"Let us correct the Empire together."
"...."
The Emperor's eyes held not a shred of doubt that I would accept.
It was inevitable.
At the banquet, I had openly criticized the Church, knowing the Emperor's disposition.
Given the circumstances, it was difficult to outright reject the Emperor's proposal.
Doing so could easily lead to accusations of mocking His Majesty—and losing my head as a result.
'What do I do now?'
If I stayed silent, I'd find myself at the forefront of the power struggle between the imperial family and the Church, and my mind froze at the thought.
The Emperor looked at my speechless face with satisfaction.
"There is no need to be so moved, my subject..."
Suddenly, the Emperor's words trailed off.
Both his gaze and mine shifted.
Click, clack—
The sound of heels echoed crisply in the deathly silent banquet hall.
The footsteps drew nearer, and soon, under the moonlight, the Second Princess appeared.
Her crimson eyes glanced briefly at me before settling on the Emperor.
"You've been drinking for too long, Your Majesty."
"Hmm, I was still talking…"
"If it goes any later, Empress Marianne will be worried."
At the mention of the empress, the Emperor flinched, as if the cold wind had snapped him back to reality.
"What are you doing? Stand up."
"It was an honor to speak with you, Your Majesty."
I quickly rose from my seat and followed the Second Princess out of the banquet hall.
*
The reason why I was dizzy while walking down the hallway with the Second Princess, perhaps due to drinking too much with the Emperor, was quite evident.
The Second Princess, dressed in a white dress shirt, led me to the room where I would stay.
"You can sleep here tonight."
"Thank you."
The room was spacious, an accommodation befitting for an imperial guest, and there was a terrace beyond the large glass doors.
However, the Second Princess who showed me the accommodation didn't intend to leave but opened the door to the terrace wide open.
"…Your Highness?"
Upon calling out in confusion, the Second Princess sat at the table, and placed a bottle of red wine on it.
"Let's chat for a bit before you go."
"Um, that is…"
I trailed off, feeling embarrassed.
Having just come from drinking with the Emperor, I honestly just wanted to rest.
"Are you saying you can't drink with me after having a drink with His Majesty?"
"I probably won't be able to drink for long even if I do."
"Just a little bit will do."
I forced a smile at the Second Princess's mischief, but it was hard to simply tell her to go away when she had come prepared like this.
"Well then, I will just drink a little."
In the end, I took two wine glasses from the cabinet and sat across from the Second Princess at the table.
The cool breeze coming in from the open terrace helped clear my head.
"Here you go."
"Thank you."
I accepted the wine poured by the Second Princess and tilted the glass.
"Hm, it's better than I expected."
The wine prepared by the Second Princess was a sweet red wine that was not bitter.
It was so pleasant that it didn't feel burdensome to drink.
"You had quite the conversation with His Majesty."
"He encouraged me to become a court wizard."
"That must have been dreadful."
The Second Princess chuckled, knowing my aversion to work.
"I genuinely thought I was going to die."
Once the words started flowing, I spilled everything about the conversation I had with the Emperor.
The drinking session with the Emperor was a continuous exchange of one urging and the other declining.
That drinking session continued until nightfall and eventually led to discussions about the church.
"Haha, so that's why you were stuck drinking like that."
The Second Princess burst into laughter while listening to my story.
Her red eyes rounded with glee. I found myself absentmindedly staring at her bright smile.
"..."
After observing my expression for a moment, the Second Princess quietly asked,
"What were you thinking?"
"..."
"I'm curious. Please tell me."
"I thought your smiling face was… beautiful."
"Hmm."
In an instant, the Second Princess's face came very close to mine.
"Is that what you meant?"
Her red eyes sparkled enticingly.
Thump.
My heart raced vigorously.
The princess's face was so close that our breaths could touch.
Startled by the sudden closeness, I instinctively leaned back.
My drunken body couldn't maintain its balance and wobbled, causing the chair to topple over.
As my retreating legs felt something soft, I realized it was the bed, and I had already been pushed onto it by the Second Princess.
Her red eyes looked down at me as she pinned my hands to the bed.
I found myself in an incredibly awkward situation.
I didn't know where to look.
"This isn't right."
"What's wrong?"
There was a mischievous tone in her voice.
"You said you loved me."
The Second Princess's face drew nearer.
"Was that a lie?"
Her upright red eyes looked down at me, demanding an answer.
Caught by the intensity of her gaze, I couldn't say anything, and our lips met.
Her tongue slipped between my lips, swirling around as if to engulf my own tongue, which was also clouded by alcohol.
