After dealing with Kati, Marcus was able to focus on his next project—the consolidation of power over this Earth.
Policies and the creation of the government that will help him do it.
To make this happen, he sent a message to his two half-sisters to focus on phase two of the plan: politics.
The pair will switch their jobs.
With things placed in motion, he began to plan his public appearance and work towards that sweet Imperialism.
But several hours later, he was interrupted again.
'Bloody hell.'
"Commander!"
Billy and Graham were back. They had this strange look on their face.
"You know… this does make sense." Billy was the logical one.
"It does!?" Graham gawked at him.
"Yes. I remember him talking about a sister and fixing her spine. I tried to look for his sibling or the spine operation he mentioned.
Reconstructing a spine. That's hard for us, you know that, don't you? Especially after an extended period of time had passed, and the disfigurement in the spine settled.
Rebuilding all the nerves… it requires extensive AI usage. Something we haven't reached yet." Billy explained to the pair.
"...I guess at that point I said too much." Marcus smiled a bit. But he was proud of that technology, so he could not stop and just brag about it.
"You could say, I have a fascination with technology, so for a while I thought you made that up. But turns out that you did it, but not in this world." Billy smirked as he pushed his glasses up.
"What is it going to be, Billy… Graham?" Marcus asked them as he turned his pc off and focused on them.
"We want to know the truth. Celestial Being and how you are related to them." The Mobile Suit Developer asked him.
"Celestial Being was a separate entity that I used to take over the world. They didn't like it, but I didn't care.
They had their plans, and I used them to advance my agenda. Sadly for them, they didn't have great politicians to advance their agendas, except for Gundams.
And Gundams are not great politicians." Marcus chuckled at that joke.
"I see. You most likely used your technology to learn about them and infiltrate their operations." Billy reasoned, because how did he join something that the majority of the world didn't know?
"...Indeed. I hacked their supercomputer and made it work for me." The Emperor smirked while saying that.
"..."
That was quite the bombshell.
"...So you knew… but didn't do anything that Union Soldiers were dying…" Graham, all of a sudden, looked annoyed.
*Sigh* Marcus sighed while the nerdy glasses guy decided to help.
"Graham, the world was moving towards war anyway. Celestial Being has saved more people than you think. The tensions were rising in all 3 blocs; there was a reason why Gundams descended at this specific time." Billy explained that he had already concluded on Celestial Being's angle.
"Indeed, the Super Computer Veda has predicted the best time for Celestial Being to reveal itself. It was in the Enact presentation and the terror attack on Heaven's Pillar.
Which was stopped by Gundam." Marcus explained.
"I wasn't expecting you two to cover for Celestial Being." The blonde gawked at the pair of them. They were on Celestial Being's side on this one!
"It's the most logical conclusion, we think beyond orders and nations." Billy rolled his eyes.
"Indeed. That is why I decided to ask you two to join my Empire."
"Do we have a choice? You already have the Gundams and the Government." The mobile suit developer rolled his eyes as he knew he was in no condition to resist stuff like that.
"You always have a choice. Humans can be very unreasonable. Believe me, I know, my family is one of them." Marcus said, with a distant look, recalling his old man and mother and a bunch of siblings, who he had entire sections of the intelligence department to keep track of.
"Yes, but not in this situation, considering my curiosity takes priority in this case," Billy smirked as he saw the technological progress of his Empire.
"..." Graham looked at his best friend. His friend is itching to join the Empire.
"...What about you? You do know that we will soon become a multi-solar system nation with possible conflicts between humans and aliens." Marcus asked his blonde friend.
"...Yes, while it does sound fascinating and all that. But another world… and…" In the end, Graham sighed, and he recalled all of the talks they had had. There was one where he said he would do anything to fight Celestial Being.
He said that he will join Marcus in his dream of taking over the world. Only that there was that tiny, titsy bitsy part of Marcus being from a different reality and Emperor of a massive Empire.
"...to hell, well fine… I will join you. I doubt there is anything of interest here anymore anyway. That Gundam pilot kid is most likely coming with you to your reality, I am right?"
"Setsuna? Well, Graham, my Empire is full of knights that can wipe the floor with that kid the way he is now." Marcus grinned while saying that.
Now that got his attention!
"Oh? You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention, boss!" All of a sudden, there was no hesitation in his eyes!
Billy deadpanned when he saw that.
'Seriously? Graham would join because of that? I seek knowledge and mysteries of cosmos, creating mobile suit like never before, but this guy… he wants to fight, to satiate his desire for combat.'
"So, what is going to be?" Marcus asked one more time; this time, there was considerable confidence in his tone when he saw that he had the blonde where he wanted.
"Consider me accepting this proposal! I shall join your…Empire. Though I already promised that I will help you anyway.
Besides, I do want to know what your… knights can do."
