“Your Majesty—”

  “Loosen yourself a bit, Fritz. I don’t need you being a bit too stiff than what I’m used to,” the Queen said, smiling as she went for the seat on the table directly in front of Fritz’s bed. Bewildered, Fritz followed her, taking his seat as well. “Now, Mary and the hospital’s director have informed me that you…lost some of your memories? Can you confirm that?”

  “...I’m afraid, yes,” Fritz replied, frowning. “I’m trying to gather it back again. I think I should be able to regain it all eventually.”

  She sighed, calmly removing the fancy white hat on top of her head, and pcing it on Fritz’s table.

  “I now understand why you seem confused around me. I was holding out hope that Mary’s words were mere jest. It seemed like a cruel joke,” she ughed a bit, though it seemed more mencholic than amused. Then, she stopped. “But…I can see the complications well now.”

  Fritz stood up, pcing his hands on the table.

  “Your Majesty, I swear, this is but a temporary setback,” Fritz said, his voice resolute. “I am now working on rebuilding myself, both my skills, my memories, and whatever else I need for this job. Rest assured, I’ll be executing my duties with full confidence in short order.”

  Damn it, I can’t let her fire me. I can’t lose such a high position.

  She simply stared at Fritz bnkly, perhaps surprised, or confused. Fritz held his line, however, determined to ensure that he remained on this job no matter what. He wasn’t exactly sure what the Royal Messenger was supposed to do, but based on his observations—it wasn’t a position to be taken lightly.

  He may be starting from the bottom in terms of his strength and capabilities, but Fritz wasn’t going to let go of whatever useful rank, authority, and connections the previous owner of this body had.

  He would use it all to its fullest extent. All capital, social, political, and economic was something he needed to kill that woman.

  You’re useful too. He analyzed her reaction. So you consider me your friend, huh? Connections to friendly royalty cannot be squandered.

  However, her reaction was something Fritz didn’t expect. It came as a tiny hick before it turned into an amused giggle.

  “I see, I see,” the woman shook her head as she looked down. “I guess, while you seem a bit cking in the memories department, the spirit of the old Fritz is still there. So, you still want the job?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I only have two conditions. If you take this job again, you will have to first prove to me that you can truly do your duties in a short timeframe, and nothing that we discuss here will be divulged to anyone else. Can you do that?”

  “I will work myself to death to do just that.”

  Her reply was a short ugh.

  “I see, no need to go that far though,” then, she extended her hand. Fritz could only look bnkly at it.

  “...”

  “Please take it,” she ordered, and Fritz complied, shaking her hand. “There we go. Now, you’re back in the position I appointed to you. You will remain as the Kingdom’s Royal Messenger and the head of the Decree Bureau. Of course, you need some time to piece yourself back together, but, again, welcome back.”

  “I have questions though,” Fritz said. “I’m not exactly sure about what my duties were, and what the ‘Decree Bureau’ is.”

  “Sure, I can give you a rundown. You are the agent who disseminates my most sensitive orders to the elements of the Kingdom that I wish to move. In other words, you, Fritz Rolentz, are the man who directly enacts my decrees into concrete action.”

  That seems strange. Normally, the messengers of royalty just act as couriers for their letters and items.

  “I see…” Fritz went back to his seat. “So, my job is to be some sort of manager?”

  “Indeed. As the head of the Decree Bureau, you’ll have to directly manage and organize the people who are targeted by my decrees,” she smiled. “Now, of course, I have the Prime Minister and other government officials capable of enacting the rest of the day-to-day stuff that I need, but…some of my directives are much more sensitive and important, to say the least. Someone adept to shadow magic, therefore, is necessary.”

  “You’re saying those ‘sensitive’ and ‘important’ directives will go to me?”

  “Indeed.”

  “...And my css and magic type, is…why you entrust this to me?”

  She nodded.

  “There is no other mage of your type in this Kingdom. In fact, it is likely that only you have the special skill of disabling magic, for example,” she smiled. “You won’t believe its utility for an agent of mine.”

  Fritz leaned back to his seat.

  “What authority do I have?” Fritz asked. “What if your order is to put down a potential dissenting noble? Am I supposed to kill him?”

  “That depends rgely on the specific missions I want done,” she sighed. “The reason why I created the Decree Bureau and expanded the powers of the Royal Messenger, you, is that I need someone unaffected by the Kingdom’s sluggishness when I need to respond or organize something quickly. Not only that, but, unlike the rest of this Kingdom’s government, you only answer to me and me only. Not to the Royal Diet, not to any aristocrat, but to the crown.”

  “I see…”

  “In other words, this job can entail a lot of things. I can use you as my spymaster, or I can use you as someone who simply sends a simple letter to a random noble, and everything in between,” she expined. “It’s a bit of a tyrannical way of doing things, but, to enact credible change and see my vision enforced, I need to crack a lot of eggs and ignore a lot of rules. Especially when most rules of this Kingdom seem to exist only to serve the few and the corrupt.”

  “As I suspected,” Fritz pced his hand on his chin. “My roles can range from legal to extralegal, and I presume that the reason you need someone like me is that your power as Queen appears restricted and not absolute. You need someone to do the dirty job for you.”

  She frowned, her eyes silently confirming Fritz’s assessment.

  “You already found yourself in severe trouble while doing this job,” she warned. “If you wish to back out now and return to a normal life, then you should, especially with your degraded abilities. The st thing I wish is for your father to lose his youngest son, all because I sent him to a dangerous, and demanding job.”

