In one of the ports on the border of the Grantz Empire, a starship with the Klai Empire’s insignia stopped in the midst of some merchant ships.
Because this was a border port, security was particularly strict. The waiting time was extraordinarily long.
On the starship, in the cargo warehouse full of goods, a few men squat or sat on the boxes. They were all wearing blue work uniforms, but their movements showed they were no ordinary civilians. They were talking and laughing loudly, saying all sorts of dirty jokes and coarse language.
There were two present who stayed out of it. They were the furthest in. One was a young man also in work clothes. He was tossing a small dagger up and down.
The other was wearing a wide, oversized black robe over his work uniform. The hood of the cloak was drawn over the top half of his face. He seemed more solemn, but he was still on the young side.
The young man was obviously the more casual of the two. “You really managed to hoodwink the Klai Empire to cover for us somehow.”
The man across from him did not respond. He continued to lean against a cargo box.
The young man was used to it. He twirled his knife around in boredom as he continued, “Isn’t it time for you to take off that hood of yours, Faceless? Should I be glad you didn’t end up wearing your mask and that mummy-like getup? You can’t stay like this after we infiltrate, you know. Don’t worry. None of the people I brought this time will leak our features.”
“They’re all disposable goods, after all.”
The man called Faceless who was leaning against the cargo box paused. He took off his hood and revealed his rather handsome face.
The young man stared at him unabashedly, looking Faceless up and down before his gaze shifted away in disinterest. “I thought you would be ugly instead of so…ordinary. What a letdown.”
He drawled, “You’re the Grantz expert here so we’ll be relying on you for the infiltration.”
Faceless’ voice was a little hoarse. It seemed to have not been used for a long time. “03, I haven’t been here for a long time. We’ll waste a lot of time trying to infiltrate the imperial capital from here.”
The young man referred to as 03 was in no hurry.
“Well whoop-de-doo. Security’s too tight. This was the only loophole we could find. But not to worry, ‘Our Majesty’ hasn’t even left the imperial capital yet.”
03 suddenly tossed the knife out. It sank deeply into a cargo box. “As soon as he leaves, we’ll steal the treasure of the Grantz.”
……
The Grantz Palace was as quiet as ever.
“Wait.”
Norton called out to Ye Muo, who had left the little garden and was about to cross the front hall with a bouquet of flowers. When Ye Muo turned to look at him, he said, “Today’s the day for psychic soothing.”
Ye Muo nodded.
This meant that Norton would come to his room at night before bedtime. Sometimes Ano would come with Norton.
Norton had been providing soothing to Ye Muo for several days in a row. A little too often, to be honest. Before, he only did it when the data indicated slight psychic power fluctuations.
Ye Muo was a little puzzled, but he didn’t ask.
On the contrary, Norton noticed his doubts and took the initiative to explain, “I have to leave for about a month to take care of business. The doctors said that I should give you as much psychic soothing as possible before leaving.”
“I will be leaving tonight.”
The insect tide was coming.
The defenses of the Grantz Empire have already been laid down. Those inside Grantz territory were quickly set in place.
But Grantz was also responsible for large areas of the galaxy they resided in. They needed to coordinate with the countries in those areas and set up temporary Grantz command points and ports on their planets for logistical support and warship resupply.
Norton would inspect those command points to make sure everything was fine before returning to Grantz’s line of defense for the most violent part of the Tide.
Norton did not intend to take Ye Muo. Ano would be staying with Ye Muo in the imperial capital as well.
The doctors said that according to Ye Muo’s current data, it was perfectly possible for him to persist one or two months without psychic soothing. If Norton was worried, he could do as much soothing as possible before he left.
While Norton has tentative plans to return once a week, more psychic soothing never hurt.
Ye Muo didn’t seem to Norton to explain anything. He nodded. “Okay, Father.”
Norton was about to return to his study when Ye Muo subconsciously took a tiny step forward.
Norton caught that faint sound. He paused and looked back at Ye Muo. “What is it?”
Ye Muo offered the bouquet to Norton. “I was just pruning the garden and ended up with a lot of flowers. Could we…put them in the vase in the study?”
When Norton nodded, father and son walked towards the study together. Ye Muo splayed out the large amount of flowers on the desk as Norton brought the vase over.
Norton studied how Ye Muo processed the flowers and did the same.
Sunlight shone in from the windows.
Suddenly, Norton felt that he could also become a qualified father.
By nighttime, after Norton had completed one last round of psychic soothing for Ye Muo and left his room, Secretary-General Lin as well as Adlet were waiting outside.
It was already dark out. This was the first time Norton had set off at night.
Norton said to the nearby Ano, “Stay behind, Ano.”
As head of the imperial guard, Ano was almost always with Norton.
Ano quickly agreed. Norton did not need his protection. None of the others present objected either. Ano leaned over to Ye Muo’s door and whispered, “Is he asleep? I want to go in and play with him for a while. “
……
Ye He has been in the imperial guard recently honing his skills with his seniors. The training here was even more stringent than he thought.
He and April joined in the same batch and were trained together. Today was the first time they were allowed to follow the official members to patrol around the Grantz Palace.
The main reason they were able to do so was because His Majesty Norton left the imperial capital and took part of the imperial guard with him. They were temporarily filling in. Following His Majesty Norton was also a major facet of an imperial guard’s duties.
