Anshi

Anshi (安氏アンシ?) is the current Empress Dowager and the mother of both the current Emperor and the Imperial Brother. She is a minor character in The Apothecary Diaries. She appears to be quite young, only being eleven years older than her son the Emperor. Anshi is deceptively smart and calculating. As the empress dowager she is shown to be graceful and regal, but stays out of the political dealings unlike her predecessor. Despite her intelligence she seems to be aware that her role is of a pawn meant to be used by others and tends to go along with this expectation even it means she must do something she doesn't agree with it. As a young girl she was sent by her family in order seduce the emperor and conceive his son under the guise as being an attendant to her older sister who was sent as a concubine in amore official capacity. Anshi had been chosen due to starting her menstruation early meaning she was capable of bearing children but still looked like a young girl. The Emperor's preference for young girls was well known and Anshi was aware of why her family had sent her and what she was expected to do though it was hardly what she wanted. Anshi reached out to the emperor during a moment where he was distressed with the intention of drawing his focus in order to bear his children and elevate her families status. In the light novel she is less aware of why she was sent did not mean to grab his attention when she reached out, while in the manga she does it intentionally. Her relationship with her husband was complex; she hated him and the horrors he put her through as a young girl, but also felt pity for the man that was so scared he could only feel safe around children. While she by no means loved him she was angry at the thought of him replacing her with a younger model after she became an adult seemingly invalidating all she had been through. She seemed to be prideful and bitter when it came to her husband the Former Emperor; she did not want to be forgotten by him, to the point where she took matters into her own hands and sexually assaulted him.