2 The Purge.
One week earlier, Lucius's POV:
Lucius sat in his own opulent room at this time, the moonlight shone down on his expensive wine glass, after a hard day of scheming with his compatriots, he deserved a break, but just as he thought that, an urgent knock rattled his expensive door.
"Come in!" he shouted a little bit too loud.
His personal servants, one male, and one female, entered with worried looks and quickly kneeled.
Lucius loved this, this power over people is exactly what he wanted his whole life, and the brat took it from him.
His mood, which was now soured more than ever, was luckily for the two servants, soothed by the alcohol in his veins.
"Raise your heads and tell me what you want." he said while sipping his wine.
The servants did as instructed, and raised their heads.
"Your Highness, we have found some concerning traces of your brother's activity recently... he appears to be investigating you and all other nobles, including royals-"
He was cut off by the sound of glass cracking, he looked with fear at his lord and stopped speaking immediately.
"What did you just say...?" Lucius looked mad beyond belief, but deep, deep inside, he was scared witless.
This fear only further fed his anger, how could he be afraid? he is the rightful leader of the Azburgian Empire! and HE was SCARED?!
Outrageous.
He took a deep breath to calm down and spoke.
"Have the others moved yet?"
"No, your highness, they are not sure whether they should run away or try one last assassination as a last resort."
"RUN? Where? where should we run? HAVE- have they gone mad?!"
"Inform them that I'm not going anywhere, the last assassination sounds like our only hope, it's only a matter of time before he kills us all."
"Understood your majesty."
So the two left.
unknown to Lucius, he should have treated his people better... if he did...
...he wouldn't have met such a brutal fate.
The personal servants have multiple roles, they help the royals with chores, inform them of what the common people need, and most importantly of all...
They teach these royals about how important common people are, and humanize them in their eyes, making the odds of a tyrant taking the throne much lower.
They are raised together specifically for this purpose, along with forming a bond, but...
what if... these servants didn't like the royal they served?
What if they were a power-hungry madman?
Then it was their duty to report to the Emperor and inform him of why the royal is unsuitable for their services.
If the Emperor approves, the royal in question will be stripped of all responsibilities and sent to a remote mansion somewhere outside the capital.
And if the Emperor is corrupt and his servants don't approve of him, then they will report to the nobles, who will call a 'great meeting', which will decide the fate of the Emperor, this happened very rarely in the history of the Azburgian Empire.
The two of them made eye contact and both knew that they were thinking the same thing.
So why not report earlier? well... they did report to the last Emperor, but...
...a week later, he was found dead, in an explosion 'Accident'.
They were worried that Lucius would make another accident happen, to them this time, but surprisingly, nothing changed.
So now they were faced with this dilemma once more.
They looked each other in the eyes and started walking down a corridor, their decision unknown for now.
Back in the present, Adam walked towards his throne, the light of the sun bathed the golden throne in its radiance through a window behind the throne.
It was currently morning, and he gathered everyone together in this one room, thousands of people of noble birth stood on the sides, kneeling as he walked to the throne.
He slowly walked to it and as he neared it, he felt that very same feeling of power in his soul, he felt like he was growing stronger in some incomprehensible way just by sitting on it.
But that doesn't matter now...
"You may raise your heads." He said in an incredibly cold tone that puzzled no one.
They all knew what is going to happen now, except a few royals and a couple hundred nobles, powerful and weak alike.
These people were clearly confused but did their best to hide it.
"Lucius Valencia, Margret Rus, Alexander Mikosh..." Adam simply said names, and at the end of the naming simply said.
"Come before me."
They all shook with fear because they all had one thing in common.
And one thing will happen to all of them now.
"WELL!?" Adam raised his voice in his fury.
"GUARDS! If they don't come down immediately, force them!"
The thousands of guards that normally served these people turned on them in the blink of an eye and showed them in front of His Majesty.
They all kneeled before the perfect white staircase and looked at Adam with trepidation in their eyes.
The nobbles around smirked and made themselves comfortable, with his Majesty's permission of course.
"Let us clear out the dirtiest piles of hot garbage first, shall we?"
"LUCIUS VALENCIA!" Adam roared, his voice bouncing across the throne room, making an echo that whispered 'Valencia' over and over again.
