On another timeline, the Enlighteners' Eighth Star Gate had opened ten years after the New Shenzhou Republic had been formally founded and adopted its constitution.
Those ten years had also been a period of prosperity and growth for the New Shenzhou Republic. The founders had presented the Gaia planet in the Tianshu system to Empress Brunhild. Though it could be seen as selling out their country, from a purely realistic perspective, it had been a stroke of genius. The vast investments sent over by the Empire became vital nourishment for the planet's infrastructure development.
Empress Brunhild personally named that planet Ival, making it a sacred world and a base for developing occult resources.
The name came from an elven hall in Tirrillan mythology, and it suited everyone's aesthetic sensibilities perfectly.
Afterward, large numbers of spiritually attuned plants and animals were gradually relocated to the planet, forming an ecosystem that seemed like a dream kingdom out of myth. Of course, many specialist departments were moved there as well, along with experts and psychics with plenty of spending power. This, in turn, boosted the development of industries throughout the country.
Thus, by the tenth year after the founding of the New Shenzhou Republic, this newly established country, despite its modest size, had become the wealthiest among the nations of Earth born from the Commonwealth's ashes.
...At least, its GDP per capita was indeed the highest. So were its life expectancy, civilizational development index, and infrastructure index.
Compared with such prosperity and abundance, giving the Empress a planet they lacked the financial and material resources to develop themselves seemed a price well worth paying.
Besides, what else could they have done? The Galactic Empire might not send troops to some remote region over one or two naturally habitable planets, but a sacred world