She shook her head in disappointment:

"I said I want to meet the leader, not his pawn."

"Hold your tongue, he is our leader," one of the droids, the one who brought her here, said.

"No, he isn't, he is a minion, just like you are," the girl stressed on her previous statement.

Rigo heard her words, and from his own happy moments he was awaken, looked at her, before asking in some curiosity:

"why are you saying that?"

"Because you aren't the leader of them, you might be the acting leader, but they all, including you, serve one person. I want to meet that person," she said, while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Interesting," Rigo muttered, "may I know who you are, and why do you want to meet our leader?" he asked.

"I'm not one of the royal family, I was just here based on an invitation from the king here, or the ex-king. Now, by your appearance and doings, my arrangements here are done, and I need to leave," she said.

"Oh, just simply like that?" Rigo asked.

"Yes, simple like that, in fact if I wanted to leave, no one can stop me," she said, stressing on every single word she said.

"Ok, I don't want any trouble," Rigo faked fear, "just we are away from the place of our leader. You can go now to a room to rest, and when we arrive there, I will take you personally to meet him," he added, while motioning towards one of the droids, who moved to say:

"Come with me, my lady, and I will make you satisfied by the room."

"Hmph, it's better not to be one of those little dirty games," she harrumphed, before moving to follow the droid to the outside.

"You, go down there, and start interrogating this girl's true identity," Rigo said, as he was sure this girl wasn't royal, as he was sure she wasn't what she was calling herself to be.

After this small interruption, he moved to observe the riches pouring in his cruiser from all others. He had sent his fleet to secure all the planets, and in return they were now coming back fully loaded with treasures, while the soldiers were still organizing the situation and controlling everything.

"Send a word to our supreme leader, tell him about our glorious victory," Rigo said to the one responsible for the communication unit in the commanding deck here.

James, on his side, was now busy reading through the new reports coming from the black holes inside his territory. They showed new signs of activity, as they didn't just give out one monster daily, they started to increase the rate and the number of monsters, to be two monsters twice daily.

This wouldn't be disturbing if his main fleet was here, but as his fleet was now away fighting for gaining more territory to him, he couldn't find this news as good as Islinda, sitting next to him, was eyeing them.

"These are perfect news, why is the gloomy face then?" she asked, while moving her hand, touching the hand of his. He looked at, glanced in a way that seemed enjoying her soft touch, before he then retreated his gaze, looking again towards the new reports, with much concern in his mind.

"These aren't just as simple as it looks, if this continued…"

"If this continued, then we would amass the most merchants here, raising the importance of this place, and finding a means to trade it with a safe path to another great sector would be much easier," she interrupted him, pressing more softly over his arm.

He just looked at her, realizing the reason for her happy mood finally regarding these news, as they were getting her closer, much closer to her own empire.

He just sighed, and before he could say anything, a new report came to his screen, which he opened at once, as it was from Rigo.

The news was perfect, much more than what he initially expected; more troops, more ships secured, more riches, more planets, and more people.

He had everything that he would need at this time, and so his face finally changed, to be much relieved and happy.

"Ok, let's get ready to leave," he suddenly said, startling her, "we need to go there and arrange things fast."

She was now reading the report he handed over to her, and the more she read, the more bright her eyes would be.

"That Rigo is really lucky," unwillingly she admitted it, as this strike wasn't a fluke or simple at all.

Gains mentioned above, and the report said more was still coming here, was enough to upgrade their overall strength by a whole level. she was sure this would secure their grasp here, and the dream of having such a great strength rivaling some empires wouldn't be just a dream anymore.

James didn't take long until he left the base of his newly expanded territory, heading towards the kingdom which he just conquered.

The distance between the two places wasn't big, so in less than half a day he reached there, while leaving one of the Rigo's droids leading the home till he returned back.

During the journey, some strange reports started to kick in, announcing some monster appearances inside the new territory.

"What is happening?" Islinda asked, as more reports came telling them about the increasing rate of the monsters.

"More than twenty planets had joined us formally, and now monsters are appearing there as well, is this some sort of a curse?" he muttered, as he was trying to find common sense amongst all that.

"A curse?" Islinda muttered, "never heard of something like that before," she added.

"Is there any other explanation than that?" James said, in a thinking tone.

"Away from the reason, what will we do with these monsters?" she asked, "can we sell these rights too?" she added.

"Oh, more monsters equal more money," James nodded, "do your calls, and when we confirm the total number and places of the monsters, offer them for sale," he added.

He paused for a moment, thinking about an opportunity, "what if I was really cursed? Any territory I have would be targeted by the monsters?"

"What do you mean?" Islinda asked.

"I mean, if this was the case, then we should work towards expanding our territory," he said, expressing his inner thoughts.

"That would be challenging," she muttered, "but it will bring us more riches in no time," she nodded, agreeing on his words.

"Good, when we reach there, I will ask Rigo to send more scouts," James said.

"Why send scouts while we have the first best option?" she evilly smiled while adding, "we can ask merchants who come here for knowledge. Any more kingdoms around us, uncontrolled inhabitant planets, anything we can put our hands on, with people living on it."

The eyes of James shone brightly as he nodded in agreement. "Great idea, I will let you handle it. but what about the price these merchants would ask for?" he asked.

"Not much price, I will give them a priority when distributing the next monsters hunting grounds," she said.

James nodded, as this would be a great idea indeed. Trying to buy their favor in exchange for common knowledge was a trade no one would sanely refuse.

As they arrived at the kingdom planets, they found the whole fleet busy dealing with the monsters. It was a blessing these soldiers already dealt with monsters from before, and that made them quite stable and not stressed out in front of these monsters.

On the other hand, the true inhabitants took this as a sign, a bad sign, for the punishment of heaven or gods to James and his invading army. When James heard this news, he just laughed and said nothing, as this belief made any intentions for resistance to quill down, especially when the news of slaining the monsters sent to punish the invaders spreaded among the people.

Even heaven's punishment couldn't stand against these barbarians, which made the inhabitants of these planets so afraid of James' army.

And this helped, unintentionally, Islinda in spreading James control over everything without much resistance.

As for Rigo, he was quite busy with the monsters that it took him a few hours until he came to see James. The uniform Rigo was wearing was now tattered, and there were signs of some wounds on his external skin.

"Are you ok?" James asked the moment he saw him.

"I'm fine, thanks for the worry leader," Rigo said, as he went ahead and sat beside James, who knew Rigo was really exhausted this time.

"Fighting monsters without warning was a nightmare, huh!" James remarked, as he noted the sorry state of his best fighter.

"It's not the surprise alone," Rigo said, "it was also the increasing numbers of these monsters. This kingdom reigned over twenty planets, with each one fully occupied with hundreds of cities," he added with a long tiring sigh.