### Chapter 278: Unexpected Father?
Eternal Night World, Azurevine Empire, Maple Spirit Moon Shadow Palace.
During the cabinet meeting, the Empress of Eternal Night and the cabinet discussed the domestic and international situation. Their expressions were not entirely relaxed, but at least much better than the somber oppression of the previous days.
The massacre by the Six Gods Alliance had amplified the sense of accomplishment from slaying Teyvalla. The anticipated “meal” prepared for the gods had become defunct before it was even served.
The people of the empire would not surrender before Her Majesty the Empress, yet they felt the difficulty of the war had increased exponentially. They were unsure how to proceed.
On the bright side, although the gods displayed an attitude of destruction, saying “What has this to do with you?”, mortals, through past accumulation, had developed a considerable ability for self-preservation.
At least they still had a chance to fight for themselves.
The Natural Selection Front was established, and the God-Slaying Maze system resisted the gods’ attacks. Though the empire made immense sacrifices, pouring in significant manpower and resources to set an example, they ultimately managed to stabilize the battle.
The transition to a wartime economy had caused a significant decline in the empire’s civilian life, and various entertainment activities were restricted. The good news was that the imperial citizens were highly understanding and provided a great deal of support.
This could be considered a benefit of awakening the populace, couldn’t it?
The older cabinet ministers felt that with the empire’s widespread enlightenment, many policies could no longer be implemented as freely as before. The people would analyze them, offer their own interpretations, and even organize online petitions that caught the Empress’s attention, ordering them to provide an explanation within a deadline.
A thinking populace, commoners capable of analysis, were certainly not the ones who would do whatever they were told in the past. They would weigh their own benefits against the benefits the powers that be could gain.
The phenomenon of the Fearless Space allowed information to flow too rapidly and too easily. The proportion of internet users in the Azurevine Empire was 99.9%. Even people with disabilities could successfully experience a normal body online through virtual soul bracelets.
The remaining 0.1% were simply too young to have normal self-care abilities, and thus were not eligible to log into the Fearless Space.
In such an environment, idle officials felt incredibly uncomfortable as their work was entirely supervised by the people. Any personal gain could be scrutinized.
However, most of the time, it wasn’t personal gain. It was simply that due to different positions and differing information access, administrative officials’ perspectives tended to be more macroscopic, carrying the possibility of misinterpretation.
While misunderstandings could always be resolved, for the older generation of officials accustomed to governing with rough methods in the past, it was inevitable that they would feel the imperial citizens had become smarter, and also greedier, wanting too much.
In short, they were becoming increasingly difficult to please, posing all sorts of challenges to everyone’s governance and management skills.
Yet, when the empire fell into difficulty and the gods’ threat to mortals became public within the Fearless Space, the imperial citizens swiftly demonstrated their strong support for the empire.
The Azurevine Empire’s wartime economic transition was as smooth as possible, not only because of its efficient and incorruptible internal administrative system, which had always been prepared for such eventualities with contingency plans, but also because the imperial citizens wholeheartedly supported this war.
The commoners in other countries and worlds might not understand why wars between different worlds should affect their taxes or force them to plant specific crops.
But the imperial citizens only needed to read the publicly available information, supplemented by explanations and propaganda from various media outlets and opinion leaders, to naturally understand the immense threat posed by the gods and their merciless animosity towards mortals.
Under normal circumstances, the people would be willing to donate three months’ salary if the Empress wished to expand the territory. Now, at a time of life and death for the empire, without much mobilization, orders to fully drive the empire’s war machine were smoothly executed.
Their God-Slaying Maze then served its defensive purpose, holding the divine army at bay outside the fortress lines. Recent military operations had also expanded the territory controlled by the Natural Selection Front, narrowing the gap in strength between the two sides.
The initial “theory of rapid demise” that mortals might have faced had lost its market. The cooperation between the imperial fleet and the Heavenly Bright Army had achieved results that convinced the people. Citizens of various worlds, to protect their own survival, had gained more confidence and were willing to contribute their utmost to this cause.
Under these circumstances, the pressure on the cabinet was also gradually decreasing, and their hope of victory was expanding…
Of course, this was only psychological. Previous reserves were being depleted. Even with the mobilization of resources from different planes, the God-Slaying Fortress and the imperial fleet were massive consumers of resources. Angelina was desperately mobilizing resources to ensure the front lines could complete the commander’s tactical deployments.
