Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 23
On May 25 of the Galactic Standard Calendar, the first batch of mobile islands of the year drifted to the vicinity of the Puccini spaceport from the equator with the ocean currents. Over the next six months, more archipelagos would visit the waters near Puccini like migrating schools of fish, until winter descended upon the northern hemisphere of New Venice.
The southern restaurant of the Takut Hotel was packed. From the exquisitely carved floor-to-ceiling windows, one could see the Lovena Sea, with its vast expanse of blue waves rising and falling, wave after wave crashing against the sturdy breakwater before flowing through the intricately designed complex waterways of the city.
Today’s weather was exceptionally clear. Sparse thin clouds floated in the azure sky. A few terns soared above the waves. The horizon, where the sea met the sky, lay like a smooth arc, quietly resting at the ocean’s edge.
“So beautiful!” Alois put down his knife and fork, gazing out at the ocean. “It’s my first time seeing the real sea!”
While he was admiring the ocean, Joshua swiftly forked a piece of fish from his plate. By the time Alois turned back, the fish was already in the assassin’s stomach.
“Hey! How could you do that!”
“What’s all the fuss about? Here, take it back.” Joshua picked up a clump of seaweed from his own plate and placed it on Alois’s plate.
“Joshua, being picky about food will give you hemorrhoids,” Alois said righteously.
“That’s why I’m so concerned about your colorectal health. Hurry up and eat.” Joshua advised in a tone reminiscent of a food salesman.
If the restaurant’s table hadn’t been made of metal, there would now be a stainless steel fork stuck in it.
Today was the day of the mobile islands return. When the first island’s faint silhouette appeared on the horizon, the restaurant buzzed with excitement. People left their seats, crowded at the windows, and took pictures, shouting and cheering. Alois craned his neck, but the dense wall of people blocked his view. “Damn, why didn’t I grow a bit taller!”
As he jumped up and down, trying to squeeze through the crowd, Joshua forked another piece of meat from his plate. “You want to see it that much?” he asked.
“Oh, of course!” Alois struggled to find a patch of blue through the throngs of people. At that moment, Joshua suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Then let’s go take a closer look.”
Ignoring Alois’s protest of “I’m not full yet,” Joshua dragged him out of the restaurant and to the hotel’s parking lot, renting a small open-top bat-winged flying car. The car was small, with only two seats. Joshua sat in the driver’s seat, and under his urging, Alois climbed into the passenger seat. Before he could settle in, the car started.
“Wait, I haven’t fastened my seatbelt yet!”
“What’s the point of that bothersome thing?” The car slowly ascended, flying towards the mobile islands. Soon they left the artificial land, crossing the breakwater, and arrived over the rolling blue sea.
Alois, suspicious of the open-top car, hurriedly buckled his seatbelt. If Joshua suddenly decided to show off some cool driving skills, he might have to practice his swimming skills. “What if we fall?”
The car sped up, the moist sea breeze blowing Joshua’s silver hair. He brushed the bangs from his eyes and tucked them behind his ear. “I’ll save you.”
“…I-I can swim.” Alois turned his head away.
He quickly realized Joshua was right. The seatbelt was indeed a nuisance. The car flew low over the sea, almost touching the water. Without the seatbelt, Alois could have reached out and touched the sea. A few seagulls rode the airflow created by the car, circling around them. In the sea, a school of colorful flying fish occasionally leapt out, splashing water on Alois.
Under Joshua’s mocking gaze, he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached out to touch the water below. The cold sea water ran through his fingers, making Alois shiver and pull back.
“It’s cold.” He wiped his hands on his clothes. He hadn’t expected the sea to be so cold in the warm May weather.
Joshua chuckled, taking one hand off the controls to grasp Alois’s cold, wet fingers.
The assassin’s palm was warm.
The car soon arrived above the mobile islands. Nearly a hundred islands of various sizes drifted towards the city like a school of fish. Some islands were covered in jagged rocks, others in lush jungles; some were uninhabited, while others were dotted with shell-shaped houses, resembling small villages, with many fishing boats following the islands.
Joshua brought up a satellite map, pointing to the dots on the map. “The islands marked in red are private, and those in blue are public.”
“Are we not allowed to land on private islands?”
“Correct.” Joshua looked up. “If I retire someday, I’d buy an island here and live on it forever.”
“Can islands be bought?” Alois was amazed.
“Of course. They have the technology to create artificial islands, so it’s not a big deal.”
The car flew over a verdant island, startling a flock of white birds from the tall trees. “Do you like islands that much?” Alois was surprised. Other than his aversion to sharing a bed with others and his obsession with certain foods, he’d never seen the assassin show such a clear preference for anything.
“My homeland is similar to this.” Joshua looked at the endless blue sea.
“Olympus?” Alois remembered him mentioning that he was from Olympus.
Joshua shook his head. “No. It’s the place where I was born. I grew up on an isolated island, surrounded by a blue ocean as far as the eye could see.” He paused. “Above the ocean was an endless starry sky. I always thought the ocean was more vast and boundless than the stars. It wasn’t until I stepped into the universe that I realized how wrong I was.” He smiled self-deprecatingly, but his eyes were unusually gentle, like someone lost in beautiful memories.
Alois remained silent. It was the first time Joshua had voluntarily talked about his past. The renowned assassin Mourner’s childhood was spent on a planet with oceans like Neo Venice. He tried to imagine what Joshua looked like as a child but failed. Mourner seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, with no known past, as if tracing his history was like reaching back to the origins of legend.
But Mourner undoubtedly had a past. He had a childhood. He had memories.
“Why not move back to your homeland?” Alois asked.
“Because…” Joshua hesitated, as if choosing his words carefully. “Because it no longer exists.”
Gone.
That was a dreadful word. According to the Empire’s definition of a “gone” planet, it was one that had been uninhabitable for over three hundred years and was no longer inhabited. Since humanity began colonizing space, countless planets had perished due to resource depletion, ecological disasters, and war. In the heated period of the Empire and the Federation’s wars, nearly every day saw small colonies perish in the crossfire.
Was Joshua’s homeland destroyed this way? Alois, who was born and raised in the Empire’s capital, known as the “Unfallen Star”, couldn’t imagine what it felt like to have one’s homeland wiped out. Maybe it felt like receiving a death notice for his father? Or like sitting by his mother’s deathbed, listening to her final words?
Either way, it must have been—very, very painful.
The car flew past the forest island and hovered over an island covered with silver sand. In the center of the island grew a tropical rainforest, resembling an emerald lying on a bed of silver velvet.
“That island is beautiful!” Actually, Alois didn’t think it was particularly remarkable, but he felt he needed to divert Joshua’s attention. The assassin seemed extremely melancholic at the moment.
“That is ‘Green Star Diamond Island’,” Joshua said. “It’s from Storan Wright’s long poem [The Maiden of Dreams]. ‘Oh, maiden wearing Green Star Diamond bright, why do you haunt my dreams at night? Are you inviting me to love’s embrace, or let me sink to sleep’s dark place, into the abyss, where dreams confound, and never wake, forever bound?”
Alois looked surprised.
“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” Joshua smiled. “Camilla has a song with lyrics adapted from this poem.”
“[Never Wake Up].” Alois remembered the song title. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this after being a fan for so many years…”
Before he could finish speaking, the flying car suddenly tilted, and the unbelted young man screamed as he fell onto Joshua’s lap.
“What are you doing?!”
The answer to Alois’s question came in the form of a whistling missile, which flew past the spot where their car had just been and headed straight for Green Star Diamond Island.
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