“Ma’am, if I could ask, ah, what next?” Visha asked me, her big doe eyes were wide and confused, “What about the Empire, you seem awfully intent on um, being…”

“Being what?” I asked and raised an eyebrow, I looked back at her and she immediately shrank back. She can be very panicky sometimes.

Most of the time she probably would have been quiet and retracted whatever she was thinking, it’s almost like she’s scared of me, sometimes. But that’s absurd, after all, I made her career. I've pushed my soldiers out of the way to take a blow to my shields for them. Maybe I’m a little harsh, but that’s how it’s supposed to be.

I dismissed the idea. It’s absurd. She’s just naturally anxious. And regardless, she did not go silent, she spoke up. “Ma’am, ah, you’re the Queen of the Commonwealth, and you’re… acting like it. What about home?” She asked.

That was a fair question. I stopped in my tracks. We were in the middle of my palace, on the way to the library so I could study more of Commonwealth history, and I suppose my concern with those matters made Visha anxious. The other servants were more or less ‘out of the way’. I saw the fruits of their labors more often than I saw them and I was fairly sure that would change, that I would have other attendants and secretaries soon enough.

But for now, Visha was plenty, and more importantly, I knew I could trust her as much as anyone I’ve ever known. She’s honestly one of the few people I would consider calling a ‘friend’.

And she’d asked me a good question, so I turned the thought over in my head and resumed walking. When I heard her footsteps pick up and briefly rush to put herself directly at my back left side, I answered her. “I am the Queen of this country. Not of the Empire. Though… I suppose that would make the Kaiser a relative, maybe a cousin? I’ll need to look into that, I don’t know how they’re all related.”

It wasn’t really an answer, so I carried on. “The Empire gave me to this country, and you too, in a way, even if you had more choice than I did. It’s now my job to assist this country accordingly. If you’re asking if I’ll harm the Empire’s interests, not if I can help it. There’s no reason economic competition can’t be the new field of battle, and there’s no reason for the war to keep going when the Empire has obviously won. And there’s another reason to avoid trouble too, a very practical reason.”

“Ma’am?” Visha cocked her head at me, or so I saw her do in the pale reflection of the windows.

“Defeat often leads to changes in leadership, and nobody in their right mind can say that the Commonwealth was winning. With the royal family wiped out, and defeat staring them in the face, that’s when demagogues start showing up. Have you ever heard of a man named Alcibiades?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“He was a guy, a long time ago in a war, there was this big campaign between two city states and their allies, his side was losing, and by losing, I mean just ‘not winning’. He rallied the people, promised them victory, and got them going on some big campaign against another city on another island, hoping the easy victory would enrich them, bring them more allies, and then give them enough strength to defeat their real enemies. It was a stupid, stupid, stupid plan. But the average person is a stupid, stupid, stupid person. Stupid people love stupid plans. If someone goes around this island shouting about how they’ll bring victory and gets the war going again with stupid plans?” I shrugged.

Stolen novel; please report.

“A whole lot of people in the Empire will die, the Commonwealth will probably lose anyway, and then someone even worse than the first person will come along, and they’ll just gear up for another war and drag everybody down all over again. The only way to secure the Empire, is to secure the Commonwealth a comfortable peace that doesn’t create any cracks for demagogues and populists to cram their stupid ideas into. By helping the Commonwealth, I do help the Empire.” I meant what I said, more or less. Of course the idea of being beheaded or thrown into prison or exiled back to the Empire where I wouldn’t be trusted either… none of those things appealed to me.

Visha’s big blue eyes were looking at me with wonder, “Ma’am, you put a lot of thought into this. How long have you been thinking about it?”

“Since I boarded the ship to come here, give or take a few hours.” I answered, I kept walking, whether she did or not wasn’t really vital, I didn’t need her to read to me after all, but there were times when it helped to have someone around to assist in my focus. She did stand dumbstruck for a while before she realized she’d stopped herself again, then rushed to catch up.

In a way, I do like Visha, she’s smart, hard working, she’s brave and loyal, and she’s more ruthless than she seems, when you think about it. Some soldiers had trouble sleeping after Aren. But apparently she dreamed of firing her weapon so much that she almost activated her jewel in her sleep, or so I heard over breakfast.

However, for all that? The way I see it, Visha is a born follower, she needs orders to carry out, she may speak up a little here and there, but she’ll never really be the mistress of her own fate. ‘Then again, it’s the fact that I want my free will that set me in conflict with Being X in the first place. My desire for a carefree leisurely life is why I’m in this mess.’ It was almost laughable that the one who sought it, has trouble getting it, while the one who does very little to get it, gets it with ease.

‘Being X is such a bastard.’ I thought to myself when I reached the library. This had a lot more than just ‘books’. It also had an archive of national votes, proposals and proposed laws from the House of Populii, this world’s ‘Commons’ and the House of Lords, not to mention the acts of the previous long ruling Queen.

My interest lay mostly in the voting records. You can tell a lot about who is doing what with whom, when you look at those. For example, who proposed the Firearms Act? Why? Who was providing them with support? Who voted against it? Who was supporting them? How much influence did the crown have?

The crown was more than a symbol here, I had a kind of quasi-executive authority, I couldn’t propose laws directly, but I could pass them. However, if I refused to ratify them, a majority vote from both the House of Lords and the House of Populii could override me, thus making my executive function very weak.

If I wanted to be effective, I had to build a coalition, and so when we got to the library, I gave Visha a simple instruction. “Start by sorting out all the proposals by which ones had crown support, versus which ones didn’t. Then subdivide that into categories, economic, military, domestic, international. Along with the voting records of every measure.”

“Of course, ma’am, the other servants will be along shortly to assist, but I’ll get started right now.” Visha said with a cheery smile on her face.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, since you said you wanted to do research in the library, I thought it would be a good idea to ask them for help, so I took the liberty of letting the head butler know, he should have them mostly together and be here in a few minutes.” Visha smiled at me again.

I had flashbacks to the formation of the 203rd… I really should have seen this coming.

“Good work.” I said, and we got down to it.