Military Honours

Nevertheless, I found myself so busy I had to postpone my vain plans to hire noble ladies to write for a women's magazine I wanted out. Also, what with all my new gifts, taels, and treasures, I was approved to expand the Lunar Palace just to keep all the things. Security was also doubled. Even after exchanging the taels into bank notes, my current treasury was still very, very full.

I was secretly changing some bank notes into gold and transporting it out to my other residences (bestowed and personally purchased) to bury and hide. 17 million taels monthly income just from the company and another 1 billion taels in main contracts sure was a lot of money. I was certain I could fund a small army now.

Deciding I needed a proper work life balance and I was now a sought-after VVIP who could afford to make other wait for me, I gave myself every Sunday day off so I could recharge and make sure my creativity wasn't stifled. Finally, the day of my military ceremony arrived. I was given a proper military armour and token to wear over my usual battle armour (which I never particularly got to use), and a set of military court robes.

I kneeled in court in front of Lu Qing Yu and all the military officials as Eunuch Chu read out "Noble Concubine Ling Yue, you are both courageous and virtuous. You followed your husband, His Highness the Emperor to the battlefield out of virtue and love for the empire to the most dangerous battlefield, the North West, going far beyond your normal duty.

You have been ambushed by the barbarians and had to face danger on a daily basis, first saving the life of the Norse envoys at the trade post, then the life of the Emperor by triggering an avalanche to get rid of 2000 elite barbarians sent to assassinate the Emperor.

Upon returning to the camp, you invented 2 deadly and essential military weapons which caused Yuan An to win the war, got rid of all the 400 000 barbarian army with 0 survivors, led us to finally get rid of the main successor of the barbarian khan, Yeke Khan, and concluded the war with nearly 0 casualties on Yuan An's side.

For your merits and contribution to the war, the imperial palace of Yuan An and the military hereby confers you the rank of 2nd rank 2nd class honorary military official. You will receive 80 000 taels a month as wages, be conferred land in xx county and be bestowed 2 residences in the capital and enjoy all the privileges of a 2nd rank 2nd class military official. You will also be bestowed a bonus of 800 000 taels for your great contribution in the war.

We hope that you will continue to make the empire proud, show great leadership and strategy, and continue to contribute to the empire's development." My heart jumped in my chest as my forehead pressed against the cold ground. 2nd rank 2nd class? To my knowledge, that was only 1 class below general. Generals only had 3 ranks. 1st rank 1st to 3rd class, and 2nd rank 1st class.

The ceremony ensued as I paid my thanks, bowed, and sat through a 1 hour long process. After it ended, officials repeatedly came up to congratulate me. Amongst them were my father and my 2 older brothers, who were both generals. My father probably never imagined that there would be another near general out of his children.

The next day was my award ceremony for the Ministry of Foreign Exchange and Trade. Since we had been rushing to go to war, this ceremony was to honour my efforts with He as well as Novgorod in the war. Instead of military officials, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Exchange and Trade as well as from related ministries were in attendance.

This ceremony, being a civil ministry was also much longer, being 3 hours long. I was awarded for my role in "saving" the Novgorod envoys (Adrik) during the Rouran ambush as well as spurring Novgorod's interest in Huaxia (after I went to the trade route, loads of Norse decided to visit)

The only issue to be had with all these awards and fancy titles were that I was obligated to sit in quite a lot of banquets and meetings, and I couldn't look disinterested. I would be dolled up by the servants, and then I would just sit there the whole night, eating "graciously" and making small conversation with whoever wanted to talk to me.

Retired General Mian and Mian Ru were both very impressed by my performance in the North West. As a woman, I couldn't possibly have enough might and endurance to face up against the Rouran. However, I had outsmarted them by using what we had available and even managed to turn the tides for the military. I could only endure the harsh conditions due to their training. Once I got back, I resumed training under them again.

Meanwhile, Luna Marche's subsidiary brand Mariposa just launched. Mariposa was voted on by all of the C-suite and was a clothing and accessories brand for young girls. I noticed as soon as I got here that little girls only wore a smaller version of adult's clothing, and noble little girls were also swathed in heavy, clunky jewellery. We thought there might be a market for more kiddie, brighter coloured and delicate jewellery adorned with butterflies, flowers, bows and glitter.

We also produced accessories like winter capes, clip on hair pins and clip on earrings. "Scents" for little girls, instead of mature scents than women liked to use, were bright, fruity smells. Since this was a pet project for the rest of the C-suite, I didn't have too much involvement in it other than approving things and giving suggestions here and there.

It took some convincing to get noble ladies to wear this. What I did was visit the homes of our loyal noble customers and offer to outfit their little girls for free for a month. We were hoping this would make it catch on with the rest of the circle after seeing how much they wanted to wear it.