Queen Dowager Lamaron Crow Laisis, of the Lamaron Empire, was greatly satisfied with the scene before her.
There, the prominent nobles and military officials of the empire had gathered. And every single one of them was kneeling, placing their right hand on their chest and bowing their heads. In this room, besides the guards, only two people were not bowing their heads: herself, the Queen Dowager, and her son, Emperor of the Lamaron Empire.
Laisis savored the view before her. The happiness of being able to enjoy this sight.
The Queen Dowager’s throne was placed next to the Emperor’s throne. In other words, her throne was at the same height as the Emperor’s. She was able to see the same view that only the Emperor could see. And above all, she was able to share this magnificent view with her son, who was more precious to her than her own life. Could there be a greater happiness than this?
Prime Minister Madlin stood up and respectfully bowed to the Emperor, then read aloud the imperial decree granting provisions to the gathered nobles. As she listened to his voice, she looked back on the decades she had spent fighting. Her entire life had been dedicated to making her son the Emperor.
Lamaron Crow Laisis was born in the city of Kesil, the southernmost region of the Lamaron Empire. Her father was a staff officer in the empire’s army and later became the governor of a part of the Juka Kingdom after successfully occupying it.
When Laisis was 10 years old, her father’s triumphal procession took place in the imperial capital. She can still vividly recall that splendid scene.
However, her father fell in battle during the Juka Kingdom’s counterattack. It happened when Laisis was 12 years old. After her husband’s death, her mother, caught the eye of the reigning Emperor at the time, Lamaron Crow Deus, and was taken as one of his wives.
At the age of 15, Laisis was married to Aeno, the son of Emperor’s brother, Lucius. However, Aeno already had a legal wife, so Laisis became a concubine. Soon after, she became pregnant.
While suffering from severe morning sickness, her belly started to grow, and she was finally about to enter the stable period of pregnancy when her mother was accused of adultery and executed by Emperor Deus. It was said to be a conspiracy by the queen and the other concubines, but for Laisis, it was a great shock. Her father-in-law Lucius and her husband Aeno, out of deference to the Emperor, confined the pregnant Laisis to a room in their mansion. In a dimly lit room, with only three maids who had stayed with her, Laisis gave birth to her child, who is the current Emperor, Lamaron Crow Freins.
In the royal and noble families, when a child is born, a wet nurse is usually appointed. However, Laisis was not given one. In other words, she nursed Freins herself. And for five years, she lived in that room with the maids who accompanied her.
Fortunately, Freins was a healthy child, resembling his father. He was a calm and easygoing child. Laisis devoted all her time to being with her child and found joy only in his growth.
When Freins turned 5 years old, Emperor Deus passed away. After many twists and turns, Laisis was finally released from confinement, and she and her husband were allowed to move into the palace.
Another five years later, Laisis’s father-in-law, Lucius, also passed away, and her husband, Aeno, ascended to the throne as Emperor.
Aeno was a capable Emperor. At the time, he led an expedition to the regions occupied by the Juka Kingdom and successfully conquered them. Not only that, he rebuilt the Lamaron Empire’s finances, which had been in ruins due to the repeated expeditions of the previous Emperor, Deus. In reality, Laisis played a significant role behind the scenes. She was the unsung heroine in the financial recovery.
Emperor Aeno was a worthy statesman who could be called an excellent ruler. However, from the moment of his ascension, his attention to his wives rapidly diminished due to the overwhelming demands of his position. The queen and the concubines, in an effort to gain the Emperor’s favor, competed with each other in lavish and extravagant attire, worsening the financial situation of the empire.
Amidst this, Laisis advised her husband, the Emperor, to practice thrift.
She paid no heed to the competition of women’s beauty and instead thoroughly eliminated all unnecessary expenses around her. She dismissed many of the maids who served her, sold the jewels, garments, and luxurious furnishings given to her by the Emperor, and willingly moved to a small and humble room. For her, as long as her son Freins was by her side, she needed nothing else. Such actions, which could have led to her exile from the palace or even put her life at risk, touched the Emperor’s heart. As a result, the Emperor issued a decree of frugality in the imperial harem. This led to significant savings in the extravagant expenses of the harem, contributing to the recovery of the empire’s finances.