The task of guarding the Grantz Palace was not arduous. The many members of the royal guard would take turns.
As newcomers who have just graduated, Ye He and April have not yet been assigned a formal shift. They were basically here to gain experience.
They had just gotten out of the hovercar when an explosion sounded from within the Grantz Palace, followed by rapidly dispersing smoke.
The nearby imperial guards quickly responded, “Open your psychic power shielding devices and guard the entrance! Conduct a through search of the premises.”
More smoke bombs went off with actual bombs mixed in.
Ye He and April’s senior hurriedly told them, “Hide yourselves.”
Ye He stared at the smoke not far away as he quickly simulated a mental map of the area as well as the detonation points of the smoke bombs. When he reached a conclusion, he immediately set off to the southeast.
There were three possible routes the enemy could be infiltrating from. If it were him, he would choose to use all of them. Small fry would be split between two while the main force advanced from the southeast.
April subconsciously followed Ye He.
Ye He drew his sword as he ran, quickly affixing psychic power to the blade.
He guessed correctly.
He quickly blocked the other party’s way while trying to send a signal. Even if they were a Level S psychic, he could buy some time.
The moment he was about to send a signal, Ye He quickly retreated and rolled over. He touched his ear. His hand came back covered with blood. A wound stretched from his cheek to his ear. The comms device he was wearing was also destroyed.
Ye He tensed and looked at the other party again. The psychic power affixed to that knife just now should be Level S. It was completely capable of penetrating his heart.
Ye He suddenly leaned down again. The knife that was originally behind him darted back and returned to the hands of the intruder like there was a string attached.
They numbered four or five. The one in front was still holding that knife. He seemed a little surprised that Ye He could dodge. “Huh?”
Ye He was on high aler. Psychic power could be used to pilot mecha, infiltrate warships or directly attack other people with a conductive material.
It was very rare to be able to use psychic power to this extent.
The young man fished out another knife from somewhere and playfully tossed both of them at Ye He.
Ye He quickly dodged. By the time he stopped, a knife had already penetrated his waist and he had sustained several wounds on his arms and body. The most dangerous one ran from his neck to his chin.
April had arrived by then. He subconsciously called out, “Ye He.”
The young man seemed to be very interested in Ye He. The knife in his hand became five. As he was about to try again, he was stopped by the person next to him. That man said in a hoarse voice, “I’ll bring up the rear, 03. Go inside.”
The assault this time depended highly on how quick they could be. It would be troublesome if they delayed too long and gave the imperial guard a chance to recover.
03 was reluctant but agreed, “Okay, we’ll be going first. You can handle two fresh recruits, right?”
Ye He remained tense as he covered his abdomen and watched them casually divvy up the work. In the end, the hoarse young man was left behind.
April came over to Ye He. They watched the young man who stayed behind vigilantly.
They have already realized at this point how outmatched they were. Not to mention Ye He’s abdominal injury hindered any sudden movements.
The man advanced on them step by step, pausing in front of them for a moment before saying, “Your name is Ye He?”
……
While outside descended into chaos, Ano was sitting on the carpet with Ye Muo. Some photo albums and photos were spread out around them. They all features Ye Muo. Ano had requested some albums from the Ye family to make copies of. Ye Muo found out when Adlet just delivered them.
So Ano had to take Ye Muo with along.
“I’ll put your childhood photos in the album. In exchange, you can look at our childhood albums. Thank goodness Mother took a lot of photos of us.”
Ye Muo opened one of the albums.
Ano was enthusiastically putting Ye Muo’s photos into the album when he suddenly paused.
He got up and came to the window.
Ye Muo still had a photo in his hand. He glanced at the man. “Ano?”
Ano flipped out of the window. This was the third floor. He stood on the narrow protruding edge and looked at Ye Muo. The wind blew his hair astray.
“The imperial guard is organizing. Stay here. Don’t worry, I’ll be on guard downstairs.”
With that, Ano fell down back first.
The imperial guards stationed around the palace all sprung into action. They were a formidable force consisting mostly of Level A and S psychics.
The last line of defense was Ano himself.
Ano drew his sword and pointed it to the ground. Few were the rats that dared to challenge guards of the Grantz Palace.
A series of explosions sounded nearby. As they drew closer and closer, dust and smoke were spread by the wind.
Ano closed his eyes and slightly bowed his waist, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. When the rising dust and smoke had almost reached him, he charged forward. The people within the smoke weren’t visible. Only the sounds of clashing blades could be heard.
Their psychic power also exploded in an instant.
The other party quickly bid a hasty retreat, barely managing to protect themselves with psychic power.
Ano still had a psychic power inhibitor device around his neck, but he was still very calm. He straightened up and approached step by step. “I’m surprised. It’s been many years since rats have made it past Grantz’s imperial guard.”
The person opposite Ano had already half crouched down. He bowed his head and coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood. He bared his bloody teeth with a smile. “It’s just me. I underestimated the head imperial guard’s strength.”
“Grantz’s imperial guard is a little harder to deal with than I thought.”
His words did not match the frenzied look in his eyes as he raised his head.
“So what would the glorious Grantz be like then?”
The floor Ye Muo was on has already been placed in defense mode. All the windows and doors automatically locked shut.
It was quiet in the room.
Ye Muo knelt on the soft carpet, still surrounded by scattered photos.
