The Empire of Reimia (3)

Deciding that she had enough free time to look around, Linnea headed to the academic park.

Today the park was practically empty. This was because both students and teachers were very busy on the first day of classes. Thanks to this, Linnea had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the luxurious park alone, as if all these neat trees, the river with its mesmerizing and enchanting beauty, the comfortable-looking benches, and the tiled paths — all of it had been reserved specifically for her. Lost in her own thoughts and forgetting that she might not be alone here, Linnea discovers Yuki and Eugian nearby with shocking surprise. Acting on some inexplicable intuition, she hides in the bushes and feels as if she is paralyzed.
The brothers were sitting on one of the benches with their backs to her, talking about something.
— It was a good speech, Eugian. Do not belittle yourself for no reason. — Feeling that his words had not received the desired response, the older brother continued. — Yes, you are very tired, and it is simply impossible not to notice. But you spoke from the heart and did not give your subordinates a single instruction that you should be ashamed of. On the contrary, you pushed them toward what people should be — free, purposeful, and decent.
— Fine, the speech is one thing, — Eugian massaged his temples, — that's not the point. I just feel as if my time and life are slipping through my fingers like sand. One day follows another, and I have already lost count of when the last one differed from the previous. No matter how diligently and hard I work, I don't feel that I am approaching the completion of even a small fragment of what was planned. I solve one problem, and two new ones arise in its place.
— ... — Yuki, despite his high intelligence and great life experience, did not know how to answer this. — How have you been sleeping lately?
— Three, sometimes four hours. And still, I can't get everything done.
— Have you thought about using the help of advisors, looking for more competent people, expanding the staff?
— The advisors offer me effective ways to solve many issues, but I simply cannot accept them because I realize that someone will inevitably suffer from them. For the state, such losses would be nothing more than an insignificant and unnoticed grain of sand, but for some family, company, or simple laborer, it would be a great blow. If everything could be solved with money, there would be no such problems, but the empire's treasury is not bottomless, especially since the lion's share of this money is collected through taxes taken from honest working citizens. Therefore... Therefore, I have to find the most complex ways to solve these problems, so that it is both effective and fair. — Burdened by thought, the Emperor gripped his head again. — I don't even compare to my father. He always looked as if he could solve any problem, achieve success, and still maintain the purity of his soul.
— Ah, Eugian... Father was a genius. Although I do not share many of his views, I cannot deny this. What he managed to pull off during the era of the "Shards" and what he managed to do with the country during his reign — that cannot be repeated. But a man like him was formed by chaos and tempered by the flames of war. Now we live in peace, and the empire needs a leader like you. I know the history of our country well enough to say with confidence: you are the best thing that has happened to it in long centuries. Believe me, you are the ruler this country needs and what its citizens deserve.
— Ha... How can I be a good ruler if I cannot even make the one person I love happy?
— Eugian... — The older brother once again found nothing to say. He hugged the emperor tightly, pressed him close, and gently stroked his head until he fell asleep. The accumulated fatigue had apparently taken its toll. They sat like that for about an hour and a half, then Eugian woke up and they left the place. Linnea was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.