Chapter 66


    Hey, the quarter’s over and I survived... ??


    ***


    His first time meeting the parents went exceptionally smoothly. Queen Anna found him pleasing to the eye no matter how she looked at him, and even His Majesty Trand, who hadn’t felt sure about him, had changed his point of view.


    After ire left, His Majesty Trand took Anna’s hand in aplicated mood. He said in a low voice, “After hearing what ire had to say today, I actually felt a bit guilty. Maybe I’ve been overthinking this. The two of them are truly in love, but all I’ve been thinking about is the position of the royal family versus the Warwick family...”


    Annaforted him softly. “Your Majesty, you don’t need to me yourself too much. After all, Xi Wei is a prince. You didn’t dare to let him marry just anyone because you loved him too much, and were afraid he might get hurt. Xi Wei will understand. They’re still young right now, and since they’re happy with each other, I think we can just set an engagement for now. It’s no big deal if we put off the wedding for a few years.”


    Trand nodded and sighed softly. “I hope ire won’t make Xi Wei unhappy.”


    Xi Weipletely hadn’t expected that after ire met his parents once, he’d actually make His Majesty and the Queen start discussing engagement. He’d basically jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire!


    Following his mother’s wishes, Xi Wei took ire to the door. He was intending to let go of his hand, but ire suddenly leaned close to him and said, “Don’t let go for now. There’s members of the Royal Guard behind us. If you let go of my hand as soon as we get out of the door, they’ll be suspicious.”


    Xi Wei could only nod and walk hand in hand with ire all the way to the pce gates.


    When it was time to part, Xi Wei patted his shoulder lightly and said, “Thanks for your trouble acting.”


    ire found it tremendously funny at heart. Xi Wei was such a straightforward guy; he’d never expect that he’d been sold, and was even helping the seller count his money. Afterwards, when he knew the truth, wouldn’t he be furious enough to show his fists and beat him up?


    But after liking him for such a long time, having the excuse of acting to get closer to him was a chance that was hard toe by. It would only be right for him to grasp this opportunity. After he thought of this, ire smiled, reached out and hugged Xi Wei. He said softly, “Do you still need to stand on ceremony with me? If you need something in the future, find me anytime.”


    Xi Wei felt a little awkward inside. Although they were both men, since he was an omega, his gics didn’t let him grow too tall. He was shorter than ire by half a head, so when he hugged him like this, he was pulled tight against his chest.


    He was probably thinking too much, right? Why did this hugging position feel like he was protecting him?


    Xi Wei scratched his head and banished the strange thoughts that had suddenly risen up in his mind. He smiled and patted ire’s back, saying, “Alright, if you keep being sappy like this I won’t be able to take it. I didn’t think your acting would be this good... It’ste, you should hurry back.”


    “Okay, goodbye.” ire smiled and let go of him.


    Bluestar suddenly jumped out. The blue star turned into a little w, and he reached for Xi Wei and said, “Your Highness, what about Egret? I want to say goodbye to Egret.”


    Xi Wei was speechless. “Why would you need to say goodbye?”


    Bluestar twisted around shyly and said, “Aren’t we acting? I think my acting is pretty good too. Egret and I can act as lovers. That way, the owners and their mechas would be two pairs of lovers. Don’t you feel it’s very touching?”


    Egret: “...”


    Xi Wei was amused intoughter, while ire helplessly held his forehead. Egret straightaway switched himself off, not wanting to pay attention to this fool.


    Bluestar sadly carried ire back home, feeling aggrieved the entire way. “Owner, why is it that you got to hold hands with His Highness and hug him and he didn’t object at all, but I couldn’t even say hello to Egret without him ignoring me?”


    ire patiently exined, “Because your owner is smarter than you, and you’re too dumb.”


    Bluestar looked unconvinced. “I’m one of the few S-ss sentient mechas in the Empire, and my AI can bepared to human intelligence. My IQ tested past 250!”


    ire said, “Your EQ is negative.”


    Bluestar was very confused. “What’s EQ?”


