"So you finally decided to do your job," Leila said, frowning, as she looked at Milly. It has been two years since she saw this particular Empress.
"I did my job. It was to be Empress to my Emperor!" The blonde declared with a bright smile.
"And Imperial Department of Education?" The blonde asked the fellow blonde.
All she got was a shrug.
"There are no new colonies for me to focus on. Day-to-day stuff like this I leave to my family." Milly lazily replied.
"Right…" Leila wanted to comment more, but then she looked at the new face.
"At least you finally got a maid." She commented on the girl standing behind Milly.
"This is Kinue. Mark saved her life; Euphie wanted to terminate her."
"...Euphie?" Leila and Anna looked baffled to hear that!
"You should have seen her face when Euphie saw that this girl was alive."
"I can imagine. Why did Euphie, of all people, want her dead?" Leila asked a much more important question.
"I questioned the Emperor," Kinue explained her actions.
"Oh… that is a valid reason to crash out." Leila looked surprised for a second.
"Quite a treasonous perspective on things." Anna chipped in.
"Not in my world," Kinue commented.
"Heh, still has a bite. I do hope she knows when to stay silent and when to speak." Leila commented as she motioned towards the Citadel.
"Don't worry, I trained her well." Milly smiled at the maid, making Kinue sharply nod back. One thing is for sure: she can understand and follow orders.
"Anyway, good to see you, Milly." Anna smiled as, finally, the runaway Empress was back.
"Likewise, Anna, where are the little ones?"
"Little ones? Not anymore, they are in first grade at school. While Julia is with Kallen." The pinkette giggled at Milly.
"Oh… wow… it has been a while." The blonde realised that the kids were already attending school!
"Isn't it dangerous?" Kinue asked, "Aren't these the Emperor's children?"
" Not really in danger, this is Imperial society, and they are attending special schools for noble boys and ladies."
"They are developing their own circles for the future. Our husband insisted that they develop their circles for future expansion of humanity." Anna replied with a small smile.
"He might look busy, but our husband has time for his kids from videos he sends to them to sometimes visiting for a week or two. He is around. He is making sure he doesn't copy his father, who was the Emperor of Britannia." Leila explained with a proud look.
"...Oh…"
"Indeed. Now, Milly, we have a meeting to attend to."
"I know- I know, Jupiter doesn't wait for anyone." Milly rolled her eyes.
The pair of Empresses snorted at her remark.
"Regardless, the colonies are already under rapid construction, and population is getting assigned to them as we speak. Training is on the way around the world." The Empress of Logistics said with a proud tone.
"And the space station above the sun?" Milly recalled Marcus latest 'baby'.
"Entering the final stages of its construction. Since it was a massive undertaking, a huge number of Legion bots have been created. These construction bots have been relocated to build SWORD Type Three colonies.
"Type three? How different are they?" Milly, who was out of the loop, asked them.
"They have a secondary Fusion Reactor and GN reactor creation chambers. In a sense, they don't look that different. Extra shielding from radiation and radiation manipulators for GN reactor construction." Anna explained as they began to walk towards the Citadel's interior.
Kinue, who was behind, looked at the interior of this place.
Her eyes widened as she saw what looked like a Victorian Palace mixed with a literal castle and modern technology. This was more intense than the Research facility at the South Pole. She has seen both of them, and they lacked what this place had, but it makes sense; this was the Imperial Palace.
The ceiling was tall, with chandeliers and paintings on the walls.
'Gundams… and paintings of battles… damn they are hardcore…'
The maid didn't realise yet, but Mobile Suits, specifically Gundams in this world, are literally named after Gods and piloting one is the greatest honour one could get.
But it was just that Marcus had drawn considerable inspiration from Victorian Britain and Renaissance Italy.
So, statues, the glorification of art, war, conquest, humanity, and, of course, space in general are everywhere.
This is the core piece of most ancient forms of propaganda. One can speak about news, media and whatever they say. But the form he is using is far more impressive and ancient.
He is simply influencing culture itself; this kind of art is inspiring people, and one's surroundings are a core part of one's upbringing.
When one sees the conquest of space in one's house, it becomes part of that person's identity.
That's how Britannia survived as Britannia for so long, and that is how the Holy Byzantine Empire will as well, only as a Galactic Power and not a mere country on a small blue marble in space.
"So a customised colony for a Gas Giant. I assume this is what we will use as we go deeper into space and further away from the sun." Milly reasoned. She is quite good with space stuff now that she has been in all of the colonies to date, and the seat of power is literally a chain of colonies in Lagrange 3…
"Yes. However, we could alter it further once we go to Saturn. As you might know, we have massive plans for that particular Planet."
"Ah, yes. Mark's favourite." Milly recalled Marcus bragging for three times as long about Saturn as about any other world.
"Shipyards around the Gas Giant. Titan, for colonisation, is the most ambitious project to date; the distance from the sun makes it incredibly difficult to make it hospitable.
All in all, this place will be the biggest construction site in the history of humanity."
"We talk about that once Jupiter is part of the Empire." Leila rolled her eyes, just imagining the undertaking of that causes a migraine in the blonde.
"You are right, so how many colonies for Jupiter?" Milly returned to the matter at hand.
