Expansion.

The first stop of our expedition is the Axuria system.

Originally, we were going to bring along only three corvettes, but I didn't expect the station to be fully built at this point, so we were able to bring all five.

All of the corvettes surrounded the one I was on, and the recon and construction ships were on my left and right.

We arrived after a minute of traveling and looking at the beautiful streaks of light that were outside my window, I can't say I minded the wait.

The first thing that caught my attention was the Red dwarf that was at the center of the system.

Orbiting it was 3 normal planets, an asteroid belt, 2 gas giants, and another asteroid belt at the edge of the system.

"Right. Everyone stick together! We detect no signs of life how about you? Over." I said.

Yes, I took charge of the first mission, why? Because I want to fly a spaceship! And the captain is always right behind me so it's fine.

"We also detect nothing, over." The other ships responded.

"Let's carefully go towards the star. make sure you have the shield fully functional people, don't want you to die this early!" I joked a little, but I only got a polite laugh.

This was understandable, these places have never even been directly seen by human eyes, we are the first humans here! And as exciting as that is, it also means that we have no idea what to expect.

As we slowly made our way toward the star, I couldn't help but wonder what my propaganda did, I gave it my best with the editing team so I hope it worked out fine.

If only Adam knew the effect it had...

After an hour of traveling peacefully, they arrived at the star, the recon ship scanned the star and made sure it was still stable, which took another five hours.

After that, the construction ship build a small starbase which began sending out signals towards our homeworld at FTL speed.

One of the Corvettes went back to inform the people that it is safe and to start sending cargo ships over.

During this, the Construction ship builds fully automated mining stations above the planets and around the asteroid belts.

And without us even noticing days passed as we secured the system.

...

It took a week for the system to be fully secured and for a crew to arrive and man the main station of the system.

Of course, Brock was fascinated by everything, and we even walked out into space! It was the "Coolest thing ever!" As our little lord himself said.

The mining stations and energy gathering stations made an immense profit in their short existence so far.

Our cargo ships came and went from the now busy system, and one Corvette stayed behind as a defensive force should the worst come to pass.

When I came back, I saw The entire city welcoming me back, people held huge flags of the Azburgian Empire, large enough to be seen from hundreds of meters in the air.

Children were riding on their father's shoulders and were waving at me, and when I waved back, the crowd went wild with excitement.

Either way, I waved to my people and signed a few autographs for a lucky few, and walked inside the spacious palace grounds.

That's when I found out the astonishing effect the video had, I saw footage from all over the planet where people were stomping, humming, and singing like one cohesive unit.

It was unbelievable, I could have never anticipated that the people would be so fiercely loyal to me, and the Empire.

Only pleasant surprises so far, and I don't mind!

The charity has already lifted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty, which is good for my image as the person who made it, and also good for my sister and uncle who run the entire operation.

During the next month, I established the "Azburgian Space Core," This organization was led by me and a team of experts I handpicked, its duty would be to produce everything related to space, including weapons and building materials.

With the help of the royal family and the Seraphs, it skyrocketed and was quickly a booming business that was already proving its usefulness.

On the outside, We continued to expand into the surrounding systems, we now, at the end of the month, have six systems under our direct control, and are expanding even further.

I also upgraded the military, it has been expanded to ten corvettes, six of which are garrisoning our systems while the rest protect the expansion team.

We have encountered no habitable planets so far, but that's only to be expected.

If they were common, we wouldn't be alone right now, would we?

For now, we were alone, but I know for a fact it's only a matter of time before we find someone else out there.

'Let's hope they are friendly...'

Also, the FTL drive has been a top secret in the military for a while now, but with trade ships and cargo ships now also having them, it's only a matter of time before they get leaked.

I'm considering selling the designs to rich nobles, as a way to make money before they find out the way to make it themselves.

But if I do that, these nobles will make their own personal armies, and that's a very big threat to me...

"Sebastian? Could you give me some advice?"

"Of course your majesty, what do you need?"

In the end, me and Sebastian decided to release the knowledge one month from now, since we're confident they won't be able to find out by then.

I will release the knowledge slowly and make sure to spice up some false rumors, I will only release the information to my uncle, who is a very influential noble and trustworthy confidant, to powerful nobles from various factions to make them fight amongst themselves, and to the Seraphs, as a sign of friendship.

