I could see the shock on their faces that I had found out about their little scheme. Michelle was quite adept with her summons, including some smaller ones that could hide themselves. It wasn’t that hard to have one listen in on their conversation. It was a simple matter of having a soldier who knew the language listen in as the words were repeated back. That was Captain Francis thinking ahead and picking people who knew the remaining languages.

They didn’t have the stats needed to counter higher level monsters that Michelle could use. It was a glaring weakness, one I exploited to clearly remind them not to take me lightly or think they could exploit me.

My honor guard quickly collected the maps that had been provided as refreshments were brought out. They were of poor quality. The fruit juice was fairly weak, and the food served was also of the basic variety. I smiled at the salted cucumbers.

After enjoying some food, everyone seemed too nervous to speak. “I hope our humble fair doesn’t cause offense,” General Ali said.

“It is fine, if lacking preparation. But I suppose that is the nature of things. I am surprised that a council is in charge,” I said.

“It creates stability. If there is an unfortunate loss, our entire government won’t collapse into anarchy. No offense intended,” he replied.

“None taken. I can understand that concern. It has been an issue with some past governments. I just dislike councils. People hiding from the threat. Pushing the blame onto others. I am not a politician.”

“I would think that being Emperor, would make you one by default,” he replied.

“Perhaps. But this trip West to visit the remaining cities will be the last diplomatic trip for a long time. At least that is the hope. I plan to focus on exploring and grinding monsters. Perhaps test myself against a level 8 in the future,” I speculated out loud.

“I wish you success. If there is any support we can provide, please don’t hesitate to ask,” General Ali replied. I noted the council members were letting him take the lead on speaking to me.

“Doubtful, but the offer is appreciated in the spirit it was given.”

“I hate to press, but why not allow an embassy to your capital, or is it your intention to cut off your Empire from the rest of the Systemic Lands?” General Ali asked. I liked that he was using my name for his place.

“Yes. There will be no allowances for diplomats traveling to the capital city of Purgatory at this time. Indeed, the entire East half of the Systemic Lands is closed to all travel in that direction, unless personally approved by myself or Supreme Governor Clarissa,” I calmly replied.

“May I ask why?”

“The simple fact is, that terrorism is a threat that I don’t want to deal with. I also know that an embassy is just a fancy way of saying den of spies. I am not an idiot, and I don’t plan to pander to nations that don’t have something useful to trade. While it is harsh, the truth is, you are like some small country in Africa, while I am NATO,” I replied.

“Not just America?” General Ali asked with a forced grin.

“I control more than half of the Systemic Lands. My power is immense. Consider me America, and the rest all the other countries,” I answered.

“So, we just have to take it. I suppose that is the way of humanity. The strong dictate and the weak obey,” General Ali said.

“You can fight, and attempt terrorism. But New Kochi is being turned into a fortress city, and the border is and will continue to be carefully monitored for any attempted crossings or airships. Good news, is that you can do almost anything over here, and I won’t get involved,” I replied.

“I am surprised that you don’t even appoint your own embassy,” he said.

“There is no point. If we want to communicate, I will show up. An embassy is more so we can encourage your nation to buy our goods to help you out in future conflicts,” I replied.

“You plan to sell to all sides,” General Ali said with realization, and I grinned at him.

“Enchanted equipment is quite useful. If you don’t have any and the opposing side does purchase some, well things will get difficult,” I explained. I could sense the despair coming from the council members that were listening in.

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“We will take that into account when arranging our budget,” he said.

“It is nothing personal, but having a single nation, is too difficult to maintain with how people keep showing up. Also exporting will help my traders and cities.” What I wasn’t saying was that the vast majority of enchanting work down was done in Purgatory. A good boost for my capital city.

“I dislike the position we are in, but we can do nothing. Your strength, you could kill us all and we could do nothing. We accept your demands, but we are not happy,” General Ali said. That last part was a bit bold, but I could respect that.

“That is fine. The purpose of this meeting was to make your nation, along with the others, understand how things will be going forward. Thank you for the drink and food. Prepare your embassy, we leave in an hour. Let’s go,” I said the last part to my people and we left.

“That was short,” Michelle said.

“Short and sweet, how it should be,” I replied.

