95

After Shea finished addressing the masses of the fallen angel empire, well the ones who can see the TVs that were set up. She immediately got to work by meeting all the officials and replacing the ones she knew would be an immediate problem. Of the three generals of the empire, one was outright replaced and the other two were told to keep up the good work and would hear from her soon. That would be Athena's dad who is blocking the way to the bloody empire at a fort warlock, the general at Tekula fort I haven't met in person.

Shea called for the elder families to meet and for any, she is keeping in official positions to join in as well. I am currently sitting to her left as she goes over reports that people are giving her to suck up and get on her good side.

"Obsidian wasted so much time and effort suppressing everyone so he could maintain power I honestly am curious if he ever was concerned with the other two empires betraying the peace agreement. He would pay them a vast amount of coins and other resources to keep them from doing so but it makes no sense why he thought it would hold." Shea throws the report she was reading onto the table in front of her.

She looks around the room at all the seated officials and elders, the fallen angel sword appears above her and hovers in place. A few pulses of power radiate off it as she pressures everyone with just her gaze.

"Empress Shea, on behalf of my family I would like to congratulate you on your speedy ascension and reclaiming your birthright. If there is anything I can do to help you please do not hesitate to ask for it or send someone on your behalf." Kalong Family is quick to bend and it triggers others around the table who looked hesitant or outright angered to get anxious.

"She killed her kin publicly and didn't even try to hide it and expects us to just obey her?! Who are we that she won't just have our heads as well when we slight her in any way she deems enough to claim our lives." A Lucifer family member I am unaware of their identity stands up and slams his hand on the table. "The throne should go to the one who has done the most work for the empire and can lead it to a better future." His smug look as he sees Shea not react to his outburst quickly changes when he doesn't gather any support.

"Jarime now is not the time to be divided. The empress has the approval of the artifact and has the strength to sit on the throne, it is not your place to question this." Sartre Lincoln the head of the Lincoln family speaks up, his son was obsessed with Isabella in the original and got murdered. Currently, there is no reason to get rid of him or his family as they have abided by every command Shea has given. But I will keep eyes on them to make sure they stay in line.

Shea writes on a note beside me Jarime's name and I smile, he is screwed.

"I don't have time for any petty nonsense from you lot, fall in line or fall behind. The future of our empire is ahead of us and I will lead us there. I will not tolerate any nonsense from any of you no matter how ' important ' you are or begive you are." She takes a moment to look them all in the eyes individually and some look ready to pop a blood vessel. "You all have a chance here to grow with the new fallen angel empire or be drowned in the rising water. I am willing to let you all in on some money-producing deals I have upcoming. I will send instructions to each of you, until then you are all dismissed."

Some looked ready to sprout wings and fly out of the room at her dismissal and a couple gave vengeful looks over their shoulders as they left. I will make sure to visit these people and make sure they understand thoroughly.

"That went better than I thought it would, I expected your little hit list would be full by the end." I take a peek at it again and see she added four more names while I was watching everyone leave.

"I did too, I guess seeing Obsidian be beaten like he was quelled a lot of the more ambitious ones." She stands up and stretches, her combat gear was swapped out for an outfit that gives her a royal vibe.

"Guess you got a lot of work ahead of you, I will leave you to it." I try and avoid all the official matters and step back but she lunges and grabs my arm.

"Wait, aren't you going to help me?" She asks and sounds a bit concerned, the sneak peek at all the papers she has to go through seems to have scared her off. "You could breeze through all of them in only a moment, it would take me forever to get through it all." I shake my head, Astaroth would let me do it very quickly but it is so tedious I feel sweat form on my brow at the thought.

I try to shake her off and she practically glues herself to my side, with pleading eyes she looks at me. I turn away and try not to fall for her obvious scheme and feel her slowly let go.

"I guess you are busy with other important matters and can't waste your time helping me any longer, I understand." She uses her emotionless and lordly tone of voice and turns around to leave while casting a teleport.

I jump into the teleport with her and mentally prepare myself, it won't be that bad. It will be worth it to help her get it done so she can speed up with the other stuff I need her help with.

----

It's bad, very bad.

My head is spinning from all the information I have crammed into it, I wish a fire would start and burn all this nonsense to the ground. Letting out a groan as I set a stack of documents to my left I notice Shea slowly reading her stack.

"I regret helping you, this is torture. Why don't you just pay someone to come and sort all this and summarize it." She sits up and looks over at me.

"I could, but what if they hide something important to profit off it or worse to hurt the empire? It's best to look over it all at least once and then I can find someone to properly look over future reports and whatnot. I will still have to look over it now and then but I will at least have an idea of what is going on and what to expect." I bring out a drink and take a swig of it before sending it back.

"Well, I hope it is worth drying my eyes out and making my head pound." She rolls her eyes and goes back to her papers.

