This new vitality didn't surprise only my head maid. My personal assistant, Miles, who was accustomed to mostly fetching Eriu alcohol and representing her in all official business was startled at my sudden request for a meeting with the minister Lugh.

Nonetheless, he quickly delivered the message along with the documents I had just signed, and a meeting was scheduled between the minister and me for tomorrow, at six in the morning.

Man, I haven’t had to get up that early since high school. I’m not sure whose bright idea it was to have kids start class at 7 but he was probably an asshole.

I suspect the reason for Lugh to schedule it so early is simply to avoid me. Despite being her subordinate, I’m pretty sure that the minister had a very poor impression of the old Eriu, to put it charitably. Knowing that the queen is unlikely to wake up before noon, he scheduled our meeting first thing in the morning to discourage this newfound enthusiasm on my part.

Who does he think he is, anyway? If I’m the queen I should just be able to barge into the town hall whenever I want right?

No, no. If I want to change Eriu’s image for the better I need to do this right. I don`t wanna rule through might and fear.

I will admit that waking up early when you are hungover is a struggle, though. Old Eriu circumvented the problem by starting the morning with more alcohol, as a good cure for a hangover is to just get drunk again, but I decide to just stomach it.

Setting foot out of the palace, I take in the fresh air and the salt spray of the sea. If I had to compare the weather here, it'd be similar to that of a Mediterranean country. I've only been to Spain but this is a bit colder than that. In my imagination, this is how the southern coast of France or maybe northern Italy might feel.

The level of development, of course, is nowhere near those places. When one thinks of the Mediterranean images quickly spring up of buildings of marble or roman concrete, great columns and Greek forums, but all the structures here are made of simple wood. Nothing uniform and seemingly picked at random from all of the native woods available, the roofs either thatched or made of large tiles for the nicer houses. It’s not too far from a modern shantytown, I suppose.

The palace is a bit of a letdown too, it is only called such because it houses a queen. In reality, it is nothing more than a large manor, the type a count or rich baron might have in the mainland.

Algatolla as a whole is quite small, although it is called a town this place must have hardly two thousand people to it if you count the serfs in the surrounding farmland. A fair amount of people for this level of technology, I suppose, but it’s even fewer people than my old neighborhood.

It’s just a quick stroll to the town hall, which has a single employee. Lugh used to work out of the palace, but I think he wanted an excuse to be away from Eriu. He made up some justification for building a town hall and Eriu signed it away like she did everything else, she was pretty glad to be rid of him, too.

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I try to take in a deep breath before entering the hall but am impeded by my clothing. Eriu was sensible enough to have some tunics among her dresses, but even those are pretty heavy and tight-fit. I pull at the tight collar with my hand trying to adjust it, I’m gonna have to cut half of the fabric away to make this bearable.

“I have brought the queen,” says Miles, who accompanied me despite my protests, it will take a while to get accustomed to being nobility and having people follow me around everywhere. Along with him, there’s also Kavanagh, my personal guard, and Evie.

“What?” Lugh, clearly stupefied at the idea I'd get up so early and actually follow through on the meeting. He is sitting at his desk already working on other things as if he had never expected me to show up in the first place.

He hurriedly gets up and with a flustered expression asks me to sit down, he sits opposite to me and asks “So… How can I help, your majesty?”

He is so clearly annoyed it’s amazing he never got scolded by Eriu for acting this way, but she wanted as little to do with him as he did with her.

“I'd like to get a better understanding of my domain, to that end I'd like to look at all the current data concerning production, trade, and population. We can start with Algatolla and the surrounding farmlands, then go over the data for the other settlements”

The minister appeared stunned, seemingly not even listening to my request. I cough loudly and he finally snaps out of it “Ah, uhm… Might I inquire why you have the need for all this information, your majesty?” recomposing himself, he straightens out some papers he had brought from his desk “I already handle all these things for you, so it is unnecessary for you to look at all this information,”

His contempt once again clouds his expression, he certainly thinks all of this as a huge waste of time, “I have decided to take a greater interest in the development of my queendom, but to start I’d first like to get a clear picture of the situation. Until now I had neglected my duties so it is only natural I need to catch up”

“I see,” he shuffles around in his seat, If I let this idiot take the reins she is gonna run this country into the ground, he’s probably thinking something along those lines. Understandable given the temperament of old Eriu, in his own position I'd also try to find any excuse to deflect this sudden enthusiasm.

“If you wish to help there are many activities you can take upon. Appearing before your subjects more often, for example…” he’s sandbagging me.

Uh, I’m not good at talking to people, I don’t know how to convince him politely, so I guess in this case I should just use the power I have over him, right?

“As your queen, I'm sure you understand you are in no position to refute me” with these words he immediately shuts up.

Damn, that worked even better than I expected.

I dislike the idea of threatening people but this is the only way to get anything done right now. Given Eriu’s past disposition towards him, he probably doesn't doubt I'd send him to the gallows in a fit of rage.

“A-as you wish, your majesty, I will immediately prepare the reports, it should take a while for me to organize all the data into a report, so I will send it to you later… Now, if you will excuse me” He is already getting up from the chair while speaking, considering this matter over, but I interrupt him: “No need to sort it out, the sooner we can get this done the better, pick the documents as you can find them and I will start reading them here immediately. If we cannot finish all the documents by sundown today I will bring the remaining ones to my palace and read them there. Then come back here in the morning every day until we finish”

Lugh stood with a surprised expression, so once again I cough to gain his attention, “Well, where are the documents? Get to it!”