This became a turning point, and she began to garner attention from the Emperor and the officials and military personnel who served him.
Several years later, the Emperor’s Empress passed away. When the discussion arose regarding who would become the next Empress, many officials and military personnel urged Laisis to be chosen. Yielding to their voices, the Emperor appointed Laisis as the Empress.
As Empress, Laisis continued to advise the Emperor to practice thorough thrift. First, she reorganized the concubines, reducing their numbers to only two. Among the concubines who remained in the harem, both were daughters of high-ranking military officials. In the empire, those with influence were the military personnel, and Laisis saw an opportunity there. In this way, she succeeded in winning the support of the military, and subsequently, she demoted her second and third sons to subjects.
While there was significant opposition, the result not only reduced the costs of supporting concubines and princes but also led to a reduction in the salaries of attendants and maids serving them, resulting in substantial budget cuts.
Thus, with the trust of the Emperor and the military, Laisis strategically laid the groundwork for her son, Freins, to become the Emperor.
She first arranged for her sister to marry Konig Wamori, who served as the commander of the Lamaron Emperor’s Royal Guard. Then, she appointed her sister as the head of the female officials in the harem.
Wamori was a kind-hearted man. Encouraging and advising her alongside her sister, she promoted him, eventually appointing him as the Chief of the Royal Guard. As for the fathers of the two remaining concubines in the harem, she ultimately appointed them as the Commander-in-Chief of the military and the Commander of the Imperial Capital Defense Army.
Concerning her own son, Freins, she arranged for him to marry the granddaughter of the former Emperor and officially formalized the process of adopting Freins as the Emperor’s heir, ensuring everything was in perfect order.
Thus, by securing the support of the military and the harem, Laisis, through their influence, repeatedly whispered to the Emperor that the truly deserving heir to the throne was not the Crown Prince but Freins.
On the other hand, the Crown Prince’s faction did not remain silent and watch. They rallied the women expelled from the harem, their families, and the Prime Minister, spreading rumors about Laisis’s low social status and Freins’s incompetence. It seemed that the Lamaron Empire had embarked on an ugly power struggle.
However, the power struggle came to an unexpected conclusion. The Emperor deposed the Crown Prince.
The trap that Laisis set for the Crown Prince was cunning. First, she persuaded her husband, Emperor Aeno, that the Crown Prince was suitable to succeed to the next throne. And for that, she urged that the Crown Prince should achieve significant accomplishments that would satisfy the people.
At the same time, she spread information to the Crown Prince’s faction that the Laisis faction was plotting to overthrow the Crown Prince and that they were planning to make Freins, her son, achieve significant accomplishments. Moreover, she specifically mentioned that the policy would involve “sparrow eradication.”
Sparrows were recognized as crop-damaging pests within the empire, and the Crown Prince’s faction gladly embraced this proposal and presented it to the Emperor. The Emperor accepted the proposal and appointed the Crown Prince as the person responsible for sparrow eradication.
The Crown Prince immediately took action and started eliminating sparrows throughout the country.
However, a problem soon arose. Mosquitoes, flies, locusts, and other pests proliferated throughout the nation. These pests ravaged crops, and the Lamaron Empire seemed to face an unprecedented famine.
It was Freins who saved the situation. The faction led by Laisis and her son actively refrained from participating in the sparrow eradication efforts, and the crops in their territories remained intact. Thanks to this, the Lamaron Empire managed to overcome the crisis without succumbing to it.
Laisis knew the truth. Sparrows were not harmful birds. She had heard about the role of sparrows from one of the elderly maids who had accompanied her and her young son in the small, humble room where they had spent time together.
The major failure of this policy was sufficient to undermine the Crown Prince’s trust. The Crown Prince faced public criticism and was abandoned by his father, the Emperor. He was confined to a humble residence far away from the imperial capital.
