Interstellar Age

It had been nearly three months since Erich first was deployed to the Lutharian Ascendancy. And during this time, his young wife had decided that she could no longer sit idly by and let her marriage to continue in its deterioration.

There was only one way that Erika knew of that could earn forgiveness from her husband and that was to reacquaint the man with his mother. After all, from what she knew about Erich, the only person he was ever really close to in life was his mother.

Thus, for the past few months, Erika had been travelling aboard a civilian ship towards the world of Alfheim, where her husband's family currently lived in exile. After all, the previous politicians of the Germanic Star-Empire had been exiled after fleeing from their nation's borders during the Terminus War. If they ever returned to their homeland, they would be arrested and executed for treason.

The journey to the Alfheim homeworld was a long one. After all, the borders of the Germanic Star-Empire lied far away from the capital of their Suzerains. But after finally arriving on Alfheim, Erika was astonished to see just how advanced the world was.

Unlike the Germanic Star-Empire, which still required human labor in critical jobs, the Alfheim Dominion was entirely automated, leaving its people to pursue their own desires. Despite being an Imperial State, the Alfheim Dominion was a fairly liberal place based on the principles of free will and expression.

Many things that were illegal in the borders of the Empire were commonplace in the Alfheim Dominion, such as homosexual couples, drugs, pornography, and even a few interspecies relationships. While it was still taboo for the Asterion Dynasty to engage in exogamy, this practice was not limited to a certain sub-species of the Light Elven race. Many of which found comfort in the arms of alien lovers, from those species they found to be most attractive.

Erika recoiled in disgust when she saw these couples, which would be the common reaction of her people, before quickly making her way to the residence of her in-laws. When she finally knocked on the door to the luxurious mansion, she felt as if her heart was about to explode from anxiety.

That is, until a stunning blonde haired and blue-eyed woman with an exceptionally curvy figure opened the door. Krista gazed upon her daughter-in-law and broke out into tears as she hugged the young woman before expressing her shock.

"Erika! My precious daughter-in-law? What are you doing here? Is Erich with you?"

Erika felt a bit guilty after hearing the woman's question. But she managed to slowly shake her head. No Erich was not here with her, and there was a very good reason for this. Still, she was surprised that Krista knew about their relationship, and thus she could not help but voice this astonishment.

"You know about my marriage to your son?"

Krista looked slightly offended as she released herself from the embrace which she had over the pink-haired beauty and pouted.

"Of course I do! We may be exiled, but it is not as if we don't follow the major events happening in the Empire. I am so proud of my son, while his bastard of a father fled from the borders of the Empire along with his duties to the state!

My son took the initiative to fight and defend our homeland against those damned bugs! He even became a war hero through his actions! And got to marry a beautiful and talented young woman such as yourself. Oh, but where are my manners? Please, come in!"

It was very clear by Krista's words that she, too, was not on good terms with her husband, at least not currently. And thus she felt a little more at ease around the woman, as Krista could empathize with her plight.

Erika was led indoors, where she quickly entered the living room after being dragged to it by Krista. While the oldest of Erich's younger citizens had graduated from High School and started their own families long before Terminus arrived at their borders. There were still several children lying about who were in their teenage or pre-teen years. They all stared at Erika in disbelief. After all, several of these kids had grown up as fans of her music.

Yet Krista stared at her sons and daughters with a furious expression, all of whom were about to surround Erika. When they witnessed their mother's fearsome gaze, they sunk back into their seats, not daring to move an inch forward.

Krista did not even bother introducing her children to her daughter-in-law, and instead led the woman to the dining room table, where she was quick to ask if Erika required any refreshments.

"My oh my, it must have been a long journey. Do you require anything? How about some nice hot tea? Or maybe some snacks? You do not need to worry about asking, we may be surrounded by a bunch of filthy aliens, but there is nothing we want for here on Alfheim. I guess that's the sole positive thing about being exiled to this wretched planet..."

