66 Lucie POV

Life has been... Interesting to say the least.

I still look back on the days before all of this, they were all so simple and nice in comparison.

The Hive struck of course, apparently some ancient shielding device malfunctioned and now the AI's that were supposed to maintain it have gone crazy.

The universe is such a bitch sometimes! I swear, first an extraterestrial invasion renders my home uninhabitable, then some space emperor guy comes along and singlehandedly kills an army's worth of Hive creatures, after that I REALIZE that he's the goddamn EMPEROR!

How the fuck was I supposed to expect any of that? All of it came out of nowhere!

So, needless to say, When I was informed his majesty would come to meet me, I was a nervous wreck.

My appearance may not have changed much, but a considerable amount of time has passed, it made me nervous.

The humans do have a saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet they seem to believe that the royal family is an exception to this rule.

It made me scared, scared that the Imperium will collapse just as all other monarchies before it, and it wasnt an unfounded fear.

It all depended on how Adam has changed, I know him decently well from our time stuck together, though my memories may be a bit fuzzy considering its been more than 20 years.

I unknowingly let out a sigh and entered the meeting room where the two of us would meet.

I have built myself quite the empire myself, not to brag, but we are the bigest and most higly praised explorer and escort organization in the Imperium, and considering how huge it is, that is no small feat.

Adam has had other meetings to which I was invited because of this, but we never interacted outside of them, so its difficult to judge how his personality has changed over the years.

"Miss, his majesty is on his way."

Oh God, I'm really nervous, I feel like when I was meeting my first sponsor, except this is WAY more important than that.

This is the most powerfull man in the Imperium, and arguably in the entire Orion Arm.

Taking a deep breath I steadied myself, this is just a negotiation, calm hte fuck down.

I waited a few minutes while keeping myself busy, and soon enough, I could hear them approaching.

I sent the best of the best to escort Adam, I didnt escort him myself because it didnt cross my mind until now.

Shit, that would be considered rude, now I have to pray Adam isnt the kind of person who is obsessed with his rank and ego.

Soon enough, I could see him through the glass doors, chating with the adventurers sent to escort him.

He looked a lot diferent now, a beard on his face, not only that, the atmosphere around him seemed more like that of an experienced ruler, leader, and soldier.

As we made eye contact, I quickly broke it and stopped playing with my pen, a bit embarassed to be seen so plainly nervous.

He gave a small smile, and the group entered the room together.

As soon as he entered, I kneeled and said "Greetings your majesty" as is proper according to Imperiual ettique.

Adam simply motioned for me to rise, which I did.

The meeting was fairly relaxed actualy, it wasnt nowhere near as akward as I feared it would be, which was a relief.

I couldnt exactly tell if he changed in any other way besided being a lot more steady, calm, and clearly more experienced, so I merely did my duty and negotiated a good deal.

The deal itself wasnt anything special, just an exchange of money for services.

Speaking off, the curency changed after the Azburgian Interestellar Empire became the Azburgian Galactic Imperium, the coins, when rarely used, now look like the Milky Way with the Azburgian flag waving behind it.

A not so subtle way of declaring Azburgian ambitions.

Same went for virtual currency paid through apps and cards.

Not to mention just how much each Azburgian Crown was worth, with how powerful, stable, and seemingly untouchable the Imperium was, its currency was used or atleast accepted almost everywhere, and the exchange rates were just as crazy, with some currencies having a rate of 1AC to thousands or hundreds of thousands.

But anyways, this all concerned Lucie that Adam might be getting out of control, a fear which now she feels is miss guided.

After the meeting, which resulted in an amazing deal for Lucie, Adam wished to speak to her in private, which concerned her.

The only times the Emperor or Imperator wished to speak to someone in private, it considered matters of national importance or something equaly as important, or it could just be that Adam wanted to chat, Lucie has no way to know for sure.

She agreed, albeit with a slight stutter.

The following events were a fever dream for Lucie, Adam revealed something which chalenged not only her beliefs, but also the beliefs of all her people.

She was raised on a planet where spiritualism was dead, completely replaced by science and logic, something she believed the Imperium shared to a certain degree.

But now Adam says that psychic powers are real, and not only does he have them, but apparently she does too.

She was gonna call him a mad man, but the series of events she saw afterwards and the difference in status convinced her otherwise.

Adam backed up his claims with a show of his abilities, he threw a chair across the room without even getting close to it.

Lucie looked in worry at a camera located in the corner of the room, only to see an error message floating around it.

That camera was a new one, the best of the best too, it wasnt an error.

Seems like agents from the royal family act faster than she expected, though she already had high expectations.

After this, Adam dropped another bomb, they were working on reversing the effects of the Hive on living matter, and she would be given priority if she joined forces with Adam.

She accepted immediately, she wanted to hug her mom and dad so much... Her last memories of them was her father shooting her consumed mother in the head, and her father had to sacrifice himself too...

She had nightmares for the longest time, and now that she could save them as soon as possible, she definitely would.

So as Adam left, she looked at him from the top of her skyscraper, thinking about what would happen now.