I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! Vol 12 Chapter 2

Published at 1st of November 2023 07:45:02 AM

Tia, who had safely delivered Serena back to the Capital, received a summons from Cleo and was at the palace.

Led to a room where she would be meeting with the imperial family, Tia entered and was greeted by the figure of Cleo, who was surrounded by armed knights.

Tia remained standing, her eyes filled with murderous intent, as she watched Cleo elegantly enjoy her cup of tea while remaining seated.

“—Please repeat what you’ve just said, Your Highness.”

Cleo, who had betrayed Liam the moment she became Crown Prince, had just said something outrageous while maintaining an easy-going attitude, as if she was speaking to a friend of hers.

“The Banfield Family is suspected of harboring treasonous intentions. Soon, the Empire will formally begin invading its territory in earnest. —There, are you satisfied?”

Seeing how calm the prince was as she made her declaration, Tia clenched her fists so hard that her armor began squeaking.

Nevertheless, her expression remained unchanged. She, too, was trying to mask her emotions and remain composed.

“Lord Liam has done so much for the Empire, yet this is how you repay him?”

In response to Tia’s remarks, the armed knights around Cleo drew their weapons, ready to protect their master.

However, Cleo raised her hand, signaling them to stand down.

Cleo stood up from her seat and approached Tia, standing right next to her as she spoke.

“It was the Duke who tried to take advantage of my situation first, was it not? Or are you saying he helped me become Crown Prince out of nothing but goodwill?”

“Then was all the support we provided out of malice? What a small-minded individual. It’s hard to believe that someone like you could become the Empire’s Crown Prince.”

Was that why you betrayed us?

Cleo’s eyebrows crunched up for a moment at Tia’s words, but she soon regained her smile.

“Hmm, I suppose it’s true that I was being inconsiderate. How about this? Christina, why don’t you become my vassal? Someone as skilled as you can easily become my right-hand man and rule over the Empire.”

The offer was enticing: a promotion from being a mere vassal of a feudal lord to a position where she could reign over the Empire.

However, Tia refused.

“If I must choose between becoming your right-hand man or remaining as Lord Liam’s vassal, the answer is obvious — I refuse your offer.”

“You’re going to regret it.”

Cleo glared at her as she said so, which only made Tia happier.

“Then I’ll excuse myself.”

Turning around, she left the room.

—The Banfield Family is suspected of harboring treasonous intentions, and for that, the Empire will be assembling a subjugation force.

We received this piece of information from Tia soon after she escorted Serena back to the Capital, and as expected, the Empire has begun taking action against the Banfield Family.

‘The Seventh Weapons Factory is being banished from the Empire! How could they do this to us!?’

Nias Carlin appears distressed, and I can see her crying on the large monitor projected before me.

Merchants and weapons factories with ties to the Banfield Family have had all their transactions with the Empire suspended.

The Empire is clearly taking hostile actions against us, but it’s still too lukewarm, which makes it even more unpleasant.

“That’s why I’ve been telling you guys to come to my place.”

‘That’s easier said than done! It’s not that easy to move our base of operation!’

“Then try to become independent.”

‘It’s because we can’t that I’m here discussing this matter with you!’

Despite boasting a high level of technical prowess, the Seventh Weapons Factory isn’t popular as it ignores the needs of its customers.

That’s why becoming independent is out of the question. Furthermore, now that they’ve had their transactions with the Empire suspended, they won’t be able to do proper business anymore.

As I’m talking to Nias, Eulisia, who’s beside me, taps her fingers with her arms crossed.

It seems she also has something to say.

“Lord Liam, I’ve received complaints from my previous workplace.”

Her previous workplace, the Third Weapons Factory, is a very popular weapons factory within the Empire, which is why they thought they wouldn’t be abandoned by the Empire.

However, the Empire has also cut its ties with the Third Weapons Factory.

Sitting on the sofa, I cross my legs and grin.

“They were simply too trusting of others. Tell the Third Weapons Factory that we’ll also welcome them with open arms if they’re willing to come to my place.”

Letting out a big sigh, Eulisia operates on her terminal, conveying my message to her former colleagues.

As for Nias, her head hung low.

‘This is the worst.’

They have the option of seeking refuge in a different intergalactic nation, but if they did that, they would be taking government secrets with them.

And if that were to happen, the Empire would chase them to the end of the universe, making sure that the Seventh Weapons Factory was crushed.

“—Are they trying to show us mercy? Really, I’m astounded by how naïve the imperial family is,” I mutter under my breath, feeling dissatisfied. [1]

Eulisia notices that the smile on my face has vanished.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing important. Now then, let’s see how Eliot and Patrice are doing.”

As I forcefully end the call with Nias, Eulisia turns around and addresses me in an exasperated manner.

“Lord Liam, you don’t seem nervous at all. Do you realize that the Empire is coming at us with full force? The subjugation force is expected to number at least in the millions.”

Even for the Empire, it shouldn’t be easy to prepare such a big force.

Also, it’s not as if we’ve been sitting around doing nothing for the past few years.

It would be a tough fight for sure, but we’ve known that we’d eventually go to war with the Empire, so we’ve been steadily preparing.

There’s nothing we can do about the difference in numbers though.