I momentarily resisted, but then I crumbled.
For a while, the sticky kiss continued.
When the Second Princess finally sat up after the kiss, my mind was completely melted away.
Her red eyes looked down at me with a mischievous glint.
Staring blankly at that dizzying, playful smile, I eventually couldn't hold back, rose up, and pounced on the Second Princess.
In the haze of drunkenness.
Without knowing what was happening.
The soft moonlight seeping through the window illuminated the two people embracing each other.
*
I woke up to the piercing bright light. The morning sun was coming in through the window.
I squinted and tried to turn my head, but froze.
"..."
Under the sunlight, the Second Princess lay asleep, her pure white body exposed.
As I stared blankly at that scene, the Second Princess's eyes slowly opened.
As if just awakening from sleep, her languid red eyes were fixed on me.
"Are you awake?"
"..."
Watching her lips curl up into a smile, memories of the previous day floated back to me.
'Insanity.'
I had messed up.
*
I returned from the imperial palace around noon, about three hours later.
Back at the White Tower, I lay on my bed for a while, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Haah..."
I messed up.
My dream of leisurely enjoying life, making my favorite processed foods, was effectively over the moment I got entangled with the imperial family.
Getting involved with the imperial family was practically the same as being bound to the Empire.
Retirement? That was nothing but a fantasy...
The best plan seemed to be getting as far away from the capital as possible, out of the Emperor's sight.
'Maybe I should convince Ranya to move the entire Magic Tower elsewhere...'
If the White Tower was far away, I could use it as an excuse to avoid trips to the capital and stay under the radar.
Since all the processed food factories were far from the capital anyway, I could always say I needed to focus on development.
As I mulled over ways to distance myself from the capital, I began to shiver.
'It's cold.'
Was the sky reflecting my mood?
This winter was particularly harsh.
The days when I could lounge comfortably in the warm Carcel Kingdom felt like a dream.
'I want to go to the hot springs again. It was really nice.'
Even if I could go again, it seemed impossible to stay as long as I did before.
As if being designated as a key figure wasn't enough, getting involved with the imperial family would make my schedule even tighter.
"..."
Who would've thought that was my last vacation?
No wonder I had a bad feeling when they came with a gryphon to fetch me.
In hindsight, it wasn't an escort—it was an abduction.
Not by the Emperor, but by Christina, orchestrating the kidnapping.
Ordering someone overseas to attend an imperial banquet on short notice was suspicious, to say the least.
But realizing it now was too late.
The carriage had already departed, regardless of my will.
"Why do you look so down?"
"Just... some stuff happened."
"Did His Majesty ask you to become the court wizard?"
"Something even worse."
I turned my gaze from the ceiling to the side.
Aria was looking down at me.
Finding it hard to meet her eyes, I looked away and got up from the bed.
"What's up?"
"Senior, cola isn't selling."
"It's winter. Of course, sales will drop."
Even with the "Always Cola" ad featuring polar bears, it was only natural that cold drinks wouldn't sell well in winter.
But what Aria said next made the situation seem more serious than I thought.
"Sales have dropped by 30% this week."
"...That much?"
This was a much steeper decline than expected.
"Did a competitor show up?"
"Not really. It's because of Ssanghwatang."
"Ssanghwatang?"
"Yes, now that there's a hot beverage, everyone only wants Ssanghwatang."
Ssanghwatang, a traditional medicinal tea, was still difficult to produce as such the supply wasn't high.
Every batch sold out as soon as it was made, with demand far exceeding supply.
Even so, people would rather look for the unavailable Ssanghwatang than drink the readily available cola.
While this wasn't necessarily bad for us, it was definitely a problem for cola sales to plummet this much.
"Hmm, should we shoot another polar bear commercial?"
"You know how busy the Polar Bears are."
"True."
Back then, it was easy to recruit polar bears because they didn't have jobs, but now they were all employed.
They managed everything from running cave cafés to rapid-freezing frozen foods in factories.
More than anything, I couldn't think of an idea that could beat the ad where the entire polar bear clan migrated south in search of cola.
It seemed time to come up with a new approach.
'Cola in winter, huh...'
A particular figure suddenly came to mind.
"Santa Claus."
"Santa Claus?"
"Yeah."
Dressed in a red hat and red clothes, the saint who handed out gifts to children—Santa Claus.
Along with the polar bears, Santa Claus was the grandfather who boosted Coca-Cola's winter sales.
He was the second mascot I had thought of.
***
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