Before Dawn
In the luxurious palace, a Royal Steward wearing a wig walks solemnly down the corridor leading to the emperor's bedroom.
Behind him followed a group of people, some with equally serious expressions, each with a chilling aura on their unsmiling faces.
The soldiers in the corridor wanted to stop the Royal Steward, but he glared at them and stopped them.
In Gefra, the Royal Steward holds a very high position. He cannot touch upon matters related to politics, but he has power over the internal affairs of the palace that is second only to the emperor.
This is also some experience accumulated by the Gefra Imperial Family during their long reign. In the past, there were a few emperors who were, in a sense, sidelined by the Royal Steward. There was even a case where the Empress was pregnant with the Steward's child and the throne was almost usurped by a bastard.
There were many instances of collusion between insiders and outsiders, so later, after the royal family regained power, they changed some rules to minimize the potential of the Royal Steward. At the same time, in order to avoid irreparable consequences in case something happened that could not be dealt with in time, all candidates for Royal Steward must be selected from Imperial Family Member.
In other words, this Royal Steward was probably a relative of the emperor, such as an uncle or brother. Even if that day came, the throne and power of the royal family would not fall into the hands of outsiders.
At the same time, the emperor would have more trust in the Steward he personally appointed, and their relationship would be better and more stable.
At the end of the corridor, the Royal Steward pushed open the door to the emperor's bedroom. Inside the enormous bedroom, the emperor was fast asleep on a velvet-covered bed, and the room was very warm.
To provide the emperor with a comfortable environment, the walls and floor of this room were filled with pure Copper Pipe, through which high-temperature Copper Pipe constantly circulated, making the entire room warm and cozy.
The emperor was covered with a thin blanket, and the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was still fast asleep.
The soldier outside the door wanted to say something, but the Steward standing by the door made him speechless, and he could only remain silent in the end.
The Steward slowly closed the dormitory door. The heavy, soundproof door completely cut off the dormitory from the outside world. The soldiers standing outside the door exchanged glances and sighed silently. They knew what was about to happen.
Since the end of the war, some voices of dissatisfaction with the emperor have emerged within the royal family. They felt that the war had cost them too much wealth but had not yielded enough returns, and that many Imperial Family Member family and Princes and Ministers had their fortunes largely depleted.
In addition, with the adjustment of the country's development direction after the war, Li Ya became a region of rapid development, while domestic development began to slow down. This made the Imperial Family Member, including noble ministers, who had most of their interests in the country, very dissatisfied.
They believe that the emperor's purpose in creating the overseas enclave of Li Ya was not to escape the current "Isolated Island Dilemma" of Gefra. This is a theory proposed by domestic scholars, who believe that Gefra's biggest problem is that it is an isolated island nation without any support. Once the war is lost and the flames of war spread to Gefra's mainland, then Gefra may perish.
When the war had progressed to that stage, it already spoke volumes: the Gefra were no match for their opponents, and only annihilation awaited them.
However, some people believe that these were decisions made by the emperor for some purpose, and not because he really... wanted to do so.
The various grievances unexpectedly subsided after the naval defeats of Gefra and the Federal. This was not because these people began to understand the Emperor's previous thoughts and actions, but because the conflicts, which were relatively simple, began to deepen and accumulate. Some even believed that the difficulties and challenges currently facing Gefra stemmed from the Emperor's arrogance.
This sharp contradiction is not outwardly apparent, but everyone can feel its presence. This year, the emperor has been roaring at his ministers in the Ruler's Hall almost every few days, whereas a few years ago he would hardly ever roar at all.
He was very anxious, but he didn't have any good solutions, and all the troubles remained unresolved.
Sometimes people don't care how much you can do, they only care if you do it or not. And now, in people's eyes, the emperor seems to have done nothing at all! In the room, the Steward walked to the bedside. The emperor was still fast asleep, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.
The Steward picked up a glass from the bedside table. It contained some unfinished liquor. He sniffed the rim and recognized it as strong liquor. Besides the glass, there was also a bottle of pills, which were sleep aids.
It's clear that Emperor of Gefra is suffering from insomnia... or something similar.
The people who came in with the Steward placed their belongings on the table. Someone took out a waterproof cloth and spread it on the ground. Another person took out a round tube more than a foot long from a box they were carrying, screwed it onto a larger machine, and pressed a few switches that could be turned on.
