Chapter 13: Princess Mia... Bungles It Good...

Mia's mind reeled at Bel's reply. She'd expected some bad news considering the state Bel had been found in, but it did little to lessen the impact.

"That can't be... But how? Did the famine do us in? Was it just too much to overcome in the end?"

"Famine? I don't know all the details, but it seemed to have turned out fine. That happened before I was born... Before my mother was born, even, so I don't really know much about it, but it was mentioned in the book that praised your accomplishments. The book said that you stocked up more than enough food to get through and even sent aid to neighboring kingdoms that were suffering."

"I see. I mean, I guess that should have been obvious, considering the famine is only a few years away. It wouldn't have anything to do with you..."

She began breathing out a sigh of relief, only for it to catch in her throat when she heard what Bel said next.

"Oh, and also, that was when they put up a big golden statue to honor you."

"Wh-What did you say? A... big golden statue?"

"Yes. Mother Elise said it was a towering statue that seemed almost to reach the heavens."

"R-Reach the heavens..."

Mia tried to imagine the sight of a massive statue of herself with its arms crossed and its face permanently set in a smug grin. The thought of such a monstrosity looming over the Grand Square of the imperial capital in all its garishly golden glory made her break out in goosebumps. But then, her imagination took a somber turn, and she envisioned the revolutionary army rushing into the square to pull it down. She could picture the scene with vivid detail.

And because it's made of gold, they wouldn't just take it down; they'd smash it up into pieces and sell them off. I mean, they're not literally taking me apart, but still, seeing something made in your image destroyed like that... it stays with you.

In the previous timeline, she'd seen what they did with her portraits. It wasn't the kind of thing that was easily forgotten. On their way back from a visit to a particularly destitute area, she and Ludwig had passed by the town square, where countless portraits of her had been set aflame. The sight hadn't angered her, nor had it caused her any overt grief. She only remembered feeling a quiet sadness as she watched her likeness reduced to smoldering cinders. To this day, her heart still ached a little at the memory.

"I definitely need to make sure that never gets built... I'd better have a word with Ludwig about keeping a closer eye on things..."

"Huh? How come? I heard that it was a very impressive statue of the finest workmanship."

"Here's something for you to remember, Bel. We of the imperial family must never think of taxes as money for us to spend," she declared with a stern look. "We should think of taxes... as our own flesh and blood!"

"Our own... flesh and blood?"

"Absolutely! That's the ultimate survival strategy!"

Bel nodded, diligently committing to memory a lesson that Mia herself had learned from that most profound of teachers — the guillotine.

"Getting back on topic though, what happened to the Empire?"

"I didn't see any of it happen myself, this is all stuff that I heard from Mr. Ludwig, but..."

After briefly qualifying her statements as second-hand, Bel began to tell her story.

"After my great-grandfather — your father — passed away, you didn't inherit the throne. It was supposed to pass to someone from the bloodlines of the Four Dukes."

The Four Dukes were direct relatives of the emperor, making their families part of the imperial lineage and therefore legitimate contenders for the throne. Greenmoon was on good terms with the imperial family due to Esmeralda being Mia's friend — in principle, at least. Bluemoon owned an abundance of capital. Redmoon had strong ties with the military. Yellowmoon lacked a prominent feature but was nevertheless a renowned family. The four families varied in prestige and power but were all prominent nobility whose standing was second only to the emperor himself. It went without saying then that each had its own faction of allies within the aristocratic world, and all of them were engaged in a neverending power struggle.

"Oh no... You're not going to tell me the succession dispute got ugly and turned into a civil war, are you?"

"Wow, how did you know? That's exactly what happened. The Four Dukes started forging alliances with each other, and it ended up with one pair of Dukes against the other pair. A small number of the remaining nobility remained neutral, but almost everyone else joined one side or the other, and the empire was split in two."

Bel paused for a sad sigh before continuing.

