Upon hearing “monitoring”, Ryann could no longer lie still. He pushed Xie Yuduo away and sat up, enduring the weakness throughout his body. “Give me…”
“Whoa, wait, wait! The needle, the needle!” Xie Yuduo was at his wits’ end. He tried to hold down Ryann’s arm, but couldn’t restrain him.
In his urgency, Ryann directly pulled out the IV needle, drawing blood. “Let me see!”
“Don’t rush, Little Highness.”
Sylph pulled over a chair and opened the light computer on the nearby table. “Major General, please clear out the unnecessary people and lock the door.”
Xie Yuduo: “…Yes, alright, understood.”
The highest-ranking general of the First Fortress, the youngest and most promising general in the military, was still being ordered around in front of the Crown Prince and the chief.
By the time Xie Yuduo had dutifully run off to clear the area of bystanders, set access permissions on the automatic door, and run back, the chief was already playing the video.
The mecha’s main internal camera was installed in the upper right, at an angle facing the pilot’s seat that also captured almost the entire rear space.
As soon as the video began playing, a snowflake blew into the cockpit, landing on the black-haired youth’s hair. The mecha was already inside the Stele of Heroes.
Ryann’s expression darkened. “Why not play it from the very beginning, from the second the mecha activated?”
“Your Highness, we need to save time. Please listen,” Sylph said calmly. “I’ve been through a lot over the years. Listening to an old woman’s words isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“You…!” A flash of displeasure crossed Ryann’s eyes, but the next moment he couldn’t take his gaze off the screen.
–In the footage, the disabled human military officer, who had been quietly resting in the pilot’s seat, laboriously raised his arm.
Jiang Jianming’s condition was already very poor. His breathing was weak, his gaze unfocused, and blood occasionally slid from the corner of his mouth when he coughed.
He slowly raised his pale fingers and began to feel along the alloy wall of the medical mecha. From his slow movements, it was clear he could no longer see.
Ryann felt his heart being wrenched. “What is he looking for?”
The chief ignored him, first retrieving a cotton ball from a nearby drawer to treat the bleeding on the back of Ryann’s hand.
“Major General Xie, you see, you first need to give him something he wants to attract his attention. This way, His Highness will be more obedient.”
Xie Yuduo: “.”
With such blatant manipulation, Ryann couldn’t possibly have missed the chief’s words. But Jiang Jianming’s actions had indeed captured his full attention.
The answer His Highness craved was immediately revealed as the pale fingertips touched a metal rack – the place where various injections were stored in the medical mecha.
The black-haired youth in the pilot’s seat squinted, catching his breath for a moment. His fingers continued to move between the small compartments, touching from the edge, seemingly counting the order silently in his mind.
Ryann held his breath: Was he trying to find medicine? But he could no longer see…
Moreover, Jiang had only been in this medical mecha for such a short time. Could he really remember which compartment held the medicine he needed? What if he took the wrong one?
Jiang Jianming felt his way very slowly, perhaps due to his extreme physical weakness, or perhaps for fear of miscounting the compartments in his blind state. His expression gradually became gentle and at peace, as if he had thought of something.
The scene was too painful for onlookers to watch. Ryann unconsciously dug his nails into his palm.
” –No, it’s not medicine.”
When Jiang Jianming’s fingers stopped, Xie Yuduo suddenly spoke up.
Then the Major General punched the wall, swearing as he lost control of his emotions.
“The eighth compartment from the right, that’s…”
Ryann panicked. “What is it!?”
Xie Yuduo sighed deeply and closed his eyes. “Medical mechas are equipped with euthanasia injections, for use when patients or wounded are beyond saving and in great pain.”
Ryann’s vision darkened, and he nearly fainted again from lack of breath.
The chief patted his back. “Earlier, the Little Excellency tried giving himself more tranquilizers, but it failed to suppress the worsening condition, so…”
“So he wanted to end it himself? Without even trying treatment again?” The Crown Prince lowered his head and laughed bitterly, his chest heaving violently. It wasn’t clear if it was from anger or pain. “…Fine, truly resolute indeed.”
Sylph shook her head silently.
