The Spider Queen

(Alpha Star System- Planet Gaia)

(N'rean City- National History Museum)

Two days had passed since Rachel arrived on planet Gaia and the saintess was enjoying her vacation so far.

Staying in an enormous mansion and getting meals prepared by five-star chefs was something that she never experienced before.

The Nephilim Church was by no means poor, but the meals provided in the main temple were pretty basic.

One might ask why the taste would even matter when Quafes didn't need to eat but that was beside the point!

Ever since she was a little girl, Rachel dreamed of being able to live a life of luxury and excess.

It may sound a bit shallow, but she knew better than anyone else the value of money.

The people who said that money didn't bring happiness were all liars! Or they clearly had too much…

Rachel also enjoyed sleeping on the warm fluffy bed that was prepared in the guest room.

There was even a massive full-length mirror inside the room so she could make small adjustments to her avatar.

Sophie and Cleo had done their best to help her settle in and today they were taking her out to a museum.

Rachel smiled happily as she stood in front of an enormous white building made of marble with stone pillars jutting out from the ground.

The National History Museum was a public attraction that was paid for by the taxes collected from the local businesses nearby the building.

It was entirely free and open from around nine in the morning to twelve in the night.

Of course, one could pay extra for guided tours, but Sophie thought that it would be more fun to explore the museum on their own.

There was a steady flow of people walking in and out of the entrance.

"Shall we go inside?" Sophie yawned sleepily as she pointed in the direction of the open doors.

"I'm so excited! I love learning about history!" Rachel replied cheerfully as she grabbed both girls' arms and dragged them along.

Cleo smiled warmly and grabbed Sophie's hand to give it a quick squeeze. Her girlfriend winked at her flirtatiously when Rachel wasn't looking.

The three girls walked into the museum and were immediately blown away by the massive hall that greeted them.

It was called 'The Hall Of The Conquered'.

A fitting name for the displays that were scattered around the room.

Numerous relics, artifacts, clothing, and other traces of civilisations were placed in front of pictures of different alien races.

Some of the aliens were painted in light grey colours which signified that their species were extinct.

Next to each display was a small plaque with information written down on its metallic surface.

Every picture in this room represented a race that the Earth Federation had gone to war with and won.

To put these objects in more crude terms… this was a trophy display.

A reminder of how powerful the alliance between Humans, Quafes, Mendolesa and Servies was.

The atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed with people walking from display to display looking at the objects curiously and then moving on to the next ones.

There was no sense of reverence for the cultures that had been lost to the sands of time but perhaps that was simply due to the fact that these alien races were long gone…

Or reduced to second class citizens.

Sophie walked up to one of the displays and saw a crudely fashioned wooden spear with a sharpened rock attached to the tip.

It was wrapped in a flag that had been painted using some form of natural plant dye and the colours were already beginning to fade away.

The picture at the back of the display showed an alien race dressed in simple rags and warming themselves in front of a fire.

They were clearly quite behind on the technology tree and would have posed little threat to the Federation.

The aliens had light blue skin and bodies that were slender and noodle-like. They possessed three yellow eyes and large warts could be seen on their upper arms and legs.

Their jaws were unnaturally large and the teeth inside their mouths were sharp and jagged.

The plaque next to the display briefly summarised the history of these aliens and what had happened to them.

They called themselves the 'Freanse' and they were first discovered by a financial corporation that was looking for new mines in the outer regions of the Alcorae Star System.

The planet that they inhabited eventually became a mining colony and it was decided by the financial corporation that the locals were an inconvenience that had to be eliminated.

They hired private mercenaries and within the span of two weeks the population was reduced from around two million to little more than a thousand.

The remaining aliens were captured and sent to a planet owned by the financial corporation to work as slaves.

Justice was eventually delivered when the story broke on the Virtual Net and the executives of the corporation were given heavy fines.

"That was justice?" Rachel scowled heavily as she stared at the flag. There was genuine anger in her tone as she stared at the words on the plaque.

"No… it wasn't. They breached international Federation law by attacking an alien race without provocation," Sophie replied solemnly as her fingers curled up into a fist.

"They should have been thrown in prison and left to rot for the rest of their lives."

"I would have killed them," Rachel growled angrily as she memorised the story in her head and vowed to find the name of the financial group.

"Unfortunately, justice isn't really something that is applied to the rich and powerful," Cleo calmly spoke in a matter-of-fact voice.

"If you only knew what some of the princes and princesses have done… and yet none of them are in prison."

Cleo was well aware of the inequalities inherent in their society, but the princess had no idea how to fix them.

Plus, to be fair she would be hypocritical not to acknowledge that she herself was one of the people who benefited from the structure.

Cultivation meant that a certain percentage of the population were inherently stronger than the rest which was difficult to remedy.

And of course, those strong people mostly consisted of nobles since they had the wealth to enjoy significantly higher cultivation resources.