The Despar Dominion was a paradise.

  That was the conclusion Aster had come to in his travels in the surface world of Gaia. If any who lived above knew about the Despar Dominion, about the Lethea Labyrinth, and its highly developed civilization, they would see it as some kind of unimaginable heaven where something like hunger and poverty didn’t exist. The authoritarian military dictatorship that was the Despar Dominion ensured that its people were taken care of, if only to further its political and military objectives.

  If there was one thing that Aster and Etoile could agree on, it was that.

  Although Aster could admit, he and Etoile could agree on many things. And he guessed that Etoile thought the same. Even if neither of them wanted to admit how much they had in common. It was just those certain things, those certain differences of opinion, that caused them to be unable to stand one another, even if they could manage a grudging respect for each other.

  As Etoile came to a stop by himself and Arnis, Aster wondered where such a rift had grown between them. And it hadn’t been just Etoile… Rifts had grown between their other friends as well, some of whom he and Arnis had been friends with since childhood. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t gotten along as children. Maybe it was…

  Maybe it was when they had thought about what the idea of a hero meant that things had started to break apart, even if they hadn’t realized it at the time. And in those seemingly harmless moments of play as children, where they had laughed and called themselves heroes in their imagination, and daydreamed vivid pictures of their future adventures and accomplishments, perhaps the rifts had already begun to form then and there.

  “Aster… Arnis…” Etoile said as he halted in front of them, wearing the characteristic black and dark red uniform of Despar, his normal scowl on his usually dour face.

  “Etoile…” Aster replied as Arnis glared silently at Etoile.

  “You still have that infuriating little smile Aster,” Etoile said.

  “And you still have that infuriating little scowl Etoile,” Aster replied.

  Both Aster and Etoile chuckled together as they stared at one another, Aster’s blue eyes contrasting sharply against Etoile’s red ones. They stood like mirror images of each other, aside from the color of their eyes and their personalities, which showed in their normal demeanors.

  Aster felt his hunger leave him. The food that he was carrying in a plate with his right hand suddenly became unappetizing. And he guessed Arnis felt the same with his food.

  “I’m certainly surprised to see you here Etoile,” Aster said. “I thought someone like you would have hated being in the presence of ‘troublemakers’ like those in SETI.”

  “Of course. For all the jokes about SETI and its troublemakers, there is no denying the strength and skill of its people. It is one of Despar’s elite units after all,” Etoile replied. “It is only normal that we from AXIS are here as part of a cross-organizational exchange.”

  Aster whistled. “That’s quite high praise coming from you.” Aster gestured around. “So, do you like what you see?”

  “Though I’ve just arrived, I must admit the farming is unconventional, but I can already see that it is unconventionally effective in its unique way,” Etoile answered. He looked past Arnis and Aster to glance at Selenia, who shrank back from his brief look. Etoile chuckled. “And it’s also quite amusing for Despar to make royalty from Selenar do manual labor.”

  Aster did think it was rather amusing himself, though he'd never admit it to Etoile.

  Etoile put a hand on his hip. “So that’s the princess I’ve heard so much about? She doesn’t look like much.” He sighed as he stared at Aster. “Still trying to live out those childish fantasies of being a hero Aster?”

  “I wasn’t aware that saving someone’s life was a simple childish fantasy,” Aster retorted. “So what? I should have left her to die?”

  “Perhaps you should have,” Etoile said. “Have you forgotten that the Selenar Union is our enemy? Even if she has official status as a foreign dignitary here, both Selenar and Despar are still at a state of war with each other.” Etoile chuckled without amusement. “Well, I suppose saving a princess”—Etoile turned his gaze to Arnis, who had stood glaring silently the entire time—”or saving some worthless feral children is characteristic of ‘wannabe heroes’ like you two.”

  “As for you Arnis,” Etoile continued. “I suppose SETI is a good fit for a troublemaker like you. It would have been a waste for Despar to have lost someone with your skill and talents; you had been good enough for AXIS in any case.”

  AXIS was another one of Despar’s elite military formations, much like SETI was, though it was substantially larger. They were both autonomous corps that operated independently and directly under General Headquarters. However, AXIS was involved in a far greater number of the Despar Dominion’s surface operations compared to SETI.

  The Despar Dominion military was Despar’s ‘big stick’, the implicit threat, whenever difficulties arose that a gentler soft hand couldn’t resolve. Aster had seen firsthand the kind of things that the Despar Dominion did for its interests in his travels above. Aster grimaced internally. He wished that the Despar Dominion didn’t need to take such a heavy-handed approach to securing its interests sometimes…

  Stolen story; please report.

  Etoile scoffed, “Though I can’t imagine why you would have saved those worthless feral children in the wilderness above.”

  Aster saw his friend Arnis barely holding himself back, nearly trembling in anger as his friend clenched his mouth together. So that’s what it was…

  The reason why his friend Arnis had been assigned to SETI. Already, the idea of what may have happened was forming in his mind, his friend Arnis torn between morals and duty.

