4.8 - Everything that should come, will come in the end
The situation on the front lines was not good. In fact, it was so bad that they could not even spare extra teams to search for His Royal Highness the Prince, and could only pray for nothing to happen to him; it would be best if he could come back by himself.
The Princess had brought a division of troops with him to reinforce the front line soldiers who were suffering Zerg attacks. Regardless of what the Princess" purpose was in coming here, they were all grateful to him.
The Zerg were getting fiercer year by year. This year’s Zerg tide was especially large, and they had no idea what kind of crazy motivation they had, but they had launched a frenzied attack. If the Princess had not brought people with him, they probably would not have been able to hold out for long before their line of defense broke down.
Xue Ling only noticed the Zerg"s madness after he arrived on the front lines. He first dove straight into battle and killed for three days, eliminating countless waves of Zergs, before finally having time to meet with the generals stationed on the front lines to learn more about what had been going on here.
The Prince had been ambushed and disappeared before he had even arrived at this support station planet. So he had never officially arrived at the station, and many doc.u.ments were only being seen by Xue Ling for the first time. He could not hide his surprise at all.
A general who had been stationed at the supply station was awed by Xue Ling"s ruthless and fierce display of strength as he slaughtered the Zerg over the past three days, and completely did not dare to look down on the Princess. He was respectful as he reported, "Actually, it was still fine a while ago, and there weren"t so many waves before His Highness the Prince arrived. The Zerg began to act crazily about half a month ago, and it is unknown what kind of stimulation they received. They seemed to be in a hurry, and were even madly fighting amongst each other. If Your Highness had not arrived, perhaps we would not have been able to hold on."
The Empire"s front line was divided into two parts. One part was the east side that was comprised mostly of the Rhine family"s forces, and held Rhine family members. They had fought against the Zerg for many years, and all had the strength to fight against the powerful Zerg. The south side was defended by the Emperor"s elites who took turns commanding, and people came from different parts of the Empire every year. This was a platform for acc.u.mulating military merits and demonstrating strength. Many n.o.ble children were willing to come and fight here, just like the Prince who had just reached adulthood and couldn"t wait to come here to develop his own power.
Xue Ling glanced over at the Prince’s guard who was standing respectfully beside him, and reached for the doc.u.ment. “Now that I’m here, it’s bound to be secure. The Zerg can’t keep clamouring. We’ll kill them all in their home territory one day.”
He was very arrogant, but he had this capital. His three-day record was several times that of many new soldiers; he basically cut down the Zerg like he was chopping cabbage. No one here sneered at him. Rather, because of his words, they all felt enthusiasm rise up in their hearts.
Even the Prince’s guard felt his blood boiling.
In the past, his master did not like the Princess, and so he seldom tried to learn more about His Highness the Princess. Now that he had witnessed the His Highness" charm, he could only sigh that His Highness the Prince had been blessed with good fortune to have such a wonderful wife. He had a Princess like this, but was still unhappy. How high were his requirements; was it necessary for them to go to heaven?
Well, these kinds of disparaging remarks were buried deeply in his heart. He still had deep respect for the Prince. It was just that when it came to feelings, he found it rather hard to agree with his Prince"s opinion.
The Princess was so strong and beautiful, how could His Highness the Prince be unsatisfied?
If Xue Ling knew what he was thinking, he would probably pat him on the shoulder and tell him that the Prince was dissatisfied with everything. The Prince just loathed him; it was probably like how he also found him disagreeable to the eyes.
He could even make the decision to stab that man to death if he had transmigrated into the Prince"s body. It was not surprising that the Prince would also want him dead.
When he returned to his room that evening, Xue Ling finally had time to open his nano-computer and ask the system that had been integrated into the network: “System, why is it that right now I’m still perfectly fine, but the Zerg have gone crazy?”
