Moonbeam: A Timeline series companion

the plot of the last few books, according to sharp eyes

AITA for getting a promotion?

I (12M) have been taught by my mentor figure/teacher since I was in high school. She helped me hone my powers, provided helpful feedback on my schoolwork, and by all accounts was someone I admired greatly, despite her many flaws. As I got older, I made sure to keep in touch with her--I checked in on her house, I followed her around, and I took notes trying to understand her and her husband's psychology. When they had their first daughter together, I wished them a hearty congratulations by standing outside their house in the dark and staring through their windows, learning their family secrets. Because I'm such a nice person, I kept said family secrets to myself.

Flash forward a few years, and my teacher and her husband join a club I'm part of. It meets at night, in the dark, in my grandmother's library.  I try to be friends with her again, but she's hostile toward me and my ideas, and we frequently disagree on methods. Every now and then, I go over her commands--but only for the good of the group, and with the best intent at heart. Overall, she attempted to keep her distance from me. I made sure we were never far apart, and kept track of every detail of her life, because I respect her so much.

Then, at her place of work, through our group's advocacy, she gets a big promotion with her husband, who is now back from fighting in the war. I criticize her policies in the spirit of a healthy debate. Because I admire her so much, I follow her around, steal her therapist's notes on her, and familiarize myself with her life. I even befriend her young daughter in a time of need! 

With her young daughter's help I (nonviolently, if I may add) took over her position at work, and have, by all metrics, improved the functioning of the workplace. I sent her young daughter off to her parents' best friend's sister, who then sent her to her grandfather's cousin's residence, where I am told she is enrolled in some kind of preparatory school, and by all accounts, is thriving. In addition, I have been housing my teacher and her husband for free, offering amenities such as visits every few months if they deliver political speeches for me. After all that hard work, they now have an unlimited opportunity to relax, free of their parental and occupational responsibilities.  They are never hungry, tired, sick, or thirsty!

I have improved productivity in the workplace by 99%, I have eliminated such issues as political instability, hunger, etc. and been nice enough to give our constituents useful tasks catered to their abilities to keep them busy for 15/24 of their available waking hours. In response to protests against me, I've even allowed my constituents to change their job assignments if they so like. I sponsor the arts, I encourage innovation, and by all accounts have ushered in a golden age.

In addition, I have been housing all my teacher's close friends and family (for free, I might add!), including my teacher's husband's sister, and my teacher's best friends. I have taken my teacher and her husband's two young sons under my wing and even shown one of them around my laboratory, and let him help out in my research!  I did not lay off any of her old employees, and in fact have made sure they are kept occupied and immersed in their work (they are never allowed to leave their tower, even to see their families). I frequently survey them on their opinions on the workplace, and all of them enthusiastically explain how much they adore me, The Empire, and never leaving one room. I have not received a single complaint. I have by all accounts taken very good care of these individuals, and I even have dinner with them every night, no matter how busy my schedule is. Smear campaigns by my ex-classmate have been calling me a "tyrant" or a "dictator", but as you can see, these claims are clearly baseless.

As my workplace has been running so phenomenally well, I have taken it upon myself to expand into neighbouring territories out of the goodness of my heart. Not a single casualty on my side has resulted from this conflict, a victory that only my brilliant engineering can account for! And yet the people in said other territories are calling me a "ruthless invader" and such. (I suspect, due to my ex-classmate's smear campaign.) My teacher and her husband escaped while I was in a time of great need, and despite my generosity, my teacher's son and her sister-in-law both betrayed me, as well as all of their friends. My territory expansion is going well, but all this criticism just has me wondering... AITA?

***

I saw someone make a Reddit Am I The Asshole post for the plot of Legends: Darkstalker and decided to make one from Sharp-eyes's pov. (Is this as universal a reference as I think it is? I was worrying this reference wouldn't make sense to everyone, if not, just google it and read a few of the posts and you'll get what I mean.)  In my head Sharp-eyes is telling this to Heartfire. I hope this is as fun for people to read as it was for me to write because I was giggling the whole time I wrote this.