Then, I will keep tight control of the materials needed to make the FTL drives, so any noble will essentially have to ask for permission first, which further solidifies my power.

I will also impose regulations on the nobles, limiting the troops they can have and the weapons their ships can employ.

The next thing I have to do is make a secret police that will track these nobles and the Seraphs, making sure they don't do anything out of line.

The secret police will be called the "Azburgian Investigation Berou" or the AIB in short.

"Thank you for your help."

"It's nothing, I'm merely doing my job as your aide."

Sebastian was secretly giddy with happiness inside, so far his majesty hasn't needed much from him, which left him depressed as a result.

But now, he finally got to shine! Adam- no, his majesty wanted help with something he knew about!

'Finally... I was getting worried I would never be able to prove myself.'

Of course, he already proved himself just by being able to manage the castle grounds as the head butler, managing seventy-thousand people wasn't easy, and he was able to do it while serving the Emperor at that.

Sebastian didn't realize it, but Adam considered him a vital asset since long ago.

'All is right again...'

...

Adam followed Sebastian's advice and the next month, he released the knowledge to the noble factions.

He carefully followed their movements and immediately caught any nobles that tried to make ships that broke the rules he made and made an example out of them.

Although he didn't kill them because he didn't want to look like a tyrant in the eyes of the nobles, he still stripped them of their noble status and announced what they have done to the common people they now lived with.

The people punished them more than he ever could.

Most of these nobles were new patriarchs that weren't present a year ago at the "Valencia execution," so they thought that they might be able to get away with it if they were careful.

It seems they weren't careful enough.

Now three months have passed since The Azburgian Empire stepped into the vast void of space, it has 20 corvettes and 8 systems under its control, and technology is improving faster and faster as research stations around the empire observe strange phenomena in the various systems.

The weapons and shields also felt this technological boom as they were improved slightly.

And at the end of this decisive month, an event happened that would forever be etched into history.

At this moment Adam was in a luxurious office looking through some documents.

A sudden message was sent to Adam through his emergency line. "Your majesty! An unknown vessel has been spotted in a border system! It looks completely different compared to ours, we believe it's an alien vessel!" His face palled as he heard this news but he reacted swiftly.

"Mobilize the fleet and prepare to fight. we don't know anything about these creatures so remain vigilant." He said with a steady tone that didn't betray how nervous he was.

"Give me a live feed of the situation." As he said that an image appeared on the computer in front of him.

It showed the Axuria system, a corvette was in front of the station where the feed was being sent from, the alien ship was near a distant asteroid field, the aliens were not moving an inch and pointed their weapons at the corvette, to which the corvette responded by pointing its own weapons at them.

The alien weapons powered down a little and so did the corvettes, the situation was slowly de-escalated by the captains of the ships, The alien vessel sent a file to the computers of the corvette and left.

And just like that, First contact has been made with another sapient species.

The event was shown only to the highest-ranked people in the empire, and all of them looked to Adam to guide them through this challenging time.

Meanwhile, Adam got off a call to the captain of the Corvette, he has been telling him what to do from the moment the aliens pointed their weapons at them.

"Haah... that was close." Adam sighed in relief that the aliens weren't immediately hostile, and they seemed to be willing to coexist.

The file the Aliens send them will be opened on the Corvette's computer, but it will first disconnect itself from all links to the outside world so any possible virus doesn't spread.

It will also disconnect its weapons and shield so if anything happens the regular station will be able to defeat it.

After an anxious hour of waiting, the Captain called back and informed Adam. "Your majesty, we don't know what the file is about... it's just a mess of weird symbols and some voice messages attached to them, maybe it's their language? but that's just my guess."

"Captain, immediately return to the capital so that experts can translate it, I grant you a month-long state-sponsored vacation for your service."

"Yes! Thank you, your majesty!" He saluted and Adam cut the connection.

"Jesus Crist what the hell that was scary..." Adam was nervous about the aliens, as he should be, who knows what they are up to?

'Whatever, let's Order the shipyard to make more corvettes and inform the Seraphs that I need more materials.'

As Adam prepared the Aliens did the exact same as him, a new cold war between the two sides has begun, who knows how it will end?