The night grew eerily dark, and Sylph collapsed to the ground in fear.
Behind her, the massive red-gold crystal had already climbed to the ceiling, sealing the door of the sick room.
“…Your Majesty!?”
Ryann was slowly suspended by his own crystal bones. He, or rather it, stared blankly at Jiang Jianming’s treatment cabin. Half of his face had completely crystallized, his limbs twitching and sprouting a mixture of crystals, tumors, bones, and blood vessels. Soon, various human organs also began growing chaotically.
Sylph’s whole body went numb, her teeth chattering. She thought of the Gray Owl Laboratory, of those almost forgotten memories, of the handsome youth lying expressionlessly on the metal table in the laboratory…
In just that moment of distraction, Ryann’s red-gold crystal bones had already surged toward the treatment cabin!
They squeezed through the gaps, affectionately wrapping around the dying patient inside, as if wanting to swallow that person into its “body.”
“Your Majesty, what are you doing? Wake up!”
Sylph cried out. “You can’t…”
She reluctantly revealed her own crystal bones. The Commander’s condition now truly couldn’t withstand even the slightest impact. What if His Majesty unconsciously hurt the Commander…
But in the next second, Sylph’s peripheral vision caught the monitoring instruments inside the treatment cabin, and her movements suddenly froze!
The momentum made Sylph stumble. Not caring about her undignified appearance, she grabbed the monitoring screen and stared at those numbers, mumbling. “What’s going on, the crystal particle disorder value… is decreasing!?”
How could this be possible? Even the newest medications had been ineffective!
Sylph drew in a sharp breath and turned her gaze back to the treatment cabin.
Ryann had completely lost his human form. It used writhing red-gold crystals to wrap around the unconscious Jiang Jianming. Those ugly life support devices fell off the patient one by one, with medication and treatment fluids making the hospital gown soaking wet.
The crystals cradled the disabled human like a cradle holding a newborn, moving carefully, gently rocking, until finally becoming motionless.
The rippling moonlight flowed across the crystals, dreamlike and fantastical.
…..
Ryann’s inhuman state lasted for exactly half a month. During this period, the crystal particle chaos index in Jiang Jianming’s body miraculously dropped by ten points.
As for Lin Ge and Sylph, they were at their wits’ end day and night facing this mass of flesh and crystal in the sick room.
Lin Ge even made N contingency plans: about what to do if the empire’s emperor just kept wrapping around the Commander forever without moving.
“Then you would have to become emperor, Lin Ge,” Sylph said gloomily.
Lin Ge burst into tears. “No way! This old lady clearly just a tool person Kaios brought in to suppress the old nobility’s arrogance. How the hell can this old lady be emperor!”
She threw herself at the mass of flesh and crystal in anguish. “Damn it, Kaios, you bastard, you bastard!”
Fortunately amid the misfortune, under Lin Ge’s wailing and Sylph’s earnest calls, Kaios finally gradually regained his self-awareness.
The emperor slowly returned to human form, and except for some weakness, was no different from before.
He personally placed the unconscious Commander back in the treatment cabin.
Ryann quietly gazed at that person’s features through the glass, then looked at the data on the monitoring device beside it, and said to himself, “Seems this is all I can do.”
After transforming into that strange crystalline form, his control over crystal particles had a qualitative improvement, as if some talent had been awakened.
But even so, he still couldn’t completely cure Jiang Jianming. He felt his limit wasn’t here yet, perhaps he could do more in the future, but this was all he could do for now.
“It’s already a miracle,” Sylph’s eyes sparkled, “so Your Majesty, can I study you? Can I dissect you? Can you transform back and forth again? Oh right, I need to give this phenomenon a scientific name…”
Ryann: “.”
Finally, when autumn came, the emperor still made up his mind about the interstellar expedition.
It wasn’t just for Jiang Jianming. More importantly, ever since that time he “crystallized,” he began to have an ominous feeling.
He vaguely felt that there was “something” in the far reaches of the universe.
Ryann didn’t know what it was, nor what effects it would bring. But that feeling made him extremely irritated, as if a pair of eyes from afar was watching his every move.
During this time, Jiang Jianming was basically unconscious, only having brief moments of awareness on rare days.
But even when awake, he was confused and couldn’t speak at all, quickly falling back into long periods of sleep.
Ryann couldn’t face Jiang Jianming, and also feared this person would argue with him again about the expedition. He took advantage of the Commander’s unconscious state to strip him of his military power and sent him to Watson Star City.
He personally chose the best estate, a place near green mountains and clear waters, very peaceful, where no outsiders would disturb.
He decreed the construction of a small villa that was warm in winter and cool in summer.
He sent the medical team that had been attending to the Commander there, and also managed to find Maria, the young nurse who had personally cared for Jiang Jianming long ago.
The young nurse wasn’t so young anymore this year. Maria had married a good husband, but was still as kind and enthusiastic as ever. After hearing about the Commander’s condition, she immediately agreed to go to Watson.
Emperor Kaios personally thanked her.
Finally, he blocked the Commander’s contact information.
