Chapter 165 --165
Location:Administrative Chamber, 2 hours later
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The administrative chamber was designed for efficiency, not comfort. Stone walls, tall windows that let in cold morning light, rows of benches for ministers and department heads. At the front, a raised platform with a single chair—simple, unadorned, positioned so whoever sat there could see everyone and be seen by everyone.
Iris sat in that chair wearing Elara’s face.
The glamour was perfect. She’d spent nineteen minutes studying memory crystals of Elara’s mannerisms, and one minute panicking that it wouldn’t be enough. But now, draped in one of Elara’s white suits with the golden butterfly pin catching lamplight, she looked exactly like the Fourth Princess.
She even sat the same way: spine straight, hands folded precisely in her lap, expression completely neutral. Not bored. Not interested. Just... present.
Like a very sophisticated statue that occasionally blinked.
"The grain requisition forms require your signature, Your Highness," Minister Aldric was saying, sliding a stack of papers across the desk. He was old enough to remember Elara’s mother, and his eyes kept darting to Iris’s face like he was searching for something.
Iris picked up the top document. Scanned it with the same mechanical precision she’d observed in the crystals—left to right, top to bottom, no wasted eye movement.
"I’ll review the full documentation and provide response within 48 hours," she said. Elara’s voice came out perfectly flat, emotionless. "Proceed with standard protocols meanwhile."
Minister Aldric blinked. "But Your Highness, you usually decide these matters immediately. Just last week you approved the border shipments in under two minutes—"