Jisoo sipped on her morning coffee as she sat on her terrace. She found herself dressing more like she used to when in the Guorun Palace, but not in the actual robes. Long floaty dresses sufficed - it was too hot for any of that silk robe nonsense and it was far too constricting and annoying to wear. For some reason she felt more royal wearing more dress-like garments, which she figured was a remnant of her past. She had suffered Jin's wrath after the Reeth debacle and he was currently giving her the cold shoulder despite wanting her advice. He had sent a messenger to collect her guidance notes but she sent the poor boy back with a crude drawing of a middle finger wrapped in a pretty envelope. The morning court meeting was, as a result, much more tense than usual, but she was prepared for that.

There was a big day ahead in terms of planning for the invasion.

She had also requested some research be done on that y-voiced advisor, Min Yoongi. She realised with talent like his, and knowledge like his, he had the potential to be invaluable to their cause but she had to know if he would be likely to side with her or if he was a pacifist. After hearing about how noble he supposedly was, she was initially doubtful that he would, in good conscience, help the effort to invade and conquer Revenet for no other reason than the Queen wanted to over the country she came from.

Namjoon was power hungry, she knew that, and he studied a lot but he didn't participate in governance.

Min Yoongi, on the other hand, had a boatload of experience.

She was sure of Namjoon's loyalty, but not of his ability. The opposite was true for that damn advisor.

Jisoo sighed, replaying his voice over and over again in her mind and smiled.

If she could have both of them on board, that would be ideal, but she knew very well that she couldn't guarantee loyalty from anyone. Not rebels in her own country, not from Namjoon, not even from her own husband. The army could be controlled easily enough, all she had to do was designate a significant amount of the national budget towards Defence. The general was more than happy when she first introduced herself and let him know how much they would be getting. It took a short while for her to figure out just what it was he wanted for the country, and as it turned out, he was none too keen on Revenet either. Jisoo proposed her plan to him, having him sign an agreement should he decide to back out and tell on her.

And so General Lee Joon-gi was tied to her.

"Is everyone here?" Jisoo asked as she sat down at the head of the table, gesturing for everyone else to join her.

"Everyone except Rose, your Highness." the second in command replied.

"Why is Rose not here?" she asked nonchalantly, flipping through the updated proposal.

"A patrolling soldier found her this morning in the lake. There was a suicide note in her shoes by the shore."

"I am very sorry to hear that, your Highness." General Lee said immediately. "I know she was a good frien-"

"Let's waste no time." Jisoo said, her lack of reaction a slight shock to the room. Noting this, the Queen continued. "She wasn't going to be useful to us anyway, this is a relief to me, and it should be to you, too. She used to be a Demon, like me, but her loyalty changed, like me. However, she wasn't loyal to me. She may not have liked living in Revenet but she wouldn't be complicit in a plan to bring the country down and that was my main concern. She knew who was in charge of what over there and if she really wanted to, could have alerted them to our plan. It's for the best."

"Yes, your Highness." echoed around the room.

"Shall we?" she said, gesturing to General Lee, who nodded and stood up.

"Traditionally we start wars over things like peace negotiations collapsing or even things like natural resources under the guise of quashing terrorism. In this case, we feel the people of the Northern Territory would be most likely to support war in the event of an aggressive move by Revenet. Since tensions were rising before you came to us, your Highness, there's an awareness that there is such an abrasive relationship between us. However, that has since calmed considerably after your arrival."

"Back then I was living amongst humans,