The next step was to wait until Joen could leave the hospital and send him back home. Fortunately, Joen’s grandfather was away at the moment, and wouldn’t return to the capital planet until the next month. By the time the old general returned, Xi Wei thought all of the traces would be wiped clean. Watching Joen sleeping in the hospital room, Xi Wei felt the heavy stone weighing on his heart finally fall away.

When he returned to the palace that night, the little prince Caesar and his cousin Brian were eating dinner. Caesar had a scowl on and was fiddling with the grains of rice in his bowl. Brian couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong? Are you too tired from doing assignments to have an appetite? Listen, I think you shouldn’t put too much into it. It’s fine if you can pass, do you have to be number one?”

Caesar frowned and said, “That’s not it, I had a bad dream last night.”

Confused, Brain scooted over. “What kind of bad dream?”

“I dreamed that my big brother was marked by that bastard Klaire.” Caesar said angrily.

Brian stared blankly, then burst into laughter. “Hey, you can’t call that a bad dream, okay? Your big brother and Klaire are already engaged. They’re young and having fun with each other, getting marked is completely normal. The eldest prince might have a baby next year, and you and I will become uncles.”

Unexpectedly, just as the two of them were talking, Xi Wei bustled in.

Caesar stood up in surprise. “Big brother? Where have you been for the last two days?”

Xi Wei was thirsty, so he took a cup of water and poured it down his throat first, then wiped his mouth. He waved a hand and said, “Didn’t Klaire lead the Morningstar Corps to planet Rennes? I had nothing to do, so I went with him to Rennes and played around for a few days.”

Going out to play with your fiancé was pretty normal, but when he thought of that dream, Caesar’s expression instantly sunk. He stared at his older brother and said word by word, “Klaire didn’t bully you, did he?”

“He didn’t.” Xi Wei smiled and said.

But his older brother’s body carried the distinct scent of an alpha. That scent was as clear as if the alpha was saying, “This man is mine.” As an alpha, Caesar quickly noticed this. He frowned and moved closer to take a look at the back of his brother’s neck—

There was clearly a bite on the back of Xi Wei’s neck, carrying the strong scent of alpha pheromones on it. Evidently, the reason why Xi Wei carried the scent of an alpha was that he had been marked.

Caesar’s expression changed, and he said in a severe voice, “Big brother, how come you’ve been marked?!”

Xi Wei paused and turned his head awkwardly to take a drink. He said in a low voice, “Kids shouldn’t pay attention to things like this.”

Caesar said angrily, “Who marked you? Was it that bastard Klaire? Wait 'til I teach him a lesson!”

Xi Wei: “...”

Seeing that Caesar was so mad he was about to beat someone up, Xi Wei quickly grabbed his little brother by the back of his neck and said roughly, “Who are you going to teach a lesson?! Klaire and I are already engaged, is it your place to manage our affairs? Go and study your lessons!”

“...” Caesar’s face was almost as dark as the bottom of a pot.

Watching the show from the side, Brian laughed until he almost fell over. He said while laughing, “Cousin, don’t blame Caesar, he had a bad dream last night that Klaire did that to you. He’s been in a bad mood all day. You have to allow for the weird brother complex of this kid who hasn’t grown up yet.”

Xi Wei threw him a knifelike glare. “Shut up.”

Brian laughed and said, “So fierce! Daddy, save me!”

“How do you want Daddy to save you?” Berg’s calm voice suddenly came from the door. Like a mouse who’d seen a cat, Brian instantly ducked away and disappeared without a trace.

Caesar looked in the direction he ran off to and snorted coldly. “What a good-for-nothing.”

Berg didn’t mind his foolish son and walked quickly into the room. He looked at Xi Wei. “I haven’t seen you for a few days, where did you go?”

Xi Wei was just about to speak when Berg, sharp-eyed, found the bite mark on the back of his neck. He couldn’t resist saying, “You’ve been marked?”

“...”

How come everybody wanted to ask him such an embarrassing question?!

Even this big beast was still an omega, was it so weird he’d been marked?

Berg saw that Xi Wei’s ears had flushed slightly red, and he couldn’t help but smile and say, “Looks like you and Klaire are happily making progress.” As he said this he walked over and patted his nephew’s shoulder. “You’re not a kid anymore. If you want, after Klaire comes back, you guys can get married.”

“Uh...there’s no hurry, Uncle.” Xi Wei awkwardly changed the topic. “Uncle, were you looking for me because you had something to tell me?”

Seeing Caesar prick up his ears to listen in, Xi Wei chopped down on the back of his little brother’s neck and said, “Go find Brian. You two are going to take the entrance exam this year, so behave and go study.”

“...Oh.” Caesar walked away with a face full of unwillingness.

Only then did Uncle Berg say, “I came to tell you that we’ve successfully broken through the greatest obstacle to developing the SS mecha in the underground factory. The core system and most of the hardware and equipment have been assembled and installed. I’m guessing that by next year at the latest, we’ll be able to officially put this mecha into service.”

Hearing this good news, Xi Wei’s eyes brightened. “That’s great!”

Xi Wei had also spared no little effort for the sake of this ultimate weapon that the royal family could use. In the early stages, he had helped transport the mecha’s power source, and after graduating, he had secretly transported heavy-duty arms from other galaxies a few times in a row, under Berg’s orders. Today, they had finally overcome all the barriers to the mecha’s development. Xi Wei couldn’t help being happy. He felt as if he had seen with his own eyes something that he had taken part in making take shape.

