Five years can change everything.
Probably.
...At least, that was what Susanna said.
These days, she sometimes spoke as if she were reciting a philosophy book—the subtle kind. But she was willing to speak in front of crowds now, which was a good thing for her role as a "manager."
Even if the price of such a change was that she had been incomplete ever since...
In body, and in soul.
***
"Su, I still don't understand what you're so busy with all day long..."
Lucas smoothed back his neatly combed blonde hair, leaning against a mechanical crutch equipped with a vertical stabilizer. He watched Susanna at her desk with keen interest.
As he spoke, he tilted his head slightly. The light caught the faint golden sheen of the mottled scars on his handsome face. These were the reason Kang’s Pharmaceuticals had previously launched their "Perfect Scar Removal" line of beauty products, but the "Young Master Corn" had rejected them. Instead, he had thrown himself into his military career with a level of intensity that his former self could never have imagined.
Now, he was a member of the First Legion, Captain of the 13th Special Operations Squad, reporting directly to the Vice Legion Commander—his old classmate, the Federation’s invincible "Sun Star," Lei Ting.
Susanna, the object of his inquiry, remained at her desk. She neither looked up nor answered.
She lived year-round inside her cold, hard, silver-white custom combat armor. She did not eat, sleep, or seek entertainment, relying entirely on life-support systems to survive.
One shouldn't think she shouldn't be this way; this was standard procedure for her as a semi-cyborg. Especially since, during the subsequent modifications to her chassis over the last few years, she had requested more lethal upgrades. Now, possessing no stomach, lacking most of her intestinal tract, and equipped with three mechanical hearts serving as primary and backup units, she had no need for sleep, save for a mandatory maintenance shutdown once every six months.
With at least six more hours in her day than anyone else, Susanna never had a moment of leisure. Her public identity was the Sun Star’s adjutant; internally, she managed thirty percent of the Legion’s primary system’s daily affairs, leading a management team of over two hundred people—though she never attended team social gatherings.
Seeing that she was focused on reviewing documents and had no intention of chatting, Lucas gave a bored sigh. He rested his mechanical left arm on his crutch and took two steps forward before suddenly remembering that, in this state, he was supposed to pretend his legs were failing him. He abruptly went limp, limping over to a nearby sofa to sit down.
Then, he suddenly said, "I used my family connections to investigate the officials in the business sector who handled Sandro’s information back then. I still couldn't find where the problem was."
"..."
Susanna still didn't answer, but her fingers, which had been moving constantly to assist the internal operations of her implanted optical computer, suddenly froze in mid-air.
After a long silence, a low, cold, synthesized female voice emanated from her armor. "Of course. How would a rat the sun cannot even see jump into a cornfield?"
"If you call my family 'Corn' one more time, I'm going to lose it!" Lucas slammed his mechanical hand on the table.
"Back to business," Susanna said calmly. "In fact, we all know that the person who altered the coordinate information must have had very high clearance. Someone like that wouldn't target Sandro or any one of us specifically..."
"Yeah, they were targeting Brother Lei," Lucas whispered. "Someone wanted him to lose everything related to him, everything he cared about...
"...And that bastard almost succeeded."
Five years ago, during that war, it wasn't that Lei Ting "couldn't find the location corresponding to the coordinates," nor was it that he "didn't have time to act."
How could he not have had time? Even if his perception was being interfered with, it was impossible for him not to sense the mass metal reaction of a shotgun.
There was one reason, and one reason only, why he failed to save Sandro: **The coordinates were wrong.**
Yes. The coordinates Lei Ting received were incorrect. This was despite the fact that the coordinates Sandro sent out were undoubtedly perfect. By then, Sandro had already replenished the nutrients required for his ability's activation, and his high-consumption superpower made it impossible for him to make even the slightest error regarding digital data.
But when the evidence was later tested and retrieved, the data on Sandro’s optical computer card—which Lei Ting had kept on his person—showed no flaws.
A "flawless" error.
Fine, the whole thing was seamless.
Sandro was dead because, at the critical moment, he had shoved Susanna down and shielded her, taking a blast of incendiary buckshot head-on.
If not for the quick reaction of the equally wounded veteran, Knott, who returned fire amidst the sea of flames—and if Lei Ting, guided by the wrong coordinates to a location over ten kilometers away, hadn't abandoned caution to project his power and ensure the shotgun's next blast took its owner with it—that smiling young man who loved celebrity gossip might not have even left behind a twisted, charred corpse.
Yet the records in the optical computer and the historical logs of every link in the Federation’s systems could only prove that he had "sent the wrong coordinates himself."
By now, the matter was officially settled... but Susanna, who had barely survived; Lei Ting, who had erupted with terrifying power; and Lucas, who had been in a deep coma on the other side of the planet, did not believe this was the truth.
How could Sandro mess up a number?
Saying that was about as ridiculous as assuming "Lei Ting lost his morals and committed a petty atrocity"—it lacked any logic or basis in reality.
"By all rights, everyone there should have died, including you, Su," Lucas said slowly.
"No," Susanna’s synthesized voice was cold as ice. "While you were out on missions, Lei Ting and I discussed this many times. In truth, that planet was meant to be destroyed, or 'fall into darkness' or something..."
