It was only when they stopped briefly at the Mistletoe Spaceport that Lei Ting learned the escort fleet and small transport ships had another mission: to ferry critically wounded soldiers who could no longer serve on the front lines, along with stranded merchants, to safer sectors in the rear. There, planets would be waiting to receive them.
Due to the inherent difficulties of interstellar transportation—which remained complex even with the support of stargates and warp technology—most large political entities within the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere were not monolithic blocks. Generally, federations operated through regional autonomy, while empires utilized a pseudo-feudal system; essentially, everyone suffered from the tyranny of distance.
Of course, the Federation—and indeed, every major power—was currently attempting to master true "hyperspace teleportation technology" based on quantum entanglement theory. Such technology could effectively make spatial distance irrelevant.
But it was difficult. Everyone knew how difficult it was. Because these projects were aimed at both military and civilian applications from their inception, simply transmitting a bit of data or a few sheets of paper meant nothing.
Lei Ting leaned alone against the edge of the spaceport’s observation tower, staring blankly as he listened to the bustling noise below.
Some were rejoicing at the fact that they could finally "get away from the war zone!" Others were muttering quietly about why they hadn't been provided with better security forces. Still others were marveling at the formidable power of "that man"—himself, Lei Ting.
When he had acted earlier, he had expanded his psionic field to an unprecedented scale. Consequently, the people at the spaceport had also seen him and received the buff of his energy.
While that still wasn't his limit, to ordinary people, the power to briefly manifest a sun in the deep void without causing any friendly fire was already approaching the level of a god. After all, given his current power level... if he wished, he could leave a mark so profound on any planetary civilization’s religion that he could establish a monotheistic faith.
But right now, Lei Ting didn't want to think about their praise.
He simply leaned in a daze against the spot where Mediator Ruo had told him "Evenheiler used to space out back then." Looking at the front half of the distinctively H-shaped spaceport, he realized that for the first time in his life, he truly wanted to "go back" somewhere.
It was a hollow feeling in his chest, a sensation that made him clearly aware he was longing to head in a specific direction.
This feeling was very new to him, incredibly new...
So new that as he spent this brief rest period emptying his mind, a flash of beautiful blue would occasionally flicker in his thoughts.
A drizzling of subtle emotions welled up from the depths of his heart. He knew that he had probably, likely, roughly—alright, he had definitely fallen.
The man who once could have offered a friendly "I don't do romance" to anyone had fallen for a guy more than twice his age, and he had fallen hard.
Lei Ting suddenly let out a short laugh.
Even if loneliness could not shake him, he liked this feeling of having someone to care about.
"Hey, why do you guys think Brother Lei is smiling so sweetly?" a voice drifted from not far away. "He couldn't be in love, could he?"
...It was Sandro’s voice. He had been there for a while. Susanna and the others were with him; a moment ago, they had been lost in their own thoughts, but now they were frantically gesturing for the guy to shut up.
This bunch...
Lei Ting’s eye twitched. Maintaining the smile on his face, he slowly turned his head. "Is something the matter?"
"Yes!" Sandro hopped out cheerfully from behind the tactical barrier where they had been hiding. "Brother Lei, we’ve been transferred into your squad! Also, is your partner good-looking?"
What kind of weird phrasing was that... and those two topics had absolutely nothing to do with each other, did they?
Lei Ting didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Is your brain full of rabbits? And yes, they are good-looking."
"Oh, so you're not in a rel— wait, I knew..." As Sandro spoke, he suddenly froze.
"Wait, uh..." He, along with Susanna and Lucas beside him, maintained a highly synchronized expression of utter shock. "Knew... kn—..."
"I said, he is very good-looking."
Lei Ting smiled, revealing his canines. The grin gave him a youthful air that suited his age but contrasted sharply with his status and power.
"Gah..." "Hah..." "Ah... uh, uh...??"
The sounds the group made—including the usually calm and taciturn Susanna—sounded like a nest of strangled ducks.
At this moment, the person who appeared most composed was actually Luo Xi'an. Ever since he had successfully ground Luo Mu into the dirt back then, he had developed a strangely Zen-like sense of enlightenment. The group hadn't seen him show any major emotional fluctuations for nearly a year.
Except for when someone tried to feed him something he didn't like.
Finally, Lucas was the first to react. He raised a hand and said, "No, wait, wait..." He paused. "...That person is male? An Omega?"
