Constantinople, the Capital of the World. The ancient city received its second chance at becoming the most important city in the World.
Over the five years, it grew enormously. The city was transformed and restored to its Ancient Glory.
The Core City Centre was rich in Roman and Greek heritage, and old reconstruction methods were used in its rebuild.
But just outside the City Centre, it became a Metropolis with tall buildings and flying cars. Highways were designed to meet the new technological advancements.
Among them, it became a transportation hub. Flying Cars, Trains, regular planes, and even the first-ever space port were VIP guests arriving from the colonies.
Though the actions were taking place at the main intercity train station…
~~~
At the ticket barrier, a squad of royal guards had gathered, led by a girl with short, wine coloured hair; she didn't look any older than twenty.
Dressed in Imperial military robes and a cloak, she was waiting for someone with a resigned look.
As she was standing, regular people wondered who the hell they were waiting for. Don't the Imperials have private planes and spaceships?
Eventually, a blonde woman in a baseball hat passed through the ticket barrier, and the guards sprang into action.
Leading the front was the cloaked lady.
"Your Majesty, can you not try to get us fired with your actions?" She whispered into the ear of the blonde lady.
"Jeanne, relax. No one knows that it's me. Besides, it's more interesting to travel this way."
"Empress Milly." Jeanne sighed as she massaged her forehead.
"At the very least, come with us back to the Palace." The Knight Lady exclaimed with a resigned tone.
"Fine. I don't like waiting in traffic jams." Milly puffed her cheeks. She learned that a while back. Traffic in huge cities is annoying.
"We were able to lower the traffic jams by 20% since your last complaint." The Knight proudly replied as she regained some of her motivation.
"Good. Anyway, how is Marcus doing?" Milly asked about her husband, as she had not seen him for a couple of weeks.
"Working. The five-year waiting period is ending. The portals have begun to emit certain frequencies.
We have been able to discern how they work, and for now, we have focused on a single one." Jeanne explained as they walked to the waiting cars.
"It's not classified information anymore?" Milly realised that they were talking openly about it.
"We have removed whatever information there is about this on the extranet, and what I said is not classified. The details are." They said to Milly as she opened the doors for her.
"I see."
She got into the limo as soon as the motorcade moved with flying police bikes and black SUV-like flying cars.
Swiftly she got comfortable as she watched through the window at the sprawling metropolis full of skyscrapers.
Over the years, capitalists grew quite wealthy through space ventures. Thankfully, Marcus kept them at bay from the government as he stomped on whatever forms they might have had to influence it. His grip on power one could even call totalitarian, not that the world cared, no one was starving, everyone was entertained and… most importantly, 'flames of rebellion' would end up stomped before they could raise. Bad People would simply disappear…
Milly has only heard of a special branch of the military that wields considerable influence in policing the public.
"Oh my… it would seem the Imperial Palace has finished with upgrades." The Blonde Empress looked at the building that the motorcade was approaching.
It was a square citadel at the edge of the sea, with a palace on top of it.
Even if it was huge like this, Milly is guaranteed that there are floors underneath it. She is well aware that there is a single train line that leads to an underground. She has never seen it being used before.
And she loves travelling!
Eventually, the motorcade arrived at its destination, an elevated platform where cars could land and park.
There was a line-up of people waiting for her… among them a pair of small girls.
Milly's eyes perked up seeing them.
As the doors opened, the blonde lady got out and walked over to the gathered people.
"Yay! Milly is back! Our favourite mother is back!" The black-haired, small girl with green eyes exclaimed in a delighted tone.
"Claudia…" Her mother sighed. It was a pink-haired woman with green eyes.
"Still upset that you make her study?" Milly commented with a strained smile.
This little girl is the eldest daughter of the Emperor of the World. Her name is Claudia Anaheim. Marcus decided to name his children after Roman Emperors and leaders.
A small girl next to her was a red-haired girl with striking purple eyes. She was a bit younger and had this spitfire-like aura around her. The girl was the youngest, the daughter of Kallen, who became pregnant a year after the world was conquered.
"You could say that."
"I want to see what you brought for me from the colonies!" Claudia happily revealed why Milly was the favourite 'mother'. It's the gifts…
"Me too…" the other girl, by the name Julia, said with a sharp nod. She nodded a couple of times.
"...I see…" Milly was a bit dissapointed, but it was understandable…
"Yes, anyway. Let's get in, dinner is about to get ready."
"Oh, that time already?" The blonde Empress reacted as she checked the time; it was just past twelve.
"Time sure flies when you travel." She shook her head as Anna smiled. She gently pulled the two girls inside the Citadel.
"...Gifts?" Claudia asked one more time. Her face began to sink as she slowly began to worry that there were no gifts!
"After dinner~ I have a couple of things from Mars colonies~."
The pair of Princesses immediately perked up.
