A space gate opened up in a quiet alley of an earth city and an old man stepped out into the streets.

His six-foot frame cast a long shadow under the early sunrise while his blue skin shined softly. His four thin elf-like ears twitched violently as they took in the sound coming from the surroundings.

The music in the bars, the soft whistling of the flying cars, announcements of the flying metros…

Everything was so novel. He didn’t even understand the language yet his eyes teared up after hearing these sounds.

He stared at the sky and stretched his arms up as if he was embracing the endlessness of the sky. As if he was embracing freedom.

“This is freedom! This is the wider world! This is—ouch!” The old man rubbed the back of his head and turned around with a scowl, intending to curse the hell out of whoever dared to interrupt his moment.

It was a mature woman with pale blue skin dressed as a maid.

“M-Matriarch!” Hortus’ oldest blacksmith bowed his head and apologized.

“I am the maid of our god, not a matriarch.” She corrected and continued staring at the grand cityscape with fascination. The several Hortians behind her were also immersed in this new culture.

But more than the city, they’re fascinated by the stars twinkling in the sky, the spaceships leaving the planet, and going beyond the boundaries.

Unlike in Hortus where they couldn’t leave their world, here, they could leave planets. They could travel! There’s no limit! None at all!

“T-The promise for repairing the space gate was fulfilled. T-Thank You, Lord.” The blacksmiths and the craftsmen knelt on the footway and offered their prayers.

The people passing by mostly ignored them, treating them as another cosplay team.

But they did scream in excitement when a blue light flashed and a woman appeared.

“Royal Secretary!”

“Mam, I’m your biggest fan!”

“I want to join Athena’s group and serve them, just like you did!”

Alison waved her hand and blocked the crowd from approaching any further.

“So, people of…Hortus, I’ve prepared a team to tour you through our Empire. They’ll take care of everything. Just enjoy yourselves for a month.

And then, I’ll give you the list of things His Majesty wants you to do. Especially space technologies, item creation, and aura applications.

You can reject it if you want to. But if you meet his expectations, you can join us when we launch an exploration from this solar system. You guys like an exploration of new lands, don’t you?”

The group of Hortians swallowed their saliva and nodded furiously. Being locked up on one planet all their lives, now they wouldn’t trade anything for this freedom.

“Hail The Lord!”

The Matriarch stared at her people brimming with excitement and looked at the sky. A thin smile hung on her lips.

Maybe their future wouldn’t be so bad.

— — —

A couple of light years away from the solar system was a star known to humans as Barnard Star.

On the intergalactic arena, however, it’s called Barix Province, a rising star ruled by a Rank 3 Celestial.

In comparison, the Centaurus Duchy nearby was continuously declining since the war with the Jai Empire’s minions—Abyssals and Zions.

In fact, the Provinces of the Centaurus had long stopped taking orders from the Duchy and were doing only the bare minimum to keep up the act.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

As the foreign Province neighboring the Centaurus Duchy, Barix was very sensitive to these changes. And the Duchy governing it was drawn away by other issues, leaving no time or resources to keep its growing ambitions in check.

Yet, so far, there had been no major move from the Hercules Province.

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“We have infiltrated the court of the Centaurus. The information from our spies is only getting more and more pleasant. Your Majesty, they are only growing weaker, like an old man on his deathbed.

Our forces can defeat them without fail. But Your Majesty, if we keep waiting, even Centaurus’ own provinces would make a move. Worse, other Duchies might step in.” The Chief Intelligence Officer knelt on a knee and explained.

“Hm…” The man seated on the throne was covered in blue starlight, the indicator of a Rank 3 Mystic. His hum rang like a clap of thunder and reverberated throughout the palace.

After a moment of careful thought, he opened his mouth. “The period of strategic patience is over. We’ve built up enough strength and Centaurus weakening any further will destabilize the situation. Make a plan.”

“Then the Arm—”

“No. Even though victory is a guarantee, if we wage a war, we’ll pay the price. However weakened it is, Centaurus is still a Duchy. It’ll extract its pound of flesh when it falls. Our enemies will pounce on us like rabid hounds.” The Grand Admiral objected.

“But how can we accomplish our mission without paying a big price? Assassinate their heirs? Throw them into civil strife? If we pick those options, then Centaurus Duchy might use it to unite its provinces against us, a foreign enemy.” The Chief Intelligence Officer argued.

The debate continued back and forth without any solid conclusion. But sooner or later, a plan would be drafted and Centaurus would be conquered.

After the session ended, the Chief Intelligence and the Grand Admiral met the Emperor in private.

The Intelligence Officer talked first and revealed a piece of wild information.

“And Your Majesty, there are rumors in the Centaurus court that they found a new civilization.”

“Hm?”

“They’re not sure yet since they’ve never found anything in the past census. It’ll be verified it in the census upcoming soon.”

“A new civilization that was never found even Centaurus was at its peak.” The Emperor’s dignified voice was filled with a tinge of suspicion and caution.

“Keep an eye on the results. Any unexpected variable is dangerous.” The Emperor ordered.

“Of course, Your Majesty. Variables must be removed.” The Intelligence Officer bowed and retreated.

The Grand Admiral took a step forward and said with a rather grave expression. “The Jai Empire is increasing the skirmishes on the borders of the Kingdom.”

The Emperor’s eyes shone for a moment.

Barix was a Province aspiring to a Duchy. Duchy was just a part of a Kingdom. And all the kingdoms formed into three Empires forming an intergalactic alliance. And this alliance was formed just to defend against the behemoth called the Jai Empire.

The kingdom that contained Centaurus, Barix, and everything nearby was unfortunately a border kingdom. Of course, their region was nothing important.

Even in the last big war, the Jai Empire only bothered to send two Duchies—Abyssals and Zions to this region. Of course, these two Duchies weren’t the top-tier and could barely be considered significant in the Jai Empire’s army. Yet, they wrecked this region.

If the Empire ever thought of even conquering this place, then it wouldn’t matter if the Barix Province, Centaurus Duchy, or even their Kingdom fought together. It’d be all gone before the next dawn.

“What a cursed place this is. Everything my ancestors worked for, everything I poured my life for, everything can be gone in a blink and we cannot even resist.” The Emperor laughed.

The Grand Admiral sighed. “There have been worrying signs on the border, perhaps another war is coming after this long peace. That’s precisely my worry, Your Majesty. What if in the war, this region…”

The Emperor smiled widely and patted his Admiral’s shoulder. “Will a man stop dreaming just because he’d die one day and lose everything? Then why should we stop our conquest?”

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