Chapter 5: Lady Seilin Cannot Bear the Insult!

The north wind howled.

The petite Sephine walked down the street alone, her feet treading upon the green brick sidewalk.

This was far more comfortable than those old gravel roads.

Noble ladies in the city usually wore thin high heels when they went out, but Sephine wasn’t used to them.

She had simply asked Daenifen to find her a pair of small leather shoes instead.

Though they were still unfamiliar, they were much better than high heels.

Sephine had a poor sense of direction.

This was especially true considering she had only ever seen the design blueprints for the Royal Capital and had never actually walked through the newly built city.

After all, she had so much paperwork that it piled up higher than she was.

The Demon King was a total dummy; without her, this kingdom would have fallen apart long ago.

She spent every day in her office, doing nothing but approving one document after another.

It was nice to have some time to come out for a walk.

‘Should be this place, right?’

A massive crowd had gathered ahead, forming a human wall, but Sephine could just barely make out the sign at the entrance.

‘The Magical Kingdom First Royal Academy should be right here. Next time, I’ll make them write the full name on the documents.’

In an office somewhere, the ministers writing various materials and files suddenly felt a chill run down their spines.

“Achoo! Who’s cursing me?”

Astrid sneezed before continuing to review the various complaints from the commoners regarding the Magic Academy.

His job was to organize them all into a report to submit to the Demon King.

“I’ll just use the abbreviation…”

Sephine tapped the shoulder of a male student in front of her who was standing on his tiptoes.

The male student turned around but didn’t see anyone.

Just as he thought some rude person was playing a prank, he felt someone bumping against his thigh.

“Excuse me, down here.”

“Oh, sorry, miss. I couldn’t see you just now.”

“Haha, it’s fine.”

‘I’m too short.’

“Miss, is there something you need?”

“Are you all lining up for the exam?”

“This? We’re lining up to drop out.”

“Huh?”

“The questions the academy set are way too hard. Barely any students can pass. We figured instead of going to the exam hall and embarrassing ourselves, we might as well just go home and farm the land.”

“I see… Goodbye then.”

“Goodbye!”

‘At least they’re energetic.’

But looking at it now, there was a big problem.

Sephine had written the questions herself, but she didn’t think the difficulty was that high—not high enough to drive people back to their hometowns to farm.

Sephine decided to go try it herself.

“Excuse me, sir, is the entrance exam over here?”

Entry into the Magic Academy didn’t require prior registration.

As long as you passed the exam, you were admitted immediately.

The teacher standing at the gate, who looked like a guide, glanced at Sephine.

She was tiny, with messy hair and a coarse scarf wrapped around her neck—a scarf that clearly had some knitting mistakes.

She didn’t look like the child of a high noble.

He figured she was just some commoner from the countryside who had heard the Royal Academy was open to commoners and came to join the commotion.

“Where are you from? Is there a record of you?”

His tone was unfriendly, as if he were looking for trouble.

“Didn’t the notice say there’s no need for prior registration?”

“Who said that? Did you say that? Where did you even come from?”

“Sir, you can’t be so unreasonable. I saw it written on the flyers that registration isn’t required.”

There were stacks of flyers nearby.

Sephine grabbed one from the table and pointed to the section clearly marked “No prior registration required” for the man to see.

“You actually believe this stuff? We’re just teasing you. Use your own eyes and look. What does it say there? ‘Magical Kingdom First Royal Academy’! Are you royalty? However, if you want to go in… it’s not impossible.”

“5 silver coins!”

It was highway robbery!

One had to realize that 2 silver coins could support a family of three in the outer ring of the Royal Capital for three months.

To charge 5 silver coins just for the eligibility to take an exam was incredibly corrupt.

Not to mention, this eligibility was supposed to be free.

“Little miss, don’t waste your money!”

Just as Sephine was about to pay the money to go in and investigate, a sharp female voice interrupted her.

“Tsk, it’s that pauper again.”

“Why don’t you just beat it? If you can’t afford the fee, why are you trying to go to school?”

The man guarding the gate was clearly enraged.

But the girl who spoke up didn’t back down at all; instead, she intensified her counterattack.

“You beasts! You clearly promised we could take the exam without paying a single cent, but then you put people here to guard the gate and won’t let us in unless we pay!”

“Pauper, even if you passed, you wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition!”

“The kingdom provides a Scholarship for excellent students,” Sephine interjected.

“Yo, little sister, you sure know a lot. Do you know where this money goes? It’s all collected to show respect to the Grand Chancellor of the Kingdom Cabinet Council!”

“Pfft…”

“Who did you say it’s for?”

“The Grand Chancellor!” the man repeated righteously, as if he were saying something to be proud of.

“Hiss… my chest hurts.”

Sephine was so angry that her chest actually hurt.

she had to squat down to catch her breath.

“Little miss, are you alright?”

Seeing Sephine’s pained expression, the girl quickly knelt down to check on her.

“Hey, don’t you try to fake an injury here! If you can’t afford it, just—”

*Boom!*

Something crashed down, kicking up a thick cloud of dust in the surrounding area.

Astina flapped her wings, blowing away the dust that filled the air.

“That’s… that’s! That’s the Magic Dragon!”

The Magic Dragon, which usually perched above the Imperial Palace, would only leave if driven by the Demon King.

Astina transformed into her human form and hurried forward to help Sephine up.

“Empress, let us return to the Imperial Palace quickly and have the Imperial Physician examine you.”

“Cough, it’s fine. Just an old problem acting up.”

The man was stunned.

It was too late for regrets now.

He could only kneel on the ground and kowtow repeatedly.

As he hit his head against the floor, he wailed, “The Grand Chancellor made us do it! The Grand Chancellor made us do it!”

The girl from before was also stunned.

This tiny, soft, fragrant girl was actually the wife of the Demon King!

In the blink of an eye, they had been surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

To avoid a stampede, Seilin had to order the crowd to disperse and tell everyone to go back to their business.

However, a good number of people stayed behind.

The line of people waiting to drop out grew even longer, but it didn’t move forward.

Everyone was waiting to see this arrogant man get what was coming to him.

“Stop kowtowing! You say the Grand Chancellor gave the order?”

“Yes!”

“The Grand Chancellor told you to collect money?”

“That’s right! The Grand Chancellor handled everything personally. First, the news was released to trick people into signing up, and then we would extort a fee from them. The examiners inside are also our people. If they don’t pay, we don’t let them take the exam normally…”

“I see.”

“Do you want to guess who I am?”

“You are the Demon King’s Empress… the Mother of the Nation!”

“I’m the goddamn Grand Chancellor! To hell with you!”

The petite and cute Empress actually swore.

—