Chapter 5: 5

Her last memory was in the company.

 

They wrote that she was a rotational employee, but it was just read as an emergency temp. [1]

 

Due to the company’s desire for a multi-player that would hit more than average anywhere, Dayeon had been assigned to the promotion planning team regardless of her wishes.

 

Every day was stressful.

 

The rigid organisational culture, in which the department head had to leave first before you could prepare to do so, was stressful. She also hated that old department head who kept watching sports highlights instead of going home.  It was a suppressing culture that did not give an ounce of respect to the creativity of the organisation’s members, but on the contrary, still wanted creative proposals.

 

 

It was clear that the proposal, which did not follow the existing one, would be blocked in the implementation stage anyway.

 

It was either technically impossible, not having the financial push, or caught up in a feud with the department; one of the three was bound to be a problem.

 

Even though it was only one proposal, it took a broad perspective to understand the politics within the company.

 

It would be put up for approval at 11:30 p.m., but because that bastard team leader would reject it with a completely unreasonable excuse, Dayeon, who lived alone, sometimes didn’t even have time to run the washing machine.

 

There was a day when she woke up and didn’t have any underwear to wear, so she went to a convenience store to buy some before going to the office.

 

I’d come home at 1 a.m. but couldn’t get rid of the stress, so I hit a bottle of soju [2] alone at home. I was out of energy in the morning, so I took a taxi to work.

 

By the time my sugar dropped after hours of overtime, I would put a handful of dark chocolate in my mouth.

 

Though I sometimes wondered if it was okay to live like this when I saw my belly gradually getting puffy.

 

 

Still, it was a vicious cycle in which if I didn’t eat, I wouldn’t be able to work.

 

Does the pain that can’t hurt me really make me stronger?

It just seemed to make things harder for me.

 

The mind is clearly consumable. [3]

 

Dayeon was already in the pre-depression stage at that time.

 

What I hated the most was my tendency to be bound by other people’s standards and easily hurt, rather than the excessive workload and sickening organisational culture.

 

I’m not happy right now, but I hated the reality that how much money I made and what kind of famous company I worked for was a measure of self-evaluation.

 

But she was always mixed up in a group of such criteria of evaluation, and Dayeon could not ignore the eyes of those people.

 

So in the end, she always dreamed of fleeing to another place.

 

A dream of starting from scratch in a distant land, a country far away where no one knows me.

 

Where there’s no one to judge me, and I wouldn’t care about them either.

 

When she first opened her eyes at the temple after being found by the knights in the forest, Dayeon wondered if her earnest desire came true.

 

She had graduated from a moderately well-known university, joined a moderately well-known company for four years, and it had been her first year as an assistant marketing manager.

 

Lee Dayeon’s hard life as an assistant manager had been erased.

 

It was wonderful.

 

There was a sense of uneasiness about coming to a strange place that no one knew, but there was just as much excitement and joy.

 

It’s something I’ve always wanted and imagined.

 

But it didn’t take long to realise that it was actually a big illusion.

 

The temple and the Imperial Family were engaged in a long political battle that ended only when one person bowed his head, and the place where Dayeon fell was the center of the political dispute.

 

In the end, this was the same world. No, it was a much more intense world.

 

정치와 권모와 줄타기가 존재하는, 능력도 신분도 중요한 세계. 

A world where both ability and status were important—where politics, power, and a thin line to walk on existed.

 

What came after a bout of disappointment was severe fatigue and lethargy.

 

Dayeon, who was well-depressed, thought about it as she lay in bed looking at the ceiling with a blanket wrapped around her.

 

I don’t want to do anything.

 

Of course, she wasn’t doing anything right now, but she didn’t want to do anything more intense.

 

However…

 

“What have you been doing all day?”

 

오늘도 상쾌한 표정으로 성큼성큼 걸어 들어오는 황제 미하일 드나르 알티우스, 다연은 자신의

Today, Emperor Mikhail Dnar Altius strode in with a fresh look on his face, and Dayeon quickly hid her face with the ends of her blanket, thinking that her hateful feelings would be too obvious in her expression.

 

A fierce battle between someone who was determined to do nothing and someone who was trying to make her do anything.

 

The Emperor, who was prone to pestering and interfering here and there, looked very refreshed when things were done the way he wanted them to.

 

He seemed to have a bit of a sadistic disposition.

 

Are all bosses who have to handle the members of an organization born like that?

 

He seemed to be the happiest man on earth when he found a person’s use and made use of it in the right place.

 

Dayeon thought that even if he hadn’t been born in the hierarchy, he would have left his mark by doing something big.

