“And then, I came back,” Lei Ting said.
His expression was calm as he sat upright, hands resting on his knees. His gaze fell upon a cup of relaxing hot beverage on the table before him. It had been served over half an hour ago, but the constant-temperature cup kept it at a perfect, warm state for drinking. The rising steam gently carried a sweet aroma, slightly blurring the deep, cold lines of his features.
“You came back...” Valianna slowly turned her head to look out the window.
In the darkness of deep space, the starships of the First Legion hovered around a modest, barren planet. Shuttles darted back and forth between the two, transporting Phlow prisoners or seized technical equipment. Of course, the greatest "spoils" of this war was a 'Deep Space Stealth Planetary Weapon'... or rather, four and a half pieces of one.
It had been brought back... no, it should be said that Lei Ting had "carried" it back.
He had brought it back torn in half.
This was likely the most valuable "souvenir" the Federation had received since its founding. But Valianna wasn't happy at all.
“Do you know? Before I came here, I heard people saying you should be fitted with shackles and a controller... because you tore apart a planetary weapon with a modification level of less than 50%, dug nearly a million living people out of it, locked them in a metal cage, and brought them back to the Federation. Then, you took those four broken pieces of the planetary structure and threw them at the Federation border, artistically embedding them into the same planet.”
Valianna said softly, “If that thing had hit any habitable planet, it would have caused a mass extinction event. The kind that even weather modification stabilizers couldn't fix.”
“But I didn't hurt a single person,” Lei Ting replied mildly.
“The Phlow people you tore to shreds might disagree.”
“They were the enemy.”
“And the students you’ve given mild claustrophobia by locking them up?”
“They aren't ‘students,’ they are ‘newly commissioned officers,’” Lei Ting’s gaze was gentle and indulgent. “Compared to death, I believe a bit of negligible psychological trauma is nothing.”
“What a joke.” Valianna let out a cold laugh. “If someone locked you in a lightless cage like a pet until you developed claustrophobia, would you still say the same? ‘He did it for my own good—to prevent my death’?”
“A fallacy. I won't develop ‘claustrophobia.’ Because I will never suffer from any mental illness.” Lei Ting’s gaze remained mild. “I know the Federation fears me... they always have, haven't they? So, they are free to continue fearing me. But I will do my utmost to protect their safety in the waves to come... I have already learned how to make choices.”
“...”
Valianna closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“...Then, why do you let them fear you?” she asked slowly.
“Why not?” Lei Ting countered. “If I didn't let them, would they stop fearing me, stop being wary, or stop doing stupid things out of that pointless fear and wariness?”
He began to laugh. This was the first time he had smiled during this six-hour conversation, and the first time he had smiled since returning to this astronomical position a week ago.
“It’s only today that I’ve realized some things aren't beyond my capability; it’s just that I always worried too much, had too many concerns... to the point where everyone could see my value, and everyone dared to try and... ‘treasure hunt,’ or do something else.”
As he spoke, Lei Ting seemed to return to his former self—that steady, reliable, and composed persona. But when he turned to look at the primary star of this system in the distance, and those eyes—which had not lost their brilliant golden glow since his return—shifted away, Valianna felt a rare sensation of having narrowly escaped death.
The last time she had felt this way was a century ago on the battlefield, when she had crawled into the depths of a trench clutching her own severed arm while heavy artillery outside dug the ground dozens of centimeters deep.
“Do you know, Commander Valianna?” Lei Ting suddenly turned back, nearly making her lose her breath. “I realized a long time ago that I would have to live through a... turmoil that affects the entire galaxy, a battlefield spanning the stars. But I always had a very, very, very small wish.”
“...” Valianna’s face remained calm. “What wish?”
What wish?
Lei Ting lowered his head, looking at the constant-temperature drink.
—To survive the coming crisis of upheaval.
—For himself and his friends to live happily.
—For everything in sight to get better and better.
Was that a ‘small wish’?
Was it ‘really’ a ‘small wish’?
In the end, he did not answer Valianna’s question. He simply stood up and stretched. His form suddenly blurred and then vanished from the spot, leaving only a faint, slightly warmed golden glow in the air.
Valianna stood up abruptly, and ‘Champion’ roared as it smashed through the floor beside her to reach her hand.
But she could no longer find that young man—the young man who now permanently carried the undisguised ‘New Sun’ upon him, with three data cards hanging from a fine golden chain at his waist.
Only then did she realize with a start that he had traversed space—he had established a stable connection with the Void Plane.
However, according to the detection and analysis of the technical team that arrived later, his method of spatial transfer was extremely safe, lacking the instability of ‘Void Shifting.’
It was as stable as ‘standing still.’
Valianna sat back in her seat. She recalled the scene she saw when she first arrived: a figure flying out of the star’s corona, the heavy sword on his back already completely different from the form it had when she first gave it to him. The gemstone atop it shimmered with golden light, bearing no trace of its original appearance.
