She didn't even wait for Albert to open the door… she did it herself, opening it and grabbing Albert's uniform and pulling him in so hard that Albert almost lost his balance. Then she shut the door so hard that every other guard outside just blinked, confused about what the fuck had just happened.
"Uhm, your Majes—"
"My name is Daisy, you can only refer to me as Daisy!" She shouted as she went to the wardrobe, getting her late father's uniform out, but once again the dress, she couldn't untie it. "Untie it now, Albert!" she shouted at him in a voice that Albert didn't even have the will to question anything.
She was truly acting like an Empress, and Albert did untie it and immediately turned around, while Daisy just took off her dress and started putting on the uniform of her father.
"Turn around and listen to me!" She shouted again, breathing like a wild bull, and when Albert turned around, what he saw was… power.
It was a strange feeling, but the aura that just surrounded Daisy was the same aura that surrendered her late father, the Emperor. That Imperial General uniform, the black, the gold decor, the medal and the sword… it just said power… no, it declared power, it declared her as the ruler.
And her eyes… her eyes were cutting Albert, those eyes of an empress who had enough, that was what they said, those eyes that were ready to strike down.
"There is a maid in the palace who wants to kill me! She has long black hair, her nose a bit big, and she has a red silk scar on the right hand, which probably signals that she is with the traitors. Find everyone who has it and kill them immediately!"
Silence, as Albert didn't even say anything, he just looked at her like… completely frozen.
"I noticed them, at least seven of them have the same red silk scarf on their hands!" Daisy continued her voice still high and aggressive but it was true.
She passed some of the maids and others on her way outside to the garden before she died, and they all had the same red scarf in their right hand…. but there was a problem.
Albert had never seen Daisy leave the room, because it was part of the game script. She had been depressed and had locked herself in, which is where the game started, meaning it was impossible for her to have seen everything, it was impossible to believe her.
But Albert was silent and frozen for a reason… he had noticed the same thing.
He is in the role of guarding the palace with the Imperial Executioners and they had never left Daisy's room. There were always guards around the palace too… and he noticed that out of nowhere a lot of attendees in the palace had the same red scarf around their right hand, which to him didn't make sense. When asked, they said it was just a decoration for the Emperor, a remembrance because his favorite color was red.
But now that the Empress herself said it to him, it made sense… it wasn't a decoration but a sign of who was with the traitors, which also meant one thing.
"They are in the palace already…" Albert whispered, avoiding eye contact with Daisy, because that meant… they had failed the only thing they lived for… to protect the Empress and guard the palace.
"How many did you see?!" Daisy asked immediately as stepped closer to him.
"Uhh… at least twenty, if I remember correctly. Even King Giroma has one, and the others who came to the meeting, who oppose you—" Albert froze once again as he put the puzzle together and even Daisy herself realized it.
She remembered clearly seeing the red scarf on the shoulders of the nobles and the three kings, which meant from the beginning it was not a meeting about peace or her claiming the throne… they had already planned to overthrow her, no, to assassinate her from the very start.
"The meeting is not about peace… it was their chance to get into the palace." Daisy whispered as it was impossible… in the game, nothing like this happened.
The consciousness of the NPCs changed the story, changed the script into their own will… and in that moment, she understood why the system said there was less than ten percent chance of her surviving. There are endless possibilities for what the humans, who were once NPCs, might do.
What the fuck should I do… what should I do… She tried to think it through more and more, but every single history lesson said it all. If you kill them, the public will only grow more restless, and her second solution, killing the other kings, wouldn't work either, because they have their armies and alliances outside of the Empire… it would only lead to disaster.
"What if we capture all the traitors?" Albert said as he fell deeper into despair. "If we do that, then the king won't have anyone left inside the palace. Their goal is to kill you, Daisy. We can stop it and even buy time for ourselves."
"It's not that easy." She whispered but it wasn't an option as killing them would only cause the most dangerous outcome… the public unrest.
The biggest enemy was not the traitors in the palace, not the enemies outside the border, not the nobles, but the people, the civilians, those who still hoped but whose hope had been crushed, and the only thing they saw was how glamorous and rich the rulers lived while they starved, while their children died.
But then she remembered… the kings, queens, emperors, empresses, the great ones… all of them used their voices to capture the last bit of hope buried deep within the people.
"I need to address them." As she said it, the only thing Albert could manage was a short, quiet breath.. and once again, he froze, his gaze fixed on her.
In that moment, he did not see merely an Empress. He saw someone who was more than a title, more than royal blood. He saw a person who stood apart from the crown itself, someone different, someone real, someone whose existence could not be reduced to power or lineage alone.
He saw the will in her eyes, the unwavering will to stand with the people, to change.