Building relationships

 ''The empress is quite different from the rumors.''

''The other humans were the same though.''

''Her dresses were also not shaped like a ball.''

''She looked the same in my eyes, graceful like those nobles.''

 ''Do you think the relationship between empress and that Halfling is as good as they say in the rumor?''

''That Halfling is also lucky to be born as a member of the imperial family.'' In the moving carriage, the envoys of the southern beast tribe were discussing their experiences in the imperial palace.

Basil, on the other hand, had his gaze fixed on the passing scenery, his knuckles beneath his chin. His ears tuned out the words of the members of his tribe, his mind focused on his own experience in the imperial palace.

The empress who treated him normally, and seeming without intentions of her own. And then, there was the emperor.