Governor Vanya gracefully strutted into the Scout Cruiser, inwardly rejoicing that she was able to see the shift in Kezner’s monotone expression. She loved to mess with people like this, though she still had a bottom line, she wouldn’t manipulate anyone, simply give them a slap in the face from time to time.

Kezner, still in a dazed and confused state, subconsciously followed this tricky demon into the Scout Cruiser while thinking, “Alright, alright, what have I done to warrant the attention of the fucking governor?! What the fuck did I do that had anything to do with her?! Think!”

---In the Old Forge---

Right after Kezner’s departure, Rankev’s usual neutral expression turned into a bitter one, with dimmed eyes that had a story behind them. Taking out a small key from a front pocket in his overalls, he inserted it into a lock in an average looking cabinet, which only held an old and worn out notebook with two pendants on top of it, a lustrous black one and a dull white one. Anything that exists has a story behind it, some stories are as profound as any ancient scripture, while some as simple as the flowing rivers and towering mountains.

With a deep breath, Rankev’s usual positive yet aloof shell bored a rigid and battered fruit. His aged yet thick and firm fingers showed reluctance but his spirit exuded decisiveness as they reached for the worn out book. He couldn’t keep ignoring it, his history, his past, his story. Another deep breath finally steeled his resolve, he had to do it, this was his last chance, if he wasn’t willing to accept it now, he would never be able to do so in the future.

He made sure that his actions were swift, as to avoid second thoughts. Opening the cover, the first page read;

“Blood is the currency of gods and devils alike. It is not their own, but the blood of men. How long must you entertain their greed and hunger?

Life is simply the slow ascension to the depths of hell, if you have finally read this, then you have decided to shed the shrivelled and crisp leaves of autumn and return to thriving in the desolate and cold winter. The fog of greed has been shed upon man once more, and the trials of destiny have reappeared. The rise and fall of all you are stands before you once again.

Blood is the currency of gods and devils alike, and the battlefield is the mint, it is the desolate and cold winter, it is underneath the depths of hell.”

As soon as he finished reading these words,a thin pitch black card the size of a palm fell out. Turning it, there was a drawing of a realistic white skull, Rankev was dazed when seeing this, but then came to a realization.

The large and solemn Rankev trembled while recalling those words to himself, with a single streak of a tear marching down his cheek. Gripping the pendants, he knew it was time to act, it was time to finally face the coldest reach of hell.

---Inside the Scout Cruiser---

“No.”, Kezner’s monotone voice now had a firm and decisive element to it.

“What, but why not?! I’m your ticket out of this shithole, and let me tell you something, this measly planet is about to face a threat greater than that Ocano family, even greater than me! I’ll give you another chance to choose.” Kathra voiced out her disbelief, she had rarely ever been in a position where she had to lower herself to ask someone for something. Even when she did, it was towards her father, the emperor.

“I can’t leave my teacher behind, on top of that, I have to finish high school before I’m even able to do anything. I don’t know what I want to do in life, but I sure as hell don’t want to work for someone like you. You’re annoying, obnoxious, pampered, and worst of all, you’re loud!” Kezner was fed up with her bullshit, she acted like she was doing him a favor by becoming her slave. Even if he were to be a slave, he would rather slave away for a person he held some form of respect for.

Taken aback in offense, Kathra gasped. She had never been treated this rudely before, most would usually just give in after a while, but the person sitting in front of her actually dared to defy her wishes. “How dare you...”

“How dare I what? I spoke the truth, you truly are sheltered beyond belief, pfft, to think you were actually elected, I bet you simply paid for your votes.” Kezner didn’t realize how close to the mark he actually hit, the emperor had simply manipulated the votes in a few star clusters so that his children could fight for the throne. She had nothing to retort with, she could either let one of her siblings fight over him, have him die, or lower herself to get him to join her. “Alright, state your price.”, she sighed her words out, this was a major hit to her ego.

Kezner hadn’t expected to get this far to the point of negotiating with her so at first he wanted her to answer a few questions, “Answer a couple of questions of mine and I will consider the offer. My first question is, why do you want me to work for you so bad?”

