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Chapter 426 - The Empress of All Races

Serial Number Conquered World—Universe No. 117 (Halo) ultimately belongs to the jurisdiction of the Second Legion of Budo, the Punishers.

After the occupation, apart from the central empire dispatching internal bureaucrats to take over administrative and judicial powers, and the tax department taking over the right to levy taxes, the garrison, partial conscription, public security, and riot control of this universe must definitely belong to the Second Legion.

Although the Eighth Legion of Konrad Curze, the Night Lords, and the Twelfth Legion of Angron, the World Eaters, have dispatched main forces to cooperate in the battle, these management powers are basically irrelevant to them. What they gain is only a certain share of the annual output of this world.

Including but not limited to the limited distribution rights of spoils of war born under the conquest; the total military output after the universe establishes a forge world; the total material supply of industrial and agricultural worlds; the supply of personnel from hive worlds and conscription worlds, and a series of agreements.

Specific post-war supplementary clauses at any time.

Clear accounts between brothers.

And this time it is equivalent to Konrad Curze and Angron helping Budo, naturally, in the future, if they have needs or discover high-value but difficult-to-handle tough problems, Budo will also personally help.

The subsequent division of interests is also simple, the old method, what you discover, belongs to the jurisdiction of your legion sequence, no one will snatch it, but the agreement of 'sharing the spoils' is a must.

The target of this expedition is the Punishers Legion Conquered World—Universe No. 117, as it is ultimately within Budo's future jurisdiction. Conrad Kurze's opinions were merely advisory—until Selene issued direct administrative orders, Budo's personal stance was what truly mattered.

Thinking of this, Selene looked at Budo with interest. This old stubborn man had never clearly expressed his position on the alien race at the meeting of the Imperial Capital Military Headquarters.

On the contrary, his actions were vague and confusing.

"Not enough." After about three breaths, Budo shook his head and made a statement that was completely opposite to his attitude of showing himself as an iron-blooded soldier and never tolerating any rebellion.

"Not enough?" Hearing this, Conrad Koz frowned and said, "If we let go of the bottom line of surrender, how should we measure the scale? Our policy on aliens has already been impeached by the court."

"Let them impeach, policies are dead, people are alive."

As he said, Budo looked up at Selene and weighed his words.

"A glimmer of hope, just reducing a little resistance, is not enough, far from enough, the Star Alliance... This universe is likely to be dominated by alien races. The reconnaissance troops have not yet sent back much information about the contact with human civilization."

"It is speculated that the strength is weak and is suppressed by the alliance of alien races called the Star Alliance."

"In this case, can we still bloodbath the entire universe? Although it is not impossible, the cost and reward are not matched, and the loss will not be small, and the gain will not outweigh the loss."

Budo's eyes instantly turned cold.

"At the same time, developing such a large piece of virgin land also requires a lot of cheap labor, right? On the future battlefield, cannon fodder is never enough—there's no such thing as too many."

"Therefore, recruiting a large number of alien races is something we need to seriously consider. Those who are disobedient and rebellious should be eliminated, but a one-size-fits-all approach is strictly prohibited. There are still many alien races in this universe that have been cultivating on their home planets and have never seen humans."

"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, since we are going to recruit alien races, the door has already been opened. What is the use of being stingy? It would be better to do it all at once. Let's set the true standard for recruiting alien races in this universe."

"Solve the problem as soon as it is discovered, anyway...."

As he spoke, Budo stood up and knelt on one knee, looking firmly at Selene.

"With you holding them down, what big waves can they stir up?"

"Oh?"

Selene glanced at Budo, swaying her wine glass while resting her chin on her hand.

"You've set your sights on me, huh? I didn't expect you, Budo, who is known as the old stubborn, to be so cunning."

"Your Majesty is joking, I am ashamed. I dare to present my humble opinion."

Kneeling on one knee and bowing, Budo spoke with a calm expression, showing no embarrassment.

"Those officials say I am stubborn, but in my view, they are the stubborn ones."

"'There is no constant situation in war, and water has no constant shape. Those who can adapt to the enemy's changes and win are called gods.'

"Use measures that benefit the empire, and change those that do not. Always clinging to dogmatism and becoming complacent at the sight of some achievements—what is that if not stubbornness?"

