The "Black Emperor" was the pinnacle of the Lawyer pathway, Sequence 0, and its sole true god.
To become a true Black Emperor, a Prince of Abolition needed to gather the other two Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics and obtain the pathway's Uniqueness, then possess a nation of his own, become a true "emperor," and establish a distinctive order and set of rules. On that foundation, he had to build nine mausoleums and drink the potion during a nationwide sacrificial ritual.
Mr. Fool had once revealed this knowledge. Angel had also received the same information from Bernadette, the eldest daughter of Roselle Gustav, who had once attempted to advance to Black Emperor. She could essentially consider it confirmed.
Of these requirements, the "nine mausoleums" were undoubtedly the most striking, compared with the somewhat vague other conditions.
Thus, the locations of those nine "ruins" scattered across the North Continent and its surrounding seas quickly brought the Black Emperor's apotheosis ritual to Angel's mind. Once her thoughts turned in that direction, pieces of evidence surfaced from the depths of her memory, one after another:
In recent years, King George III had continually issued reform-oriented decrees. He had repealed the Corn Laws, weakening the traditional landed aristocracy and allowing the new nobility, factory owners, and bankers to gradually control the Lower House. After the Great Smog, he had allowed those who obtained noble titles through donations to enter the Upper House, further achieving this aim...
He had bound intellectuals among the populace to the government and the nation through a unified civil service examination...
He had brought the Three Great Churches into the military, weakening the military power indirectly held by the nobles...
Starting in Backlund, the Loen Kingdom had spent the past decade or so following Intis's example in constructing a modern sewer