"You are going to be one as well." Marcus all of a sudden reminded Graham that he is not immune to the system he is joining.
"...Umm…can we skip the capes?"
"Capes, yeah, cloaks? No, that is part of our image and tradition." The Emperor chuckled, seeing his reaction.
'What did I get myself into?' Graham began to reconsider his choice.
~~~
After the pair joined him, there was a bit of time they needed to spend in their old positions before they could be transferred to his Empire.
He needed to make them 'disappear'. That could take a bit of manoeuvring, but it will be done.
With the pair out of his office, he can continue consolidating power.
Not that there was much time left, as it was getting late, and he was a bit tired from all of this.
'Should I pull an all-nighter?'
For a second, he considered doing that, but in the end, he decided to throw in the towel.
'Not that there is much to do anyway. Most of the stuff is already set in motion; all I need to do is wait for lawmakers and the damn democratic nonsense to take place.
One thing they are good at is wasting time with their stupid debates instead of taking action.'
With an annoyed sigh, Marcus got up from his seat before walking out of the office.
Once in the corridor, he was joined by his shadow.
Jeanne soundlessly joined him as the pair walked out of the building. A black limo rolled over before a black-suited man got out of the car and opened the car door for him.
The pair got in, and soon enough, the motorcade began to move.
*Sigh*
"What a day… brings back the memories of when I took over from my old man," Marcus complained as he looked through the window at the lit-up city.
"Aren't you used to this kind of thing already?" Jeanne asked him, in her opinion, that he should already be used to ruling a massive nation. What he got here is around 50% to 60% of his total territory.
In his world, he has space colonies; in here, not every piece of land was under 3 blocks of power.
"Maybe, but I never said that this was my favourite part of the job." He replied as his gaze went from the window to her.
His beautiful red-haired bodyguard was sitting in front of him. Like always, she was a prim and proper knight.
At the moment, he had a brilliant idea.
He motioned for her to come over and sit on his lap.
Jeanne immediately blushed. She slowly moved over and sat down on his lap. This is where he moved her to sit sideways as he began to hold her and snuggle with her.
"..."
The red-haired girl was somewhat self-conscious as this was the first time something like this had happened.
Last time it was in the South Pole, where he moved and pinned her against the wall.
But then they were busy, and apart from war-related stuff, nothing has happened. Over the years, she mastered the art of being a perfect knight and bodyguard.
But this? This is a new area where she is very self-conscious about this behaviour.
'Once we are back in the manor, Empress Milly will take over.' Part of her hoped that this was the case. The blonde Empress has her duties as his wife. But another part of her hoped that the house was empty and he would do something to her!
Jeanne's duty was clashing with her woman's desires, something she was quite new to.
After a couple of minutes, she somewhat got used to being held like that. Her eyes landed on her Emperor, who was simply staring at the seat in front of him, his gaze distant.
This was one of those moments where he ended up drowning in his thoughts.
Either new technology, ideas for the government, or even new weaponry for mobile suits, she has seen this many times over the years.
"...What do you think about man-made soldiers?" All of a sudden, he asked her as the hand that had been holding her back began to stroke her.
That surprised her more than the question! But she swiftly recovered and tried to ponder what that means.
"...Man-made? You mean…robots?"
"That could be useful. I could use them as shock troopers or disposable cannon fodder." He pondered on her reply. This was a great suggestion. He was far too in 'love' with mechs to realise that he could use robots in the form of troops.
"But it's not what I meant… after the whole Celestial Being's… mess. I began to think that the whole talent pandering thing is a bit too much…
If they don't want to join me, then I might as well remove them. There is no reason for me to beg them to be part of my Empire, basically." He said that several expressions passed across his face. From annoyance to resignation. The Emperor was a bit tired of this silliness.
Sure, these guys might be a colourful bunch, but they could mean bad stuff for his nation as well.
He is risking stability as they can come up with something like: 'Marcus is a threat! He is killing alien bugs'
Marcus is pretty sure he will have some people who think aliens can be cute or something.
Sure, he can get some aliens as pets, but there are disgusting types as well.
"If this is what you think is for the best. Then I am with you. Regardless of what you think, as your Knight, I will follow you." Jeanne said with a small smile. The girl will follow her Liege, Master and Emperor to the depths of hell if need be, after all, her life belongs to him.
Nothing has changed since she pledged to him all those years back in Eastern Europe.
"Is that so~~" Marcus smirked a bit as his other hand went to her chin and made her face him. He then leaned forward and claimed her lips.
This time around, she was no longer surprised by it. The knight girl kissed him back as it became a makeout session.
After all, the trip to his house will take them a while; the West Coast is known for traffic jams, motorcade or not.
They will take a while.
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
Join my Discord: Discord.gg/denoffanfics
More Chapters (Book Two, Chapter 65 is up!) and other stories on my P.a.t;
P.a.t:re.on..c.o.m/DragonsFics