The high empire of man, colloquially referred as the empire, was a very closed off country despite it's considerable territory, but such feat was possible mostly thanks to it's south and south-eastern borders being made with the great forest, it's west border being a long coastal area and the northern one possessing a perilous mountain range, meaning there was only one easy passage to it's territory.
While many still took passage from and towards Moonlith through the coastal areas where the forest was thinner and less aggressive, there was not actually much known about the place itself but that it'd been founded by an ancestral mage long dead, his legacy kept by several families of devoted disciples and servants while being a meritocratic land that had very harsh laws against any that were not human.
As for the actual country to the east... There was none. What you'd actually find there was a mish-mash of dukedoms, principalities, monster kingdoms and necropolises.
This would generally make a country have a very small economic base, but this was not true either, the inheritance from the mage having allowed for great technological marvels to moot such point. Be it better ships that were both bigger and faster, teleportation nodes or training methods for several monsters that could help transport their products through the mountains, the biggest producer of enchanted goods on the planet was able to work alone in both distribution and production of their own market, having quickly made itself into a notable powerhouse because of it's military and monetary power despite the lack of external relations to many, including the gods themselves.
All this made Duke Veruche very suspicious of the proposition in front of him, which explained how he could more than double his territory by investing heavily on said country's destruction. The fact his wife had also received a letter telling her to convince him this was a good idea also smelled strangely, but the laughing carricature at the end of each parchment really made it hard to take the thing seriously.
If even his youngest child hadn't tried convincing him in his own cute way, he'd probably have taken lesser measures.
Had any other noble of anywhere else known that one of the most bloodthirsty and rich man on the south side of the continent left great decisions of chance on the tiny hands of a baby, they probably die from vomiting blood or something equally unlikely outside of the fantasy of hiperboles.
*****
Another week went by, and when the vanguard arrived, there were already multiple reports on all but the northernmost countries about the fall of several noble houses, entire estates disappearing, sometimes heads of nobles left behind in stakes marked by one black heart being stabbed by three small blades.
No one really figured out why either, the involvement of Aki's territory not questioned about how they were getting several burst of freed slaves recently or their seemingly infinite money, because even if people knew it existed and had it monitored, men still measured everything with themselves as a reference, and no mather who was asked about it, the logistics, reasons and actual execution of such plan were all ridiculous to the point of being negligible when it was so much easier to blame one or several enemies you already knew wanted to drag you to hell.
The culprit, for all that it was worth it sneekered at every message of gaining XP because people had wrong conclusions about his heists. Because apparently that was a thing. It was right under the achievement section. That one part he tried to read whole but never seemed to get to the end.
It's not that it was specially long, it wasn't even a tenth the size of some inane lists actually, but it was made so it was impossible to read for long, to save where you left, and a hundred more inconveniences. And that was to someone with a level 4 clearance!
Looking around, he was quite happy his current jobs were about to be capped. And that they didn't have anything to do with sex anymore. He'd likely be changing to something more combat related by the time they'd be charging.
The job he'd gotten from getting a hundred jobs was another multiplicative, his stats getting another 110% to the actual growth rate. Plus the 'Shade' job getting more growth rate to both agility and dexterity, he was getting damn powerful. The several skill evolutions also helped even if they were not actually about his combat.
His son was almost three quarters of the way coming though, so even more good news. It was like everything was conspiring so he'd be a worse person really. With his powers it simply wouldn't be too late to change anything about the child even after it was born.
Damn did he want to get rid of this responsibility!
He complained on his mind as he smiled to the men and women in front of him. A war council was not a happy place, it was one where you had to convince people to die for the benefits of those deciding things. As long as the numbers didn't change more than they were worth, no one actually gave a fuck.
While those priests and warrior being sent to fight over something they believed to be greater than their lives generally had it 'better' because they were sent to do something 'right', it didn't mean things didn't work with the exact same equation here. War never changes, no matter who you fight with or against.
And yet his mussing were still much darker than what was actually going to happen.
Even if he wasn't powerful enough to simply subjugate the country's mentality, that didn't mean he'd simply let droves of people die for it.
By the time things were already done on the bureaucratic side of things, Aki was ready to help the five fronts. There wasn't actually that much to do though, the only other guy that could properly support the enemy army all at once rotting on his basement and having the time if his life in his coma.
