Cassian inserted the encrypted chip into his watch. A holographic letter materialized above the watch's display.
"What is this?"
Even without the girl's answer, Cassian understood everything when he read the letter that had been delivered to him in such a manner.
"This is the compensation list."
"Compensation for what?"
"Stop getting louder. Of course, this is compensation for you leaving silently and forgetting this engagement ever happened."
"This..."
Cassian was at a loss for words. Why was this happening to him? Although she hadn't said it openly, she was asking for the nullification of their engagement!
In the Star Union, it was much easier to become engaged to someone. In fact, their grandparents had decided on this engagement without their permission when they were little.
Breaking the engagement was much harder, as it required permission from both parties involved.
There was also a way to forcefully break it, but it was rarely used as it required the party that wanted to break the engagement to give over half of their family's wealth to the other party.
These laws were a little absurd, but it was said that they were made by the strongest person across the stars.
That person had long since died, but the Empire he had established still ensured that no one could break the laws established by the founding Emperor, not even the current Emperor.
There were even a few stories about why the Founding Emperor made this absurd law. It was said that this was because he had been abandoned by his fiancée when he was considered weak and useless.
He had never forgotten that insult, so he had included this law amongst the various laws that he had left for future generations. The collected laws were called the Code of Stars.
This law, in particular, was to at least ensure that a person who had lost everything wouldn't be left by the greedy family of their other half. If that did happen, they could at least gain some capital for their future journey.
Unfortunately, there was one problem with the law. What would happen if a family simply had the other party in the engagement killed instead of breaking the engagement?
The founding Emperor had also considered this, and that's why there was a subsection in this law.
If a fiancé died before the two sides could be married, then half the wealth that was to go to the fiance in case of a broken engagement was to go to charity.
The family could have them married and then kill the husband or wife. But subsection two also considered this.
If that happened, then the Empire's law enforcement would get involved personally to investigate.
If any suspicious points were found, the entire wealth was to be confiscated by the Empire. Even the family was going to be punished.
Although the Space Unions and Magical Kingdoms possessed a lot of strength, even they had to follow the Empire's will.
There were many unions, planets, species, and Kingdoms across the vast universe. But there was only one Empire, and there was a reason for that. It was overwhelming strength.
"You want me to break off the engagement?" Cassian directly asked. "Why now? It surely can't be because I'm being exiled? Your family couldn't care the least about it with their influence. Then why?"
"You don't need to know. Just tell me if you agree or not. Don't think that you will get our wealth if you wait for us to force it. Because if you force us, we might actually prefer to give it to charity."
"Is that a threat?"
Cassian covered his face with his palm. She had never expected to see this side of her. Even though there was barely any love between them, he thought that it was only a matter of time.
He had never expected her to talk about his death without even flinching.
The compensation that was offered to him wasn't bad. It included crew members that would permanently work for him. It was as if the terms were planned specifically keeping his expulsion and need in mind.
There were even a few Imperial Coins, but it was barely a few months of income for his previous position. With that family's wealth, offering this compensation felt like they were giving some alms to a beggar.
They knew that he was going to be desperate at a time like this, so they didn't care in the least. As long as he was a Union Member, he could at least maintain his lifestyle and safety.
Even if he had lost his crew, he could at least stay in the Union Station until he found a new crew from the Union or outside.
Now that he was banished, he didn't have that luxury. He had to leave this place without twenty four hours or risk being arrested.
"Was your family behind this expulsion?"
His voice was accompanied with a self deprecating laughter. He had always felt that the Union was trying to find excuses to deal with him. But he had never given them an opportunity like this.
"And here I was wondering, why was I given such a high profile mission despite my track record. It was all your doing as well, right?"
Everything was as clear as day before his eyes. Why else would his crew get hired the same day, when there were so many technicalities involved?
"Stop accusing everyone for your failure. Just accept the compensation and leave. It's better for us all."
Cassian really wanted to ask her why she was doing all this. If she had just asked him in the past to break the engagement, he would've happily done this. Did they really take him for a greedy bastard that would be after their wealth?
For them to go this far, was it simply because of this? Although it didn't feel right, he had no other explanation.
His disappointment soon turned into amusement. He was amused at his own stupidity that he hadn't seen this coming. There were so many signs now that he thought about it. He had missed them all.
He couldn't control his laughter and burst out, covering his face with his palm.
"You're embarrassing me! Stop laughing like a maniac! Everyone is looking here!" Talia's lips twitched, but Cassian didn't stop.
He simply pulled out the encrypted chip with the list of compensation.
He grabbed the girl's hand, and placed the chip in her fair palm. "Tell your grandfather to kill me if he's really that eager. Because I... will not be signing anything."
He walked past the girl, leaving his words echoing in her ears.
"You will regret it!" Talia didn't even look back at Cassian as she retorted.
"Then let me."
Cassian entered his ship, and the metallic floor slid up, closing the entrance.