Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2435 Austerity

Young Sector 99—

Emily was sitting in her office as usual, both hands resting heavily on top of her head as she remained almost completely motionless, while her unfocused eyes stared vaguely ahead without truly settling on anything in particular.

A long time ago, she had taken a break from the relentless pressure of work and gone to her new friend Morgana to ask for help... The reason back then had been rather unusual: she had far too much money at her disposal, yet there was no one from whom she could purchase enough resources and materials to properly feed the Crucibles of Greed and keep up with their enormous requirements.

Morgana had helped her in two different ways at the time... The first was introducing her directly to the sons of the Behemoths, opening an entirely new avenue of trade for her, and the two of them had already begun conducting actual business with those Behemoth sons afterward, greatly alleviating the problem that had been weighing on Emily.

The second was that Morgana personally helped her compress her first Royal Star using the Arcalonian method for Royal Star Compression, then arranged another appointment with her for later, after Emily had sufficiently expanded her domain, and at that later meeting she helped her compress the second Royal Star as well!

With an enormous amount of soul force now at her disposal, along with two new and completely independent consciousnesses that could operate alongside her original consciousness, Emily had returned to her work with an unusually clear mind and tremendous renewed energy, allowing her to deal with her responsibilities far more effectively than before.

Her new relationship with the sons of the Behemoths, her newly effective spiritual strength, and the dedicated trade network that His Majesty had completed... All of these factors combined had made her work so much easier for a considerable period that Emily had gradually forgotten just how exhausting and difficult everything had once been in the past.

But now, after everything that had happened recently, she remembered that difficulty with absolute clarity...

Qarunʼs declaration had struck everything she was doing like a truck, smashing directly into the structure she had worked so hard to maintain and immediately affecting nearly every part of it.

People throughout the universe stopped purchasing Lord Humanʼs products after the disasters attributed to him were leaked and spread everywhere, while organizations began emerging that openly copied his older works and then sold those imitations for their own benefit at cheaper prices, taking advantage of the sudden change in peopleʼs attitudes toward him.

It was true that the Soul Society itself still prohibited these imitations and continued to uphold Lord Humanʼs legitimate ownership over his creations and intellectual properties, but other means of selling and distributing goods were widespread throughout the universe as well... And those alternative channels all had connections to either the Syndicate or the Star Academies within those respective sectors.

People throughout the universe stopped purchasing Lord Humanʼs products after the disasters attributed to him were leaked and spread everywhere, while organizations began emerging that openly copied his older works and then sold those imitations for their own benefit at cheaper prices, taking advantage of the sudden change in peopleʼs attitudes toward him.

It was true that the Soul Society itself still prohibited these imitations and continued to uphold Lord Humanʼs legitimate ownership over his creations and intellectual properties, but other means of selling and distributing goods were widespread throughout the universe as well... And those alternative channels all had connections to either the Syndicate or the Star Academies within those respective sectors.

At first, the people themselves had strongly opposed and attacked any attempt to copy Lord Humanʼs creations in this manner, because they wanted to continue supporting Lord Robin so that he would keep producing newer, better, and more useful things for them in the future, but now that was no longer a problem for those imitators. No one wanted to support the murderer of the Cosmic Elder and the tamer of the Plague, the agent of the ancient entity and instigator of wars, the bloodshedder and mastermind behind the ruin of the universe... Robin Burton.

This enormous shift in public behavior caused the largest portion of the Empireʼs profits to suffer an almost immediate freeze, abruptly stopping income that had previously continued flowing through those products.

And the problem wasnʼt limited to that alone. Every product belonging to His Majestyʼs subordinate empires experienced the same severe stagnation, with hardly anyone willing to purchase them anymore, whether those products consisted of ordinary raw materials or the curse and talisman packages whose secrets had been decoded from the Talisman and Curse Galaxies and had subsequently become important sources of income for the Cradle and Grave Empires... All of it came to a halt.

No major power wanted to establish or maintain any kind of official relationship with His Majesty anymore, regardless of what form that relationship might take.

The only remaining outlet still available to them was the dedicated trade network, where exchanges between the two sides could be conducted in complete safety and secrecy, without requiring those transactions to become public or official.

That network continued operating at full strength for a while despite everything happening outside it, because even those who wanted absolutely no official dealings with Lord Robin could still quietly resort to the network whenever they wanted to trade with the powers under his command... But eventually, even this final outlet didnʼt last.

