Only a small portion of the Princess Royal's paper had appeared in the Bunta Daily. The full text now lay before Lampari the Thirteenth, a substantial stack of thirty-seven pages.
Lampari the Thirteenth spent more than three hours reading the text of over thirty thousand words and its accompanying dozen or so tables. He studied them so intently that he did not even take a sip of water.
After finishing, he closed his eyes and rested for a while before letting out a long breath and smiling with profound satisfaction.
Of his three children, the one who pleased him most and whom he admired most was his youngest daughter, Servini.
Since childhood, she had displayed exceptional intelligence and self-control. Not only had she studied diligently, but she had also been remarkably quick to understand things, gaining some understanding of affairs of state at a very young age.
When she was a little older, she had already been able to offer her own opinions on certain matters of state. Those opinions had been eminently sound, and some had even earned Lampari the Thirteenth's wholehearted praise.
Once she passed twenty and began taking an active part in government affairs, she demonstrated abilities far beyond those of her two older brothers. Whatever the task, she handled it with great competence, helping Lampari the Thirteenth resolve many problems.
By contrast, although her two brothers could hardly be called fools, their self-control had fallen far short of Servini's since childhood, and neither had studied diligently. As adults, their abilities lagged even further behind hers, and Lampari the Thirteenth could never feel at ease entrusting matters to them.
Had Servini not been a girl, or even had she been his eldest daughter rather than his youngest, Lampari the Thirteenth would certainly have named her his sole