179: When nobility falls under the devil's temptation.

"At that time, after leaving the Gravity Conduit, we landed in one of the Empire's mining star systems,"

"Back then, perhaps fate was meddling, but there was a high-ranking Imperial official in that place."

"When our primitive starship landed right under his nose, he developed a certain interest in us,"

"So he didn't have his Frigates open fire on us, but merely captured us and brought us aboard his flagship."

Muldra rubbed his forehead and said helplessly,

"It was then that the Saints began their descent into an abyss of no return."

A century ago, the winds of corruption had already begun to prevail in the Empire,

and the conflict with The Consortium was already racing headlong into an irreconcilable abyss.

At that time, Ricard Mer, serving as the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was leading the Ministry of Internal Affairs on a public inspection of a mining star system located in a frontier mining zone.

Ever since a new Mining Governor had been transferred to that mining star system, production had taken a nosedive by seventy percent.

This made the local Imperial Tax Administration Department unable to sit still—

They stated that the previous 9-1 split was within an acceptable range, but now you want to jump straight to a 1-9 split?

This is unacceptable! You f*cking take too much!

We usually just don't bother with you, do you really think the Empire is paralyzed?

Consequently, the Taxation Department, the Inquisition, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs conferred and immediately decided to conduct a thorough investigation of that mining star system.

Ricard led the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a high-profile inspection to draw fire from the front,

while the Inquisition directly and quietly arrested people in secret.

This combination of moves left the newly appointed guy there completely bewildered—

No matter how good the fake evidence he had prepared was, the Inquisition directly arrested, tried, executed, and raided them on the spot under the charge of 'bribing inspection personnel,'

and he didn't even have a place to appeal.

Soon, the unlucky guy pushed out to test the waters died without a burial place,

and Ricard also finished this mission and began, according to the normal procedure—that is, eating, taking, blocking, and demanding—an inspection full of 'Imperial tradition.'

Just on the first day, an incredibly primitive starship came through the Gravity Conduit and landed before him.

Perhaps out of boredom, after confirming that the primitive starship wasn't even equipped with anti-ship weapons, Ricard directly ordered his men to bring the people from that starship onto his flagship.

That time, the two sides were also like this, talking across a screen.

At that time, under the suppression of absolute power, most of the Saints' personnel sold out their own secrets under coercion and inducement.

And Ricard, upon learning the truth, was very pleasantly surprised:

A brand new small faction! Their home planet has no star marker! A strong religious atmosphere!

And—they have ridiculous ideals!

And—they are completely under control as far as the Empire is concerned!

They are simply dead men walking gifted to the Empire by the lord of ten thousand changes!

They are simply white gloves gifted to the Empire by the lord of ten thousand changes!

Immediately, Ricard handed them a bottle of poisoned honey.

He first used a set of praise-to-kill rhetoric, flattering those Saints guys until they couldn't find north,

making them all immerse themselves in the imagination of being 'saviors' and 'great heroes.'

Subsequently, he disguised himself as someone deeply worried about the future of humanity,

and using seemingly accidental methods, he laid out the current state of humanity bit by bit, deliberately exaggerating those despairs and sufferings—

even though the Empire was also one of the main culprits causing these sufferings.

Immediately, those Saints members, full of a sense of justice, saw the 'dilemma' in Ricard's words.

And Ricard began the final act of this play—

legitimizing a certain dirty deed and then tossing it to these people who considered themselves heroes.

"The body of human civilization is already full of corrupt pustules,"

"and only by cleanly destroying those malignant tumors can human civilization, like your home planet, be reborn."

The logic loop closed, the fraud was successful,

and the Saints members, filled with hot-blooded passion, under the deliberate arrangement of the Empire, launched a suicide bombing attack on a research institute of The Consortium that was 'full of anti-humanity.'

The result was obvious,

when these simple planetary natives saw at the Imperial military base that 'a certain academy suffered a terrorist attack, which is a major loss for all of humanity,'

when they saw a smug Ricard, with coldness and shrewdness, trying to pull them back to the negotiating table,

their world collapsed.

Those with firm faith immediately chose to end their own lives, and those who would rather die than submit also died in prison, unable to bear the burden.

Only thirteen traitorous fallen ones survived and sat back down at that negotiating table behind the screen.

"As it stands, all of humanity knows of your evil deeds,"

"Do you really think that if you break with the Empire, you will have any good ending?"

"Your home planet will be subjected to orbital bombardment, and your compatriots will be labeled as anti-human and forever nailed to the pillar of shame of humanity."

"Do you think this future is exciting enough for the home planet you are trying so hard to save?"

Listening to that cold and mocking tone, every "Saints" member was gnashing their teeth in anger, but they had no reason to refute, nor the strength to refute.

But then, Ricard changed the subject—

"However, the Empire is willing to leave you a way out."

"And only the Empire can save your home planet."

In the interrogation room, Muldra's face was covered in tears,

"That devil, using our home planet as bait, threatened us into becoming the dirtiest blade in their hands."

"I became a traitor!"

"I deceived myself with countless reasons, such as that I was doing it for the survival of my home planet, that it was a compromise I had no choice but to make!"

"But none of this can cover up one fact! That is that I—betrayed my faith!"

"Later, we used deception, used bewitchment, listening to the Empire's orders, bringing one noble child after another into the starry sky,"

"and then personally turned them into devils."

"You might not know—although I carry these two ancient books, which were enough to become turning points, with me at all times—"

"but I, I no longer have the courage to look them in the eye!!"

"Those children from our home planet, until they died, thought they were warriors fighting for humanity, until they died, they thought they were heroes..."

"This... this... I..."

Xi Hai looked at Muldra, who was already sobbing uncontrollably, and felt endless emotion in his heart for a moment.

Muldra and the Saints, without a doubt, were a tragedy,

but this tragedy also forged thousands of other tragedies.

The light in Xi Hai's eyes dimmed slightly; facing this kind of situation for the first time, the impact was undoubtedly significant.

But after pondering for a long time, Xi Hai still steeled his heart—

The "Saints" had already committed a grave error, and he had no qualification to forgive them on behalf of the innocents who died in the disaster,

all he could do was steer this error back onto the right track.

He looked at Muldra on the screen and said:

"I have learned your story."

"The people on your home planet, they will undergo an investigation,"

"if they are truly innocent, then they will naturally be accepted."

"And as for the Saints—"

"you must be judged."

"This is the answer to the countless innocents who died at your hands."

Muldra heard these words, his shoulders relaxed, and he sighed with a sense of relief,

his lips moved for a long time, and finally he squeezed out a sentence—

"Thank you..."