Dawn Sleep [Interstellar]

Crystal Bone (1)

It was already late after getting off the self-service air vehicle. Jiang Jianming covertly brought Garcia back to his current temporary residence, the staff dormitory of Kaios Military Academy.

Of course Teacher Luo Hai was unaware, this was in consideration of the teacher’s heart. This sort of thing—whether the crown prince coming back from the dead, or the crown prince being hidden in the military academy, or the combination of the two—would indeed be too stimulating.

Jiang Jianming expressed that telling it at this time would only turn into a ghost story, which was not very appropriate.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter anyone along the way, and the two sneaked into the dormitory with the caution comparable to agents sneaking into the enemy’s camp.

Jiang Jianming hung up the lock and looked back, and saw Garcia throwing the face cover on the table, frowning and looking around the room.

The staff dormitory was still the dormitory which was temporarily vacated for him when no one lived in it all year round. One bedroom, one living room and a bathroom as permissible.

Jiang Jianming took off his coat and hung it on the hanger, then walked over, “A small broken place, Your Highness has been wronged.”

Garcia: “There’s not even a treatment cabin here.”

Jiang Jianming: “…Your dislike point of view is really unique.”

Everything seems to have returned to the old days.

They used to “live together” in the fortress of Silver Big Dipper with only one door separating them. When they went out to battle, they sat side by side in the driver’s seat inside the mecha Slash Comet, and then simply rolled into the same bed on the starship back to the empire.

Therefore at present, they bathed and washed one after another, got under the quilt carrying warm water vapor all over the body, and squeezed into a bed that was much smaller than the configuration in the starship…..It appeared very natural.

As a result, in the dimness with the lights off, Garcia let Jiang Jianming rest on his arm, and when he hooked Jiang Jianming’s shoulder with his hand, he didn’t realize that there was anything wrong.

The body of the non crystal human was small and thin. When he held this person, the emptiness in his chest could always be filled to the brim with the other person’s body temperature, until it overflowed with an inexplicable warm current.

Jiang Jianming, in His Highness’ embrace, put himself in a comfortable position. Under his loose black hair was a pair of eyes hiding a gentle smile.

“You seem to be in a good mood. Did meeting me make you so happy?”

After he finished speaking, he also asked, “Did you see many alive and kicking disabled humans on the road today, how do you feel?”

Garcia hugged Jiang Jianming into his arms with the other arm, and said, “Not like you. No disabled human can give me the feeling as when I first saw you.”

Putting aside the flames of war and the smoke of gunpowder, the moment the four eyes meet, it was that kind of shock that penetrated into the soul.

Garcia thought about it seriously, and then said, “When I see them, I wouldn’t think they will die at any time…..You are much stronger than them, yet are also much more fragile than them.”

Jiang Jianming: “It’s not, it’s just that you rarely see strange things when you are in the Far Interstellar Space.”

He pulled back the quilt, wanting to give a little bit more to Garcia. His Royal Highness snatched the quilt from his hand, and then wrapped him up again into a ball.

“I’m accustomed to the climate of the alien stars.” He briefly explained, “but you need to keep warm to avoid freezing to death.”

“…..” Jiang Jianming could no longer tell whether Garcia’s “avoid freezing to death” was a joke or a serious one.

His side face was suddenly raised up by the prince’s fingers, Garcia’s brows and eyes were buried in the darkness, and his lips parted, “Say my name.”

Jiang Jianming was taken aback.

Garcia nudged him with his calf as if urging him, and the pair of emerald green eyes were very serious, “I want to hear you say my name.”

Jiang Jianming pursed his lips, as if he understood something in his heart.

“…Garcia?”

Garcia closed his eyes, and rubbed the cheek of the disabled human with the tip of his nose. “Very good.”

….At this moment, to him, it didn’t seem to matter whether it was the empty past and the chaotic future, or the chaos in the empire due to the battle for the crown prince position.

He also no longer tried to think about what kind of imperial person the person in his arms was–even the mansion of which Jiang Jianming walked out of that didn’t look like an ordinary family that night.

“Go to sleep.”

He just wanted to be like this, holding this body with compassion in his arms, sinking into the dream forever.

****

The next few days were somewhat unrealistically steady.

Kevin would occasionally come to see him. After waking up, the young man who learned from the painful experience was actually quite studious—or maybe he just wanted to test Jiang Jianming’s limits. He always knocked on the door of this dormitory with all kinds of crafty problems.

Sometimes his companions would come as well. A girl with a ponytail, a little chubby boy, and a dark-skinned boy.

Jiang Jianming hid Prince Garcia in the bedroom and gave lectures to the teenagers in the living room outside.

He was very cautious, because he was afraid that he would mislead this children by giving random lectures to military students of this age. He was not sure how to explain good knowledge, and frankly, he didn’t know himself.

——Thus next time, he simply sorted out a complete data and stuffed it inside a chip box and gave it to the few little kids, ordering them to finish reading it within a few days.

But in this way, Jiang Jianming worried that His Royal Highness, who was “kept illegally” by him, would find it boring.

So he also borrowed a stack of books and chip boxes from the library for Garcia, from the Encyclopedia of Children’s Enlightenment to introductory books in various fields, and ordered His Royal Highness to read them within the time limit.

However, two days later, Jiang Jianming found out in despair that Garcia was lying comfortably on the bed, reading “Demon Imprisonment: President’s Sweet Wife Don’t Try to Escape” on his wrist device—a student’s leisure book confiscated by the previous teacher.