“They could try to make trouble in the future,” Captain Francis said.

“Let them. There is nothing they can do. Even if they have people cross by foot, we have people in the map room watching constantly for movement across the only land connection. An airship will show easily. That means they can only bother New Kochi, and that city is being turned into a fortress. The only option once it is done building will be an all-out assault,” I replied.

“And if that happens, they can hold off long enough until you return. But they could attempt to assassinate people,” Captain Francis suggested.

“I expect there to be assassinations and spies, but that is the point. To take the aggro from all the nations that are pissed at my heavy handedness. Let the fighting occur. Let them send out people to fight our citizens. The entire point of this half of the Systemic Lands is to be a graveyard. A couple more bodies added to that, due the result of their own security failures, is acceptable,” I replied as we boarded the small airship to go back up. So much nicer than climbing a rope.

“So, we pick up this embassy and then to the Southwest, Graystone?” Captain Francis asked me.

“Yes. As soon as they send their people, we can depart. No need to waste time in this pointless city,” I replied. I wasn’t even going to leave a spy behind or anything like that.

Originally when I had first come out West and the Crystal Vortex had been destroyed there were plans to have spies in case of a strong nation, which had the potential to resist me. Now, there was no point to go through that kind of headache or trouble.

I was content to bully my way through diplomacy. While others might think that The One, rolled over, they could actually think. Also, I really disliked that name for a nation. It was like naming your child He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It just didn’t flow well.

Now that would have been an interesting demand. Telling them to change the name of their nation since it annoyed me. I suspected they would, but that would create too much resentment. Right now, they were annoyed but terrified.

I wanted to keep that mindset of theirs going forward. I didn’t want to change it into hate. That was how we got desperate people doing desperate things. Well this place had been a nice change of pace, but there wasn’t anything truly worthwhile about this place.

Once the embassy showed up after fifteen minutes, we quickly left the city. I sat on the bridge in the chair to the right of the captains. I let Captain Francis have the main chair. This was his airship to command, and I was pleased by everything he had done so far. Letting him have the center chair was the respect I gave him for his position.

“That was a nice visit,” Michelle said to my right. She had chosen to sit up here as well.

“Well, it didn’t end in flames and purging a city. A plus on the next nation. I am thinking peace with Graystone and a purge of this Holy Kingdom,” I replied.

“Pre-judging?” Michelle asked me.

“While I don’t have a high opinion of their strength, they aren’t idiots in The One. Okay, that is a stupid name, don’t you agree?” I asked Michelle.

“Yes, it is a terrible name. Call your nation anything else. The One sounds like a name for a person who is quite full of themselves,” Michelle said.

“Well time to meet a Queen. Thankfully an Emperor outranks a Queen,” I said.

“Does that even matter? It is the person that makes the title, not the title that makes the person,” Michelle countered and I nodded at that.

“True. Perhaps I should change my title to something else. But I can’t think of anything better than Emperor that isn’t pretentious,” I muttered the last bit.

“What, God?” Michelle asked.

“No way. The Almighty System has that role. Sicario was a good title, even if it wasn’t English,” I said.

“It does role off the tongue,” Captain Francis chimed in.

“What title besides Emperor do you think I could pull off?” I asked Francis.

“Divine Emperor,” he suggested, and I considered that.

“Supreme Emperor,” Michelle said. I had used that in the past. It was catchy.

“Champion Emperor,” I said to get in on the suggestions. There was a comfortable silence after that. Each of us watching the land zip past as we flew towards our next city. There was a feeling of sadness, that there would be no more cities to find any time soon once this trip was over. In fact there was a good chance, there were no more cities.

There had been speculation that extra population might be sent to another area separated by a large stretch of void. If not, then it would take millennia for everyone from Earth to show up. While I was prepared to grind for a long time, that was too long.

I could see a decade, maybe two. But after that it would be hard to keep pushing forward, killing the same monster over and over. But that was probably what it took to become strong enough to clear the high level zones and towers safely.

Looking out the front window, I could see people grinding down below. It was nice in a way. To see that even separated, there were still commonalities between cities. That we were all human. There wasn’t an endless swarm of aliens or monsters on this half of the Systemic Lands.