The Pink-Haired Empress sighed in resignation, and her maids followed suit. They hoped that it was nothing related to sugar… because if it is…
~~~
At the dinner table, Milly saw Leila and Marcus's middle child. The Heir to the Imperial Throne. Trojan Anaheim, named after one of the greatest Roman Emperors. When Marcus declared all of his children's names would be named after Romans, all he got were eye rolls. He was nerding about Rome… quite a bit, actually.
But still…
'He looks like a small version of Lulu… minus the blonde hair.'
Milly smiled as she could see the spitting image of the Emperor in Leila's son. Even the way he sits and all of those expressions. It's so cute she wants to pinch his cheeks!
"I hope you stay longer this time around, or are you planning to run away again?" Leila asked as she took a sip of her tea. Over the years, the 'Logistics' Empress has matured quite a bit. Her hairstyle changed as well; she now has free-falling hair, and her aura became quite disciplined as she needs to make sure her son copies her. Unlike his father, he just loves showing 'cool' stuff to his son instead of teaching him…
That's how Marcus is… he wants his son to do the same 'cool' stuff. As in… make huge killer robots…
"Nope, Mars is the most recent colony that needed its education system put in place. Now that it's done, I can relax until the next colony gets up and running." Milly explained in a lazy tone.
Most of her jobs are done. Now she can take a proper holiday.
"That would take a while. The next one is Jupiter, and we are still working on radiation shielding technology for that specific place." Leila replied as she stroked her chin, recalling the recent technology demonstration for the Jupiter venture.
"There is a higher chance that you will be going to Alpha Centauri first before visiting Jupiter's colonies." The blonde Empress said to her fellow Empress.
"It's that soon, huh?" Milly looked with wonderment. They will soon be a multi-solar system empire. Now that is impressive.
"First proper, deep-space man-controlled spaceship will be launching soon from Lagrange 3. We were able to convert the third-generation Fusion Reactors into viable ship engines.
It wasn't that hard; the issue was other technologies and sustainability. Marcus Technologies originally were Mobile Suit-based. Now it's only a matter of time before the rest of the tech plateau at that level." Leila explained as she looked at Milly, then at her son. She was like a mother hawk, making sure he behaved at the table. Sometimes he shows that Marcus-style of stubbornness… which really pisses her off sometimes.
"So that's it… How long is the journey?" Milly asked curiously; she is even considering joining one of these deep-space trips. Well, she was part of it once, years ago, when they were collecting asteroids for the war effort.
"Over a day. Not that far."
"...That's it? I thought it would take longer!" The fellow blonde gawked at the news! That's super short!
"It is anti-gravity tech, what do you expect. They should return in a week after exploring all three suns in Centauri. There are signs of a possibly habitable planet circling around one of the suns." Leila explained to her. She recalled Marcus complaining and hoping that there were no tall, blue, cat-like people living on one of the planets.
'Strange and very specific…'
"I see. This is a very exciting moment for us."
"...Debatable. We are preparing for the worst." Anna replied from the other side as she made sure her daughter was sitting properly at the table.
"You mean aliens?" Milly commented with a strained smile. She watched too many movies, and her understanding of what they could look like is a bit flawed.
"Precisely. We have robust policies and contingencies in place for them." The Pink-Haired 'Science' Empress explained as she recalled all the meetings she had to attend on top of her mother's duties. She was one of those who realised that her husband was getting back at her for that Paris 'incident' with all of this work.
"So it's fine~~."
The trio continued to talk as the kids quickly got bored, but they did behave, and then a certain red-haired woman joined them as well. Kallen strolled in and got to sit next to her daughter, who swiftly scrambled to get on her lap.
Not long after her, Marcus entered. He was followed by two ladies and his knight Jeanne, who was at the back.
The two who followed him were his Prime Minister, Kaguya Sumeragi, who had crawled to that position after a good couple of years of hard work. The other individual was his little sister, Nunnally, who became 'Representative of the People'. It's a unique job where she travels around the world and interacts with regular people, learns about their lives, and what they need going forward.
She is a link between the Imperials and the regulars.
Though… at the moment, all four of them looked concerned.
"Let's eat first, then we can discuss something important," Marcus said to the gathered people as he swiftly joined his wives at the table.
'Hmm, where is C.C.? That girl is always so random…' Milly noticed that the 'Witch Empress' was nowhere to be seen.
For the next half an hour, the dinner was quite stiff as the atmosphere was weird!
"Ugh!!! Marcus, tell me how your day was! This is dreary and not good for my skin!" Milly complained, making Marcus chuckle at his wife.
"Sure…"
~~~
After dinner in the main living room, the girls gathered to hear something major from Marcus.
With the Emperor in his seat and a teacup in hand, he began to tell what got him this concern.
"Around four hours ago, a group of explorers on Mars' South Pole discovered ruins of unknown origin.
Initial estimation is that these ruins are between 45 to 50 thousand years old."
The Emperor of the World dropped the bombshell, causing those who hadn't heard before to stare at him with disbelief.
"...You mean to tell me that the little green men are not fake?" Milly asked with a dumbfounded face.
"Indeed…maybe even worse."
~~~
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