With half a smile, he said to him, “According to the concept in this novel, Lieutenant Jiang, you are illegally imprisoning me at present.”

“……..”

Jiang Jianming slapped His Royal Highness’s noble buttocks expressionlessly and said, “Don’t you think it’s a pity that there are no leather whip, wax oil and mouth gags here?”

One day, Jiang Jianming was outside giving a lecture to Kevin.

Couldn’t remember what they were talking about, but the two of them laughed for a long time. Kevin laughed until he got dizzy, held his arm and called him “Jiang”.

When Jiang Jianming sent the boy away in the evening, he pushed open the door of the bedroom, and saw Garcia leaning against the door, lowering his head irritably…

…biting the crystal bone that grew out of his own wrist.

Jiang Jianming: “…….”

Garcia: “…….”

Jiang Jianming asked hesitantly, “Cough…why is this?”

Garcia said coldly, “It wanted to hug you, popped out by itself.”

Jiang Jianming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and stretched out his hand to touch the cluster of crystal bones, but Garcia turned around and evaded, then wearily said, “Can’t get used to it, it will be even more disobedient next time.”

Jiang Jianming: “…Please don’t make it sound like this is not your own crystal bone.”

That night, when they rolled into bed, Jiang Jianming asked Garcia to tell him about the new humans.

“About crystal particles, crystal bones, real crystals…I only have theoretical knowledge from books.” He smiled, “But the books did not say that new humans have the habit of biting their own crystal bones.”

As soon as the words fell, Jiang Jianming only felt his ankle tighten and loosen. It was the crystal bone released by Garcia from the toe that caught him, and then immediately let go.

“The crystal particles are within the body of a new human, and crystal particles condensed into crystal bones.”

Garcia handed his wrist to Jiang Jianming, condensed crystals covered his right hand in a blink of an eye, and was quickly retracted after a few seconds. “Just like hands and feet, when you want to use it, it moves naturally.”

“But when you don’t deliberately perceive it, crystal bones are more susceptible to emotional influence and loss of control than hands and feet. The richer the crystal particles in the body, the higher the crystal bone level, the greater the chance of it happening.”

Jiang Jianming pondered for a moment, he thought of how dogs would flick their tails wildly when they were happy.

He also thought of some person reading “Demon Prisoner: President Sweet Wife Don’t Try to Escape”. When it came to popular novels like this, a ferocious smile would appear at the corners of the mouth, and twisting like a maggot on the bed.

Although he was not sure if it was possible to make an analogy like this, he deemed that he had understood it for the time being.

“Real crystals are different. The crystal particles that make up the crystal bone are yours, and those crystal particles are one with you, just like your flesh and blood. But the crystal particles that make up the real crystals are scattered in the air and do not belong to any life.”

“Thus one has to concentrate on controlling it, use the crystal particles inside the body to affect its frequency, and finally let it succumb to you…..watch.”

As the prince said, he handed his right hand to Jiang Jianming, and bent his five fingers…

It was as if something in the air was gathered by an invisible force, and small crystal clusters began to grow, condensing into a golden-red crystal rose.

Jiang Jianming picked up the real crystal rose, but soon, the flower began to dissipate starting from the edge of the petals.

Looking as if deep in thought, he said, “Once you loosen the control, the real crystal will dissipate, right?”

With a light wave of Garcia’s finger, the rose instantly dissipated, “You can also take the initiative to break it and make it disappear in an instant—sometimes it is necessary to destroy the remains.”

Jiang Jianming: “But I rarely see new humans using real crystals to attack.”

Garcia: “Owners of low-level crystal bones can’t do this. When they try to control the crystal particles in nature, it instead leads to an imbalance of crystal particles in one’s own body, resulting in crystal disorder.”

Jiang Jianming immediately thought of the time when the Lava Space Bandits released real crystal ores on the cliff, and his face darkened.

Garcia seemed to see through his thoughts, leaned over and put his arms around his waist, and said in a low voice, “But I won’t.”

Day after day, time passed between joking, learning and cuddling.

Until this day, Jiang Jianming received the communication that he had been secretly waiting for for a long time.

The Grand Marshal of the Empire and Supreme Military Commander Chen Hanke had returned from Albourne Star City, and asked him to meet at the White Jade Palace tomorrow.

It was in the White Jade Palace instead of the military headquarters, Jiang Jianming keenly realized something unusual from it.

He didn’t conceal it, and told Garcia about it, the latter didn’t respond, but asked him if there were really many golden roses planted in the White Jade Palace.

The golden rose was a symbol of the royal family. Jiang Jianming nodded, and Garcia asked him to steal one back.

Jiang Jianming: “…I will go to jail. Except for the real royal family, anyone who takes the roses in White Jade Palace will be arrested and sent to jail.”

Garcia stopped talking. He didn’t tell Jiang Jianming that just now, he also had received the same meeting communication–tomorrow afternoon, in the White Jade Palace, it’s just that there was a slight difference in time.

This made him somewhat pleased.

The old marshal wants to see him, needless to say, it must still be in the hope of him inheriting the crown prince position as Prince Ryann.

But Jiang Jianming was also called over, and it seems that the imperial side was not worried that the two of them would meet by chance.

This fully proves that there is nothing shameful or unfit to be revealed about Jiang Jianming’s identity. Maybe in the starship that day, he really was only thinking too much.

So tomorrow, perhaps…

He can snap a golden rose for Jiang Jianming.