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The next day after the symposium, Edward had another meeting with his aunt, Amelia, to discuss official business.
The two sat at a diner table and ate without saying much. Once they finished, Amelia waved her hand and all the food on the table disappeared.
"How have you been doing since coming back?" she asked.
"Let's see. My wives have been given me the cold shoulder, my mother cuddled me too much, calling me every five minutes. I have many large projects to supervise on top of dealing with many issues of the Empire.
"How do you think I've been."
"Since you can walk properly and breathe normally, then you are fine," replied Amelia nonchalantly, ignoring her nephew's complaints. She knew if he was probably trying to find some excuse to be lazy and leave all the work to her.
However, the current situation did not allow for this. Over the past five years, she realized something. Although the Empire can function properly without Edward, it cannot be stabilized.
Edward is the key node that suppresses all the unrest, the extreme desire, and all the instability of the Empire. The moment people knew that he was not here, many people became restless and began to act out.
However, the moment he returned, these people quickly hid like rats in the sewer.
Amelia sighed after thinking about this, then ignored the pouting Edward and began her official business.
"We have chosen our target for the upcoming war."
"Who is it?" asked Edward with intrigue.
"It is a race we referred to as Steel Skin. However, their official name is the Fer Race. They lived in a star system for about 65.4 light-years away from us."
She sent him a document of all the information that the Empire has gathered on this race, while also summarizing the content.
"As the name implied, this is a magical race with very hard skin. Based on our study, some of their members' skin have high magic resistance and can be as hard as some very dense metals."
Edward had a holographic image of a humanoid race in front of him. The majority of them were very tall, with the tallest of them reaching 5 meters. Based on the information, even children of this race are born at least a meter tall.
However, this was not the main feature of this Fer Race. The main distinguishing feature is their skin color. At birth, their skin colors are grey. However, as they become more powerful, they will change.
At Tier 1, their skin will become yellow. Tier 2 is green, Tier 3 is purple, and Tier 4 is blue. So far, the highest level recorded for them is Tier 4.
Edward quickly focused on the anatomy of this race contained in the document. Based on previous dissection and study, the Fer Race does not have magic cores to store mana. Instead, mana is stored in their skin.
After quickly glancing at the analysis of their Life Code, he motioned for his aunt to continue.
"Although the Fer Race is a magical one, the development of their civilization is more focused on technology. They have already conquered their star system and are trying to develop faster than light technology to travel to other star systems."
Immediately, a large spacecraft appeared in the hologram: it was the Fer Race. The document contained an analysis of their level of technology. Based on the document, the Fer Race has developed nuclear fission and used it to power their spaceship.
After reviewing everything, he asked: "Why were they chosen as the target?"
"For many reasons. One, their technology is low enough that we can control the war. After all, this is our first Interstellar War. It is best to use a weak opponent as practice.
"Second, despite their advanced technology, the Fer Race's culture is very barbaric. In the conquest of their star system, they have basically massacred all other races on other planets.
"We can use their cruel actions to gain support for this war. As long as we control the media properly, few people will object to the war after we find a proper excuse."
Edward frowned after hearing this. In the future, he will go to war with other civilizations simply for benefit. If he has to find an excuse for war every time and has to control the media to control public opinion, things will become troublesome and a chore.
It would be best if the majority of people were more logical and could place the interest of the Empire over their morality, thus supporting all its decision without much resistance.
Of course, Edward knew this was not possible unless he deprived these people of their free will.
Another way to achieve this is to change the zeitgeist of the entire Empire. Over the years, he has been trying to do so. He made sure that the people placed more emphasis on knowledge and research.
He elevated the status of scholars to encourage people to take that path. He made sure that knowledgeable people not only have status, wealth but also power–both individual and political.
However, this was not enough if he wanted the unconditional support of the people. After all, many concepts and ideas of the old era are still present today. This is all due to how young the Empire is.
If he wants to achieve such a goal, then he would need to give all the people the belief in one great ideal or one unique goal, then ensure that they would be willing to do anything to achieve it.
After thinking about this, Edward quickly came up with a rough plan. In the future, one of his tasks would be to slowly indoctrinate all the people of the Empire–including the arcanists.
…
After Amelia saw her nephew deep in thought, she did not interrupt him. Once he regained his senses, she continued:
"The skin of this race is very valuable and can be used to replace many magical ores. According to recent research, once liquefy mana or crystallized mana entered the Fer Race's body, their skin will undergo a mutation.
"The new skin can replace many of the metals we use for creating our battleships and are cheaper. As long as we conquer them, we can farm their skin."
Edward nodded his head. Just like Dragon's heart can be constantly regenerated, the same is for the Fer's skin. That way, it will be considered a renewable resource.
"Did we manage to recreate their ability?" asked Edward.
"Yes. A new spell that could reinforce the skin was created after studying them. Plus, a while ago, a group of Aura Masters asked permission to study them to create a way to use aura to permanently change the skin to have the same property."
"This is a promising study," muttered Edward. If Arcanists could have such natural strong defense, that would be excellent. In the future, they will not have to worry that much about assassinations.
"Since the target has been chosen and studied to such extent, then we will use them."
"When do you want to start?"
Edward pondered for a moment. He had to wait for Olivier to establish herself in the navy for a while. Plus, he still had one major project to finish. With it, he will be more reassured in case something goes wrong.
Plus, he still wanted to take a small vacation.
"Let's wait for a while," he replied.
"In that case, I will have the Imperial Navy used Simulation Battles against our opponent as a form of training and preparation."
"Alright."
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