"Four, one for Radiation studies, one for GN Particle studies, one for Logistics and one for Food."
"The usual," Milly concluded. This was the same with Mars and Venus.
Usually, it means that most of the time, there is a colony for a single subject, like Mars or Venus terraforming, and then another for food and logistics.
By logistics, it's where most essential stuff is produced, meaning they only need raw materials, and the colonies themselves can produce the most essential goods.
But because it's Jupiter, and it has two important things, like GN particles and radiation, it will have two colonies just for research.
"Indeed. We are working towards establishing a directive on how we will expand the Empire's borders and how we will integrate new territories.
Marcus has already proposed something similar to Britannian colonial doctrine.
First, it will be a colony. As it grows, it develops infrastructure, and as it does, it becomes a Satellite World. Eventually, as it grows, it will become a Core World." Leila explained to Milly.
"When did he have time to do that?" The Education Empress was confused. She was certain that he didn't do any of that when he was here.
"We do exchange information each time the portal opens." The blonde commented to the fellow blonde.
"I am pretty sure it was only you who skipped this stuff." The Logistics Empress smirked at the fellow Empress.
"...I was taking care of my husband." Milly snorted back as they arrived at the part where the corridor splits up.
"I will be going to my room. I need to change." The blonde waved her hand as she took a turn.
"Don't forget the meeting~" Leila's amused voice reached Milly, who rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Always the smartass." The blonde swore under her breath.
At this moment, Kinue realised something strange. She finally met the other of his wives, and it was strange to someone used to one-on-one.
"How do you deal with someone who is married to your husband?"
Kinue's question made Milly slow down a bit, and made the maid catch up.
"It is quite easy, our husband is the literal Emperor of the World. The moment I married him, I became a leader; he made me get a job for life.
All of us have massive roles in the government."
"...And… what if you don't want to?"
Milly laughed for a bit as she showed the maid her wedding ring.
"This is quite heavy, and it comes with baggage."
The brown-haired maid looked at the ring. It didn't look that different; she most likely meant it metaphorically.
"Besides, he would never marry someone who can't do anything. He might not look like it, but he is looking for talented women who could assist him in running his Empire.
He is his father's son after all, even more, I do not doubt that Charles is grinning from ear to ear when he sees us on the TV." Milly giggled, imagining that. This is where Marcus did it better than his father.
"I see… so there is no chance for things to go sour…"
"Oh, the whole jealousy thing?" The blonde asked what the maid was hinting at.
Kinue slowly nodded.
"Heh, let me ask you this…" Milly got closer to her and whispered to her.
"Could you handle him yourself?"
The moment she heard that the brown-haired girl had several flashbacks that made her pale, she recalled what had happened to her in that particular living room in the South Pole base.
"...N-No… I guess I forgot about that."
"See. I was with him for two years, and let's just say that I am happy to retreat to my job." Milly did a spin as she could enjoy spending time in Jupiter!
"I see…"
"Indeed! We are going to Jupiter! Imagine that. I am going to bring my Flidais, it's going to be fun." The Empress's giddiness was evident.
Kinue had no idea what was going to be fun, but she couldn't deny that giddiness was infectious.
~~~
A bit later, more maids appeared behind Milly, and Kinue didn't even notice they were like ninjas or something.
Truth to be told, they were trained as ninjas…that's their secondary job, but at the moment they are here to assist the blonde Empress.
"They are here to help me with makeup and clothes. These are Palace Maids. As you might have heard, we are an Absolute Neo Imperialist Nation. Truth to be said, it's more of an Absolute Authoritarian Monarchy. That means that there are nobles and such. That includes my family.
When I married Marcus, my family immediately got a fiefdom, well, it was more than that, we had an entire colony as my family served him from the very beginning.
Though, while I could have retinue, I rarely have something like, well, you are my first proper follower."
"...Wait… so… I am like… in those knight stories? Who has squares and foot soldiers?" The girl's modern view needed time to catch up.
"Fufufu, I guess they are stories to you, but it's true here. Let's just say when Marcus goes somewhere officially, more than several hundred people are affected."
"No doubt, I assume entire barracks are up and running, no?"
"Barracks? You sweet summer child, he has an entire personal fleet that only responds to him, and that is made up of thousands of soldiers, marines, and knights, and, of course, his G-Force.
If not for the portal's size limitations, he would have invaded directly if he were not in the mood to play, and your Earth would have been under his control for years now."
"...I guess… that is the power of an Empire, following one's whims," Kinue mumbled under her breath. She was not surprised anymore.
"Now let's go, it's time for me to dress up! It has been ages since I did anything official." Milly winked at his maid as they finally entered her room.
Well, it was a suite rather than a room. It was an enormous complex of rooms and massive windows that overlooked the Capital.
It was like a palace with couches, chandeliers, and there was even a painting of the blonde on the wall dressed in black, gold and purple Imperial robes.
"Whoa…"
'Is that a crown!?' There was a crown on a pedestal as well!
"Close that chin, this is just my private quarters, not as fancy as Marcus's room; he installed his holograms everywhere, so it gives more of a sci-fi vibe. I think this place is decent." Milly shrugged as she walked deeper towards her bedrooms, where her clothing closet is.
"T-This is what you call decent!?"
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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