——Pa.
At the Golden Sun Wheel’s office door, Jiang Jianming stopped in surprise because in the second he passed by, Garcia suddenly clenched his wrist.
“Your Highness!” He frowned and said softly, “You’re hurting me.”
“Don’t go.”
Garcia’s voice was hoarse. He didn’t look at Jiang Jianming, but gritted his teeth word by word, “You stop, don’t go any further.”
Jiang Jianming pursed his lips and remained silent, the prince pulled him over and stared at him. “You’re sick and you must receive treatment.”
A sharp pain spread from his fingertips to his heart. Jiang Jianming closed his eyes and opened them again, unable to bear Garcia’s gaze.
He looked down with a bitter smile and sighed, “Chronic crystal chaos cannot be cured, Your Highness.”
“But treatment can prolong your life. During this time, technology will progress, and new drugs will be developed, you will live.”
The prince said seriously, with a solemn expression. If one ignored the overly tense tone, it’s as if it’s really possible. “You will live long, a healthy and long life in the second-half of your life.”
“…Please don’t do this.”
“How the hell can you be satisfied then!?” Garcia couldn’t help but roar. He spoke incoherently, “Since I’m the lover you’re looking for, and you’ve found him, he’s just lost some memories… but if you teach him, he will go and learn…”
“Good heavens.” The female emperor leaned against the door and raised her eyebrows in surprise. She turned her head to look at the chief and the old marshal in the office, “Look at this little bastard, he actually agreed. We’ve been trying to coax and pester him unceasingly for three years but didn’t succeed.”
The chief also stepped forward and spoke to the female emperor without any waves under her black mask, “Say a few less words, Your Majesty.”
“He will learn as before,” Garcia insisted, “Only he won’t hurt you anymore, let alone abandon you… but you can punish him to vent your anger. Whatever you want to do is reasonable, he will obey, as long as you are willing to be treated.”
“No, you misunderstand.” Jiang Jianming pushed away Garcia’s hand. At this point, his brows and eyes were already very calm, almost ruthless, “I’m doing this for myself, the pitiful and abandoned disabled human being back then.”
“This is my anger, my sadness, my unwillingness… condensed into my choice, and it has nothing to do with anyone else.”
“Do you understand what I mean? Even if Ryann with complete memories appears in front of me, I will only give him another slap and then let him go.”
Garcia’s face suddenly drained of color. His emerald eyes widened in confusion, like a criminal sentenced to death.
The most decisive words had been said, and it should have ended here, Jiang Jianming thought to himself.
But Garcia still refused to let go. He stared at Jiang Jianming, with unwavering determination, and asked in a trembling voice, “What about me?”
Jiang Jianming was speechless.
“I…I’m begging you,” Garcia’s eyes turned red, and he held Jiang Jianming’s wrist with both hands, whispering, “I’ll give you anything you want, I’m begging you like this.”
Everything was no longer important.
His pride, his rebellion, his persistence in himself, his contempt for the empire and society…all of it that he had stubbornly held onto during those empty years of loneliness and stubbornness.
No, he didn’t want any of it anymore. He would break his spine and spill his heart’s blood onto the scales, just to exchange for another person to stop and turn back on the road to death.
“No matter what you want…”
Garcia suddenly raised his head, and a murderous intent flashed in his cold emerald eyes.
In the next moment, he fiercely stomped his foot, and the red gold crystal bone on his wrist stabbed straight out, cunningly aiming for the female emperor’s throat–
Old Marshal Chen’s complexion changed. “Your Majesty, be careful!!”
Lin Ge’s pupils shrank, and she raised her hand to draw her long knife, however there was only a crisp sound, and the Thief Slaughterer at her waist was already flung into the air by a real crystal.
The red gold luster was magnified in her eyes–
Clang! A harsh metallic collision sound, and the chief flashed in front of the female emperor.
She bent her arm, and a silver-gray crystal bone appeared on the specially-made black armor on her forearm, but it had already been pierced half a centimeter deep by Garcia’s crystal bone.
The female emperor’s face darkened, and she roughly pulled the chief back, cursing, “You little bastard, why are you going crazy with your old woman!?”
“Garcia!” Jiang Jianming never expected this person to suddenly attack, and let out a cry of surprise.
The young prince’s murderous intent increased instead of decreasing, and he directly held the crystal bone against Lin Ge’s neck, his gaze coldly scanning between the chief and the female emperor, “Tell him what he wants to know.”
As long as he got the so-called truth, this disabled human being who had already tortured himself with wounds and holes would stop.
“Zhen won’t say it,” Lin Ge sneered, her gaze drifting towards the Old Marshal Chen, who had an ugly expression, and the chief who remained silent. “The Chief and Chen won’t say it either. Do you want to know why?”
“When you face a cruel reality and find yourself powerless to fight against it, every moment of living in this world is torture worse than death.”
Jiang Jianming was about to step forward to stop Garcia, but he stopped in surprise at Lin Ge’s words. He remembered that the chief had said something similar, and his heart began to beat faster.
——This universe is cruel. Early exposure to certain things will only lead to self-destruction in despair. She seemed to have said that at the time.
