Chapter 08 The Proposal

"Uh... galactic civilization?" Jake turned his head at Arlain's explanation.

"That's right, the dark space is already crowded with civilizations and various species that live in it" Arlain nodded calmly.

In short, in this galaxy, known as the Milky Way on Earth or also known as Earena Fern, there are already galactic societies that are able to explore the corners of the galaxy with technological and magical advances, in truth there is magic, in fact, magic is a very normal thing everywhere, starting in everyday life to every technology to every war ever recorded, magic is water and air of the universe, there are also Empires, Kingdoms and Republics, including countless small colonies scattered throughout the vast vacuum.

And Arlain, in his own words, was a great Nobleman as The Grand Archduke of the Deluce Abrak empire, the largest and most dominant empire in the galaxy with more than 1 million solar systems on its registration with hundreds more added every time although not all was habitable.

"Then does that mean those people are aliens?" Jake asked about the crew who looked human, was it just their appearance.

"What alien?" Arlain asked back, not understanding what alien meant.

"you don't know alien?"

"I'm not familiar with that word" Arlain nods.

Is there no word alien in outer space? Is it because they have explored space so foreign creatures are not a strange thing...

"uhh...Aliens are creatures that do not come from Terra.... I guess" Jake explained half-hearted.

"Ah! I see, I see, Terra is a back-water civilization so they have their own words for something as simple as that..." Arlain muttered to himself, Jake was a bit displeased to hear his planet being called back-water civilization but he decided to keep his mouth shut because if it was this slime, it would be an argument until the end.

After muttering to himself for a while, Arlain spoke "I understand, going by this definition of aliens, they are certainly aliens, but I feel like what you want to know is are they human?" Arlain looked at Jake before continuing "The answer is they are human"

"Huh?" Arlain did guess what he was asking, but his answer only confused Jake more than not, seeing Jake who had a stupid face, Arlain sighed from his non-existent mouth "They are human, you are human, I am human"

"wait a minute, what did you just say?" Jake feels he just heard something strange.

"I am human?"

"Yeah, uhm... are all species called humans in the empire?" it makes sense then, Jake thought, but Arlain shook his slime head "Of course not, stupid"

"No, no, no, sorry to say this, but you're definitely not human." Jake looked at Arlain who was swaying on the floor while shining light around him like a night lamp.

No matter how he looked at it the pink Slime in front of him was not human in the slightest, but Arlain wiggled his body in protest "Of course I'm human! Hmph! .... it's a bit embarrassing to admit, but..." Arlain sounded hesitant and his words stopped for a moment, before he continued in a heavy voice. "...I've been cursed"

"Do I have to kiss you?"

"What?"

"What?"

"What did you just stated?" Arlain stared at Jake with his round eyes and slowly moved back, although his eyes didn't change, Jake could feel him squinting in Suspicion.

"WAIT! No, No, No! There is a legend on earth that says that curses can be removed with a kiss!" Jake explained frantically.

"What? What kind of theory is that? So stupid, no wonder your people can't use magic with that stupid thinking" Arlain said still on guard of Jake "Don't try to kiss me Terra humanis"

"Trust me, I won't waste my first kiss on a slime" Jake made a sour face imagining himself kissing a slime, a male one at that.

"Putting that aside, you need to know that humans are the most numerous and dominant species in the entire galaxy" Arlain explained

"That doesn't make sense... does that mean that humans on Earth in ancient times actually already had the technology to explore space and spread throughout the galaxy?" Jake thought out loud, but the theory was immediately denied by Arlain. "Don't get cocky Terra humanis, it is unknown where humans actually came from and it has been a mystery for thousands of years"

"Is that so? Is that why they call me Terra humanis?"

"Correct, Terra humanis means humans of Terra, but you can be proud to be the first planet without magic in the galaxy"

"Is that good or bad?" Jake frowned.

"It depends on how you take it" Arlain gave a vague answer, which made Jake feel doubtful, so he asked again "More or less I get it, but the reality is that I can understand their language, do all humans have the same language or is this all work of-"

"Magic" Arlain chirped.

"it sure is convenient huh"

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"of course, that's why your planet hasn't found warp drive yet, without magic it's impossible to enter the dimension for faster than the speed of light travel"

"Hahh....my head is fried" Jake stared at the dark ceiling of the cell and limply leaned his back against the wall, taking a deep breath, he finally half-understood his situation.

"Jake Carrack" Arlain called him.

"what is it Arlain"

"Arlain the Great! don't forget the Great!" Arlain protested, but Jake just shrugged, seeing Jake who didn't care, Arlain came beside him and sat leaning against the wall with his slime body still annoyed.

"hey, Arlain, may I ask you one more question"

"What?" Arlain turned his gaze to Jake wanted to protest for calling him so casually, but he held it in seeing Jake who looked listless, while Jake just stared at the ceiling with a blank face, Arlain could feel the sadness behind his expression.

"I need to know who they are, who are holding both of us here" Jake turned to Arlain. "why am I here?"

Shaking his slime body, Arlian answered "I believe they are Pirates of some sort, they must have found Terra and kidnapped you on the way, for whatever reason, perhaps illegal slavery, you are unlucky"

"I'm not surprised, luck isn't my specialty," Jake smiled and raised his brows "And illegal? Are there the legal ones?"

"yes, is there no slavery on Terra?" Arlain asked curiously.

"it should be gone but I heard there still is in some places, human trafficking and such, but I guess slavery just changed its name and went into hiding" Jake smiled remembering his job.

"is that so?" Arlain nodded.

"hahhh... am I a slave now?" Jake said bitterly

"Only if you surrender"

"haha those are good words you got there....Tell me Arlain, you are a Noble, aren't you?"

