Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 71
The “Sword of the Queen” hovered above the Leyting Spaceport. The silver battleship hung like the sword of Damocles, tied by a ponytail, a disaster waiting to be summoned at any moment.
Major General Darius Bayes sat composedly in the bridge, coolly directing the marines to land on Leyting to maintain local order and “protect” the esteemed Duke Winnet. He also deployed formations in space to prevent attacks from the Duke or pirates amid the chaos.
While Leibniz was reporting that a small shuttle claiming to be from the “Dream of a Cold Night” requested entry to the cosmic port, Darius was staring blankly at the Princess guard’s casualty report. It stated that Zion had bravely sacrificed himself to protect the Princess. This slightly distracted the major general. Zion had been serving beside him since he was a child. When he left the Empire Capital, he had left this loyal subordinate in the palace to protect the two highnesses, only to find Zion’s body upon their next meeting.
The major general put down the casualty report. “Allow that shuttle to dock. Ensure the Princess’s safety.”
The bridge connected to the cosmic port’s monitors, which showed the shuttle docking slowly at a temporary berth (part of the spaceport had been severely damaged by a previous attack from the “Dream of a Cold Night”). A silver telescopic ladder extended from the shuttle. Darius’s elite troops quickly lined up in two rows in front of the ladder. The shuttle’s door opened, and a young girl emerged, stepping lightly down the ladder. She was immediately surrounded and tightly guarded by soldiers. Darius recognized her as Alveira. What strange clothes she was wearing!
The soldiers physically separated the Princess from the shuttle, escorting her to the spaceport’s lounge. The Princess looked panicked, repeatedly glancing back and waving at the shuttle as if saying goodbye or trying to retain it. However, the shuttle didn’t respond to her gestures. As her figure was about to be overwhelmed by the tall, muscular soldiers, it retracted its ladder and slowly started its engines to leave the port.
Darius guessed that the shuttle’s pilot was either Joanna Begrel or Lagrange, knowing the Princess was acquainted with him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so reluctant to part.
“Dock the Sword of the Queen,” Darius ordered. “Receive the Princess on board, and we’ll escort her directly back to the Empire Capital.”
“What about the Duke?” the adjunct asked. “Shall we escort him too?”
Darius snorted coldly. “Let him die! Doesn’t the Duke have his own battleship? Let him go back on his own!” Soon after, Darius would realize this command was a grave mistake.
As the Sword of the Queen approached the spaceport, Alveira had also reached the lounge. On the screen, she appeared restless, her lips constantly moving as if muttering something. Her hands kept twisting the hem of her top—a habit when she was anxious, something Darius knew well.
What was she fretting about? The major general wondered. Was she worried about her safety? Or was she missing someone?
Suddenly, the Princess stood up and said to the squad leader escorting her, “Can I send a message to the shuttle that brought me?”
The squad leader was puzzled by her request and saluted. “I will inquire for you, Your Highness.” He returned a short while later with a regretful look, “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” he said, “that shuttle doesn’t have superluminal communication equipment.”
The princess immediately showed disappointment. The squad leader quickly added, “But the distance is short. You can use traditional radio to contact it. There will hardly be any delay!”
“Connect me quickly!”
“Yes! If you wish to talk, please come to the communications room!”
The Princess stood up and followed the squad leader to the communications room. Half of the escorting soldiers moved with them. A large group crowded into the communications room, startling the staff there. They nervously connected the Princess to the shuttle she had arrived in. They didn’t dare to look up and just focused on their work.
Alveira entered a private calling booth, surrounded by double-layered glass to prevent anyone from overhearing private conversations. This made Darius uneasy, as he couldn’t hear what she was saying.
“Leibniz, tell the spaceport communication staff to route the signal to me as well.”
“This…” The adjunct hesitated. His superior seemed to have a penchant for prying into others’ privacy?
“Go!”
“Yes!”
The radio signal was routed to the bridge of the Sword of the Queen, on Darius’s encrypted channel. Traditional radio communication was obviously not as clear as quantum superluminal communication, filled with a crackling cosmic static. He heard a familiar female voice ask, “Princess?”
“Joanna, it’s me…” Alveira’s timid voice followed.
“Yes, what is it?”
“I…” The Princess fell silent again.
Darius confirmed on the screen that the Princess’s mouth wasn’t moving. She wasn’t speaking. It wasn’t a radio malfunction. The Major General scratched his jaw, not understanding why these women were hesitating so much. Just speak directly, what’s there to hesitate about! What a waste of communication budget!
“Joanna…” After a long pause, the Princess spoke again. “Stop calling me ‘Your Highness’. Just call me by my name.”
“Alveira? Is that alright?”
“Yes!” The Princess gently sniffed, making a sound like a sob. “Joanna, I…” The screen showed the Princess lowering her head and rubbing her eyes. “Can you sing for me?”
“…I sing off-key. Are you sure?”
“Sing for me!”
So Joanna hummed a simple melody, like a pianist idly striking a few piano keys. There were no lyrics—just a lullaby-like hum. The interference from the radio made the sound intermittent, like an ancient song of farewell transmitted from ancient times. Darius had never heard such a melody before; it might have been an impromptu creation by the female pirate, singing as she went.
The starry sky was silent. The galaxy stilled. In the boundless universe, darkness fell. Only this song’s melody drifted, transmitted from one end of the radio wave to the other, amplified through a speaker, echoing near the ear, perhaps continuing to drift in the universe like light, reaching far places long after, to be received by future generations. They would wonder about such a lyric-less song, speculate its origins, create legends. Until those legends were submerged by history, this song-carrying radio wave would also continue to drift, until one day its energy was exhausted on its journey, vanishing in the starry sky.
But that would be a long time from now. By then, Darius, Alveira, and Joanna might have completed their lives, their children also aged. The carriers of past events would eventually degrade completely, humanity’s brief history eventually obscured in the vast river of cosmic time. On that day, nothing would remain, nothing would be left. Stars would burn out their brilliance, turning into dust, scattered in the depths of darkness.
“Duke, Major General Bayes’s fleet has already departed from Leyting.”
In a luxurious hotel suite, the secretary whispered to the Duke. A sunset’s light passed through the curtains, landing on the gold-threaded red carpet. The Duke sat by the window with an ancient paper book on his lap. He carefully turned the pages, cautious not to damage them with too much force. Since acquiring the book, the Duke had been engrossed, spending almost all his time reading. The secretary dared not disturb such a focused Duke, only entering to report significant news.
The Duke expressed no sentiment about the major general’s departure, only lamenting, “It’s a pity that the two people meant to be killed are still alive,” then immersing himself back in the book. The secretary quietly left the room.
An hour later, the Duke summoned the secretary, ordering him to bring the prepared card reader machine. Due to technological advancements, information storage chips had evolved over dozens of generations, and modern computers could no longer read the content of ancient chips. The Duke had previously gone through great efforts to purchase a card reader machine from Neo Athens at a high price, capable of reading centuries-old chips.
The secretary called several bodyguards to bring the machine to the Duke’s room. The Duke turned to the last page, where a hollowed-out section in the hard cover contained a small chip. Winnet, wearing gloves, removed the chip, placed it in the card reader, and stepped back to watch the content display.
“This is information Captain Jacob copied risking his life, containing all the secrets about ‘Yasha’,” the Duke excitedly said. “With this, we can create our own ‘Yasha’, the ultimate weapon to dominate mankind… We can use it to rule the entire universe!”
The machine’s red light blinked rapidly, and after a few minutes, the screen suddenly lit up, displaying the message: “Welcome to the Galactic Diva Camilla’s Tour Concert.”
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