That dedicated trade network depended on two fundamental components in order to function: first came communication, negotiation, and payment through the Soul Society, allowing the two sides to arrange and complete their transactions, and then came the actual delivery of the purchased goods across the sectors through the Major Space Gates.

The Soul Society side of the network continued functioning exactly as usual, with communication, negotiation, and payment still proceeding without any meaningful disruption... But the Tyrantʼs Galaxy began exposing every transaction conducted through that dedicated network, effectively stripping away the secrecy that had made it useful in the first place.

The gate officials began carefully tracking the movements of individuals from the moment they left their respective clans and empires until they eventually reached the Cradle, the Grave, or any other power subordinate to Lord Robin. Even when intermediaries were deliberately placed between the two sides, those intermediaries were identified and monitored as well... And any power discovered engaging in such transactions was publicly exposed before everyone as a partner of those responsible for ruining the universe.

Because of this relentless surveillance and exposure, even that single remaining outlet was gradually crippled until it became practically useless, leaving them without the secret trading route that had continued functioning after their official channels collapsed...

And this wasnʼt a catastrophe merely for the powers subordinate to His Majesty and the empires directly connected to him, but rather a catastrophe whose consequences extended throughout the entire universe.

After all, this disaster hadnʼt descended upon the universe solely because of the products belonging to Lord Robin, the Cradle, and the Grave. Arkail, Gravor, Kiryan, Kaylis, and Zavaros were also included on the boycott list, and every single one of those Behemoths possessed products that countless people throughout the universe eagerly waited for and depended upon.

This was especially true for Zavaros, whose products were relied upon by an astonishing ninety percent of the entire universe!!

But even if they were unwilling to accept such circumstances, under the combined pressure of the Syndicate, the Tyrant, and the Lord of Thrones, everyone swallowed whatever complaints they had and endured in silence, watching helplessly as losses continued descending upon everyone without exception.

Amid such a tremendous recession that had struck the entire universe and disrupted the flow of trade on such an enormous scale...

Emily had nothing left to rely upon except whatever resources were already directly under her control.

The production coming from their subordinate planets, the money and resources they had already accumulated inside their warehouses before the recession began, and perhaps whatever exchanges they could still conduct with the five Behemoths subordinate to them were everything she currently had available to feed the thirty-five Crucibles of Greed, supply the weapons, talisman, and curse factories, produce the potions required by the armies, and maintain everything else related to either military affairs or the Empireʼs internal needs.

Fortunately, Emily had learned from the difficulties she had experienced in the past and had taken advantage of the enormous amounts of money previously available to her by purchasing twice the required quantity of resources every single time, which had allowed her to accumulate an enormous stockpile before the recession struck... But when faced with the staggering productivity they needed to sustain every single day, there was simply no such thing as a stockpile large enough to remain enormous forever.

Only around ten years had passed since Qarunʼs declaration shook the universe, yet the massive stockpile she had worked so carefully to accumulate had already fallen to half of its original size.

Most of the Cruciblesʼ tremendous productivity had therefore been redirected toward manufacturing transportation and mining vessels, allowing the Empire to expand its operations internally, increase what it could obtain from within its own territories, and gradually stop depending upon external purchases, and fortunately, this enormous effort had already begun producing visible results.

But redirecting so much of their production in that direction had also inevitably affected the funding and supply of their wars throughout the past ten years... Fleet production had nearly come to a complete halt during that period, even though this was precisely the time when they needed military production more desperately than ever.

Yet under circumstances like these, when their external sources could no longer be relied upon as they once had been, achieving self-sufficiency had become more important than anything else.

The Marshals had therefore been instructed to restrain themselves and preserve their existing borders throughout this period of austerity until the Empire finally achieved its goal of self-sufficiency, a goal that fortunately was no longer particularly far away thanks to the five Behemoths under their banner and the enormous mining and transportation network they had been building...

But even if the Marshals restrained themselves exactly as they had been ordered to do, who was supposed to restrain their enemies?

Marlik the Butcher had already gathered the alliance and launched an attack toward Mid Sector 90. Within three years, a tremendous war would inevitably erupt there, and enormous urgent orders had already begun pouring toward them demanding arrays, fleets, and~ and~

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Where was she supposed to provide all of this from?!