With the support of the military and the people, Laisis had no enemies left. And she ultimately resorted to assassinating her aging husband, Emperor Aeno.
She employed the method of poisoning. Using a substance called Consulm, she caused the Emperor to suffer from respiratory distress, ultimately leading to his demise.
Consulm was a slow-acting poison, but it had a bitter taste, which posed a challenge. To overcome this, she instructed the cooks to serve sweet iced desserts after meals. As the Emperor had a fondness for sweet treats, especially during the summer season, he happily consumed numerous iced desserts. Later that evening, he drank wine prepared by Laisis herself and went to sleep. The next day, he was found lifeless on his bed.
When people consume something cold, their taste buds become temporarily numbed. Laisis used this fact to carry out the poisoning. She had witnessed her father, a military man, use water magic to cool and relieve pain when he was injured. That experience provided her with the inspiration.
One year after the Emperor’s death, the long-awaited enthronement ceremony of her son, Freins, took place. Laisis became the Empress Dowager, wielding immense power in both name and reality.
Freins, who had been raised with gentle words from his early childhood, had grown into a delicate and timid man, who had developed an extreme fear of being abandoned by his mother. As a result, he unquestioningly accepted his mother’s words. Laisis loved her son and ruthlessly eliminated anything that could hinder him or that she considered wasteful.
Thanks to her efforts, there was no longer anyone who could oppose the mother and son. Finally, she obtained all the power she desired and a life surrounded by extravagant luxuries. However, even with all those possessions, the desires of the Empress Dowager knew no end.
Her current desire was for her son to surpass the reputation of the previous Emperor. She had obtained the Lamaron Empire, and now she wanted to possess its history. She aimed to make her son, Freins, the greatest and most exceptional ruler in the history of the empire. That was her current ambition.
To achieve that, she had to ensure her son achieved significant accomplishments. The ongoing food crisis in the Lamaron Empire presented the perfect opportunity to fulfill her desires. The Empress Dowager’s distorted love was beginning to run rampant…
Queen Dowager Lamaron Crow Laisis, of the Lamaron Empire, was greatly satisfied with the scene before her.
There, the prominent nobles and military officials of the empire had gathered. And every single one of them was kneeling, placing their right hand on their chest and bowing their heads. In this room, besides the guards, only two people were not bowing their heads: herself, the Queen Dowager, and her son, Emperor of the Lamaron Empire.
Laisis savored the view before her. The happiness of being able to enjoy this sight.
The Queen Dowager’s throne was placed next to the Emperor’s throne. In other words, her throne was at the same height as the Emperor’s. She was able to see the same view that only the Emperor could see. And above all, she was able to share this magnificent view with her son, who was more precious to her than her own life. Could there be a greater happiness than this?
Prime Minister Madlin stood up and respectfully bowed to the Emperor, then read aloud the imperial decree granting provisions to the gathered nobles. As she listened to his voice, she looked back on the decades she had spent fighting. Her entire life had been dedicated to making her son the Emperor.
Lamaron Crow Laisis was born in the city of Kesil, the southernmost region of the Lamaron Empire. Her father was a staff officer in the empire’s army and later became the governor of a part of the Juka Kingdom after successfully occupying it.
When Laisis was 10 years old, her father’s triumphal procession took place in the imperial capital. She can still vividly recall that splendid scene.
However, her father fell in battle during the Juka Kingdom’s counterattack. It happened when Laisis was 12 years old. After her husband’s death, her mother, caught the eye of the reigning Emperor at the time, Lamaron Crow Deus, and was taken as one of his wives.
At the age of 15, Laisis was married to Aeno, the son of Emperor’s brother, Lucius. However, Aeno already had a legal wife, so Laisis became a concubine. Soon after, she became pregnant.