    The foolish mecha then went on the Inte database to search “EQ.” ire smiled and poked the blue star floating in front of him, and suddenly felt that with this lively mecha at his side, his life after getting together with Xi Wei would be pretty fun.


    A weekter, ire officially came to the Morningstar Corps with his father, General Byron.


    The Morningstar Corps was stationed on the Taiya, located between the Cepheus sr system and the Ursa sr system. This’s environment was rather deste. Outside of the corps encampment, nowhere else had been developed, and it all consisted of wild forests and steep valleys.


    The corps was stationed on arge in, where most of the Morningstar Corps’s battleships werended.


    ire followed his father as he reviewed the troops. The deep blue battleships wereid out on the in for inspection, causing a feeling of hot-blooded enthusiasm to well up from the bottom of ire’s heart.


    He had never thought of bing a soldier before, but after experiencing several crises in the Glory Corps, he suddenly felt that bing an imperial soldier wasn’t bad. He liked the feeling of piloting his mecha back and forth through the enemy camp, and he especially liked the moments when he could cooperate with the rear troops to beat the Federal troops into a sorry state. His heart would boil with a hot-blooded fervor. It was a feeling he could only experience for himself on the battlefield.


    If he had been born into a peaceful era, he would’ve been willing to protect Xi Wei for a lifetime and enjoy his days of ordinary happiness. But since he had been born into a military family, and the Empire and the Federation were undergoing ceaseless border disputes, he was willing to expend what little strength he had for his country.


    Loving Xi Wei was a very important thing.


    But it wasn’t everything.


    After he left Xi Wei and came to the Morningstar Corps, ire kept telling himself that he had to seriously do the things he had to do, and not disappoint his father who had given him a lot of thought.


    ire followed General Byron during the entire process of reviewing the troops, showing the appropriate etiquette. When he received officials of the rank of major general or higher, he was refined and courteous, and he was modest in front of his elders. He didn’t show the slightest bit of arrogance from being the chosen sessor.


    General Craig was very satisfied with his son’s performance, and the corps seniors also had a good impression of this princeling. In the evening, General Byron held a banquet on the mothership to officially introduce ire to everyone.


    Starting the next morning, ording to Byron’s arrangement, ire began handling some simple things in the corps. Since he had a year’s worth of experience at the Glory Corps, and had learned no small number of things from the marshal, he found it easy to master the tasks his father gave him aftering to the Morningstar Corps.


    His days at the Morningstar Corps were very busy. In his remaining leisure time, he still had video calls with Xi Wei, and told him about how things were going. He could only press down the words of longing in his heart.


    Xi Wei, on the other hand, was living quite easily andfortably. With ire as a beard, His Majesty and the Queen wouldn’t press him to get married. He only needed to chat with ire by video call every few days, and it was enough to make his father and mother feel that their rtionship was very good.


    In this way, more than a year passed. The Third Princess Celine also married and moved to a faraway gxy, leaving the capital. The little prince Caesar was almost old enough to attend college, and he spent every day studying diligently at St. Paul Academy. In the huge pce, only Prince Xi Wei was left. His Majesty Trand and Queen Anna actually felt reluctant to give him away.


    At the end of the year 797 of the universal calendar, Marshal Rosen led the Glory Corps back to the capital, where he met the Thunderp Corps, Phantom Corps, Cobra Corps, Morningstar Corps and Rose Corps for a rare gathering. The military had decided to hold an award assembly to give awards and promotions to the young people who had made significant military contributions over thest two years.


    From the Cobra Corps, Carlo rose from major to senior colonel. The Thunderp Corps’s Joen had gone from lieutenant colonel to senior colonelst year, and now he was promoted again, to major general. This kind of promotion route was amon method for military heirs to obtain a ticket to the upper ranks. And as for ire, who was still so young, the marshal actually proposed that he be directly promoted to major general!


    It was unprecedented in imperial history for someone barely twenty-three to be promoted to major general. Naturally, many people questioned this proposal.


