Chapter 1050: Three months later, Changes [2] |
In the blink of an eye, three months passed.
In those three months, a great deal could be said to have happened, both in the real world and in Aurora.
For ordinary people, three months was not a particularly long period of time. For Michael, it was enough time to completely reshape an empire.
After the meeting with Director Lin, Michael had immediately thrown himself into preparations for his eventual departure from Aurora.
The academy had assumed his attention was primarily focused on the one hundred and five dimensional cracks. And to some extent, that was true, given that he had also taken visible action in relation to them.
However, the cracks were far from the only thing occupying Michael's attention. The Black Serpent Empire demanded his time as well.
Now, three months later, Michael could finally say something with confidence.
He had completely taken over the Black Serpent Empire.
Not just the imperial capital or the territories surrounding it. The entire empire and all thirty-three kingdoms beneath it now stood under his control.
Even after taking over the imperial capital, the notion had seemed far-fetched. Something like that would not happen so quickly.
Historically, conquering an empire was one thing. Controlling it was something else entirely. Many powerful conquerors throughout history had managed the first while failing the second.
Yet somehow, in only three months, Michael had accomplished what should have taken years.
And the reason for that was surprisingly simple.
Jester.
As the most intelligent creature under his command, Jester had always occupied a special position. Whenever Michael encountered a difficult problem, he occasionally consulted the undead if it was nearby.
If it was not, then Spartan would be his next option, though the latter was mostly for magic-related questions thanks to that undead's unique inclinations.
Usually Jester would simply provide a precise answer. Straightforward. Efficient. Cold. It rarely involved itself beyond that.
It would provide a solution and then quietly return to whatever it had been doing before, unless told otherwise or specifically needed.
This time had been different. For the first time since becoming undead, Jester had actively requested involvement.
Michael had found the request strange, but over time he had learned to trust Jester's judgment.
Michael was a fairly self-aware person. In terms of combat ability, he could confidently say he was stronger than Jester.
But when it came to pure thinking, pure calculation, and pure strategy, Michael knew he was nowhere close.
Why this was the case, he did not fully know. The only explanation he could think of was Jester's nature. Even before becoming undead, the creature's intelligence had been terrifying.
Perhaps that was part of why the System had once described it as a Taboo. Months had passed since then, and Jester had grown even more formidable in that regard.
Exposure to humanity's accumulated knowledge had transformed Jester's already terrifying mind.
In those past months, Jester had been exposed to a vast library of information. With a simple search, it could find almost anything on the internet.
Thanks to this, Jester had somehow become even more terrifying, to the point where managing an empire no longer seemed impossible.
At the time of their first discussion on the matter, Michael had expected almost nothing. After all, what did he know about governing an empire?
In his previous life, he had not even reached his mid-twenties, and during most of that life, illness had restricted what he could do.
His current life was not much different in that regard. Though he possessed extraordinary power, that did not magically grant him centuries of political experience.
Running Thornvale had been manageable. It was small. The problems were limited. The scale was understandable.
The Black Serpent Empire was different. An empire spanning thirty-three kingdoms was not something one could manage through instinct alone. At least not successfully.
Yet Jester had somehow made it possible.
The undead had created administrative structures. Reorganized supply chains. Identified corrupt officials. Mapped influence networks.
Created methods to monitor governors. Predicted rebellions before they happened. Calculated tax reforms. Optimized military deployment.
The terrifying part was that the undead never needed rest, working day and night without pause.
It had not even asked for Michael's direct assistance, only requesting the loan of a thousand undead and two Rank 4 undead to support its operations.
The results spoke for themselves. Several kingdoms that had originally opposed imperial authority voluntarily submitted after realizing resistance no longer benefited them.
Even the imperial treasury had grown healthier. When Michael reviewed the weekly reports, he occasionally felt as though he was reading fiction. Yet every number was real and every improvement could be verified.
Three months later, the Black Serpent Empire was stronger than it had been at the time of its conquest.
Michael knew exactly who deserved most of the credit.
Though he understood this was only possible thanks to a degree of bloodshed, Michael accepted it. As he had done in the capital, he gave everyone the chance to live if they surrendered, and those who did not could expect no mercy.
Of course, so he could sleep at night, Michael had made sure Jester understood this clearly and could not twist the words to find a loophole.
However, knowing that excessive kindness could read as weakness, he also gave Jester the freedom to read the minds of anyone troublesome among those who had resisted.
If it found them to be genuinely dangerous, it had permission to make an example of them.
For an action like that, Michael felt no guilt. He might have been kind-hearted by nature, but when his interests were touched, he knew what actions to take.
Thanks to Jester effectively managing things in the Land of Origin on his behalf, Michael's accumulated Evolution Points reached a new height.
In three months, from the kingdoms alone, he was able to increase his Evolution Points by another eight million.
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