55: Chapter 55 You wouldn't want His Majesty to find out you were secretly reading the Imperial Concubine's letters, would you?

When Consort Cheng Yu returned home, Aria was lying there motionless, applying a face mask, looking like a long-eared female ghost.

Two Aeldari maids helped Consort Cheng Yu take off his fur coat. Although the super blizzard had stopped long ago, it was freezing all year round on Liu Fei Planet.

"Ahem." Consort Cheng Yu coughed deliberately.

"Why are you making that dead noise? Do you want me to get up and welcome you?" Aria still didn't move.

"Ahem, the Emperor has an imperial edict for you."

Aria climbed down from her throne, looking extremely displeased. She held her face mask with one hand and offered a salute with the other. "May the Emperor live forever. Greetings to the Emperor."

"The Emperor is well."

Consort Cheng Yu straightened his back, his expression changed, and he began to convey the Cheng Yu's edict:

"Arya Drukhari, you have such immense audacity. For the tithe of Liu Fei Planet in the first half of the year, you took two hundred trillion, and I took one hundred trillion. Do you expect Me to thank you?!"

"Ah... how does the Emperor know?!" Aria was finally a little scared. She began to slowly recall that murderous clone main body.

"For the ridiculous things you have done, I did not deal with you initially, hoping to awaken your conscience and that you would repent. Unexpectedly, you have become even more reckless. Now it seems that being a Countess is indeed too much for you; you had better go back to being a prisoner."

"No... no, please, Emperor, spare me. Please, Emperor, spare me."

Aria cried with tears and snot streaming down her face, hugging Consort Cheng Yu's thigh and sobbing.

"However... fortunately, you have good fortune and found a good partner. Your title is stripped, and your husband shall serve as Governor. You are to assist him well and never stir up trouble again. This is the decree."

"This subject thanks the Emperor for his grace."

"Wuwuwu..." Aria felt so aggrieved, though she didn't know what she was aggrieved about. If the crimes she committed were placed on anyone else's head, they would have been executed countless times already.

"Get up, my dear, the imperial edict is finished."

Now there was no Countess Dukaria or Consort Cheng Yu, only Governor Cheng Yu and Governor's wife Arya Drukhari.

"Will the Emperor kill me?"

Aria's face mask had already fallen off. She looked up with teary eyes and asked... damn, she was truly beautiful, beautiful from every angle.

Dukaria was despicable and greedy, but she was born truly beautiful.

"...It's hard to say. In any case, you can't mess around anymore. Consult with me more before doing things in the future."

"Oh..." Aria seemed to suddenly remember something. "Speaking of which, there is actually one thing. My dear, help me take a look at it."

"Hmm... go ahead." Governor Cheng Yu finally acted like a man in charge in front of Aria for once. This feeling was actually quite good.

"Yesterday when I was hunting, I accidentally killed a sneaky person. It wasn't a clone, but someone I hadn't seen before. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't. He ran and I chased, he ran and I chased... then he fell into an ice hole and died... Is this okay?"

"A sneaky person... that was probably a spy. This doesn't matter. The Imperial Capital executes several hundred spies every day." Governor Cheng Yu enjoyed his wife's shoulder massage, finding it extremely pleasurable.

"I also found a letter on him. Help me see what it says." Aria pulled a letter with a wax seal from her vanity, unopened.

Governor Cheng Yu already felt something was wrong. Mainly, this wax seal looked very high-end; a spy wouldn't use such a high-profile item.

Governor Cheng Yu hesitated for a moment but still opened the letter:

"Respected Father, seeing this letter is like seeing me. I am Vera. I am doing very well here in the New Empire and have already become an Imperial Concubine. However, if a person does not have long-term worries, they will have near-term troubles. The Emperor does not take new concubines, nor does he make me the Empress. I don't know what he is thinking."

"But I remembered what you taught me, Father... that men are not good things. So I thought... why not send my sister over too? It would save me from being isolated and helpless here in the future."

"By the way, the messenger is not my personal attendant; it is a vagrant I paid to hire. After you see the letter, Father, please kill the messenger. I hired seven in total to prevent Warp routes from being unstable."

"Heh." Governor Cheng Yu threw the letter into the fireplace to burn it, then stood up and walked a few steps.

His vision suddenly went black, and he almost stumbled and sat on the ground, but finally grabbed the furniture and stood up.

"Hehehe, relying on you, you want to manipulate me!"

Arya Drukhari lay on her throne, laughing until she shook. "You thought that because the Emperor supports you, you could ride on top of me? Let me teach you, who is the master of this Ducalia Territory, you or me?!"

"You... you..." Governor Cheng Yu finally understood what the compassionate look the main body gave him after delivering the imperial edict meant. That meant... my clone, you are no match for Aria!

"What about me? Come over and massage my legs!"

Aria hooked his chin. "You still have to serve me when I go hunting this afternoon, and serve me when I sleep at night. You have plenty of things to do today, my... Body... Guard... Captain!"

"..."

Thirteen Offices' Cheng Yu, who was eavesdropping in the dark, was trying hard to hold back his laughter. For a man to reach the point of Consort Cheng Yu, one could consider it "promising."

...

"Cheng Yu" Planet, battle satellite spaceport.

With technical support from the Dark Mechanicum and the Empire's complete disregard for the cost of manpower, the battle satellite was basically completed.

The excess materials were also used to build more than a dozen large cruisers. Coupled with the large number of new recruits conscripted earlier, the Empire's military strength reached saturation again.

Main Body and several old officials were eating hot pot in a greenhouse in the palace side hall while discussing which force to attack next.

Currently, the surrounding small forces had basically submitted. Occasionally, if anyone dared to bare their fangs, they would soon be wiped out by the Empire's rapid reaction force.

Main Body didn't quite understand why these small forces dared to jump out. Maybe they wanted a fancy suicide.

Currently, there were only two significant forces nearby. One was the Aeldari Craftworld "Craftworld of Sorrow." They were originally just repairing ships nearby, but for some reason, they liked this place and stopped nearby without leaving.

There was also a Chaos force composed of Khorne warbands. They had already ravaged several of the Corpse Emperor's Hive Cities.

These beasts didn't occupy land or grab resources; they just came to kill.

Whether it was the old officials of the imperial court or the commoners of the Empire, they all believed that the Emperor would use troops against the Khorne warbands next.

"Otherwise, otherwise." Main Body smiled and talked while swishing Tyranids / Tyranid tripe in the hot pot. "Chaos is stupid, Aeldari are arrogant. The stupid bully the weak and fear the strong, caring about big things but cherishing their lives, seeing small profits and forgetting their lives."

"Now, the population of the dozen or so worlds under my rule is more than trillions. Why don't the Khorne warbands come to attack? They don't know our background, they are afraid of suffering losses, and they are afraid of losing their prestige."