The first court meeting after the coronation of the new Emperor ended uneventfully.
Nero sat silently in the arms of the White Wolf Knight as they made their way to the sleeping quarters in the Sun Palace’s wing. Seeing that the courtyard was empty, the White Wolf Knight lowered his head and softly asked Nero:
“Your Majesty, should I start recruiting new Wolf Knights now? However, the Imperial Wolf Knights are recruited and trained from a young age. It takes decades for them to become battle-ready.”
“I know,” Nero replied calmly. “I just want a reason to recruit troops without the nobility interfering. Apart from you, I have no army that truly obeys me. Therefore, even with the Rose Throne, the Empire will not be mine. You only need to issue the recruitment order as usual. The recruitment criteria don’t need to be as strict as for the Wolf Knights; just use the standards of the Imperial elite troops.”
He was deep in thought.
It wasn’t until they entered the study that they noticed a small tail trailing far behind them.
Nero: “Mimir.”
Mimir, startled, looked up: “Your Majesty!”
Nero: “My sleeping quarters are for Wolf Knights only, no attendants. You are free to enter any room and read any book on the shelves. But be warned: do not leave my quarters. Except for me and the Wolf Knights, do not speak to any court attendants.”
Mimir’s collar glowed again, and he obediently bowed: “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
After speaking, he didn’t immediately let go of the corner of the cloak. Blushing, he stammered for a while, mustering all his courage to ask:
“At night, do you… do you need me to serve you in bed?”
The first sentence was the hardest. Once it was out, the rest was easier.
Before Nero could respond, the young man skillfully untied the ribbon at his collar.
He was only wearing a light, easily removable gauze garment. With a tug of the ribbon, it instantly fell to the ground, revealing the beautiful body of an Omega.
“Your Majesty, please allow me to serve you.”
The young Omega, blushing, exuded a faint pink all over his body. “The training center said… said I am a very talented student. If it is Your Majesty… I swear, I will use all my skills—”
Nero had just picked up his photon pen to work and looked up to see the Omega already undressed.
Having spent most of his time fleeing and fighting, he was quite stunned by the sight, not having encountered such a situation before.
Just as he was about to speak, the White Wolf Knight suddenly intervened.
The White Wolf Knight strode forward, grabbed Mimir’s collar, and threw him out of the room.
“Alexei, stop!” Nero immediately ordered. “Don’t be so rough with an Omega!”
“Your Majesty,” the White Wolf Mimir responded, releasing his grip and kneeling before Nero, his voice rare with a hint of anger. “This Omega was sent by Duke Harrison, likely tasked with seducing Your Majesty. For safety’s sake, please allow the attendant to send him back to Mirror Spring Palace immediately, never to approach the Capital again.”
Mimir, almost thrown out without his clothes, hurried back, picking up his robe and wrapping it around himself.
Omega bodies are very fragile. He was so frightened by the White Wolf Knight that he nearly had a fit, now curling up in a corner, trembling and crying.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He inadvertently saw the White Wolf Knight’s slowly clenching fist.
The self-preservation principle of the Asimov Collar instantly triggered a strong survival instinct in him, making him silently shut his mouth.
Nero understood that it was unlikely for Harrison to use these Omegas for such schemes. After all, the three principles of the Asimov Collar were absolute under the current circumstances, and the Empire’s technology couldn’t break them.
Even the best spies, once collared and set against their master, would be forced to betray.
His uncle already had enough spies and informants. Sending him a collared Omega was likely just an attempt to tempt him into decadence.
After all, it was logical that a prince who spent his childhood and youth on the harsh borders, enduring ten years of hardship to reclaim the Capital and avenge his grievances, would succumb to endless emptiness and indulgence afterward.
For the current Empire’s nobility, a young, indulgent, and decadent emperor was far preferable to a strict and resolute one.
“Mimir, I don’t need you to serve me in bed.”
Nero smiled slightly. Influenced by the royal education, he was relatively kind to Omegas. “Go ahead, read any book you like. There’s a library on the first floor; you can choose yourself.”
The humiliated Omega ran away.
Nero considered it a minor afternoon episode and turned back to his work.
He did not notice that the White Wolf Knight had been standing sullenly to the side ever since Mimir ran away.
Silently, the White Wolf Knight handed Nero milk and replaced his photon pen.
To be honest, as an emperor who reclaimed the throne after a rebellion, Nero’s current situation was quite similar to that of Caesar when he first built his empire from scratch.
The forces that once belonged to the Kaises Royal Family had been thoroughly purged during Rupert’s rule.
The nobles were entrenched and divided. On the surface, Nero sat on the Kaises throne, but in reality, any decree he issued would be difficult to enforce effectively under the balance of power maintained by the great nobles protecting their own territories.
Up to now, he didn’t even have his own intelligence network. To avoid becoming a blind emperor misled by the nobles, he had no choice but to draw manpower from the already scarce Wolf Knight corps to monitor and intercept the nobles’ communications.
Nero worked from the afternoon until evening, having only a nutritional supplement for dinner.
It was almost midnight when he finally set down his photon pen and turned on the holographic star map on his desk.
This was a small habit of his. Whenever he felt unhappy or physically exhausted, he would look at the star map, which always improved his mood.
