"The ship has arrived in the Milky Way Sector," the commander said to the students lined up in front of him.
No sooner had he spoken than the ship halted.
The commander did not check for the reason.
He knew it already.
It was the routine check for every ship that wanted to enter the sector.
As the home sector of the human race, this place was guarded thoroughly.
All space around it was sealed, with only one passage left open, which was this one.
"You are dismissed," the commander said with an imposing voice.
The students did not hesitate; they shuffled back to their rooms.
Entering their rooms after dismissal was also a rule laid down by the commander.
But compared to their first week on the spaceship, they were used to it already.
5 minutes passed, and the students walked back out.
Their eyes glowed with what felt like stars as they gazed at the Milky Way's passage.
Although there was no physical gate there, the Imperial Police that surrounded it were enough to serve as one.
Thousands of spaceships waited at that border, every one of them humming, but still unable to move further.
Just then, one of the police caught sight of the students' ship.
He breathed lightly.
"All spaceships should part for that one," he said.
The words passed through all spaceships, reaching everyone's ears at the same volume.
The sound did not diminish a single bit even across such a large distance.
Engines blared to life, countless sounds tearing through the silence of the void.
The spaceships began to shift sideways till they created a gap wide enough to contain a planet-sized ship.
None of the ships complained or even hesitated when asked to move.
All the ships belonged to nobles who were at least Sector Governors.
Some were even beyond that.
But under the command of a regular Imperial Police officer, they still had to move.
Such was the might of the Imperial Police in the Human Empire.
The student candidates' spaceship began to move forward, slowly.
If eyes could destroy, that spaceship wouldn't have lasted a second after it started moving.
But seeing the insignia on the ship, most of the people stopped talking.
The Imperial Academy, a force second only to the Imperial Family of the Empire.
And this was one of their transport vehicles for students.
It was only natural that they respected it and made way for it.
The personnel in the lead neared the spaceship.
A sharp light spread along the ship's hull, transforming the metal plate into glass that allowed sight into the spaceship and out of it.
The personnel stared at the commander.
The commander bowed as he felt the police officer's gaze.
The police officer nodded, but was not satisfied.
He still stared at the commander as if he was expecting something from him.
The commander, rising from his bow, whispered a set of words.
They should not have been heard by the police officer due to how thick the glass was.
But the police officer seemed to hear something.
He nodded and moved away from the path, granting entrance into the sector.
The glass window that had suddenly formed on the ship closed, replaced by the previous metallic layer.
The spaceship advanced.
At some point, it felt like the hull had pierced through a bubble that refused to pop.
The rest of the body began to be pulled into it as the ship continued its movement.
The space they were in changed entirely the moment they entered the new bubble.
From the void of space, it seemed like they had just entered a fun park, and they had left the void of space behind.
The Milky Way Sector itself seemed to be built atop a void land, with how beautiful it was.
Trees stood rooted in the void of space, something that was not meant to be possible.
At least, that was what they thought until they saw it here.
The place seemed to have formed golden white clouds high above that made it look like a sky. The addition made the space look even more ethereal.
The planets were much more controlled compared to the ones they had seen in other sectors.
There were no dead planets.
Each and every one of them was brimming with life that made even the Orion Sector's main planet look like a joke.
"And they tell me heaven is not real," Amelia said, sucking in cold air.
Billie was so dumbstruck that she did not even utter a word.
Hope opened her mouth, hoping words would form.
But nothing came.
She closed it just as quickly as she had opened it.
"Still as beautiful as ever," Sylvester said slowly, shaking his head to match the tempo of his words.
Their heads whipped towards Sylvester.
"You've been here before?" Amelia asked, her brows furrowed.
Sylvester shrugged it off.
"Our Sector won the annual lottery to join the Empire's founding anniversary, I followed the Patriarch."
They went quiet after that.
With how playful he was, they had almost forgotten that Sylvester was a descendant of the Orion clan.
"We are heading to the main planet, Earth, now."
The commander's voice spread through the entire ship.
The students dragged their feet across the floor, quickly forming a straight, composed line.
"Due to the speed limit set within the Imperial Sector, we would arrive in 2 days."
He stopped for a moment, a sigh escaping his lips.
"And stop that thing you guys are doing, I already had enough fun toying with you."
The students' bodies eased.
Their brows twitched involuntarily as they forced themselves to calm down.
They all returned to their normal activities, quickly forgetting about the commander's joke.
"Can you believe he made us do that for fun?" Silas groaned to Asher.
Asher exhaled lightly in exhaustion.
This was another of Silas's complaints, one that he had grown used to over the course of his vacation.
"It almost made me give up on joining the Imperial Military once I graduated from the academy," Silas added.
"Why don't you go back to your friends?" Asher asked.
Silas shook his head, remembering what Amelia had told him at the time he landed on the void land.
...
"I asked Sylvester about the academy, and do you know that being in the top 100 means you wouldn't be in the same place as us?"
Silas furrowed his brows at Amelia's words.
"What do you mean? Isn't it the same academy?"
Amelia shook her head slowly.
"No. The top 100 are known as seed talents and would be trained on the main planet, Earth."
"What about those lower than the top 100?"
"Jupiter."
The word hung in the air for a moment.
Billie did not say anything as Amelia spoke to Silas.
For a moment, silence stretched between both of them.
"Well, there's a chance that I am not in the top 100," Silas shrugged.
"There are over a thousand sectors, what makes you think I can be among the top 100?"
"There's a high chance that you are, so you need to learn to stay alone without us."
Silas seemed to have spaced out at this moment, all of Amelia's words blurring into the background.
He remembered it, the time he was getting evaluated at the Order of Truth, when he was given the title of top 100 in the academy.
Silas had not placed too much thought on it previously, but now, it was different.
"Uhm, Amelia, he isn't listening," Billie pointed out from behind.
Amelia raised her head, staring straight into Silas's eyes.
"What are you thinking of?" she asked, her voice gentle and soft.
...
"Nothing," Silas replied to Asher's question.
"I wanted to try staying alone for a while."
Asher creased his eyebrows, but did not speak about it again.
He was only advising Silas; it was up to Silas to follow it or not.
"Now, let's go get that recipe from The Chef," Silas clapped hard as he danced towards the kitchen.
"I thought it was just a fish," Asher said as he followed behind Silas.
"I want you to taste it, after that, I am burning the recipe down."
"You know you are really bad at lying, right?" Asher asked with a smile.
"Well, I wasn't lying. I only said I was burning the recipe, I did not say I wouldn't use it after then."
"Nice wordplay," Asher commended with a light clap.
"Thank you," Silas replied with a smile.
Soon enough, they reached the kitchen.
Unlike before, it was empty.
Silas walked up straight to the back door. Asher followed gently behind him.
There, they saw The Chef, sitting on a small stool with a machete in his hand.
He looked up from whatever he was doing.
There was a crazed grin on his face as he looked back.
"Is… that," Silas stuttered, pointing at what was on the floor.
They tilted their heads upward, seeing the blood on the machete.
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