These days, the system had been crazily absorbing interstellar culture so as to facilitate its host"s future learning. Having been pulled out so abruptly, it was stunned for a while before it could reply, “The Zerg have gone crazy?”
“Pretty much." Xue Ling looked at the number of attacks they had launched today. Although it had suddenly increased, it had not reached the stage of a true frenzy yet. After all, based on his memories and the data provided about the future, if the Zerg were really to have gone crazy like they did in the plot, the station would have been completely swallowed up by them a long time ago. “However, unlike that unrestrained frenzy, what they are doing seems more like they are having a last stand."
The system shook its head. “I don’t know what’s going on. As the levels of the worlds we enter goes up, the information that we are provided with becomes more and more one-sided.”
“Tsk.” Xue Ling pouted. Although it was more fun to explore the worlds by himself, it still didn"t feel good that there were some things that weren"t within his grasp. “One more thing.”
“What?” The little fox shook out its tail and ran out of the nano-computer into Xue Ling"s chest, rubbing against its host.
Although its master and host then denounced him for embarra.s.sing the fox race…
Whatever. It"s fine as long as it feels good.
“I feel something calling to me.” Xue Ling frowned, his expression showing his unhappiness. “From the other side of the Zerg"s territory. It makes me want to directly slaughter my way over."
As soon as his voice fell, the system froze, and then its expression turned blank as it said, “Congratulations to the host triggering the task: Destroying the Zerg clan.”
Xue Ling"s head was full of question marks. He then watched as the system puffed up: “Ah! I know why the Zerg in this world are so fierce!”
Xue Ling wanted to ask, wasn’t this race"s power due to human imagination? These worlds seemed to be artificially created. The fact that the Zerg were hard to fight was a common setting in most interstellar novels.
The system continued: “Although it is a common setting, the world should always balance itself out automatically. Some things will always have a cause and effect. The Zerg in this world were not this strong at first. But one day, a source of power fell into their territory. Under the influence of this power, the Zerg completely changed and gradually evolved into what they are now.”
“What you want to say is that this power…”
“That’s the host"s tail.” The system"s words were extremely certain. “Since it was a power that came from outside this world, and it was demonic power at that, it makes sense for the Zerg to have turned into what they are now."
Xue Ling accepted the fact that his tail was the hands of the Zerg with a blank face. He decided to wash it several extra times when he got it back.
After all, the Zerg were really disgusting.
“That can"t be right. Even if that was my tail, what does it have to do with their sudden onset of madness?” After thinking through the situation regarding his tail, Xue Ling found another mistake.
The system also had no clue right now. It could only guess, “Maybe the thing that frightened them appeared? If they don’t fight crazily now, they’re afraid they won"t have another chance to do so again?"
“Didn’t you say I was the key… What did I do and what did I open?
“That was just speculation.” The system spoke in all earnestness before drilling back into the nano-computer. "Anyway, host should move his plans forward. We’d better go back to the capital star as soon as possible. Hurry up and slaughter everything in sight quickly."
“Alright.”
Originally, Xue Ling also planned to use some means to win over people’s hearts and let them know that he not only did he have strong military strength, but also great strategic ability. But it seemed that it was no longer an appropriate time to do so. He could only slaughter his way through this piece of the universe and use his strength to make them willingly kneel to him.
As for the Prince…
His Royal Highness’s personal guard captain was summoned to the Princess’s room in the middle of the night, and received his first order that was unrelated to the front lines from his Royal Highness the Princess.
“After the next Zerg wave, bring a few people with you and go look for His Highness." Xue Ling had just finished his bath and was reading several reports. “There has still been no news of him. Either His Highness is in danger, or something has gone wrong and he can’t contact us. For His Highness’s safety, you must find him.”
The Prince"s guard also knew that he should go and look for His Highness. After all, he was also very anxious that they had not received any news from His Highness who had been missing for so long. It was just that the battlefield situation had been so grim that it had been impossible to leave. Now that the Princess has brought people with him, it was time for him to start looking for the Prince.
