I'm The Evil Lord Of An Intergalactic Empire!

There are several reasons as to why someone would leave their child with another house .

One of them is so that they can grow properly under a strict environment for a while, but the more important one is the possibility to form connections between houses .

Entrust your child to a firm house, forming a relationship that both sides can benefit from in the future .

Sometimes, children are entrusted to houses that they’re already connected to, but the training in and of itself is still very important .

I was finishing up the day’s work in the office with Amagi’s a.s.sistance .

Maid androids sure are amazing .

All my paperwork was easily completed .

In the Empire, ruling with the support of AIs and androids is something to be frowned upon .

This is due to how they revolted and overthrew humanity in the past, leading to their current low-standing and minimal use .

Originally, I was supposed to have a mult.i.tude of va.s.sals and subordinates prepared for me, but the Banfield house had a distinct lack of human resources .

This was the fault of my parents and grandparents .

From my perspective, they were incompetent .

They neglected the territory, and fled to live luxurious lives in the imperial capital .

However, it’s only because of them that I got to be born with so many advantages, so I don’t really care that they abandoned me .

Not to mention the fact that I have the guide on my side .

He’s a being that’s always watching over me while giving me support .

The ‘after-sales’ services that he provided for me is proof of that, so he’s definitely a reliable ent.i.ty that I can trust .

I need to make sure to give my thanks to him today as well .

As I stretched while pondering as such, Amagi gave her report,

“Master, the location for your training has been decided . ”

“Is that so? Where did you pick?”

With my still-developing body, I started to spin the chair that I was sitting on in circles .

“…you don’t look very interested . ”

I told Amagi- who was looking at me with a somewhat disappointed look, that I was just studying abroad at another house . It wasn’t anything special .

“If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t be that interested either . Apparently, when accepting the children of other houses, you’re forced to pamper them and let them live in luxury during their stay . Brian told me that with my parents, it wasn’t like a training period at all . ”

By the way, my father seems to have just played around for his three years of study .

Apparently, this was how most houses did things nowadays .

It’d be nice to go to a house that has a good reputation with actual training .

“You don’t want people to study here anymore? You should’ve told me earlier, we’ve already finished talks with various houses . If we were to cancel now, then Master’s reputation will undoubtedly be damaged . ”

“It’s okay, as long as they give me a lot of money, I’ll greet them with open arms . Well, even though I have mixed feelings about letting others into my home, I think I’ll be able to endure it if they’re only staying here for three years each . ”

The training will only be in name anyways .

Aren’t there any houses out there that actually take this training job seriously?

“Well, let’s just make the requirements stricter . I don’t want to be forced to entertain some spoiled brat . ”

I’ll do my best to prepare for when I have to receive those n.o.ble’s children in the future .

“If that’s Master’s order then I’ll do it, but most probably the only ones to be accepted will be the children of lower-n.o.bles . The difference between them and those above baron-cla.s.s are huge . ”

“It’s fine, I’ll leave the details to you and Brian . ”

If I can push my problems onto someone else, I might as well .

“By the way, what kind of house is the place I’m going to?”

“It’s the viscount Razel house . It’s a popular place to study that receives dozens of people every year . It’s abundant in resources from the many moons and planets they control and their excellently developed processing tech . ”

The description Amagi gave made it sound like a very wealthy house .

But something seemed wrong here .

From their file, they apparently had an abundance of resources, but they didn’t seem to have enough planets occupied to match it .

It looks like they had a few s.p.a.ce colonies made, but even if they wanted to expand out further, they couldn’t because the surrounding areas were owned by other lords .

“The viscount family possesses a strong but small army . They seem to focus on the importance of interpersonal connections with other houses, making them a popular destination for training . ”

“Is our house able to branch out to other planets?”

“It’s possible, unlike the viscount house our territory already contains suitable pioneering planets . ”

If that was the case, then I wanted to start preparing new settlements soon .

There was only one problem- the development of my current planet wasn’t finished yet either .

Undoubtedly, the development of my main planet would slow down if I started delegating resources elsewhere .

“Although our main planet is still developing, can we start expanding out tow-”

“Lord Liam, aren’t you about to start a full-scale education that’ll force you to be absent from the territory for a few years?”