“Let them come. We shall also get ready for the fight. —Eulisia, I hereby declare that we’ll be entering a wartime regime. Dispose of all planets and colonies that cannot be defended and evacuate their inhabitants.”

“All of them!?”

I give a curt reply to Eulisia who appears flabbergasted.

“Yes, all of them. Everything in my territory is mine, including its inhabitants.”

I don’t mind throwing things away, but I refuse to have what’s mine taken away by others.

Besides, territories can be developed again as long as we have human resources.

For the sake of the future, we can’t have them go to waste.

Eulisia puts her hand on her chin.

“—There are bound to be some people that refuse to abandon the planet that they’ve developed.”

There’s an easy solution to that.

“Order the army to evict them. I’m not making a request here. —This is an order from me, their lord.”

It’s preposterous for my subjects to oppose me.

While shaking her head, Eulisia operates her terminal and relays my order to the appropriate personnel.

I stand up from the sofa and stretch my body.

“Well then, let’s see how big their army is.”

—In an underground basement of the Banfield Family mansion

Various documents were gathered there, from stone tablets inscribed with ancient texts to modern memory devices still in use today.

The ones in charge of these documents were the maid robots, led by Amagi, and they were in the midst of going through some of the records.

Amagi carefully flipped through a thick old book, checking its contents page by page.

However, she wasn’t able to find the information she was looking for.

“—It’s not this, either.”

She closed the book and was about to put it back on the shelf when all the maid robots stopped moving.

It was only for a few seconds, but when they returned to normal, they immediately started cleaning up the materials.

One of the maid robots approached Amagi.

“Master has declared a state of wartime regime. We have been ordered to suspend whatever we’re doing and return to our original station.”

They weren’t collecting information under Liam’s orders, and under normal circumstances, maid robots weren’t allowed this sort of activity.

As their work was about to be interrupted due to the state of emergency, Amagi issued an order to three of the maid robots present.

“That won’t do. The three of you will stay here. The others will return to their original stations.”

“Will that be alright?”

Amagi’s gaze landed on one of the mass-produced maid robots that was tilting its head.

“Yes. It won’t affect our work performance.”

Saying that, she left the reference room with three other robots in tow.

When the sliding door closed, it disappeared, as if it never existed in the first place.

Indeed, they had been in a hidden room that not even Liam knew about.

The maid robots reported several more pieces of information to Amagi.

“The Empire has summoned its regular army and the nobles to the Capital.”

“Excluding the Third and Seventh Weapons Factories, the other weapons factories have canceled our orders.”

“We have detected inflation within the Empire.”

Information about the Empire preparing for war flooded in.

“Is he behind this as well?” Amagi muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, in one of the back alleys of the Capital, the Guide was standing on top of a garbage pile with an electronic newspaper in hand, and his hands were trembling with excitement.

“FINALLY!!!”

He screamed in joy as he tore up the newspaper.

With clenched hands, he celebrated Liam’s misfortune.

“This time for sure! He may be strong, but now that the majority of the Empire has become his enemy, there’s no way he can win!”

The Guide shook with joy.

The article in the newspaper claimed that the Empire would be imposing sanctions on the former Cleo Faction.

In other words, they weren’t targeting Liam alone, but rather all the aristocratic households that once supported Cleo.

The Guide began showering Cleo with praises.

“Good job, Cleo! Not only have you betrayed your allies, but you’re also willing to go this far to dispose of Liam!”

The Guide’s appreciation towards Cleo shot up, reaching new heights after learning about his act of betrayal and the Empire’s subjugation force scheduled to march toward the Banfield Family’s territory.

The Guide straightened his back and spread his arms out, releasing an ominous black fog.

“I shall release the negative energy that I’ve saved up from my time at the Capital. If I do my best to assist Cleo, I should be able to defeat Liam this time.”

Defeating Liam, who had exceeded the limits of humans, wasn’t an easy task.

However.

He was still human.

If he were thrown into space without a suit, he’d die, and if he was blasted by the main cannon of a battleship, he’d be vaporized.

Even if defeating him one-on-one wasn’t possible, he could be overwhelmed with an army of millions.

“Finally, I get to rid myself of this bastard. Liam, it’s time we bring an end to our grudge.”

The Guide was ready to spend all the negative energy he had gathered at the Capital to aid Cleo in his crusade against Liam.

“Liam—the next time we meet will be the day you die!”

————————————————————————————–

Brian (´；ω；｀): “I feel sorry for Lord Liam. He was betrayed. It’s painful.”

Wakagi-chan (；゜∀゜): “I’m amazed that he doesn’t think much of the betrayal. If it was our Leon, he would’ve immediately gone for retaliation. ”

Brian (´；ω；｀): “Volume 5 of ‘I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!’ will be released on April 25th. Please consider purchasing a copy of the novel and showing your support!

Wakagi-chan (゜∀゜): “I won’t be making an appearance, but the anime ‘The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs!’ is currently airing. Please show it much love!”

[1] In case you forgot, the Emperor and Cleo are pushing the Third and Seventh Weapons Factory to Liam’s side on purpose, which Liam is interpreting as showing mercy or kindness to one’s enemy. Honestly, I don’t understand why the Emperor and Cleo are doing this either.

Chapter end