Paperwork has been a prevalent occurrence since a month after taking over Tang, now Sui.
Usually this would be easy, only if I had the modern convenience of copiers and adobe, no instead I had a group of scribes, slabs of stone and mountains of parchments to write.
The paperwork for conquering and making a Hegemony a vassal was immense.
Have you seen the amount of tomfoolery that exists in the 7th century? The amount of non-problems that would exist in the 21st century are the problem.
"How many times do I have to say this, discrimination based on gender, race, or religion is illegal, the only discrimination that is acceptable is discrimination based on skill and experience." I slowly spoke as I stared down at a kneeling Intendant.
"Y-yes my Prince" it was kinda easy to instil these principles into these people.
That or fear.
"My Prince" ah, just the person I was looking for.
"Lang'er, I'm… so handy to see you!" I spoke as I stared into the older woman's eyes.
"My Prince… I fear that you are being hostile" Lang'er said.
"That's because I am, you could've told me that you're more inbred than the Targaryen's dynasty!" I slammed my fist down on the table.
Not hard, but enough to emphasize the point.
"The… Targaryens?" Lang'er looked confused but I waved it off.
"Ignore it, but it would've done well to warn me that your brother is… inbred" I spoke.
"And say what? 'My Prince, just so you know we're so inbred that our family tree is no longer a tree?" Lang'er crossed her arms.
"Tch, I still dislike you for this" I sighed as I rubbed my forehead, I couldn't be angry at anyone in this situation.
"My Prince, what of the… detractors?"my advisor asked as he held his hands in front of him.
"What of them?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They are, from what and the spymasters of the… newly appointed Emperor, are attempting to foment revolts underneath our main districts… some of the commoners are calling you a demon sent from heaven"
I waved him off.
"So what? Just because they're upset that I've conquered them? They're upset that their so-called 'heaven' was only a fog over them instead of the clouds? They're upset because I did what they all continuously failed to do?" I spoke as I stood up.
"Let me placate the citizens of the Sui dynasty then, since our current Emperor doesn't have the Brian cells to formulate a sentence" I spoke as I walked out.
"Brain… cells?" Lang'er said, confused.
Oh yeah, they don't know what cells are yet.
"Ahem, grant the citizens a monthlong tax break, everyone who doesn't hold a station will not pay until the fortnight of the next month" it was surprisingly easy to placate citizens with tax breaks.
I miss pizza.
I also just miss greasy food in general.
"My Prince, there have been… a lot of requests… and demands" my Advisor actually looked nervous when he brought this to my attention.
"Demands? They can't demand anything, but requests I listen to, let me hear them" I chuckled as the now balding man nodded, have I stressed my Advisor so much that he's balding.
Gotta give him vacation days or something.
"They are requesting that the… 'Prince of Persia' marry, most are offering their daughters… some… more… mature women" my Advisor swallowed his fears as I chuckled.
I do like muscular women, mature is a close second, but I feel like they do not know my age.
"Tell me, do these… requesters know my age?" I asked him as we exited the main courtroom.
"No, My Prince" my Advisor spoke slowly.
"Then… let all of my conquered lands know, the lands back home, and the fallen Romans to the east, upon my tenth birthday I will hold a festival to see if any woman brought before me interests me, if they do I will marry them" I spoke as I nodded.
"And… and if none of them do so?" My Advisor sweated a bit.
"Then I won't marry in my life, regardless of what time changes… this is everyone's only chance to curry mass amounts of favour with me" I knew what marriages were during this time.
Political alliances, a show of prestige, wealth, and power. As such they are looked at with a lot of eyes and schemes with promises, and backhanded deals.
Don't even get me started on things like 'Bloody Weddings'
"So tell the realm - nay the entire world, that if any woman impresses me, I will take her as my wife, religion does not matter, the color of the skin does not matter, the customs do not matter; impress me and she will be immortalized by my side"
My advisor only bowed as I mounted my donkey, the old boy took an apple by a stable hand as I waited as Lang'er received the news of my decision and I got to say.
I did not like the look upon her face.
Schemes upon schemes will be made around this.
So let the foolish come, they will find that I am quite a headstrong individual.
——————————
"Foolishness, the Prince is expanding our borders too quickly, we simply cannot handle the sheer amount of influx of… of everything!" The Steward spoke as he slammed his hands on the table.
It was late at night and a day before the solar eclipse, but with the news that Tang was conquered by the 'Flame of Persia' it was clear to all of them, they would face the same problem the Romans did before they collapsed.
Too many faiths, too many cultures, and not enough qualified individuals.
