Aurora only realized it then.
Since she fell 'died' and fell asleep, five years have passed.
The world as she knew it completely changed.
It was difficult to summarize in a line. Thankfully, as they had lunch, the wives filled her in with the info.
Occasionally, Varian would chime in, adding interesting bits here and there. Most of the time, he's focused on chastising Hazel and severely critiquing her writing choices.
Aurora looked at the maid who was enjoying being scolded, rubbing her legs together with head lowered to cover her blushing face.
A look of realization dawned on Miss Calamity. 'What a pervert!'
The world was really looking scary now. She always thought Hazel was a bright, cheerful and energetic maid.
'To think I thought we shared some qualities! But…if he really scolds me with that face, I…hehehe~'
"And so much changed!" Isadora said, snapping Aurora out of her day dreams.
Shortly after her 'death', the remaining tyrants across the confederation, Jai, Nexus and Mors were also killed.
Primula was assigned to kill the lower tyrants—the regents of duchies and provinces.
Varian wanted to do it himself, but the girl insisted. As a result, the legend of Blood Rose spread across Eden in mere weeks.
Asherah submitted to Varian's rule, as expected. Even more interestingly, Ophion of Nexus was missing.
With Rakz dead and Ophion gone, Nexus too submitted to Varian.
Jai was previously conquered and shared as spoils. But now, every force withdrew and Jai too submitted.
Only Mors remained. It did not submit.
"And he did not want it to submit." Sia said slowly, building anticipation in Aurora.
'I know you are doing this deliberately, but I can't help it.' Aurora sighed and asked anyway. "Why?"
"Varian ended all of Mors." She said, with shining eyes.
"All the divine rankers?" Aurora asked, tilting her head.
"No." Enigma said curtly. "All of Mors."
"Wait…" Aurora's eyes widened and she gasped. "Every single Undead is dead?"
"Hoho, as expected of my master." Hazel chimed in with a proud laugh.
"Shut up! You stupid maid! You're poisoning the minds of…" Varian pulled her back into the punishment.
'She is enjoying it though!' Aurora screamed, but didn't say it out loud.
And so, Mors ended.
The whole region was wiped clean. With all Undead vanishing, there was great panic across Eden.
Many called Varian a cruel tyrant, far worse than God Emperor. And many rebellions also erupted.
All of them were put down in a single day, when his voice reverberated across Eden.
'Ativ tribe, the pioneers of death path, were living beings. Undead are not the direct descendants. They are a failed experiment.
From today, Eden will be free of Undead. Death path can still be pursued, however, converting the living into Undead is prohibited.'
Varian didn't explain himself much. He also didn't ask them to stop panicking or assure them of peace.
Yet. Those words were seen as an assurance and things quickly calmed down.
Eden was reorganized.
Divine rankers were appointed as overseers of regions according to their levels, with a hierarchy.
Within those regions, the races themselves were allowed to have their own system of ruling.
As long as they didn't disturb the regional peace and didn't touch certain red lines, they were left to run themselves.
The divine overseers were just that, overseers.They did not participate in the ruling process.
They were the final resort someone would turn to, but when that happened, it'd mean a great upheaval in the region.
This loose, yet ordered ruling had its benefits and drawbacks. But most of the races were happy with it.
Even though Varian didn't sit on a throne or have a capital, he was named the supreme ruler.
Some even called him the first ruler.
After all, for the first time in history, Eden was a single, unified empire.
While most races remained in their home turfs, they were now free to visit other regions, even the most distant ones
Law and Order were now far better. The common folk gained a lot of their life.
This in turn, turned competitions more intense.
Without violence, other ways to divide resources and gain power were explored and implemented.
Competitions, elections, alliances, business wars, new innovations…
A different world was unfolding.
With Varian as the supreme guarantor of peace and order, people were now pursuing things that would've never been possible before.
Before, races were more or less forced to follow the divine path of the ruler. There's freedom to make a choice now.
Not all races had excellent affinity to a single path. Now, each individual of the race could follow the path they have most affinity toward.
Divine paths acted as the ultimate differentiator in Eden.
Since Varian himself had all the divine paths, there's no disdain towards any path.
The saying 'All divine paths are equal' was mostly theoretical until now and truly believed only by the elite. Today, it's being accepted by the common folk.
There were still many problems.
Many regions were still trying to find proper ways to govern themselves, within the existing framework.
Some warring races didn't like the peaceful structure. So, they requested to have wars. Interestingly, the divine rankers allowed wars between two willing races, letting them fight it out.
This was a controversial decision. But Primula stood by this decision, even opposing Enigma.
'You can't treat tigers and cats the same way.'
There were rebellions here and there. A few times against Varian, but mostly against their own system.
This posed a problem to the overseers. Should they intervene or not? How to prevent overseeing from overruling? Where should they draw the line?
It's a work in progress.
Varian was in seclusion for most of the five years. The actual work was done primarily by Primula with some help from the wives.
"He's been in seclusion to grow stronger for entering God's Eye and dealing with the God Emperor." Sia finished. "He sensed you'd be waking up today and ended his five year long practice."
Aurora opened her mouth wide, looking at Varian. All her emotions condensed into a single word. "Wow!"