Chapter 235 --235
Hearing that, he looked horrified and said, "Why are you cursing my grandmother?! She’s alive! How can you go to her grave? That’s impossible!"
"But didn’t you just say her birthday was ’lost forever’? That sounds pretty dead to me."
Hearing that, he clarified, "Yeah, that birthday was lost, but that doesn’t mean ’she’ died!"
Hearing that, Heena looked at him skeptically and said, "How many years old did you say your grandmother is?"
He said proudly, "She was 139 when I calculated her age three years ago, so she’s 142 years old now."
"That doesn’t make sense," Heena said. "If she’s 142 years old and you’re over 35 years old, the math doesn’t work out. How is that even possible?"
He looked at her matter-of-factly and said, "She’s actually my great-great-great-great-great- and best looking grandmother."
Hearing that, Heena looked at him with raised eyebrows and said, "Shut up and tell me the truth. How does this ’grandmother’ even exist? I don’t remember you having such a relative."
She grabbed him by the collar and said, "Explain. Now."
Hearing that, he said, "Actually, my great-grandfather married three times, and she is the third wife. So in that sense, she’s my grandmother."
Then Heena asked, "Wait, your grandfather is already dead, right?"
Hearing that, he nodded and said, "Yeah, he died from overwork."
Then she asked, "And what about his wive?, YOUR GRANDMOTHER , THE MOTHER OF YOYR FATHER?"
"Well he is married two times, the first one ran away. The second one also disappeared. Now the only—my great-grandmother—is still alive and thriving."
"Ah, that makes sense," Heena said sarcastically. "So you’re telling me that your grandfather, who was younger than your great-grandmother, died from overwork, but your ancient great-grandmother is still alive and well? And you’re angry at me for making you miss her birthday, which caused you to miss work?"
She shook her head.
"What the hell? There’s not even a logical connection! Just tell me the truth about why you’re really here."
Hearing that, he sighed and dropped the act. "Well, the other secretaries and officials sent me to talk to you because they think you’ve lost your mind staying locked in your room for a whole day and night. They sent me here to drag you back to work because, you see, the documents are already piling up again."
Hearing that, Heena looked at him incredulously and said, "I just finished a mountain of documents yesterday! How can they already be piling up?"
Hearing that, he looked at her seriously and said, "Your Majesty, you have been gone for about 18 hours. In that time, the workload doesn’t stop. It accumulates."
Hearing that, Heena walked with him, still arguing, and they finally stopped in front of her office. As she opened the door, she felt her jaw literally hit the ground.
’Is she an Empress or a corporate slave?’
Half of the room was filled with documents again—not an exaggeration. Mountains of paperwork covered half the desk, and because there were other pieces of furniture in the office like sofas and side tables, documents were piled on those as well.
Five secretaries were already sitting there, reading through documents, and they all looked like dead vessels. The dark circles under their eyes were so prominent they looked like they hadn’t slept in days.
Heena looked at Secretary Chen and asked slowly, "I have been gone for one day, right? I mean, half a day and one night, right?"
Hearing that, he nodded.
She turned to look at the secretaries and the overwhelming workload and said, "Then why the hell did it come to this? Did all the nobles in the whole empire suddenly die and leave their estates to be processed?"
Hearing that, one of the exhausted secretaries shook his head wearily and said, "No, Your Majesty. You gave an order before you... disappeared... that whoever was behind the petition and could not pay the compensation money would have their entire family’s graves dug up for investigation."
He gestured weakly at the mountains of paperwork.
"These are the investigation reports and the gold that’s been delivered."
Heena stood there, literally speechless.
She had never believed she would feel so conflicted, so utterly defeated by her own words and orders.
She’d made that threat as a deterrent, as a way to scare the nobles into compliance.
She hadn’t actually expected them to ’pay’ so quickly and in such volume that it created a bureaucratic nightmare.
Secretary Chen looked at her with barely suppressed satisfaction and said cheerfully, "So, Your Majesty, shall we begin? We have approximately 347 compensation payments to process, 89 investigation reports to review, 156 land deed transfers to verify, and 43 formal apologies to read and file."
He smiled brightly.
"I estimate it will take approximately 14 hours of continuous work to clear this backlog. Would you like tea brought in, or should we start immediately?"
Heena looked at the mountains of paperwork, then at Secretary Chen’s innocent smile, then at the exhausted secretaries who looked like they were barely alive, then back at the paperwork.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Bring the tea. Strong tea. And possibly alcohol."
"We don’t drink during work hours, Your Majesty."
"Then make an exception, because I’m about to make several."
Secretary Chen’s smile widened. "As you command, Your Majesty."
As Heena sat down at her desk and pulled the first document toward her, she could hear Larus’s voice from down the corridor, clearly just waking up and asking a servant, "Where is Her Majesty?"
"In her office, Your Highness. She’s been there for ten minutes already."
"What? But we just— How did she—"
Heena smiled slightly despite her exhaustion.
At least someone was more confused than she was.
She picked up her brush, dipped it in ink, and began the long, tedious process of reviewing each document, signing off on payments, verifying investigations, and essentially dealing with the consequences of her own effective leadership.
’Note to self,’ she thought wryly, ’be more careful with threats. The nobles are taking them seriously now.’
Secretary Chen hummed cheerfully as he organized documents into priority stacks, clearly enjoying every moment of Heena’s bureaucratic suffering.
And thus began another long day in the life of the Empress.
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In the meantime, the things Heena dealt with.
First was of course.
Heena had, of course, sent Raphael to the church—not outside the palace, but to the separate church complex within the palace grounds. That way, no one could accuse her of completely abandoning a consort. But it was essentially a completely separate palace, isolated and quiet.
And Raphael was directly confined inside.
Heena had announced with perfect sincerity: "Because my dear consort really loves praying, he can pray to God for all his life, and no one will disturb him. Isn’t that wonderful? A life devoted entirely to spiritual contemplation."
And of course, Raphael had followed this arrangement willingly. In his mind, he had committed terrible sins—supporting the Church conspiracy, enabling corruption, betraying his Empress. He genuinely believed he deserved punishment and that prayer and penance would cleanse his soul.
So he went to the church compound to pray.
But what he didn’t know—what he couldn’t have anticipated—was that when you pray constantly, eat actually tasteless food, and live under the strict guidance of a genuine high priest, life becomes absolutely unbearable.