606 Capturing The Hearts of the People
Lawrend briefly nodded his head without saying anything.
Saturn led the way to the western side of the Imperial Capital. This side of the city was still left intact. Albeit, some tall buildings were cracked.
Lawrend looked around at the damage and felt guilty. Many of the casualties might have been their friends, relatives, or even leaders. It would be hard to attain the trust of these citizens after everything he had done.
Lawrend took a deep breath and steeled his heart. He was their emperor now. If they didn’t bow to him, he would make them bow. This was the prestige he needed to upkeep as the most talented Earth Mage.
Soon, they arrived at a square packed with people. In the middle were five Earth Mages. Together with the people, they watched as Lawrend flew down to them.
“The Emperor has arrived!” one of the Earth Mages shouted.
“Sun Emperor!!!” the whole square of people shouted at the top of their lungs.
They then promptly kneeled on the ground with their heads lowered. Lawrend was taken aback by their immediate submission. Saturn saw his surprise and decided to explain.
“This is because of your strength, Emperor. These people were a fan of strength after growing up under the late Blumin Emperor’s wings. They respect the strong and wanted to offer their allegiance to you.”
“Impressive. Since all of you were these submissive, I will make it easy for everyone. Help in clearing out the east side of the city. After that, I will re-establish this city as the Imperial Capital!”
“Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty!” the whole crowd chimed together.
“Not only that, but I will also personally establish a defensive magical formation for the whole city. Once I’m done, it should be able to withstand any attacks from Earth Mages,” Lawrend declared with a wide smile on his face.
“A blessing in disguise!”
“Oh, Goddess!”
“Glory to the Sun Emperor!”
“Glory to the Sun Emperor!!” the whole crowd chanted in a deafening tone.
Lawrend smiled at them. He became glad it wasn’t as bad as he expected.
“Emperor, there are still several dozen more squares filled with people like this. They are waiting for your announcements,” Saturn said.
“Really? Alright. Let’s go,” Lawrend replied.
He had already expected it. This amount of people wasn’t what he would expect from an Imperial Capital, even if half of it was decimated.
“Sun Emperor!!”
The crowd cheered for him as he flew up.
“Wait,” Lawrend said and stopped flying.
He turned around to face the crowd.
“I am your Sun Emperor!”
Lawrend extended his hand forward, and a mini sun appeared. It then rapidly became brighter and brighter, and Lawrend chucked it up to the atmosphere.
This mini sun appeared beside the sun high above the sky and seemed like there were two suns above.
“He’s a God!” someone exclaimed.
The religious people immediately clasped their hands and prayed.
After seeing it was successful, Lawrend left. He then announced the same things to the other squares filled with people. Each time, he would pull down the second sun he placed in the sky and put it back up and amaze them.
By the end of it, what’s left of the Imperial Capital praised Lawrend as a God. They had never heard anyone of creating a second sun in the sky. It was something they could imagine only a God should be able to do.
Once he was done, Lawrend met up with the leftover leaders of the city. They were the ministers of various departments.
This was inside a mansion owned by one of them. It was lavish and big enough to serve as Lawrend’s temporary stay-in. They had to use it because the original Imperial Castle was located on the east side and didn’t survive the blast.
The Earth Mages served as guards as they surrounded the whole perimeter around the mansion. They were still wary of attacks because the battle had just finished earlier in the day. There might still be some desperate loyalists.
“Are you all going to continue your jobs but under me?” Lawrend asked.
He sat in one of the chairs around a round table with seven people. They were fidgeting their fingers. They were all Grand Mages but nothing in front of Lawrend.
The only reason they survived was that their management offices were not located on the east side of the city. They were thankful for that, but it was also a cause of stress for them.
As the new emperor, it was natural for Lawrend to choose his own ministers to manage the empire. They were definitely not worthy of his trust.
“I-I want to, but I don’t dare to…” one of the braver ministers responded.
He saw that no one wanted to speak up, so he steeled himself to answer. He immediately started shaking as his nervousness racked up. He didn’t know what kind of person Lawrend was, but he knew one thing, he killed almost all of their Earth Mages, including their seated Emperor, that was supposedly unbeatable.
“Are all of you scared?” Lawrend calmly asked.
They nervously shook their heads. It was very comical, but the people in question didn’t realize it. They were too nervous to think of anything else.
“Just tell me the truth. I’m not going to bite,” Lawrend said with a wry smile on his face.
It was very obvious to him they were scared. He simply asked for the sake of it.
“W-W-Would you execute us?” the minister that spoke earlier asked in a stutter.
He was still the only one bold enough to respond to Lawrend. The others looked at him and gave him looks filled with gratitude.
“Should I?”
“NO!”
“NO!”
“NOPE!”
…
Basically, each one of them said no at the same time.
“Well, I really can’t trust any of you, but I will give each of you a chance. Help my ministers from my kingdom take over your duties. If you do well, I might let you keep your heads and jobs. But if you attempt to stage a coup… I will not die for a long time, so don’t even think about it,” Lawrend threatened with a fierce look in his eyes.