As Irene ambled through the endless depths of the maze outside in the Atlan's gardens, her mind became lost in deep thought about how the story would come to play out.
If things stayed as they were now, and Daniel continued to live without having met Isabella at this point — then it would be likely he'd lose the people's favour and be deemed a weak and irresponsible ruler. Many would turn to Mikael for the emperor candidate instead, but Irene was aware that wasn't a good direction either.
After all, even though Mikael was slowly starting to gain people's acceptance, he still hated the empire with every fibre of his being. Their changing attitudes wouldn't just erase all of the derision and scrutiny aimed at him ever since his birth.
(He'd definitely have trouble ruling the people who ha