Uncle and nephew exchanged a look. Xi Wei suddenly thought of a question: “Right, Uncle, have you and Father discussed the candidates for piloting the mecha?”

A good mecha had to have an owner who was capable of piloting him. Berg smiled slightly and said, “Since this SS-class mecha’s grade is too high, and his design is quite unusual, it’d be best to have two people cooperate on piloting him. His Majesty and I have considered two proposals at the moment. One is for you and Caesar to cooperate, since this mecha belongs to the royal family and the Underground Alliance, and it’s best not to let outsiders know about it.”

“That’s true.” Xi Wei nodded. “But Caesar’s only seventeen years old right now, is he too young?”

“That’s the question that worries His Majesty and me the most.” Berg looked at Xi Wei and said seriously, “Your little brother Caesar is indeed still small, and his way of thinking isn’t mature enough at the moment. What’s more, he’ll be busy studying for the Imperial Standard Entrance Examination, and he won’t be able to master the skill of piloting an SS mecha in a short amount of time. So His Majesty and I drew up a second plan.”

“There’s still a second plan?” Xi Wei asked curiously.

“Yes.” Berg smiled and said, “It’s for you and Klaire to do it.”

“...” Xi Wei looked at his uncle with an awkward expression.

“Piloting an SS mecha requires absolute trust and tacit understanding between the two pilots. At the moment, the only young people in the empire with the mental strength to fly an SS mecha are you two. Since you and Klaire love each other and are already engaged, I think it shouldn’t be difficult to trust each other absolutely, right?” Berg looked at Xi Wei gently. “If you two got officially married before piloting the mecha, that couldn’t be better.”

“...” Xi Wei hated that he couldn’t dig a hole and bury himself in it!

—What do you mean, “love one another?”

—Uncle, open your eyes and take a look, we’re putting on a show!

It was their fault for acting too well, so that they actually kept everyone in the dark. Now that Xi Wei had set this into motion, it was hard for him to stop halfway. Even his uncle and father firmly believed that he liked Klaire…

This matter was getting harder and harder to handle. Xi Wei’s head was starting to hurt again. He couldn’t help but cough and say, “Uncle, let’s talk about this later. In any case, the mecha still needs a year before it can be officially completed. I’m a little tired, I’m going to go sleep a bit.”

Berg had a face full of understanding. He rubbed Xi Wei’s head and said softly, “After being temporarily marked, omegas get tired more easily than normal because of the changes in their pheromones, so they need to rest more. I’m leaving now, sleep well.”

Xi Wei watched his uncle leave with an expression of frustration and embarrassment, then lay down irritably on his bed.

Everyone thought that he and Klaire loved each other a lot, and he had been delighted to have Klaire mark him. But only the two of them knew the truth… Although he understood where Klaire had been coming from back then, right now, he just wanted to grab Klaire and give him a good fierce beating!

A few days later, Joen was smoothly discharged from the hospital. After having his memory cleared, this guy had a vacant expression on. When he saw Xi Wei, he even showed him a smile and said, “Xi Wei, how come I’m in the hospital?”

He had completely forgotten the details of how Xi Wei had tormented him in the interrogation room until his whole body was twitching and he was foaming at the mouth. His memory ended at the night of his failed confession to Xi Wei half a month ago.

Xi Wei looked at him and calmly said, “You got food poisoning which led to acute pancreatitis, so I sent you to the hospital for emergency treatment. You’ve been unconscious in the intensive care unit for the last few days. Today, you finally woke up.”

If Joen’s grandfather wasn’t the head of the Thunderclap Corps, and if Joen’s rank hadn’t already risen to major general, Xi Wei would’ve preferred to to nip future troubles in the bud and kill him outright. However, if Joen died, once the Thunderclap Corps started looking into matters, it would stir up a lot of trouble. It might even implicate the entire Underground Alliance.

So, enduring his intense disgust, Xi Wei made up a perfect lie for Joen with a calm expression.

Joen took it for the truth and said, smiling, “I hadn’t thought you cared for me so much that you’d personally send me to the hospital.”

“...” Xi Wei suddenly felt that this guy turned foolish after the memory removal operation.

Faced with his foolish smile, Xi Wei could only say with a cold face, “I’ll send you home.”

It was lucky that Joen had had a hidden motive at the time, so no one knew about him secretly meeting with Xi Wei. So when Xi Wei sent him home, he didn’t arouse his family’s suspicion, and Joen’s parents even thanked him.

Xi Wei smiled and finished acting out this little play, then returned to the palace.

Caesar was at school, the second princess Sia had long since been married away to the far-off Lyra galaxy, and the third princess Celine was studying at Ellen Academy. Only Xi Wei was left in the palace, and the Underground Alliance hadn’t given him any missions. He was really bored.

Bored to death, he flew Egret around in a circle on the palace’s empty grounds. After that, he couldn’t resist having Egret give Bluestar a call—he kind of missed that noisy mecha who said “I want to marry Egret” all day long, and he didn’t know how the dumb thing was doing.

But to his surprise, Bluestar’s communicator wasn’t connecting.

The line “signal in progress, please wait,” appeared on the screen, and stayed there for several minutes without changing.

Every time he called Bluestar before, there was always an immediate reply. Today, after waiting so long, there was still no response. Was Klaire busy? Or...had something happened to him?

Xi Wei frowned, and a thread of unease suddenly rose up from the bottom of his heart.

***

3 hours and 50 minutes for 2,256 words, or 10.2 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 1.5 minutes.

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