Just like the figure of the young man who had drifted down into the fleet, looking down at them amidst burning golden flames.
“...Dammit,” she muttered under her breath. “‘No mental illness’?”
—I think you’ve been damn well out of your mind from the very beginning...!!
***
When Lei Ting returned to the Capital System, the clear sky was filled with projections of flowers, fireworks, ribbons, and other gaudy trifles.
Civilian ships following the tradition of welcoming returning soldiers were everywhere, but under the order maintained by the Police Department, they managed to clear a path for the fleet.
Angye said the Federation wanted him to cooperate with propaganda as a new generation ‘Pillar’ to stabilize the situation; this was likely one of the ways the Council was showing its submission to him. Thus, Lei Ting stood for a while on the bridge of the starship, whose hull had been adjusted to transparent mode, nodding with a flat expression amidst the increasingly garish projections.
He didn't know who he was nodding to.
Regardless, of those who could look at his expression without fear and who should have been standing by his side, only two remained...
One was Lucas, who was still in a coma, and the other was Susanna, who had undergone half-body cybernetic reconstruction after emergency treatment. Neither would come to the bridge, for a long scar now ran across Lucas’s beautiful face, and Susanna now lived within her armor.
But physical injuries seemed like nothing compared to the psychological wounds—the former had lost his best friend, Luo Xiyan, and the latter had lost half of her soul.
As for Lei Ting, he seemed to have lost something too...
...What was it?
...In any case, the greenery at the Academy Headquarters was better maintained. When he arrived, Shaen was sweeping the botanical garden, so he began to sweep the botanical garden as well.
There were 48,851 when they set out; there were 9,092 when they returned. The classmates he once spent every day with didn't even number ten thousand, so sweeping the botanical garden was particularly difficult—after all, it was truly too large.
After finishing the garden, he didn't go to the Principal’s ‘office,’ because ‘she’ came out and gave him a cold embrace.
Neither of them spoke. One was because they were used to it, the other because they knew they had to get used to it.
Later, Lei Ting accepted a media interview arranged by the Federation, reciting his speech with a flat and gentle expression.
By the time the edited recording was broadcast across the entire Star Net, he had come to the ‘Waterdrop Garden’ alone.
After nearly two months, he had returned here once more.
Valen was not in the apartment. Everything in the apartment was exactly as it had been the day he left. The food still emitted a faint aroma inside containers that kept it warm, fresh, and isolated from bacterial dust, but the extraction fluids and toolkits had disappeared.
On the table sat the fruit basket he used to prepare for Valen every day; half of it had been eaten. He could still recall the way that mature, handsome man looked every time he took a bite of fruit... from old-fashioned fruits passed down through seed banks from the Origin System era to fruits traded here from all over the galaxy.
It was said that among merchants, besides the middlemen who traveled between spaceports and planets, there was a miraculous kind of ‘Agricultural Merchant.’ They generally owned a small starship or a large vessel filled with space plantations, growing all sorts of vegetables and fruits and raising various edible animals... fruit glowed on trees and in the soil, probes flew alongside birds, and occasionally some flying fish or the like would dart through the branches—that was their time for activity.
The merchants crossed the starry sky amidst such fantastical and sci-fi scenes, selling their produce at the nearest location whenever a new crop matured. Even space pirates didn't like robbing them; after all, hijacking a ship full of vegetables and fruits wasn't as good as just collecting some improved-flavor agricultural products every time they passed by.
Lei Ting sat alone on the sofa and turned on the wall-sized projection. The Star Net programs were still running. He opened *Galactic Superpower War* again and found the game still stuck on the naming screen. He thought for a moment, went back to the character creation stage, changed the hair color of the young man with the bright smile to black, stared at his own reflection for a long time, and exited the game again.
He picked up a bright red apple from the long-preserved plate.
Then, he discovered with surprise that at some point, Valen had taken a bite out of it. The pale yellow flesh shimmered softly under the light, yet it would never be touched again.
A bicycle bell rang crisply through a torrential downpour. Floods poured into a café, heat dissipated, petals fell...
...The place was empty.
Lei Ting looked at the apple and began to laugh.
No... he wasn't laughing, but a roaring, trembling sound grew louder and louder. In this heavy rain that covered the entire old city of the year 2020, amidst the roars of monsters from all directions, the sound was like thunder.
Because, today, he finally understood—knowing the future is a chaotic era, yet wanting to ask that chaos for peace. Knowing there is no paradise in this world, yet insisting on righting the wrongs to change heaven and earth...
Was that really a ‘small wish’?
No. Of course not.
He gazed at the apple, standing alone above that silent city.
Then, under the radiance of the brilliant golden light behind his head, he tilted his head back and looked toward the dark outer heavens, at the ‘stars’ that blinked like flickering lights, and flickered like blinking eyes.
How arrogant. The culprit who conceived this mad wish.
He thought.
[End of Volume 1]
***
