Chapter 5 - The Beta Lieutenant Colonel Who Died For His Country (5)
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Translated by: Niladri
Edited by: celes
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“Who?” A hoarse voice came from inside the door, and it was obviously electronically modified.
“Hello, this is service staff No. 116. I have come for the final verification of your goods before the auction.”
A moment later, an aquiline-nosed man with a wrinkly face opened the door, and after a nervous look at Lu Heng, he found that no one else was beside him and let him in.
“Wasn’t it already verified when I entered the market? Why again?”
“Your excellency, this is also to ensure the safety of the cargo, please excuse us.” Lu Heng closed the door and immediately aimed for the back of Ereden’s neck.
His long-term fugitive status made Ereden’s vigilance very high, and his response was nothing but quick. At the crucial moment, Ereden rolled down to the ground and escaped this sudden blow.
However, Lu Heng changed his moves even faster. He straightened his legs and his toes kicked the back of Ereden with proper force, enough to knock him unconscious. After putting Ereden into the rear compartment, Lu Heng pressed the communication button: “Mission accomplished, please coordinate with me to withdraw.”
With the cooperation of Xiu Yi Te, Lu Heng smoothly withdrew from the auction house, and the two men retreated towards the starport, leaving behind the auction house troops.
“Little Nana, your actions were too fast, I had just warmed up. The driver who drove the red mech seemed to be a very famous bounty hunter. I merely exchanged a few moves with him and haven’t enjoyed it quite yet.” Xiu Yi Te’s carefree voice came from the communication channel.
“Carlo, I’ll arrive at the starport in about five minutes with the commander. Please prepare for departure.” Knowing in his mind that Xiu Yi Te always liked to ease the tension in this way, Lu Heng did not pay attention to him and contacted Carlo through the communication channel directly.
Carlo’s situation was not very good. When Lu Heng’s voice came through the communication channel, he didn’t even hear what he said. An hour ago, Carlo did not follow Lu Heng’s order to wait on the shuttle. Xiu Yi Te was alone in the center of the auction, responsible for attracting most of the defensive forces, which made him rather worried.
He searched for relevant information on Star Network. The guards at the central auction house were not simple characters. It was said that the guard captain was still a famous bounty hunter. Out of concern for Xiu Yi Te’s safety, shortly after they left, Carlo sneaked into the central auction house.
Carlo wanted to see Xiu Yi Te’s situation with his own eyes. If he (XYT) was fine, then he would return to the shuttle to stand by; if he was in danger, he would help. With such a feeling, Carlo, who had courageously embarked on the journey, fell into danger before he reached the central auction house. After getting rid of a few chasing Alphas and returning to the shuttle, he felt that something was wrong.
In the beginning, Carlo just felt that his cheeks were a little hot. Maybe it’s because I’m too nervous, he thought. Over time, his face was getting hotter and hotter, and he even felt a little dizzy.
“Carlo?”
Carlo heard Lu Heng’s voice again. The voice seemed to be floating in the air, like willow leaves, ethereal and intangible. He felt like he was being roasted on fire, and as if he was drunk, his hands and feet were soft, and he had no strength.
What’s wrong with me? Carlo thought about it. It’s so uncomfortable. Xiu Yi Te, where are you? I’m dying. Save me, hurry…
“Carlo, is there a problem on your side?” The voice of Xiu Yi Te, like a glass of water in a desert, percolated into his brain and made him a bit sober.
Can’t let Xiu Yi Te down, can’t let Adjutant Reiner look down on me. Carlo slapped his cheeks and pressed the communication button and said, “No! Everything is fine. I will send you the location of the shuttle.”
Xiu Yi Te and Lu Heng, who got rid of the chase, quickly came to the starport and found the shuttle according to the coordinates provided by Carlo.
The moment the shuttle drove away from starport, the tight nerves of the two men finally relaxed slightly.
“The place Nabia is really good. There’s such a master in an auction house.” Xiu Yi Te said while driving smoothly. “It’s a pity that there wasn’t enough time, otherwise, I really would have wanted to play with him.”
Xiu Yi Te was a battle-crazy person, and a strong master will always make his blood boil. When he was at the military academy, his favorite thing to do was challenge famous masters in the school. By graduation, in the entire first military school, only Reiner could be evenly matched with him.
“We are here to perform the task.” Lu Heng answered with a glance.
“Whenever it is, you always need to have some fun, or else how boring would life be. How can you not understand this?” Xiu Yi Te shrugged.
Having said that, Lu Heng suddenly remembered something that happened in the original plot. After returning to the starship following completion of the mission, the battle-crazy Xiu Yi Te who was provoked by the bounty hunter still hadn’t calmed down. Later, he quietly sneaked back to Nabia and found the bounty hunter to fight. This was not a big deal. The problem was that Carlo followed him. After returning, Xiu Yi Te’s opinion of Carlo was even more repugnant than Reiner’s who insisted on sending Carlo away. Sometime later, a fierce conflict between the two was inevitable.
Lu Heng thought about it and asked the little assistant to confirm one thing.
