Chapter 2

【Ishtar】 traversed slowly along the starry skies.

As a new star level Flagship belonging to the youngest general in the history of the empire, it was different from the solemn atmosphere of the other long-established generals’ Flagships. It was extremely aggressive and full of vigor.

The dark, blue-black metal texture and sharp curves of its hull were just like its master, similar to a sheathed blade with a sharp edge.

Inside the hull’s control room, the outer walls’ stealth function has been turned on. Looking from inside the ship, one could see the endless starry sky outside without any obstructions.

The cosmic starry sky with no end in sight presents a deep black hue. And in that hue, mysterious dark blue traces were exuded by countless stars that are constantly flashing starlight, like a colorful oil painting slowly unfolding.

The magnificent galaxy flashed starlight from a distance, slowly swirling like a vortex. From time to time, river-like rubbles clustering past can be seen around the ship. At first glance, it looked like it would brush by the person standing inside the ship itself.

For the people working all year round inside starships, such a beautiful starry sky was already a common sight.

In the main hall of Ishtar, the only country bumpkin1 inside the starship was looking straight at everything in front of him with his mouth wide open in astonishment.

This was the legendary sea of stars.

The dark-haired youth has his heart overflowing with emotions and he could not wait to imprint the feeling of this incredible beauty of the starry sky in his mind. The starry sky was clearly right in front of him but when he extended his hand, his fingers came in contact with a cold metal sensation.

It was obviously also right in front of him, but he couldn’t see any trace of the wall. It was completely invisible. This peculiar experience of literally feeling that there was something in front of him but not seeing it, made him tirelessly caress the invisible cold metal wall while smiling, which in the eyes of other people watching, looked like a little idiot flailing his arms around while grinning.

Nonetheless, the teenager was having fun.

While the teenager was lost in his happiness, an invisible plasma barrier opened behind him in the shape of half a sphere, covering the main seats above the hall and the range of dozens of meters around it.

The slightly distorted air informs the people around it of the existence of a barrier that isolates internal and external sound waves from each other and some electronic waves around, so that people outside cannot hear the conversation between the high-ranking military officers inside.

“I can’t tell if this little guy is purely dumb or just brave.”

A red-haired man wearing the same style of blue-black military uniform murmured, his eyes slanting across the dark-haired teenager as his eyebrows frivolously raised.

【Acting so much like a pretentious prick is not good. Really.】

He was behind the Boss at that time, and suddenly hearing what the little guy said, god knows how much of his whole life’s willpower was exhausted in those ten-odd seconds trying to suppress the urge to whack the wall and hold his laughter from bursting out.

Unfortunately, he could only see the back of his Boss from where he stood. He really wanted to know what kind of expression was on that cold face of his Boss at that time… Such a pity he didn’t have the boldness to go around in front of the Boss to take a look.

He was also one of many who wanted to know why the Boss always looked blue and sullen when in the presence of other people, but no one dares confront him about it because together with that blue and sullen look, a terrifying and oppressive aura field can be felt.

But unexpectedly for the first time, someone could be so bold as to say that the Boss was acting like a pretentious prick, and right in front of the person himself too.

It was even this sort of little guy. Hahahahaaha!

Damn, he wants to laugh again.

He wanted to laugh but did not dare do so at this serious gathering; he could only hold it in once again causing his face to be twisted in an awkward manner, producing a terribly strange expression.

The young man on the other side gave him a sideways glance, too lazy to care about what other was thinking, he took a step forward and addressed a certain man.

“Lord Taylor, what are your plans?” The young man asked.

He has short blue hair, his epaulettes the same silver pattern as the red-haired man next to him, but he has two bars while the red-haired man only has one bar. In other words, he is a lieutenant colonel with a higher rank than the red-haired man.

The youngest major general of the Empire’s history sat quietly on the commander’s seat of his Flagship Ishtar, his long eyelashes drooping slightly casting a light shadow that fell on his fair cheeks. The epaulet fringed with golden patterned tassels on his shoulders has a golden bar attached to it, representing his rank. His skin glistened from the reflection of the gold in his clothing, and his black hair fell along his fair neck into his fixed collar. Black pants wrapped tightly around his slender legs, black military boots fastened with silver metallic buckles resting on the floor. His hands rested on the armrests of the commander’s seat, the white military gloves creating a contrast with the black cuffs secured around his wrists.

“I owe the Uriel family a favor.” He said lightly.

“Let him come over.”

The lieutenant colonel with short cyan hair nodded and pressed the button beside him, the air shook and the plasma barrier disappeared.

He made a gesture to a soldier standing not far away, and the soldier immediately turned around and brought back a dark-haired teenager who was still staring at the starry universe with awe.

“Tal Uriel is dead.”

Taylor looked at the teenager, who had been staring blankly at his face one moment turn pale after hearing this sentence. In spite of that, he didn’t give the other party any time to digest the message and continued to speak.

“He gave you to me before he died.”

He then added, repeating what he said to the teenager not long ago.

“In the future, you shall follow me.”

The old man is dead?

Miao Te was at a loss for quite a while.

Thinking of the time he spent with the old man in that one month, a feeling of sadness suddenly came over him. In addition, the young man who was said to be the major general of the Empire did not gave him any time to mourn, but directly dropped a heavy bomb that stunned him.

Follow him? This time, does it mean getting him into joining the army?

He used to be just an ordinary student, one who was weak and sickly at that. Not to mention that he still can’t speak the language fluently, even his knowledge of technological products and daily appliances are still lacking. How can he join the army and fight in this state? Do they want to try and see how a primitive man would fare if thrown inside a military tank? He must be kidding me.

“I won’t join the army!”

The dark-haired boy shook his head hard and explained, “I don’t want to fight. So I won’t enlist in the military!” He didn’t have the courage to kill anyone.

