The tall, thin man was quite patient and said to her:
"That's obviously Her Majesty Elashia."
Huh?
"Why give her such a nickname?"
Elashia was somewhat confused.
White was the national color of the Elasia Empire, but what did that have to do with her?
"Because after Emperor Elashia took power, the security and atmosphere of the imperial capital were transformed almost instantly."
"The originally filthy imperial capital changed in just a few months into what its name originally suggested—a city of order with clean air and righteous spirit, as if light had illuminated the darkness in an instant."
"So we call Emperor Elashia the 'Radiant Emperor.'"
A woman in luxurious clothing spoke up.
"For some reason, those corrupt officials of the past almost instantly transformed into upright officials with clean hands. If you understand politics, you'd realize that the Elasia Empire has already completely changed. And the reason behind this... no one knows."
Before Elashia could speak, a man in coarse clothing also began talking.
"Wasn't there drought everywhere in the Elasia Empire before? Before the drought, Emperor Elashia directly exempted all taxes, and afterwards, Prime Minister Candice accurately distributed grain from the national treasury to disaster areas without any reduction! In this famine, almost no one died!"
The man looked very excited.
"You should know, the last time agricultural taxes were completely exempted was over a thousand years ago when Elasia was founded! And when has the central government ever provided disaster relief during famines? Even if historical documents mention a few instances, the grain was skimmed by officials at every level, and by the time it reached the people, only the husks remained!"
The people in the tavern expressed their admiration.
Elashia found it somewhat strange.
"Wait, how do you know all this?"
The man seemed somewhat agitated.
"Well! I'm a traveler who has roamed the four corners, my footsteps have covered almost the entire continent over twenty years, I've just returned from abroad, and these are all my observations from my travels!"
"You don't know how powerless I felt when I saw people starving to death right in front of me. In the face of natural disasters, humans basically have no power to resist."
"But only this time, I saw with my own eyes—humans are not helpless in the face of natural disasters!"
The excited man stood on the table and shouted: "Long live Emperor Elashia!"
"Long live Emperor Elashia!"
Excited voices rang out in the tavern.
Elashia still found it somewhat strange.
Wait, this isn't what I expected at all.
Aren't I supposed to be a "regicide" and "patricide"?
There wasn't any route like this in the game!
To take the human route, Elashia had to stage a coup and kill the emperor to take power, which directly led to Elashia's infamy spreading throughout the world. She had originally come to the tavern just to hear how these people talked about her, just for fun.
"Wait, how do you know this isn't just Elashia putting on a show for you all after just taking power?"
As soon as Elashia spoke, the previously lively tavern suddenly fell silent.
Everyone looked at Elashia.
Elashia didn't notice the change in atmosphere at all and continued:
"Everyone, you should know, she came to power through a coup. Don't you think she's dangerous? What she did to her father, she could do to you..."
"Shut up! You stupid woman!"
The previously friendly tall, thin man suddenly interrupted her with a roar.
"If the security in Radiant Emperor City hadn't become so good under Emperor Elashia's rule, I would beat you severely right now!"
A burly man shouted.
"You should be grateful that the Radiant Emperor hasn't ordered a ban on people criticizing her. In the past, just for those few slanderous words, you would have been arrested by the military police!"
The woman in luxurious clothing said.
Curses rose and fell throughout the tavern.
"A coup? She overthrew that old bastard to save us because she couldn't bear to see us suffering in deep water and scorching fire! Just tell me—without a coup, how could she stop collecting taxes? How could she distribute grain? Did you expect that old bastard to have a change of heart?"
"It's only the Radiant Emperor's benevolence that tolerates your fairy-tale nonsense!"
"Non-national!"
"Get out of Elasia!"
Well, this is unexpected.
"Hey, you all..."
How did everyone suddenly understand me?
The game wasn't like this at all!
Before Elashia could finish speaking, the shopkeeper walked out from the back, looked at Elashia, and pointed to the door.
"Get out."
Kicked out of the tavern, Elashia was still somewhat dazed.
Wait, is this how all Elasians view me?
What exactly has changed?
Why are the people of Elasia now so open-minded?
The confused girl didn't know that every single thing she had done since arriving in the Elasia Empire would trigger such a terrifying butterfly effect.
She was even more unable to personally witness that the impending tragedy of corpses everywhere in southern Elasia had already been averted by the hundred thousand tons of grain rewarded by the system.
When that intelligence reached Candice's hands, Elashia also couldn't see those calm eyes shimmering with tears.
She also couldn't see the process of magicians across the continent going from dismissive laughter to disbelief to tears of joy after hearing that the Elasia Empire had officially made all spells public.
She didn't know how grateful many magic users who had secretly learned and taught magic were to her now.
Countless young officials at the bottom of Elasia who still maintained their conscience finally saw the clean and upright environment they had dreamed of after Elashia took power, and finally received their salaries that had been in arrears for two whole years.
There were also slaves and women who had been captured by the old emperor and then released by Elashia; young people who were dissatisfied with mediocre lives but unable to learn magic; workers who would have died under the old emperor's greed; central officials who had been suppressing their originally kind hearts by the old emperor and now finally found their original intentions; conscripted soldiers who could finally return home...
Perhaps, something had already been changing in the shadows, just not visible to Elashia...