 

He was a hard-working, healthy-minded person.

 

Yeah, that’s good. It’s all good, but the problem is that he keeps obsessing over me these days.

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It was as if his greatest purpose on earth was to make Dayeon live up to her role. Now, not only Dayeon, but also Marie and the palace maids were getting tired of it.

 

Dayeon cried out.

 

Please just let me breathe a little…

 

As the Emperor approached the bedside, he pulled down the blanket that was covering Dayeon’s face.

 

“What have you been doing today?”

 

When Dayeon had no intention of answering, the Emperor’s gaze was directed at Marie.

 

Marie replied, sweating profusely with an extremely embarrassed look.

 

“She coughed at 10 o’clock, cleaned up, and took a break.”

 

“You mean she didn’t do anything after all.”

 

The Emperor simply made it clear.

 

Looking at Dayeon, his expression became serious.

 

She somehow felt that she looked very pathetic, so she slowly pulled the blanket over her face again.

 

The Emperor really is a very sincere man.

 

Firstly, aren’t those pretty features working hard?

 

In that sense, from her face, she had already been born lazy, Dayeon thought calmly.

 

The Emperor, who had begun his daily routine by waking up at 5 a.m. and training for an hour from the age of seven, didn’t seem to understand Dayeon.

 

He was a man who didn’t understand the fact that the disease could subside in that fragile state of mind.

 

A person who understood the mind but couldn’t empathise with the heart.

 

Five o’clock in the morning, training, war, strategist, emperor.

 

Blankets, darkness, dust, caterpillar, unemployed, illiterate.

 

The two whose keywords were penetrating the present were exactly opposite.

 

The Emperor grabbed the quilt again and quietly pulled it down.

 

Have you eaten? You woke up late, so you probably didn’t have breakfast.”

 

“…”

 

When Dayeon didn’t answer again this time, the Emperor turned his eyes back to Marie.

 

The only one caught in the middle of this strange battle, which had been going on for days, was Marie, whose bent back was driving her crazy.

 

Marie, who had already lost faith in her hard life as a maid, thought she would become an anti of the temple soon.

 

“She still hasn’t eaten yet. The chef had made beef soup and omelette, but she said that she didn’t have any thoughts about it…”

 

After a few days of scuffle, the Emperor had learned how to draw the conclusion he wanted during times like this.

 

“… There must be something wrong with the food. Call the chef. I’ll have to ask if he is lacking in skills.”

 

“Oh, come on!”

 

Infuriated, Dayeon kicked off her blanket, jumped up, and shouted.

 

Miss Dayeon, could you please speak to Your Majesty a little more… 

 

The chamberlain, who couldn’t hear any more of it, stepped in with an awfully embarrassed and troubled look, but Mikhail himself was laughing at what he found funny.

 

Then, he ordered.

 

“Serve lunch again. Not eating well will lead to slow recovery and a weak mind. I’ll watch until you finish eating.”

 

Soon after the Emperor’s command, a simple but luxurious lunch came into the bedroom.

 

It looked appetising to the viewer.

 

But Dayeon had a dull and gloomy look on her face, as if she were looking at her own memorial service.

 

Dayeon, who alternately glared at the soup and the Emperor with a face full of resentment, finally lifted the spoon. Then, with a clink, she hit the spoon against the plate, deliberately making a loud noise.

 

Dayeon confidently stuffed a large spoonful of beef soup into her mouth.

 

It was a combative dining manner, reminiscent of an angry adolescent daughter who slammed the door on her father, leaving him in the room.

 

The grand chamberlain’s face turned pale as if to protest that he was annoyed with her rebellious and rude attitude, but the Emperor appeared to not mind much.

 

“Does it suit your taste? It’s good if you’re eating well… I’ll have to reward the cook.”

 

The Emperor, who had accomplished everything he had wanted, looked strangely full when he saw how much Dayeon ate.

 

He looked at Dayeon as if he were looking at a cat that hadn’t been out from being stuck under the desk for days.

 

It felt like the cat, which had finally come out after a week, was eating its first feed carefully, not giving away its side.

 

Satisfaction emerged in the Emperor’s gaze.

[1] In case this wasn’t clear, she’s saying that it was written that she was a rotational employee whose position would be switched based on her capabilities, but people just read it as her being an emergency temp who could be ordered around.

[2] When Koreans drink soju, they would shake the bottle vigorously until a “mini-whirlpool” is created, hit the bottle’s base with their elbow, crack the cap open, then hit the neck of the bottle with their fingers spread.

[3] She’s saying that the mind is a consumable material, and she has used hers up.

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