Chapter 539: Indignation... or Impatience?
Chapter 539: Indignation… or Impatience?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Emilia’s ‘shared cost’ model for medical treatment of the empire’s citizens wasn’t something that no one could imagine, but it still caused a sensation amongst the people.
“You mean that regardless of how we get a disease or injury, we’ll be treated at any hospital in the empire for free?!”
Although it definitely sounds good, some couldn’t help but be worried.
Were the doctors and hospitals supposed to be working for free? Obviously not! Even if they were forced to do so and not allowed to leave, it was naturally only a matter of time before something went wrong.
Most likely, what their princess would end up doing instead was to pay for their treatment by herself. But even if she wanted to do good things for them, wouldn’t this end up costing her too much?
Fortunately, Noelle already had people draft out a website detailing all the inner workings of the new medical system that went online right after Emilia’s speech. So those who wished to look it up were easily able to find more details.
“No, no, apparently, the government will pay for the treatment costs of any non-cosmetic procedures?”
“Right, the hospitals and clinics can keep working as they were before, and each procedure will have a fixed compensation, which can be increased to an extent by the hospital’s ‘rating’, not sure how that works.”
“Apparently, higher-quality hospitals get paid more for the same procedures?”
Of course, without seeing its effectiveness in action, it was impossible for everyone to be completely assured of the system’s robustness.
“Yikes. I mean, it makes sense, but if people aren’t paying out of their own pockets, won’t everyone just flock to the best hospitals in the empire?”
“Maybe, but that will just encourage the other hospitals to increase their quality of service if they want to be compensated more, no?”
“Ohh… I didn’t think about that. Guess it won’t be too much of an issue, considering most people who need treatment just rush to the nearest good hospital they can find anyway.”
Luckily, Emilia’s popularity among the citizens was so good that even the most skeptical only prayed for her success, while the rest celebrated having never to worry about medical emergencies again.
Chants and songs praising ‘Princess Emilia’ could often be heard around the empire’s streets as the people believed more and more deeply that their empress, too, must care about them just as much.
Because of the impact this issue had on them, most people in the empire didn’t even remember the other changes to the judicial structure that Emilia mentioned.
Of course, outside of Blue Dawn, it was impossible for those who routinely stalked and obsessed over everything Emilia to miss even the tiniest of details.
“Our princess is so kind and caring for everyone in her empire, ahh!”
“The commander is so cruel, not letting us take any shortcuts…”
Although they complained about it, they only did it as a joke since most of them understood that Penny just didn’t want them to look bad in front of Emilia.
Things may be different for the regular people, but for the ‘knights’, moving in to Blue Dawn required them to complete an extremely rigorous and tough exam that tested both their psychological qualities and obsession with Emilia.
Of course, they could always just abandon their status as a knight and do things on their own, but none of them really dared do so.
After all, knowing how vengeful and petty their commander could be and her connections with the people around their princess, perhaps meeting Emilia after that would be but a distant dream.
“Too bad it will take me a few more months to move out of my hellhole, but I’m excited just thinking about being able to finally see her in person!”
“Hey, you can always take solace in the fact that we both sleep together on the same planet, that’s what I do!”
“That’s not a bad idea!”
Unfortunately, outside of the knights, quite a few people in the rest of the world didn’t quite take so kindly to the ‘radical’ moves of Blue Dawn’s empress.
Many ridiculed her for wasting her government’s resources on idealistic fantasies, while even more criticized her for being completely out of touch with how the world worked thanks to her upbringing.
“Can the little princess of White Deer get down from her pedestal every once in a while and realize that not everyone has a black platinum card with no limits?”
“Hah… She’s the perfect example of the type of girl who feels sad at how no one lets her tell the poor and the starving about the restaurants and hotels. If only they knew, right?!”
Even with the knights continuously putting forth counter points to their statements, this time, the people who spoke out were simply impossible to argue against because many of them had an incredible level of influence.
On a normal day, every word they said would already spark a thousand responses, and they obviously wouldn’t respond to all, or any of them, really.
Trying to argue with them was the same as trying to suppress the voice of someone with a powerful megaphone by shouting, doomed to be fruitless.
“If she really knew how things needed to be managed, there would be no need for such a ‘welfare program’, right? Mark my words, she will keep exposing her real nature until everyone discovers the ugly soul beneath that beautiful layer of skin!”
“The doctors and staff get paid by the government for their work, huh? But isn’t that cost going to come from the taxpayer’s pockets in the end, anyway? It’s just taking all the credit for no reason.”
“Honestly, isn’t what she’s proposing just forcing everyone to get health insurance? Sure, she didn’t mention having to get it separately, but that just means it is compulsorily included in everyone’s taxes.”
Clearly, either someone powerful enough was pulling the strings from behind, or Emilia had really stepped on far too many toes this time.
Seeing the general trend, the knights knew that it may not be long before the normal people, and maybe even some of the less devoted, would start badmouthing their princess, and they couldn’t help but panic.
“C-Call the commander, quickly! Quickly!”
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