The subsequent memories became fragmented.
It was like the result of being drunk or drugged, with senses becoming hazy. His Highness only vaguely remembered entering a treatment cabin, but as for where the cabin was or how he got in, he had no idea.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
When Ryann was called awake again, his head hurt so much he could barely open his eyes.
… Unreasonable, he thought groggily. He had been perfectly fine before sleeping, how could the treatment cabin make him feel worse?
“Your Highness… Your Highness?”
Xie Yuduo was knocking on his cabin door. Seeing him awake, he sighed in relief and said, “Your Highness, are you alright?”
When Ryann sat up, it felt like pulling himself out of a quagmire.
He panted lightly for a while, his vision shrouded in black mist, and said hoarsely, “How long did I sleep, what time is it… Ugh, did you make sure he took his medicine…”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ryann himself woke up with a start.
Glancing around, his scalp instantly went numb.
The half-collapsed window frame was covered with thick snow and ice, beneath which half of a broken fountain pen was exposed – the disabled human officer’s once favorite pen.
Although the fortress had been bombed beyond recognition from top to bottom, he could still recognize this room – it was Jiang Jianming’s room in Silver Big Dipper.
Just push open the side door, and next door would be his own quarters – back then, they didn’t sleep in the same bed.
Looking at the treatment cabin beneath him, it had long since run out of power.
He had actually entered Jiang’s room and crawled into a powerless treatment cabin to sleep until now.
“…”
Ryann turned away with a gloomy expression, his voice hoarse. “What did you wake me for?”
There was no one else in the room. Only Xie Yuduo saw the Crown Prince’s loss of composure.
The Major General said nothing else, just put his hand on Ryann’s shoulder. “There’s a message from Black Shark Base. The chief is asking about the Little Excellency.”
“She asked if the Little Excellency was wearing ‘that ring’ until the end?”
He added, “The chief said you’d know what she means.”
Ryann’s eyes flickered, “…He was wearing it.”
At that time, the first thing he saw was the pale, dangling hand with the ring on the ring finger – he couldn’t forget it even if he wanted to.
As soon as he finished speaking, his shoulder was gripped painfully by the suddenly tightening hand.
Xie Yuduo’s eyes immediately brightened. “Your Highness! The chief said if the answer is affirmative, be sure to protect the body well. She’ll come as soon as possible.”
The possibility of coming to see meant there might be some turning point – the Major General suppressed the tremor in his heart and said quickly in a low voice. “Why don’t we wait for the chief to arrive first, and consider other matters slowly later, alright?”
…But the next second, Xie Yuduo’s heart sank heavily again.
Faced with such earth-shattering news, Ryann had no reaction at all. His Highness calmly got out of the treatment cabin and said lightly, “Then we’ll wait for her to come.”
“That’s good too, I was just worrying about how to explain to Her Majesty. Let the chief do the talking.”
“Remind her to be careful on the way, there might still be alien creatures roaming in the universe. Avoid wormhole jumps within the battlefield range… No need to rush, with current technology, preserving the body for a few months shouldn’t be a problem.”
The room was quiet for a few seconds. Ryann walked towards the desk, and as he passed the windowsill, he casually pulled out the broken fountain pen from under the snow.
The ink had long since dried up, reminiscent of a corpse drained of blood.
“Little Highness.”
Xie Yuduo suddenly said, “You didn’t used to call ‘Her Majesty’.”
“……”
Xie Yuduo: “And you wouldn’t tell the chief to be careful.”
“What about before that?”
Ryann lowered his eyes, wiping the snow off the pen’s body with his sleeve and putting it into his chest pocket, “Haven’t I already explained to you about the Base Body plan and consciousness projection technology?”
“I died once and forgot some things, now I’ve remembered them again, that’s all.”
“Speaking of which, isn’t my previous body still with you? That shell is useless now, destroy it.”
