Rehema knew her father was going to be angry with her, following the decision to get him off the committee but it had to be done. He was moving in the wrong direction, and it was going to take too much time to fix mistakes as the due date came closer.

"Is he ignoring the letter?" Rehema asked as a male servant approached her.

The male servant shook his head, "He is compiling your majesty, but he refuses to communicate outside of his palace grounds."

Rehema took a breath, turning back to the documents she was reading. "I will deal with him after the coronation." After signing one more paper and running out of ink, she collected the documents and handed them to the servant standing before her.

"Give these to Nour, she will be my appointed Master in Coin and leading in the Department of Coin for the royal palace. These documents are just for confirming expenses for the coronation and the party. If anything is over budget tell them to remove anything that goes beyond our expenses."

The servant nodded sending himself out and leaving the main study of the empress.

Chike who was standing beside her in the room smirked to himself. He was helping reapply more ink for her pen as Rehema was finishing confirming other documents that afternoon.

Amena sighed, leaning against her chair, and stretching to take a break, "Are you okay with this?" She asked Chike. "Do you think you can tackle leading the committee alone?"

Chike nodded, he had less than a week left to leave a strong mark, and with Ekon out of the way, this was going to be much easier. "I won't let you down. You don't have to worry; I'll finish up the rest of the planning."

I'll remember to reward Noah, and Tawaab for this, Chike thought to himself. Noah was his main servant who did some of the changes overnight but ahead of time Tawaab his other servant was able to fake the changes to make it look like Emperor Dowager confirmed it. It was easy to do that when since Tawaab was once a servant of Emperor Dowager Ekon before moving to Chike's house. Tawaab knowing some of the in and out of Ekons ways, gave Chike a clearer view of what was up ahead.

Rehema smiled, putting her feather pen down. She got up and walked swiftly to Chike who was standing beside her desk. She placed her hand behind his neck rubbing it gently. "What would I be without you," she murmured in his ear softly.

Chike's stomach started to flutter. Oh, how badly he missed the days when it was only him and her.

He focused on making more ink by rubbing the graphite ink cake down, in the bowl till it turned liquid enough to use to write.

Rehema took his hands stopping him, "I have enough ink for the rest of the day, my love. I guess I shouldn't take up your time then since you have much planning to do," Rehema said giving Chike one more kiss on the cheek.

"It's okay let me just finish one last ink cake before I go," Chike insisted, smiling softly back at her. He needed to rush back to his house anyway to try his wardrobe for the coronation as well, so he could at least get that out of the way.

Chike made one last bowl of ink for Rehema to use later and then proceeded to leave. As Chike was leaving with two servants behind him he bumped into Sang-chul Apophis and Ivan in the hallway. These are some of the newer concubines, Chike noticed. The three men stopped in their tracks when they noticed Chike and greeted him with a bow on their knees.

"Greetings your highness, Emperor Chike," All three said in unison.

Chike raised his hand allowing them to stand, "Greetings to you as well, young gentlemen." Chike had no interest to spark a conversation since he had to finish up wrapping a coronation. He just gave them a quick reminder about the coronation and proceeded to leave. "I will see you all in the coming days at her majesty, Empress Rehema's coronation, remember to dress your best," and he dismissed them walking away from them with his agbada trailing on the ground.

Sang-chul turned his head to whisper to Ivan as the emperor walked away. "Do you have an outfit planned yet for the coronation?"

Ivan shook his head, "I don't see the big deal in it planning, a simple outfit for me will do. Maybe just a white and grey Boubou will do. Besides don't stress about it, trust me more people will be paying attention to her majesty than our outfits," Ivan said waving his hand.

Sang-chul fiddled with his fingers, "I'm thinking about designing and sewing mines with my own hands."

"Really," Ivan asked surprised, "Do you know how to dress make?"

Sang-chul nodded, "I was taught sewing young. So, if I make my own dress for the coronation, I can save money from my monthly allowance." Since the young men were still only second-class attendants, they were paid among the lowest of the concubines. "If you want, I can make you both one as well," Sang-chul went on.

Ivan smiled, "Only if you have spare time, we can help you out too."

Apophis suddenly pointed ahead, "I think we can deliver our meals to her majesty now. There were two female guards, guarding the front doors of her study. When they noticed the three men approaching, they nodded and one when in to inform Rehema first. Then when the guard came back, they both swung the door open to allow the three men in.

Rehema stood up from beside her desk seeing Sang-chul, Apophis, and Ivan coming in.

"What are you three doing here?" Rehema asked kindly. Walking away from behind her desk and approaching them. All three of them first kneed down in greeting, wishing her a blessing, and Rehema quickly told them to rise.

"Here to see you beloved," Ivan flirted playfully and walked up to Rehema handing her flowers that he grew from the backyard of his house and giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

Snag-chul smiled at them warmly. He had no reason to be envious since he cared about both Ivan and Rehema deeply. It was nice to see that Ivan manage to already have a deep connection with Rehema, seeing his first friend of the harem build something with her meant that Sang-chul and Apophis had a chance.

"Apophis and Sang-chul bought you supper and dessert if you're hungry. We heard someone has been stressed out, from a coronation up ahead, and we think a good soul-filled stomach can ease your stress," Ivan said.