Although Budo is stubborn, he is not foolish.

His stubbornness lies in his adherence to the principle that 'military men should not interfere in politics' and his unwavering loyalty to the Empress'' orders.

In other matters, his moral bottom line is flexible and changeable, as befits a battlefield commander. His ability to foster subordinates is undoubtedly excellent.

The iron-blooded and strict military methods did not overly constrain Budo's thinking.

An interesting thing is that for human races with different customs and cultures, Budo's methods are always brutal and violent, and any resistance will lead to bloody suppression and cleansing.

However, for alien races that surrender, submit, and voluntarily offer loyalty to the Empress, Budo shows a rather strange 'tolerance.'

Not only does he not initiate too many terrifying massacres and cleansing activities, but he also assigns 'work' (labor) based on the racial characteristics of the alien races and selects elite members of the alien races to be incorporated into the auxiliary army to serve as special troops in certain situations.

Hmm, he is a great 'benevolent' person.

Of course, Budo is still very measured and does not lose his basic foundation by being biased. The alien race soldiers selected through his inspection and selection are all elites, and compared to the base proportion of humans in the army, they are pitifully few.

For alien races, his trust is only given once and is limited. Not to mention various overt and covert surveillance, once one person has rebellious thoughts, it implicates everyone, preferring to kill three thousand wrongly rather than let one go.

Even if the children of the alien race chieftain have rebellious intentions, they are no exception. All implicated are killed, and a new batch of people is brought in, still having their fellow tribesmen execute them.

The melodramatic soap opera plots captured during external conquests are impossible to happen under Budo's watchful eyes.

Any more rebellious thoughts? It means extermination!

Speaking of this, one cannot help but mention an interesting phenomenon among the Astartes Legion factions known as the Hawks, the scale of the alien race legion is much larger than that of the Conscience Astartes Legion.

Under the Conscience Astartes Legion, the lives of ordinary humans are much better than under the Hawk Astartes Legion, but the opposite is true for alien races.

Under the Conscience faction, except for a few humanoid alien races that closely resemble human forms, other alien races with appearances too different from humans live much worse.

And because of Budo's 'merciful' measures, even though he is nominally the second person in the Imperial military, he has attracted much criticism, even impeachment by censors, calling him a 'traitor to humanity.'

In response, Selene's approach was to keep it confidential and not make it public.

Because Selene had received a letter from Budo, in which he subtly suggested to Selene that it was unwise to indiscriminately exterminate externally. He recounted some of his experiences and views.

After such a long period of external conquest wars, he discovered that the life races in the universe are like the stars in the sea of stars, seemingly endless, and humans are just a small part of it.

Especially, one of Budo's sentences, 'Your Majesty, you should not only be the Empress of humans but also the Empress of all races.'

This sentence directly struck a chord with Selene. She had little interest in romantic affairs, even indifferent, but when it came to fame and power, she was very much awake.

"Your Majesty, there is a small legion composed of some alien races in my legion. In the previous battles, based on observations, they have shown strong combat will, fearless of death, completely not inferior to human soldiers, and even surpassing...."

"The fanaticism of converts." Selene murmured.She murmured, looking at Budo, "Give me their combat records."

"Yes!"

Getting up and coming to Budo, Selene took the disk card from Budo's hand, and the power of the Herrscher of Reason was activated.

In the real-time recorded images in her mind, amidst the blood and fire of the city's ruins, a group of soldiers wearing imperial military uniforms, with grotesque and bizarre appearances, some with scales and cuticles, some with two hands and two feet, some with animal features... were shouting 'Long live the Empire!' and 'Long live Her Majesty the Empress' while... uh, fighting with humans.

It was probably some human world being conquered, tsk, the accent was precise, standard imperial lingua franca.

Hiss—

This might make those humans think the Empire is an alien nation, an alien invasion.

After quickly scanning through, Selene confirmed it was indeed the fervor of converts. Whether fighting against other alien civilizations or human civilizations, it was clear that these assimilated alien races were truly fighting fiercely, fighting to the death without retreat.

Selene also roughly understood their mentality.

In short, in religious terms, new converts are often more fanatical and devout than seasoned believers.

There are probably several reasons: a 'redemption' mentality, striving for recognition from the new group to gain appreciation, wanting to draw a clear line from the past.

