Chapter 40: Claim of the Empire

  Lily was hovering over the market square with her wings outstretched, and the sensation of beating them was still new to her. It felt strange and at the same time satisfying, because it allowed her to feel something real instead of relying on the [Fly] spell. The wings were probably magical too, since the whole idea of flight with such large wings defied any laws of physics she remembered. It was like how a dragon in a fantasy novel could fly—it was physically impossible, yet it worked. They were surprisingly responsive and far easier to control than she had expected. The way they moved with her felt almost natural, as if they had always been a part of her. It also gave her the faint impression of being some kind of fallen angel, which suited her current Demon Princess narrative quite well.

  She had to admit that she felt rather edgy in this moment, but in a good way, and if she had not been completely sure until the last second whether she should really go through with it, she was now certain that it was the right thing to do. After all, why should she hold back? She was in Xantia, in what was for all intents and purposes the real version of the world she had spent years playing, and she was living as her avatar. If she was going to play this game, she would do it by the rules she already knew better than anyone.

  The adrenaline hit her all at once when she noticed how more and more people spotted her in the air. The crowd below began to react exactly as she had imagined. At first there were gasps, then the excited murmurs and the startled pointing. The next moment, the noise became chaotic as people started screaming.

  Lily hovered calmly above them and watched the market unfold beneath her. The wide square, full of stalls, carts, and awnings, had turned into a mess of running people, scattered goods, and frightened animals. She also noticed that the Asara Bank across the plaza was sealing its heavy windows one after another, the sound echoing faintly even from her height. She tilted her head and thought to herself that they really still went into lockdowns in situations like this, which she found oddly amusing.

  When the crowd began to trample over itself in the confusion, with some trying to flee and others rushing closer to see what was happening, she saw a few opportunists slipping through the chaos to grab whatever they could from the stands. The sight made her cringe inwardly.

  People, she thought, sighing quietly, they are always the same. But yes, nothing beats a gun2isekai into the world you supposedly love…

  She cleared her throat, focusing her mana as the next step came to mind. If she wanted to claim Tiara, then her words had to reach everyone in the square. She whispered;

  [Sovereign of the Unholy Court]

  The air around her thickened immediately as a dark, pulsing mist began to spread from her wings. Red and black colors wavered together and then drifted downward in heavy waves until the entire marketplace was covered by it. It rolled across the ground and up the walls like a tide of smoke until the people below were wrapped in a faint haze. The sound of panic softened and then changed into something slower, more uncertain, as if a heavy weight had pressed against the hearts of everyone beneath her.

  The aura wrapped around the square like a living blanket, and the noise of the market faded into uneasy silence. The people no longer screamed, and their eyes turned upward again, drawn to her by something more powerful than fear. Even from above she could feel the tension in their minds, the way the aura pushed against them, demanding attention and obedience.

  She waited until the quiet had settled before she began to speak. Her voice was not loud, but the sound carried easily, flowing through the mist until it reached every corner of the square.

  “Hear me, people of Tiara,” she said, her voice steady and clear. “I am Princess Lilithia Nocturne, Princess of the Abyss, Ruler of the Damned, and Blood of the High Demons.”

  The words felt right as they left her mouth. They carried a strange certainty, as if they had always belonged to her, and she continued without hesitation.

  “I stand before you as the representative of the great Guild of Doomsday, one of the Pillars of the Xares Empire, the eternal Empire that never falters and never truly falls. As one of its remaining true Princesses, I hereby claim authority in these lands until the old ways are established again, and as such, I have come to make injustice just once more.”

  Her tone deepened as she spoke, and her wings spread wider, the red light from her armor glowing brighter with every word as she began to pour mana into it slowly. The faint veins of power that traced along the dark metal came alive one after another, pulsing like embers under her skin, and the air around her grew heavier. The people listened, caught between awe and fear, and even those who still trembled seemed unable to look away from her figure suspended above them, radiant and terrifying in equal measure.

  “As the Empire rises again on this day,” she continued, “I am here to free you and to lead you back into the rightful arms of the Empire that once held half the continent and cared for all its people. Hear me, Tiara. The world has forgotten the principles of the Empire, and it is time to show that the Xares Empire never ceased to exist. Three hundred years of silence are over, and it is time to reclaim what is rightfully mine. From this day onward, I, Princess of the Abyss and one of the ten Imperial Princesses still standing after all this time, Guildmaster of Doomsday and part of the hammer of the Empire, declare these lands to be part of the Eternal Empire once again. Tiara will be the first step toward a new ascension.”

  Her voice echoed through the mist until the last word faded into stillness. The city had gone silent, and she hovered there for a moment, breathing out slowly. Her pulse was quick, but the rush of it filled her with something close to satisfaction.

  “That was quite a speech,” she murmured to herself. “I suppose all the practice from the royal court roleplay helped, but this time I might have surpassed myself...”