  She’s…offering me freedom?

  He could have it now. A normal life, with normal people, away from everything ugly that his previous life entailed. But whatever pulled him to that ideal dream…

  It was crushed when he was reminded of the Empress.

  I need to kill her first.

  “I’m not backing out,” Fritz replied. “I’ll figure everything out about this job. I swear on my name.”

  “...I see,” she nodded, satisfied. Then, she stood up, picking up her hat and pcing it back on her head. “I’ll give you a few more days to think this through though. I don’t want to put too much pressure on you. Besides, I think you need to meet your family too, among other things. Your brother and father still have no idea about what happened to you.”

  Right. No one seemed to have visited me.

  “Why?”

  “Because that was your request, that I should not divulge any information about your job’s more messy matters unless you’re dead, and I do not break a request from my friends,” she gave Fritz a gentle smile. “I’ll be taking my leave now. I believe you need a lot of headspace to get yourself back on track.”

  “Wait,” Fritz stood up. “One st question, Your Majesty…”

  “Please, call me Cecilia, or you’ll gravely bother me. I get called ‘Your Majesty’ enough by everyone. If you and Mary start doing it again, I’ll absolutely lose it,” she frowned. “Do it.”

  “...Okay, Ms. Cecilia, I have a question.”

  She smiled.

  “Sure, go on.”

  “What’s your main goal as Queen of Orellia?”

  “Simple,” she pced her hands on her back, as her smile turned brighter. “As I’ve said to you before, I have one mission in this throne. To be remembered in the future as a Queen that wished for a brighter future, and id the groundwork to reach it.”

  “...What? That’s delusional.”

  That sounds so childish. A single Queen can’t change anything about this world, where the strong eat the weak.

  To Fritz, the only thing that mattered in this cruel world was to enact your own goals. Power, money, and revenge felt more doable than creating a vague ‘brighter future’. For example, the Empress wasn’t trying to take over the continent for some weird, lofty goal.

  All she wanted was power for herself and control.

  But, the Queen in front of Fritz ughed at him, almost as if she was mocking the cynical response in his mind.

  “Exactly. Have a good day, Fritz.”

  +++

  She’s a strange woman. I know her kind. She’s the kind who ends up in a ditch somewhere because of her ideals. Not to mention, she’s probably overreaching her authority already. The Orellian aristocracy are some of the most corrupt bastards out there.

  Fritz looked at the bustling markets in Gntzstadt’s ‘Business District’.

  She must have made a lot of enemies already. This is going to be tricky…

  He scanned the changes in Orellia. Certainly, the people of Gntzstadt seemed…appreciative, to say the least, of their new ruler.

  I need to figure out if she’s worthy of my services too. I’m not lending my skills again to a monster. Her kind exterior might just be a trick.

  Thus, he went for a small tour.

  To Fritz’s estimates, Gntzstadt seemed like it was somewhat booming. Apparently, unlike the rest of Orellia, Gntzstadt was under the crownnds of House Orellia. That meant that this pce reflected Cecilia's rule the most.

  For all he knew, the rest of the country, ruled by noble lords, might be comparable to the Orellia he once knew, but this pce, it certainly was not Gntzstadt eight years ago, when he st visited it.

  This was the slum area. He frowned. Now, there are merchants, businessmen, and food stalls…what did she even do to change it this much?

  It was indeed a stark change from famished and impoverished families and children to well-fed citizens. If it weren’t for the fact that he loathed his previous work, Fritz would have felt disappointed that their subversive activities didn’t destroy this nation as pnned.

  Were we too sloppy? Impossible.

  He soon stopped at a single, abandoned building, away from the bustling city streets. No one seemed to be looking at it, and the few people who passed by him barely gnced at it.

  I wonder if the Empire’s spy networks are still up and running.

  He knew it was one of the hide-outs of the Northwest Network, but, when he reached to open the door inside—it was empty.

  Hmm…

  “A visitor, eh?” an old woman appeared behind Fritz. “I’m afraid there’s not a lot of valuables inside left for you to take, young man.”

  “Did you just accuse me of being a looter?”

  I am not!

  The old woman ignored him, as she entered the establishment with a sigh.

  “You see, the previous looters cleared this pce out,” she shook her head. “Unfortunate. I believe it should have been investigated further.”

  “Investigated?”

  “Yeah,” the old woman went back to the exit, passing by Fritz. “So many shady people once gathered here. It is good that they’re gone now. Ah, but we probably shouldn’t be involved here anyway.”

  He watched as the old woman walked away from him, bewildered.

  Was she trying to gossip with me? He looked at his hands. Wait, do I look like a grandma?

  He entered the building, checking the empty crates, cabinets, tables, and whatnot. The pce seemed rundown and messy, almost as if its inhabitants were forced to flee in haste, or looters raided it with impunity.

  Fritz went upstairs and found equally nothing, save for a few letters left on the side of one of the rooms. He checked it, only to find out that it was only about how much bread and meat was bought in a week.

  Seems like they’ve been running out of money for a while based on those quantities. Cecilia probably enhanced this city’s security. That must have forced them to relocate.

  He stood up, disappointed at finding nothing useful. He went back to the ground floor, taking a few more minutes to double-check everything. Then, suddenly, underneath a dusty pile of wood and pnks—he found a trapdoor.

  Opening it, he revealed a staircase underneath.

  He grinned, readying the dagger he had purchased earlier.

  Perfect.