"Alright," Lei Ting replied.
Valen, who had been ready to launch into a "I have a friend..." speech to introduce the chaotic internal state of the Seventh Legion, was nearly choked by the sudden cutoff. "...What?"
"I said, alright. Then I won't go," Lei Ting said. He copied a rejection template provided by 'Pacific' and sent it directly to the Seventh Legion's human resources department.
The other party replied in seconds with a: 【Understood. We wish you a bright future.】 It was almost like a tragic HR representative on a recruitment app being rejected.
"..." Valen stared at him in a daze.
A moment later, he gave a helpless laugh. "Do you have any idea how easy it would be to scam you?"
"Is that so?" Lei Ting blinked playfully, a smile playing on his lips. "Would you scam me? If so, go ahead."
Valen gave a cold snort, letting the comment pass.
Lei Ting was the kind of person who would considerately play along if you joked with him. If you said something stupid, he would treat you with tolerance. But if you committed some public atrocity, or tried to deceive him on matters he hadn't marked as 'tolerable'...
...Then you were finished. He would get serious with you.
Dead serious.
And both of them knew it.
"This kind of deliberate sweet talk won't work on me. You must have confirmed through other means that the Seventh Legion is no good." Valen crossed his arms. "Tell me."
"I sat in the dormitory lounge for a while earlier and noticed many people claiming they would be joining the Seventh Legion.
"Some of them explicitly stated they used connections, and while others didn't say it outright, I imagine that given the Federation's way of doing things, they shouldn't have received formal recruitment invitations faster than I did."
Lei Ting spoke while twirling a sharp, triangular chromium spike between his fingers. Its smooth facets gleamed under the lights, his expression thoughtful.
"So, the question arises," he said softly. "It's just a recruit internship, yet so many are taking 'shortcuts'... I find it hard to believe that a frontier legion corrupt to such a degree would be a suitable place for me. I can't control the choices of others, but I have to look out for myself."
Indeed, he didn't know the internal details. He could only say the Seventh Legion wasn't necessarily 'bad,' but it certainly 'wasn't the most suitable' for him.
As for those classmates... he couldn't demand they follow his own code of conduct. He knew very well that not everyone could live the way he did.
"Have you considered that the First Legion might not be any cleaner?" Valen curled his lip. "Don't put your faith in the Federation's major legions... those things are rotten to the core.
"However, your choice isn't bad. The Seventh Legion used to be Horn Morin's territory; now it's Angye's. It's one of the most severely decayed among the old-guard legions. Meanwhile, the First Legion reports directly to the Speaker himself. Commander Valiana is decent enough—at least she hasn't rotted to that extent."
"That's enough for me," Lei Ting said.
Valen narrowed his eyes slightly. "What are your... thoughts on the corruption within the legions under Angye?"
"When I learned that the man who nearly killed me at the start..." Lei Ting pondered the name. "Uh... Bunker? Anyway, that guy... When I found out he was one of Angye's people, I knew Angye couldn't be a good person. And wherever his influence spreads, nothing good will grow."
"..." Valen looked at Lei Ting with some surprise. "I thought you wouldn't be so tolerant of it."
"I'm not," Lei Ting said softly. "But this is the only choice I can make."
"Why?"
"There will surely be great upheavals in the future." Lei Ting's gaze drifted toward the distance, though he was only looking at a painting on the wall. "...I need power. All the power I can get. Only then can I stand firm in the coming flood."
He said this, and only this. He didn't delve deeper, nor did he tell Valen that he needed a way to intervene in Federation internal affairs, to master human resources, and to gain legal firing rights within the borders.
The Orion Human Federation was a political organization similar to a 'United States.' Its territory spanned two-thirds of the Orion Arm, but its population wasn't vast, and its borders were particularly sparse. Consequently, a massive amount of criminal activity flourished around the borderlines, and some legions that patrolled the frontiers long-term were heavily corrupted.
And Lei Ting vaguely remembered...
...That was the reason the protagonist of the 'original work' became an orphan.
Furthermore, this 'orphan' hadn't just lost a single household; he was... an orphan who had lost an entire planet.
Such occurrences didn't seem to be isolated cases.
Now, Lei Ting possessed infinite future possibilities, a strength so great that no one could ignore his words, and a legitimate identity that allowed him to change everything from within.
He wanted to try a transformation from the inside out. Even if patching things up was harder than tearing them down and starting over, he didn't want to prioritize escalating conflicts.
Because no matter what, when war broke out, the first to suffer would never be those sitting in offices spouting grand rhetoric.
*Whether the empire rises or falls, the common people always suffer.* Those words weren't just for show.
"Let's not talk about that," Lei Ting smiled. "Enan, you just said deliberate sweet talk doesn't work on you... so, does that mean unintentional sweet talk *does* work?"
"That's a separate matter," Valen replied coldly, his eyes fixed on the holographic interface of his optical computer as he browsed the Star Net.