The imperial citizens had already started tightening their belts, while other countries were gritting their teeth to sustain the war effort.
The Azurevine Empire was, after all, too young. Even as a mortal nation with centuries of history and ancient nobility, compared to the eons of the divine faction, which could easily sacrifice several planes for supplies, they were like paupers.
“Tell them to slow down a bit. Our material allocation can only meet 70% of the target. Even our production lines can’t operate at unlimited overload. The yield of good products has decreased too drastically.”
The Minister of Industry presented detailed data, outlining the empire’s current bottleneck.
“The planes we’ve occupied also need development and construction to facilitate the flow of materials. All of this takes time.”
Other ministers concurred. While war bordered on destruction, if they ultimately achieved victory, the Azurevine Empire would reap significant benefits.
Many present had become representatives of the new bourgeoisie. They supported the war not only to avoid death but also in the hope of reaping exponential returns from this crisis.
The Empress of Eternal Night’s nature certainly did not wish to halt the progress of continuous offense. She harbored an inexplicable unease in her heart.
However, her will could not be transformed into productivity. Insufficient material supply was a tangible problem. No matter how much they squeezed officials and citizens, they couldn’t create something out of nothing.
The empire’s current war expenditure was not on basic materials; it involved magic crystal machinery processed by industrial workers, representing the pinnacle of mortal control over matter and energy in this universe. The final processing steps could only be completed domestically, and one couldn’t simply hire a bunch of laborers to boost output.
New production lines were under construction, and the occupied planes held immense development potential, but all of that required time and wouldn’t be ready for the next offensive.
“Then, as all my esteemed ministers suggest, we shall temporarily slow our offensive pace.”
The Empress of Eternal Night could only reluctantly agree to everyone’s suggestion and sent an order to Roger’s headquarters at the God-Slaying Fortress, adjusting the strategy to defense in the short term.
After the meeting, she called out to Margaret.
“Your Majesty, what are your orders?”
Margaret’s voice was respectful, but lacked its former vitality.
The little demon no longer felt any extra joy from being singled out by the Empress, attributing it to favoritism.
The war pace was too intense and frequent. She felt like an overloaded fan, spinning madly among volunteer troops from different worlds, with the constant danger of being thrown off balance.
When the Empress of Eternal Night kept her behind for any task, she felt a step closer to collapse.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have any extra tasks for you.” The Empress of Eternal Night smiled faintly seeing her skittish demeanor. “I am simply curious. After so many years without Dio, aren’t you curious?”
“Dio? Oh… him.” Margaret actually had to recall for a moment before remembering the name, a smile appearing on her face as she reminisced about some past times. “I used to be curious, but now I’m too busy to wonder.”
“You are friends, aren’t you? Even in this situation, he hasn’t returned to help. Aren’t you worried?”
“Friends drift apart, don’t they? Besides… we were just friends, weren’t we?”
“Do you truly think so?”
“Does it matter what I think? He’s not going to appear before me anyway!”
The little demon gave a self-deprecating laugh. “The world is so dangerous, he might have died somewhere. That would be quite a shame. He was a good talent discovered by Your Majesty.”
Times had changed, much like in an over-leveled game where a new version renders a previous era obsolete. Dio’s astounding performance at the time might now only elicit a “Is that all?”
The Empress of Eternal Night observed Margaret’s expression with curiosity, feeling that she genuinely didn’t care, and felt a touch of envy.
This most petty and vengeful person could actually appear more magnanimous than herself?
In fact, she had been thinking about some things recently and sought some external perspectives for reference.
However, Margaret’s reaction pointed in a direction that she herself was quite resistant to.
It made her feel as if Margaret was saying, “I’m an adult now, Your Majesty, don’t treat me like a child who gets hung up on trivial matters!”
But if you didn’t get hung up, if you were magnanimous and detached for the sake of the bigger picture… wouldn’t that make her appear petty?
She couldn’t let that happen!
The Empress of Eternal Night hesitated, then decided to do something a bit unsavory, throwing out a bombshell to provoke Margaret.
She said meaningfully, “Mary, what if I told you Dio isn’t dead at all, but has been by your side all along, under another identity?”
Margaret was indeed taken aback for a moment, but quickly smiled nonchalantly. “He’s not dead? That’s good. He helped me quite a bit, so I wish him well.”
“That’s it?”
“What else?”
Margaret felt a bit confused by the content of their conversation today.
