After the meal, the two immediately went to the one of the most secure and confidential living rooms in the Empire except the Emperor's Forbidden Palace.
The living room door opened, and a faint smell of incense came to my face. Tirien's female secretary had already lit the incense burner inside and left.
This is a very unique living room, not too gorgeous and vulgar, but it looks elegant and noble. Bookcases of all sizes are lined up along the walls, displaying historical relics and books stored from various centuries. There is also an antique mahogany table near the corner of the wall, filled with various rare treasures. The first one caught your eye was a golden bird cage with a colorful bird inside. Whenever it shook it gently, the exquisite bells on it would make a crisp sound.
On the other side of the table was a white porcelain deer, staring at everything in the living room with a smile. Next to the deer, there was a graceful girl sculpture. An antique chandelier was hung on the ceiling of the living room. The crystal clear crystal made people wonder which era it belonged to. The copper gray at the bottom of the lamp looked particularly bright under the lights.
The walls around the living room are full of ancient oil paintings, wall hangings and sculptures. There is a unique single chair at one end of the living room. There are animal head carvings on the handheld and back of the chair, giving people a sense of majesty.
"...It took me eighty years to build this place, and every item here is the oldest and exquisite. Sometimes, despite being in a bad mood, I still like to stay in this room. Each high lord has his own palace, and the spire of the Senate is also the most magnificent building in the entire Milky Way. I still prefer this oasis that belongs to me."
As he said that, he pointed to a huge celadon vase.
"This is said to come from the collection of the former imperial prime minister Makado. It was leaked out of the palace during the Great Rebellion. It was finally found by me for tens of thousands of years. Based on the inspections of some scholars and machine inspections, it is inferred that its history can be traced back to the first millennium of mankind."
Soshiyang nodded slightly.
"Cultural relics are witnesses to history."
"Not just that, whenever I sit here, I realize that human beings are not just violence and anger, we are also an ancient race with excellent taste. We have wisdom and interest, and stand firm in the universe. If our race is only war, what's the difference between us and green skin?"
Then he pointed to a sandstone fireplace.
"It belongs to the pre-Federal Confederacy of France, which has been more than 12,000 years old, and is a literal priceless treasure, because the Emperor once made an oath with the leaders of the Federation in front of this fireplace, but if placed outside, most people would only regard it as a useless stone, smashed or discarded... But this is the bad situation facing our race at present."
Then the two of them found a suitable position to sit down. Soshiyan chose a huge stone chair and Tirien was a sofa. It was not that he was disrespectful to cultural relics, but that this thing was the only thing that suited his body shape.
"This is the chair that the Primarch Dorn sat on when commanding Terra's defense operations in the fortress. As a result, when he was cleared from the bone column fortress after the war, he was shoveled away as garbage. When it was found, it was already in a mutant tribe in the deepest part of the underground..."
Tirien stopped the following words in time, but looking at his slightly awkward expression, Soshiyan probably guessed that the size of this chair is for mortals, and the place that can be used is nothing more than—
toilet?
"I originally wanted to return the Imperial Fist, but considering that... it might cause some overreaction, I didn't do that."
"It's understandable."
After a brief silence, Tirien said slowly:
"The empire needs heroes more than ever, but heroes also mean things that ordinary people cannot do, so they must get rid of many constraints. The commander of Soshiyang, if...if there is a day when you need to stand up and become that real hero, are you willing to get rid of those constraints?"
Soshiyang replied calmly:
"That depends...it depends on what's going on."
"In recent years, I have been collecting specific situations in various war zones. I have found in many chaotic fronts that the number of heretic activities in the Misty Star Domain has been more than twice as active as in the last century, and the number of space waste ships appearing near the Cadian Star Zone is five times that of the last century! Although these seem to have been dealt with in the end, from the summary of general rules, these are by no means accidental situations."
"You mean the enemy, or... the Black Legion might have action?"
"The Great Predator has always been in action, but... don't joke, I always have some bad intuitions and premonitions, the Eye of Fear, the place where the Empire is strictly guarding, there may be problems. Although I have done my best in the past ten years to allow the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Admiralty to add fifty regiments and two strike fleets in the direction of Cadian, is this enough? I often ask myself at night, are these arrangements really enough? Can we really spend the last thirty years of the forty-one thousand years, and what about the next forty-two thousand years? As you said before, the Empire is already a disabled old man, and maybe we can fill in the east and put it in another thousand years, but then what?"
After thinking for a moment, Soshyan looked at Tirien and asked very straightforwardly:
“Do you want to carry out a reform?”
Tirien shook his head.
"Reform? No, I have lived for two hundred years. This is the harvest of my daily caution and luxury. But I don't plan to use the technology of life extension. My life will soon come to an end. In a sense, I am the closest group of mortals to the throne on the physical level, but I am not sure whether my bloated and incompetent soul Emperor is worthy of it. Perhaps I can do something that meets my duties before my death... If the limit of mortal rule has been proved by the ten thousand years after the Great Rebellion, does it mean that we have to find a new way? I don't know what this way should be, but I know that the empire really needs to change."
Soshiyang looked at the bloated man stuck in the sofa in a complicated mood.
The other party was unusually brave. It would have been quite dangerous to know that they would say this in front of an Astarte. Moreover, the two of them were not that familiar. Either the other party had absolute confidence, or the other party thought they knew that they knew Soshiyan enough and knew that he could listen to these things, but no matter what aspect they considered, they had to have enough courage just to speak.
What about a mortal who looks weak can make such a courageous decision? Has he been acting too hesitant?
"Captain Soshyan, you are the hope I see, a hope of change, the era of the Primrose has passed, but we are not short of people better than them. I will help you, politically and in many places, to be honest, we can form an alliance that is beneficial to each other."
The Prime Minister of the Empire extended an olive branch to him, which sounded pretty good, but in fact it was another very dangerous thing.
“Astadt…”
Soshyang paused, then said slowly:
Chapter completed!