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 Klaire left, His Majesty Trand took Anna’s hand in a complicated mood. He said in a low voice, “After hearing what Klaire 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…”
Anna comforted him softly. “Your Majesty, you don’t need to blame 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 Klaire won’t make Xi Wei unhappy.”
Xi Wei completely hadn’t expected that after Klaire 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 Klaire to the door. He was intending to let go of his hand, but Klaire 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 Klaire all the way to the palace gates.
When it was time to part, Xi Wei patted his shoulder lightly and said, “Thanks for your trouble acting.”
Klaire 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 to come by. It would only be right for him to grasp this opportunity. After he thought of this, Klaire 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 genetics didn’t let him grow too tall. He was shorter than Klaire 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 Klaire’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’s late, you should hurry back.”
“Okay, goodbye.” Klaire smiled and let go of him.
Bluestar suddenly jumped out. The blue star turned into a little claw, 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 into laughter, while Klaire helplessly held his forehead. Egret straightaway switched himself off, not wanting to pay attention to this fool.
Bluestar sadly carried Klaire 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?”
Klaire patiently explained, “Because your owner is smarter than you, and you’re too dumb.”
Bluestar looked unconvinced. “I’m one of the few S-class sentient mechas in the Empire, and my AI can be compared to human intelligence. My IQ tested past 250!”
Klaire said, “Your EQ is negative.”
Bluestar was very confused. “What’s EQ?”
The foolish mecha then went on the Internet database to search “EQ.” Klaire 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 week later, Klaire officially came to the Morningstar Corps with his father, General Byron.
The Morningstar Corps was stationed on the Taiya planet, located between the Cepheus solar system and the Ursa solar system. This planet’s environment was rather desolate. 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 a large plain, where most of the Morningstar Corps’s battleships were landed.
Klaire followed his father as he reviewed the troops. The deep blue battleships were laid out on the plain for inspection, causing a feeling of hot-blooded enthusiasm to well up from the bottom of Klaire’s heart.
He had never thought of becoming a soldier before, but after experiencing several crises in the Glory Corps, he suddenly felt that becoming 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, Klaire 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.
Klaire 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 successor.
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 Klaire to everyone.
Starting the next morning, according to Byron’s arrangement, Klaire 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 after coming 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 and comfortably. With Klaire as a beard, His Majesty and the Queen wouldn’t press him to get married. He only needed to chat with Klaire by video call every few days, and it was enough to make his father and mother feel that their relationship was very good.
In this way, more than a year passed. The Third Princess Celine also married and moved to a faraway galaxy, leaving the capital planet. 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 palace, 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 planet, where he met the Thunderclap 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 the last two years.
From the Cobra Corps, Carlo rose from major to senior colonel. The Thunderclap Corps’s Joen had gone from lieutenant colonel to senior colonel last year, and now he was promoted again, to major general. This kind of promotion route was a common method for military heirs to obtain a ticket to the upper ranks. And as for Klaire, 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 Klaire’s military achievements from when he was in the Glory Legion: from the time when he succeeded 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 Klaire’s achievements. The only place 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 Klaire. Not only does he have a natural gift for command, but he can also pilot an S-class 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 Klaire 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 Klaire’s body, for a military man, those scars were emblems of honor.
The award ceremony was held on Christmas Day.
This was Klaire’s first time coming 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 occasion like this, and obediently followed their fathers to the assembly hall on the top floor.
There were many soldiers from the younger generation who received commendations. Joen was promoted to the rank of major general, and he stood by his father’s side in high spirits. When Klaire’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 Klaire wore his military uniform, these epaulettes would show his respected status of major general.
When he saw Klaire 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.”
Klaire said clearly, “Yes, Marshal!”
His bright voice resounded throughout the entire auditorium. The audience cooperated by clapping. 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 Klaire’s promotion to major general. That night, he called Queen Anna, Xi Wei and Berg into the palace, smiled and said, “Let me tell you some good news. They’ve just made an exception and promoted Klaire to major general.”
Xi Wei said in surprise, “Really? Looks like his performance in the past few years was pretty good to become a major general this young.”
Berg smiled and said, “I heard that this was the marshal’s proposal. Klaire 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 become 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 Klaire and bring him into the palace as her son-in-law really made Xi Wei blush in shame. Although as a friend, Xi Wei felt happy for Klaire’s promotion to major general, the way His Majesty and his uncle were praising Klaire 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 Klaire 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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