Lei Ting ground his teeth. Having twenty fewer years of life experience than the other man was a disadvantage; almost everything he could say and every joke he could make had already been anticipated.
Since the day they reached their 'friendship agreement,' he had never seen Enan Valen lose his composure again. Even though they had introduced their pasts to each other, he always felt that Valen remained 'mysterious' to him.
It was a mystery born of effortless poise—one that was both fascinating and frustrating.
Lei Ting silently stared at the other man's blue eyes, which were slightly unfocused as he read the news. After a long while, he suddenly snapped back to his senses, realizing he had been staring entranced.
But it was fine; Valen hadn't noticed.
Lei Ting quietly withdrew his gaze, stood up, and stretched. Valen's focus naturally converged on him, looking past the eyepiece and light screen to watch Lei Ting, appreciating his fine physique without any pretense of hiding it.
When Lei Ting casually summoned his custom uniform from by the door and put it on, Valen even let out a soft sigh, like a collector watching a famous painting being covered in canvas and taken to someone else's warehouse—a masterpiece obscured, never to see the light of day again.
Lei Ting was practically laughed into a temper by that sigh. "Enan, what are you looking at?"
"Looking at something easy on the eyes," Valen answered nonchalantly. "What? Not allowed?"
"Fine, fine, look all you want. If you really want to, I'll take a photo book and send it to you later so you can look at your leisure." Lei Ting waved his hand helplessly. "I have class soon, I'm heading out..."
"Take care, I won't see you out." Valen, openly slacking off during work hours, didn't even look up as he raised his half-glass of juice toward him. "If you do take photos, remember to wear fewer clothes. None at all would be best—just remember to keep them confidential."
"Hey, you..."
Lei Ting had almost grown accustomed to this outrageous way of speaking now that they were familiar. Reason told him to ignore the comment, so he silently closed the door and strode away.
Naturally, he didn't know that after he left, Valen—who had looked like a cold, heartless machine—suddenly slumped. He wiped his face with one hand, using his cool fingers to chill the tips of his ears, which were flushed deep red beneath his mid-length black hair.
"Doesn't dress properly, and keeps staring at people..." he muttered through gritted teeth. "A grown man acting like that, honestly..."
***
The military-grade transport ship from the First Legion had a very cool design. Its sharp-edged geometric form didn't take things like wind resistance into account, because it didn't need to—it was a pure spacecraft, the kind that never touched the ground.
Before ending his studies for the semester and boarding the ship directly from the space elevator at the academy gates, Lei Ting saw Valen come to see him off. This made him one of the few students who had someone other than just friends to say goodbye. The others were those who met both criteria: 'family is in the Capital System' and 'family loves them enough to apply for academy gate access just to see their child off.'
...Oh, and perhaps a third criteria: 'not from a poor background.'
In any case, when Lei Ting smiled and turned back to wave at the crowd, his friends all waved back. But when he waved toward the non-faculty/student passage, Valen was caught off guard and stared at by everyone. He then turned and left without staying a second longer amidst the students' meaningful "Ooooohs."
Good. Revenge achieved. You looked quite nice fleeing in a panic, Uncle.
Sorry, I'll do it again next time.
After boarding, a curious classmate asked Lei Ting about his relationship with "that very handsome manager from 'Far Light Fine Materials'." Lei Ting frankly replied, "We're friends—at least for now."
"Just friends?" The other person's face lit up. "But how come I heard you once flew into a rage for the sake of a beauty and beat up that Crown Prince Yalin for him..."
Lei Ting: "..."
Lei Ting: "?"
"That never happened. At most, it was a confrontation." Lei Ting didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "We really are friends. Friends who are getting to know each other."
"Oooooh—" The crowd let out more meaningful sounds, their expressions so rich it looked like they had just mentally composed a 180-episode drama about the love and hatred between a dashing Alpha and a beautiful Beta.
Lei Ting coldly decided to ignore them.
...
The seating arrangement of a military transport was different from the hall-style of civilian ships. It was divided into ten small internal cabins, each holding ten people. They sat in groups of five, facing each other, secured into blast-proof, shock-absorbing seats by buckles. Under normal conditions, they were managed by the ship's AI; in emergencies where the AI failed, each seat had its own manual emergency mechanism.
Beside the seats were mounting points for standard weapons, light equipment, and personal item compression canisters. There were partitions between each seat. Once the ship launched, a repulsor barrier would activate between the partitions, completely sealing the soldiers inside.
During transit, the ship's AI would assess each soldier's personal state and issue corresponding behavioral requirements to ensure the upcoming mission went as smoothly as possible.
Of course, these students were only going on a mission; they had neither standard weapons nor behavioral requirements. Everyone simply followed instructions to turn off and hand over their personal optical computer units before finding their seats. They watched as the repulsor barriers instantly took shape.
Within that transparent, bluish barrier, Lei Ting saw someone sitting diagonally across from him.
It was Luo Xi'an, looking deeply troubled.
***
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Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 45 | A Choice of Legions | Novela.app | Novela.app
