My Seven Wives Are Beautiful Saintesses-Chapter 230 - 229: Doctrine Written in Blood

The Emergency Imperial Conclave met under a sky that looked exactly the same as always.

High above the Core World, the artificial stars were still shining in their perfect, fake lines. The capital was still humming with its usual controlled order. Markets opened on time, and transport ships came and went like clockwork.

​But the feeling in the air was totally different now. Grief does not usually scream at you across an empire; instead, it just settles down like heavy dust. It gets hard. It watches everything.

​The Hall of Convergence filled up slowly. It was not because people did not have to be there, but because nobody wanted to be the first one to open their mouth. The nobles showed up in dark, plain clothes. The representatives from the big Sects wore neutral colors, and their fancy badges were covered up. Military commanders stood as stiff as statues, their faces looking like they were carved out of stone. Administrators walked in carrying tablets that were full of death counts they had already memorized.

​At the front of the room, there were two thrones on a high platform. Only one of them was being used. Celestine sat there with a perfectly straight back, her hands resting on the armrests.

She looked calm but very far away. She did not say a word as the room filled up. She did not try to rush the silence; she just let it get bigger and bigger.

​When Vahn finally walked in, you could feel the whole room shift instantly. This time, the crowd did not stand up right away. It was not because they were being rude, but because they were just not sure what to do. He walked to the front without any crown or armor. He was not showing off any of his scary power. He just looked quiet.

​He sat down next to Celestine, and only then did everyone stand up. Then they all sat back down together. The silence that followed was not empty; it was waiting for something to happen.

​Vahn leaned forward just a little bit and said, "We are not going to start this meeting with a bunch of accusations. We are also not going to start with a bunch of fake reassurances."

​A ripple of whispers went through the hall.

​"We are going to start with the facts," Vahn said firmly.

​He waved his hand, and a huge hologram popped up. It showed Khaldris Reach floating above the platform. You could see its orbital path drawn in light. Then the image changed. They saw the flames. They saw the broken shield lines and the paths the escape ships took. Then came the casualty numbers. The numbers just kept climbing and climbing until they finally stopped.

​"Every single one of these lives was lost while they were under the influence of Astralis," Vahn finally said.

​A noble started to stand up to say something, but he stopped himself and sat back down. Vahn did not even look at him.

​"They did not die because Astralis expanded," Vahn continued. "They died because Astralis expanded only halfway. We made Khaldris Reach stable enough to get the attention of our enemies, but we did not make it strong enough to stop them from attacking. We gave them a promise of a future, but we did not give them the protection they needed right then. That mistake is what killed them."

​A Sect elder spoke up very carefully. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, no empire in history can give a full military setup to every single new system immediately. Expansion has to happen in phases. It is just how things work."

​Vahn turned his head and looked right at the man. "That way of thinking does not apply here anymore," he said coldly.

​The elder frowned. "If that is the case, then expanding the Empire becomes impossible."

​"No," Vahn replied. "It just becomes something we do on purpose and with a plan."

​Celestine stood up then, and every eye in the room followed her.

​"The old way we grew the Empire treated the frontier systems like they were just passing through. We looked at them as future assets or good investments. We expected those people to be okay with being vulnerable because we promised them they would be safe eventually. Well, that expectation is gone. It is over." she said.

​A big stir went through the crowd.

A noblewoman stood up and asked, "Your Majesty, if we do this, expansion is going to slow down to a crawl. We will lose the lead to our rivals. Are you okay with that?"

​Celestine nodded. "Yes."

​The noblewoman blinked, looking shocked. "You actually admit that?"

​"I do," Celestine said. "Because a lead that is bought with blood we refuse to acknowledge is not actual strength. It is just being negligent."

​Vahn stood up now, and the whole hall went completely still.

​"Starting from nowAstralis expansion is going to follow one single rule."

​He raised his hand and a new title appeared on the hologram: ASTRALIS EXPANSION DOCTRINE REVISION.

​"No system will ever enter the Astralis influence again without full defensive parity," Vahn said. "There will be no more ’provisional’ status. No more ’partial’ stabilization. No more making promises that we say we will keep in a few years."

​A military marshal looked confused. "Your Majesty, what exactly do you mean by ’defensive parity’?"

​Vahn nodded at the hologram, which broke into different layers. It showed orbital shields, fleets that could respond instantly, lots of law enforcement, evacuation paths for civilians, and backup economic systems.

​"Every single system under our flag will get all five of those layers at the exact same time," Vahn said. "Or they will get none of them at all."

​People were actually gasping now.

A rich trade boss stood up suddenly. "This makes no sense for business! You are saying we should just walk away from profitable deals and new planets?"

​"Yes," Vahn said. "That is exactly what I am saying."

​The man started sputtering. "Do you even realize how much power and influence we are giving up by doing this?"

​"I do," Vahn said calmly. "We are giving up power that is built on making other people vulnerable."

​The murmurs of disbelief were getting louder.