"Why thank you!" Rehema exclaimed surprised, taking the nicely packaged dishes from them and setting them on her desk. The packaged dishes were wrapped in African fabrics and were still warm.

"Sang-chul has a knack for cooking dishes from his homeland and Apophis for baking and dessert, so next time you visit them be sure you're ready to eat," Ivan said trying to prop them both up to leave an impression on Rehema.

"I will keep that in mind, I'm assuming you three are close," She noticed they often hang around each other on palace grounds.

Ivan wrapped one arm around Sang-chul and the other around Apophis, bringing the three of them together. "We very much are," Ivan said with a sunny grin.

Apophis shifted in discomfort from the hug while Sang-chul couldn't help but smile shyly, blushing.

Rehema laughed, "Well I'm glad you're all getting along. I'm sorry if I haven't visited you much more yet Sang-chul and Apophis. It's been a hectic couple of weeks with the coronation planning and building a council for my court. But I promise I will visit your chambers soon."

"No problems your majesty we understand, please focus on your important tasks first," Apophis said sternly.

Rehema went back to her desk to unwrap one of the lunch boxes. It was Sang-chul's dish, fried fish over rice, with steamed vegetables. The warm air from the food filled the room.

Sang-chul placed his hand on his neck, "it's just a normal dish in the region that I grew up in."

Rehema took in the smell, she could tell just from looking at it, it was cooked perfectly and seasoned right. "This looks amazing Sang-chul thank you so much, and thank you all for stopping by," Rehema glanced at the window, looking to see where the sun was positioned.

"I need to finish up some duties, but thank you all for stopping by, and many blessings for the food," Rehema thanked me.

The three men bowed, telling her goodbye, and left the study.

When they left the Empress palace grounds and started heading to the harem hall, Apophis stopped in front of Ivan with a stern look on his face.

"What was that about?" Apophis asked bluntly.

"What do you mean?" Ivan asked confused.

Apophis furrowed his brows, "Why were you pushing her towards us back there, giving us an advantage? Is this some sort of trick, do you want something back in exchange?"

Sang-chul was confused as well, Ivan was helping them a little too much for a new concubine. It was like he wanted to make sure her majesty didn't ignore him and Apophis in the study.

Ivan paused for a second, staring up at the sky, and then let out a laugh, "Apophis you're not my enemy."

"What?" Apophis said taken back.

"You guys are my brothers, not my enemies, seriously I thought we were building a relationship around here," Ivan replied.

Apophis narrowed his eyes at Ivan, "You seriously think you will survive this harem with a mindset like that, you're going to end up walking in a trap, or be used by other concubines."

"Really?" Ivan questioned, crossing his arms. "I never thought of it like that, but it doesn't matter. I won't have to worry."

Apophis looked at him dumb folded, "What makes you think you won't have to worry about that, you are currently holding your majesty's favoritism which makes you an open target and is more likely to become a father in the harem one day. Any day now his highness Omari will catch on and make you his target, how will you prepare for such force?"

"I won't," Ivan puffed.

Apophis stepped closer to him, "And why is that?"

"Because I have a wife that loves me, and you two," Ivan concluded. He then walked past Apophis leaving him stunned and Sang-chul amazed as he continued down the Harem Hall.

As the sun was setting near the Red End House, Tano couldn't help but feel exhausted. He just wanted the date for the coronation to happen and get it over with. Omari had been giving him the worst of these. Sending him back and forth from the wardrobe department for him to try on hundreds of different Agbadas, and boubou's till he was satisfied enough with one to do with for the coronation, and so far he was satisfied with none.

His pickiness and indecisiveness were costing money too. If he bought any more jewelry, it would succeed his allowance for the month. Not that he needed much jewelry anyway.

Tano shook his head, a man so full of himself you would think that the coronation was for him.

"Tano!" Omari yelled from his dressing room, disrupting Tano's train of thought and causing him to jump.

Tano quickly went to his master's room. He found Omari standing in front of a full-body mirror on a stool, wearing a leaving black matte Agbada that trailed on the ground.

"Go to the wardrobe department and pick up two attires for me, I think I will stick with this, but I want to see how it will look in two sizes down," Omari snapped at him.

"Yes, your highness," Tano said with no complaint hinted in his voice. He quickly got up from his bow on one knee and left the room, and house.

Right when I thought I was done for the day, Tano thought to himself and groaned. Walking outside many of the concubines were heading back to their houses for dinner, and to rest. Tano had to walk many doors to reach the wardrobe department and he hurried. He didn't want it to be closed and deal with Omari's wrath later.

When he finally reached the department which was outside the harem hall, he was out of breath but in time.

The dresser at the window immediately recognized him, "You again!" An elderly west African woman yelled, she was often stationed at this department for events.

"Unfortunately it is me again," Tano sighed, placing his left arm to rest on the window stool.

"Your master much have such a high budget to keep ordering such robes. Even the emperor isn't ordering this much," the elder said, and she appeared from the window. In a minute she returned with the same two attires that Omari had mentioned.

Tano thanked her, "Hopefully this will be the last you see my face for this coronation dressing orders."

Tano then rushed back to the house to make sure he got Omari his Agbadas before dinner time.

The elderly woman shook her head as she watched Tano jog on with the robes around his arms, "Poor young man. To deal with such, I would have gone mad by now."