They ascended the hill that overlooked a desert of sparkling crystal sands, like diamonds. In the middle of it were children and men wearing breathing masks and loose, ragged black clothes, holding in their hands what looked like a vacuum cleaner that was sucking something from the sand. On their backs were bags that stored what they were sucking from the sand. Around them were Franks soldiers, watching them and hitting those who slacked off from work. Noor’s eyes widened at the beauty of this vast desert, and he was amazed by what these people were doing. "Who are these people?" he asked. "And what are they doing?" Tulkas lowered his head and looked at them intently. "These are slaves whom the Franks have enslaved and brought from all over the Black Eye Galaxy," he said. "Then they drove them to extract the precious metals. This desert is full of a precious metal that is sold at the highest prices in the universe and is also used as fuel for the stargates that transport spaceships from one star system to another. It is called Palladium. The people of this planet had been exporting it to the Franks Empire for a long time and were making a lot of money, until the Franks Empire owed them a lot. Then one day, the Dai, who is the ruler of this planet, pressured the Franks Emperor to pay his debts. And when the Emperor saw that, he was filled with rage. How could a planet that possessed none of their science, knowledge, or power lend to them and ask them to pay their debts?" "And how could an empire with such a mighty galactic military force be burdened with debts?" Noor interrupted. Tulkas sat on the hill, crossing his legs, and took a deep breath. "Because the previous Emperor, Darleon, wanted to be called the greatest conqueror in the universe," he said. "He began to invade planets one after another until he cost the Empire a lot, and the debts accumulated. But the worst thing he did was that he began to attack the nearby colonial empires in order to control them, and thus all the planets under their control would be under his control." "I don’t understand much of what you’re saying," Noor interrupted for the second time. "Aren’t the Franks of the Zurix race?" "The Zurix are not a single race," Tulkas said. "They are a group of races with a single origin, but they left their home planet and moved to the surrounding planets and inhabited them for many years until their forms and colors changed, and they differed in language, so that understanding between them became difficult, and they forgot their single origin and began to fight a lot in bloody battles that left nothing. But they had a common enemy that they did not care much about until it penetrated their star system and took their planets one after another." "The Lunix," Noor said. "You got it," Tulkas said, giving him a thumbs-up. "The Lunix Empire was at the height of its power and began to invade the Zurix planets one after another until they sensed its danger, stopped their conflicts, and united against this greater danger. Long epics began that prevented the Lunix Empire from penetrating any further. And when the Zurix were unable to conquer the Lunix Empire and were content to keep it away from them, no more, they began to look for new places to expand. But the strangest thing is that the Zurix were able to access ancient sources of cosmic knowledge that made them develop their civilization quickly, so much so that they surpassed the Lunix Empire scientifically and began to strike blows at it and regain the planets that had been taken from them. Then they began to spread in the universe and occupy many planets that brought them many riches that enabled them to support themselves militarily to complete their expansionist and scientific ambitions. And so, the Lunix began to retreat before this overwhelming tide. And even worse, they began to lose their planets that had lasted for thousands of years, including this planet on which we are now standing. But the competition between the Zurix also increased over time as their cosmic colonies increased, and they began to compete for the rule of the universe after the Lunix Empire had waned. And here the former Franks Emperor appeared, who wanted to unite all the Zurix planets under the flag of a single empire and thus end these long conflicts in which millions had been killed, and then he would turn to the Lunix and finish them off. He began to attack the Zurix planets, which resisted fiercely, and at the same time, he began to invade the Lunix planets. But he was surprised by the ferocity of the Lunix peoples, who, although the Empire had weakened, were still strong enough to defend their planets themselves. And so he was defeated a crushing defeat on every Lunix planet he entered. He focused his efforts on uniting the Zurix after what he had seen of the Lunix’s strength and resilience and fought long, bloody wars, but he was alone against the strong, young Zurix empires, so they defeated him, and his ambitions and his legend ended. But he left his planet after him, burdened with debts, most of which he had borrowed from this planet on which we are now standing." Noor lowered his head, thinking, then said, "Let me guess. The next Emperor came and found an empire torn by war and burdened with debts, and he found that this Dai wanted the debts that he had lent to the previous Emperor. So he decided to cancel his debts and to acquire a lot of wealth that would enrich his empire again by occupying this planet." Tulkas leaned on the sheath of his sword and stood up. "I see you are quick-witted. But he wanted a justification before the Zurix empires, which had imposed many sanctions on the Franks Empire as a result of what the previous Emperor had done to them. That is why he asked his envoy, whom he had sent here, to provoke the Dai as much as possible. So he made the envoy speak with arrogance and condescension to the Dai and tell him that they would not pay their debts to them, and that they were a handful of ignorant people who had had the good fortune to lend to the great Franks Empire a lot as a result of the recklessness of the previous Emperor, and that this would never happen again. So the Dai became enraged as he had never been before and struck the envoy, then threw him in prison and sent to the Franks that if they paid their debts, they would return their envoy to them. This was the opportunity that the Franks had wanted, and they began to move their space fleet under the pretext of restoring their honor and dignity to the Franks again, and in the end, they were able to invade this planet and occupy it." New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel※fire.net