Elizabeth woke up from her sleep. It was currently around 7 in the morning.
For the past couple of days, she and Lucius had been living in the crash site camp.
Unfortunately, other than sleeping together on the same bed, there was no more progress on their relationship.
Things in the camp had been pretty hectic for the past couple of days.
First and foremost, more cryogenic chambers were opened, and although humans were the majority, quite a lot of people inside of those chambers weren't humans.
As mentioned before, the cryogenic chambers didn't only contain humans, but also other alien races.
The three most unique-looking among them were the Qubicuolons, Therions, and Jiokkis.
Qubicuolons were humanoids that had dark grey shiny porcelain-like skin, a a 3-meter tall body, an oval-shaped head with no earlobes or hair, 3 sets of white eyes, and 6 fingers and toes.
Therions looked like a mix of a theropod dinosaur and a hairless cat, but having a humanoid body shape, and having 2 sets of arms instead of 1.
Jiokkis had a rough rocky-textured skin with multiple cracks forming around them, a mantis-like body structure, and no eyes since they see their surroundings through echolocation.
Seeing these strange aliens, Elizabeth began to think that maybe, just maybe, her world's teachings were wrong.
Moreover, she could see that these aliens had their own families, further shaking her beliefs.
Aside from the aliens, the humans were also quite weird. Most of them were equipped with cybernetic limbs and implants, and Elizabeth was immensely absorbed in finding out how they worked.
While she was absorbed in her research, Lucius was busily trying to organize them.
He found out that most of these refugees were just normal citizens who fled from an ongoing galactic world war which had lasted around 40 years as of right now.
Their origin planet was Earth, the same planet Lucius was from. And yes, even the aliens were from Earth, as they were born there as well.
It seemed that Earth had become the capital planet of the UHN, also known as the United Human Nations, which territory had spanned across half of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Although the UHN had human in its name, it didn't only comprise of humans.
The reason why they fled the capital was because of the war.
Earth's status of being the capital world was in the process of being moved somewhere else. And in this delicate process, the Drundum Federation had struck Earth and the Solar system.
Fortunately, the UHN had managed to acquire intel of this just a few days before the attack, so most people from Earth and the Solar system had already fled before the attack.
Some fled to other parts of the UHN, while others chose to go to neutral nations such as the Frekian Empire, which did not involve itself in the war.
These refugees were part of the many others who sought refuge in Frekia.
Unlike the many other nations in the Milky Way Galaxy, Frekia was an intergalactic nation, which meant that it occupied multiple galaxies.
From what Lucius had heard from the refugees, the planet he stood on was supposedly called Andronot, and it was a city planet.
However, he already knew that they had crashed on the wrong planet, seeing as the planet he stood on was very primitive in terms of technology, and was nowhere near a city planet.
The refugees had also acknowledged that they were on the wrong planet, so they inwardly cursed at the dead crew members who brought them into this place.
****
A couple more days have passed, and now, all of the ship's cargo have been unloaded, including the damaged ones.
This was the last day of Lucius' and Elizabeth's stay on the camp, so he decided that it was time to gather all of the refugees and explain to them about the things he had planned for them.
In total, there were 34,092 refugees in the camp. They were currently gathered on a big and open field.
Standing on a large podium, while wearing his jet-black armor suit to emphasize his authority, he amplified his voice using his suit's built-in microphone and speakers.
Lucius then spoke in English.
"Can you hear my voice loud and clear?"
To his question, the refugees nodded their heads.
"Okay, so, first of all, I'd like to make it clear that this is not your go-to destination. In fact, I don't even know what planet we are in as well. Long story short, I somehow got stranded in this planet by myself almost 3 years ago. And after some stuff happened, I got myself into the position of a duke in this small land territory. Some of you might be wondering what kind of power does a duke have. Well, the nobility of the kingdom that rules these lands have an absolute rule over the territory that they own. There are tiers of nobility, and as you might have guessed, the duke is the highest tier of a noble's title, second only to the king."
He briefly stopped speaking to let the audience process his words. Afterwards, he began speaking again.
"I can already see that some of the humans among you seem more shocked than the others, and I can address what they're thinking of. Yes, as you might have guessed from the short amount of time you've spent here, this place looks very familiar to a certain time period from Earth. The medieval period that is. It seems that this planet might have been custom made by someone or some group. It might not be true, but we can all agree that it is highly possible."
"Now, I am here to address to you people that you cannot just live here for free. I am not running a charity, so if you are an adult, I will be willing to provide you welfare in exchange for work. The ones underaged will not be subjected to work, but to school. Some of you have told me about your previous professions, and to the ones who said to me that you had experience in teaching, I'll be seeing you later for further instructions."
"You will all now be part of Heimer as my citizens, whether you like it or not. Feel free to leave this territory if you do not feel like joining me. But do remember this, there is no one outside of this place who would understand you or help you. Moreover, all of you should know that the countries in this planet are quite fanatic about their beliefs, and would not hesitate to label you as demons or demonic worshippers. If anyone wants to reject my citizenship offer, please raise your hand."
Lucius looked around and saw that no one raised their hand. Although some of them looked displeased, they have accepted that becoming a citizen of Heimer was their best move.
"Great. I shall now prepare your trip to Oppen, the capital city of this territory. It should take around 5 hours to walk to Oppen from this place. I will prepare horse-driven carriages for those of you who are still children. Think of it as an investment. The rest of you should walk there as a group, and will be guarded by my police officers. If you are unhappy with this arrangement, then make yourself useful and help me advance the technology here. That way, we can have better transportation. That will be all, thank you for listening."
After the quick announcement, Lucius checked on Andrew's findings about the refugees. It seemed that some of the human refugees were UHN military personnel who deserted on defending Earth.
After hearing about this, he gathered all the known deserters from Andrew's intel, and offered them high-ranking positions in his military force.
Contrary to popular belief, the deserters were actually happy about this.
In fact, they were not deserters by choice. The reason they deserted in the first place was because they were unfairly sent to a losing battle.
The UHN knew that Earth and the Solar system was already lost the moment they had intel about the attack.
Their intel showed them that the Drundum Federation had secretly developed an antimatter bomb capable of annihilating a star system. If the Drundum Federation were to lose their fight in taking over, they would retreat and detonate that bomb.
The UHN had no choice but to send their troops to a losing battle.
These deserters knew that they would either be killed or captured as war prisoners, so they disguised themselves as refugees and fled from Earth.
Lucius didn't really trust their explanation, so he decided to offer them free trial high-ranking positions and see if they'll perform well or not.
If they performed well, then he'd increase their salary and welfare. He would also consider promoting them.
If they performed terribly, then he'd just demote them into a normal position.
****
The journey to Oppen was tiring for a lot of the adult refugees, and it actually took them around 7 hours because of some weather issues.
The children on the other hand, arrived 6 hours earlier than the adults.
They reached the capital alongside Lucius, Elizabeth, Sebastian, the maids, and his soldiers who were riding horses.
Chief Gregory stayed behind to lead the police in guarding the crash site.
Archid, who Lucius had patched up after Elizabeth had fainted a few days prior, was also brought alongside Lucius to the capital. Afterwards, he would be sent back to the Storm Fortress with the soldiers under him. It seemed that Lucius' torture session had broken Archid's mind, and he has now regressed into having a child-like mind.
The capital's citizens were surprised upon seeing the numerous human children brought by Lucius in multiple carriages. The citizens were mostly curious of the strange clothing they wore.
Moreover, some of the children weren't human, and were consisting of various alien races. Seeing them, the citizens were genuinely horrified.
They remembered the various tales of demons they had often heard in the church.