“Have you ever heard of Rank-Z abilities?” Kathra went through the entire process of describing Rank-Z abilities to the best of her knowledge to the ignorant Kezner, her tone was impatient, trying to get through it as fast as possible.

When Kezner fully understood what his ability truly was, a few things started getting pieced together, like the spark of the incident, but a few details didn’t add up, this meant they were unique to himself, so he didn’t want it leaked by asking about them. “Alright… So which noble clan are you from?”

As if she knew Kezner would ask this, Kathra smiled slyly, “Oh? I’m just a mere princess, nothing too special.”

Kezner knew what she was doing but he was still struck silly, nobody would dare lie about being the princess, if you were caught you could only pray for a quick death. To top it off, this explained how easy she got into office in the star cluster. This basically changed everything, there was a huge difference between a noble clan and royalty.

The power dynamic from least to greatest was family, clan, noble clan, house, and dynasty. Noble clans were regular clans that had either trace amounts of royal blood, or descendants of nobles, there were only noble clans, no noble families existed as noble titles weren’t as easily handed out as they once were, causing the nobles to have as many children as they could. Noble clans didn’t officially have more power than a clan, but in reality they were placed above families and clans.

Houses were different branches of royalty that had different family names, unlike noble clans, houses were eligible for the throne but only under the condition that the direct heir to the house was eligible. The dynasty was the house currently in power, with a new ruling house being a shift in the dynasty.

For example, if X Dynasty chooses a successor from Y House, then the dynasty becomes Y Dynasty while X Dynasty reverts to X House. Usually dynasties didn’t choose heirs from other houses unless their own dynasty had nobody suitable. If the dynasty only had a prodigal son as an eligible heir, then it would most likely choose another house, sure their house wouldn’t rule anymore, but if the country broke down, they wouldn’t be a house. Plus it didn’t take away their eligibility to take over the dynasty in a few generations.

“I’m not joining you.” his tone was somehow firmer than last time, he wanted her to understand that he wasn’t going to work for her.

“What, but I’m a princess, why wouldn’t you want to work for me?!” Kathra was even more confused about his decision, if she ascended to the throne then he would have all the treasures he could imagine, and if he played his cards right, he could have become an emperor, albeit he wouldn’t have any official power. Ruling positions had become more progressive over time and revolutions, if a princess became an empress, she would inherit the power, not her spouse, so she would be able to have multiple husbands, but all her husbands could only have her.

“How dense are you?! I’m not risking my ass for you, and you’re not gonna be the empress, so there’s no point! If this is your true attitude then you’re not fit to be ruling a whole nation, a toaster could rule a country better than you!-”

“I-” Kathra wanted to butt in and try to explain herself, but Kezner was definitely not going to give her the chance.

“If you can’t act humble and ask sincerely when offering me a position, then how are you going to act once I sign a worker’s contract? Your head is so far up your ass that you don’t even understand proper etiquette, sure you put on a nice front as governor, but seeing how you act, I’m willing to bet that all you’ve done as governor was from an advisor!”

Justone, listening in through one of Kathra’s earrings, would cry if he finally met someone that could empathize with him, but in this case, he could only sigh and nod. Everything that Kezner brought up was true, and he couldn’t deny it, Justone himself would quit if he could, he never wanted to work as Kathra’s advisor, but he couldn’t control who he was assigned to advise. He risked dying to the competing heirs, so he tried his best for Kathra to succeed. Although she had been doing everything asked of her, her personality left more to be desired.

Though an emperor ruled over a country, his reputation was as important as his power, as he could get impeached by the courts and houses if he didn’t act properly. Kathra would get impeached before she even sat on a throne in her current state.

“But, I- I…” Kathra had nothing to say, she couldn’t fight against facts. It was due to her habits and the way she was raised that defined her arrogance, though it couldn’t be changed overnight, she knew she had not made any effort to diminish it.

“Now excuse me, I have a job to get back to, but what would you know about working to barely support yourself? Hmph.” Kezner truly hated people that were so posh, their arrogance blinded them into thinking that no repercussions existed and that they could pay their way through everything. People like these never worked a day in their lives and never lived paycheck to paycheck. That’s not to say he hated the wealthy, he respected people that were able to build up and consolidate their wealth from nothing, especially those that stayed down-to-earth.

