Time passing.

A year passed by, and Humanity celebrated its crushing victory against its former rivals, The Republic was driven to complete extinction, and the Regime was forced to run for its life.

Although all of them knew in the back of their minds that other aliens are out there, they were filled with a newfound confidence in the Empire and its unwavering might after successfully obliterating two sentient species at once.

The aforementioned Empire is never resting and constantly expanding, filled with the Imperial desire to expand, its new border after a year of uninterrupted expansion now stretches to eighty systems, and its fleet grew along with its newfound size.

Due to the constant threat of extraterrestrial invasion of their territories, the former Royal Fleet, now renamed to the Imperial Navy, swelled to sixty corvettes and fifty destroyers, a fleet worthy of the 'Imperial' title.

As the Earth continued orbiting the sun and time passed, the current Emperor of the recently renamed Azburgian Interstellar Empire, Adam Valencia, kept making speeches to his people, ensuring they have a never-ending motivation to push forwards into the future with no hesitation.

The people of the Azburgian Interstellar Empire also calmed down in this time period, as they no longer have an immediate threat hanging above their heads.

Mobilization officially ended the second the war ended, however, many men chose to stay and serve the Empire out of their sense of duty, the Emperor appreciated such men, and used them as more propaganda material, citing 'They can serve. Why can't you?' on many recordings and posters hung around the city.

Every man is required to join the army for a year-long training period after they turn eighteen, ensuring they can protect themselves and their loved ones in a plethora of situations.

This means that the Empire essentially never runs out of manpower, and Earth is a fortress in and of itself.

Along with these volunteers and propaganda, the Imperial Army swelled in size.

Thankfully, machines have mostly taken over any dangerous work like mining under the earth, which means these men suddenly joining won't cause a total collapse of the Economy.

Some of the Extreme ideologies that dominated during the war were preserved even after it ended, such as the Xeno obliteration movement, which demanded all sentient Xeno life be either killed or subjugated, this group was fairly popular since the people understood their thought process.

On the other hand, there is the Xeno chance movement, this movement advocated giving extraterrestrial life a chance, even if it meant risking their own necks.

And by their own necks, they meant everyone's necks.

The Emperor simply stated that they will do both, Explaining to both groups that just one approach is foolish, they must remain ready for war, but never intentionally provoke an unpredictable enemy.

they will not kill unprovoked, and will even seek friendship with the Aliens, but if provoked or given a good enough reason, they will gladly drive their enemies into extinction or subjugate them.

such extreme individuals are not very agreeable though, and many of them completely refused to acknowledge the other party's thought process.

These people were taken in for a voluntary 'detailed education' and most of the ones who refused just simply disappeared without a trace.

not all of them, if all of them disappeared it would look strange to any onlooker.

So this situation was later attributed to the whims of a mysterious kidnapper.

What a villain that kidnapper is.

As the Empire's research vessels continued exploring the Orion Arm of the milky way, they were met with a disturbing but omnipresent silence from all sides.

No matter how much effort they put in, no signs of life were discovered, not even any ruins or remains of battles.

This led the Emperor to grant these explorers a significant boost in funding in search of an answer to this large-scale anomaly.

Adam remembers the idea of the 'Great filter' all too well, what if there is some insane civilization that destroyed all life in this part of the milky way? or some unexplainable phenomenon? What if they disappear next?

The odds of this being this great filter are incredibly low -as humanity has gone through plenty of challenges any of which could be the great filter- but so are the odds of finding literally nothing in hundreds of systems.

So Adam shifted the Empire's focus from war to research and exploration.

Even after all this effort by the Emperor as well as the most capable scientists and explorers, the universe cared little about their plight and gave them nothing, just more dark, empty space.

Such a statistical improbability challenged their understanding of the universe so far.

They thought that life is impossibly rare, but that changed when they found two other species capable of Faster-Than-light travel.

But now they can't find anything? shouldn't another large -or even small- Interstellar nation produce a lot of noise?

Perhaps life is rarer than they thought when they found the Republic and Regime and they killed all alien life in the area just like that? But the odds of that are so ridiculously low...

The odds of three interstellar civilizations appearing in the same area and no others appearing in hundreds of systems is so statistically unlikely, given their data, that it might as well be considered impossible.

The universe doesn't care what the feeble minds of humans think and continued giving them no proof that their theories were either accurate or inaccurate.