While I’m away, Amagi recommended that I didn’t try to invest into new ventures .

-I guess she’s right .

“Our current policies suit us just fine, so I guess there’s no need to copy the Razel house . Still, I’m looking forward to seeing how much their territory differs from ours . ”

“Before that, you still have another session with the education capsules you need to complete first . ”

“–okay, I’ll see you later . ”

In this universe, there were things called education capsules .

They were mysterious items you locked children inside of for several months to years! 

Inside, their bodies would be strengthened and knowledge would be forcefully loaded into their heads .

However, you couldn’t just leave things like that .

Once finished, you had to go through physical therapy while reviewing everything you learned .

Many people have neglected this, thinking that there was no meaning to it, but the difference between those that did do it and those that didn’t was huge .

“How long will I be in there for?”

“It’s only a short period this time . Please rest a.s.sured and leave everything to this Amagi as you sleep . ”

“I’m counting on you . ”

The main planet of the Razel house .

The head of the house, [Randolph Sera Razel] had gathered his va.s.sals into a conference room .

They were confirming the n.o.ble children who were going to enroll into their house next year .

The data displayed showcased the amount of money and resources provided by each n.o.ble house and the respective child sent .

Although the Razel house was well-known for children to study at, it was still a business .

“Hmm… so far there doesn’t seem to be any outstanding individuals joining us in the next fiscal year . ”

If a child was impressive enough, then they’d also have to consider if it was worth building a connection with them .

They’d do anything in their power to strengthen the relationship with a useful house, but conversely they rather neglected those that they deemed useless .

“Lord Randolph, as I mentioned earlier, it looks like the eldest son of the Exner house will be coming to our school for training . They even sent an abundant amount of gifts . ”

But Randolph immediately lost interest after looking at the Exner house’s data,

“-there’s no point in building a connection with some up-starts from the frontier . ”

“O-oh, but I think the Exner house has lots of potential for development in the future . ”

“‘Potential’ development is of secondary importance . We need to focus on building strong relationships with houses that are strong right now . ”

They didn’t deserve to a.s.sociate with them .

However, they would gladly receive the offerings given to them .

As future plans were being discussed in the conference room, everyone suddenly stopped moving .

This happened just as they were about to check on Liam’s data .

“Haha… HAHAHA!”

From the door to the meeting room, the guide had appeared .

He manifested himself as if his body was growing from the door itself, he didn’t even need to open it . Once he finally got through, he went over to check out Liam’s file .

“At last I can finally have my revenge . Now Liam, let’s see what your data says!”

Looking at the statistics, the guide was surprised .

There was an enormous amount of funds and resources prepared .

Amagi and Brian had prepared it . Even though it was an unreasonable amount, that just showed how much they wanted Liam to be treated well there .

Not to mention his high reputation and personal a.s.sets .

The imperial capital seems to hold him in high regard for eliminating the pirates .

“d.a.m.n, that’s annoying! But it’s nothing I can’t fix . ”

The guide had the ability to falsify and tamper with data .

However, the guide’s current power severely limited how much he was able to change .

“–this is all because of Liam . With how I am now, I can practically only do petty tricks . ”

But as he went through the data he came across the file of someone named [Peter Sera Peetak] .

“-oh?”

Looking through the data, he seemed to come from a house the same rank as Liam .

However, his ratings were at a dismal level in all aspects .

“This has potential, how about I try swapping their stats?”

As a result, everything on Liam’s file became terrible .

When the guide manipulates time, he’s actually just slowing down everyone’s ability to process information .

He’s not actually stopping time .

As Randolph and his a.s.sociates started moving normally again, they didn’t see the guide .

“This next one is just plain awful…”

Randolph started to tiredly rub his eyes .

“Every year some hyena tries to build a connection with our house . Lord Randolph, are we going to reject them?”

“We already gave them our confirmation that we’d accept them . If we refuse them now, we’d damage our reputation . We’ll accept them, but we’ll treat them the same way we’d treat a child of a knight or that upstart from earlier . ”

Liam had received a medal at the imperial capital, but the Empire was too large– there were many cases where proper information on events couldn’t be reached .

Many people received medals on the imperial capital, it was impossible to know all of them .

