some unrest amongst the nobility that were not part of the Emperor’s own faction, but as most realized that they were not in a position to go against it, they fell in line.

It was a hardline stance against disobedience, the sort that might have sparked revolts in most nations. With how Al-Shan was rebuilding after such a long war though, and with Xain’s popularity amongst the general populace who had only felt life get better under his rule, everything went as he had planned instead.