"And what would we do? The people love him, calling him 'God Killer' and the literal 'Saoshyant' our savior, we have not seen him in years, we do not have any evidence of this information, only reports from out west" the Marshal spoke slowly.
"We must convince the Prince to stop, if he sees fit to conquer Tibet, the amount of sheer influx would make us - the council - will be redundant due to us not being able to handle our duties!" The Steward spoke as he glanced around the table.
"So what? Perhaps we should just… expand the council?" The Councilor spoke as he stroked his rather long beard.
"E… expand? Are you suggesting we lower our prestige just to expand our numbers?" The Steward glared at the Councillor.
"You often forget your place, we are all only here to better the Persian Empire, it has been increasingly clear that your only starting to care about yourself" the Spymaster accused the Steward.
"I'm sorry, I have been the only one to see the tax breaks that the Prince has ordered with the conquered lands, we're not even getting half of what we should get, we're getting copper, while the citizens there are fattening themselves up!" The Steward slammed his hands on the table multiple times to emphasize his point.
"…the Wisdom of the Saoshyant is beyond all of us combined" the Court Priest spoke as his beard literally touched the ground.
"And why are you here?! You got kicked out by majority vote!" The Steward pointed at him.
"Peace" the Spymaster held up a hand "I invited him"
"Why?" The Marshal raised an eyebrow.
"Because the turning of an age is nigh" a elderly woman spoke, she had practically raised the Prince himself.
"You! You're the one that put damnable ideas into his head, does the Clocktower still need to meddle into affairs that aren't their own?!" The Steward pointed at the old Magi.
"Calm down!" The marshal pointed at the Steward "none of us are idiots! We see your schemes plain as day - just because you got away with it a few times doesn't mean we're blind!!" That seemed to silence the Steward.
"A Beast of Humanity has been revealed" the Old Magi spoke as her staff touched the wooden table.
"Beast of Humanity? Explain" the Councillor spoke before he leaned in.
"Beasts are the evils born from the progress of humanity, most embody human sin, lust, greed, wrath. But this one is different, its birth has given rise to rather particularly powerful beings" the Magi spoke.
"Ancestors, they are incredibly powerful, some say they are as strong as gods, some say they are gods; either way they have awakened, and they are heading towards the beasts" the Old Magi's revelation left the late night council silent before the Spymaster spoke.
"Are we in danger?" The spymaster leaned back.
"All of humanity is, the magi of the Clocktower is hard at work to deviate where both the beast is and the ancestors are going" she then point downwards
"It was clear on day one when we found out, the target is here, The Great Palace of Ctesiphon - the seat of kings of kings of Persian Empire of old, is the target of the Ancestors, as such the Beast of Humanity either has great ties to Persia, or is already here" the Old Magi is revealed as most present grit their teeth.
"Is… is the Prince the Beast?" The Steward asked
"Unlikely, I know the Prince since he was but a babe, the chances of him being a beast is close to none, he is a genius yes, but not evil" the Magi clarified as everyone around gave a breath of relief.
"Could it be from Persia's past?" The Marshal asked.
"Could it tie between Ahura Mazda, or even Angra Mainyu?" The Court Priest asked.
Most froze with a frown.
"No, it could be from Rostam to Jamshid to a regular being on the street, we do not know, all we know is that the Ctesiphon will become a battlefield of the greats" the Old Magi finally got to her warning.
"We must evacuate" the Spymaster nodded.
"No, we must continue with the earlier plan!" The Steward argued.
"The plan to kill the Boy Shāh?" The Court Priest asked.
"To bring the Prince here, if he was made aware of this - if he's as much of a genius as he is, then he can alleviate or even erase the threat entirely!"
"The Prince is human! Much less a boy as our current Shāh, what good will it do when most of the issues weigh upon us!" The Marshal spoke up as he stood up.
The marshal continued on "the boy may be a genius as you claim, or he could have luck on his side, but I will only act on fact, and the facts are is that none of this is confirmed by our eyes, and even if it is true, how can we be sure our Prince can defend Persia from this disaster?!"
The council went quiet before the Councillor spoke "what choice do we have? Either a slow agonizing death by the Arabs, or we let the Prince take complete control. I stay with Persia, I will do everything for its survival"
"So what do we do?" The Spymaster asked.
"We force Persia to survive" and most couldn't help but nod at the Stewards' quiet words.
The Solar Eclipse is tomorrow and a new Shāh will exist the day after…
A/N: I want to say this before it gets lost in the sauce: Angra Mainyu is also called Ahriman, the Principal of evil, and yes, Angra Mainyu is a legend of Persia's Zoroastrianism, I am as surprised as you are.