Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

54. To Topple The Thrones

Narrator's POV

"Hey, hey. Keep your head up. You're going to break your neck like that," Annie held her wasted friend up as both the women were about to fall if Annie didn't try harder, "You're too heavy for me!"

"Just leave me to die," Was all Y/N could murmur out in her drunken state, "Why are you here in the first place? I don't want to see your face."

"You've had too much to drink! And all of this is that cheap stuff! Couldn't you go to a nice bar instead of a random one on the street?" Annie ignored her friend's second and third sentences.

"I wanted the poor quality alcohol to kill me," Y/N mumbled, "Just kill me already."

"Seriously, stop acting like a child."

"Child?! I lost everything!"

"Good."

"Good?!"

"It's good because now you're safe. Your life is not at risk because you don't have enough to get targeted."

"Oh, hello. This is the Empress we're talking about! She kills for fun! She doesn't need a reason!"

"But you're not the central target anymore. I hope, at least," Annie shoved Y/N into her palace's carriage and got in right after because Annie had sent the carriage of the Leonhart Grand Duchy back to their estate in the Capital so that she could accompany her friend.

"Where to, Lady Leonhart?" Y/N's coachman opened the window between his seat and the inside of the coach and talked to her friend instead because he knew that 'the prince' was wasted.

"Back to the palace," Annie sighed as the coachman accepted her answer and shut the window so she could continue talking to Y/N, "Don't worry, you haven't lost everything. You can still become Emperor, okay? Don't stress too much."

"But my reputation-"

"Your reputation will recover."

"Some damage is irreparable, Annie," Y/N comfortably lay on the cushion with her limp right arm covering her eyes and right hand hanging near her left ear and her legs crossed.

"This one isn't."

"Yes, it is, Annie. He told me that politics and commerce shouldn't be mixed together and that an Emperor's greatest asset is his dignity which I lost today. He thinks I'm not fit to lead this Empire because I chose money over my reputation."

"That isn't true," Annie argued, "You didn't choose money over your dignity. You chose people's lives-"

"But he doesn't know that!" Y/N sobbed, "And I can't tell him because what I'm doing is illegal! If he finds out then they'll all be sent back and I will be executed along with the high ranks of my palace!"

"There are still ways to attain the throne," Annie advised, "Like a rebellion."

"Amazing idea!" Y/N removed her hand from over her eyes and tried fake enthusiasm with sarcasm dripping from her voice, "I wonder who will join a prince who let the Emperor step on his head?! If Father releases the news that he gave me an option to just give him the North for a year then I'm done for! Don't you understand?!"

"You have weapons others don't," Annie began, "You have a daughter of Leonhart on your side. You have a son of Hoover on your side. Bertholdt is a great asset especially because the Hoover Marchy did a 180 by switching to you from the Empress. You also have Marquess Smith. He wields power whether or not anyone knows about it or not. You have a strong army, big reserves of resources that can barely be obtained otherwise. You have the Ackerman's daughter as your lover, fake or not. You also have the missing parts of the Ackerman family and if you get the Ackerman Trading Company completely on your side, you won't ever need anything else. If the Ackerman Trading Company completely starts ignoring the Empress and only works with you then you can get the throne."

"Not enough...," Y/N murmured.

"Huh?" Annie didn't hear her.

"God dammit. I'm too vengeful for my own good."

"What do you want to do now?"

"You know how I still haven't signed the trade contract with this Empire to sell resources from my reserves?" Y/N questioned as Annie nodded, "I'm not going to sign it."

"What?" Annie was shocked, too shocked to hide her expressions and knowing her, that really meant something.

"Those reserves are my personal property as a person and not the property of the Empire so I bear no legal responsibility to sell those to the Empire. I was selling those for cheaper than to the Ackerman Trading Company to get into Father's good books. I was accepting a low profit for my position but now that he has broken my reputation, I see no reason to take a low profit. I will sell them all to the Ackerman Trading Company and since I am only selling it to them, they will buy it at a higher price so I don't ever sell to anyone else and they can sell it ahead as a monopoly."

"But- But what about your reputation?"

"Kenny will meet me in three months time," Y/N sat up, "I can hand over his family to him. I am courting Mikasa so that way, we can form an alliance between us. I can court Levi once I reveal my true identity to keep up the alliance. I will understand if Kenny doesn't want to form an alliance because I am falling down right now but it doesn't matter since he knows that I can drag him down with me by cancelling the trade and not handing over his family."

"Hold up," Annie held up both of her palms, "Court Levi? Are you serious?! You mean that short bastard who was raised in the Underground by no one in particular?"

"Hey. You should respect him," Y/N objected to her friend's statement before remarking, "If me or you were in his position then we would be long dead. And yes. He won't like it very much but the courting will be just for show and he can have whatever lover he wants as long as no one other than me finds out about it. And he can leave once I'm the Emperor."

"This is crazy," Annie held her head in her hands, "But how will you gain your reputation back in front of the Emperor? You will have your power back but you have to sign the trade contract with this Empire if you want to earn your reputation back because news of the shit that happened today will spread like wildfire."

"I don't have to gain it back," Y/N shook her head, "I'm done sucking up to that bitch."

"To think that you used to respect him less than a few weeks ago."

"A lot has happened in these few weeks, Annie. Back to the point, I won't prove myself to him. I don't owe anything to him so I don't have to live up to his expectations," Y/N said, her father's actions matching her own in a way, "I will topple the thrones. I will threaten him into crowning me the heir and I will threaten him with my power. I'm done being the prince who wears a crown of gold in the bright light."

Y/N was reminded of herself when she thought about her Father. She remembered how she had forced Levi to prove himself to her, understanding how helpless he felt. She thought about the indirect rebellion she was fighting for and what would happen if the person she had bothered took the same actions as her. These thoughts made her come to a decision.

"Your Highness, Your Ladyship, we're back at the palace."

A/N = What do French people call a horrible Thursday? A Tra-jeudi.

June 8, 2023

- Heliaxa