There was a visible look of disgust on Krista's face, one which Erika intimately understood, and thus she was quick to voice her requests.

"I suppose I wouldn't mind a cup of coffee, and maybe some cheese and crackers?"

Krista smiled when she heard this, and quickly got to work on these refreshments, before asking her daughter-in-law how her son had been.

"So how has Erich been? I suppose he is currently deployed, and you decided to use this time to finally visit your in-laws. I haven't seen that poor boy in years. His damned father is to blame. After I snuck out to see my son's graduation from the Naval Academy, that bastard has kept me under strict supervision. Even after everything that coward has done, he still condemns our son over that petty matter...."

Erika naturally knew what her mother-in-law was referring to and was quite nervous as she was handed a cup of coffee. But she felt as if she did not speak about her problems now, then she would never be able to voice them, and thus she just came outright and said what she was thinking.

"That's actually why I am here... Erich doesn't know that I came to visit, nor would he even care.... Our marriage is a sham, he does not even speak to me, even when he is home, he just sits on the beach and drinks beer. I can barely get a word in without him walking right past me...."

There was a worried look on Krista's pretty face, as she quickly handed the cheese and crackers to the girl, while holding her hand for comfort. She then was quick to empathize with Erika's plight with a soft tone in her voice.

"I'm really sorry to hear that, sweetheart. But Erich should not hold you responsible for what happened. While you may have reposted that image which he was foolish enough to put on his social media, it was his own damn fault for uploading the thing in the first place!

And besides, my bastard of a husband was just looking for an excuse to disown Erich. If it was not that image with the Oni woman, then it would have been the videos of the fights he got into at school. After all, that fiend has never considered Erich to be his son, simply because he was born slightly different from the norm.

I wish there was something I could do to help you, but I'm afraid I am stuck here in exile along with my other children.... Oh, how I long to see my precious baby boy's handsome face one last time…"

This news caused Erika to react in confusion as she looked at Krista with disbelief. Did this woman seriously not know? There was a bit of an inflection in the pink-haired beauty's voice as she explained the truth to her mother-in-law.

"But... You're not exiled, and neither are your children. Supreme Leader Emeric au Emrys has declared that the wives and families of the cowardly politicians who abandoned the Empire to its fate have no responsibility for the actions of their husbands and fathers. Only your husband would be arrested and executed if he returned to the Empire.

You and your children are free to return to your normal lives whenever you see fit. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't already! After all, Alemannia has already been terraformed into a habitable state. And the Empire is close to finishing the reconstruction of its defenses. They are even supposed to be more powerful than ever before!"

This news astonished Krista, who was in the middle of cutting a slice of cheese for her daughter-in-law. The knife slipped and ended up cutting an enormous chunk out of the wedge. Though Krista did not seem to notice this, because her hands were absolutely trembling, while a fog had overcome her eyes. She kept mumbling something under her breath, which increasingly became louder until Erika could finally understand it.

"That devious bastard! He lied to me! He lied to us all!"

It became abundantly clear to Erika that Erich's father had lied to his family in order to keep them by his side. Even if they were absolutely miserable in the Alfheim Dominion. She then averted her gaze, not wanting to be responsible for whatever rampage Krista went on after finding the truth.

However, Krista quickly calmed herself after taking some deep breaths. She then got up from her seat and grabbed her coat, which was sitting on a rack. Her next words shocked Erika as much as it did the woman's children.

"Come, children, we are leaving this degenerate world behind and returning to the Empire. It would appear that your father has been lying to us all this entire time!"

At first, the children did not believe their ears, but when they saw that their mother had already begun to pack up their belongings, they did not hesitate to do the same. If their bastard of a father had truly been lying to them about their exile this entire time, then whatever love they still had for him was now officially dead and gone.

Erika suddenly realized that she had just caused her mother-in-law to separate from her husband, and permanently at that. To which she felt a little guilty.…