Episode 52 - The Aftermath ‘Lèse majesté’
Summer was a season everyone most took joy in. Agriculture was most prosperous during this time of the year. Flowers bloomed magnificently, and at some point in time, townspeople started to compete with one another over the most beautifully decorated town, which in turn attracted a huge amount of travelers and visitors every year.
Travelers will jump from town to town, and enjoy the best the townspeople had to offer. Whichever town that has the most number of travelers returning or staying at the end of the competition will then determine the town’s winner of that year; also being greatly rewarded by the Empress of Xenperia. Not only will this greatly promote the specific town that won, but the whole world will also most likely be traveling to this town until the next town is chosen the next year.
This festive summer entertainment has been a custom ever since the current Emperor of Xenperia ascended to the throne. However, for the first time since its founding, a decree to have this annual festival canceled was issued. Not only that, a decree to close the Empire off for the next half year was also issued.
When the decree of cancellation was first issued, people went through many types of different emotions. Rather than anger, everyone was enormously confused. Although yes, the flower festival was what gave the people money and recognition, the main reason why townspeople put in a lot of effort in decorating their town every year was to please the Empress of Xenperia whose love was flowers. Many stories about the Empress of Xenperia mostly involved flowers, hence why the people were afraid. Afraid that there was discord between the Emperor and Empress.
Yet, the second decree completely destroyed their first theory of cancellation. The 2nd decree to close the Empire off made people realize that the problem wasn’t the Empress and Emperor, but Xenperia itself. Something was going on with either inside Xenperia or outside Xenperia hence why the cancelation of the event that brings in an influx of people.
That realization naturally made everyone in the Empire tense and anxious. The usually bright day of summer having no sunshine whatsoever and instead being bleak and dark did not help the heavy atmosphere surrounding the Empire. Then, one early morning out of the blue, everything became tremendously worse. Shock, awe, and terror-filled people’s hearts, afraid of the chance that Xenperia might head to war.
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Why everyone’s thought went in that direction was because of an unbelievable amount of papers floating and flying around Xenperia that early morning. The papers floating around announcing the attempted assassination on the Crown Prince at the Imperial Palace. Why people believed in this piece of paper was because the date of the attempted assassination was written on it, which was shockingly the day the annual festival was canceled. Closing the country was to prevent any information from escaping out of the country was also stated in this paper.
This made stalls, restaurants, and businesses closed for that week, people choosing to hide away in their homes due to anxiety of having seen that piece of paper. Everyone turned away from the situation, not willing to even mingle with their neighbors, and instead of turning to their own family members to gossip about the happenings inside the Imperial Palace.
Why people choose this specific action was because Xenperia has been enforcing a lèse majesté law for hundreds of years. Meaning anyone spreading rumors, defamation, or insults towards the Royal family will be criminalized and be sent to prison. However long you stay in prison depends on the weight of the rumors and defamation. And that was the reason behind closing their doors; because they unconsciously believed in the rumors.
However, gossips were of course impossible to stop within their own homes.
‘There was an attempted assassination on the Crown Prince Mother, Father!’
‘What??’
‘The culprit has been arrested immediately, apparently was some old lady claiming to be a princess from a country from the southern continent!’
‘That southern monkeys? That ungrateful rotten country!’
‘Will there be war? How was the Crown Prince saved?’
‘The paper says it was the Great Nobles!’
‘What? Incredible! As expected of our Heros!’
‘Makes me look up to them even more! Our country is safe with them!’
‘.....I heard it was their children.’
‘What!!?’
Obviously people had to open their doors after 1 week to return to working because no matter how much they were scared of the lèse majesté law, they still had to work to survive! By now, every single person in the Empire had learned of the rumors that the children of the Great Nobles were the ones to save the Crown Prince without leaving him with so much as a single scratch! However, no matter how proud they were of this generation of the Great Nobles, no one ever uttered a single word of the happenings outside their own home. Not even complaining about the person who covered the entire country with that scary paper.
As to how the contents in the paper came to leak out, and whom the perpetrators were was only known by one person in this whole world; everyone else finding out a little too late…