{If I change incidents that take place, then, the sons of fate, will it affect their relationship status?}
{You can rest assured. The relationship status between the sons of fate is one of the key objects monitored by the Matchmaking Department. Even if you change an incident, there will be other incidents. In short, the relationship status between the sons of fate will not be shaken, as it is one of the fundamental characteristics of a plane.}
Listening to this point, Lu Heng felt relieved. If his actions accidentally altered their relationship, thereby causing a turbulent plane, his annual assessment score was estimated to be deducted to a negative number. If it was too bad, he would be fired and kicked back to the cycle of reincarnation.
“After we return, join me for training, don’t do extra things,” Lu Heng said. The original Lord Reiner had not practiced with Xiu Yi Te for a long time. As the only one who could compete with Xiu Yi Te, Xiu Yi Te could be said to be very eager to practice with Rainer.
Sure enough, Xiu Yi Te’s eyes brightened: “You said it now, you can’t renege on this promise!”
Lu Heng looked at Xiu Yi Te’s appearance which was like a blooming flower. He frowned and turned his face. He didn’t want to look at his stupid face.
While they were talking, the shuttle entered the transition channel, and it would be able to get rid of the chase and complete the task, but things would not be so smooth. An accident soon occurred.
“No. 2 is ready. No. 3 make preparations for quantum jump.” Lu Heng waited for a moment, and Carlo at No. 3 did not send any voice. “No. 3 prepare for quantum jump! No. 3?!”
Lu Heng looked back and found that Carlo’s cheeks were flushed and he was unconscious on the dashboard.
“There is a problem with No. 3. It is impossible to jump, and emergency landing is required.”
“Damn, people in the city from the central auction market are looking for us.” Xiu Yi Te clenched his teeth. “We can only land near 54° N, 112° E, there’s an abandoned city; there should be a usable electromagnetic storm shelter.”
“There is still two hours until the next electromagnetic storm.” Lu Heng took Carlo to the side and lay down, and began to cooperate with the repairing shuttle to find the abandoned city.
This time, the goddess of fate finally smiled on them. Before the outbreak of the electromagnetic storm, the trio of Lu Heng joined the prisoner of the rear compartment and arrived at the shelter. The sky outside was completely dark, the wind was raging, the air was full of white noise, and the electronic equipment and the hot weapons were all invalid. [T/N: hot weapons= fire/electricity based weapons]
Xiu Yi Te sat in front of the campfire and looked at Lu Heng’s beautiful face profile under the fire. For some reason, he suddenly recalled some past events. When they were doing a military exercise for graduation on the TRX star, he and Reiner were also trapped in a shelter by electromagnetic storms. At that time, Reiner wasn’t as restricted and detached. Reiner even secretly hid a bottle of good wine in the storage space, and the two of them drank until dawn.
Lu Heng felt Xiu Yi Te’s gaze, looking at him from the side, he was not smiling, but his expression was unusually soft, and it seemed to remind him of this past.
Looking at Lu Heng’s lukewarm expression, Xiu Yi Te suddenly burst into an impulse: “Reiner, I always wanted to talk to you…”
Lu Heng’s heart was moved. In fact, Lu Heng had been very confused about Reiner and Xiu Yi Te’s break off in the original world line. The relationship between them was very deep, the feelings between them were very deep. There was affection between childhood friends, classmates who have studied together, and comrades who risked their lives for one another… to fall out just because of Carlo was a bit unreasonable. After all, during this period of time, Lu Heng discovered that Xiu Yi Te was not the kind of person who sees and forgets friends or was unable to differentiate right and wrong.
Perhaps now, if one listened to what Xiu Yi Te had to say, one could obtain clues. Thinking of this, Lu Heng’s look became softer and he nodded to Xiu Yi Te.
“Reiner, have you discovered that you’re getting worse and worse, unlike you. After we set up Thunder Gale, I feel that you were slowly becoming a different person, you started to alienate me. When you meet me, all you say is, Lord Commander, this does not meet the military regulations, Lord Commander, this requires the approval of the military, and so on.”
Seeing the thoughtful look of Lu Heng’s face, Xiu Yi Te was encouraged, and the doubts that had been entangled in his heart for a long time also burst out: “You even went to flatter those people of the politics department in Military Headquarters who hold offices without doing any work. What is the purpose of the Thunder Gale division that we formed? Have you forgotten, Reiner?!”
“To let every soldier who has blood in his heart, fulfill the aspiration of a pure land….” Lu Heng murmured.
“Reiner, there are a lot of people who say that you’re doing this for your own future. In order to enter the top of the military, they say that you’re simply using Thunder Gale as a springboard.” When he got excited, Xiu Yi Te suddenly stood up. “I don’t believe it, I don’t believe you are such a person.”
“I still clearly remember every scene we used to get along with, the shy and lovely you in your childhood, the heroic spirit in your youth, one who fought with me shoulder-to-shoulder since adulthood…”
Xiu Yi Te went to Lu Heng and kneeled down. He gently put his hand on his shoulder: “Reiner, we are companions, and we are also friends. So, what kind of difficulties do you have? Can you tell me now?”
It turned out that the original break off was not just due to Carlo. The wrath and shock of Xiu Yi Te was, to a greater extent, the pain and disappointment about the changes in his friend and the reluctance to go against his best friend. This opportunity to eliminate misunderstandings is greatly beneficial to the completion of the task.
“Xiu Yi Te…” Lu Heng spoke, but suddenly heard a strange voice coming from behind, somewhat like pain yet mixed with other things.
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