"Mr. Ludwig spent a lot of time sighing like that. I kept hearing him say things like 'If only Her Highness had ascended the throne... Things wouldn't have gotten this bad,'" she said before quickly adding, "Oh, but he also said that you probably had your reasons for declining and did so after putting considerable thought into the decision."

Mia felt herself break into a cold sweat, which trickled uncomfortably down her back.

U-Uh oh... I think I know what happened here... That sounds exactly like the kind of decision I'd put zero thought into...

Mia was intimately familiar with how future Mia's mind worked. It was, after all, still her.

I-I'll bet it was because I read that history book. It said I'd have eight kids and the empire would last a long time and prosper...

One thing was clear to her: her future self almost certainly avoided becoming Empress out of sheer laziness. Whether it had been accomplished actively by outright refusal or passively by refraining from any actual effort to contend the decisions of others, she did not know, but either way, she definitely ceded the throne without putting much thought into it.

"Despite that," Bel continued, "when the civil war broke out and the empire was on the brink of ruin, Mr. Ludwig and his friends still got together and tried to make you empress, but..."

"But?"

"Just before they could, you were killed."

"Killed?!"

"By poison."

"P-Poison?!"

Mia almost leapt to her feet, but she caught herself at the last second.

W-Wait a minute, let me think about this... Poison... doesn't actually sound as bad as the guillotine, I think?

A couple of scenes flashed across her mind, all products of an imagination corrupted by fairy tales. She pictured the climactic ending of an epic tale, wherein star-crossed lovers — a princess and her knight — drink together from a poisoned grail, their love cut short in life but eternalized through death.

Well, that certainly sounds far more pleasant than having my head chopped off...

"It was a heroic end. You fought valiantly for thirty days against the poison..."

Mia's mind interpreted that as: suffered from poison for thirty straight days.

"And in your final moments, even as you lay upon sheets dyed crimson with your precious lifeblood, you let out a fierce cry, declaring that you lived your life to the fullest and died with no regrets."

Mia's mind interpreted that as: bled out of every hole in her body and died a horrible, agonizing death.

"That's what it said in the Princess Mia Chronicles."

Sweet moons high above! Nothing about that is even remotely better than the guillotine! Even factoring in Elise's tendency to take liberties, I pretty much just went through hell for a good month before dying in a pool of my own blood. That sounds downright horrific!

The description was so vivid that she couldn't help but shudder at the mental image she'd inadvertently produced.

In fact, parts of that story are so exaggerated they don't even make any sense!

Considering she was literally dying from poison, she simply couldn't picture herself letting out any kind of cry, nevermind a fierce one in conjunction with dramatic last words. Bel, meanwhile, was looking at her with the kind of wide-eyed awe usually reserved for deities and idols, and it was starting to make her a little nervous.

What in the moons have they been teaching her about me?

Curiosity yielded to dread, and she decided that she'd rather not find out for the time being.

"After that, my uncles and aunts, worried about their safety, scattered and went into hiding. I was first taken to Outcount Rudolvon's place for my protection. But then my mother passed away. Just before she did, she placed me under the care of Mother Anne." Bel stopped to take a breath. When she spoke again, her voice was a little hoarse. "But then, they came, and... Mother Anne, in order to protect me, she... And after that, Mother Elise took care of me, but she too..."

Ahh... Anne, and Elise too... Even after I died, the two of you remained loyal until the very end, didn't you... Still, Elise, you need to stop making things up when you write about me.

A flurry of emotions rose up, and she huffed them out to compose herself. Then she asked another question.

"Okay, but even if I died, the empire shouldn't have fallen apart that easily. What about Sion? What was that busybody up to? Sure, he's not from Tearmoon, but I can't imagine he'd just stand by and watch from the sidelines while a bunch of idiot nobles ruin the nation for its people. Oh, and what about Miss Rafina? She couldn't possibly have just ignored the empire when it was in so much trouble."

"Miss Rafina? Do you mean the Empress Prelate, Rafina Orca Belluga?"

"Uh... Yes? I... think? Hm? Empress Prelate?"

Mia scratched her head. The term was unfamiliar to her.