After a month, Ryann secretly asked Maria about Jiang Jianming’s condition.
Maria wrote a long, detailed email, saying that the Commander’s health had improved recently, he was conscious for longer periods, but was always silent and melancholic, hardly responding to her.
She also said that the Commander initially insisted on seeing Your Majesty, but after being unable to contact you no matter what, he stopped insisting, though he would occasionally still secretly dial that unreachable number.
The emperor read this email repeatedly, lost in thought for a long time.
Outside the White Jade Palace window, red leaves silently fell.
Sylph made a trip to Watson and said upon return, “Your Majesty, avoiding it like this won’t work. You need to see the Commander and properly explain everything.”
Ryann turned his face away and said coldly. “What’s there to see? Anyway… we’ll just end up arguing if we meet.”
Sylph: “The Commander didn’t mean to blame you.”
Ryann: “Hmph.”
The next day, Ryann took Seth Henry to the small villa in Watson.
During these years, as they fought battles across the north and south, traveling through various star systems, they really didn’t have the leisure to keep pets. Seth was kept in a specialized institution, and they could only see him through video calls, with actual meetings happening maybe once every few years.
Before parting, Ryann stroked the dog’s back. Seth wagged his tail, stuck out his tongue, and happily barked. “Woof!”
The scene from back then was still vivid in his mind, when they were still on Blue Mother Star, and he had given this puppy to Jiang Jianming. In the blink of an eye, more than ten years had passed.
Now, Seth had become an old dog.
Ryann recalled those times, when he gave Jiang the puppy, they weren’t very familiar with each other then. He had wanted to make the disabled person happy but didn’t know how.
Now he was sending Seth back to Jiang’s side because they had become too familiar. He knew he had run out of options and really didn’t know what to do with this person.
A few days later, Maria sent an email saying that the Commander was very happy to see Seth, his spirits had improved considerably, and he was even smiling.
In the White Jade Palace, Ryann read this email, his emerald eyes softening as he unconsciously smiled.
But soon, the light in the emperor’s eyes dimmed.
Outside the window, withered leaves clung to branches, and thoughts of longing flooded his mind at this moment. If possible, he really wanted… really wanted to go see his commander.
Ryann buried his face in his hands and bent his back.
During the deep winter holiday season, the emperor secretly made a trip to Watson.
He didn’t tell anyone, piloting a small starship alone, following the coordinates to find that villa in the estate.
It was snowing, and as evening fell, warm orange lights lit up in the villa, creating a cozy atmosphere.
From inside came Maria’s clear, cheerful voice, several dog barks, and occasionally a hoarse, weak male voice.
Ryann hid far away while peeking inside, and this founding emperor of the nation not only didn’t dare to knock on the door, but barely dared to breathe.
He eavesdropped for a while, then took out something thin from his pocket and slipped it through the door crack.
After a while, Ryann heard excited dog barking and the sound of paws scratching at the door.
“Seth?”
Then came Jiang Jianming’s voice, “What’s that in your mouth? Come here.”
In the warm room, Seth walked with small steps to a red wooden rocking chair, wagging his tail happily.
Maria was putting dishes on the table, and she turned around holding a plate of roast duck. “Commander, what’s wrong with Seth?”
In the red wooden rocking chair sat a man who looked sickly but had a serene expression.
Jiang Jianming mustered his strength to sit up straight, lowering his left hand to pat Seth’s head.
“Open your mouth,” he said, “What good thing did you find? Let me see.”
What Seth held in his mouth was something made of paper. Only when Jiang Jianming took it did he see clearly that it was an envelope carefully wrapped in a protective film.
He looked puzzlingly at the door where Seth had been scratching, then unwrapped the protective film in his hands, took out the envelope, opened it, and pulled out the single sheet of paper inside.
The paper was folded twice, and Jiang Jianming patiently unfolded it.
The unfolded paper had golden rose patterns on its corners – it was royal official stationery – and there were only three words on it.
— I’m sorry.
Jiang Jianming froze for quite a while, then suddenly stood up and rushed to open the door.
Being weak and frail, he almost stumbled halfway. Maria hurriedly supported him, and they came to the door and pushed it open–
Cold wind howled into the villa.
Jiang Jianming shivered and couldn’t help but cough.
He struggled to look outside, but there was nothing. Only the starry sky at the horizon, drifting snow, and shallow footprints in the snow.
Maria unwrapped her own scarf to wrap around the Commander while saying in bewilderment. “Did… someone come by?”
“Cough cough… it’s alright, it’s not… cough… not any suspicious person.”
Jiang Jianming recovered from this spell. He smiled helplessly yet gently, then looked toward the winter night sky and sighed wistfully.
“His Majesty really… since he came all this way, what harm would it do to see me…”
After saying this, the Commander closed the door himself. He returned to the room, refolded the letter, and carefully placed it in the drawer.
The holiday season passed, signaling winter’s end and spring’s arrival.
In the second year of the New Imperial Calendar, Emperor Kaios launched an unprecedented interstellar expedition, later known as the First Holy War.
