Clarissa nodded at me slightly. “Thank you, Michael,” she said. I let out a sigh.

“I think it is a mistake to have taxes so slow,” I muttered petulantly.

“We are going to be hard pressed as it is to manage all the various territories we are taking over. Which brings up the next issue.” I nodded and waved my hand indicating she should get on with it. Better to resolve all these issues now before they built up and caused problems.

“I would like to rearrange how things are managed into a full corporate structure.”

“What does that mean for me and day to day?” I asked, not sure exactly what she meant.

“Right now, we are operating as a weird mix of government, military, and corporation. It isn’t bad, and it works, but it isn’t efficient. Especially for me. I have given it a lot of thought on how the government needs to be restructured and also accounting for our practical realities.”

“For you, this won’t change much except a title change. Something like Emperor has a lot of negative connotations, especially since most of our forces come from America.” That made sense, but there was one thing I wasn’t allowing.

“You are talking about elections. I will not allow power out of my control in the slightest,” I said to make my position very clear so there was no confusion.

“That is fine, and I already took that into consideration. I am going to form a central bureaucracy, a board of directors if you will. I will take charge as Vice President, and you will take charge as President. Each Governor will have one vote, but the Governors will be appointed by us.” That meant Clarissa would do the appointments.

I considered the title. It was always a dream as a kid to have the title of Emperor. I don’t think there was any human male in existence who didn’t fantasize about a title like that at one point or another. Emperor Michael had a nice ring to it.

“You are worried about perception?” I asked just to confirm.

“Yes. Governors will be voted in, but only people we allow can run for office. They will be appointed first. Then they will have a provisional say at electing us to offset complaints.” I considered this but I didn’t like it.

“Why? I have absolute power. It is like catering to people we don’t have to and giving them the wrong impression. My position cannot be questioned Clarissa. I will not allow it to be questioned. I will not get dragged down into the politics and headaches of management.” I shook my head. “I know you are thinking about presenting a softer image, but I won’t accept that. My rule is uncompromising.”

There was a long stretch of silence at that. “There needs to be concessions Michael and handling situations in the event of your death. We can’t just declare you Emperor and have no legal recourse to appoint a successor.”

“I know you are a fan of history. In the modern age, there is a reason why assassinations are rare. Even with technology improving, it is always lone wolves who attempt assassinations, not governments. The reason being that there is continuity in the event of a death. There is no succession crisis.”

“There might have been in some countries, but the fact is, that having stable succession is important. Even if it is never used, it needs to be implemented.” I considered this and what Clarissa was trying to tell me.

“Alright, but I am not a President. I am not elected and cannot be removed. You can set up succession criteria in the event of my death or absence for hundred days or more. But I will not accept elections or criticism of my position,” I laid out my red line very clearly. I was not going to let my control slip.

“How much day to day power do you want? Veto authority or something more?” Clarissa asked.

“Veto authority. Also, the title of Emperor is fine. I like it personally,” I said.

“Alright, then we can have a coronation once we return to Purgatory. That brings up our nation’s name. The Purgatory Empire? It doesn’t roll off the tongue,” Clarissa said.

“It is a fine name. No need to go overboard. Why, you have an idea?” I asked.

“Not for an Empire, no,” Clarissa said. I could tell she was a bit annoyed, but I wasn’t going to compromise on this. I was done playing political games. Trying to make treaties or other nonsense that made no sense.

Power was what mattered. The power to have a large amount of passive income flow in my direction. That was the most critical thing. I was not going to allow that to be jeopardized.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That brings up the next questions regarding, religions, charity, and general rights. If you want anything changed, now is the time.” She was right about that. Now was the time to set the foundations going forward.

“What we had before was fine. Religions are treated as a business. Charity is illegal. No slavery and no births. What about the kids are they doing okay?” I asked. I knew they had survived the Divine Empress’ initial attack and the destruction of Purgatory, but I was curious to how well they were actually doing.

“They are in an isolated camp a distance from Heaven in a level 2 zone with limited contact. I wanted to spare them the headaches of the war and the Divine Empress running around killing people. We will bring them back. But it brings up an issue regarding the age range of people that arrive as a city is upgraded.” I winced at this. It was not an easy decision.

“The age of majority?” I asked Clarissa and she nodded. I considered that question. It was a loaded and complicated question. I wanted to say 16, but that wasn’t simple either. It would mean supporting children as part of government expenditures for a much longer period of time than I wanted. If the age was lowered, it would cause issues.

