Elizabeth, on the other hand, was genuinely moved to tears after hearing what the emperor had to say. How pure she was.
“Now, I will announce the results. After a strict tally, the woman who collected the most artificial flowers and will be crowned empress is...” The emperor paused for a beat and then continued, “Westalia Lejainne!”
Immediately, the curtains surrounding the storerooms were lowered, exposing their contents to view. Elizabeth’s storeroom was full of artificial flowers. However, Westalia’s storeroom was not only full of flowers but had several carriages lined up around the outside too, all containing flowers that didn’t fit inside. Each flower was dyed Elizabeth Pink. They were all the discarded artificial flowers that had been collected from all over the empire.
There was now an overwhelming difference in the number of artificial flowers in the storerooms of the two women. The Archaites Empire was large, and Westalia had been worried about whether she’d be able to collect all the flowers by the day of the tally, but somehow she’d made it in time.
People were shocked by the announcement of the new empress, and silence prevailed.
“Yes! I did it!” The first one to let out a squeal of delight was Westalia herself.
Everyone was taken aback by the sight of Westalia, usually calm and collected, bouncing around with a big smile on her face like a flower bursting into bloom.
“No way, just the other day it was clear she was at a disadvantage,” someone said.
“There’s... There’s no way!” added someone else.
Other exclamations of surprise burst out from here and there within the audience. A tremendous quantity of artificial flowers had been brought into Westalia’s storeroom, which, until a few days ago, had been almost completely bare.
Among the spectators who had come to hear the announcement of the results stood Elizabeth, equally as surprised as everyone else. “How did you get so many Elizabeth Pink...?”
“The most common product in which Elizabeth Pink dye is used is in dresses. Do you know what the second most common one is?” Westalia asked.
“Artificial flowers...”
“That’s right! I would expect nothing less of the new head of the Rias Corporation.”
Many of the Elizabeth Pink dresses that the Rias company had made were intended for the nobility. Because a large amount of cloth was used, the amount of poison absorbed through the skin was high, and symptoms of the poisoning were more likely to occur. In contrast, the common people could only afford to buy small accessories because of the price of the dye. However, because the small articles used less cloth and had less contact with the skin, the common people suffered only minor injuries.
Many people in the country had owned artificial flowers dyed with Elizabeth Pink, as they were quite fashionable to own, but they had been discarded en masse after the recent imperial edict. Therefore, Westalia had arranged for wagons and coach drivers to collect the cast-off artificial flowers from all over the country, paying for them with the budget she’d received for the empress selection, which up until now she’d hardly touched.
“I’d been trying to figure out how to beat Duke Reyn, who could mass-produce artificial flowers in factories on a very low budget. I was trying to figure out how to get them more cheaply, or, rather, for free, and I realized I could make the whole country throw away their artificial flowers as garbage,” Westalia said.
“What an outlandish idea... And yet you succeeded,” Elizabeth said. She’d helped Westalia expose the truth behind the dye, and yet the tables had still been turned on her. She looked at Westalia half in frustration and half in admiration. Elizabeth had said herself that her budget was running out, so she wouldn’t have been able to collect the discarded flowers anyway. In other words, the moment the edict was issued was the moment of her doom.
Elizabeth looked at the storerooms for a moment before whispering, “I’m completely defeated.” She left the site with a refreshed look on her face.
“Congratulations, Westalia.”
Westalia whirled around at the sound of Leonardo’s voice and stumbled over to him. “I’m to be empress? This isn’t a dream?”
“It’s not a dream. You did it.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“What should I do? I can’t stop shaking. I can’t believe this is real. I’m so happy I don’t know what to do!” Westalia still found it hard to believe, no matter how much Leonardo confirmed it for her. She still felt like she was floating through a dream.
It’s been so long, but my hard work has finally paid off. It wasn’t for nothing... she thought. Ever since she was a little girl, Westalia had dreamed of being queen. She’d wished to be clothed in dresses of the most delicate make, to be attended by scores of servants and knights, and to face the world with unmatched dignity and noble bearing. She wanted to be the kind of queen who would support her king with wisdom and devotion, show love to her subjects, and be respected by them in turn. That was the kind of queen she’d wanted to be. The dream of a little girl from the Kingdom of Lhumzia was about to become a reality—in a different form and an even bigger way.
Westalia had been chosen as empress by the Archaites Empire, the most powerful country on the continent. Although she knew that being chosen as empress wasn’t the end of the story, and that the hard part was yet to come, she felt joy welling up from the depths of her heart.
“Leo!” she cried and jumped at him.
“Wha—?!” He caught her in his arms and they spun around.
Westalia, still in his arms, put her hands up to his cheeks and beamed. “I gotcha!”