Thump. Thump.

Julius ran smoothly along the stairs. He put on a new dragon-vinyl overcoat over his shoulders that he requested Solomon to make. The entire overcoat was black, but the vinyl was a shade of black. However, it was visible to separate itself from the primary color. The shoulders were thin plated with an Elefantstahl equivalent, which has no name because of being entirely new. Solomon developed it from the spot with the only materials available. He was unexpectedly an excellent tailor. He doesn't outright admit it, keeping the skill quiet. Multidisciplinary at its finest. That is some insight, as Julius considered himself as one too. Maybe in that regard, he had something worth the time to add in.

His new residence was in conjunction with the bridge leading to the tower and the main palace. The general room was originally the resting place and was empty and reconstructed into Empress Cai’s permanent place. It was across the hallway, opposite Julius’s room. The entire first floor was as big as his prior house back in Colemond. There were fewer dividers or walls as the most used space was libraries, the kitchen, and the dining room. What was remaining was a gathering living space that connected in a relative location to the entrance of the residence.

Walking down the stairs as the sun slowly rises on the horizon through one of the upper windows, Julius prepares for the upcoming guests at any moment now. He ran aggressively into the kitchen, setting up the ceramic cups on the coffee table directed at the center of the couch set.

Even though the transition process has been temporarily halted, the entire residence was still stocked with all the necessities. It was when Julius opened one of the cabinets in the kitchen, revealing the full inventory of alcoholic drinks in fresh containers and ceramic bottles. What a surprise, I didn’t know she was a drinker. Along the entire cabinet, most are baijiu and a few distilleries. He took two bottles of baijiu and placed them on each side of the table, one facing the other.

Knock!

He heard the door knock from the entrance. Julius used minor telekinesis with his qi, opening the door from afar. A gathering was waiting patiently outside, seeing the door open. He called them in, followed by a wave. Gesturing to the living spaces, they all went to sit down. Six individuals came. All wore battlefield outfits with black coats over their shielded torsos. Similar to Julius’s, each has their own vinyl respect for mythological creatures or animals that define them and potentially their roles.

A few familiar faces with new ones sitting on the couch. Then Daiyu dashed through the door, appearing next to the table and serving the drinks before Julius could utter a word. So, he sat down in his chair, facing right at the three, who were sitting on the couch.

“Let’s get started. I hope we all can understand the quick adjustments based on the ongoing situation. And it might break some precedents that have been set before me. As long as we all can understand that, I appreciate it,” he stated, turning his attention to the first of the two lady twins, who were sitting on the further left. “Feng, I heard the House of Kang is further embracing their support to me, partially because of the victory, and expressed collaboration to bring this dynasty back together. I accepted the final decision sincerely.”

Feng was around average height, fairly brunette with long hair down past her shoulders, and a resting serious face that could be misinterpreted if she was in a bad mood. If he recalled from brief information, she was the oldest, and a brief glance to the right was where her younger sister, Ying, sat. Her display of appeal was entirely the opposite. Calmer, relaxed, and friendlier by body language, but very attentive.

Feng held the ceramic cup with both of the palms of her hands, taking a sip of the baijiu. “You really are different, seeing you in person. Other than my younger sister and my parents, the whole associates and other members of the family tried to dissuade us from proceeding with this meeting or even accepting your appointment for me and Ying to be in your cabinet. Your first impressions relieved my concerns.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“I appreciate the compliments. I chose all of you as my cabinet members because I have received all the records and decided pretty quickly according to your histories and services while under Empress Cai’s rule. A couple of you have been around since her father, but we don’t talk about him…Anyway, it’s nice to meet you all, and I anticipate our work relations will strengthen throughout until the end. To start off, how much of Longyue has been decimated from the raid attacks?”

“Around five hundred thousand civilians at a minimum,” Solomon replied. He sat on the armchair across from the couch at Julius's direct right. “Once more reports are carefully read, it should be significantly higher than most of the capital’s working districts are destroyed.”

Motherfucker! Julius rubbed his head before resting it on his right hand. “That leaves our complex and potentially nearest districts around here surviving?”

“Very likely,” Yin responded, taking her first sip of baijiu. “House of Kang was lucky to survive the blitz. In particular, we have a couple of cultivators at our side.”

“What about the other sects residing in the capital?”

Yin shrugged. Others have no answer either. Three sects and two-family houses, including the House of Kang, are spread out throughout the capital. The five have control of various parts of the city, acting like a local government of the region they claim. In that structure, they would report to the palace on variant issues and desires they proclaimed each week or month. It was more of a free-for-all during Empress Cai father’s reign. When she took over, she attempted a change for more accountability. Being in the aspects of West Cai Dynasty’s politics, the massive corruption as shown through the old male officials during that day when Julius killed them was only the moment needed to break the lock. Now with the attack of the capital, assumingly they were destroyed or in hiding.

Julius brought up one of his first acts as the emperor was to carry out an investigation to find all of them. Any evidence or, if anybody survived, gather all of it to the capital. It doesn’t make sense if they were completely demolished, as the House of Kang survived with only a few cultivators on duty, protecting their property. On the map that Ying brought out on the table, they revealed they were landlocked at the center by the other four. In retrospect, the palace complex on a high plateau was right in the north, near the edge of the paper. Looking south were many districts filling the geopolitical map of Longyue.

The five controlling regions were color-coded. House of Kang is insignificant compared to the other four. Following the color of silver, Julius scanned the map, leaning forward.

“A city this large...how can they fuck up this horrendously? Something doesn't add up with having five ruling groups and leaving only one. I don’t believe that at all,” Julius commented with a sense of denial. He doesn’t buy the picture where they had all this land, and the general overview of the four groups all shared the higher enrollment and enlistment. Added to all that together, Longyue shouldn’t have been decimated. “Where was everybody during this time of protection?”

Solomon, rubbing his chin, brought up the theory. “This might sound silly, but since I was at the Rain Swamp War from the beginning; what if those soldiers are in uniformed clothing where we can’t depict who they are? With the possible poor management, they deployed most of their arsenal here, leaving the capital exposed…” he paused, turning to one of the Kang twin sisters and bringing up a question. “Did the House of Kang deploy any of their units down to the swamps?”

“I—”

Feng interrupted Yang with her arm out, insisting she should talk about this one. “At most it was half. My father, being the head leader, announced on the day he would only go up to the half limit at the anger of his associates and other members of the family. He refused, knowing that would be suicide. And by the end of it, that refusal saved us as the result. Funny enough, the associates haven’t shown gratefulness for this matter, keeping it quiet.”

Yang followed up her statement while glaring an eye a little back at Feng, appearing not pleased at getting cut off before turning back to Julius. “As I was saying…I was going to mention my father, but also what my sister forgot to mention was how much disaster the leadership was all around us. Broken, corrupted, and hell. Most people don’t know that from the outside. Always thinking they are operating well. They lived all their lives, only to be killed by this raid.”

Julius leaned back in his seat, scooting down with his head lying on the back of the armchair. He took a moment to digest all the info as it was processing through the depths of his mind like a computer server gathering data, increasing the usage of the storage space.

The entire meeting continued for the next half an hour as he got introduced to the other three individuals that he invited over.