How To Save The Endangered Empire

Something Dazzling For Me?

In the Riphulon Empire, five houses, excluding the Imperial Family, supported the Empire. They, alongside the Imperial Throne, are great in power and make crucial contributions for the benefit and growth of the Empire.

Belonging to two of the most powerful houses in the Empire, Baroness Orla Auclair and Marchioness Julia Vassellion were at the head because of special circumstances.

The former head of the Vassellion Household fell ill and resigned as Head of the Household. The Five Houses and the Imperial Family advised him to choose a suitable replacement for him, even if it was a distant family member. Still, the Marquess stressed the idea of his daughter being his heir as she was skilled and did not lack any of the successor requirements.

For a significant politically immersed household like Vassellion, they believed Julia was unfit to be the heir; however, she proved them wrong when she settled the dispute between the Rineian Kingdom and Riphulon over the Ocean's Bane, a magical crystal in the Southern Ocean. Both countries were on the brink of war until Julia brokered a Joint Resource Extraction Pact. To enforce the balance of resources, they would form a Joint Council containing representatives of both countries.

After making the other heads of the five houses swallow their words, she was granted the title of Marchioness Vassellion.

As for Baroness Orla Auclair, she became the head of the Famous Commerce Auclair Household after her father passed away, leaving her younger brother and sickly mother to become heirs. Still, they were in no condition to run such a household on their own. Like Julia, they needed Orla to prove her worth, so she traversed the sea for her family.

For almost a year, she traveled by ship to discover new trade routes and or resources to bring value to her name while the Auclair house was temporarily run by a distant family member she trusted.

Thanks to her mapping skills, she revolutionized trade by finding a faster route through the Twilight Reverie. She found that by establishing shipping ports in the area that faced the Twilight Reverie, they could create contracts with more merchants and other countries needing to get to the countries on the other side as soon as possible.

In just a few months, she'd signed contracts with hundreds of merchants and helped refine more beneficial clauses in the contracts between neighboring countries that had already been formed.

Both women rightfully earned their spot in the five pillar households of the Empire but still had to deal with the criticism of their gender and experience.

Emris curtsied and grasped her dress by the pinch of her fingers, lowering her head respectfully, "Greetings, Marchioness Vassellion and Baroness Auclair. It is a pleasure to meet you again." I wasn't sure whether or not to address them by their first names as they do me. More than that, I want to show respect for Emris' friends; that way, my trace of being in her life can vanish just as quickly as it appeared.

"Pfft! Hahaha! Emris, you really..." Bursting into laughter, they clung to each other and laughed to the verge of tears wedged between their sealed eyelids. "Why use such stiff honorifics when you can use our names? Go on, say our names." Julia encouraged Emris, slapping her hand against her handheld fan, smiling as Emris' eyes widened and her groomed eyebrows raised.

Her lips parted, and hesitantly, the words came out, "...Julia..." The Marchioness giggled from how Emris shifted her away from contact and patted her back in a friendly manner unusual to Emris. "See, was that so hard? Always refer to us by our names, alright, Emris?"

"Ooh! My turn! Call me by my name, Emris!" Orla begged, holding onto Emris' hands. Is me saying their names that important to them? Emris, why on earth would you abandon people that love you this much? I wish I could understand.