In the US, it was frankly ridiculous how the age of majority was all over the place. You had to be 21 to drink, 18 to vote or join the military, but some states let you get married at 16. Then there was the issue of charging people who were younger than 16 as adults if the crimes were heinous enough, which made absolutely no sense.

You either had an age where a person was an adult, or they weren’t an adult. I also couldn’t say, ‘no fighting monsters until you are X age, and no working in a brothel until Y age.’ It just didn’t make sense in terms of morals or legality.

I wanted things to be streamlined legally, with as little wiggle room as possible. But I also didn’t want to have kids dying left and right or exploited. I also didn’t want them to be dependent on the government for too long. Those were crystals that were being kind of wasted in my mind. It was a very complex question with no right answer.

In the perfect world, I would say 16 years old is an adult and call it a day. I was tempted to do that, even if it impacted our resources to a slight degree. “Can our treasury support people waiting until they are 16 to be declared adults?” I asked.

“Maybe? It depends on how many people are arriving under that age bracket. Also, there is no way to confirm for a lot of them.”

“We will make the legal age of adulthood 16, but anyone age 14 or older can request emancipation from the state after being interviewed and it is insured, they aren’t being exploited,” I finally said.

“Even sex work?” Clarissa asked.

“If that is their reason for emancipation then no. Then they can wait. Anyone pressuring kids like that, execute them,” I said with finality. Clarissa nodded at that. It was hypocritical to some degree, but that was the nice thing about being Emperor. I could make decisions without listening to people complain about my decision.

“Also schooling. I want practical education. No social nonsense of any kind. Math, Earth science, Earth history, English, and Systemic Land Knowledge. If they want to be emancipated, then have them pass a test in those subjects.” I noticed Clarissa taking notes as I explained what I wanted.

“It will take time. That brings up my next thing. I will be forming a central government with directors to handle various aspects of the government who will report to me and you. I need to delegate. This is the list of divisions,” Clarissa pushed over a piece of paper.

Director of Intelligence, General Mitchell

Director of Finance, Lin Taylor

Director of Social Responsibility, Doctor Gretchen

Director of Defense, General Abdullah

Director of Research, Doctor Katz

“That’s it for divisions?” I asked while looking at the names next to each position. The first one I recognized was Doctor Katz for Director of Research. Commander Abdullah and Commander Mitchell were also familiar to me.

“That’s it. The idea is to have a streamlined government. Also, a lot of functions that would be needed like transportation or health aren’t needed. Intelligence would be responsible for mapping, skill knowledge, criminal investigation, and intelligence gathering as sub-divisions. It would be a military position and have a military organization but separate from defense.”

“Finance would have auditing, taxation, and infrastructure as sub-divisions. They would be overlooking the various governors and insuring taxes are properly brought to the capital.”

“Social responsibility would be focused on grinding teams, foreign relations, minor interpersonal matters, and general complaints from the populace. They would handle petty crimes and judges appointed would be under this division.”

“Defense, would focus on standardizing equipment, training, and patrols. Along with a special forces unit with higher stats and skills. I was thinking an elite group of 20 to start off with.”

“Research, well we need to finish the super weapon, and our investigations into energy need to continue.” I nodded at all of this.

“So, the capital would fall under control of a governor?” I asked.

“Yes, but someone I trust. The idea is to create a separation between the federal government, us, and the city day to day governments. A clear divide, but we provide oversight and audits. But governors will have the authority to appoint people to positions in their city, who we will evaluate.”

I shook my head at this. “They can nominate people, but they get moved about to other cities. We don’t want a governor building up an entrenched power base in a city. They can nominate people, they will be evaluated, but then they go to work in another city. With all the cities we have, this will prevent any one person from taking control.” Clarissa made a note of this and nodded.

“That is a good idea, but there will be some pushback, but nothing serious. Anything you are thinking that we are missing?” Clarissa asked me.

“No. Nothing comes to mind right away, besides the Protector Cai Fan and what we are going to do with him and our stance towards the Avatar’s cities,” I said.

“That was actually my next topic of concern. How much do you want to give him? Have him control his city, but pay taxes as a governor?” Clarissa asked me.

That was not a simple question. None of these were simple questions. That was why I liked fighting more. Just kill something and it is over. With politics like this I had to think through all the implications.