Selene nodded politely to Budo, indicating for him to rise, "In that case, I will need to make some slight adjustments to the policies."

The saying "those who are not of our race must have different hearts" is not necessarily absolutely correct.

I have been somewhat empirical, and my empire does not have as harsh a living environment as 40k. I don't have to rely solely on the development of human civilization to gain power, so why focus only on this small piece of human territory?

As the God Emperor, if humans can believe, why can't aliens?

As long as it is a measure that increases the volume of civilization, it is a measure that increases the power of Honkai. For Selene, it is naturally correct.

In an instant, Selene suddenly saw the light.

Empiricism is not advisable. As long as they believe in her, from point to surface, Honkai will come to erode and bind with the entire civilization. Honkai does not care whether you are a human civilization.

In fact, the current xenophobia of the Sacred Selene Empire is also due to Selene's indulgence, although she has never explicitly stated that humans are supreme and that aliens should all die.

But the native residents of the empire, which originated from the millennium empire, already had a bit of a psychological rejection of foreign aliens, coupled with Selene's actions before her ascension, it was not far from complete extermination.

Thus, with the unification of the empire after Selene's ascension, and with the 'guidance' of an example, the psychological rejection of foreign aliens gradually turned into a rejection of alien species.

Discovering measures more beneficial to the empire,

If nothing else, Selene's quality of correcting mistakes is commendable.

In ancient feudal empires, the reason why kings often gave the impression of being unrepentant was not because they didn't know their policies were wrong.

No! They knew.

But for the sake of face, for the authority of the Son of Heaven, they could not admit it.

How can an emperor be wrong?

In the era of divine right of kings, admitting mistakes would mean a loss of virtue for the emperor, which would shake their authority.

Apart from natural disasters causing calamities, emperors who admit mistakes and issue self-criticism edicts generally fall into two categories. Those who can maintain their authority with skill and those who cannot, leading to either becoming a puppet or losing the country.

Selene is clearly the former. Who would dare to say she is unworthy and lacks virtue?

'But I need to proceed slowly. My foundation is the human empire, and I must stabilize it. I cannot favor one over the other. The inclusion of alien races can only be considered as icing on the cake,' Selene thought to herself.

Selene would never admit that the scene of all races kneeling and shouting long live gave her vanity further satisfaction.

Vanity is the ladder of human progress.

"I agree with your proposal, Budo."

Upon hearing this, Budo and Conrad Coz exchanged glances, joy flashing in their eyes, and even the ears of Angron, who was squatting nearby and eating heartily, twitched.

"But there is one thing I hope you remember well." The next moment, Selene changed her tone, gently tapping the table, her expression becoming serious.

"Appeasement policies are acceptable, even if it involves alien races at war with human civilization. Different positions serve different masters, and they can be subdued. But there is one thing, any alien that has eaten humans, even if only one individual, must be exterminated completely."

Pointing at the projected image, Selene's eyes gleamed with an icy chill.

Humans are still the basic foundation, and Selene understands this very clearly.

"Yes!"

Looking at the constantly flickering images on the table projection, the two spoke in unison.

In the image, it was the Astartes reconnaissance team that had taken down the ghost-faced beast's transport ship.

At this time, reinforcements holding the Soul Enlightener, had already arrived. Through searching the brain of the captured ghost-faced beast, the holy relic they were transporting, the 'Triangular Body', and their identities were already clear.

And the report clearly mentioned one point: by reading the memories in its brain nerves, it can be confirmed that this ghost-faced beast has already had encounters with human civilization, and it has eaten humans.

The DNA residues extracted from its stomach and large intestine also confirmed this point.

...

"I won't ask about the specific battle deployment. Go down and prepare for war." Selene glanced at Angron, who was sneaking up, and directly issued an order to leave.

"Yes, Your Majesty, we take our leave."

Budo, Konrad Curze, and Angron all bowed to Selene, then retreated to the palace door, turned around, and left together.

Selene watched the three leave, opened the window, and muttered to herself: "'Triangular Body', ring belt... Precursor, Forerunner technology, a great supplement."

Leaning against the windowsill, the magnificent palace stood under artificial light, the soaring dome dazzling, and those epic murals seemed to shine brightly.

"The Supreme God of all Races, the Empress of all Races... hehe."

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