It was too casual, completely uncharacteristic of the Empress of Eternal Night.
The Empress of Eternal Night felt a slight irritation in her chest and knew she couldn’t continue the conversation, as the clever Margaret might guess something. She could only feign nonchalance and say, “I see. You have indeed grown a lot. Go, be busy.”
Margaret’s mind was indeed filled with endless work. Without further thought, she took her leave after receiving permission.
As she walked out of the Maple Spirit Moon Shadow Palace, her expression changed slightly, showing a hint of relief. “So that’s how it is. It’s always been like this… How interesting.”
She was still smarter than the Empress of Eternal Night had assumed, or perhaps it was a woman’s intuition. She had spent many sleepless nights pondering many things repeatedly.
Now, with indirect confirmation from the Empress of Eternal Night, she was basically certain.
But so what?
Could knowing that two people were one and the same defeat the detestable gods?
Busy Mary, no time for romance!
After Margaret left, the Empress of Eternal Night reclined on her throne, her brow furrowed tightly.
“Enlightenment… living in the moment… letting go? Is it really that I appear to care too much, that I’m too tsundere?”
She sighed softly, feeling that if that person took the initiative next time, even if she didn’t forgive him, she shouldn’t act so excessively.
She wasn’t always a young girl; she had to mature and become an adult, a sophisticated woman…
No, Teyvalla herself is gone. Her methods must have had huge flaws, they definitely did!
…
…
God-Slaying Fortress.
“Have we reached our limit? But it’s fine, we need a break too.”
Roger was now the overall commander on the front lines. He commanded not only the slightly overstaffed Imperial Second Fleet but also all the newly formed fleets of the Natural Selection Front, which were subordinate to the God-Slaying Fortress and formed the first line of defense for the entire system.
The imperial suggestion to transition to strategic defense had arrived. Although worded as a suggestion, seeing the subsequent production metrics, Roger understood that continuing the offensive would mean depleting their developmental potential.
Moreover, he felt that the number of worlds controlled by the God-Slaying Maze had reached a critical point. The gods could not completely breach their defense system in the short term, and the soldiers in the fleets were not robots that could operate indefinitely under high-intensity warfare.
A period of rest and recuperation was indeed necessary, followed by preparations for the next round of offense, making the gods pay an even greater price.
This was a long night. No matter how urgent they felt, they couldn’t simply start a fire to usher in dawn at this moment.
After forwarding the empire’s suggestion to Shana and attaching his own thoughts, he summoned Xiao Qiao’i, who now served as his adjutant.
As the God-Slaying Fortress became increasingly busy and various factions mingled, the Night Guard also had to maintain order here.
The gods were not simple-minded brutes; some strong individuals were being infiltrated and offered eternal divine positions.
There would always be those who harbored wishful thinking, believing that even if the universe were destroyed, becoming a god would ensure their survival.
This created the possibility of internal sabotage, meaning threats existed even within the Natural Selection Front.
With spare capacity, Xiao Qiao’i resumed her role as his adjutant. The two collaborated seamlessly, alleviating much of his pressure.
Her dream of commanding heavy cavalry had not been realized, and she could only command fleets of mega-ton heavy assault ships to tear through the divine army’s defenses.
With a beauty by his side, some of the psychological issues brought on by the accumulated war pressure found a way to be alleviated.
Roger and Xiao Qiao’i conveyed the tasks that the God-Slaying Fortress needed to undertake during the defensive phase. After reaching an agreement, they prepared to convene all the generals from the various worlds to relay this decision.
“Yes, sir.”
Xiao Qiao’i stood up but suddenly covered her mouth and rushed towards the restroom.
“What kind of vigorous ingredients did you eat to make even a legendary figure feel nauseous?”
Roger teased, but his gaze was full of concern. He followed her and found her giving him a rather resentful glance.
He suddenly had a thought. Sensing another faint life sign within her, a still chaotic soul continuously growing, he immediately realized something. “Our child?”
She blushed and nodded gently.
He didn’t know what to say. After so many years of transmigration, suddenly becoming a father…
It felt quite surreal.
Although the timing was not ideal, the joy, satisfaction, and sense of accomplishment brought by the new life still filled his mind. He instinctively hugged Xiao Qiao’i from behind.
She instinctively leaned back, resting against his solid chest, her hand stroking her still unmarked abdomen. She also felt various bodily changes brought on by her pregnancy.
