“That makes no sense,” Michael mumbled as he entered the elevator.
He was already inside the Central Trading Hall and was about to reach the Pleonexia Buffet, but he was too stupefied to realize that.
But it made sense somehow. Michael had been searching for information about the Untamed Jungle, Xiltra, and the Zentika Empire for the past ten minutes, but he barely found any useful information.
Neither the Untamed Jungle nor Xiltra were mentioned in the database of the Bartholomew network. That was already weird because the Bartholomew network was considered a reliable source filled with information. The network even had information that was hard to procure with an ordinary Lord ID. It required a higher access grade to procure this information which was why Michael had been optimistic.
Sadly, despite the massive pool of information Michael could access, he was barely able to find three reports related to the Zentika Empire. To make things worse, none of them sounded very pleasant either.
The first report was about the Lords whose territory had been bulldozed by the Zentika Empire’s Armies. None of the Lords wanted to go further into detail, but they said that the Zentika Empire had various inhuman conditions to fulfill if one wanted to remain a Lord inside the Zentika Empire.
One condition was to sign a soul-binding contract that had been acknowledged by the Will of the Origin Expanse. This soul-binding contract prevented any Lord from spreading information about the Zentika Empire to the outside world. This ensured that the Zentika Empire stayed hidden from the preying eyes of greedy individuals that might want to raid and pilfer it.
While that was still fine, some conditions mentioned turned lords into the vassals of the Zentika Empire, while restricting their growth drastically. However, since only a few Lords were able to escape total annihilation, there weren’t any detailed reports about the internal structure of the Zentika Empire, its size and the full extent of the Empire’s military might.
The second report was a little bit different. It was made to honor a few Lords living on the outskirts of the region surrounding the Zentika Empire. It was a short article about the living conditions of the Lords, who were reportedly residing in a humongous mountain range that was nestled between two rival Empires. These Lords detailed their grievances, sharing their ghastly living conditions, and the harsh weather that turned every day into a game of survival. The small report shared the flora and fauna found in the mountain range, the dangers of the environment in certain regions, and the native Empires of the Origin Expanse rather than the issues these Lords had to face.
In Michael’s opinion, they were merely fillers that were used to add more words to the report.
The report was written by a reporter for a small company. It never gained much traction and had less than 100,000 views ten years after it had been released.
For Michael, both reports were mostly useless. He was not a Lord residing in the Zentika Empire, and he was fairly sure that the freezing cold mountain range was not next door either.
If Michael wanted to give the reports some credit and consider his time spent well to some extent, it was useful to know that the Zentika Empire didn’t acknowledge independent Lords inside their empire.
Only the third and last report revolving around the Zentika Empire was of any real use to Michael. The third report was about the Zentika Empire’s Emperor and the royal family. It was stated that multiple royal families existed and that each of them originated from a different race.
The Zentika Empire was considered a Native Empire, which meant that the natives of the Origin Expanse had built it. They built it from scratch and have been the undisputed rulers since then.
Why was that important for Michael?
It was pretty simple.
A widespread theory about the Origin Expanse’s natives said that all natives were once subjects of Lords. That means all natives came from the outside, and they died inside the Origin Expanse before they were resurrected as natives of the Origin Expanse and subjects of their Lords.
But how was that related to the creation of Native Empires?
Lords were unlikely to die before their subjects much like a chess game where the pawns and other pieces sacrifice themselves to save the King. Most Lords would jump onto the battlefield when the battle had already been fought by their subjects.
To put it in simple terms, the creation of most native Kingdoms and Empires was a result of the corpses of Lords!
‘If the first generation of the Zentika Empire’s royalty were freed after their Lord died, they might have started a conquest against all Lords in order to free other subjects from the Link of Loyalty and forced subordination,’ Michael thought after he read all three reports twice.
He could tell that he was currently imagining the worst-case scenario, a scenario that was unlikely to be true, in the first place. Nonetheless, Michael’s mind went wild, using the little pieces of information he was provided with.
Michael was not sure about the source of information from the last report, but he considered it reliable until proven otherwise. Whether the Zentika Empire was controlled by natives, or an extraterrestrial Lord didn’t make much of a difference for Michael for the time being.
However, it helped him to mentally prepare himself to have some information about potential opponents and threats. If the worst-case scenario were to come true, he wouldn’t be too shocked.
“That was not the kind of information I wished to find,” Michael mumbled to himself when he heard someone appear next to him.
“What information did you want to find, busybody?”
It was Danny who had appeared next to him. He smiled brightly upon seeing that his brother was well and unscathed, and slapped hard on Michael’s back.
“Forget it,” Michael responded while rubbing the spot his brother had hit.
Ever since Michael had entered the Origin Expanse, his brother stopped holding back and treating him like a kid. He slapped Michael lightly but it felt as if his left shoulder was dislocated.
“How was it in the Origin Expanse? Is your territory nice? Where exactly are you? If I know someone near you, you could team up with him. How about your resources? You told me that you don’t need my help, but I cannot believe that. I was always struggling because I never had enough resources or money to buy everything I needed. Do you need cash or some resources?” Danny bombarded Michael with questions.
They had yet to enter the Pleonexia Buffet, but Danny had already asked more than 20 questions. He didn’t even give Michael time to take a breath and answer a single question.
Danny didn’t stop asking questions even after they reached the Pleonexia Buffet. He continued throwing one question after another while showing a code on his crystal watch’s holographic screen.
‘Did he make an online reservation just to bombard me with questions? No, that cannot be…right?’ Michael wondered, hoping that he was just mistaken.
However, Michael disappeared at the buffet to fill three plates to the brim. He placed them on their table and sat down to start feasting.
Both Danny and Michael were gluttonous, and they did not have a set time when it came to having food. Whenever they had the opportunity, they would eat as much as possible because they knew that they would often skip meals. That happened a lot in the past, and it would get even worse now that Michael had become a busy Lord.
Thus, it was no problem for them to fill their stomach to the brim even though it was early in the morning.
Just as Michael sat down on the chair – glad that his brother had left to fill his plates – he received a new notification.
He opened the messenger and saw a message pop up.
[Alice Zenovia(fierce beauty): I saw that you were online 28 minutes ago!! Why are you ignoring a pure maiden when she sacrifices her time for you?!? Where is your chivalry as a man?]
Michael’s expression turned sour at once, and he put down the drumstick he had picked up a second ago.
‘What a crazy bi…’