My wife is an immortal black snake.

"...Forehead?"

Yang Hao paused for a moment, then glanced at the clock in the room—it was 7:20 p.m.

If nothing unexpected happens, Monica will probably come to ask him to come back for dinner later. Hmm, but Karina's condition...

As he observed Karina's condition, he realized that the girl, who was avoiding his gaze, was indeed revealing a yearning desire from time to time. He then realized that he seemed to be in a dilemma.

But then I thought, whether I do it one more time or not, the suffering I'll endure when I get back won't be any less—it would be better to be more decisive so that Karina can get out of the danger of being obsessed as soon as possible.

So he did as instructed.

However, as he was doing so, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of the mirror in Karina's room, and it seemed to reflect the figure of a head maid...

...

... ...

7:40pm.

When Yang Hao returned to his palace, he calmly ate dinner amidst an inexplicably terrible atmosphere.

He calmly wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, and then, in front of Sonia's mother, who was also eating in the room, and Monica, who was staring with dead fish eyes, he adopted an extremely humble posture towards Koschich, who was eating in silence. At Hela's confused voice, "What is Daddy doing?", he apologized:

"Um, Koschche... I'm so sorry..."

"Hmm?" Koschke raised an eyebrow calmly, then took an elegant sip of her drink before asking calmly, "My dear husband—what have you done wrong that you want to apologize to me for? Oh, I won't blame you, okay? Really?"

"Even if you won't blame me, I'll still apologize. Besides, Koschche, if you weren't really angry, your tail wouldn't have bristled like that..."

"...Tsk, the Felin people's bodies are really troublesome."

Her face immediately fell, and after staring at her bristling tail with extreme displeasure for a while, she looked at Sonia's retreating figure as she led Hela out of the palace. After Sonia and Hela left the palace, she snapped her fingers.

...

Monica locked the door to the room. Having already made preparations, Yang Hao raised his head with a tragic expression and, under the trembling gaze of his wife and the head maid, began to recount his "crime."

He didn't expect his explanation to lessen his punishment from his wife and respected head maid, but at the very least, he wanted a chance to explain himself—

"...But my husband, it seems you really do know me well."

As Yang Hao was explaining his situation with Karina, his lovely yet dignified wife simply smiled and lightly slid her white-socked toe across his chest as he sat on the floor. Meanwhile, the head maid, Monica, though looking disgusted, diligently helped him remove his sweat-soaked clothes and prepared to take him to wash up.

"I didn't even tell you that I [don't need Karina to inherit my body right now], did I? Heh... As expected of my husband, you understand me so well. So you should know what I care about more right now, right?"

Her toes traced small circles on Yang Hao's chest. After a moment, her soft little feet brushed against the buttons on Yang Hao's clothes, fading them—

It slid open with a "smack, smack".

"That, that..."

"Of course, I'm not referring to intimacy between my husband and me. After all, you've been working too hard lately, and I was worried you might suddenly die on the road, so it's definitely not about that. Don't worry."

"call..."

Yang Hao breathed a sigh of relief, feeling embarrassed. But then again, if it wasn't the intimacy Koschche had been enduring for days, then what could it be?

He thought for a long time, and finally answered thoughtfully:

"...Kazimir? And Ursus?"

"That's right."

Kosichrie snapped her fingers, and their faithful head maid vanished. A moment later, she reappeared, but with something else in her hand—she brought over the latest international map.

Monica lifted Yang Hao, who was sitting on the floor, and pulled him to sit on the edge of the bed. Then, the head maid took off her boots, climbed onto the bed, and, under the watchful eyes of Kosch and Yang Hao, unfolded the map neatly.

This international map, as large as half a double bed, shows the recent international situation. Half of Casimir's territory has been occupied by Colombian and Letanian reinforcements. Although Ursus is still a red expanse, a large area on the map is marked off with dotted lines.

Kosichrie said that the areas marked with dotted lines were those that had already been "cleared out" by the Sherlock Holmes nightclub. Those areas were now in a so-called "no man's land" situation—the Ursus government, still recovering from the economic crisis, didn't have the money to manage them, and the Ursus people felt those areas were unlucky due to the large number of deaths there and were unwilling to move in. The newly appointed nobles, previously granted fiefdoms by the Emperor, had a good impression of those areas, but the policies they used to attract people with various benefits were quite unsettling...

"They're deliberately creating conflict between infected people and healthy people," Kosiche concluded. "This clashes significantly with our policies. And, darling, haven't you forgotten something?"

"that..."

"Your work-for-relief program hasn't been implemented throughout the entire Ursus Empire yet, has it?" She turned to the side, placing her legs flat on Yang Hao's thighs. She watched with interest as Yang Hao, sweating profusely, gently teased his soft, fleshy genitals between his legs with her toes. She teased them for a while, feeling the astonishing heat gathering and hardening, then sighed, "Seriously, aren't you too concerned about the situation abroad? Can you arrange things at home first? All those surplus imperial rubles and the mint's reserves have been recycled and destroyed, haven't they? His Majesty's cabinet is waiting for your orders."

"Oh..."