"YOU killed our father and mother out of greed, and THEN you dared. you DARED to attempt to kill me!"
"You treat your Servants like exposable tools, abused maids on multiple occasions, and to finish this wonderful record off, you stole 50 billion Azburks during 20 years of your miserable life! What do you have to say for yourself?!"
The throne room was dead silent, the trustworthy nobles have been informed a few hours before the trial what would happen, but they had no idea he had done this much damage.
And this one person did this much... there were 243 still left to go through...
"Nothing? As expected of vermin like you." Adam took a deep breath and continued. I, as the Emperor of the Azburgian Empire, Adam Valencia the first, strip you of all your titles and sentence you to death by public torture!"
Gasps could be heard throughout the entire room, such a savage and brutal punishment hasn't been done in hundreds of years!
No one opposed the decision, as his majesty had a good reason and it was deserved.
Finally, Lucius spoke. "You can't do that..." his voice was but a whisper of its once confident self.
"Are you going to stop me?" He went silent.
"Guards! Take this traitor to the highest security cell in the palace!"
"YES SIR!" The guards snapped to attention.
The other guilty nobles seemed to be awakened by this and started shouting the typical "You can't do this! blah! blah! blah!"
When they started to get rowdy, Adam simply pulled out a gun and shot the instigator.
...They were very obedient afterward.
So the trial continued on, for hours on end.
Every time, the punishment was the same.
Death, by public torture.
The next day, the sun rose on a large platform in the middle of the large metropolis, Adam could have done this through video but why would he?
This is a warning, it's much more potent when it's seen directly.
The area around was truly massive, hundreds of thousands of people fit in, and all looked at the nobles on the platform.
Adam walked to his brother.
"Lucius Valencia!" Large digital screens on the surrounding skyscrapers showed a picture of the former prince and all of his crimes and afterward showed victims speaking about the horrible things he has done.
The people were completely clueless about what possessed the Emperor before, but now, they understood.
Adam grabbed a whip from the torturer and whipped him, he grabbed iron rings and punched him with them, tore his hair out, and so, so much more.
The crowd screamed in joy, they saw the things he did and wanted him to suffer.
Seeing it personally made them feel a lot better than a simple announcement and live video.
After half an hour, the once proud Lucius Valencia, now simply Lucius, who had no hair, no eyelashes, no fingernails, no balls, no fingers, finally died of blood loss.
The Emperor is covered in blood, he wiped his face with a towel and turned to the people.
"My people, I apologize for not seeing the rotten scum that was my brother and his allies, I promise you this will not happen again under my rule, or after it, I will compensate the families of the affected with 500,000 Azburks, in addition, I will give them multiple benefits such as tax exemption ."
"I am truly sorry for what my own blood and family have done, and I shall make up for it tenfold!"
He put his hand on his chest on puffed it out. "I swear on the Azburgian Empire and The Valencia Family!"
The crown erupted in cheers "LONG LIVE HIS MAJESTY!" said someone and everyone around him followed suit.
Eventually, billions were chanting this one sentence.
Adam raised his hand and everyone went silent.
"Bring the next filth out!"
And so, Adam and his team of expert torturers tortured them until they all confessed, and even snitched on other nobles that Adam had no clues about.
They died all the same, but it was a bit faster, the nobles that got snitched on were later questioned and executed as well.
he even made the worst ones beg for forgiveness, if the people they raped, the family of the ones who no longer exist in this world and the general public forgave them, he would let them go.
No one survived.
The execution lasted 15 hours, during which Adam made sure he played his part.
and at the end of it, he spoke to all of the loyal nobles, highlighted their good deeds, and rewarded them with 100,000 Azburks.
Such an amount is pocket money for such powerful people, but what was important was the meaning behind it.
"If you follow me, you will get rewards, if you betray me... You will all die."
That was the message, and these people understood it all too well.
"Thank you, your majesty!" they all kneeled.
after this Sebastian walked to Adam in a hurry and informed him.
"Your majesty! there were 100 assassins stationed around on top of the surrounding skyscrapers. Just as you predicted!"
"I didn't predict anything, thank those two."
"Ah... Luciuses personal servants... if I remember correctly the left right?"
"Yes... they said they are done with politics, not that I blame them."
"What will we do now?"
"Now? Haha, now we centralize our power and look to the stars my friend!"
