In the end, it wasn’t really a choice at all. Arthur knew nothing of how to run an empire, but he knew which type he would have preferred to live in, an empire that put its citizens' welfare before its profits. Letting a company manage things would mean he wouldn’t get much of a say in how day-to-day issues were handled, but he preferred it that way. Still, he wouldn't jump the gun straight away.

  For all his power, Arthur’s education didn’t lend itself well to running a small business, never mind 27 planets and a population nearing 100 billion. Sometimes, the best thing you could do was step away and let the experts handle things. He’d been a little wary of IMA at first, but he trusted Iris’ judgement. That didn’t mean he didn’t do his due diligence, though.

  From the 12,081 reviews they had on OpenBusiness, only seventeen were negative, and fifteen of them were from politicians and diplomats, not the actual rulers of said empires. When he narrowed his search down to reviews submitted only by world rulers, 493 were positive, with only two negative. Still, Arthur wasn’t satisfied, and he went on forum pages completely unrelated to the company and saw what citizens of managed empires had to say about the state of things.

  During his little investigation, Roger and Iris went over the specifics of the Vesalius empire. Arthur’s stats were high enough that he could easily focus on both things at the same time.

  The Vesalius Empire’s total net worth was estimated to be around 450 trillion credits. When compared to how much debt they were in, Lady Melania had done incredibly poorly. Their annual income from taxes and government-owned businesses rarely crossed the 10 trillion credit threshold, which was nowhere near enough to run the critical infrastructure citizens depended on.

  As terrible a person as Lady Melania had been, she hadn’t been too bad a ruler, footing half the bill required to run her kingdom with the funds she earned from her many deals. She’d kept a fraction of her money for herself, around ten per cent, with her remaining earnings going to paying off the interest on her empire's debts. She hadn't acted with altruistic intent entirely, but no one could deny the positive impact she'd had.

  After recalculating things to factor in the changes IMA would be bringing by enriching the lives of Vesalius' citizens, the empire's budget looked very different. The management plan included a bunch of stuff that looked great on paper, and they were indeed great things—lower taxes, reduced tariffs on traded goods, business grants to help startups, free health care, education and policing. Unfortunately, they also cost a lot of money. Money that the recently dethroned Vesalius Empire was sorely lacking. Doubly so when IMA would start implementing lower taxes for everyone.

  “So in the end, what will our budget look like if we take this option?" Iris asked.

  Roger looked at the report he’d been writing during their conversation. “With all the reforms we’d be bringing in, and a population of 72.3 billion, the vast majority of them being human and elven…” Roger paused for a second. “We’re looking at an annual cost of 26 trillion System credits. After our 5% cut, your empire is projected to earn seven and a half trillion credits annually, leaving you with a deficit of 18.5 trillion.”

  Arthur looked at Iris. “You're the princess, lady. How the hell am I gonna make that kind of money?”

  The fae’s brows furrowed in concentration as she ran through the possibilities.

  "I feel like this might be a good time to add that IMA offers interest-free loans to all our new clients,” Roger interjected. “For the first three years with us, any money your empire is lacking will be lent to you free of any interest. You have a hundred years to pay off these loans, and discontinuing our partnership won’t change these terms.”

  Arthur raised an eyebrow. “That seems a little one-sided. What's to stop people just using you as a bank for interest-free loans?”

  “Nothing,” Roger replied. “People have joined up with us to benefit from this particular service and then left immediately after. The truth of it is, we welcome every kind of client we can get. Remember, we’re the ones who’ll be managing the borrowed money, and it’ll be going to the betterment of everyone's lives, even in our more mercantile management plans. We’ll get the money back eventually, but the good we do with it in those few years has long-lasting effects.”

  “This company sounds a little too good to be true,” Arthur said.

  “Perhaps it is,” Roger replied, shrugging, “but they have deceived me well and good then. I did not join this company for no reason. My capacity for violence is no secret. I have destroyed entire planets, taken more lives than I could ever hope to count. Were there extenuating circumstances? Yes. people would even argue I was justified.”

  The warbot was in full swing now; his voice was shaking a little. It sounded more human than a lot of people he’d met in life.

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  “The blood on my hands can never be washed away. I understand that. Now I seek to create instead of destroy, to uplift instead of level. It isn’t atonement. I don’t believe in such a self-serving concept, but these actions align with my current ideals, and I will continue to do them as long as I can. A life taken can never be given back, but a life saved can birth a dozen more. Maybe I’m a hypocrite, a naive fool even, but I am a fool who will do the best I damn well can.”

  Arthur saw the deadly warbot in a new light. He was a machine created for destruction who’d developed a consciousness along the way. He was a broken individual, beautifully broken and made better for it, but broken all the same.