  “What happened to those people, those children?” Arnis asked, behind gritted teeth.

  Aster looked between Arnis and Etoile. Had the Despar Dominion…

  “Those people… those children are well taken care of,” Etoile replied calmly. “Though it would have been simpler to have just silenced and disposed of them.”

  “Bastard!” Arnis said, dropping his food as he lunged for Etoile. Aster acted quickly, dropping his food and wrapping his arms around Arnis to hold him back.

  Aster could barely hold his friend Arnis from Etoile, who stood there without a care in the world, calm and composed.

  “Be grateful Arnis,” Etoile continued. “Being demoted to ensign is one thing, but if you weren’t such a skilled and talented individual, you would have faced a court-martial for your actions in disobeying orders and compromising Despar’s military secrecy. Or have you forgotten that Despar and Selenar continue to fight one another on the surface of Gaia in the shadows, even despite the ceasefire? Compared to Despar, are those ferals that live in the wilderness above so worth it?”

  Aster grimaced internally as he held his friend back. As ugly as it was, Etoile’s attitude was the common one within the Despar Dominion. Those who lived within the Despar Dominion referred to the world above, beyond the Lethea Laybrinth, as the wilderness.

  And the people who lived in the world above as ferals.

  Derogatory terms as if the surface world beyond the one they lived in, within the Lethea Laybrinth, was some kind of savage, brutish place inhabited by people little more than mere wild animals.

  Aster had seen it often with the people of the Despar Dominion. A common disdain and apathy. A dismissive disregard. A casual condescension, of looking down upon those of the natives of the surface world like they were nothing more than dirt and filth.

  Once upon a time, as children, Etoile had been no different than him and Arnis. A trio of friends who had thought they were going to change the world, heroes even… like in the stories of old that they had read growing up. How had things changed so much?

  “Do you need to keep calling them ferals? Is it that hard to just call them people?” Aster said.

  “And why should I?” Etoile asked as he looked between Aster and Arnis. His gaze settled on Aster. “Out of curiosity, I took a look at some of what you accomplished Aster, in Despar’s records, for those ‘people’ that you think so highly of.”

  Even as Aster worked to hold onto Arnis, who had begun to calm down, he could see out of the corner of his eye that curious passersby began to stare at them, some of them even stopping to listen in.

  Etoile held three fingers out as he counted them off one by one, “A town you had saved from disease caused by their superstitious ways learned nothing of what you taught them. Not long afterward, they suffered again from the same disease, and many suffered and died.”

  One of Etoile’s fingers came down, “Two different warring city-states that you had intervened in and helped to broker a peace settlement, went back to war not months after you had left, and many suffered and died.”

  Another of Etoile’s fingers came down. Then, Etoile put a hand to his chin as he finished, “And if I recall, hadn’t you also met and saved a certain someone? Who had then later sacrificed herself for those worthless ferals? Hadn’t they built a statue for her?” Etoile chuckled without amusement. “And even after everything she had done for them, they had still spat on and smeared filth on her sacrifice, and again, many suffered and died.”

  A cold fury had begun to work itself up within Aster, and Arnis had finally settled down after feeling Aster’s cold fury through the grip Aster had on him. His friend could sense and feel the boiling rage that seemed to seep out of him even as he tried to put a lid on it.

  Aster let go of Arnis as Etoile’s words went through him. He idly noticed Arnis stood silently off to his side and contented himself with watching him and Etoile argue with one another.

  As much as Aster didn’t want to admit, Etoile was right. He couldn’t deny anything. It had all happened. That and so much more…

  So much that had disgusted him as well…

  “What else should I call those greedy, selfish, ignorant, and stupid people?” Etoile asked. “I must admit, you actually did some good, as expected of someone like you, but what did it result in?”

  Aster wasn’t surprised at how much Etoile knew. It wasn’t as if his exploits were secret. The Despar Dominion’s military kept a tight eye on things that happened in the world.

  And as painful as it was to admit. For all that he didn’t like Etoile, for all that he didn’t like the way that he assessed the world, which stood contrary to his own. It wasn’t like he could answer him because he didn’t have an answer…

  “Easy for you to say,” Aster replied through gritted teeth. “You didn’t grow up like they did. Experience the things they did. Living here in this paradise is one thing, but I wonder if you could think and say such things if you had been born up there instead of down here.”

  “So what does that matter? No one chooses how they are born, but if they had wanted to change, they would have changed already. But they didn’t. Not even after more than a thousand years. If they had wanted to be treated with respect, then they shouldn’t have destroyed the legacy of the Gaia Sphere Federation,” Etoile ended.

  And that was true as well.

  In Despar’s academies, they taught that the Despar Dominion was a world removed from the world. From a certain point of view, quite literally. Because of two events that had happened in the past. Two things which had changed everything…

  The End War. And…

  The Astral Nova…

  The End War, which was named as such because it had been a war that may have ended everything. And…

  The Astral Nova, which had been a time-shock that had transported the Despar Dominion, together with the orbital and Lunar colonies, more than a thousand years ahead in time.