In the following few days, everyone started to become busy. Sirius started the daily schedule of leaving early and returning late at night. Every time Nalun woke up in the morning, it was already impossible to find the other’s shadow within the room. During the night, he would force himself to sleep a little later. However, by the time Sirius returned, he would have already reached the point of being unable to endure it and fell asleep.
The only intersection between the two of them was probably right before Sirius left and as soon as he returned. Sirius would always dig out the unconscious and unaware Honored Prince from the nest of blankets and give him a kiss.
While he’s truly sleeping, Nalun would, on the contrary, act extremely irascible. Being disturbed while half asleep, he’d always give an unceremonious swing of his arm– A clear-cut contrast from his previous well-behaved manner while feigning sleep.
Sirius: “……”
So began the lonely Honored Prince’s empty nest life.
Without no one to accompany him during the day, Nalun no longer needed to attend those senseless activities. He originally thought he’d be happier…… and in reality, he did become more leisurely. However, always staying in a room makes people gradually start to wither. Their energy and mentality would also become downcasted and gloomy.
On this day, he bumped into a hurried Weilin and aptly asked the other if he needed help.
“No need!” Young people always spoke with such vitality. After Weilin finished saying this, he gave a bashful smile: “I’m about to head out. The Admiral ordered me to count the number of Aerta residents.”
Nalun asked: “Did something happen?”
Weilin didn’t plan to hide anything and explained everything succinctly.
As it turned out, not very long ago, the two sides had a small scaled friction. Their relationship grew more tense by the day. They predicted an official confrontation within the next few days. In addition, they also suspected that some extremists actually had infiltrated into the previous group of ‘capitulated’ Aerta citizens and were secretly transmitting information to their comrades who were hiding on a nearby satellite moon.
“It’s only a precaution. We have already made arrangements. Just making one last verification, that’s all.”
Nalun nodded his head. Looks like there wasn’t anything to worry about.
Weilin gave him a glance, wanting to speak but then hesitating.
Nalun said: “If you want to say something, then say it.”
Weiling said: “Hager purchased a large amount of shredded coconut today, probably to make coconut balls. I, I want……”
Nalun expressionlessly told this awkward youth: “When it’s time, come find me.”
“Find you? What are you guys planning to do?” Strolling over, Diya leisurely turned the corner. There was a look of amusement in his eyes that has not been put away yet.
Weilin said excitedly: “You’re here also!”
Diya felt pleased: “Happy to see me?”
Weilin nodded his head: “Let’s go. We’ll go together! Those mixed insect-humans look too similar. You can help me take a look.”
Nalun gloomily looked towards him– The Honored Prince, who had just proactively offered to help but received a tactful decline, immediately felt somewhat awkward.
Weilin also realized the inappropriateness of his conduct and instantly froze: “Your highness……”
“Call me Nalun.”
“Ah, Nalun.” He immediately yelled, saying: “Compared to the mixed insect-humans, coconut balls are more important.” Weilin said seriously, as if this was a mission of S ranked difficulty.
After all, there’s very few people on the entire Spaceship who were in Hager’s good graces.
Nalun: “…….”
Diya guessed approximately what’s going on and said with a smile: “Who wants to accompany you?” He blinked and said in a suppressed voice: “I’m busy with an important mission and have no time to play games with you.”
As he spoke, he seemed to carelessly glance at the Honored Prince.
Weilin was curious: “What kind of mission?”
Nalun also couldn’t help but perk his ears.
However, Diya only raised a finger and said mysteriously: “It’s temporarily a secret.”
Weilin immediately scoffed and said in disdain: “I’ll know sooner or later!” Saying this, he grabbed Nalun and asked: “We’ll go together?”
Nalun: “…… Okay.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Therefore the young officer dragged his ‘substitute assistant’ and left the branch headquarters.
“Glsj lr gfjiis ugfja jii jgbecv, yea tf ibnfr ab jma wsrafglber!” Qflilc’r abcf kjr jigfjvs nfgs oglfcvis. Mlgra tf nfcafv ja Rjiec obg j yla jcv atfc rjlv: “Uijs ujwfr? Lbk mjc wlrrlbcr jrrlucfv ys atf wlilajgs yf ‘ujwfr’, jw P gluta? Rb wjaafg tbk wlceaf atf wlrrlbc lr, kf wera jma jqqgbqgljafis.”
At this moment, Nalun already felt some regret. This short, young man was really too lively. However, since he had already come out, it’s still much better than getting moldy inside the room. Therefore, he did his best to turn the subject of the conversation onto a proper topic: “Where are those mixed insect-humans resettled?”
Weilin’s thoughts flew quickly; the topic was also changed quickly. Therefore, his attention turned very quickly as well: “All on the same street.”
