537: Opening Up

Opening Up

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"I'm sure everyone in Blue Dawn knows that you don't need a license from me or anyone else to be together with your lover, right?"

While everyone was still encouraged to register their marriage with the civil affairs bureau, that was more for the peace of mind and convenience of the couple than anything else.

But the people below the stage couldn't help but stare back at their empress in confusion, as if wondering where she could be going.

Wasn't she just talking about giving people outside Blue Dawn hope? How did the topic turn to their bedrooms?

Emilia sighed. "Outside of our lovely little Empire, however, things aren't so simple."

Some people in the crowd couldn't help but be shocked. 'Will the princess be bestowing marriages to people outside of Blue Dawn, then?'

Thinking about such a possibility, they didn't know whether to be jealous or sad for those foreign 'couples'. After all, while their marriage would definitely be worth remembering forever with their gorgeous princess involved, would the couple really be able to focus on each other at that time?

With the type of impact their princess had when people saw her in person for the first time, it was naturally impossible for them to be able to keep her image away from their minds during their wedding night, right?

Unless that was what the couple ended up bonding over, wouldn't such a thing be a disaster for their fresh and unstable marriage?

Fortunately, before their minds could wander any further, the electronic curtains at the back of the stage parted to reveal a giant screen, which soon lit up with a heavily segmented, color-coded map of the world.

Not wanting her thoughts to be polluted by the perverted crowd any further, Crystal hurriedly snatched the responsibility of pointing at the spots on the screen according to Emilia's will from Dixie, leaving the dark-haired girl staring at her, dumbfounded.

Of course, the blonde girl already knew that Emilia was too deep into her own thoughts to be disturbed by such minor things.

She had already put Mary down, and the girl stood obediently by her side while holding her skirt.

The crimson-haired beauty stepped back slightly, allowing the crowd to take in both the contents of the screen and her solemn yet hauntingly beautiful side profile. "The ones you see here in red are the places where the regulations are the most strict. People here… they can be directly sentenced to death for loving someone they're not supposed to."

The disdain in her voice was clear and genuine, and anyone could tell that Emilia didn't even try to hide it. And the emotions of their empress clearly affected the crowd.

The names of the most prominent countries in the 'red zone' lit up on the screen in a dark, heavy font, and some couldn't help but shudder as they recalled their own tyrannical government prior to the formation of the empire.

Many of those countries in red were quite a bit more developed than the others, and were even democratic, so why was it that the people there weren't even asking for their basic rights?

As long as they weren't hurting or violating the rights of anyone else, they should be able to do whatever they wanted if they were to be truly considered 'free'.

Otherwise, wasn't the freedom they had just an illusion, and the democracy they lived in built on a foundation of lies?

Having allowed everyone enough time to digest it all, Emilia motioned Crystal to start pointing at the next set of locations. "The ones in yellow are more lenient, and simply don't allow marriages 'outside the norm', but let them count as legal if they were to be recognized by some other country."

"At least while I am the empress of Blue Dawn, I don't want any child in my empire forced to think and behave a certain way." Turning away from the screen, the crimson-haired beauty gently patted the adorable head of the little girl beside her with a smile.  "Whether your dominant hand is left or right, whether you are outgoing or anti-social, brave or cautious, what you like, who you love… none of these things make you better or worse than the others."

Her gaze turned solemn. "No one has the right to bully or deprive others of happiness based on such mundane things. So for anyone who is struggling with such things, wherever they are in the world, I would like to tell you today that you can always come to Blue Dawn to get a fresh start, or maybe even make your dreams come true."

She paused, then smiled. "You don't have to go through our citizenship process, either, but you're always welcome to go through with it if you want."

Given how non-citizens had to pay thirty percent of their income in tax compared to the five percent of the citizens, however, the logical choice of anyone who wished to stay long term was more than clear.

Of course, since the number of people waiting for citizenship in the empire was already rising exponentially every day, Emilia expected that the waiting times for such people might soon change from a few days to weeks, or even months, but that was unfortunately unavoidable.

With their current military might, expanding their territory unnecessarily was still something Emilia wanted to avoid.

Going by their bright eyes, wide smiles, and nodding heads, most people in the crowd were obviously very supportive of their empress, though that wasn't really saying much.

After all, most of them would have agreed with Emilia regardless of what she was saying, or if her words even made sense.

Blissfully unaware of how little her well-prepared speech mattered to this type of already obsessed crowd, the crimson-haired beauty smiled. "I'm happy that we're on the same page. I thought I would have to convince everyone more, but hey, I suppose that's what makes all of you so adorable. But there's still more, so listen carefully, okay?"

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