At that time, His Highness was lying unconscious in the treatment cabin behind. If crystal disorder really occurred, it would directly affect the Crown Prince who had no means of defense.
How could someone like Jiang Jianming allow such a possibility to exist?
The footage continued. Jiang Jianming’s fingers had already hooked the syringe, about to pull out the injection.
Suddenly, a flash of red-gold light shone from the ring finger of his right hand.
Ryann’s pupils constricted. “The ring…!”
Under the gaze of the three, that crystal bone ring glowed for an instant.
Jiang Jianming’s frail body trembled lightly in response.
As if some sleeping spell had descended.
The disabled human’s eyelids first widened slightly, as if shocked by some faint stimulus, then silently closed tight, covering those lusterless black eyes.
The hand about to pull out the syringe fell limply, just as Ryann had seen when he woke up, hanging over the edge of the pilot seat’s armrest.
“Jiang…!!”
Ryann drew in a sharp breath, pressing one hand tightly against the light computer’s display screen.
He watched in disbelief as… on the screen, the handsome disabled human lowered his eyes as if falling asleep, but his chest stopped moving.
“Did you both see? The Little Excellency didn’t die naturally. It was the consciousness in that crystal bone ring that cut off his life force prematurely,” Sylph said slowly. “But that wasn’t murder. I believe the ring only wished to preserve a spark of life force for this body.”
Ryann: “A spark…”
“While His Highness Ryann was unconscious, I removed the Little Excellency’s body from the preservation device and had base members assist with testing. Strangely, though life had clearly left the body, there were no signs of decay.”
Xie Yuduo exclaimed in shock. “What!? How is that possible? Without breath and heartbeat supplying oxygen to the body’s immune system, what’s protecting his body from being invaded by decay bacteria?”
“Yes,” Sylph suddenly turned around. “This is a phenomenon that can’t be explained by human science, so there’s only one possibility.”
She paused, and the hospital room fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
At this moment, Ryann slowly straightened up and withdrew his hand. The chief’s personal light computer had developed a small crack from the force of his grip.
The Crown Prince’s voice was hoarse, his luxuriously colored platinum curls falling before his gloomy green eyes. “It’s an existence beyond human…”
“It’s crystal particles.”
Sylph: “Your Highness is very wise.”
Ryann’s lips curled into a slight grin. “Indeed. That’s right, crystal particles are also a form of life… and they just happen to be inside humans…!”
In an instant, his gaze turned violent and dangerous. Like a bloodthirsty demon finding its long-desired prey.
His Highness actually started chuckling softly. “Since it’s life, there must be energy sustaining that life… So that’s it, heh, hahaha…!”
This was the first time Ryann had laughed since Jiang Jianming “died” so many days ago.
But Xie Yuduo only felt chills down his spine. The Major General struggled to digest the massive amount of information, his mind buzzing in shock. “… No, wait? Wait, you two, do you mean…”
“Do you mean,” Xie Yuduo gestured nervously, “the Little Excellency was near death, but the crystal particles inside him weren’t, so if we could…those crystal particles… huh? Is that it?”
“Yes,” the chief said. “Now we have a very willful tyrant. Using his almost terrifying control over crystal particles, he’s locked them inside the Little Excellency’s body… The crystal particles that should have dispersed after the host’s death can’t disperse now. The parasites have become the parasitized, their life force being drained to nourish the human body.”
She laughed. Unlike Ryann’s terrifying, near-manic laughter, hers was hearty and satisfying.
“What a cruel emperor. Little Kaios, Little Highness, don’t you agree?”
Pure light finally bloomed in Ryann’s eyes, his brow showing traces of the once innocent young Crown Prince. “So what about him?”
Chief: “Now, the Little Excellency’s body is indeed in a state of death. But if crystal particles can truly provide ‘nourishment’ for humans, then perhaps after some time, when the ring judges it ‘safe’, he will regain autonomous breathing and heartbeat.”
“Perhaps after some more time, his organs that deteriorated due to injury and illness will also begin to improve, getting better and better. Of course, this is just my guess, but perhaps long after—”
“When he wakes from his long slumber, he’ll find himself fully recovered.”
Sylph softened her voice. “Just like when you first met him in the Aslan Imperial Capital four years ago.”
