Rivenet Palace - Military Administration for the Occupied Seleric Worlds

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Elluyara Rivenet III was furious at the developments that had recently transpired. She had become the governess of a world conquered early on in the war five years ago, mainly because of her status as part of one of the most renowned aristocratic families in the whole Empire, and in those years had reorganised the entire planet’s economy to be nothing more than a glorified funnel of wealth directly to herself. 

While poverty was rampant and living conditions were miserable for the vast majority of people on the planet, she had bought herself a fleet of luxury starships, bathed in ambrosia (note: exceedingly rare drink known for its euphoric taste and general rejuvenating qualities, on an average Alvarian salary it would take 10,000 years of uninterrupted work to earn one sip) every night, and ordered the demolition of the planet’s cultural heritage to make way for massive golden statues of herself.

Really the only thing that was spoiling her endless acquisition of wealth was her need to contribute to the war effort, a need that was rising more with each year that the war went on for, which is why she was originally a proponent of the “Plan to Increase Frontline Morale and Lower Administrative Expenses” as it’s known formally, it would truly have been a disaster for the Selerics to retake her planet and thus some sacrifices had to be made so the war could be over. After all, she had spent quite a pretty penny demolishing some ugly slums to make place for luxury villas for Alvarian colonists, which were currently collecting dust as nobody wanted to migrate to a world so close to the front line.

However, the project had dealt far more damage to her world than she had originally thought it would. Ninety-five percent of the world had been depopulated to meet a harrowing fate millions of miles away, with the rest giving her a pittance of income, not nearly enough for her to enjoy the unimaginably opulent lifestyle she had grown accustomed to. Those animals had even shrunken the villas, as if some common soldier would be able to recognize the expert craftsmanship of the constructions when they’re crushed under her feet!

Elluyara sulked in her palace, after all the angry calls she had made to the capital asking for compensation, the only thing she had received were a few shrunken cities, as if she was just  another soldier! Besides, the few she did receive were nothing compared to the twenty-two billion people that were stolen from her! She paced back and forth through the room, contemplating whether she should call in a servant to take her anger out on, but decided against it as she didn’t want to cover the healthcare costs that would be needed after she abused the poor peon. She’d already lengthened the work day and lowered safety standards across the planet – after all, if she was miserable then all her subjects had to be as well – but ultimately she was still furious, and if she kept making living conditions worse then eventually she’d run out of subjects altogether. She thought back to that… insult of compensation she received in the form of a handful of cities, and realised that maybe they could be good for something.

The residents of the recently-renamed Rivenet City had grown accustomed to living in darkness these past few weeks. In the months prior to the Event, some rumours were spreading that the Alvarian Empire was going to… get rid of them in some way, but these were dismissed merely as rumours by madmen, such a thing was unheard of in the modern day! That all changed when a gargantuan device was pointed at the city, firing a massive ray of light that enveloped the metropolis. A mere hour later, a uniformed Alvarian came over to the now tiny city, placing it into a container which it hadn’t been taken out of since.

The initial reaction was chaos and bloodshed on the streets as desperate people scrambled for anything that they thought would help them survive, but as the days went on and there was no outside interference with their city, a semblance of order returned, aided by the reduction of overcrowding as people moved into the previously-empty villas reserved for Alvarian colonists and the discovery of some food stashes that would last them a few months. Life became downright pleasant except for the lack of sunlight, the people now free from the toil imposed on them by the Alvarians and the residents of the slums being able to move into the wide open spaces and luxurious villas previously closed off to them.

This semblance of stability was shattered in an instant with the return of the sky, and the return of a familiar face – her golden locks with matching golden eyes, flawless skin and signature sneering face revealing it as that of the Alvarian governess, Elluyara. She was widely known and reviled amongst the people for her harsh and downright humiliating policies, along with the fact that she didn’t even try to cover up the fact that she was more interested in increasing her personal wealth than actually trying to manage the world well. It’s not exactly unexpected that chaos returned to the city upon seeing that the governess was now twenty times larger than the entire metropolis.

Elluyara grabbed the city by one side between her thumb and index finger, being surprised by the pleasant sensation that erupted when her manicured fingers came down upon the helpless inhabitants of the unlucky neighbourhood. “Hm… I wonder how many of you just died beneath my thumb? Twenty thousand? I don’t know how crowded your speck towns are.” 

With none of the grace usually expected from a noble, Elluyara dumped the city into the palm of her other hand, causing earthquakes to erupt all over the city, spurred by the impact of landing on the governess’ palm. She watched with mild amusement for a few seconds, if she squinted and really focused in she could see hordes of specks desperately running through the streets as if there was anywhere they could go that wasn’t on the noblewoman’s hand. 

Eventually her need for some stress relief became more important than the little bit of entertainment she got from observing the mites, so without saying a word she closed her fist, instantly turning the entire city into a fine dust and killing millions of helpless people before they could even understand what happened. Turning over her hand, she opened it and let the grains of debris fall to the floor for some servant to clean up. Ending millions of innocent lives in an instant had felt… okay, but she needed more.

Grabbing another city from a second container, she threw this one onto the ground in front of her feet, before slowly taking off her exorbitantly expensive heels and letting her bare feet touch the cold ground of the marble floor, leaving behind some steamy footprints. The people in the city were met with a smell they had never experienced before – the heavenly smell of Elluyara’s foot cream mixed with her sweat from having worn heels all day. It wasn’t the worst smell in the world per se, but after a long day it was strong enough to cause the weak and infirm in the side closest to her feet to start perishing en masse, while the stronger amongst the inhabitants gazed upon Elluyara’s towering toes, adorned with a deep purple nail polish.

The governess would surely have been amused by this if she could have seen it, but as she couldn’t she decided to go along with her original plan, lifting her foot high above the city. She let it rest there for a few seconds to build fear amongst the population, but got impatient and slammed it down with such force that the stomp reverberated across the whole palace, leaving no survivors as those who the noblewoman’s perfectly pedicured foot missed were simply disintegrated by the ensuing shockwave. The fact that countless lives were extinguished in one of her steps brought the governess unimaginable catharsis, lusting for more as she greedily opened up the last container.

The other two cities were at least lucky enough to gaze at the beauty of Elluyara’s face if only for mere seconds, but this last one did not receive this privilege. Moments after being taken out of its container, the noblewoman almost instinctively threw it at the wall, where it predictably but quite mesmerizingly shattered into a million pieces before becoming nought ore but a pile of dust on the floor, barely even recognizable as something that had once been a thriving metropolis.

“Mmmh~ exercising my rightful power over these mites felt truly divine… I’m sure I’ll be able to get some more of these shrunken cities if I write another complaint…” With that, Elluyara gracefully walked out of the room to send another request for compensation from the capital, this time in the form of millions more lives to end at her whim.