"'Fall into darkness'? That sounds a bit chuunibyou... What is that?"
"I don't know. Lei Ting said it’s better if we don't know, so I didn't ask," Susanna said. "In short, that planet hid many secrets. 'Deep Space Stealth' itself is a massive mystery. Therefore, it was originally supposed to be destroyed to bury everything..."
"...Until Brother Lei was provoked into tearing it apart directly, along with almost every Florian on it," Lucas added softly, watching the golden light flicker and vanish before his eyes. "His rage back then was fueled by many factors."
"Correct." Susanna’s tone was as still as ancient well water. "So, Sandro’s death was actually the 'accident.' It disrupted the mastermind’s more important goal, which was to 'destroy the planetary power furnace via a high-energy electromagnetic disturbance device'—
"—Because Lei Ting cast off his shackles. And then, control of that planet fell entirely into his hands."
"..." Lucas fell silent.
Since the truth remained obscured, his contemplation didn't last long. A moment later, he gave up on those thoughts and asked another question: "Speaking of which, why do you never call him 'Brother Lei'?"
"..." Susanna calmly followed his train of thought. "You only need to know that I am absolutely loyal to him."
"Why do you have to add 'absolutely' before 'loyal'?"
"Because a vengeful wraith can only be loyal to hatred or to another vengeful wraith, and there is no turning back. I have already made my choice." Susanna looked at the golden light that occasionally manifested in the spacious office and said, "People always want to believe in something: money, power, religion, hope, or some ethereal love. I chose to believe that one day, I will be able to kill the bastards behind this mess..."
To that end, whether it was "over-modification" that exceeded safety limits or becoming the Sun Star’s right hand to handle the affairs she actually disliked, she accepted it all gladly.
Of the three people left from that time, two were called "mad" by others while awake, and one...
One just needed to be responsible for sparkling and shining.
If he could do the shining for Lei Ting and Susanna under the spotlight, that was more important than an A-rank mission.
"Lucas, you have three more promotional tasks and five representative speaking engagements coming up. I suggest you wear your faceplate, because you might be going to different schools, especially kindergartens and the like."
Susanna tossed a pile of mission intel to Lucas with a few clicks, shocking him into a stiff expression. "Also, among the interns from the academy this year, there’s an A-rank girl named Hana. I have high hopes for her. Remember to test her combat capabilities for me when you receive them.
"And, among the graduates from two years ago, there’s one named Shane—that 'S-rank.' Lei Ting singled him out and told us to keep him isolated from certain members of the Federation Council. The specific targets are on the blacklist we drew up earlier..."
"Shane?" Lucas blinked. "I’m on pretty good terms with him... Wait, he’s an Omega. Is Brother Lei...?"
"If you could remember to straighten out your train of thought every time you speak in a private setting, I would be very grateful." Susanna’s armored visor stared at him coldly. "Don't forget that you are also an Omega. Lei Ting doesn't care about such things when employing people."
"Ah, right, okay. To be honest, after slicing up so many enemies, I kind of forgot what I am... Anyway, most of the time, we just need to remember we're human." Lucas scratched his head awkwardly, confirming the mission items one by one. "So, I already have a partner, but Brother Lei, all these years... has he just been pining for that 'Supervisor Valen'?"
"Wonderful. That question is a deliberate waste of life just to help me along."
Susanna’s tone was saturated with impatience. Nowadays, every time she chatted with this guy, he quickly drove her to a point where she wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible. This was the polar opposite of the "social butterfly Lucas" of the past; presumably, the disfigurement had allowed him to completely let himself go. "Look at Lei Ting. Does he look like the kind of person who could move on just because his partner died?"
"He really doesn't. Neither do you." Lucas nodded.
"Get out!" Susanna snatched a nearby digital stylus and hurled it at him.
Though it was just a casual flick, the pen cut through the air with a sharp, piercing whistle. Had it struck an ordinary person’s forehead, it probably would have put them into a state of eternal rest... no, "sleeping like a baby."
But Lucas just laughed, using his mechanical crutch to vault off the sofa. An emerald shield on his body easily deflected the minor damage. Then, clutching his crutch, he ran toward the door of Susanna’s vast adjutant office with flying steps—
The next moment, the bent and deformed digital stylus suddenly froze in mid-air.
Lucas sucked in a breath, his body snapping to a halt. He and Susanna, who had stood up at the same time, both snapped to attention, their armored boots clicking together with a heavy thud.
Under their gaze, the door slowly opened.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 康氏制药 | Kang’s Pharmaceuticals | A pharmaceutical company mentioned in relation to Lucas's family/scars. |
| 第一军团 | First Legion | The military unit Lei Ting leads. |
| 第十三特种作战小队 | 13th Special Operations Squad | Lucas's squad. |
| 深空潜行 | Deep Space Stealth | A mysterious project or phenomenon related to the destroyed planet. |
| 弗洛人 | Florians | The inhabitants of the planet Lei Ting destroyed. |
| 夏恩 | Shane | An S-rank Omega graduate. |
| 哈娜 | Hana | An A-rank intern. |
| 瓦伦主管 | Supervisor Valen | Evenheiler's former identity. |
