If there was one thing the Despar Dominion was known for across the world, it was their food.

  Officially, the Despar Dominion didn’t exist to the rest of the surface world. The idea of the Lethea Labyrinth did exist, but few ever sought it out due to the dangers of the Lethea Forest. And Despar preferred it that way. Despar maintained a tight grip on the Lethea continent, working behind the scenes and in the shadows, where it could extend its influence and reach across the world.

  Even if the world didn’t know it, the Despar Dominion was a top agricultural exporter. Through its proxies and intermediaries, it fed a good part of the world and imported raw energy and materials in exchange.

  Aster glanced up at the artificial sky of Alsium Two.

  The dome-covered ceiling generated such a perfect replication of the real sky that it could make one forget that they were deep underground for many endless miles. It was one of the things that made the Despar Dominion an agricultural powerhouse.

  Aster squinted as he tried to tell apart the artificial sky from the real thing as the dome hung several miles above.

  Agricultural districts like Alsium Two within the Lethea Labyrinth were par for the course for the Despar Dominion. Alsium Two wasn’t even the largest, most productive, or most important of its agricultural holdings. Still, it was vast enough to even have artificial clouds, which he saw among the blue sky.

  Here, every aspect of agriculture could be tightly controlled and regulated. The growing cycle. The sunlight. The moisture. The nutrients of the soil. Sensors could detect and adjust for the tiny minutiae and variance of the plants that grew to maximize quality and output.

  And then there was another element.

  There was just something about Gaia itself that seemed to sometimes infuse the produce and crops that grew on the planet with a kind of depth that made it seem far more alive than otherwise.

  Aster turned his gaze towards Selenia and Arnis were eagerly stacking their plates high with food from the lunch buffet in front of them. There was a wide array of rice dishes, noodle dishes, sandwiches, stir fries, and a whole variety of different fruits and vegetables.

  His plate was already filled with a generous portion of a simple noodle stir fry. But he watched his friends still busy at work. Arnis was busy stacking his plate full of no less than six different types of sandwiches. While Selenia was likewise stacking hers with all the varieties of melon that she could get her hands on from the fruit portion of the buffet. He spotted at least eight different varieties he could recognize on her plate.

  Aster looked around. Everyone around them was likewise not holding back on stacking their plates high with the delicious food available to them.

  Not that he could blame them.

  The Despar Dominion had the skill and knowledge to produce top-quality produce and crops. And Despar did not hold back on feeding its military. Aster saw the crowds of people around them as they happily ate away. It kept morale high, that was for sure.

  Food was one of the signs of a nation’s strength. Food was one of the things that that as foundational for a nation’s prosperity. And if that foundation fell away, then it was one of the things that led to its downfall. Those who had no food could do no labor. And if no labor could be done, then what food could be produced? It was simply a self-fulfilling decline into decay, then ruin.

  And that was something he had also seen firsthand in the surface world above in his travels. The image of starving children came to mind. A lunch buffet like the one they ate regularly here was something rare in the poverty and squalor of the world above.

  Food was one of the signs of just how powerful the Despar Dominion was.

  And it was fresh off the farm, so to speak. In Alsium Two, there was a rotational crop schedule where the schedule of when fields were ready for harvest and being harvested, other fields were being prepared and planted. So the food that was prepared onsite mostly came from Alsium Two.

  Selenia could barely contain her grin as she looked over all the different varieties of melon she was going to eat. Arnis had a similar grin with all the many delicious-looking sandwiches he had.

  They all walked off as Selenia and Arnis grinned at their finished mountains of food.

  Aster glanced at Selenia’s plate full of different varieties of melon slices. Since she had come here to Alsium Two, she had skipped by a lot of the other food and went straight to the pre-sliced melons during lunch. And that hadn’t changed again for dinner or any time they ate, and melons were around. She was always giddy for them and never seemed to tire of them.

  Aster gave her a look that Selenia caught out of the corner of her eye. She needed a more balanced diet than solely melons.

  Arnis was the first to speak up. “You sure that’s all you're going to eat?” Arnis said, glancing at her plate.

  “I can’t help it, they’re so good! Especially compared to what we had in Selenar,” Selenia said.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Really? I thought a princess like you would have the best food you could get your hands on,” Arnis said.

  “Oh, we did. I guess. I never really cared for whatever the food was. I just liked it if it tasted good or not. And this all tastes way better than what we had over there. Everything here is just so flavorful and delicious.”—Selenia paused for a moment—”Though I’m proud of the melons I grew myself back in Selenar. I think the ones I grew are a match for these,” Selenia said proudly.

  Selenia took a bite out of a melon slice, and her face lit up. Then, she stared at Arnis closely, looking at his teal eyes and blond hair.

  Selenia tuned to Aster. “So, who’s your friend?” Selenia said.

  Arnis wrapped a free arm around Aster. “You mean best friend!” Arnis replied. “Aster and I go way back to our academy days,” Arnis said.

