"These girls, really — such a rowdy lot." A woman teacher, still charming despite her years, considerately took out a handkerchief to wipe the lipstick marks from Zhao Chen's face, tidying his clothes as she went.
At first it was normal enough, but bit by bit Zhao Chen began to feel the woman teacher was pressing rather too close. And above all — why was she tidying his backside? Was there some strange mark there too?
"Ahem, ahem… it's understandable, really. Young people all worship heroes. Zhao Chen's feat this time makes him the hero of our academy!" Vice-Dean Hong stepped forward with his praise, which at last made the ardent woman teacher let Zhao Chen be and withdraw to one side — though she still sized him up with silky, come-hither eyes.
Seeing this, Zhao Chen exchanged a few offhand pleasantries with her.
Just then the aged Dean Qin came over. Looking at Zhao Chen, he made a deep bow outright. "Zhao Chen. As dean of Northstar Academy, I must thank you for saving the teachers and students of both academies. And as a father, I must thank you for bringing back, to a useless father, his daughter. Thank you!"
Dean Qin's daughter was the group leader, Instructor Qin.
As Dean Qin bowed, the teachers around him bowed deeply too — and among them were no few of those who'd argued in the dean's office over whether to mount the rescue at all. Zhao Chen had no mind now to reproach them for their thinking back then; everyone was different, and they'd started from the standpoint of the academy's interests — there was nothing wrong in that. Had Zhao Chen not had the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, he could never have pulled the two academies' people out of the hive-race's deadly straits either. And had Zhao Wan'er not been among them, had it not been for the System's reward, he'd never have risked the trip.
"I only did what I could," Zhao Chen said mildly.
"Zhao Chen, we mean to arrange a celebration banquet for you! And there's a scholarship of 300,000 star coins besides. I see your ship hasn't yet been repaired — our academy starport will repair it for you, free of charge!" Vice-Dean Hong said warmly.
"Everything else is fine, but the banquet — let's leave it." Zhao Chen declined the banquet; not long ago he'd attended a rather "special" celebration banquet already.
"Ah, I see… well, since Zhao Chen would rather not, then we won't hold one." Vice-Dean Hong was taken aback for a moment, admiring the student inwardly all the while. Not chasing after fame and gain — truly a fine boy.
"There is, however, another matter I'd like to discuss with the dean and vice-dean," Zhao Chen said.
"Speak — your affairs are the academy's affairs!" Dean Qin said.
Zhao Chen came straight out with it. "This rescue operation of mine — I wonder whether it counts as assessment credit?"
At these words, the teachers present were all dumbfounded.
Assessment credit?
A matter this momentous — in this Zhao Chen's eyes it was merely a matter of assessment credit?
"If it were to count as assessment credit, we could certainly let you skip a grade, Zhao Chen. But this… Zhao Chen, you only just skipped a grade this year; wouldn't skipping again affect your studies?" Vice-Dean Hong said, a little worried.
Zhao Chen asked back with a smile, "Vice-Dean Hong, do you think there's anywhere left that I need to study?"
What an arrogant, self-assured student! Still, considering his performance in the rescue, there truly was nothing to fault, and nothing the academy could teach him. The man had dared pilot a T3 warship to face a swarm of 1 million bugs and not shrink from the fight!
"In terms of theoretical knowledge, there is indeed nothing left to teach you, Zhao Chen. If you wish to skip a grade, I can count this rescue operation directly as triple the fifth-year assessment credit — place you at once in the sixth year, and let you graduate this July." Dean Qin looked at Zhao Chen and gave his promise. He understood: this boy was no creature of the pond; Northstar Academy couldn't keep so great a divinity. What he lacked was more real combat experience — and that was something the academy could no longer teach him.
Joy rose in Zhao Chen's heart; this way, his annual mission for the year could be counted as good as done.
"Thank you, Dean!" Zhao Chen said.
After a few more pleasantries, the gathering broke up, and Zhao Chen slipped back to the T3 Blizzard with Zhao Wan'er. He didn't dare linger long in the academy; after that terrifying scene just now, who knew what "terrors" might befall him if he went strolling about.
Cadet: Zhao Chen
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Age: 21
Status: Lord of the Owl Dragon Star System, North Wind Star Region (Viscount rank)
Year: Sixth
Department: Captaincy
Class: Sixth-Year Class One
Zhao Chen received the notice of the adjustment to his student status. Regarding Zhao Wan'er beside him teasingly, he poked her forehead. "Come on — let's hear you call me 'senior.'"
"Yes, Senior. You're ever so popular, Senior — all those fangirls swarming around you, even a beautiful teacher drawn to you." Zhao Wan'er eyed Zhao Chen in a snide, needling tone, then threw him a roll of the eyes and headed back to Northstar Academy herself. She still had a few things of her own to see to.
Zhao Chen was left blinking.
What's gotten into this girl? There's a whiff of jealousy about her.
Never mind, for now.
The Northstar Academy business was settled; that left a few other things to settle. Going to the Reef Star Region to collect the dwarf race was a must — only a question of when. The trip would take over a month. Before that, Zhao Chen had to get certain matters arranged.
Zhao Chen first sent a message to a certain account, then returned to his captain's quarters and sat at the desk, waiting.
Soon a reply came — and with it, a link to a holographic video room.
Zhao Chen opened the link, and in an instant everything around him changed: it was as though he stood at the edge of a beach. Across from him sat a woman who'd plainly been waiting a good while — clearly reining in her excitement, yet her eyes still brimming with excitement and nerves as she looked at Zhao Chen.
"Might I ask what brings you to seek me out so suddenly this time, sir?" Li Yaqi looked at the masked man before her, curious. She'd been in the thick of the work of expanding her shipyard, in a meeting. These days she had three or five meetings a day; all told, she could rest only four or five hours daily, run off her feet. But at the comm from that special account, she'd dropped everything without a word, returned to her office, and entered this holographic communications "room." In truth, these past few days she'd been thinking about this man constantly — for a certain matter had left her deeply uneasy.
"The affair of the two academies' teachers and students in peril, and their rescue — you'll have heard of it, I take it?" Zhao Chen regarded her with a smile.
Li Yaqi started, then said with feigned surprise, "Oh! You mean that affair — yes, I know of it. I hear the man was a student of Northstar Academy, and was even taken as a grandson-in-law by Governor Chu."
"And this man's identity — you're clear on that?" Zhao Chen asked again.
Li Yaqi shook her head, feigning ignorance. "He seems to be good friends with my little brother; beyond that I'm not too clear."
In fact, precisely because of the matter of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, Li Yaqi was 99% certain of this masked man's identity. But because of the man's earlier warning, she didn't dare take it upon herself to tear away this last veil.
And just then, the man before her did something that took her utterly by surprise.
He removed the mask from his face!