After they finished all the preparations, the butler, with a smug and pleased smile on his face, raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.
It was 4:45 a. m., the quietest time in the capital of Gefra, even the girls outside who sold happiness were mostly asleep.
This is the darkest moment of the day, but the Steward believes that once this moment passes, dawn will soon arrive.
"Let's begin!" he ordered, stepping aside to avoid getting splashed. His outfit wasn't cheap, and he really liked it.
A man in his thirties with an ordinary appearance followed the Steward eunuch into the emperor's bedroom. He raised his weapon and pointed it at the emperor, who was still fast asleep. The long, Black Hole tube seemed to contain something terrifying.
The next second, a voice that absolutely did not belong here, nor should have appeared here, rang out—a section from the "《Resistance》" section of the "《Melesco's Fourth Symphony》".
The music is full of the 《Resistance》 and shouts in the face of oppression, the anger and resistance in the face of fate, and the rhythm is fast and full of power!
The moment the sound rang out, the emperor's chest began to heave violently. The Steward, seeing a smug smile on his face, knew the emperor was awake but pretending to be asleep. So he waved his hand, and the band played even more energetically.
Eventually, the emperor couldn't take it anymore. Performing such a symphony in a place that was much larger than a normal bedroom but countless times smaller than an opera house was definitely not a comfortable experience.
He couldn't possibly be pretending to be asleep!
He was furious and irritable. He was abruptly woken from his sweet dream before dawn. He grabbed the half-empty bottle of wine left on the bedside table and threw it fiercely in the direction of the sound.
Fortunately, the Steward was prepared, and two musicians skillfully blocked the bottles.
The wine from the fallen bottle was spilling freely, but don't worry, a waterproof sheet had been laid down, so it wouldn't damage the carpet.
"I'm going to kill you all!" the emperor roared, sitting up abruptly and grabbing his hair. "Damn it, it's not even five o'clock yet!"
He was a bit hysterical in his morning grumpiness, constantly pounding the air around him, but the band was still playing. At first they were indeed a little scared, but now they were numb to it; it was just talk anyway.
They even worked harder than before because the emperor said he would kill them!
"Ahhh... Can... can I sleep a little longer?" Seeing that harsh methods were ineffective, the emperor tried a softer approach, "Half an hour, dear brother, just half an hour!"
The Steward shook his head. He was the emperor's older brother, and he knew from the beginning that he was not cut out to be emperor. He was not dissatisfied with this, at least he wouldn't be like his other brothers and sisters, most of whom were killed by his younger brother.
At least he still has a good job and is respected by people.
Perhaps making the emperor unhappy was one of his pleasures.
"No, Your Majesty!"
"You must go to the gym for 30 minutes before 5 o'clock, then deal with the documents that were delivered last night. At 6:20 this morning, you must wake up the Imperial Son, Imperial Daughter, and Empress. At 6:45, you will have breakfast together in the dining hall. At 7:30, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will discuss work matters with you. At 8:30, you must appear on the palace City Wall to return the greetings to the visiting commoners..."
The emperor, sitting blankly on the bed, sighed; he resigned himself to his fate.
The Steward, seeing this, knew the wake-up service was over. He made a stop gesture, and the band stopped, then disassembled their instruments; they would be leaving shortly.
Sitting on the bed, the emperor began to adjust. He complained, "Why didn't I become a tyrant?" He looked at his brother, "Or a despot, so at least you wouldn't wake me up at that damned 4:45!"
The butler walked to another door, pressed a button, and looked at the emperor. "You can do that, but do you?"
The next second, the door opened, and two... well, at least two hundred pounds of maidservants squeezed out. They held a brush in their hands and grinned as they said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, please take a bath!"
This was definitely not a pleasant morning; the emperor felt like a small boat that could capsize at any moment in a storm.
When he first ascended the throne, in order to avoid becoming a foolish or tyrannical ruler, he replaced all the beautiful maids in the palace with these large-sized ones.
For this reason, the people of the whole country still praised him as the most outstanding and wise ruler in history. But now he thought about it and realized that he was a damn idiot for not making things difficult for others but for himself.
Just as he was thinking about these random things, a maidservant looked at him with a smile and said, "Your Majesty, would you like to clean out the bird's nest?"