  While she was speaking, the market square had filled even more. It was no longer just merchants and civilians. Soldiers were pressing in from the surrounding streets, and among the crowd she could see nobles, some of them still in their fine Salon clothes. The nobles of Tiara had always been drawn to spectacle, and now they stood frozen, their eyes turned skyward, watching her in awe. She even spotted Gideon at the edge of the market, standing among them with his usual unreadable calm.

  When her speech ended, the murmur began again, the sound of confusion, fear, and excitement. Her aura of [Sovereign of the Unholy Court] still lingered like a veil over the square, and although it had been meant for smaller places like a throne room rather than an open plaza, its influence was still noticeable. It had always been more of a symbolic aura, a flavor skill that carried presence and weight, but its effects were not without power.

  Effects:

  ? Demons and corrupted beings will not attack first

  ? Summoned or tamed demons gain increased attack speed within range

  ? Mortals feel a flicker of the instinct to kneel before higher authority, suppressed but noticeable

  The last effect was the one she had wanted the most, because even if the people did not fall to their knees, they felt the pull of it. She looked over the scene below with calm satisfaction.

  “It is time for the next act,” she murmured under her breath.

  Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the soldiers forming around one man near the center of the crowd. The officer shouted orders and his men pushed through the people, trying to reach a clear line toward her position. Their formation was steady despite the confusion, and she could already feel the tension rising again in the air.

  “So,” she said quietly to herself, her gaze fixed on them, “Act Two begins.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The soldiers were pushing through the crowd, forcing the people aside as they formed a line directly beneath her. No one who had gathered in the square showed the slightest intention of leaving, because everyone wanted to see what would happen next. There was fear in their eyes, and it was clear that they all felt the weight of what was unfolding above them. Yet within that fear there was something else, something that made Lily hesitate for a moment. She thought she saw confusion, but also, in some faces, a spark of something almost like hope.

  Maybe I imagined it, she thought quietly to herself, but this world has shown me enough already to know one thing for certain: it obeys the rule of the strong.

  It was a truth she had felt deep inside since the first day she had arrived here, an itch beneath the skin, something that guided her decisions more than logic ever could. It told her that if she walked this path, then things would go well for her, and everything inside her agreed that this was the right way to do it. The subjugation event had shown her that people, no matter how alive and real they seemed, were still predictable like NPCs from Xantia. They reacted the same way, followed the same patterns, and obeyed the same invisible rules. They were not NPCs, yet they behaved like them, driven by the ingrained laws that every world demanded from its people.

  It was not so different from Earth, where life had always been ruled by unspoken codes of behavior. When someone sneezed, you said bless you. When someone walked the streets without pants, they were arrested. These things made no sense on their own, yet society had agreed that they were necessary, and so they became laws that no one questioned. The difference was only in scale, because when you held enough power, you could bend those same laws until they became whatever you wanted them to be. Eventually, if you were strong enough, you could change the entire future of a world simply by existing within it.

  The officer at the front raised his sword and shouted up at her with all the authority he could muster. “Foul demon, you are in the Kingdom of Burm. No one will bend a knee to you. Prepare for your destruction. I’m Ser Mortimer Claude, and I will end your reign of terror here and now!”

  Lily looked down at him and could not help the small thought that slipped through her mind. Tsk, and they say I use cheesy lines. It did not change anything though, and she answered with steady calm while her wings still beat softly above the mist. “Mortal, that was not a question. It was a fact. Tiara is mine from this day forward.”

  The officer laughed, his voice shaking but loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Pah! What will a single demon even do? You and which army? You are megalomaniacal!”

  Ah yes, Lily thought, the good old trash talk before a fight. A small smile tugged at her lips beneath the helm. “You ask which army I command,” she said, her tone cool and composed, “but I ask which army could stop me?”

  Probably a big enough one, but there is no such army here, so I am fine.

  “Do not underestimate us, foul demon,” the officer roared again. “Men, get ready to attack!”

  Lily tilted her head slightly as she watched them. She wondered how they even planned to attack her when she was hovering twenty feet above the ground, but the answer never came. The officer’s head suddenly burst apart in a crimson spray.

  The soldiers froze where they stood, and the people screamed. In the next moment, one of her Demonbounds appeared beside the fallen officer. The motion had been too fast for anyone to see clearly. Thirra’s distorted voice echoed through the market, the words drawn out by the demonic inflection that still lingered in its new form. “Do not darrreee to even think about laying your dirrrty hands on the Prrrincess, lowly human!”

  The strike had been clean and merciless. Since the officer had not even tried to defend himself, he was clearly nowhere near Thirra’s level, and the soldiers realized that as well. They stumbled backward, staring wide-eyed at the creature standing among them, the black aura around it flickering like shadowed flame.