Kezner got up from his chair and made his way to the door, this made Kathra desperate. Just as she was about to open her mouth to spout something that she would regret, Kezner turned his head slightly, and glared at her from the corner of his eye. If she dared to cross his bottom line then he wouldn’t mind self-detonating if he had to, as any fight that got started here would mean his death, taking her down as well would even out the situation. The explosion of a high tier Rank-Z ability could flatten a city in seconds, let alone killing a single person. He was only a poor kid living in the slums, killing the princess in an attack would be worth it in the end of the day if she dared to oppose him.

Keeping in mind Justone’s warning, Kathra forcefully swallowed back what she was about to say. Knowing Kezner’s past, she knew that the slightest form of aggression would simply spell disaster. Though the report given to her said that he was mentally sound, she knew that any adoption system didn’t actually care about such things and put whatever. What was going to happen, the orphan suing the government?

The task force inside the Scout Cruiser didn’t stop him, as he was seen as more of a visitor that had come to meet Governor Vanya than an actual criminal. Only the Chief Officer knew what was going on, but it wasn’t in his position to stop anyone from leaving unless he was ordered to do so.

“Justone, what do I do now? Why did he refuse my offer? Isn’t he only a broke orphan, my offer should have come like a blessing from the heavens!” Kathra still couldn’t understand how some measley broke kid from a Class Five civilization was not counting his lucky stars to get a guaranteed position from a princess.

“Young lady…” That was all Justone could say in a sigh, he was not only disappointed but resigned. She still couldn’t understand could she.

Kathra seemed to pick up on to Justone’s mood but was even more confused now, “What, what did I do wrong? I still don’t understand.” She was smart when it came to some things but for the most part, she had the cognitive ability of a ten year old. Not to say she was mentally disabled, she was just ignorant on things such as etiquette and proper behavior, and worst of all she lacked almost any form of common sense.

“Young lady, you have to understand something very clearly. You have never gone through his experiences or his life. I’ve read his report and his upbringing is quite a depressing one, being tossed around and abused like that. You don’t seem to realize that he had to teach himself how to survive in such gruesome conditions, he is able to naturally tell how you truly feel about him with just a glance. Your arrogance and superiority complex was as bright as day to him, he doesn’t believe you’re cut out to be an empress due to your behavior. You need to change this if you wish to ascend to the throne, or else the position of empress is nothing but a pipe dream.” Justone usually spoke to her in a calm yet timid manner, not wanting to offend this princess, but Kezner unknowingly opened his eyes, causing Justone to have enough and put his foot down.

Kathra could only frown, though to the public in this star cluster, Governor Vanya was starting to be a symbol of justice and freedom, she knew that it was Justone’s doing that helped her to achieve what she had. Kathra Vanya was only a persona created by the emperor, her true name was Luna Rimia, from the House of Rimia, while her actual appearance was very different. She was actually younger than the persona she was taking on, around Kezner’s age, and held the appearance most notable for the House of Rimia with purple hair and irises.

The ability to change one’s appearance had come a long way, any old hag could look like a young teen, while any average Joe could look like a model, it was just that these methods weren’t something the lower class couldn’t afford. Cosmetics were able to bypass almost every identification method, excluding fingerprints as those couldn’t be changed. What Luna was using was a new product straight from the capital of the dominion, so nobody from the star cluster was able to see through her identity.

Luna felt that she was being blamed for nothing, why should it matter how arrogant she was, she had every right to be, it wasn’t her fault that Kezner was born in such a shitty place and that she was born royalty, was it? Why did she have to bring herself down just for him to work for her, wasn’t this backwards? The farther this line of thought went on, the less guilty she felt. She was one step away from enlightenment yet ran back to ignorance. “So what? What do we need him for, he’s just one person, how much use could he have?!”

Justone’s blood pressure was sky high, his blood was on the verge of puncturing his veins, as his breath turned heavy, he suddenly stopped. He was about to yell, but decided to stop. That was it, he had enough, worse comes to worst, the emperor executes him quickly for neglecting his job, but if he stuck with this brat, was it worth to be tortured for information by a political opponent? “Good night, Princess Luna.”