"Marshal! Marshal!"
Knocking came from outside the door without end.
But without authorization, those outside could not get in at all.
A figure sat by a pool under a transparent dome, dressed in thin gauze.
Beside the pool stood empty bottles, one after another.
A figure, cheeks flushed, walked unsteadily along the edge of the pool.
"It's my fault."
"It's all my fault."
"I should have made him leave back then."
"The last withdrawal route was the one I gave him too… if I hadn't given him that route… this wouldn't have happened…"
"I killed him… I killed him!"
Chu Xuan's cheeks were flushed, her eyes bloodshot, her body swaying.
She picked up the bottle and poured another mouthful down, but after only a few swallows the bottle was empty.
"All gone?" Chu Xuan looked dizzily at the empty bottle in her hand and tossed it aside.
Then began looking for more.
Just then she saw at the bottom of the pool a bottle that had rolled in who knew when.
"Drink! I want a drink!"
With that, Chu Xuan walked with swaying steps into the pool.
Her body sank slowly into the water.
She looked at the bottle wavering beneath the surface, and suddenly her foot came down right on it, and she pitched over and fell into the water.
Chu Xuan lay in the pool; at first she struggled a little without thinking.
But suddenly she gave up struggling.
This was fine too.
She was guilty; she would simply go and keep him company like this.
At least that way he would not be lonely over there.
Just as when the two had first met, and she had leaped without a second thought aboard his starship.
I'm coming to keep you company.
'Ding… Dangerous event detected; dispatching rescue robot.'
Just then a robot popped up at the poolside and plunged straight into the water.
In no time it had brought Chu Xuan, nearly at the bottom, to the side, and after some rescue work.
Chu Xuan came round.
She spat out a mouthful of what might have been water or liquor.
She coughed.
And looked blearily at the rescue robot beside her.
She felt not the least gratitude.
She snatched up a bottle beside her and smashed it at the rescue robot: "Who told you to save me!"
The rescue robot took a bottle to the head and fell to the floor, twitching.
Just at that moment,
a beep sounded at the door.
The door opened.
Of the many at the door who had been concerned for Marshal Chu Xuan, only one now stood there.
The figure came in, stepping around the bottles on the floor.
And came to the side of Chu Xuan, lying on the floor.
She frowned down at Chu Xuan, lying there dead drunk.
"Lady Secretary… Lady Secretary…" Chu Xuan, seeing who it was, laughed foolishly and simply held up both hands. "Lady Secretary, have you come to arrest me? I killed His Majesty. I killed him. I'm guilty! Quick, arrest me. Judge me… kill me… I'm guilty!"
Lilith looked at the drunken Chu Xuan, raised her hand into empty air, and opened an electronic control interface.
After a few operations, an ice bucket was delivered right in front of Lilith.
Inside was ice water, cubes and all.
Lilith, without the least ceremony, poured the whole bucket over her.
At that, Chu Xuan, who had been nine parts drunk, gave a great shudder and came fully to her senses.
She sat up with a jerk.
Soaked through, she looked at Lilith before her.
"Sober now?" Lilith looked at Chu Xuan.
Chu Xuan was sober, but her head still seemed to be frozen.
Lilith glanced at Chu Xuan, then at the smashed rescue robot and the bottles scattered about.
She looked all around once more.
At last her eyes went to a military uniform lying scattered on a chair some way off.
She went over, picked up the uniform, and looked at the imperial marshal's badge worn on its breast, the one that stood for a four-star marshal.
She took the imperial marshal's badge off and walked back to stand before Chu Xuan.
"I have looked into what happened with you. By the coordinates of the signal area from which T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship No. 1 made its last transmission. T6 Seraph Ballista No. 1 never said in the end what held up its passage. But after our researchers ran the calculations, the conclusion they reached is that along T6 Seraph Ballista No. 1's route there must have been a warp-interdiction zone, and Order hive-race T5 Starlight Fireflies as well. That is the most probable possibility," Lilith said flatly.
"It's my responsibility. I shouldn't have given His Majesty that route. If… if I'd given him another route, this might never have happened!" Chu Xuan clutched her head in both hands, breaking down.
Lilith crouched and hooked Chu Xuan's chin up with one hand.
"By the standing rules for ships in distress, the last transmission usually states the cause of the disaster. It is no great trouble, a line of text is enough. But to the very end, we received nothing of the kind from T6 Seraph-Ballista-class Interstellar Long-Range Hunter-Killer Ship No. 1. Breaking that rule. Is something the ship's captain, Tao Beibei, would never do, nor would her crew and petty officers. The only possibility is that there was an order they could not defy. Stopping them from doing it. Why would that man give such an order? What was it for?"
Chu Xuan's pupils widened, and she slowly raised her head. "He… he…"
"He was protecting you! He didn't blame you at all; as he saw it, this was likely only a coincidence. A coincidence no one could have changed. And he knew that if that information came back, someone might blame you, and you would blame yourself, and might even do something drastic. This was his way of telling you he doesn't blame you," Lilith said flatly.
"But I… but I…" Chu Xuan still wanted to say something.
Lilith, for her part, brought out a communication file.
It was a part cut from the communication file she had received.
That communication file held, besides the part left for her, a part for each of the other important people.
This part was left especially for Chu Xuan.
"This is the last communication file he sent back. Left for you," Lilith said.
Hearing it was left for her, Chu Xuan at once began to listen.
She held it to her ear, and as she listened, the tears ran down.
In so dangerous a moment, he… had still been worried about her…
Not one word of blame for her.
Instead, he was comforting her.
Chu Xuan listened to this message over and over, several times.
"The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire is at a critical moment now. What it needs is a strong imperial marshal, not a good-for-nothing who only knows how to sit here sniveling, drinking, and trying to die! And this imperial marshal's badge. He conferred it on you himself. Are you, as you are now… still worthy of it!" Lilith raised her hand; in it was that very imperial marshal's badge!