Xie Yuduo fell silent. He swallowed his words, bitterness filling his mouth—
But even before your previous self, you weren’t like this…
…
In just one morning, the news of Jiang Jianming’s death had enveloped the entire fortress like a cloud of sorrow, which continued to linger.
In the past, no one would have believed that these elite imperial forces, these most outstanding new human warriors, would grieve so deeply for a young disabled human.
If Jiang Jianming could see this, he would probably be both shocked and relieved that his decision to sneak off and die midway through the battle was indeed the right one.
However, the dejection of the troops did not cause the entire army to fall apart.
Because there were orders pressing down from above.
—Almost everyone was certain that their Crown Prince had gone a bit mad, or at least was not quite normal after the shock.
Crown Prince Ryann kept issuing orders. Counting casualties, checking supplies, collecting bodies… Tasks that would normally take three to five days were required to be completed in one day, with His Highness personally overseeing them.
Not only that, but he also took on the summary of this battle, the subsequent strategic concepts, and the compilation and analysis of various new intelligence about crystal particles, and so on.
The entire army couldn’t help but feel that His Highness Ryann seemed to be trying to drag everyone forward by sheer force of will.
Under such high-intensity busyness, Ryann had not gone to see Jiang Jianming once, and hardly even inquired about related matters.
People in the military began to whisper among themselves.
Some sighed that imperial hearts were indeed cold, while others argued that His Highness Ryann simply dared not let himself fall apart.
“Do you think…” someone said softly while replacing the energy tube of a mecha, “we’ll have a second Crown Princess in the future?”
The soldier next to him didn’t respond for a long time, then sighed, “I suppose so, given His Highness Ryann’s status. But…”
But there would never be someone like Jiang Jianming again.
Everyone thought this silently to themselves.
It was strange – a sickly disabled human of common birth and the naturally noble and powerful heir to the empire seemed as different as clouds and mud.
Even within the military, until this battle began, some people – like Alen Wilson, who considered himself the empire’s strongest mecha soldier – still held doubtful or even contemptuous attitudes towards Jiang Jianming.
But it wasn’t until they lost him and began to imagine the question of “will there be a second Crown Princess in the future” that they realized:
It seemed that apart from this person, there would never be another who could stand beside the Crown Prince without any sense of incongruity.
****
“Regarding the speculation about the so-called highly intelligent alien life forms, this is roughly what he left behind.”
Late at night, still in that old room, now serving as the Crown Prince’s temporary office.
Ryann sat by the window at the desk, speaking while staring at the large virtual screen in front of him.
“The things that several expert research meetings of the entire Imperial military couldn’t figure out… aren’t you ashamed?”
Text scrolled on the screen. It was the message Jiang Jianming had left in that medical mecha in his final moments.
Xie Yuduo stood behind him, repeatedly responding with “Yes, yes, yes.”
In his heart, he was sighing: So this was the mechanism of shared memory information after the death of the possessing alien life form…
No wonder the Little Excellency had to deceive even the Imperial army at that time, no wonder the alien life forms collapsed so quickly.
What a calculation, what boldness. It was fortunate that their army lived up to expectations and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
“As for the Crystal Cult… Jiang’s inference was that after being thwarted twice both inside and outside the empire, they’ve suffered heavy losses and are unlikely to organize effective attacks in the short term.”
“In this case, if there are desperate remnants, they’re very likely to turn to attacking the space bandits instead.”
Ryann turned off the screen and coldly turned back. “That space bandit’s son is still at the Second Fortress, right? Discuss with Jin Min again. I don’t care about Lava’s life or death, but we can’t let the Crystal Cult succeed.”
Xie Yuduo immediately indicated he understood.
At this moment, there was a knock on the door of the room, and Lieutenant Colonel Zheng Yue entered.
Behind him were two logistics soldiers, pushing in a cart covered with a white cloth.
“Reporting to Your Highness, Major General.”
