Finding Stardust

Half an hour later, when she returned to the study room, she saw a young man in his 30-s like Atila waiting for her inside. He looked very formal with a dark blue uniform and slick brown hair.

"h.e.l.lo, Miss Emma. My name is Anddara. I will be your teacher for the next six months," he said as he rose to greet Emma.

"h.e.l.lo, Sir Anddara," Emma said.

"No need to use honorifics with me. Please, just call me Anddara," said the man respectfully.

Emma stared at him for a moment and then nodded. She could not guess whether Anddara knew her true ident.i.ty, or not. However, she did not want to ask because she would only reveal her own ident.i.ty if Anddara did not know who she was, and she asked him too many questions.

"Alright, Anddara." Emma then sat in her chair and was ready to start the lesson. "We can start."

"All right. Like Atila, I will teach you by using multimedia in the beginning," Anddara said while opening the session. "Today, I will discuss a little bit about Akkadian history."

Emma watched as Anddara showed a doc.u.mentary and discussed its contents. She was quite interested in seeing the video depicting Akkadia from a thousand years ago until presently.

Apparently, technology had advanced rapidly around 100 years ago when they started to control antimatter that provided enough energy for intergalactic travel. Since then, Akkadia had begun conducting various missions to explore the universe and focused its research on these explorations.

The s.h.i.+p they were in now was one of the research s.h.i.+ps whose function was to carry out such explorations.

Emma was very interested in the contents of the video and asked many questions to Anddara. The man answered all the girl"s questions happily. He seemed amazed to find out that Emma was very smart and had a deep interest in science.

"I am the s.h.i.+p"s chief engineer. Sir Therius intentionally asked me to teach you everything about technology and history. But he did not tell me that you are very smart," Anddara said happily.

Ah ... Therius actually didn"t know that Emma was a genius. Of course, he couldn"t say anything about Emma"s intelligence level to Anddara.

"Thank you, Anddara. I just happen to have an interest in these kinds of things," Emma said.

Anddara seemed to be getting more and more excited. "Tomorrow I"ll show you the various technologies that we use to run this s.h.i.+p. You will definitely like it."

"I"d love it," Emma nodded.

After her lessons with Anddara was over. Emma decided to have a quick rest in her room. Then she walked to the lounge where she had met Therius and Xion yesterday. Atila told her that Therius asked her to wait for him in the lounge so they could go to the library together.

"Hey, you"re here! Have you had lunch?" Xion"s cheerful voice rang when he saw Emma enter the lounge.

Emma immediately rolled her eyes when she saw Xion sitting on the couch, enjoying a drink, and smiling at her.

"Not yet," Emma said.

"Then, eat with me," said Xion. He gave a signal to a staff who immediately served food to both of them. "Therius is preparing lessons for you. He will be here soon."

Emma did not respond to Xion"s words. She was busy paying attention to the food the staff provided for them.

"Does this s.h.i.+p carry enough food for 200 people for one year?" asked Emma. "It must take a lot of s.p.a.ce to store all the food and basic needs of so many people, right? I"ve already explored this s.h.i.+p and haven"t seen such a large storage area."

"Oh ... that"s because you haven"t gone to the cargo s.h.i.+p that travels together with this s.h.i.+p. It is used specifically to store all our needs for the long-term. As far as I know, we will also stop by at some Akkadian bases to replenish supplies on the way home." Xion explained. "Between here and our home planet, there are probably two or three big mothers.h.i.+ps going on patrol or exploration. and one s.p.a.ce base."

"Oh ... I didn"t know that."

"Of course, you don"t know. There are so many things you need to learn here." Xion ate his food and continued speaking with his mouth full. "Actually, if we are not in a hurry, we can just make do with a s.p.a.ce Master. He will provide whatever s.p.a.ce we need onboard. No need to bring a cargo s.h.i.+p."

"s.p.a.ce Master? What"s that?" Emma asked in surprise.