"There was no time in my life that I was not a noble," Arlain said firmly.

"Then how did you end up here and what have they done to you?" Jake gazed at Arlain's slime body briefly.

Hearing Jake's question, Arlain fell silent and lowered his pink slime head, without saying a word, the silence was deafening.

"I think I asked too many questions, Arlain the Great, forgive me" Jake glanced at Arlain with an apologetic smile.

"You can call me Arlain"

"Yes?" Jake turned his head in surprise.

"I appointed you as a temporary noble of the Empire, therefore you can call me Arlain! Be grateful!" Arlain said loudly to cover his embarrassment, realizing that, Jake chuckled "Is it really that easy?"

"Be grateful!!"

"THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!" Jake suddenly shouted and looked at Arlain with a proud expression clearly trying to get into his nerves, however, instead of yells of anger and protest, but laughter echoed inside the cell, it was Arlain's laughter.

"I guess you still have some guts Jake Carrack" Arlain said, there is lighthearted happiness in his voice.

"hahaha, unfortunately so, it makes me have to eat that disgusting food" Jake answered with a grin.

"...you are such a lame Jester" Arlain banters back.

Their laughter was heard once again in the dark cell.

"huh, very nice for my first real conversation in three months" Jake stretched his body and lay down on the floor.

"but you've only been here a month?"

"yes"

"I guess there's not much fun in the lives of commoners" Arlain said looking at Jake lying on the floor.

"hm, I guess compared to the life of a Noble from the Galactic Empire, my life is nothing"

"of course it can't be compared" Arlain said as he relaxed his slime body against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, remembering his life before here "I am a great nobleman only below the emperor himself with five other great nobles, ruling 10,000 planets beneath me, I have everything one could ever imagine, my palace was the biggest in my sector, to the point that all the Nobles around me became very jealous, Kahahaha I remember how the faces of those bastards when I found the third largest magic core mine in the empire"

Arlain laughed, glancing at him from the side, Jake could see the various emotions behind his round eyes.

"that sounds great"

"That's for sure, I'll invite you to my palace later and introduce you to my Jester, so you can learn a thing or two" Arlain said with a smirk.

"Awesome, I guess my luck has turned around" Jake replied sarcastically.

Both of them laughed, and silence filled the room once again, after a while, Arlain shook his body, before continuing to speak in a heavy tone "And to answer your question, they are not the ones who did this to me, not entirely"

Hearing this, Jake agreed "Yeah, I can't imagine you could be defeated by some schumbags"

"Hmph! There's no way those scums can do anything to me!" Arlain said loudly "No, the reason I can be cursed....was during my expedition"

"Expedition?"

".....expedition, yes, that's right" Arlain paused for a moment "I brought 1000 ships with me, 300 frigates, 100 escort ships, 200 destroyers, 50 cruisers, 10 fortress class, 3 dreadnoughts, while the rest are supply and ammunition ships"

Hearing that, Jake frowned "What the hell kind of expedition is that? Are you going to war?"

But Arlain shook his head "Rather than a war, it was more like a show of strength, that's how Nobles are"

"not much different from Earth"

"not much different from the whole universe really" Arlain added with a chuckle "However...unfortunately, during that expedition I was... betrayed"

"betrayed?" Jake got up from his position to look at Arlain, but Arlain didn't even look back at him and continued speaking "My flagship was intentionally separated from my own fleet while in warp and we were quickly attacked by these lowly insects, after that the rebels quickly took over my ship and captured me and those who were still loyal to me"

Only then did Arlain tear his eyes off toward Jake and Jake was taken back a little by the power that radiated from his eyes, pure hatred "My own subjects betrayed me and killed them before my very eyes, such an insult... I thought they would kill me right then and there and I was ready to end the greatest insult in my life, but it turned out they wanted to humiliate me worse than I thought, using an artifact they cursed me with forbidden magic and turned me into this disgusting creature, they handed me to these bastards"

"But why?"

"I'm not sure" Arlain said doubtly.

Hearing Arlain's story, Jake could only lower his head, compared to him Arlain had it worse "I understand, it must be hard"

Jake could only say that, he knew Arlain was not someone who liked to be pitied, no, he hated it but surprisingly, Arlain whispered "Thank you"

"Huh?" Jake raised his head in surprise for the second time "W-what?"

Even from Jake's short interaction with Arlain he knew that he was not someone who would say something like that easily.

"Are you going to die?!" Jake asked in panic.

"Why would I?! Are you stupid!" Arlain said angrily, seeing Arlain regaining his grumpiness, Jake sighed in relief.

"Why would you sigh Terra humanis?! Do you want me to die?!"

"No? It's the opposite, I'll be in trouble if you die, even though I just got a friend to chat with"

"Do you think I'm a toy for you to chat with?! You idiot!"

But Jake just shrugged his shoulders ignoring Arlain's protest, seeing Jake who still didn't care much, Arlain puffed up his slime body as if sulking, before speaking in annoyance "I'm not your chat toy! Besides my mana power will run out soon!"

"Huh!? Wait a minute doesn't that mean..."

"Right, I can't talk for another month when I've gathered enough mana"

"what the hell" Jake hung his head in depression, even though he didn't know how much longer he could live, he might have to spend it in silence again.

Seeing Jake who looked devastated, Arlain stared at the floor, falling into his thoughts before speaking "Jack Carrack"

"Uh huh?" Jake lifted his head.

"I have a proposal" Jake could feel the seriousness behind his words.

"proposal?"

"right, but before that you have to promise, either the two of us get out of here or neither of us will live" Arlain walked in front of Jake and looked him in the eyes.