  Without their leader, the soldiers hesitated, whispering to one another, uncertain what to do. Lily watched the scene from above, her eyes widening slightly when Thirra killed the officer without even blinking, the strike landing in less than a heartbeat. Since Lily hadn’t been focusing on Thirra, and because this Demonbound was obviously built around speed and assassination skills, even she hadn’t seen the movement coming. And considering she had, in fact, given Thirra the order to protect her, she couldn’t even complain about it when the officer had just announced he would attack.

  Still, the sudden violence pulled her slightly out of her game-character mindset. It felt hypocritical to expect that no one would die because of her from now on, even indirectly, but it was a hard thing to watch without feeling a pang of unease. Was I really right about this? Is it really okay to force myself onto these people just because I want a place for myself? What had started as a simple desire to reclaim a home like the one she’d built in the game had already spiraled into something much larger—a dream of restoring an empire.

  But then again, when she recalled her encounter with the inquisitor and her general impression of this world, she wondered if it was truly wrong to carve out a place where she wouldn’t have to fear being hunted. She was what she was now, and hiding forever in the shadows, afraid someone might see through her masquerade and recognize the demon beneath, didn’t feel right either. The mixed lands she had once known were gone, and even the demon territories had vanished entirely. Isn’t it right to fight for your own ideals, she thought, when you believe you can build something better, something that might actually help everyone?

  Lily agreed with herself that sometimes bad things had to be done to achieve the greater good. The thought steadied her, and she caught herself before the doubt could spread. There was no point in hesitation now. So, she used the confusion below to descend slowly until her feet touched the edge of the market platform behind Thirra. The mist from her aura still drifted across the square, and her voice, calm and resonant, carried easily through it.

  “Mortals,” she said, her gaze sweeping across them, “I give you a choice. You may accept my rule and swear loyalty to me, and you may prove it now by following me to the city castle. Or you may die an honorable death for your comically named kingdom. I mean honestly, Burm? Really?”

  She still kept her aura active, but she had no intention of forcing them with it. She only wanted to nudge their emotions, to see what they would do on their own. This was an experiment as much as an act of conquest. I need to know if humans in this world react really like the NPCs in Xantia, she thought. In the game, when an invading guild was winning, townsfolk and soldiers would often switch allegiance. They were resources, and resources were meant to be claimed. Conquest meant ownership, and ownership meant loyalty.

  The soldiers exchanged nervous glances, unsure of what was expected of them. Lily waited in silence because she wanted to give them the time to make their own decision. The moment stretched until one of them finally stepped forward, trembling as he dropped to one knee. His voice broke as he looked up at her. “Please, Imperial Princess, have mercy on our souls. We all know the stories of the Empire, but they are long-forgotten history to us. We did not know better. Forgive us, and I swear on my name that I will follow you if you promise the safety of my family.”

  Another soldier followed him, then another, and then the rest. One by one they fell to their knees, some with tears in their eyes, all pleading for her mercy and protection. The sight felt strange and unreal.

  Is this happening because of me, or because this world still runs like a game? she wondered, feeling an uneasy thrill spread through her chest. Ah, whatever. It works.

  “Stand up,” she said at last, her voice steady and regal. “I honor my word. I will not harm you or yours as long as you stay loyal to me. You will be part of the foundation for the Empire’s return, and together we will build a future more prosperous than anything you have ever known.”

  The men rose slowly, nodding in unison, and the crowd that had remained around the square broke into a wave of voices. The noise filled the air, echoing between the stone walls of the nearby buildings.

  “Follow me to the city castle. We will take control of Tiara and bring it under the rule of the Empire.” Lily said, raising her voice so that it carried above the commotion.

  The soldiers straightened, forming a loose line around her. Without an officer to command them, they were eager for direction, and her clear voice filled that void. At first, they moved hesitantly, but once the formation took shape, confidence began to grow among them.

  Thirra stood at her side as they began to move down the wide street toward the noble district, the crimson haze still swirling faintly around them. The soldiers marched in the center, and behind them came the crowd, drawn by fear, curiosity, and the sense that they were witnessing something far greater than themselves.

  Lily knew she did not truly need the soldiers. They were a symbol more than a necessity, proof to everyone watching that she was, in fact, a legitimate ruler, or at least that she would be one after this day. The mixture of her aura, their fear for their families, and the social conditioning that demanded obedience to strength made them follow. She was certain that she could not repeat this so easily once the story spread, because the next city would be prepared, with loyal soldiers and ready defenses.

  For now, though, she would make the best of it.

  They walked the main street, she at the front with Thirra, the line of soldiers close behind, and a growing mass of townsfolk trailing after them. The sound of their footsteps echoed across the city like the rhythm of a new beginning.

  Lily glanced once at the crowd and thought that perhaps it was understandable. When something life-altering happens in your city, she thought, you either run or you follow to see how it turns out, and right now, everyone seems to prefer following.