1 Taking out the thrash

The first thing I did in the morning was to look at myself in the mirror and confirm my appearance.

I have blonde hair, like gold, black eyes, like the void, and a porcelain skin tone.

I stood at two matters tall and was fit, the previous owner of this body took good care of his looks and image.

My only complaint is that I don't have a beard, which can be fixed with time.

I proceeded to attempt to wash myself but was stopped by the maids who are assigned to serve me, which was... weird to say the least, luckily I am used to people having to do everything for me and quickly adapted.

And I don't mind getting used to this.

"Your majesty, your family is waiting for you at the dining table." my personal butler Sebastian said

'Righ, my new family...' I don't consider these people my family, not even close, but I still hope I can befriend them, we all know how bloody monarchies and fights for the throne can get.

"Of course lead the way." My voice was also very masculine and deep, which will take some getting used to.

"Understood."

After that, he, and my personal maid Elizabeth, led me through the many corridors of the palace until we reached a sizeable ornate-looking door, which, after knocking a few specific times, got opened by some servants on the other side.

A 10-meter-long wooden table of impeccable quality stretched out before me, the walls had large windows in them giving a beautiful view of the city below, servants stood at the sides along with guards, ready to assist and to protect us and more specifically, me.

20 people were seated at the table, I knew that these were his family members, as I did some research yesterday when I had time.

The ones of note were, my elder sister Jessica Valentia who is 20 years old, she has Blond hair, but not golden like mine, with dark blue eyes, she is 1,7 meters tall.

The youngest brother, Brock, is 4 years old, has Blond Hair, grey eyes, and is still just a child, height doesn't really matter.

Uncle Shen is 142 years old, he is my father's half brother and his royal blood is greatly diluted, He has brown hair, dark Grey eyes and is 1,8 meters tall

And finally, my jealous older brother, Lucius Valentia, is 32 years old, has golden hair, and ruby red eyes, which made him the target of some nasty rumors, he is 1,9 meters tall making him slightly shorter than me.

Shen might seem old, but people in our empire can live for thousands of years, so we are all incredibly young, thanks to mother and father failing to produce an heir until the last moment.

It isn't hard to see why Lucius is jealous, he obviously wants the throne, but sadly for him I, or the other me, was father's favorite, causing me to get the throne.

My black eyes and golden hair also represent pure royal blood, so most of the nobles like me as far as I am aware.

Everyone stood at attention when they saw me enter, the servants quickly pulled out my chair and announced my entrance to everyone inside the large room.

"The emperor, Adam Valencia the First has arrived!"

All of the soldiers saluted while the servants put both of their hands on their chests.

"At ease," I ordered and everyone immediately relaxed.

I walked to the table and sat down.

"You may all sit."

Everyone said, "Greetings your majesty." or "Good morning your highness" And we all began eating.

Everyone was relaxed and we had pleasant small talk, except for my elder brother, who was very jittery and seemed unable to focus.

"Brother, what's the matter? did you not sleep well?" I finally asked, some at the table froze at my question, including Lucius.

"It's nothing, your majesty, I just don't feel so well, do not worry I am sure I'll be back at full strength in no time." the "majesty" was clearly forced, and even though he tried to hide it, I still noticed.

"That is unfortunate, I wish you a quick recovery."

"Thank you, your majesty." Once again, forced.

I have been considering since this morning that "I" might not have had a heart attack, my body is that of a healthy 18-year-old, I am fit, exercising regularly, and eating well.

The odds of a heart attack are minimal, the odds of attempted murder, however...

'I'll have to investigate him and the other people who gave themselves away.'

Now that I think about it the death of My father Kan Valencia, and my mother Lus Valencia, was no freak accident, or it certainly seems that way to me...

The problem is that they couldn't bypass the security of the palace even if the 8 of these 'royals' cooperated, they had assistance from staff and powerful nobles, it is the only possibility.

'So I have an ambitious brother and rebellious nobles to deal with?' The only silver lining is that the people adore me.

I was always known as a kind and trustworthy person by the people, and I often went out and talked to the common people, helped them, and sometimes exposed some corrupt officials.

'Oh? They might have something to hide and are scared of me exposing it?' It is certainly an option, but I couldn't be sure.

Either way, I had to stop anyone suspicious from approaching me and check all of the staff in the palace, which is around 30000-70000 people.

next is to investigate the nobles, which is gonna be a lot more complicated.

