“I swear to follow the commands of Emperor Michael. Now until the end of the Systemic Lands. To protect the interests of the Emperor, the Empire of Purgatory, and then the people in that order. To never side with outside forces. On my life I make this pledge and vow,” General Abdullah swore to me and bowed.
Doctor Katz was next. “There is no need for the good doctor to make a pledge. He already carries one in his heart and has my trust,” I said.
“Thank you, Emperor Michael, for your kind words,” he replied and gave me a bow. I nodded to him.
“With the pledges and oaths complete, I have already decided who will be appointed as a governor to the various cities and the Directors for the new Imperial Government,” Clarissa said. She began listing off the directors first, and there wasn’t any surprise there.
She had probably talked to the people before, and it wasn’t a huge secret. The positions for which governor got which city was a lot more heated. I could see everyone focused on Clarissa, clearly interested in who got the good cities and who got the garbage cities.
It may seem a bit odd, but both the Forbidden City and Purgatory, were shit cities. They were surrounded by other cities, with very few level 3 zones they could get. At least Purgatory would be the Capital of the Empire, which would help. But the Forbidden City while upgraded was also a mess, that would require a strong hand.
Wuhan, while off on its own was South of First Seoul which the Fifth Caliphate had taken. So it wasn’t that hot of a choice either, since there would be a lot of boarder tensions. Normandy and East Bastion were also low to mid-tier choices. While they had a lot of room for expansion, it would take time to build roads to connect them to Purgatory.
The best city was Neo Brasilia. It was level 4 already, had lots of room for expansion, and was close to the Capital while not being in the way of any other nations. Clarissa began to name people to various cities.
I noted that Governor Ruiz got The Abyss. The city to the far Southwest in the Dragon Empire along the Rift. It hadn’t even been secured yet, there was still fighting ongoing. It was clearly meant as a rebuke for her earlier comments about wanting to form a Parliament and not have an Emperor. That was never happening as long as I was in charge.
Once the appointments were done, a scribe handed Clarissa a stack of documents and she checked the first one and then handed it to me. This was the new governing document for the Empire of Purgatory. Each City would get one vote, represented by the Governor of the Vice Governor.
Two thirds, rounded up to the nearest whole number. Not counting the Free City of Hong Kong, which meant 15 cities with 10 of them having to vote to recommend any changes or ask me to intervene personally in a matter. While I could intervene in any way I wanted, they could vote to force me to respond, if Clarissa went crazy for some reason, or to nominate a successor to her position to present to me.
The tax rate was clearly laid out, along with the no charity rule either. People had to work for a living in my Empire, but cities and governors were expected to institute a basic restoration for arrivals and a rotation plan as part of their basic responsibilities.
Any attempt to steal, extort, enslave, or restrict access to the store would be harshly looked at. Governors were also expected to build roads to dungeons and to neighboring cities, but any further development was left up to them.
Upgrading a city needed to be approved by a vote of the Governors themselves. New appointments for governors could be recommended from the pool of Vice Governors, but Clarissa as my proxy would have the final approval.
A major sticking point was the rights of these people and if I was allowed to do summary executions. There was a lot of back and forth on this, and I let it play out. A bit of it was tiredness and the rest was not caring too much about the process, only the final decision.
In the end Governors, Vice Governors, and Directors would be allowed to resign if they were charged. If they requested a trial, I would be the Jury and decide on the punishment. Since Clarissa had control over the Imperial portion of the government, which would be auditing the governors, she would be signing off on any charges.
If there ever was a trial, it was basically saying that Clarissa, or someone under her had screwed up. It would be pitting my trust of Clarissa against their word, a clearly uphill battle that was unlikely to ever happen. Trials, judges, and a court system were absolutely cancer. But for anyone not part of the Imperial Government, answerable to Clarissa, the Governors would have complete authority on how to process criminal cases.
The caveat being that if there was enough drama that it was escalated up to the Imperial Government, then they wouldn’t be governors for much longer. It was not a perfect system, but it would push a lot of headaches to the Governors to run their own little fiefdoms.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
In terms of military control, there would be twenty teams of five that would rotate from grinding to protecting the Imperial government. They would still pay the tax. Everyone but myself, Clarissa, directors, and the governors themselves were required to pay the tax. No proxies were allowed.
