Chapter 93

Just in case, she opened the door to make sure no one was outside, then locked it. “In short, the feeling is there. I am thinking about it,” she said quietly into the receiver. “But her defenses are formidable. Asking directly is not going to work; I don’t have anything to hold over her, and she is not hurting for money.” A dark smile crossed her face. “Yes, I know you are willing to pay whatever it takes. But this is not something that can be solved with money. People’s hearts are not so easily moved.” Of all the people in the Empire, she was the only one who knew about this. In fact, it was something the emperor herself must not discover. If she found out, Alfoncina’s position would be in great danger. The reward would be considerable, of course. And that was why she had only said she would give it a shot. No commitment had been made. “I am trying to pique her interest by letting her know it was much more fun than I thought, but she is a very busy person, and it just might not work~. Well, I’ll do what I can. Yes. I’m glad you understand.” The person on the other end of the call seemed to have decided there wasn’t much point in pushing further. “All right, so we’ll wait on the plan to sell out Ouka as an idol.” As it happened, Alfoncina had secretly received a certain request from Japan: Can you make Ouka Sarano an idol? There were plenty of reasons to try it. If the emperor could get her face into the living rooms of ordinary people, they might feel closer to the Sacred Blooded, and it might erase any lingering feelings of unease about the formation of the Empire. For all intents and purposes, she looked Japanese, and considering she’d grown up there, she was fully fluent in the language. It might even create a pretext for the Sacred Blood Empire to be accepted as a special zone, in a one-country-two-systems–type setup. And finally, it probably appealed to the government executives’ “interests.” In fact, that was likely the main reason; everything else was just icing on the cake. “And Ouka can be quite prickly, you see~. The whole thing might just provoke her, so perhaps it would be better to find someone meeker~. With Ouka, it might even lead to an international incident~.” She had the feeling that Ouka was likely to drop some bombshells if she appeared on a talk show. Actually—she definitely would. “So I think it’d be safer to push for another girl~. Someone on the weaker side, but who would still do as she’s told. And more importantly, someone very pretty… Oh, I know.” A light bulb suddenly went on in Alfoncina’s head. “If I may, I know someone more than qualified. Her name is Tamaki Shijou~. I’ll e-mail you an image of her right now. There, sent~. What do you think? Will she work? Ah, she’s perfect? I know she’s quite in need of money right now, so I believe she’ll agree to it readily. I’ll do what I can to convince her~.” Tamaki, at that time, would never have imagined a plan like this was in motion, not in her wildest dreams. But for now, Alfoncina hung up the phone and took a deep breath. “Tamaki, you deserve much more than a life spent working at a convenience store.” The conversation had veered extremely far away from the Virginal Father. That wouldn’t do, so Alfoncina cleared her throat and got back to work. “For the moment, I’ve confirmed that Japan is not involved. And it doesn’t seem to be a wide-scale operation, either~.” In that case, they may not need to mind Sairi much at all. However, the woman was still a very enigmatic figure. It was best they stay on guard as much as possible. Personally, Alfoncina wasn’t quite sure what to make of Sairi Fuyukura. She had played the part of the previous emperor’s lover—er, his second wife, all while completely obfuscating her involvement with the Virginal Father. She wasn’t just in hiding; for years, she had brazenly lived alongside Shiren as her mother. And nevertheless, she had assassinated the previous emperor at precisely the right moment and vanished without a trace. Without Ouka’s shrewd intelligence, the Sacred Blood Empire would have never come into being. Had Sairi Fuyukura loved the emperor? Had she pledged her loyalty to the order? Or had it been a scheme of her own devising? Her motives remained elusive, which made it hard to give an answer. Alfoncina’s eyes darted toward the statue of the Goddess of Blood—had blood just trickled down from one of its eyes? “Oh, it’s just condensation.” Thanks to the recent humidity, droplets had formed on the metallic statue. Still, it felt ominous. “This makes me want to summon Ryouta…” She was uneasy. She wanted to call on her minion, on someone reliable whom she knew would come to her side. She left the room and went to sit at the altar. If she prayed here, she knew that Ryouta would soon be with her. But— “That is not a proper thing for an archbishop to do.” She would pray. But she would change the contents of her prayer. “May our country be protected; may our people be at ease…” What she needed to do now was pray for all the people living in the Empire. That was her job. “Archbishop-hood isn’t a very glamorous position…but I suppose I have no choice right now. And I am worried.” She gripped harder onto her prayer staff. “I’ll pull an all-nighter! Apologies, but I’m putting YouRou IKou! on hiatus so I can pray!” But just then, her phone rang. “Good grief! I was trying to concentrate! Hello! Oh, my editor dearest! Yes, this is Kin Hayashimori.” She had gotten a call from her editor on YouRou IKou! “What? My latest chapter is becoming too much of a serious romance…? You don’t mind if I do lesbian gags, but taking it this seriously might shock my readers…?” This was a problem she hadn’t been expecting. “Oh, no~. Nothing happened in my real life to influence this at all~. I’m telling you, you’re reading too much into it. This isn’t autobiographical, so no need to worry about that~.” Perhaps it had seeped into her writing naturally. If so, it had been completely unconscious on her part. What a surprise. “And so what would you like me to do about it?” Over the phone, she was told that it would not be a good idea for Ryuko Koson, a minor character, to profess her love to a main character. At this point, it had become a running joke that this minor character failed every time to express her true feelings, so if she was to actually confess, then the running joke would be put to bed for good. “No,” Alfoncina asserted, resolute. “Ryuko Koson needs to tell her how she feels. She had never been able to put it into words before, but now she’s going to get everything out at once. She may be poor at speaking, but she is an earnest character! I feel strongly that with the story going in its current direction, she would confess! I will not compromise here!” Her editor seemed surprised. “I am not getting worked up. Even if it’s a gag comic, I will not make my characters lie. That is all. If we twist the story to meet your demands now, the drama will become forced sooner or later. And besides, there’s no way this one thing will suddenly cause the fan base to leave, so please let me do it my way.” She got the approval. Alfoncina’s opinion had won out. “Phew. I suppose it’s okay for me to be selfish sometimes, too~.” An image of Ouka popped up in Alfoncina’s head. “Ah, sorry, I was talking to myself. Thank you very much. I’ll be staying up all night as well~.” A shocked response came from the other end of the receiver. Her deadline was still a ways away. “You know I’m juggling multiple jobs.” A professional smile crossed her face. “Any adult would take both seriously.” Her editor laughed. “Aren’t you a high schooler, Hayashimori?” “High schoolers are adults, too, you know.”