Itsuki unhurriedly continued, "The Grand Protector before Esther was a Hylotl of the Central Ocean Faction. As I told you, the Central Ocean Faction is basically composed of businessman, so the Extremist Reef Faction 'bought' the Grand Protector and made him make the Protectors do the job of traveling through the universe, finding the Ancient Gateways, securing those in strategic points and locking down those that had no importance for them." Itsuki glanced at John and was surprised to see that he was calm.

"So... What's next?" John calmly asked.

"Fast forwarding to the future, the Terrene Protectorate was destroyed, so the Protectors guarding the Ancient Gateways stopped doing their work. Tepei, as a member of the Extremist Reef Faction, was ordered to arrest and send anyone that entered the Ark Outpost to be sent back, to be silenced or arrested for eternity. I'm a member of the Central Ocean Faction that had infiltrated in the rankings of the Extremist Faction and was able to climb all the way to being deployed to serve in this place. I found proofs of corruption and murders committed by Tepei and sent them to the Universal Hylotl Government, they had no choice but to take the Ark Outpost out of the Extremist Reef Faction and give it to another Faction, the most influential one, the Central Ocean Faction. We believe in equality among races and also equality in the business world, so we decided to open the Ark Outpost to every single person who wants to come and make business, but we still forbid the construction of homes, only hotels are allowed. The Central Ocean Faction want to transform the Ark Outpost into a hub where everyone can buy and sell all kinds of products from an across the whole universe that is connected through the Ancient Gateways." Itsuki widely smiled, "That's what you are seeing now, the beginning of this dream."

"All right. That answered a few of my questions." John was strangely calm about all he just heard, "I'll be taking my leave. Thanks for the Interstellar Map, Administrator Itsuki."

John turned around and left.

The office became silent for a while until Esther broke the silence, "You really had to tell him about the shameful side of the Terrene Protectorate?"

"He would find out, one way or another." Itsuki calmly replied.

"He isn't ready to know about it." Esther sadly sighed and rested on her Hoverchair, "He's too young..."

"Too late." Itsuki shrugged her shoulder, "You better go find him and explain to him in more details, or he might outright abandon the ideals that he learned in the Terrene Protectorate Academy."

Esther nodded her head, turned the chair around and followed John.

...

Esther returned to the Ark Ruins and saw that John was there, silently looking at the pictures at the walls.

She quietly approached from behind, but John still heard the sound coming from the Hoverchair's engine, "I have connected the dots, you know. Everything about what I heard and saw through my time in the academy, now together with what I heard from Itsuki, I understood a few things that kept bothering my mind since the day I entered the academy. The time when the Terrene Protectorate started a massive enlistment of young people all across the universe was also the time when they started to send more Protectors into unexplored and dangerous places like the Sigma and Omega Sectors. It all started 30 years ago, before Leda Portia was the Grand Protector, before you were Grand Protector, it was when the Grand Protector was Kazuo, a Hylotl. Hundreds of thousands of Protectors sent to death in those forsaken Sectors and I always wondered why. Now, however, it makes sense."

"Dear..." Esther calmly spoke, "You must understand-"

"We were Letheia Corporation's dogs." John interrupted Esther, "Weren't we?" John was eerily calm at this moment.

"John..." Esther sadly sighed, "I wish your dreams and the image of the Terrene Protectorate would still remain positive in your mind, but now, it seems to be impossible. Yes, we were treated like dogs by the Letheia Corporation, in fact, I must say that almost all humanity was in their hands. If you look more carefully in our story you would realize that Letheia Corporation had almost monopoly over the market of technology, electronic devices, entertainment, and even energy. Before humanity even knew it, we were already depending on the Letheia Corporation for almost everything. Of course, a lot of people tried to cut out the monopoly, but that's when the Letheia Corporation made a genius move and started to heavily invest in the Terrene Protectorate, giving money, technology, and professional personnel. The Terrene Protectorate started to protect the Letheia Corporation, ensuring that they were able to have the monopoly over humanity and, eventually, even over the universe. Almost 40% of the new technologies created in the universe came from the Letheia Corporation, 20% came from the Apexes, 20% from humans and the rest 20% is divided among the other races."

John looked at the jet black sky of the Ark Outpost, "I spent more than 10 years in the Academy wanting to be a Protector, so that I could actually protect the universe, but from what I learned today, it seems that all I was doing was protecting the interest of the Letheia Corporation..."

"John..."

"That brings the question." John stared hard at Esther, "Why didn't you stopped them? They toyed around with lives of millions of Protectors, sending them to certain death and making them guard Ancient Gateways like watchdogs. Why!?"

Esther sadly sighed, "I tried to stop them, but the Grand Protector never had the final say on any decision..."

"What do you mean?"

"The ones with the final say when a Grand Protector propose a decision is the Elder Council." She said, "The Council works like an opposite force of the Grand Protector. They can interpose any decision made by the Grand Protector and the Grand Protector can also interpose any decision made by the Council. It is a balance. If one side want to approve something they must convince the other side. But to the Council to put forward a decision they need more than 50% of the votes in their ranks, that is formed by 7 members, the oldest member of the Terrene Protectorate of each of the 7 races. The Hylotl have in their side the Apex, Human and Avian, that is more than the 50% that they need. So you can see the political situation in the Terrene Protectorate, if I wanted to interpose or change a decision I needed to convince the Elder Council, but if the decision was against the interest of the Letheia Corporation, the Hylotl would unite with the Apex, Human and Avian Elders to interpose the decision."

"..."

Esther lumped I the chair and her expression became gloomy, "That's one of the reasons why I decided to left the Terrene Protectorate. It had become a corrupt, and outdated government and organization. I was tired of the mind games and politics play that I had to constantly do. People wearing masks, ordering millions of Protectors to charge to their deaths with no guilt." She sadly sighed once again, "The Terrene Protectorate was already a dying organization by the time I left, and I was able to tell that the organization wouldn't last another hundred years before it collapsed from the inside to the outside. It was destined for this future. Luckily the Terrene Protectorate was destroyed by the Ruin while its image was still positive by the eyes of the public."