…And Ryann had been exposed to this matter. The chief had promised Ryann to keep it a secret from him because he couldn’t bear to see him in such pain.
“Are you willing, Kaios?” Lin Ge laughed almost maliciously, her phoenix eyes glancing at Jiang Jianming.
“The person behind you hasn’t even eaten tonight’s New Year festival meal. He bought you an apple and said he wanted to cook for you.”
“And Zhen only needs the next ten minutes of narration, to destroy all of this. Let him be haunted by nightmares every night in the future.”
“…Shut up.” Garcia’s expression was fierce, his sharp white teeth grinding, and his eyes seemed to be brewing a devastating storm.
Suddenly, a hand reached from behind and, in a rebellious manner, grabbed the prince’s long curly hair that was hanging down unsuspectingly.
“!?” Garcia was caught off guard and let out a grunt. His fierce expression disappeared in shock and anger as Jiang Jianming pulled his hair and pulled him a few steps back.
“No need, I accept Your Majesty’s intention.”
Jiang Jianming calmly pulled Garcia’s hair and forced him to step back with him. “Besides, you’ve actually told me a lot today.”
“Ryann died under some kind of ‘powerlessness to fight against it’ in the depths of the universe, which is more comforting to me than dying under the dark political struggles within the empire…at least that’s how I think now.”
After all, Ryann had sincerely treated these mentors, and if even those friendships were false, then this world would be too sad.
“Thank you, we also saw your choice today, Little Excellency.”
The chief deeply bowed and slowly said, “If you want to turn back, the base is always willing to provide the most advanced medical system.”
“But if you want to stick to this choice, yes, your direction is not wrong. Everything is waiting for you in the Crystal Nest.”
Like a stone thrown into a lake, ripples spread. Jiang Jianming released his hand in a daze, feeling somewhat unreal.
What…what does this mean? The emperor and the chief are hinting at the location of the truth to him, and they agree…or at least tacitly allow him to go to the Crystal Nest?
Old Marshal Chen: “Your Majesty, Chief!”
“Old Chen, that’s enough, let him go.”
Lin Ge waved her hand, turned and walked back to the office, while smiling but not smiling, “You can’t stop him. If you do, both sides will end up bumping heads and there’ll be bloodshed, that would be a loss.”
“Mingming, take a few days to rest and take care of yourself. Your Little Highness’ appearance, there will be a lot of troubles ahead.”
“Although no one is stopping you from going to the Crystal Nest, Little Excellency, your body…you can’t rush it, do you understand?”
Is it really…unexpectedly this easy?
Jiang Jianming couldn’t suppress his accelerated heartbeat and breathing.
He thought he would have to struggle half-dead for several years before he could catch a glimpse of a glimmer of hope, or even never see it until he died. Unexpectedly, in just a few months, this path had reached a turning point.
Go to the Crystal Nest…
The secret in the Crystal Nest is the key to all of this!
At the same time, he also noticed something strange.
It seems that…the emperor and others, on the one hand, are indeed hiding the so-called truth and cannot bear him to die.
On the other hand, they can quickly accept his choice and let him continue on this path.
This feeling was too strange, and Jiang Jianming felt unable to make sense of it.
Is this testing his consciousness? But if it’s a test that the superior gives to the subordinate before entrusting them with an important task, he feels like something is missing.
This contradictory feeling seems familiar. What is the difference?
Jiang Jianming frowned and fell into his own thoughts.
Until the low panting sound fell on his neck, Garcia roughly grabbed his arms, and his ten fingers trembled slightly.
“Are you so happy because the emperor has granted you the privilege of going to that Crystal Nest to die?”
The prince almost ground his silver teeth to pieces, his eyes red as he forced the question, “So…”
“Even if I beg you like this, you still will want to leave, right?”
Jiang Jianming: “.”
…Ah, it’s over.
He has completely angered his own person.
“What are you saying it’s for yourself, full of lies, you were just comforting yourself about Ryann’s death…you still love him.”
Garcia breathed heavily, as he pressed Jiang Jianming tightly into his arms, his emotions on the verge of losing control. “You still love someone who hurt you, abandoned you, and caused you to suffer from chronic crystal chaos!?”
I said that chronic crystal chaos was my own choice...Jiang Jianming wanted to reiterate with a bitter smile, but a stronger sense of heartache and sadness overwhelmed him.
He chose to quietly and obediently snuggle into the arms of Prince Garcia, and reached out to touch the trembling spine of the other person.
“…It’s okay, don’t be too afraid. I will treat my illness well, and chronic crystal chaos won’t just kill me like that, really.”
“It’s not impossible to lead troops while treating my illness. As long as I can lead troops in the future, the number of times I personally fight will also decrease, right?”
“Little Highness? Shall we go home first…that, to be honest, I’m a little hungry.”
“Enough.”
Garcia suddenly took a deep breath and said coldly, “Bring out your Snow Dove, Jiang.”
“Tonight, come with me to the Omega Alien Star.”
“They still need to hide something from you, but I don’t want to anymore. I’ll tell you….the truth about me.”