He took out a thin list of names and handed it to Nalun: “Ha, just look at the images on here. All of them look the same. Are they all duplicates?”
Nalun flipped through the material. These green lipped youths with antennas really did look very similar. However, it wasn’t that they were truly similar, but only ‘indiscernible to the human eye’.
Weilin brought Nalun to the destination place.
He discovered that this was the street that Sirius had guided him through not long ago. Meanwhile, the place of settlement for the Aerta people was that silver colored building that Nalun had seen last time.
“After completing the immigration procedures, there’s an observation period. All entries and exits are recorded. Let me go examine that briefly. I’ll be right back!”
Young people always moved like the wind. Nalun didn’t even respond yet, the other already charged off towards the gates.
Nalun hastily followed him.
The outer style of the building was somewhat solemn. However, after walking inside, Nalun noticed that the style was vastly different. It actually looked rather warm and comfortable. From afar, he could see Weilin currently clinging to the front desk registry. Nalun looked around the area and then walked towards the resting area.
The resting area was in a corner of the lobby. There were several complimentary wheat colored sofas. A few books were placed on a simple bookcase. As he passed, he picked one out. On the cover, there was a chibi green-skinned mixed insect-human. The accompanying words were skewed and twisted. For a second, Nalun couldn’t discern what kind of language it was.
“Gudu.”
Nalun felt his waist being poked. Turning around, he saw two waving antennas.
“Gududu.”
Nalun: “……”
The mixed (insect-human) child raised his head, stood on tiptoes and reached out his hands: “That’s……me, mine.”
Nalun understood this not very fluent standard speech. However, he didn’t return the book.
“These are books from your homeland?”
The mixed IH child nodded his head slowly: “Scenery…… book.”
Nalun became curious: “Can I take a look?”
The mixed IH child: “Take a look?”
Nalun tentatively accepted that as a silent approval and started to flip through the book in front of the child. Because this was reading materials for a child, there were many accompanying pictures inside. These pictures were similar to Asha’s oil paintings. Most of the style was realism with intense colors. The pictures contained all sorts of strange sceneries. There were islands that floated in the sky, red colored lakes, and verdant green stones.
There seemed to be a great difference between the ecosystem of Asha and the other galaxy.
After a while, he flipped to a few pages of even more realistic pictures.
If it can be said that the previous pictures had a strong style of man-made paintings, then the later pictures were more close to photography. Nalun slowly realized in the aftermath. These exaggerated and bizarre images were probably pictures that were artistically altered.
The realistically depicted images of the Aerta Galaxy didn’t look too different from Asha. It was only missing some greenery. The air was permeated with a layer of gray fog.
The mixed IH child said: “Mine. Give, give me.”
Nalun lowered his head to focus on the owner of the book. The other was currently using an ‘innocent, weak, and alarmed’ expression to look at him. He hastily picked out another picture book from the bookcase in exchange.
“Let me read it for 10 more minutes, okay?”
The mixed IH child dumbfoundedly accepted the Asha picture book that was used in exchange. However, he didn’t flip through it. Instead, he used a pair of big, curious eyes to stare at Nalun, as if not understanding why this pretty big brother was unwilling to return his book.
Nalun actually really wanted to look through the Aerta made book some more. However, the current situation really seemed like he was bullying the young. The mixed IH child didn’t even reach the height of his waist. His two antennas trembled and swayed. It really made Nalun seem ‘extremely terrifying and vicious’ in contrast.
He crouched down and handed the intriguing book back: “Looks very good.”
The foreign galaxy child finally stopped being dumbfounded. He understood Nalun’s praise and broke into a huge smile.
“You also look very good!”
Nalun: “…..”
“Who’s he?” After Welin finished asking about the situation, he returned to Nalun’s side.
Nalun: “Should be a child that lives here.”
Weilin examined him for a while and tsked, saying: “He’s so green.”
The child made a face.
Nalun: “How are things?”
Weilin: “There’s indeed someone suspicious.”
Nalun looked towards him.
Weilin, helplessly: “But it could also be a coincidence. Even if there is a problem, it’s not a big problem.”
Nalun withdrew his gaze. The Aerta people’s communication devices have long been confiscated. During the observation period, the immigrants weren’t allowed to carry any communication device. If a spy really mixed inside and wanted to send information, they’d have to do it in person.
Weilin didn’t look very worried. As someone outside of the situation, Nalun wasn’t in the position to worry excessively.
The corner of his shirt was tugged.
Nalun lowered his head. A green baobao reflected in the depths of his grayish green eyes– Confused and unaware, the extraterrestrial child who couldn’t even speak fluently looked very pitiful.
He even reached out both hands and called out in a quiet voice: “Hug.”