"Monica—bring me the latest economic data."

"Yes. But Lord Koschche, should I bring the other things as well?"

"Bring it all over here. Let my dear husband, your master of the house, see just how much work he's fallen behind on lately."

"Yes."

Monica looked at Yang Hao with pity for a while, then disappeared again.

When she returned, she threw a pile of documents, about knee-high, in front of the sweating male homeowner.

"Darling, have you forgotten that you still have the job of Speaker of the Imperial Council?"

Like a venomous snake, Kosichelle had somehow begun to climb onto his shoulders and kneel behind him. She grasped Yang Hao's right hand, guiding him through document after document—some concerning the economy, some the people's livelihood, some the nobility, and others the military, as well as matters concerning Kazimir...

Koschei had already handled a lot of work—if she hadn't, Yang Hao would now be facing a mountain of tasks. But now, there were simply too many tasks that she couldn't manage and that Yang Hao had to handle personally to ensure they wouldn't affect his plans. She could no longer allow her husband to go around doing whatever he wanted outside.

Even if you're looking for that little pony, there's a limit to how much you can play with your personal toys and your outlets for venting your frustrations—and it's one thing that you've corrupted my heir, but now it's time you took care of your own work, wasn't it?

"Anyway, Kazimierz's delaying plan will last for more than a month. During this time, you won't be able to manage things there, right? Well, even if you want to have fun, there has to be a limit, right? So you can't leave our room until you've finished dealing with these remaining tasks. Honey, is that okay?"

"No, no problem... but what about Kazimierz, and Karina..."

"Your little pony will handle things in Kazimierz—after all, she'll be your Grand Duchess of Kazimierz from now on. If she can't even handle these things properly, then she shouldn't be in that position."

Kosicie used her other free hand to cup Yang Hao's chin. Then, she rested her chin on Yang Hao's left shoulder, gently biting his left earlobe, and smiled at the man who was already panting:

"As for Karina... let me tell you first, I'm not entirely sure what happened to Karina. But—if I'm not mistaken, she'll be coming to see me soon. Based on my understanding of you, that should be the case."

"Um, why—"

"Who can blame me when my husband has such a special charm for other women? Although it makes me feel very proud, darling..."

She paused, then gently breathed into his ear:

Do you want to never be able to leave your home again?

Chapter 46

.....

After September 25th.

People haven't seen Mr. Yang Hao much outside since.

For a time, apart from the core members of the Duke's Mansion and Saint-Germain Castle, everyone else even wondered if the Duke had gone on a business trip elsewhere. However, they did not expect that the reason why poor Mr. Yang Hao had been staying at home recently was not because his beloved wife had drained him of all his energy.

It's not because he's fallen behind on so much work lately.

"Aaaaaaahh ...

"Mr. Yang Hao, good luck! And don't even think about running away, not even by acting cute. Ms. Koschke said that if she lets you run once, you'll suffer the consequences when you get back."

"—Waaaaaah—!!"

That's an extraordinary amount. If calculated in terms of "working hours," Yang Hao currently has over 300 working hours to handle in political work, economic work, military and diplomatic work, as well as work with nobles.

Although with the help of the puppet stage, Mr. Yang Hao was able to compress his 300 hours of work into less than 50 hours, this did not mean that these 50 hours of work would be easy and comfortable. On the contrary, if Yang Hao could sneak a nap or slack off during the 300 hours of work, then during the 50 hours of work, he would really have to put all his energy into his work.

Moreover, aside from the fact that these were all time-sensitive tasks he had neglected to complete, he couldn't extend the timeframe to a month to finish them. He only had five days; in other words, he had to work ten hours a day for those five days to get any rest!

This is truly torturous—and for Yang Hao's previous two-hour workday, it certainly was. In the past, Koschie might have allowed Yang Hao to occasionally slack off and do things that couples love to do, but now everyone's busy, and his gentle and lovely wife doesn't give him any chance to slack off.

Under Kosich's orders, Sonia's mother took on a supervisory role. Moreover, although Sonia's mother loved her son dearly, this matriarch understood the principle of appropriately putting pressure on children to help them grow. Therefore, Yang Hao's attempt to gain an opportunity to slack off by flattering Sonia's mother was effectively thwarted.

In a situation where slacking off is forbidden, resting is forbidden, and even feigning unconsciousness will result in the elusive head maid force-feeding him energy-boosting drugs to forcibly restore his spirits, Yang Hao...

collapsed.

At this very moment, he was in his office, wailing and lamenting, while simultaneously working on his tasks. He was highly efficient and produced excellent results. Aside from his occasional outburst of "How could these idiots even get the math formulas wrong?" after each task, everyone trusted that Yang Hao's work would be completed perfectly.

On the other hand, through this period of work, Yang Hao has gained a deeper understanding of the importance of basic education and higher education.

After all, he really didn't want to see a string of erroneous and incorrect statistics in his work. He genuinely couldn't understand why someone who couldn't even memorize basic arithmetic would become the Empire's accountant—if he knew which idiot was responsible for hiring such garbage into the government, he would absolutely...

