The thuds of a scepter reverberated from the floor of the Imperial Diet.

  “Gentlemen, ladies,” the speaker of the Imperial Diet shouted. “Her Majesty is coming in. Be in your seats and prepare to receive her at once!”

  Just then, at last, Alexa Theresa, now wearing the fine robes of a proper empress, strode through the entrance of the Imperial Diet’s plenary hall. She was flanked by her two closest attendants, or confidantes, who were naturally Adele and Phoebe, followed by her two personal knights, Wilhelm and Alfred.

  Her knights soon stayed behind, watching the plenary hall with silent vigilance, while Phoebe and Adele followed her as she made her way to the area where the speaker of the Imperial Diet, alongside the members of its current standing committee, was seated. All members of the Imperial Diet at this point were silent, standing firmly and straight from their seats, all of them removing their hats and headpieces as a sign of respect.

  With Philip’s regency council dissolved, now my empire is finally a true empire. Alexa’s eyes briefly wandered around as she stood at a podium below the speaker of the Imperial Diet, where guests of the legislative assembly usually made their speeches. Ages ago, these kinds of rituals and ceremonies were quite alien to her.

  Apparently, even just the act of the reigning monarch coming into the Imperial Diet to speak to its members was apparently alien for Lotharingians too. Normally, the Imperial Diet was just a forum for the various noble houses of the empire to debate and talk to each other regarding the matters of the empire. It was the emperor and his court who actually decided how the empire was run.

  Since the Treaty of Helsdorf came into effect, though, and ever since the first national election in Lotharingia, that no longer held true. The Imperial Diet wouldn’t just be a rubber stamp group made up of nobles who wanted to speak up and bring their personal agendas in front of their peers. It was now, according to Wilhelm, legally the governing council of the empire.

  While they still had no true executive functions, and they absolutely had no judicial function, the Treaty of Helsdorf, which Alexa signed, outlined that the Imperial Diet would be the one signing laws for the empire, including, of course, its new constitution—the founding papers of the new country they would be creating. They would soon have the power to rewrite what the nation of Lotharingia would be.

  Of course, largely, they wouldn’t have the power to truly enforce it on their own. Alexa had the loyalty of the army, the masses, and most officials in the government. The nobles, clergymen, and various other people of Lotharingia’s high society may be opposed to her, and there were also a lot of radicals, even in this plenary hall, who wanted her gone from her throne, but Alexa was the empress.

  She wouldn’t be a puppet empress of this assembly anytime soon, no matter how hard they tried. However, this might be the last time that it would be the case. Whatever they do now, whatever constitution they draft and pass, even if it wouldn’t come into full effect until Alexa was dead, it would still shape this nation.

  She held the present, yes, but the Imperial Diet now held the future, whether Alexa wanted it or not. Unless, of course, Alexa went back on her words, but she wasn’t that kind of dishonorable scum. She may have a lot of power, but she would wield it responsibly.

  Starting now.

  Alexa smiled. “Esteemed members of the Imperial Diet, it is I, Alexa Theresa von Wolgast, your new empress. My dear friends, I know that I already once spoke here during my coronation, but it was quite brief and lacking in details. I’m sure you were more interested in trying out the fine food and drinks during that day, as I was.”

  It was a classic of Alexa’s speeches, as years of honing her public speaking using [Rose Eyes] gave her a lot of insight on how to hook people to her words and to ease them and make it easier for them to listen. Sure enough, her friendly and casual demeanor immediately eased the tension on the faces of the representatives around her.

  Some of them even laughed a bit, shaking their heads as they spoke whispers to their colleagues. Alexa naturally laughed along before stopping. “Now’s the time for business, though. So far, none of you have actually done any work yet, what with Sir Philip and his team deciding everything until I was crowned.”

  “Are we going to be doing our jobs now, for once?!” shouted one of the members of the Imperial Diet. The man was on the furthest left side of the hall, a frown on his face as he crossed his arms. Must be one of the radicals then. “We’ve been elected by the common man for months now, yet we’ve sat here doing nothing of value for our constituents! This is a farce, don’t you think?!”

  “We should have started drafting the new constitution the first day we sat here!” Groups of representatives, all of them on the left side of the plenary hall began joining the angry man, all of them voicing their protests and frustrations at Alexa. The ones in the middle and on the right side began frowning as well, some of them shouting loudly across the hall with rage about their lack of respect for the empress.

  Some were even hurling insults at them, calling the ones who spoke negatively of Alexa traitors or ‘rebel scum.’ Seeing all this firsthand, Alexa was quite disappointed. While back on earth, she largely avoided the topic of politics, as it was a noxious gas that shouldn’t be touched with a ten-foot pole; in her beliefs, at least, she had seen this scene once or twice in television or social media.

  She’d even seen it with period dramas that her father or older brother would sometimes watch. Now that she thought about it, it reminded her of historical paintings, with middle-aged and old men in hats and wigs slapping papers on their desks as they pointed angrily at each other. It would have been comical if they were just a bunch of school children, but instead they were people who would soon govern the nation and its laws.

  I hate this. I don’t even want to pick a side between the two; I just want to get back to helping out people and stuff…

  She raised her hand and her voice. “Alright, everyone, let’s not fight each other. Please, haven’t we had enough of that? I do appreciate those who wish to defend my honor and dignity, and to that I thank you, but please do not call our more passionate friends ‘scum’ and other such scathing words. It reflects badly on your character.”

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  The people who insulted the radicals seemed shocked that Alexa rebuffed them, and they lowered their heads in shame.

  “But, I do not appreciate those who think that the work of this organization is a ‘farce’ just because of delays. There have been issues that would frustrate many, and it is just to complain about it, but I wish that this institution would be a respected one. The members of it must believe in it for that to happen.”