A Sect representative spoke up sharply. "This is just a big show for morality. Everyone knows that growing an empire has risks. That is just life."

​Vahn turned his body slowly to look at the speaker. "A risk that you take on yourself is one thing. A risk that you quietly force onto someone else is something else entirely."

​He took a step forward. "The people of Khaldris Reach did not sign up to be used as bait for our enemies. We treated them like they were just pieces of infrastructure. We forgot they were actual people."

​That really hit the crowd hard. Nobody had anything to say to that. Celestine spoke up again.

​"All trade corridors will now be treated as sovereign territory," she said. "They are not neutral zones anymore."

​A bunch of voices started shouting at once.

"That breaks all the old trade rules!"

"That is going to start a war!"

"Our enemies will use that as an excuse to attack us!"

​Celestine raised her hand, and everyone shut up immediately. "Those rules were made to keep rich people rich," she said. "They were not made to keep people alive. If anyone attacks an Astralis corridor now, they are attacking the Empire itself."

​A noble lord stood up, his voice sounding very tight. "Then you are basically declaring war without actually saying the words."

​Vahn answered him. "No. We are declaring that we are responsible for our people."

​The lord laughed in a bitter way. "Our enemies are not going to care about that distinction."

​"They don’t have to care. They just have to understand that if they touch our people, we are coming for them."

​Then the real pushback started. A group of noble houses stood up together. They had clearly practiced this.

​"Your Majesty," their leader said, "this new rule puts a huge burden on the Core World. Our resources are going to be sucked dry. We won’t grow. Everything here is going to suffer."

​Vahn looked at him calmly. "Yes. Some things will slow down."

​The leader frowned. "And you are just okay with that?"

​"I am," Vahn admitted. "Because growing too fast without thinking is exactly how we got into this mess."

​The leader kept pushing. "Then just say it. You are saying Astralis is going to retreat."

​"No," Vahn denied. "I am saying Astralis is going to be strong enough to last."

​He showed another hologram. It was full of charts and maps. There were fewer systems shown, but they were integrated much deeper. They were way more stable.

​"You see us getting smaller," Vahn told them. "I see us getting solid."

​A military commander stood up slowly. "This rule is going to require us to be ready in a way we haven’t been in hundreds of years. We don’t have that kind of preparation."

​"Then we are going to build it," Vahn said.

​"And what if we can’t?" the commander asked.

​"Then we will not expand," Vahn said simply.

​The whole hall just sat there, soaking that in. A long silence followed.

Finally, a voice spoke from the back of the room.

​"You are changing the entire Empire, Vahn."

​Vahn turned toward the voice. "Yes, I am. Because the Empire already changed the moment Khaldris Reach started burning. We just have to decide if we are going to act like it."

​Celestine stepped forward. "There is one more part to this."

​Everyone leaned in to hear.

​"We are going to review every system that is already under our influence. If we cannot give them full protection within one year, Astralis is going to withdraw from that system completely."

​Gasps broke out everywhere. "Withdraw?" someone yelled.

​"Yes," Celestine said firmly. "We will give them compensation. we will help them move. We will be honest with them. We are not leaving them to die."

​An elder whispered, "You are going to lose so much face. Everyone will think we are weak."

​Celestine looked him in the eye. "We already lost lives. That is much worse."

​That pretty much ended the argument. Vahn spoke one last time.

Looking at everyone, he said:

​"This new rule is not going to make us popular. It won’t make us grow faster, and it definitely won’t make us richer right now. But it will make people trust us. And in the long run, trust is the only thing that actually lasts."

​He stopped for a second. "We start implementing this right now."

​The holograms disappeared, and the meeting was over. There was no clapping. Everyone just looked like they were thinking really hard. As they all started to leave, you could hear small, urgent debates starting up. Some people were already planning how to fight the new rule, while others were starting to support it.

​Celestine stayed in her seat as the hall emptied out. Vahn stood next to her.

​"They are going to fight us on this, Vahn," she said quietly.

​"I know," he replied.

​"The nobles will be first."

​"Yes." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

​She looked up at him. "And then our enemies on the outside will try something."

​"Yes, they will."

​Celestine took a deep breath. "I guess Khaldris Reach really did change everything for us."

​Vahn nodded. "It gave us a line in the sand that we are never going to cross again."

​She stood up. "So, what now?"

​Vahn’s eyes looked very hard. "Now we find out who actually wants to protect people, and who was just pretending because it was easy."

​Outside the hall, the news was already spreading like wildfire. The growth of the Astralis Empire slowed down almost immediately. Corridors were being reinforced, and soldiers were being moved everywhere.

Some neighboring empires felt relieved, but others started to panic because the "easy" target was gone.

​Kharos heard the news. So did the Compact. Every empire that thought they could bully Astralis had to stop and think. The new rule had been written down, but not with ink. It was written with the ash of a dead world and the names of the people who were lost.

And the whole Immortal Realm was going to have to figure out how to deal with the new Astralis.