“We will do our best to live up to your expectations.” The chief guard"s face was deferential. Although his master did not welcome the Princess, he still really respected His Royal Highness the Princess.
The expression on Xue Ling’s face finally softened slightly. He lifted the man up from his bow and said, “I know His Highness the Prince does not like me, and he left on the wedding night because he didn"t want to see me. But no matter what, I am already his Princess. The two of us are a unit, and have to earn glory and suffer losses together. Promise me that you will find His Highness, take good care of him, and bring him back to me safely.”
The guard was very touched. The Princess’s frankness towards him made it so that he did not know how to express his feelings, and could only promise him loudly. He then made the firm resolution that he must help the Prince and Princess to improve their relationship together.
Xue Ling watched him leave the room and smiled slightly. This smile made him look particularly gentle, and made the man who had been watching him clench his fists tightly.
The captain of the palace guard watched as the air pressure around His Majesty got lower and lower. He felt as though the temperature around him had dropped to below zero, and began to wonder whether or not His Majesty would kill him with a slap if he ran away now.
“Earn glory and suffer losses together as one unit?" Augustine stretched out his hand and carefully traced the youth"s eyebrows on the screen. He lowered his voice and laughed. Although his voice held laughter, his face was as cold as ice. “I will make you understand, who it is that you are a unit with."
The captain could feel that His Majesty was already beginning to emit a dark aura. He had a terrible headache—he had no idea why His Majesty had allowed the Empress to go out to the front lines. He obviously had the ability to make him stay in the capital star, but he had to go and watch him through the nano-computer every day after letting him leave.
His Majesty had always been terrifying, but he had not been so beastly and cruel!
Why did it seem as though he had now started to blacken?!
What nonsense, he woke up to discover that his own wife had become the Princess of his countless generations later grandchild. n.o.body would be in a good mood if this happened to them!
Let alone this man had always been extremely repressed and sullen. Some things had been bottled up in his heart for too long; of course he would gradually become more beastly and abnormal!
Warren, who had been about to enter and submit his report, noticed the black aura coming out of the main hall and decided not to go in, turning around and leaving promptly.
As soon as he entered, that high-ranking man would discover another truth, which was that the person whom that man regarded as his Empress, in fact had no idea that a person called Augustine even existed in this world… If the other party was really reminded of this, then n.o.body would be able to pa.s.s their days well. It would be better if Warren did not go in and provoke that madman.
Not far from the front line, on planet 7-818, Russell had just received his long-awaited acceptance notice. He flew all the way home and rushed into Luther’s arms, shouting, “Luther, this is too amazing! I"ve received an admittance notice from the Capital Military University! I really got into the mecha piloting department!” Although he had barely sc.r.a.ped in and his results were at the bottom of the list, any student who could study at this university all had some strength. He had already done a great job to get in.
Luther has heard him speak many times about the Capital Military University, and he knew what it meant to him. It was Russell’s goal in life. He could not help a smile from forming on his cold face, holding the much shorter but vibrant with life Russell in his arms. He laughed and said, “Then congratulations to you.”
Russell buried his head in his embrace, and after a long time, it was as though he had made a very important decision. He looked up at Luther and said, “Luther! I"ve decided to sell the house to cover the cost of our trip to the capital star. He pulled at Luther’s little finger hesitantly and asked him, “Luther will accompany me, right?”
Luther looked at him tenderly. How could he dislike the man who had filled up his entire life after he lost his memories? He nodded and said, “Yes, I will always be with you.”
They smiled at each other and began to prepare dinner.
This period of time should be the happiest time of their lives. Luther almost did not want to restore his own memories. He intuitively knew that it would be bad for him, for Russell, and for everyone around them.
But the course of history would not stop just because of his unwillingness. Everything that should come, will come in the end.
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
the image of Xue Ling washing his tail after he gets it back is *so* cute owo