Albeit the sea of stars is almost every young boy’s dream, including him, Miao Te can clearly see the reality of the current situation. This Interstellar Era is not an era of peace. He is also not a suitable soldier; he couldn’t even point a gun at someone, let alone kill.

His response seemed to surprise the young major general prompting the latter to raise his head and look at him. Then as he parted his lips wanting to say something in return, the big red-haired man next to him suddenly patted his shoulder.

“You’re not interested.” The red-haired man interpreted. “But rest assured, the Imperial Law stipulates that minors are not allowed to enlist in the military.”

“I’m sixteen …” Back in his time, the Confederate States had promulgated an international law that set the age of adulthood at fifteen, so it’s reasonable to say that he is indeed an adult.

Miao Te wanted to prove his point by saying this but then remembered that it was now tens of thousands of years into the future, the allied nations on earth had most probably ceased to exist; realizing this, he quickly shut his mouth.

“Yeah, four years from adulthood, kid.”

“…”

In other words, the current age of adulthood requires one to be twenty years of age? Miao Te thought. It seems that the life expectancy of human beings has greatly increased years into the future, but exactly how long it is, that I don’t know.

“I will be your guardian.” The young major general spoke again. He doesn’t seem to like speaking much, and when he does speak, he speaks very little; but it doesn’t change the fact that his tone of voice gives a sense of oppression to the listener.

He turned his head and his eyes fell on a female soldier on one side.

“Shar, continue with him.”

…………

……………………

“Given that the ratio of minors is decreasing year by year, the Empire has now further enhanced its protective measures for minors.” A crisp female voice sounded in front.

Miao Te followed behind the female soldier, her bright blond hair shaking as she walked ahead of him.

She was a tall woman with beautiful long blond hair that was tied diagonally and placed around one shoulder, the ends of her hair hung down on top of her ample chest.

“Minors without a guardian must be taken to a designated minor shelter.”

“Your grandfather, Tal Uriel, is now dead. But before he died, he wished for you to be entrusted to Maj. Gen. Taylor, who has already agreed.”

“That is to say, your custody has been transferred to the Lord Major General.”

The silver and black military uniform enveloped the female soldier’s proud posture as she led Miao Te all the way to the door of the room assigned for him. She turned around and bent her eyes slightly, showing a professional smile to the teenager.

“So please be assured that the Lord Major General doesn’t mean to enlist you. On the contrary, the Lord Major General will allocate an accommodation for you on Planet Roy, which is one of the safest and richest planets.”

She then continued to smile as she said, “Moreover, that is also the Lord Major General’s territory planet. So as long as it doesn’t involve killing people, you can do anything you want on Planet Roy.”

“………” So in short you’re persuading me to live as a dandy on that planet, can’t you be more polite?

Miao Te thought so ruefully in his heart.

“Also, please tell me what type of woman you like.”

“Ha?”

“In accordance to your preferences, we will pick ten women to wait for your arrival inside your residency at Planet Roy.”

The female soldier showed her signature professional smile and said the above sentence rather naturally, which made the teenager instantly stupefied.

He stilled for a while and thought he might have heard it wrong.

“Pi-Pick … what does this mean?” He asked blankly, his brain shocked into stupidity that he stuttered.

The blonde female soldier flashed another smile at him.

“Please give birth to a child as soon as possible and continue the Uriel surname. This is also a responsibility carried by the Lord Major General by being your guardian.”

“!!!!!!”

The teenager who had been completely dumbfounded shook his head decisively, shaking it quite desperately.

“No, no, no, no—I don’t think he needs to fulfill this responsibility for me—”

The female soldier’s response to Miao Te’s desperate refusal was still a smile.

“Please tell me the type of woman you like.”

“… Say, Jiejie2, I’m a minor anyway …” The boy blinked his eyes, making it big to try to sell meng3 to this jiejie.

Forcing minors to do this and that kind of thing, the Imperial Law would certainly not permit it, right?

The blonde female soldier was unmoved. “Due to the declining fertility rate year by year, the Imperial Law stipulates that regardless of adulthood, anyone can do the deed at the age of fourteen in order to promote the birth of the children of the citizens of the Empire.”

“………” What the hell, what kind of Emperial Law is this!

“If you don’t have any special preferences, let me arrange them for you.” Blonde female soldier said with a smile.

“No.. this.. me.. I think this is disrespecting women! I can’t use them as tools for reproduction!” And I certainly don’t want to be a breeder! The teenager roared with a righteous expression in his heart.

You said a lot of nonsense just now, aren’t you just trying to raise me in that planet as a breeding pig and make me give birth to a baby!

“Please don’t worry, because they can get enough compensation, those women applied on a voluntary basis in advance. Similarly, men also have similar occupations based on voluntary basis.” The female soldier’s face still has that perfect professional smile.

“If you don’t have any other questions, I will go back first. You can have your rest and I will wake you up in advance when we have arrived at Planet Roy.”

Seeing that the female soldier was about to turn away, it was now or never. The dark-haired teenager reached out and grabbed her wrist. He held her hand desperately and clenched his teeth hard.

Think.., you, can, only, deliver, one, big, move.

He contemplated hard.

“No need!” The teenager said word by word under gritted teeth.

“… No matter how many women you find, it’s no use.”

Looking at the other with a tangled expression and tragic eyes, he said in an extremely pained tone.

“I only like men.”

The author has something to say:

NOTE: Ishtar: The goddess of war in Sumerian mythology that symbolizes Venus and also controls love.

SETUP: The Earth Age that Miao Te has mentioned is a little more than a hundred years after modern times. The earth of back then has no countries and there is only one Confederate State.

The approximate technological level is that some humans have already lived on the Moon, and the construction of the Mars migration base has just begun.