I Posed as a Man, the Empress Is Obsessed!

The empress held the throne as a figurehead. For ten years she gave out that she was in love with the Prince Regent, and it was an act. At some point in that period the regent was replaced. A fox spirit, female, came down from the mountain with a life debt to settle, took on the regent's appearance and his place at court, and carried on the business of government under his name. Her plan was to return to the mountains once the debt was cleared. The empress noted a change in the regent's temperament and began to test him. On the surface this took the form of moves to recover her authority, while underneath she was laying groundwork of her own. The fox spirit, at risk of exposure, gave way each time and kept out of reach. The two carried on in this manner, each keeping something from the other. Over the same period the empress's pretended attachment to the person acting as regent became a real one.