    However, Marshal Rosen suddenly took out the record of ire’s military achievements from when he was in the Glory Legion: from the time when he seeded in singlehandedly breaking through the Federal troops’s encirclement, to when he led the outnumbered vanguard against the enemy on the front lines and eliminated an entire division’s worth of Federal troops, to the many times when his disruption had forced the enemy to retreat, and the times when he rescued Imperial citizens who had been held captive...


    The brilliant military achievements listed out on the virtual screen stunned everyone!


    “I think that of the ranked officers here, many can’t even measure up to half of ire’s achievements. The only ce where he loses to everyone here is age. Why can’t we make an exception and promote him?” Marshal Rosen’s cold gaze swept over everyone present. He said calmly, “The military needs talented people like ire. Not only does he have a natural gift formand, but he can also pilot an S-ss mecha. His mental strength is enough to make him qualified for the position of major general.”


    With the marshal’s support, and the added strong backing of his father General Byron, the proposal to promote ire to major general passed by majority vote.


    No one expected that such a young alpha would actually have hidden depths, racking up so many merits at the Glory Corps. Seeing achievement after achievement listed before him, General Byron couldn’t help but feel proud of his son. Although there were not a few scars left behind on ire’s body, for a military man, those scars were emblems of honor.


    The award ceremony was held on Christmas Day.


    This was ire’s first timeing to the Imperial Military Hall. The generals of the six major corps that came walked in with straight backs, wearing different military uniforms, their gazes firm. Although there were also some useless second-generation children of military families there, they didn’t dare to act recklessly on an asion like this, and obediently followed their fathers to the assembly hall on the top floor.


    There were many soldiers from the younger generation who receivedmendations. Joen was promoted to the rank of major general, and he stood by his father’s side in high spirits. When ire’s turn came, he walked calmly onto the stage, faced the marshal and saluted sharply. He took a medal of honor and a brand new pair of epaulettes from the marshal’s hands.


    On each epaulette, there were three silver stars, representing the Morningstar Corps. A dazzling golden star and a pair of crossed golden sickles represented the rank of major general. Afterwards, when ire wore his military uniform, these epaulettes would show his respected status of major general.


    When he saw ire take the velvet tray, the marshal nodded and said, “The military conferred you the rank of major general in hopes that you’ll continue to put forth effort, and won’t let your elders down.”


    ire said clearly, “Yes, Marshal!”


    His bright voice resounded throughout the entire auditorium. The audience cooperated by pping. Everyone looked on to see whether the Empire’s youngest major general in front of them was only impressive-looking on the outside, or a genuine talent.


    His Majesty was naturally the first one to know about the news of ire’s promotion to major general. That night, he called Queen Anna, Xi Wei and Berg into the pce, smiled and said, “Let me tell you some good news. They’ve just made an exception and promoted ire to major general.”


    Xi Wei said in surprise, “Really? Looks like his performance in the past few years was pretty good to be a major general this young.”


    Berg smiled and said, “I heard that this was the marshal’s proposal. ire made no small number of military contributions during his time at the Glory Corps. What’s really amazing is that this boy is so young, but he never shows off, doesn’t say a word when he does something, and keeps a low profile. He’ll probably be a celebrity overnight.”


    Queen Anna beamed and said, “That’s right, he’s truly worthy of being the person Xi Wei likes. He really is very outstanding.”


    “...” Xi Wei coughed in embarrassment.


    His mother’s attitude of itching to grab ire and bring him into the pce as her son-inw really made Xi Wei blush in shame. Although as a friend, Xi Wei felt happy for ire’s promotion to major general, the way His Majesty and his uncle were praising ire to the utmost suddenly gave him a bad feeling.


    Sure enough, His Majesty smiled and said, “It looks like we should add the engagement to the agenda.”


    Berg gave a nod of approval. “I think we should strike while the iron is hot, and get Xi Wei and ire engaged this New Year.”


    Xi Wei: “...”


    Help! How did they get on the topic of engagement? Could it be that he really jumped from the frying pan into the fire?!


    ***


    5 hours and 6 minutes for 2,490 words, or 12.3 minutes for every 100 words. An increase in rate by 1.2 minutes...right back to where we started.


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