  “Academies?” Selenia said, cocking her head.

  “Schools,” Arnis clarified. “Selenar has schools, right?”

  “A-Ah. Yes. They do…” Selenia said, a hint of embarrassment coming across her features. “I was tutored mostly. Well, pretty much my entire life.”

  “Ah,” Arnis replied. “So I guess you're not used to other people much.”

  Selenia glanced around herself, as she had every so often, even if she hadn’t realized it herself. She hadn’t been too comfortable within the crowds of people.

  “W-Well, I am. Just not like this. And well, Selenar didn’t have that many people who weren’t, you know…” Selenia spotted a bipedal arachnid and an insectoid in the distance and looked away before her gaze attracted their attention. “...who aren’t human as there are here. I’m just…”

  “A little out of your depth?” Aster finished, chuckling.

  “Ya…” Selenia trailed off.

  “Well, you’ll find that Lethea Labyrinth has all sorts of people here,” Aster said.

  “You mean like Captain Bernard over there,” Selenia said as she glanced over to him. “Are dragons supposed to sleep that much?”

  Captain Bernard was another character of SETI whom Aster had gotten to know a bit growing up. He was a dragon who took a humanoid shape and often stayed that way. Then again, lots of people within the Lethea Laybrinth shifted to a humanoid shape. He guessed it was partially for convenience. It certainly made getting around much easier.

  The humanoid dragon was lazily dozing off in a chair, a large opaque visor over his eyes. Everyone knew he was simply pretending to be awake and watching over them. Though he had been assigned to watch over the recruits this past week, he often napped while delegating things to Fia and the other SETI officers. He did that a lot. Taking naps while pretending to be awake was something he was known for.

  As they walked away from those behind them, food in hand, Aster pretended not to notice the gazes on their back, especially towards Selenia.

  “Yup,” replied Aster. “There’s a saying within Lethea Labyrinth. You can live your whole life within it and still find someone new and interesting to meet.”

  “Like you two?” Selenia replied as Aster and Arnis grinned.

  “Of course! After all, growing up, they used to call us the ‘wannabe heroes’!” Arnis said, chuckling. “And well, Aster and I growing up used to get into a bunch of trouble. The kind you hear about in stories.” Arnis leaned towards Selenia, lowering his voice. “There was this one time we accidentally burned down a building, and Aster’s big brother and sister had to bail us out.” Arnis laughed. “Though Aster here tried to live out our childish dreams of being a hero for real up there in the surface world. Beat me to it really.”

  Selenia looked at Aster, curious, questions on her lips. Aster looked at her, then at Arnis, who had a similar expression.

  “So Mr. Hero, how did things go?” Arnis said finally.

  “It was an impulsive thing,” Aster said as he looked at them both. He sighed. “And it was a dumb, hare-brained decision on my part. It didn’t go well.”

  Aster grimaced internally. Who cared if you were strong and fast when broken food systems meant starving people and starving children…

  Arnis seemed a bit put off, unsure of what to say to that.

  “I guess it did go well at first.” Aster ran a hand through his hair. It actually did go well at first. Saving and helping people was simple. But life was far more complicated than that. “But things just didn’t go as I wanted. There were just so many things I hadn’t realized…”

  Selenia looked thoughtful for a moment.

  “I think trying to be a hero is a wonderful thing,” Selenia said.

  “You’re not saying that because you’re a princess, are you?” Arnis said bluntly.

  “N-No! It’s not like I read a lot of books about heroes or anything…” Selenia replied quickly as both Aster and Arnis chuckled.

  “It’s alright. Growing up, Arnis and I read a lot of books about heroes too,” Aster said.

  “Mhm! It was one of the reasons why they called us the ‘wannabe heroes’ growing up,” Arnis added.

  Selenia’s silver eyes lit up. “Then what hero stories—”

  Selenia stopped as she looked around. A sudden nervousness appeared to grip her. Different from the usual anxiety that he had seen this past week from her.

  Then Selenia looked in a particular direction and stilled. ‘I-I’m just going to go over there,” Selenia said as she gestured towards a cluster of trees and foliage in the distance, empty and a bit away from the crowd.

  As Selenia left, Arnis elbowed him to get his attention. Arnis gestured in the direction that Selenia had looked.

  There had been a lot of arrivals recently. And he hadn’t particularly much cared who had come.

  Though he cared a lot more now.

  Aster saw who approached both him and Arnis. He had an appearance somewhat like his with dark hair, a pale complexion, and similar height. If someone didn’t know better, they could have said they were twins, until they saw the red eyes and the dour face that seemed to morph into a scowl every so often.

  Etoile…

  He and Etoile had never gotten along back in their academy days. Nor had their friends gotten along, for that matter.

  While he and Arnis looked up to the idea of a hero…

  Etoile was someone who had always looked down on them.