Saiunkoku Monogatari

Shuurei Kou was born into a noble family with an empty treasury and an inconvenient ambition: she wants to serve her country as a government official, a career women are not permitted to pursue. She supports her household through odd jobs until the imperial court offers her an unusually well-paid assignment. For six months, she must enter the palace as consort to the young emperor Ryuuki Shi and persuade him to start governing seriously.

Shuurei discovers that Ryuuki's reputation hides more than simple laziness, and her practical intelligence begins changing both the emperor and the people around him. Palace factions, family histories, and political expectations soon turn a temporary job into a path toward the public life she always wanted. To walk it, Shuurei must challenge rules older and stronger than one careless ruler.