  “I would take a hypocrite trying to do good over ten stubborn men chained by their integrity, " Arthur said. “And I think that you are simply a good man, Roger. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  The warbot didn’t say anything for a while, though the silence wasn't awkward. Roger summoned a wooden box from his storage space. It was a metre wide and positively drenched in ether.

  “Our organisation could use a man like you, Arthur. And you too, Iris,” Roger said. “You don’t need to take an oath for pacifism as I did. I took the oath decades before I decided to join. They’re mutually exclusive, and we need every strong fighter we can get. I’m not as terrifying as I used to be, you see.”

  Arthur smiled, “Maybe I will in the future, when I’ve found my feet a little. I’ll need to get Earth sorted out first and fix my personal problems.”

  Roger pushed the box over to Arthur. “This will help with one of them, at least,” he said, pointing to Arthur’s missing right hand. “The box contains a metal replica of my arm. Its design is perhaps the greatest you will ever find, though you’ll need a material with the same tensile strength as starforged steel to make it work. It's a prosthetic that's normally only usable by machine lifeforms, though the modifications to make it viable for yourself will be very easy to do. I’ve heard you make constructs from your very soul. I look forward to seeing whatever inspiration you get from my gift, at least until you manage to heal yourself.”

  They carried on talking for a little while, fleshing out the details of their contract. Finally, after reading a 152-page document and some last-second consultation with Iris, where they both agreed with the third management plan, Arthur signed over his empire management rights to the IMA. They'd started this meeting in the early evening, and now the sun was beginning to set.

  “It was a pleasure meeting you,” Roger said, shaking Arthur’s hand. “Let this be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship, and perhaps one day, we may even be co-workers.” Roger stood and made his way to the door. He paused for a second, turning around. “And thank you for getting rid of Lady Melania. She was fast becoming an eyesore too big to ignore. Sometimes, I do regret my oath of pacifism."

  With those words, the deadly warbot finally left, making his way outside Arthur’s Soul Splinter before teleporting off-world.

  “I like him,” Arthur said.

  Iris chuckled. “I had a feeling you would. If you ever saw the footage of the planets he destroyed, you’d quickly change your mind. Roger is a terrifying existence even The Weaver is wary of messing with.”

  “So, about that 18 trillion. How the hell are we going to grow to make that much in three years? The interest on our current debts will continue growing in the meantime. How much was it? 8% a year.”

  “Relax, Arthur,” Iris chided. “We’ll deal with this one problem at a time. Money will definitely become an issue, but we’ve just secured ourselves 3 years of buffer time. Those are standardised System years by the way, so around 42 months of Earth time. Before that, we have much more pressing issues to deal with, namely, saving this planet from lichification."

  “Is that a real word?”

  “No, but it should be. We also have the voidling hunt coming up. Even if IMA can handle the power issues we're facing now, we’d be saving ourselves a ton of money if we handled things ourselves. You need a break, Art, we both do, and the voidling hunt will give us one. A few days where we can just decompress and relax, leave the hunting to the rest of our groups. That and the hidden realm will have a lot of opportunities for us. It’ll be good practice for the one opening up at the end of the year, eight months from now. The Goldleaf Spire. We got three tickets for it when we killed the Bloodbeasts outside your house. Even with the weird stealth magic you pulled, Lady Sleyca was adamant we had someone helping us during the fight. For once, her paranoia did us some good."

  "Will the Goldleaf Spire do me any good?" Arthur asked. "I seem to be outgrowing everything very quickly."

  Iris giggled before breaking out into laughter. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that, Art," she said, wiping a tear. "You're powerful, honey. No one can deny that."

  Arthur's heart skipped a beat at the endearment, though he tried not to let it show on his face.

  "You've probably got the most stats anyone at your level has ever had. The multiverse is a big place, though, so vast that even with spatial magic, travelling to certain places can take decades. The Weaver, Duncan, my father Ezrial, the part of The Council you've been dealing with, they're powerful people, even when compared to the rest of the multiverse, but they're only giants in our Sector. They're only the pricks who were close enough to come and make your life difficult."

  "The Goldleaf Spire, however, will bring people from everywhere, the children of Elder Dragons and civilised apocalypse beasts, once-in-a-millennia talents who've been fed resources since your world was still using iron swords. Hell, it's par the course for every faction to send at least one soul mage to accompany their teams. Sometimes multiple."

  Arthur frowned. "And here I thought I was special."

  Iris chuckled. "You are special. The specialist boy there ever was."

  Arthur's eyebrow twitched.

  "Right now, though, you're like an unrefined diamond. It's shining through in certain places, your durability, for one, but as you are now, you'll merely serve as a stronger punching bag in the hidden realm. Ayesha and I need a lot more work than you, too, and she most likely won't make the final cut either."

  Arthur could feel a growing excitement bubbling in his chest. "I'm looking forward to it."

  Links to the audiobooks.

  Etherious: Originator

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