As a true mage, he could do pretty much anything, from buffing thousands of troops with greater haste to putting thousands more to sleep so they could be captured easily. As a great enchanter, he could throw around magic disruptors that made it infinitely harder to resist whatever he did.
Killing a prepared spellcaster also wasn't any easier without some strange game rules restricting actions or the like either.
The real battle was his. He'd be the mage on a 3v3 fight, finally showing off his newly advanced arsenal. Everyone knew he had high stats because of his titles, but no one actually knew how high he went in comparison to 'normal', newly minted saints.
*****
Xera was feeling quite proud of herself, having finished painting the walls of the baby room the normal way. The little guy was going to sleep in the master bedroom till he was at least four, but they still needed a playroom, so she took to making it in her spare time.
She had lots of spare time.
Mari had her job as minister, Sera was the monster embassador, Aki was always doing something, Clair was at school and even Kora was on a 'training' getaway with that triton girl.
It was hard to believe, but she was starting to get bored of just reading shit novels and practicing her spear arts.
She'd made great leeway in her space slicing spear art, leveled up considerably, tamed her spear into submission, finished three books, bought sixteen more, yet she felt unfulfilled.
The ophidian could only blame that which her husband had pointed out, her tendency to fall into a routine and not really interacting with whoever was around. Despite how 'reclusive' he was, comparing his four friends to her zero made the situation seem quite bad too.
Hanging out with her family was completely normal, specially with how big it was even before she married an orc, but it just felt like taking the time out of everyone's busy new lives.
Even her laziest brother was trying to open a bar! Maybe it really was time to find an actual job since adventuring was now so easy outside of those planned quests Aki had. Or so she thought.
"Here's your office, your assistant is going to get here soon with some paperwork, tomorrow you can start with your more physical queen work" Grinned Mara, the tall lizard woman shoving her inside the fully decorated mahogany room with great view to the whole of Duran.
"All of this was ready just waiting for me? Seriously?" Questioned the woman who'd not actually given it much thought till now.
"Of course. The only other people not doing anything in the government are your grandfather and your mother. One has started a small food distributer and the other is splurging on her allowance all over the territory while sending letters every day." Scoffed her grandmother. "We all know you're not a devil with your words though, so your work would mostly be about interacting with high society, hold events and make sure some measures aren't too crazy for the normal folk." She explained.
Xera could not help but sigh in relief. She knew how to do that.
*****
After a battle even more intense than the last one, there was now a decapitated rogue, an armless emperor and a torched tanker laying by Aki's feet.
The war was practically won now.
From the military point if view, there'd be no more squirmishes or the like, but revolts and dissatisfaction would not simply dissapear because the country didn't have it's pillars anymore.
People were stupid, easy to scare animals, so there would be some focuses of resistance led by the more fanatic citizens, but they had never really lived in a democracy to begin with, so after some Indoctrination by the more divine gods, they'd stop worshipping their already fallen country and royalty to better obey the rules that would now be set upon them.
His ability to 'guide' those who resonated with his teachings would of course help with adaptation and compliance, but that would be much more of a long term project than making his own territory work.
Unless, of course, he obtained another divine title or fragment and/or died.
This thought immediately made Aki very self conscious. Not about his death granting power, he was acutely aware of how the general soul system worked, no, but about the fact that he'd forgotten to fill a petition to fight fallen and evil gods!
Such things were dangerous and usually only rewarding in XP, but one must know, there simply wasn't anything stopping the one that killed those things from absorbing whatever divine fragment they had hauled from wherever the fuck they hailed!
Aki had mixed feelings on this, but was ultimately glad his child would not actually have even more divinity in it's genes.
It raised the job cap and made a lot of shit possible, sure, but the side effects on a young mind were exactly what he was looking to avoid.
Now would actually be quite the good timing considering how it'd strengthen him. The power he had in mind was also quite fitting, so the sinergies would be good.
Few people even realised he was a tyrant, so if he tried hard enough maybe he'd get the divine title for it, not that he was actually too interested in it.
Of course, he'd not be going now, he was in the middle of an extra fake conversation, and then he'd need to parade the beat down man before publicly executing him in the capital and do a semi-heartfelt announcement.
It was a good thing people had never miss-understood him for the overly good guy, because he sure as heck wasn't even close to it no matter how many orphanages he opened and funded.