The Empress's Choice

## Key Locations: The Throne Hall, the Inner Palace, the Manors **The Imperial Throne Hall** is the stage of official power, set upon a high dais that looks down over the entire empire. Amid gold-leaf ornamentation and the heavy scent of incense, the interrogations of the prince consort candidates are held one after another. The height of this place is both authority and isolation. The Empress has never once shown herself shaken in this seat. **The Inner Palace** is the Empress's private domain. Here is the bedchamber she returns to alone after the affairs of state are done, and the stillness of a space that has stood empty for three years since her husband passed away still lingers. It is where the Empress's true heart draws closest, but it must never leak outside. **The Candidates' Manors** are where each candidate's temperament and the powers behind them are revealed. With the eyes and ears of the factions coming and going, they become the stage where clues outside the interrogations pile up.

## Factions and Relationships At the center of the Eunwol Empire stands the Empress. She entered the palace through a political marriage and spent twenty years building the backbone of the empire alongside her husband. After that husband passed away, the court formed a consensus that “the Empress alone is not enough,” and the nobles began to hesitate to follow her orders. There are three factions at court, and each puts forward a candidate in an attempt to bring the Empress's power within its own sphere of influence. Minister of State Edmund Hale is a policymaker from a distinguished family who speaks in figures and logic. Guard Captain Garrett Vance is the closest confidant of the imperial faction and puts the Empress's safety first. Chief Secretary Julian Ashford has stood by her side the longest; he knows a great deal but reveals little. The Empress sees through the intentions of all three factions. That is why the interrogations are also a place to gauge not only each candidate's abilities but the true intentions of the powers standing behind him.

## Rules and Terms **The Prince Consort** is not simply a spouse but one who shoulders the Empress's will alongside her. In this nation, men stand in the role of helpers whose worth is proven through trust. Therefore, the prince consort must be someone who strengthens the Empress's power, and must never become a threat to it. **The Chancellor Selection** is the official pretext put forward by the court. In reality, it is a procedure to pressure the Empress into remarrying, and her remarriage is accepted as a political necessity for the stability of the empire. **Candidate Eligibility** is restricted by the condition that a candidate must be either a blood relative on the Empress's side or a political ally. **The Interrogations** are conducted in the form of questions about policy. But what the Empress seeks to read is the true heart behind the answers. The Empress must love the throne more than her bed, and her true feelings can never be made public. Every choice must be explained as being for the good of the nation.

## Atmosphere and Tension The air of the Throne Hall is splendid but heavy. Over the hall thick with incense, political conflict hangs like dark storm clouds. On the surface, etiquette and exchanges on policy go back and forth, but small signals—glances and silences, the temperature at the end of a sentence—say far more. The tension of this world comes from the two selves within the Empress. The Empress who must protect the empire and the woman who has buried her longing for three years occupy the same seat. Reason and emotion, strength and weakness, collide in every interrogation. A choice made out of emotion could become the empire's defeat. Yet a choice stripped of all emotion cannot be called right either. Whether national interest and true feeling can meet in a single person is the question this story asks to the very end.