Nalun: “……”
Weilin’s eyes lit up. He squeezed in front of Nalun and pulled the mixed IH child into his arms. Weighing the child in his hands, he said happily: “Most Aerta people are actually very cute!”
He squeezed the soft antennae, moved them to form a heart shape, and said sincerely: “Much better than Insectoids.”
Nalun: “You……” shouldn’t do that.
Before he said the words on the tip of his tongue, the loud wailing voice of the child already blew away the two people’s eardrums first. The mixed IH minor, who found himself in a stranger’s arms against his will, and even had his beloved antennae toyed with, instantly reached a state of mental collapse.
“Wuwaawaaa–”
The surrounding people immediately noticed and slowly gathered over here.
“Don’t cry anymore. Ai, why are you crying?” Flustered, Weilin desperately coaxed: “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Kids who love to cry will be sent to Hager to become ingredients for the next meal!”
The mixed IH child was stunned briefly, and then promptly burst into louder tears.
Nalun: “……”
Weilin panicked: “What to do? What to do? Can I throw him away?”
The surrounding people started whispering and discussing amongst themselves. Some of the words mixed into the discussion were ‘mean’, ‘irresponsible’, and such phrases. Someone even held up the personal comp in their hand, as if they were planning to take a video.
Facing this, Nalun expressionlessly took out the sunglasses that Sirius gave him and put them on.
Weilin: “???”
After putting on the sunglasses, the mysterious looking Honored Prince reached out a hand and patted the child on the head. He tentatively coaxed: “Be good.”
“Wuwuuwuuuwaa!”
The mixed IH child cried, completely forgetting himself and remained utterly unmoved.
Half an hour later, the two people exited after being reprimanded. Neither of their complexions looked good.
After hearing the news, the child’s parents had hastily rushed over to pick up the child. Because of the series of unpleasantries that occurred between the two sides, Weilin braced himself and apologized three times lest things become worse.
After seeing his parents, the mixed IH child finally returned to a peaceful state and gave Nalun a smile.
Weilin couldn’t hold back tears of relief: “See, this really wasn’t because of me.”
Nalun smiled insincerely: “You were clearly the one who made him cry.”
Weilin felt wronged.
The child suddenly raised the Aerta picture book and then pointed at the sunglasses on Nalun’s nose.
“Exchange…with you!”
Nalun refused coolly: “No exchange.”
The child was stunned again. His little eyes were filled with confusion.
“Exchange!”
Nalun took in a deep breath: “No exchange.”
The child felt a bit sulky, but he didn’t take back the picture book.
“A gift.”
Nalun: “……”
In the end, he accepted the gift from this extraterrestrial little friend.
This farce finally reached an end. After understanding what happened, the parents also felt somewhat awkward.
“Sorry. We caused trouble for you.”
“No, we were also responsible.”
“It was us who were too careless and got separated from our child.”
“No matter what you want to say, we also shouldn’t have teased your child.”
“He loves to cry too much.”
……
Everything reached a peaceful settlement in the end.
On ‘Sarri’, the Imperial Admiral sat in the main seat, looking at sight on the observation screen. The satellite moon of Dargi, which hid hundreds of Aerta refugees, was currently rotating slowly.
“It’s almost time.”
Andrew sat silently to the side. Hearing this, he said: “Admiral, I’m sending something to you.”
Sirius raised a brow. He was just about to say something when he heard Andrew say: “Wait until after this matter is over to look at it.”
–It’s probably better to wait until they return to criticize Weilin about this news of ”Two adult men publically bullying a young child”.
Thinking about the people in the video, who were mosaicked and yet still very easily recognizable, the vice-admiral felt an incoming headache and furthermore, he was especially missing his little buddy Diya, who had already been forced back to the Imperial Capital on business.
He should have started on his journey back right about now? Ai.
On the other side, Nalun and Weilin, who had left and come back, enjoyed the wonderful dinner made by the head chef Hager. This physically formidable, middle-aged, big chef even walked in an intimidating and terrifying manner. However, the food cart that he pushed over, was decorated extremely distinctly. The presentation of plates carried an even more subtle, ambiguous feeling.
Today’s dinner was single portioned.
Weilin’s eyes were filled with disappointment. He swallowed his saliva, waited before the head chef disappeared around the corner, before reaching out a hand. Picking up the coconut balls, he gave the Honored Prince a live performance of what’s called ‘one per bite’.
Nalun: “……”
When Weilin was about to swallow the last coconut ball, his personal comp sounded. Giving it a casual glance, his face color immediately changed.
“Nalun, they started fighting!”
thank you for the chapter!
Thank You for the new chapter ( ๑ ❛ ڡ ❛ ๑ )❤
Wilian funny man 🤣🤣🤣