"Mm-hmm." Lei Ting tilted his head and raised an eyebrow noncommittally.
Despite saying this, he resisted the urge to call Lucas "nephew." This was likely a sign that he was more mature than his peers... probably.
"Seeing you look so radiant really hurts my feelings..." Lucas, who was well-known for having pursued him, quietly drifted to the back.
Sandro and Susanna exchanged a knowing look before the two of them walked toward Lei Ting. The former looked into those eyes, which were as black as an abyss, and said slowly, "Enan Valen?"
"You're as sharp as ever." Lei Ting laughed.
"So you're just admitting it?" Sandro frowned. "Aren't you afraid... someone might hurt him?"
"I acknowledge this feeling; that is exactly why the Federation must protect him," Lei Ting said candidly. "Besides... I’ve fallen for someone, and I harbor 'nefarious' intentions toward him. Is that something I shouldn't say?"
"I think the second half is definitely something you shouldn't say..." Sandro quipped as he and Susanna leaned against the railing. "The view here really is great."
"Indeed." The others who had followed them over nodded in agreement, lining up on either side of Lei Ting.
Lei Ting smiled as he watched the merchants below loading goods in preparation for evacuation. He casually asked the group, "So, what are you guys actually here for?"
"Hehe..."
The group had finally been waiting for this question. They all looked at each other.
"Close your eyes first," Sandro said.
"...?" Lei Ting blinked. "You know that closing my eyes is meaningless to me."
Perfect. That one sentence struck them all silent. *Tsk. Is being strong in psionic power that great?*
"Just close your eyes anyway!" Lucas said crossly.
A bit bewildered, Lei Ting lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Then, something light was placed on his head. One hand held a sweet-smelling little thing in front of him, while another reached out... after a ripple of psionic energy, a warm sensation spread.
Lei Ting instinctively opened his eyes.
He saw Susanna holding a palm-sized little cake with a small, eco-friendly candle—scavenged from who-knows-where—stuck in the top. Luo Mu’s hand, which had just finished lighting it, was pulling back. Seeing that he had been caught, a stiff awkwardness appeared on the guy's face; he quickly hid his hand and looked away.
No one nearby laughed at him.
Since certain things had been cleared up, everyone knew this guy wasn't actually bad at heart. The reason he used to constantly provoke Luo Xi'an wasn't actually his own fault, but because...
Because Luo Xi'an was the child his father had fathered through an affair while his mother was pregnant, and both of their mothers had died in the same accidental disaster.
To the Luo Mu of previous years, Luo Xi'an's existence was a scar—it still was, actually, but he had realized that the root of all the problems wasn't Luo Xi'an's mother, who had been young, naive, and deceived by an Alpha into thinking he wasn't married. It was his father, who always remained aloof from family disputes.
Of course, the harm he had caused Luo Xi'an over those years was very real, but those were internal issues between the two of them.
Looking at it now, the two were handling these issues reasonably well...
...At the very least, everyone's combat skills had significantly improved, and Luo Mu had learned how to hold back against opponents in a fight. If he retired later, he might even become a professional combat coach.
Now, in the windless heights of the spaceport, Luo Mu quietly suppressed his presence. Lei Ting, however, was staring at the little cake and the tiny flame dancing on the candle, looking a bit dazed.
To prevent him from noticing, these people had even specifically had Susanna carry the cake and candle...
"It was an emergency, we couldn't get anything better," Susanna said calmly. "Why don't you just make do with this?"
"..." Lei Ting smiled helplessly.
He didn't say anything. Instead, following one of the small cultural traditions passed down for millennia among the people of Orion, he pressed his palms together and closed his eyes. Wearing the cartoonish golden paper crown—heaven knows who had cut it out—he made a wish toward the flame.
Then, he opened his eyes and blew out the flame in one breath.
"Happy Birthday!!" everyone cheered.
Lei Ting also laughed, relaxed and at ease. He took the little cake from Susanna, pulled out the candle, and with a sense of ceremony, used a temporarily transformed cake knife to slice the tiny cake—which was smaller than the knife's handle—into pieces, giving one to everyone.
After the distribution, each young person only got a single bite's worth. They laughed as they ate it, savoring the sweet aroma, and leaned back against the railing.
Without the obstruction of an atmosphere, the distant stars did not twinkle. A clear darkness surrounded them, with occasional flashes of light erupting in the gaps between nebulae...
That was the ceaseless light of the war front, reaching Mistletoe.
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