Chapter 6: Princess Mia... Gets Off Her Butt

The Grand Library in the Whitemoon Palace housed knowledge collected from all across the empire. Sitting at one of the wooden desks inside was Mia. She had her chin in her palm, and she let out a dejected sigh.

"Hmm... This has been most unfruitful..."

She had spent most of the last couple days cooped up in the library. After the memory of Anne came back to her, she spent the following week pouring over her diary and sorting through everything she remembered. In the end, she finally came to the conclusion that what she saw wasn't a dream. It was something that had actually happened, or rather, was going to happen in the future. As soon as this realization dawned on her, she shrieked, "N-N-Never! I am not going through that again!"

She absolutely couldn't stomach the thought of being put to the guillotine a second time. No matter what, she had to figure out a way to avoid that future. Propelled by a singular desire to escape this gruesome fate, she holed herself up in the library and started reading up on the current state of the Tearmoon Empire. According to her memories, within a few years, the empire's finances would begin to deteriorate. To make matters worse, a famine would strike soon after, followed by the outbreak of a plague. Then there would be a popular revolt that turned into a full-blown revolution. Finally, the empire would be subject to direct foreign intervention when neighboring kingdoms decided to assist the revolutionary army.

That was, she believed, the gist of how things had played out. After reading through all sorts of books in the library and cross-referencing them with her own memories, she summed up all that she'd learned in one simple sentence:

"How terribly complicated this all is."

Unsurprisingly, her pampered childhood had left her hopelessly unprepared for such an undertaking. There was no way she could thumb through a few books and suddenly understand politics or economics. The problem was that she knew what was going to happen. She just didn't know what to do about it. Frustrated, she held her head in her hands and groaned. Even sugar bingeing didn't help; no matter how many sweets she ate, she couldn't come up with any good ideas. To her credit though, she did sort of begin to understand why it might be a problem for just one of her meals to cost a commoner's entire monthly salary.

"It would appear that I have no choice but to find that man..."

When she recalled the events with Anne, she also remembered another of her loyal subjects. He was a young ministry official, exceptionally competent and fiercely dedicated. Faced with a crumbling empire, he worked his fingers to the bone trying to save it and, in the process, the royal family. Even after Mia had lost everything, he never abandoned her, trying everything he could to help until the very end.

There was, however, a problem.

I don't see his name written anywhere. All I remember is that he was terribly rude...

References to the man included: "four-eyes," "stupid four-eyes," and "goddamned four-eyes." She remembered calling him all sorts of things, but his name was the one thing she might never have called him.

"Well, I can't do much if I don't know his name. I wonder if I'll find any hints in here..."

She flipped back to the beginning of her diary and read through it again. On the page that detailed their first meeting, she found a small line of text that described him as "the fool who got kicked out of Central and was sent to the countryside."

"Ah-hah! I do recall that he held office in the capital for some time... Perhaps I should go look for him."

It was possible that he was still in the imperial capital. Figuring that it was best to make haste, Mia got to her feet and had Anne make arrangements for an excursion.

Lunatear, the imperial capital of the Tearmoon Empire, was home to five ministries that aided the emperor in governance.

The Azure Moon Ministry was the administrative agency for the capital city. The Golden Moon Ministry handled taxes. The Scarlet Moon Ministry was the administrative agency for the surrounding rural regions. The Jade Moon Ministry handled foreign affairs. Finally, the Ebony Moon Ministry commanded the seven armies of the empire.

Mia was headed for the ministry nearest to the Whitemoon Palace, the Golden Moon Ministry. She didn't have any particular reason for doing so. Neither the fact that he'd labored extensively to restore the empire's finances nor the fact that he'd been extremely fussy about the usage of money crossed her mind. It was, in all honesty, just a hunch.

"Um, Princess Mia, what exactly are we doing here?" said Anne with a puzzled frown.

"There's someone I wish to meet."

Mia's answer was short and simple.

"Someone... you wish to meet? You mean..."

Anne's hands shot to her mouth and she gasped. Then, she nodded in apparent comprehension.

"If that's the case, then rest assured that I'll do everything in my power to help."

"...Hm? Is that so? Well, if you insist. I certainly appreciate it."

Mia wasn't sure why Anne seemed so enthusiastic all of a sudden, but she didn't dwell on it.

"I do hope he's here... Oh, my."

They heard a pair of voices. It sounded like they were arguing.

"Why is such wasteful spending allowed to continue unchecked? You know just as well as I do that at this rate, it won't take long for the empire's finances to implode!"

"Bah, enough of this talk."

"But..."

"I said enough! What good is there in fussing over such trivial details?"

"They're not trivial details. If this keeps up, the empire will..."

She smiled. Now here was a voice she recognized.

"My, my," she said, feeling a mild sense of nostalgia, "it would appear that we've struck gold. All that time spent in the Grand Library was well worth it!"

The total irrelevance of her limited learning in the library notwithstanding, Mia did indeed happen upon a stroke of very good fortune.