The Empress's Will to Live: System Help Me!-Chapter 17: Dictatorship.
Daisy did it. She didn’t just capture the attention of the people, she gave them hope, wrapped in violence and words of promise... but at the same time, she fucked up, and the System tried to warn her.
I need to feed four million people... I need to do something about the economy, the lands, I need to do something for everyone... she thought, walking back to the room where the meeting had been held, though her mind was already elsewhere.
She had taken on too much... and the weight of desperation began to press down on her, even before she could start helping her citizens, her people and it was obvious... too obvious to everyone.
Her eyes, those eyes that had held the mass with an imposing authority, now betrayed her, and the aura around her faltered... everybody could see it. She had said too much, promised too much, and actually fulfilling those promises, the change she had sparked was nearly impossible.
"Say it, Orsen. I see it in your eyes," Daisy said, sitting down as she watched them... already defeated in some unspoken way.
"It is... too much, Daisy... but not in the way you think." Orsen said, lowering himself onto the chair beside her. "Feeding four million people is nearly impossible, but with the army and volunteers, we can provide food... not the best quality, but enough to make sure they don’t starve."
"Then what is too much?"
Orsen didn’t answer right away. He stared at the table in front of him, almost blinking as if gathering his thoughts, then finally met her gaze. "Our empire stands on nobles and their support, on regional leaders, on the old families... and you’ve just killed the nobles who held the most power in the capital...the ones destined to lead—"
"Do you think I care?" That voice... it was the ruler’s voice. The way she formed the words and delivered them immediately unsettled Orsen and everyone else... they could feel the danger radiating from her.
"Daisy, you need to care, because—" Orsen didn’t finish. It was the fire in her eyes that stopped him, the same fire his father had.
But Daisy’s fire had a purpose.
This is why the entire empire failed... fucking letting nobles and motherfuckers have a say in the ruling family, to control them. I don’t give a single fuck about it... I played this game, and I learned from history. She thought, angered that they couldn’t see it.
[System: They don’t know it. They live by the old ways, where nobles and influential people have a voice in ruling and even in reforms. A leader needs support from rich families to rule, because without it, you are completely alone.]
Oh really... System, what do you think? How do I played this game... I played it with absolute rule.
Indeed she did. Back then, Daisy didn’t care about anything, no noble, no rich families and even the churches, she was the absolute ruler, and those who went against her were... well, killed. Though the game was different, there were two clicks and everything was done, and her way of playing it came from real history.
"Are we dumb?" She asked, looking at Orsen, then letting her gaze sweep over the others and as usual, they said nothing just met her eyes with their own cold stares, which only fueled her anger. "Are we dumb? I’m asking a question!" she raised her voice.
"No..." Orsen said, though his tone lacked conviction.
"Everybody sit down now!" Daisy commanded Zarah, Böring, Albert, and the nobles all of them immediately took their seats, but as she looked at them, she noticed something.
Are they scared?
[System: Of course they are. You just executed eight nobles.]
That’s true... but it doesn’t change the fact that I need to be the only one who has power over everything.
"Orsen, you know what democracy is?" She asked as looked at him.
"I do know." Orsen replied.
"Then forget it," Daisy said, leaving him even more stunned. "Democracy is the wrong political ideology for the world, especially for our reality. You know why?" Her eyes locked on him as Orsen shook his head. "It could never work for us. Too many noble houses, too many rich families trying to control everything. And don’t even get me started on the Church. There’s no way we can have democracy not just because of these factors, but because nobody would actually support it. And then there’s another factor to it... does anybody know what that is?" She glanced around, and General Börg quickly raised his hand.
"Why would we let anyone support us or gain influence ... when we can be the only ones who rule?"
"Exactly!" She shouted, pointing at Böring with a big smile. "We take everyone’s power away!" Her voice was full of excitement. "The Church, we take their power! Why would they even have any? It makes no sense. The nobles, the richest families, take their power too!"
Daisy was truly excited... partly because she was just copying one of those asian kingdom-building shows she loved the most. That’s how they did it... take full power, full authority. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
"So we... overhaul everything?" Orsen asked, trying to figure out where this was going.
"Yes!" Daisy said, her voice full of power. "We overhaul everything... the whole system. First, we don’t call them regions anymore. We divide the empire into states. The states will have governors who answer only to us, but we don’t give them too much power, they just manage the state with their committee. Then we create a chamber of people, not with just nobles or the richest, but ordinary citizens, who used to have no voice. Their voices can make decisions, but we oversee everything. It looks like their stage, where people think their voices matter, but in reality, we control the whole story!"
Complete silence... everyone stared at her, stunned. She had just thrown every existing political system into a bin and mixed them together to make something new. A system that looked like democracy, but in the end, the one who decided would always be her.
Dictatorship.