Zheng Yue stood at the door and saluted. “There are still some of the Little Excellency’s belongings on the starship, which have just been sorted out. I thought… it would be best to hand them over to Your Highness.”
Ryann looked straight ahead. “Mm, put it aside.”
“Also.”
Zheng Yue hesitated for a moment, “His Excellency Jiang Sheng wishes to see you.”
Ryann: “Why see me? No time for personal matters, we’ll talk after this busy period is over. Official business is another matter.”
“…”
Zheng Yue was at a loss for words, looking towards Xie Yuduo with difficulty, only to receive an equally troubled look in return.
Both knew that His Highness’s mental state wasn’t good right now, and neither dared to say more. Zheng Yue left with his tail between his legs.
Throughout, Ryann didn’t spare a single glance at the cart of belongings.
He kept Xie Yuduo busy until dawn, until the Major General couldn’t stay awake any longer and excused himself early, leaving only His Highness facing the screen.
Perhaps due to the accumulation of fatigue. In the lonely deep night, his consciousness and memories blurred again.
…
The next day, Xie Yuduo, worried, got up early from bed and came to knock on His Highness’s door.
He knocked a few times, with no response from inside.
The Major General panicked instantly and directly used his authority to open the automatic door. Just two steps in, he tripped over something.
Xie Yuduo looked down to see it was the leg of a wheeled iron cart.
Looking up again, his eye twitched violently.
In the room, metal parts were scattered all over the floor. The cart containing the belongings from last night had been completely dismantled, as if someone had smashed it in a frenzy in the middle of the night.
Besides the cart’s “dismembered limbs”, the transparent bags uniformly used by the military to seal belongings had also been torn apart and thrown on the ground.
The contents inside had vanished—
“…..”
Xie Yuduo’s complicated gaze only swept the room briefly before stopping abruptly in one corner.
Instantly, the Major General felt as if his heart had been twisted by a knife. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, unable to bear looking further, feeling as if all the blood in his body was rushing to his throat.
Inside the non-functioning treatment cabin, someone had piled the belongings together like building a nest, with a few strands of wavy platinum blonde hair poking out.
His Highness the Crown Prince was curled up in the center of the treatment cabin, tightly hugging Jiang Jianming’s former bedding and clothes.
He arched his back, burying his face deep into them, breathing shallowly with closed eyes, having fallen asleep like this.
What suffocated Xie Yuduo even more came next.
As soon as he entered, Ryann quickly sensed the presence of another person and woke up within half a minute.
The Crown Prince awoke in the nest he had built, his gaze shifting from hazy to clear — then instantly his face turned ashen.
He sat up abruptly and angrily exclaimed. “What is going on here!?”
Xie Yuduo’s expression was indescribable. He could only say tactfully, “Your Highness, no one entered your room last night.”
What’s going on, that’s something you’d have to ask yourself.
“…..”
Ryann seemed dazed, leaning against the inside of the treatment cabin.
Looking around, besides Jiang’s clothes and bedding, there were even his personal weapons, ammunition, daily medications, notebooks, wrist device, chip box, and so on.
Any normal person wouldn’t sleep with these cold and uncomfortable items.
“You,” Xie Yuduo hesitated, “don’t remember?”
“Your Highness, you really can’t go on like this, you should let—”
Ryann shot him an icy glare. “What?”
Xie Yuduo was forced to swallow back “you should let yourself go”, and tremblingly said, “—Re-relax a bit.”
Ryann’s expression was gloomy. He stood up, resuming that cold, detached demeanor.
“Call someone to sort through the belongings again, clean them, and send them to Jiang’s adoptive father.”
Xie Yuduo felt he might break down first.
At this moment, the Major General’s only hope was the base chief who said she would come personally. Now he dared not hope for more; even if she could just persuade His Highness Ryann a little, it would be good.
In this torment, time moved forward painfully, reaching the third day after Jiang Jianming’s sacrifice.
Finally, the starship from Black Shark Base arrived.