"My dear, have you forgotten that before you came here, the accountants in my territory—no, almost the entire administrative structure—were so terrible that I don't even know how to describe it now?"

"what--"

"Sigh, as expected, even the immortals, once they've tasted something better, will start to dislike the good old days. I used to think that Ursus's administrative structure was already quite remarkable for managing such a vast empire, but now, compared to the efficient administrative staff of our territory... forgive my bluntness, but it would be better if all the officials of the Ursus Empire were sent back to the drawing board. You think so too, don't you, my dear?"

Kosiché led Monica into Mr. Yang Hao's office. Ignoring her husband who was still wailing, she casually pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, then had Monica bring over the work she needed to do that day.

She was stating a harsh truth—after all, apart from the Dukedom of Kosichear, the administrative structure of the entire Ursus Empire had not undergone even the slightest reform.

Yang Hao is now used to dealing with the best work reports provided by the officials of the reformed Duchy of Kosiché administration... It's like someone who is used to eating refined white rice suddenly being asked to eat unhulled brown rice. Besides making him angry, he would definitely find it incomprehensible, right?

It's that kind of perplexing feeling—why are there still places without even a shell-shedding machine? Well, it might sound a bit arrogant, but it's the truth. Yang Hao has now become like the Duke of Koschche; he simply can't understand why the officials at Saint-Germain-des-Prés are all so incompetent.

But then again, even with such incompetent officials, the Ursus Empire still manages to possess such a vast territory... Amazing, Ursus! You're so powerful!

"So stop complaining to me about weird things. I'll work with you—by the way, I need to talk to His Majesty about recent events during lunch today. Ms. Sonia? Could you go to the customs office in the east of the city this afternoon to meet your friends? They're the other group of deep-sea hunters that this guy next door, who's practically turned into a child, sent back to rebuild your village. They're coming back this afternoon."

"Oh? Are you the rabbis and the others? Hmm, I see. I'll be there this afternoon—besides that, do I need to prepare a work report?"

"Get ready. Submit it tonight, I need to see the results."

"Well, I see."

After assigning Sonia her afternoon tasks, Kosiché glanced at the man beside him who was still staring at the ceiling with his mouth agape, yet efficiently handling his work with both hands.

Ugh!

She sighed. Although she felt sorry for her husband's situation, she couldn't help but think, "He's the one who delayed his work for so long, isn't he?"

He'll have to get used to it! Becoming an immortal in the future doesn't just mean eternal happiness and joy, it also means eternal work!

If this continues, not only will his work become difficult, but his mental state will also decline, which won't do...

so...

"By the way, darling—there's new news about Casimir."

"what?"

"Your little bat seems to be there."

"what?!"

Kosiche gave her depressed husband a strong dose of medicine to cheer him up and get him back to work!

Chapter 47

—To be honest...

This was the first time Margarita had seen the scenery of Kazimierz; to be precise, it was the first time she had ever seen the scenery of Kazimierz in person.

She gazed curiously at the Great Knight's Territory not far away—said to be the most prosperous city in Kazimierz. But now, the city seemed utterly lifeless. Large numbers of refugees had gathered at the city's foot, desperately seeking refuge, while in the distance, even more refugees were walking towards it.

“Kazimir, once the land of knights—I don’t know why it’s become like this, but, it’s alright.” Lady Northrend took a puff of her cigar, shrugged, and turned to look at the Sarkaz mercenaries behind her. “At least our Sarkaz mercenaries seem to be able to swagger into Kazimir now. Sigh, why did Kazimir have to provoke Ursus? Now they’ve lost face, had to open their borders, and are in internal chaos…”

"Huh? Teacher, you know a lot...?"

"I suppose so. After all, I went to Kazimierz back in the day—but now Kazimierz really looks like a complete mess."

"Um..."

"And Margarita—I mean, aren't those guys over there people you know? On that hilltop about 2 kilometers from here, those guys covered in black and clearly not good people."

"Huh? Ah, uh... let me see—oh, I've definitely seen this before..."

Following the direction her teacher pointed, Margarita did indeed see what appeared to be people hiding on the distant hilltop. She squinted and studied them for a while, then became certain—could it be the secret troops who had followed Yang Hao when they escaped the city?

Hmm? They're here too, so is Yang Hao here as well?

Margarita immediately started looking around excitedly. But before she could carefully search for any possible location of Yang Hao, the teacher next to her suddenly reached out and pressed down on her little head:

"Stop looking around! The man you've been longing for is in a high position, how could he possibly come to such a dangerous place?" Ms. Northum smacked her lips. "How about we go to the Grand Knight's territory to regroup first? Uh, well—we need to find that [remnant army] to meet up with, and then, if nothing unexpected happens, we'll have to fight the Colombians after we get our chemical protective gear."

"Waaah... I feel like you just brought me here to play, not to teach me..."

"You treat going to the battlefield like a game? Sigh, but you're right... When your Sanae came early, didn't she capsize a Leitanian military land-based vessel she encountered on the way? Sigh... I really didn't expect that rock crab to grow to the size of a small mountain..."