While suffering from severe morning sickness, her belly started to grow, and she was finally about to enter the stable period of pregnancy when her mother was accused of adultery and executed by Emperor Deus. It was said to be a conspiracy by the queen and the other concubines, but for Laisis, it was a great shock. Her father-in-law Lucius and her husband Aeno, out of deference to the Emperor, confined the pregnant Laisis to a room in their mansion. In a dimly lit room, with only three maids who had stayed with her, Laisis gave birth to her child, who is the current Emperor, Lamaron Crow Freins.
In the royal and noble families, when a child is born, a wet nurse is usually appointed. However, Laisis was not given one. In other words, she nursed Freins herself. And for five years, she lived in that room with the maids who accompanied her.
Fortunately, Freins was a healthy child, resembling his father. He was a calm and easygoing child. Laisis devoted all her time to being with her child and found joy only in his growth.
When Freins turned 5 years old, Emperor Deus passed away. After many twists and turns, Laisis was finally released from confinement, and she and her husband were allowed to move into the palace.
Another five years later, Laisis’s father-in-law, Lucius, also passed away, and her husband, Aeno, ascended to the throne as Emperor.
Aeno was a capable Emperor. At the time, he led an expedition to the regions occupied by the Juka Kingdom and successfully conquered them. Not only that, he rebuilt the Lamaron Empire’s finances, which had been in ruins due to the repeated expeditions of the previous Emperor, Deus. In reality, Laisis played a significant role behind the scenes. She was the unsung heroine in the financial recovery.
Emperor Aeno was a worthy statesman who could be called an excellent ruler. However, from the moment of his ascension, his attention to his wives rapidly diminished due to the overwhelming demands of his position. The queen and the concubines, in an effort to gain the Emperor’s favor, competed with each other in lavish and extravagant attire, worsening the financial situation of the empire.
Amidst this, Laisis advised her husband, the Emperor, to practice thrift.
She paid no heed to the competition of women’s beauty and instead thoroughly eliminated all unnecessary expenses around her. She dismissed many of the maids who served her, sold the jewels, garments, and luxurious furnishings given to her by the Emperor, and willingly moved to a small and humble room. For her, as long as her son Freins was by her side, she needed nothing else. Such actions, which could have led to her exile from the palace or even put her life at risk, touched the Emperor’s heart. As a result, the Emperor issued a decree of frugality in the imperial harem. This led to significant savings in the extravagant expenses of the harem, contributing to the recovery of the empire’s finances.
This became a turning point, and she began to garner attention from the Emperor and the officials and military personnel who served him.
Several years later, the Emperor’s Empress passed away. When the discussion arose regarding who would become the next Empress, many officials and military personnel urged Laisis to be chosen. Yielding to their voices, the Emperor appointed Laisis as the Empress.
As Empress, Laisis continued to advise the Emperor to practice thorough thrift. First, she reorganized the concubines, reducing their numbers to only two. Among the concubines who remained in the harem, both were daughters of high-ranking military officials. In the empire, those with influence were the military personnel, and Laisis saw an opportunity there. In this way, she succeeded in winning the support of the military, and subsequently, she demoted her second and third sons to subjects.
While there was significant opposition, the result not only reduced the costs of supporting concubines and princes but also led to a reduction in the salaries of attendants and maids serving them, resulting in substantial budget cuts.
Thus, with the trust of the Emperor and the military, Laisis strategically laid the groundwork for her son, Freins, to become the Emperor.
She first arranged for her sister to marry Konig Wamori, who served as the commander of the Lamaron Emperor’s Royal Guard. Then, she appointed her sister as the head of the female officials in the harem.
Wamori was a kind-hearted man. Encouraging and advising her alongside her sister, she promoted him, eventually appointing him as the Chief of the Royal Guard. As for the fathers of the two remaining concubines in the harem, she ultimately appointed them as the Commander-in-Chief of the military and the Commander of the Imperial Capital Defense Army.
Concerning her own son, Freins, she arranged for him to marry the granddaughter of the former Emperor and officially formalized the process of adopting Freins as the Emperor’s heir, ensuring everything was in perfect order.
Thus, by securing the support of the military and the harem, Laisis, through their influence, repeatedly whispered to the Emperor that the truly deserving heir to the throne was not the Crown Prince but Freins.
