Your loyalty could be to your country and people, to all the people of the world, or even to yourself—but never to a ruler who was a single, tangible individual.
Of course, since Miss Brunhilde—and the future Empress—was very pretty, Yu Lian decided to feel a little guilty about the disappointment on her face. He took a moment to choose his words.
"I've said this before. If I'd been born an Imperial, I might have joined your side even before you invited me... Uh, of course, because of my gender, I wouldn't have been able to join your inner circle." As he spoke, Yu Lian glanced at Miss Naierhana, who had just poked her head out from behind the table.
What does that have to do with me? the knight thought indignantly. Couldn't you just treat me like a piece of furniture?
Brunhilde said sourly, "Heh. There are already all sorts of rumors going around the Celestial Domain about my sexual orientation. But if I had a few more men on my core team, tomorrow there'd be all kinds of naughty little books about us, wouldn't there?"
After all, this was an election for the throne. Whenever anything involved an "election," this sort of thing was bound to happen. It was practically a time-honored tradition. Yu Lian chuckled, thinking that even so, the books would probably be crudely handwritten copies with a very limited circulation. After all, in the Empire, slandering the royal family was a serious crime! But try that in the Alliance or the Commonwealth. Every election, from the presidency to local offices, had seen children of different races clinging to a candidate's leg and calling him Daddy.
...There was no need to worry about Mr. Qi, who was preparing to run in the upcoming New Shenzhou elections.