The White Wolf Knight quietly dimmed the lights.
In that instant, the study was swallowed by a vast sea of starlight.
Since humanity entered the interstellar era, two-dimensional maps had become rare antiques.
As Nero magnified the spherical three-dimensional star map, he could see that the planets were not stationary but followed massive stars orbiting the center of the galaxy at superluminal speeds, while also rotating around these stars.
Comets flashed by, enormous accretion disks spewed from black holes, and countless giant planets’ dazzling rings—these made the entire spherical star map look both extremely serene and as tumultuous as a boiling ocean.
The System, slacking off, was stunned: [What’s this, host?]
It asked but received no answer.
Peeking out, it saw the silver-haired Emperor gazing at the vast Milky Way, an inexplicable, gloomy emotion flickering in his usually cold and fierce red eyes.
After a long silence, he moved his lips, silently mouthing a word.
System: [What???]
It finally caught on.
The word Nero said was “Empire.”
The galactic empire, enormous like a monster, spanned two spiral arms of the galaxy, rotating daily around the central black hole.
At its peak, the empire’s territory was nearly twenty times that of the Old Federation.
Such vast territories and the superluminal expansion of the universe brought inevitable problems:
In the early days, the underdeveloped warp engines and quantum communications could not ensure that administrative orders from the Capital reached the Empire’s borders smoothly.
Thus, the 12th Emperor of Kaises was forced to divide the Empire into several domains, granted to meritorious nobles or Kaises princes.
Each domain ruler had significant autonomy and garrison rights to effectively protect their territory.
This decision maintained the Empire’s vast territory in its early years.
But over time, the fiefdom systems became a fatal historical legacy.
Nobles with territories became dominant lords. Even though engine and communication technologies had long since improved, the noble factions would never easily surrender their control over their domains.
Negotiations were futile; only blood and fire could break the old order and establish a new one.
Especially with the likely threat of the Zerg, relying solely on himself, three hundred Wolf Knights, and the inherently weak, self-serving noble faction, the Galactic Empire was doomed to lose.
Nero’s lips tightened, his red eyes blazing.
First, he needed an army completely loyal to him.
And it must be the largest and most formidable army in the Empire’s history.
He wanted military leaders as brilliant as stars, the best scientists to design mechas, and the wisest ministers around the council table.
Only with all this could the Galactic Empire be reborn from the mud.
A light screen in front lit up, and another Wolf Knight delivered a report.
This Wolf Knight was monitoring the northern territories’ garrison movements. As per Nero’s instructions, he was to send every detail of the military intelligence gathered from the northern territories to his master.
Nero swiftly browsed through it.
Clearly, during Rupert’s ten-year rule, Star Pirates never ceased to harass the Empire’s borders. The garrison was continuously pushed back, and the northern domain shrank by nearly 10%.
However, one thing piqued Nero’s interest: amidst the gradually encroached northern domain, a single border fortress called Delta stood firm.
In the holographic star map, it looked like a lone boat drifting outside the Empire’s territory, surrounded by Star Pirate-controlled areas. Yet, under such dire circumstances, this fortress maintained normal communication with the Empire and never fell.
Since its inception, the fortress had served dual functions as an imperial garrison and a transportation hub. To the Empire, the strategic value of a fortress often surpassed that of a resource-rich star system.
Fortresses were connected by numerous warp routes, and in the vast, boundless void of space, warp routes were the lifelines of fleets. Any ship lost outside these routes had only one choice: await death.
Following the star map’s edges towards the center, Nero noticed that although the Delta Fortress was old and remote, its location was extremely crucial.
Among its dozens of warp routes, one connected to the mining planets at the northern edge;
And these mining planets had a massive mineral transport route leading to Winter Spring System, the most prosperous and densely populated system in the northern territories.
Winter Spring System wasn’t a military system. If Star Pirates entered Winter Spring System via the mineral transport route, they could quickly occupy Winter Spring System and sever the northern resources supply.
Nero paused, twirling his photon pen.
“Delta Fortress,” he pointed at the solitary, ancient fortress. “Who is the Commander of this fortress?”
The System jolted: [Uh-oh!]
Nero disliked interruptions while working, his tone slightly displeased: [I wasn’t asking you.]
The Wolf Knight soon sent feedback: it was a potbellied, about forty-year-old noble officer.
Nero roughly skimmed through his war achievements and found an odd turning point in his career.
This man became the fortress commander through family status but disastrously lost several battles, depleting the fortress’s resources.
However, after being demoted to Delta Fortress, he seemed to have suddenly gained insight, repeatedly defeating elite Star Pirates’ troops. Over twelve years, he remained undefeated, even rising to the rank of colonel based on his military achievements.
Nero sharply sensed that this was not the person he was looking for.
As he pressed his lips in thought, the System timidly spoke again: [It’s not him, host. You’ve triggered a Target Clue!]
Previously, only the White Wolf Knight’s avatar was lit on the Hatred Points panel, but now, a second avatar suddenly lit up.
The system brought up the character’s holographic bust. A handsome man with black hair and blue eyes, about twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, hovered in front of Nero.
Below it was a line of text: Imperial Marshal, Hermann Heidrich.
thank you for the chapter !!! ahh i’m so excited to meet all the ‘male leads’