“Are you from Barix? Or Kas—”

“I’m a hermit, sort of.” Varian explained with a straight face.

Technically, humans were something like a hermit to the rest of the world—living alone for long without any contact with others.

“A hermit…that explains your weird clothes and old accent. Are you from a village that closed up after the war, eh?” The Captain nodded at his own question.

He decided Varian’s situation for him. Maybe he just didn’t want to dig too much. Sometimes, it’s better for things to remain unknown.

“Then I presume you don’t have an ID of any sort and traveling with us for us to vouch for you at the spaceport.” The Captain said.

“You’re smart.” Varian nodded.

“Not smart enough to realize that I can’t escape pirates in their own field.” The Captain glanced at Ash for a brief moment before he turned to Varian with a wry smile. “I didn’t want to take this route to be honest, but this is the only route without any official security checks. There’s only a security agency here and they don’t give a fuck about anyone as long as the fee is paid.”

“You’re a fugitive?”

“Yes.”

“What?!” Ash nearly jumped out of his chair and looked at his uncle in shock.

“You have a fresh smell of…say, souls should I call it? You killed a bunch of people recently. Not less than thirty.” Varian raised an eyebrow.

“All those fuckers were involved in the killing of my brother. They deserve death and worse.” The Captain grinned. “Too bad they’re influential enough to get cases on me.”

“U-Uncle…” Ash had tears in his eyes.

He thought his Uncle didn’t care about his father’s death. That he was even insensitive. During that critical moment, Ash thought of sacrificing his uncle’s life to the havoc young master so that he could live.

Now, he just felt pathetic for even having thought.

“I’m sorry…I’m really sorry…I’ll change, I promise…I—”

“Shut up, Kiddo. This is why I never tell you this stuff. You better shut up and just join the academy, you hear me? They’ll at least make a man outta you so you can survive in this goddam place or worse comes worse, go for greener pastures.” The captain ruffled the hair of his nephew and leaned back into his chair.

Varian acted as a spectator and didn’t involve himself in the relationship.

Soon, a grey city-like structure appeared in the distance.

“Proxima. The only spaceport in this shitty, backward and poor region.” The Captain said in a low voice.

There were few ships every now and then going into and out of Proxima. Other than these normal ships, Varian also noticed a bunch of magenta ships patrolling the area. They carried an insignia of a shield with six twinkling stars.

‘Master, that’s not Centaurus flag.’ Boo’s voice sounded in his head.

‘It’s not the army stationed here for security, eh.’ Varian narrowed his eyes and concluded a few things.

Even with his general understanding, any country would use its own army to guard its spaceports. Unless it’s in such a troubled state that it’d rather outsource it to someone else.

Secondly, the pirates were either stronger than the security agency here and hence carried their actions without worry.

Or…the security agency struck a deal with them and was benefiting from this situation somehow.

‘Either way, that means I could be in trouble when I enter the spaceport.’ Varian didn’t worry much though.

He had a living world with him. He could just tear open space and enter Hortus from anywhere.

Of course, it needed a bit of time and there’s still danger of him being killed in that limited time period.

But unless it’s a really strong opponent, Varian had confidence to escape even from a peak rank 2 celestial.

He’s in a disguise anyway.

“This is Proxima secuirty, one of your members doesn’t match any identity in our database. We suspect you are bringing in a criminal. If you do not wish to—”ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

“I’ll pay…I’ll sell this ship, one of you guys can follow us over on our return and take this ship.” The captain spoke as if he was prepared beforehand.

Varian looked at him in surprise but the officer on the line merely chuckled. “Very well. Since you’re that sincere, we’ll also issue an ID for him.”

The captain gave Varian a smile, implying that he did his best.

‘I don’t know how to feel but with an ID, things get easier.’ Varian smiled lightly in return.

The spaceship passed through a huge cylindrical chamber and landed on a grey runway

Then, hundreds of small robots dragged the spaceship and parked it in something resembled an underground parking lot.

Surprisingly, half of the parking lot was filled.

“How come there are so many ships here?” Varian got out of the spaceship with the two and asked in confusion.

The captain looked around and after noticing that no one’s nearby, he whispered. “Rumors say this is one of the hubs from which they transport the…stuff.”

He rubbed his fingers, signalling that green crystalline powder.

‘A drug trade hub? Private security agency? Pirates? Is the Centaurus Duchy this screwed?’ Varian felt a bit happy at the thought.

If they’re in this condition, human race wouldn’t be in any danger.

But that thought lasted only for a moment before he frowned.

Whenever there’s a power vacuum, it’s filled by the neighboring powers. If Centaurus declines beyond a critical point, then other powers would jump on it this

and region would burn.

He decided to learn more about this power’s situation before deciding his course of action.

When they exited the parking lot, they were greeted by a male…who almost looked human except for the conscious unicorn-like horn protruding out of his forehead.

“I’m Ajac, 3rd squad leader under 1st captain of Raven Chief. I’m assigned to oversee the procedure of your sales,” He said in a causal tone about the daylight bribery and scanned Varian with a red laser. “He’s registered now.”

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“Beggars.” Ajac snorted as he led them through a large hallway.

Varian saw huge fields of alien flowers and plants on either side of the hallway. They seemed to be walking right through a beautiful park.

There were quite a few people moving back and forth on the same road as well as others.

All of them were humanoid. Most had a horn on their head, while a few had sharper ears and a few had multiple eyes.

Bam!

Someone crashed into Varian and fell on the floor.

It was a humanoid male with tentacle-like arms.

“Blind idiot!” He glared at Varian and conjured a lightning ball in his hand. But noticing Ajac with them, his face paled and he dashed away.

“Another level 8…fuck.” Varian cursed.

Even the weakest ones roaming here level 7. There were quite a few level 9s he encountered so far. The guards that patrolled from time to time were all level 8s.

Ajac, who was leading them, was a Sovereign!

A Sovereign would’ve ruled an entire planet on pre-empire solar system but he’s just an officer here.

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