It didn’t make sense to tax the tax revenue a second time. Hence the exceptions. Governors were encouraged to sponsor teams to higher levels to increase their tax revenue, sell enchanted goods, and generally manage the day to day. The meeting every 100 days, would also be to discuss what was working, what wasn’t working, and any large scale issues.
The biggest concern was immigration between zones. What happens if some people from one city, snuck into the zones of another city to steal their monsters or ambush their grinders? That would be left to the cities to decide and communicate about, with a clear warning that encroachment or banditry would be harshly punished if the culprits weren’t caught, or it persisted.
That was what the Imperial Government was for, to play mediator between all the governors and cities while they competed to be the best. The key thing was to ensure the competition didn’t take a negative turn.
Poaching teams, and people were allowed from the governor’s budget. How they spent their share of the tax revenue was up to them. I was sure that some cities would focus on getting as many teams out there and sponsoring teams. Other governors would focus on food developments. Others might focus on developing enchanting.
That was fine and it was encouraged cities to develop their own culture and procedures as long as they adhered to the Imperial Government. That way if a higher level person didn’t like how things were run, or wanted a change, they could move somewhere else.
The governors would be allowed to charge a small fee or have an auction to sell grinding permits for level 2 zones and set up hunting camps. The expectation being that level 1 zones would be used for a rotation and level 3 zones were open to anyone at the moment. That might change in the future, but that was the official policy of the Imperial Government.
There was contention on the language requirement, but I laid down the law. The official language was English. All documents, and government officials had to speak the language without exception. Translators could be used, but everything was going to be in English.
That transitioned into the question about how to handle new arrivals that were from different cultures. That was left up to the governors, but no slavery, and people could be executed if they caused issues. The governors were basically Lords like the Dragon Empire had but held to a slightly better standard. No rape houses, tribes, and pointless torture.
If a governor decided to purge new arrivals, that was their decision. But their tax revenue would be closely looked at. No slavery either. People could quit if they wanted to. The only group or organization legally allowed to give out loans was the Imperial Government and no one else.
Then a governor requested a monopoly on gambling to centralize things. That was refused, but he was told he was welcome to invest in gambling halls to try and bring in high rolling gamblers, with a warning that creating drama would be a bad thing. If they cheated people and pissed them off, that would mean a fight, deaths, and loss of tax revenue.
Everything came down to tax revenue and it was made clear countless times during the discussion, twice by me, and another three times by Clarissa. If they wanted to rule by putting heads on pikes that was their choice. But they held no authority over members of the Imperial Government and if their tax revenue was less than it should be, they would be removed from their position.
The focus on tax revenues was a good objective way of measuring the success of a city. Morality, quality of living, and everything else didn’t matter that much beyond the minimum level of human decency for people showing up to the Systemic Lands.
Schooling for children under 16 years of age would be overseen by the Imperial Government and children would be considered under Imperial protection. That meant if a child was to be executed or physically punished the governor needed to get it signed off on.
There was some contention on how schools would be supported since the children were under Imperial protection. Eventually it was agreed the Imperial Government would set a rate per child that each city would match for their care.
Religions beyond any Imperial sponsored one would be taxed at the same rate. Charity beyond the initial restoration and rotation was still illegal to prevent useless people from mooching off the government.
I was glad Clarissa handled most of the discussion, while could just listen in and mentally zone out for most of it. I could have asked her to push the discussion off for another day, but I didn’t care that much. This was her show at the end of the day, not mine. I was just the Emperor, while she was the Supreme Governor.
All she needed now was to scream ‘UNLIMITED POWER’ and declare herself Empress and the circle would be complete. Thoughts like that amused me during the long and boring discussions as everyone shared their opinions, which were like assholes. They all had one and they smelled.
Votes were held on proposed wordings and changes, which quickly passed with only a couple of objections here and there. I could tell the people glanced at me, but my mind was wandering. Did I care about if there should be regulations on enchanted equipment, absolutely not.
Clarissa was of the mindset that it should be a free market, with crafting crystals not being taxed. That was when I perked up a bit to listen in, but quickly lost interest as I listened to people talk about implementing tax rates at enchantment buildings. In the end there was no tax, but it was like watching paint dry.
Everyone else was getting tired as well. “That is everything for right now. We will check on the city tomorrow to see if it has repaired itself, holding the crowning ceremony for Emperor Michael, the official founding and ratification of our nation’s new Constitution,” Clarissa said. I clapped at that, so everyone else joined in. Thank the Almighty System that was over. I needed to get some rest.