And during all of that, I will save up resources for our first expedition to space.

In my deep thought, I failed to notice the awkward silence that now hung around the table.

Since the emperor didn't speak, it would be rude for them to speak first.

"Ahem... I apologize everyone but I must go attend to my duties, I wish you well brother."

I said without showing a hint of how I really felt.

"Thank you, your majesty."

I beelined to my room, and my personal maid and butter followed me.

Lucius Valentia POV:

My younger brother has been crowned Emperor yesterday... and NOTHING happened.

Did I get scammed??? But that is impossible! My confidants constantly reassured me that it would work.

"Announcing the entrance of the Emperor, Adam Valencia The first!"

Shit, he's already here!

I watched as my brother looked around the room and slowly walked toward the table.

Why is he walking so slowly and staring at all of us??? It's almost like he's analyzing us... Wait, does he know?! He must have done something to stop the poison, so he definitely knows that someone wants him dead.

This is really bad!

"Brother, what's the matter? did you not sleep well?" I snapped out of it and saw those damned dark eyes looking at me.

"It's nothing, your majesty, I just don't feel so well, do not worry I am sure I'll be back at full strength in no time." Crap, I let my contempt show for a second there.

When I saw that there is no reaction I internally sighed with relief, I am safe for now.

"That is unfortunate, I wish you a quick recovery."

"Thank you, your majesty." Once again, forced, I am such a dumbass-

This time his 'MaJEsTy' went silent, which immediately caught the attention of everyone at the table.

Lucious wanted to kill himself for his stupidity if his brother won't do it himself.

No matter how much He hatted Adam, The emperor must always be respected, at least on the surface.

After what felt like an eternity of silence the Emperor excused himself and left the room.

*hah* everyone sighed with relief.

Adam POV:

We returned to my personal room, I pressed some buttons and opened a specific book called Rise of Valencia to page 394 and suddenly a wall moved aside, and we walked inside, down a staircase and into a room only I, Elizabeth, and Sebastian knows about.

Sebastian shut the heavy, meter-thick steel door behind me and Elizabeth.

"Sebastian investigate every royal in the palace, you have indefinite resources at your disposal, do whatever it takes, and if you find anything, tell me immediately, just make sure you are not spotted and discovered."

"Elizabeth you contact the Seraphs and do the same, gather as much dirt on as many nobles as you can, both of you prioritize the powerful nobles and move down the hierarchy."

"Yes, your majesty!" They both kneeled.

The main servants are taken in at a young age and are raised with the prince or princess, this is done so that they can befriend each other and form an unbreakable bond.

These servants are also taught everything that could be possibly useful to a future emperor, including contacts in the underworld and the dark web.

Elizabeth is extremely knowledgeable about this and can pull a lot of strings at once, my good reputation has also gained me some vigilante friends in the underworld, some of which are extremely influential and powerful people.

any enemies I might have had in the past no longer exist, courtesy of these friends.

And these people will end up the same way.

Sebastian is more experienced with more... legal options, he's a businessman, advisor, general, and politician all delivered in one package.

The seraphs I mentioned before are the most powerful family in the underworld, and the royals made a deal with them a long time ago when they had gone too far.

Back then the royal family cracked down on them and completely annihilated them, but they knew they would come back, or someone would just replace them.

So they made a deal, They could continue their operations, and even be supported by the crown secretly, but they couldn't disrupt the lives of normal people so violently and forcibly, and whenever the Emperor needed something, they would get it

They accepted.

Now thanks to the support of the crown, they pretty much own 70 percent of the underground market, and crime rates are incredibly low, reaching only a few percent worldwide.

Now, some people were concerned that they would rebel against the crown in the future.

But they have never attempted a rebellion of any kind and faithfully fulfilled all orders given to them.

They knew that it was in their best interest, after all, mutual destruction didn't sound fun.

"Good, I suspect someone killed mother and father and tried to kill me as well."

"Do not worry, we will find the perpetrators and make them suffer for their crimes!"

After this a month passed by... during which the Serraphs overturned every nook and cranny for clues.

And they found a lot, some of which was even from their own branches.

They immediately cracked down on these fools, who knew what was going on, extracted all information out of them, and delivered their heads to Adam as an apology.

Adam gracefully accepted, and took note of all of the evidence delivered to him.

Not only from Elizabeth but also from Sebastian.

Now he had more than enough, Serraph couldn't find anymore, and the same went for Sebastian.

"Let the purge begin!"