----

"So, to summarize everything in my own words. Obsidian was running the empire slowly into the ground." Shea gives an unamused look as I fill out my real assessment, things that can be fixed in my opinion, and things that have to be fixed now or people will suffer.

"I am aware, just finish with what you want to write, and let me look it over before we go out and look around the capital. We need to decide where we are putting the new businesses and where we want to set up your bank. The faster we can get money out there for people to use, the faster they will use it." A ton of ideas are all about to start to bloom, and a lot of infrastructure and preparation has been planned for when she finally has the capital. I didn't want to go too big and have Obsidian try to get in on the gains or send people to sabotage. Not that it would have done him any good in hindsight.

"Ok, here is what I got from what I saw in the reports." I slide it over to her and stand up and stretch.

"This is a lot of stuff to look into, more than I was expecting as well." She scans over it and lets out a sigh, it is in a bad position but not anything that can't be patched up and paved over.

"Let's take a break and do that walk-through, could be fun as well." I snap and our clothes are swapped out for a more casual outing, been working on convivence magic. The opposite of a certain breast dragon emperor but it is very useful and fun to show off.

Putting on a ring that Zola gave to her that puts an illusion over her face and makes her look like a dark-haired blue-eyed beauty and not the empress Shea walks over to me. I smile and cast my own illusion to make myself look less eye-catching and once that is done teleport us outside.

----

"Are you even paying attention? We are supposed to be looking for good locations that won't cause existing businesses to be pressured or close down. We have been walking around the busy side of town and there won't be any good locations here unless we want to ruin people's livelihoods." She squeezes the hand she is holding and I continue to swing it back and forth idly.

It looked weird walking beside each other like awkward coworkers so I took her hand much to her embarrassment. But after complaining about all the paperwork and how I would never do it again she swallowed any complaints she might have. I believe she was just looking for a reason to not have to complain to save herself some pride. Lucifers man, what can you do with them?

"It's fine, we will cover a good distance and find a spot I am sure, even if we built it outside of the capital people would still go to it." The bank is a big project that will start in fallen angel and spread everywhere from here. I gave Catherine Phenix tears as a big money maker so I thought the bank would be good for Shea. Given I am getting the lion's share as the main contributor but it will also line her purse nicely. It also will serve to boost her prestige and inspire people to work hard for her in hopes of making it big.

I feel her stop walking as she is distracted and I look to the source and see a girl huddled beside a trash bin. She is wearing scraps of cloth and is filthy, almost like people were throwing their trash at her and not the bin.

"Want to help her?" I ask as I lightly tug her hand to get her attention, she grips back and starts to pull me toward the girl.

On closer inspection, she is even younger than Alice and that is also probably influencing Shea and pulling her heartstrings. The girl has white hair and red eyes almost look albino which might be why she is abandoned. People treat their family very well in the demon world if they have any skill or value but any deformity or difference will cause them to be disdained.

"Are you ok?" Shea crouches Infront of the girl and the girl shakes in response. She seems to be scared of being approached.

"Let me try." I kneel next to the girl and quickly clean her with magic and equip her in clothes I bought as a gift for Alice. They are too big on her and make her look goofy but it's better than the stuff she had on. "What is your name?" I ask as she finally looks toward me with less fear in her eyes but still apprehensive.

"Cali." She answers in a hoarse voice, Shea pulls out a cup from her ring and fills it with water before handing it over. Cali takes it and sniffs it a few times before downing the whole thing and holding it up for more.

"Let's take her somewhere to eat." Shea stands up after filling the cup again, I hold my hand out for Cali and she grabs it. Pulling her up she walks beside me and Shea leads the way.

I call Shea with magic to see how she is taking this and she side-eyes me before answering.

"What?" She asks normally.

"Going to take in all the orphans in the capital? Might need a bigger palace if that's the case." It comes off harsher than I intended and that seems to serve my point as she glares at me.

"She would likely die if I didn't do something and besides it is cheaper to raise her into adulthood and having her work for me than it is to hire someone." I shake my head but don't respond, Shea still tends to look at things from a perspective her dad engraved in her. She justifies her actions which could be seen as weakness in a way that makes it seem like she is calculating.

But in reality, she is doing it because she saw someone in need of help and just wanted to help because she could.

"You don't need to prove anything to anyone, you are the empress of an empire and a demon overlord. Few people can tell you what to do, and the ones that can are so stupidly powerful they only see you as an ant. Do what you want because you can and don't worry about what other people think. If they got a problem with you just swing your sword around and people will shut up." She pauses and looks at me confused before going back to lead us.

"Thanks, Nova." She looks back at Cali and then smiles.

Hopefully, soon she will put aside the lessons of her father and be an Empress because she wants to and not because she feels she has to.