On the other hand, the Crown Prince’s faction did not remain silent and watch. They rallied the women expelled from the harem, their families, and the Prime Minister, spreading rumors about Laisis’s low social status and Freins’s incompetence. It seemed that the Lamaron Empire had embarked on an ugly power struggle.
However, the power struggle came to an unexpected conclusion. The Emperor deposed the Crown Prince.
The trap that Laisis set for the Crown Prince was cunning. First, she persuaded her husband, Emperor Aeno, that the Crown Prince was suitable to succeed to the next throne. And for that, she urged that the Crown Prince should achieve significant accomplishments that would satisfy the people.
At the same time, she spread information to the Crown Prince’s faction that the Laisis faction was plotting to overthrow the Crown Prince and that they were planning to make Freins, her son, achieve significant accomplishments. Moreover, she specifically mentioned that the policy would involve “sparrow eradication.”
Sparrows were recognized as crop-damaging pests within the empire, and the Crown Prince’s faction gladly embraced this proposal and presented it to the Emperor. The Emperor accepted the proposal and appointed the Crown Prince as the person responsible for sparrow eradication.
The Crown Prince immediately took action and started eliminating sparrows throughout the country.
However, a problem soon arose. Mosquitoes, flies, locusts, and other pests proliferated throughout the nation. These pests ravaged crops, and the Lamaron Empire seemed to face an unprecedented famine.
It was Freins who saved the situation. The faction led by Laisis and her son actively refrained from participating in the sparrow eradication efforts, and the crops in their territories remained intact. Thanks to this, the Lamaron Empire managed to overcome the crisis without succumbing to it.
Laisis knew the truth. Sparrows were not harmful birds. She had heard about the role of sparrows from one of the elderly maids who had accompanied her and her young son in the small, humble room where they had spent time together.
The major failure of this policy was sufficient to undermine the Crown Prince’s trust. The Crown Prince faced public criticism and was abandoned by his father, the Emperor. He was confined to a humble residence far away from the imperial capital.
With the support of the military and the people, Laisis had no enemies left. And she ultimately resorted to assassinating her aging husband, Emperor Aeno.
She employed the method of poisoning. Using a substance called Consulm, she caused the Emperor to suffer from respiratory distress, ultimately leading to his demise.
Consulm was a slow-acting poison, but it had a bitter taste, which posed a challenge. To overcome this, she instructed the cooks to serve sweet iced desserts after meals. As the Emperor had a fondness for sweet treats, especially during the summer season, he happily consumed numerous iced desserts. Later that evening, he drank wine prepared by Laisis herself and went to sleep. The next day, he was found lifeless on his bed.
When people consume something cold, their taste buds become temporarily numbed. Laisis used this fact to carry out the poisoning. She had witnessed her father, a military man, use water magic to cool and relieve pain when he was injured. That experience provided her with the inspiration.
One year after the Emperor’s death, the long-awaited enthronement ceremony of her son, Freins, took place. Laisis became the Empress Dowager, wielding immense power in both name and reality.
Freins, who had been raised with gentle words from his early childhood, had grown into a delicate and timid man, who had developed an extreme fear of being abandoned by his mother. As a result, he unquestioningly accepted his mother’s words. Laisis loved her son and ruthlessly eliminated anything that could hinder him or that she considered wasteful.
Thanks to her efforts, there was no longer anyone who could oppose the mother and son. Finally, she obtained all the power she desired and a life surrounded by extravagant luxuries. However, even with all those possessions, the desires of the Empress Dowager knew no end.
Her current desire was for her son to surpass the reputation of the previous Emperor. She had obtained the Lamaron Empire, and now she wanted to possess its history. She aimed to make her son, Freins, the greatest and most exceptional ruler in the history of the empire. That was her current ambition.
To achieve that, she had to ensure her son achieved significant accomplishments. The ongoing food crisis in the Lamaron Empire presented the perfect opportunity to fulfill her desires. The Empress Dowager’s distorted love was beginning to run rampant…