Adam did not waste this free time and made sure to centralize the power of the crown even more, such as making more charitable organizations that took in people who needed help.

These places provided them with an education that was totally not biased, vaccinations against the few remaining diseases that infected humans, and a nice place in large cities they could call home.

The people were reminiscent of the Emperor's past kindness and supported the new charity wholeheartedly.

Adam used the freed-up swathes of cash from the conflict to boost his own companies to greater heights, and along with the inherent trust that the Emperor created these companies, the people used these companies more and more, which gave more and more control over the market to Adam.

Adam however did not completely dominate the market, since he wanted normal people to have a chance as well, and he lifted taxes over new businesses for a short while after their founding.

Some people did not like these sudden movements and expressions of power by the Emperor.

Such as pesky, arrogant nobles, of which there are very few thanks to the Empire's diligence in removing corrupted individuals from power, but unfortunately, cancer can grow in anyone anywhere, with no warning.

Such cancer can slowly pile up, similar to within the Regime, and overwhelm the nation it inhabits, driving it into decadence and a complete collapse soon after.

At that point, no matter how wise the leader is, if his servants simply don't follow his orders unless they benefit them, the nation is doomed.

Adam will never let that happen to his Empire.

So he made a 'voluntary' law that essentially forced every noble to be tested by the AIB before getting into power.

The nobles disliked this, but what could they do? The people loved Adam, the Seraphs covered his back, and the people that surrounded him were absolutely loyal to him.

The few nobles who had the guts to try something were all swiftly executed.

Of course, Adam is no fool, he knew all too well that making the nobles too upset is never a good idea, therefore, he gave each noble who passed the newly founded loyalty test more privileges.

They would be granted a new title, the 'Holy' title.

Such a title exemplifies their loyalty to the Empire and their dedication to serving their Emperor.

Their requests will also be prioritized over the ordinary nobles.

And Adam will announce the noble families that agreed to go through the test, increasing their favor with the common populace.

Also, if any noble refuses to take the test, isn't that the same as admitting they don't like the Emperor and are plotting something?

Such a thing will be incredibly bad for their reputation amongst the people and their fellow nobles.

But the worst thing of all, the Emperor's eye will be on them.

It wouldn't be surprising if they went missing or were framed after refusing this 'Optional' test.

and as expected, any noble who dared to oppose the Emperor swiftly found themselves implicated in heinous crimes—kidnapping, pedophilia, rape, or even human trafficking.

The revelations shattered the remaining trust the people held in the nobility, further cementing Emperor Adam Valencia's standing as the protector and father figure of humanity.

The people sincerely believed that Adam is worthy of leading the human race, with his wisdom that was unprecedented for a twenty-one-year-old man, and decisive action against any threats that could damage the Empire, internal or external.

Adam has proved himself to be worthy of the title of Emperor and to be the father of all mankind.

At this point, many believed that if he had to, Adam would find a way to make the entire Milky Way submit to his will and kneel in front of him.

surprisingly, no cult of personality ever fully took hold, as Adam maintained humility and acknowledged fallibility. Yet, an indelible trust was now ingrained in the minds of the people, ready to defend their Emperor at any cost

They would have done that before as well of course, but now the idea is deeply entrenched in their brains.

In these years, Adam has dealt with the death of Brock.

Although not too damaging, Brock was pretty much the only person on this planet he could say he personally knew, aside from Sebastian and Elizabeth of course.

But even then, HE didn't know them, but his other self did.

In other words, he is completely alone once again.

Adam could feel the loneliness gnawing at his heart, but there was nothing he could do.

Making friends with nobles? Yeah, thats never going to be a genuine friendship. Making friends with the people? He would have to trick his friends and lie to them, and if he didn't, his friendship with them would become less pure and more cynical and manipulative.

So Adam resigned himself to his fate of being alone.

There is a good chance even his wife might not be in love with him, and he might not love her either, that's the way political marriage works.

'Hah... Life as an Emperor can get quite depressing at times.'

'Maybe I should go to a brothel? No... that would be just depressing.'

'Oh well, I have work to do!'

So Adam buried himself in work to forget his loneliness.

Who knows, he might even get a nice relationship and some friends in the future...

(Should I introduce a wife character? It won't be the main focus of the story but I want to hear your opinions, and regarding the friends as well, don't worry I don't really care either way, it's completely up to you guys.)

(Vote by liking my comments that I will put up here.)