"Oh .. A s.p.a.ce Master is a person who could control s.p.a.ce. It"s a bit difficult to explain ... In Akkadia, s.p.a.ce Masters are quite rare, but if we try, we will definitely be able to find one."

"s.p.a.ce Master ...? That"s so funny. Next thing you know, you will tell me that we also have a Time Master, someone who can control time ..." Emma said with a laugh. "Seriously, Xion."

Xion was stunned when he heard Emma was indirectly mocking him.

"You don"t believe me that there are s.p.a.ce Master and Time Master, even though you have five types of element-bending powers??" Xion asked in a displeased tone. "We do have more aeromancers, pyromancers, etc, than s.p.a.ce Master and Time Master. But s.p.a.ce and Time Masters are real."

Emma, ​​who was sipping her drink, became stunned. She stared back at Xion with round eyes. "Jeez ... I thought you were joking!"

"Of course I"m not joking," Xion said in annoyance.

"Hmm ... I"m sorry, I really thought you were just kidding. I mean ... how do you know about all that? Have you met them?" Emma finally asked.

Xion shrugged. "I"ve met them."

"Gosh ..." Emma immediately lowered her gla.s.s and looked at Xion with a serious look.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Xion asked her.

"Uhm ... I want to know where I can find a Time Master," Emma said solemnly.

"What do you want to meet with Time Master for?"

"I ... want to ask him to take me back to the past. I want to go back to the past week before Haoran fell ill. I want to take him to the hospital faster so the doctor could check his aneurysm before it ruptured ..." Emma said with a hoa.r.s.e voice. "Or ... I also want to go back to the past, to 15 years ago, before my parents were captured by the Akkadian people. I wanted to ask them to go far away from earth ..."

Xion was stunned by Emma"s words. He could see the girl"s face looking somber.

"Hmm ... I understand how you feel. However, even though you can meet a Time Master, he cannot take you to the past to change the future. If he does, then there will be no future. He will break the flow of time, and that is dangerous." Xion explained. "After all ... time travel requires enormous energy just to do it alone. If a Time Master decided to bring someone else with him, the energy he exerted could cause his death."

Emma was very disappointed when she heard him. "Really? What a shame. Why have the power to control time, if you can"t change the past? There"s no point at all. Useless."

There is no point? Useless? Are frickin kidding me?

The power to control time can be used to understand the past and the future, and to bend the present. You have no idea.... Xion could only growl inwardly.

Xion was offended because Emma called him useless, but he tried to hold back. Emma did not know who he was, and he had no intention of revealing his secret to her.

Finally, he only finished his wine and didn"t talk about Time Master anymore.

"Xion ..." Emma asked again.

"What is it?" Xion asked, raising his face from his drink.

"How long have you known Therius?"

"Hmm .." Xion furrowed his brows, trying to remember. "I think it"s been 11 years. We met for the first time at the academy. He was my best friend for a long time."

"You said, the only way I could defeat him was in a drinking game. Is there no other way? It seems like you know him well enough," Emma asked. "If you don"t want to teach me aeromancy, that"s fine. But if you don"t mind telling me all of Therius"s weaknesses, I would really appreciate it. I want to focus on working on finding ways to defeat him at his weakness."

"Therius" weakness?" Xion frowned. "I don"t mind telling you the weakness if he had any. But unfortunately ... there is none."

"There"s no way someone can be perfect," Emma grumbled. "He must have some weaknesses but you just don"t want to help me."

"..."

Actually, this past week, Xion finally saw that in addition to having low alcohol tolerance, Therius" weakness had increased by one, namely Emma. Emma was his weakness. But he couldn"t possibly say that to the girl, could he?

Emma would not believe him anyway.

"Are you talking about me?"

Suddenly, they could hear a deep voice coming from behind them. Emma and Xion simultaneously turned toward the entrance. They saw the crown prince coming in a neat appearance with a book in his hand.

"You think too highly of yourself. n.o.body is talking about you," Emma said, rolling her eyes. "You are not that interesting."

Ugh ... she was suddenly reminded that soon she had to study with Therius, and her mood immediately became bad.