Ten more weeks passed away in the blink of an eye.
Qilin Empire and Pearl River kingdom lost the war against Genesis Federation, under the leadership of Commander Alina. It was actually a brutal war.
Unlike Shi Chong, the Ming Dynasty refused to bend his knee even when his defeat became certain. Even after Emperor Ming was killed, the war didnât end, as his son stubbornly continued to fight, and neither did most of the vassal lords try to rebel.
It was quite a bloody affair. Or else, it would have only taken Mark a couple of days to make it fall.
Alina tried her best to keep casualties to a minimum, but still, more than 400,000 civilian casualties and the death of 300,000 soldiers (thatâs almost 90% of the entire force) occurred in the end.
As a gesture of good faith for the former Kun Empire, the only empire that accepted the annexation without any resistance, the Entire Qilin Empire was merged into the kingdom of Kun, increasing its size bigger than the Golden Eagle Kingdom and turning it into the biggest vassal state.
As for the Pearl River kingdom, they gave up midway through the war, and hence, Mark handed back their governance, although with limited autonomy.
From the wars, the vassal state kingdoms started their recovery process. The robots were aggressively mining gold, ether ores, and rare materials all over the continent so that the economy would see stability very soon.
As if Mark put away his grudge, he also established friendly relations with the Dragon Empire, although it is strictly on trade and nothing else. He put an AI robot and a bunch of robots in every kind of department so that innovation would rise at a quicker pace.
He cannot initiate or execute policies directly without the Empress Regnantâs approval either, unless within the military domain.
As for the Empress Regnant, Shen Ling is the sovereign ruler who directly rules over the people. She had all the powers that a ruler would usually have, except that she wasnât a monarch who could just make decisions whatever she wanted.
In his absence, she would also take over his constitutional powers but share the authority with the Vice Chancellor over the military, each requiring the otherâs approval to make changes to the military, for the war, or whatever that is significantly big. And, when the Vice-Chancellor is also absent, she would have the power of the monarch.
Apart from those two, the third strongest existence in the country was the revived Genesis Cabinet, which even had the power to override Markâs veto or the Empressâ decisions, although it would need atleast a 75% vote. The head of the Genesis Cabinet was given the title Vice Chancellor, and at the moment, 18-year-old Shang Jiao, the youngest demigod in the history of mankind, was the Head.
The day of the departure arrived.
A lot of loved ones, once again, apart from Sylvandria, were gathered in a private chamber of the mansion as Mark, Shang Jiao, and their grand-uncle Shang Jing were prepared to leave.
And the entire room was filled with nothing but the cries of a baby; the 4-month-old Shen Yi clung to Mark like glue, not willing to leave him. As for 18-month-old Lu Shan, he just stood there, grabbing his momâs hand. He was completely calm and collected, although his eyes said otherwise. Tears welled up in those cute little eyes, but they didnât leave the eyes. His free wrist was tightly clenched as Mark soothed the baby girl and put her to sleep, giving her to Shen Lingâs best friend and personal maid.
As the three of them formed a circle and grabbed each other hands with a white colored stone put in the center, Lan Jing spoke, "Hold each other tight no matter what. If you miss, we will be stranded across the plane instead of directly returning home."
"We know, you have already said it, Grand-uncle. Letâs get over this," said Shang Jiao.