The guide burst into laughter,

“Since this is your precious apprenticeship, I hope you enjoy the harsh training waiting for you! I’d like to make more changes, but I have to ration what little power I have left . ”

As the guide slipped through the walls of the conference room, Randolph lost interest in Liam and continued to look at the data of the other children .

-The National University of the Imperial Capital .

[Christiana Leta Roseblaire] was currently attending such a school .

She was there to earn the qualifications needed to become an imperial knight .

It takes about twenty-four years to qualify as a knight .

Twelve years were used for attending a military academy and the military service that came afterwards .

University studies and training came next, after which you had to work twelve more years as a government official .

Once all of this is finished, she would finally have the qualifications to be a knight .

Native n.o.bles would also have had to spend six more years in elementary school .

But Christiana was from a foreign country- Tia didn’t have to enter elementary school .

With long flaxen hair and neatly cut bangs, she exuded an atmosphere resembling that of a princess .

In fact, she actually was a princess of a fallen kingdom, who had already earned the qualifications needed to be a knight .  

She was also stylish, and her emerald-green eyes seemed to have a glow to them .

Her lips were plump and pink .

As she walked through the university buildings, lots of eyes gathered on her .

Ignoring the surrounding gazes, Tia started fiddling with her communication terminal .

“A message from s.p.a.ce?”

Even though Tia was Liam’s knight, it was still only in formality .

She didn’t have much authority, and even now she was only a student .

Most foreign students would expect such a message to have come from their home country, but that was impossible for Tia .

After entering the cla.s.sroom and taking her seat, she began to check the message’s contents .

“Lord Liam seems to have chosen the Razel house to be his place of study . I don’t think it’s a bad choice, but I think there are better ones . ”

Tia was a little dissatisfied .

“If possible, a house belonging to a higher-n.o.ble should’ve been chosen, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to commensurate a proper treatment worthy of Lord Liam . ”

Far past the normal loyalty of knights, how she regarded Liam was something closer to worship .

As to why- it’s because Liam was the one who saved Tia from h.e.l.l .

After being caught by pirates, she was experimented and tortured on until she was molded into what could be considered a living chunk of meat .

Even though she had given up on living life as a human being, she was saved by Liam and given this second chance at life .

She would gladly die for Liam .

And Tia wasn’t the only one prepared to do so .

There were many youths who had come to the imperial capital to become Liam’s knights .

Many had gone straight to the academy, but Tia decided to go to the university .

The reason was because she wanted to strengthen Liam’s military influence after he enrolled .

For that purpose, she decided that she was going to graduate from university first .

After reading the contents and closing the message, the picture displayed on the standby screen was that of Liam at his coming of age ceremony .

Tia cheeks slightly flushed at the image,

“Oh Lord Liam, I’ll make sure to do my best today as well . ”

-She was truly loyal .

The merchant [Thomas Henfrey] was the head of the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce .

He was the exclusive merchant of the Banfield house .

Therefore, the moment he heard about Liam’s training destination, he immediately began preparations .

He was currently giving out instructions to his subordinates,

“Have you prepared the gifts for Viscount Razel?”

The subordinates answered him with a smile,

“Yes, we’ve prepared items the viscount will truly enjoy . ”

“That’s good to hear . Since it looks like Lord Liam is going to build a connection with the Razel house, we probably should as well . Who knows? Maybe this will be the start of a long and mutually beneficial relationship . ”

“Are you going to switch over and become one of the Razel house’s exclusive merchants?”

“There’s no way I would . The Razel house has too many already, the compet.i.tion there is tough . ”

With the development of the Banfield house, the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce grew in proportion as well .

As Liam’s reputation spread as a specialized pirate hunter, smaller pirate fleets immediately fled once they spotted the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce ships, which were affiliated with said hunter .

Because of that, business was booming .

“The Razel house has quite a good reputation, so it’s perfect for Lord Liam . ”

Viscount Razel was no warrior .

If anything, he specialized in business rather than military affairs .

That fact was important to Thomas .

His subordinate gave his report,

“They also have a daughter who had recently come of age, so maybe we’ll be hearing wedding bells soon . ”

Thomas started to laugh at that statement,

“I can see a lot of benefits in that, so I hope things work out that way . ”

–Viscount Razel had a daughter the same age as Liam .