  The radicals on the left side also quieted down, the ones who shouted also lowering their heads in shame. Alexa felt a bit of pity at these people. It was like she had just schooled them, and like the little boys they were, they were now trying to find a way out of the ire of their teacher.

  “Still, everyone in this room has the right to voice their grievances, and it is the purpose of the Imperial Diet anyway. I do not see an issue in it either way. What I must stress, however, and this is why I came here, is that I wish, and I truly plead for this, that you all work together in harmony and in good faith. Whether you disagree or not with each other, let it not pave the path for disunity and resentment between you. You have been voted in by the people of this nation; would you wish for the nation to eventually be like you? Bickering, fighting, and finding ways to get ahead of those who aren’t in your team?”

  Alexa shook her head, and more representatives lowered their heads while remaining silent. “No, of course not. We’ve already had a taste of what happens when it comes to that. Let’s not go down that path again. Instead, I propose that all of you consider each other as friends and that, at the end of the day, we are all under one team. We are Lotharingians, and most of all, everyone here is your fellow man. Remember that, please. No one, not anyone, not even I, is above anyone. You, or anyone else, have no right to sully the dignity and reputation of anyone in this room or outside of it for nefarious reasons.

  “I declare that now, you will start in your work to draft the papers that would delineate how this nation would be run. The fundamentals of what the Lotharingian Empire would be. The ‘constitution,’ as our more passionate friends over there say. I wish that it will be just, rational, and most of all, designed for the good of everyone in this nation, and even for those outside of it.

  “I wish that none of you would be designing it for your own benefits, or for your own agendas, or for your own personal likes or dislikes, but for what you think is good for our people now and tomorrow. I know all of these are naive requests, and that, most likely, the perfect and most ideal papers won’t be drafted by your hands, but I beg of you all to at least keep my words in the back of your minds.”

  She smiled. “Every little thing helps, even a small voice begging you to be good. I hope that you all won’t forget what I say today. Thank you. Thank you so much for hearing me out.”

  That was all she truly wanted to say to open up the business of the Imperial Diet. It was immediately received warmly as she bowed to them—her, the empress, bowing to mere officials of the realm—causing many of the folks on the right to nearly burst out in tears as they sang praises of her, while those on the left side began joining the majority who were clapping.

  The one who shouted at Alexa earlier even had a reluctant, albeit proud, smile as he shouted. “Someone ought to write all of that down!”

  And in response, a young man with round glasses who was desperately writing on a piece of paper in the middle raised his hands, saying, “I’m already on it! Please help!”

  And Alexa couldn’t help but laugh a bit. Groups of representatives from all parts of the plenary hall began rushing to help the guy on the middle, as if all of them were eager to write the first proper speech held in the Imperial Diet. For a second, she imagined that poor schoolchildren in the future would have to read and remember it because of this.

  And to that, she couldn’t help but giggle further. Adele took notice of it, shaking her head as she smiled. “You sure are quite amused, Alexa.”

  “Sorry, it’s just…” She watched as the members of the Imperial Diet began talking and working with each other jovially. “Who knew a few words would get them out of their petty fights so easily? I wish to see more of this.”

  Sometimes, all you need is to set a good example from a position of power, and people will follow.

  She was happy. She was proud of herself and even of these people. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but neither was she, yet they were all easily united in times like these. She hoped that even if Lotharingia would inevitably be divided in many issues going forward, that this spirit would be preserved and maintained.

  Yes, that’s right. In the end, we should all be just one people trying our best to uplift each other. That’s the nation I want to create and rule.

  +++

  “Ultimately, I do think that the country is in good hands.” A small smile appeared on a representative of the Imperial Diet as he and his colleagues walked out of the plenary hall. “The empress sure sounded quite genuine earlier.”

  “I would say that’s true, yes,” Representative Jonathan Kepler, the man who shouted earlier at the empress about the ‘farce,’ calmly walked at the lead of his colleagues, all of whom were part of the radical faction. “But gentlemen, let that not distract you from the truth of the matter. She does not deserve to have a throne.”

  “Right.”

  “Indeed.”

  “The idea is preposterous.”

  He glanced briefly at his fellow representatives and smiled mildly. As the son of a wealthy merchant house, which had produced many high bureaucrats, lawyers, and jurists for the Imperium, Jonathan Kepler had a massive shadow on him. If he ever wanted to measure up and place his mark in his family’s history, leading the radicals now to pave the path to a new Lotharingia was one of those.

  Ever since meeting the most esteemed leader of the revolution—Henry Richard von Hecker—Jonathan Kepler became a part of the Society of the Most Honorable Sons of Lotharingia, or Young Lotharingia for short. Most members of the ‘radical’ faction in the Imperial Diet were the same. Due to many circumstances, even when they supported the Free Republic back during Henry’s attempted revolution, Jonathan and his colleagues failed to show up and link up with them. As such, they weren’t implicated in the dishonor and shame suffered by their more unfortunate brothers.

  It’s our role then to carry the torch.

  This time though, now that they lucked out on having a reformist empress, they would try their best to do it peacefully. “At the moment, we lack the electoral power to seize control of the government. There’s no chance that the empress will pick any of us for her first administration. You lot shouldn’t see her as an ally so easily.”

  “Of course.”

  “We would never.”

  Jonathan laughed. “Good, keep that up. You’re all dismissed, but please, I expect the finished draft of our version of the constitution finished by tomorrow. It just needs final touches, no?”

  One of the youngest officials of the radical faction practically saluted as he beamed into a smile.

  “Yes, sir! I’ll order the authors and editors to double time at once!”

  “Keep up the good work.”

  “Thanks!”

  “And to the rest of you too. Now, I’ll take my leave.”

  Jonathan’s face turned neutral. “I have a meeting with Her Majesty, after all.”