Combat Maid Harem

As soon as Lawrend's large group approached the Imperial Capital, many mages, especially the old ministers, noticed them.

They scrambled out of the city to welcome him.

"Your Imperial Majesty, welcome back!"

"Welcome, Your Imperial Majesty!"

There were only five ministers that greeted Lawrend. The brave minister from before had disappeared. Lawrend was satisfied after seeing that.

They followed his orders to investigate that minister for corruption and embezzlement.

"Have you prepared to give the new ministers their lessons?" Lawrend asked.

"Yes!" x5

They all nodded their heads simultaneously.

"They will arrive in about another month or so. They are traveling on their own, after all."

"We understand."

Like a flock of birds, they responded at the same time. Lawrend was amused at their change. Whatever happened to that brave minister from before must've scared them.

"Where is Julliane?"

"Madam Julliane is in the new Imperial Castle," one of them replied.

"Where?"

"At the very center of the capital."

Lawrend nodded his head and waved for his maids to follow after him. The ministers lowered their heads and glanced up at Lawrend's maids.

They asked around about him and learned that he loved maids. It was an odd quirk for them because almost everyone in the world looked down on maids. They were merely servants, but these women were able to become the lovers of the Emperor.

Lawrend didn't have to look around to notice the large, sky-blotting castle at the city's center. They flew for several minutes and landed in front of the gates.

"Emperor, welcome," Gregory said as he bowed to him.

They had been taking care of the Imperial Capital since Lawrend left. The news of Lawrend's return had already spread through the whole capital, which was why he was waiting here.

"Mm."

Almost everyone in Lawrend's group recognized Gregory. They looked at him and noticed the obvious change in his attitude.

He was significantly more respectful than when they saw him in the Royal Capital.

"How are the foreign relations with other empires and kingdoms?" Lawrend asked Gregory, who followed behind him.

"Everything is going great, Emperor. They all sent gifts. Do you want to check on them?"

"No need. Use the gifts to fund the construction of the capital. If we need more money, go sell that other kingdom to the Crescent Empire," Lawrend replied.

The kingdom he was talking about was the one west of the capital. Similar to the Undrasil Kingdom, that kingdom was also a part of the Blumin Empire like before.

"S-Sell a kingdom?" Gregory stuttered.

He thought he had misheard it. No ruler would willingly sell their territory to others.

"We might as well. I did a lot of damage to the Imperial Capital. The territory doesn't matter to us anyway."

"But the Lirton Kingdom pays a lot of tax each year."

Gregory tried to persuade him against it. In his mind, it was a bad move in the long term.

"Are you the Emperor here or not?" Lawrend retorted and glared at him.

"N-No…"

Gregory lowered his head and felt scared.

"You are right that they pay a lot of tax each year, but I don't think that would help us in the short term. Right now, our priority is to get our economy back and running. You guys aren't my Earth Mages, and I need a lot of money to groom my own," Lawrend explained.

"Pardon me…"

Gregory was ashamed of himself after Lawrend explained it all to him. He felt stupid and dumb.

At this moment, they arrived inside the Imperial Throne. It was a spacious throne room with a dozen pillars on each side and a long hallway to the throne.

No one was sitting on the seat, but three people were conversing with each other below it.

"Emperor," Julianne called out.

They noticed him arrive and stopped their discussion. She still felt bitter about his rejection, so her gaze at him was filled with sadness.

"Assign rooms for my maids and kids," Lawrend said.

"As per your orders, Emperor."

Julianne bowed and walked up to Lawrend's maids. She guided them out of the throne room. The two people left were Otor and Pie.

"Emperor, how about you try sitting on the throne?" Otor asked with a slight excitement on his face.

"Why do you seem more excited than I do?" Lawrend asked.

"Because we worked hard sourcing the most comfortable material for the seat. It was a marvel of our engineering," Otor said and smiled proudly.

"Really?"

Lawrend became interested after hearing the excitement in his voice. He seemed to truly feel proud about the throne.

Lawrend walked up the steps to the throne and slowly sat on the seat. Once he did so, he felt the soft pillow compress and conform to the shape of his butt.

"Wow."

Lawrend moved his butt around and pushed his back against the chair. He was impressed. It was similar to memory foam that was in his previous world. It was much more comfortable than the Undrasil Royal Capital's throne seat.

"Right? That's made from sea slug flesh processed with magic. It's very soft and breathable," Pie said.

"..."

Lawrend's nice image of the throne was ruined because of the mention of sea slugs. He took another look at it and wondered how the hell did they figure that one out.

"Alright. Give me a tour of the Imperial Castle," Lawrend said and walked down from the throne.

"Our pleasure, Emperor," Otor replied.

They left the throne room and walked around the castle. Many parts were still not done, but it was still impressive because it was finished quickly in less than a month.

"Many citizens of the Imperial Capital think you're a Sun God, Emperor. Hundreds of thousands volunteered to build this castle for you. Madam Julianne had to tell most of them to go home because there were too many, and it would only make the process convoluted," Pie said as they walked around.

Lawrend noticed the sun engraved almost everywhere. He thought it was decoration, but it seemed like it was put on purpose because of him.