At this very moment, the space outside the Su family starport could be called quite the lively scene; some celebratory performances, made ready well ahead of time, had begun as well.
Though it was the environment of the void, one could see all manner of light-shows and fantastical displays.
This stretch of the star-firmament seemed steeped, one and all, in a mood of beauty and joy.
Even the whole of the Su family starport's lighting systems had been switched on, for all the world like a glittering globe of light.
Su Lan sat within her crystal room, gazing calmly at everything beyond the dome, as though all of it had nothing whatever to do with her.
The spirit and light in her two eyes grew less and less.
And it was just at this moment that the great door behind her was pushed open.
Su Lan's body drew taut; half-consciously, she laid her hand upon the handheld terminal at her right wrist.
"Miss Su Lan, good day to you. In consideration of the Su family's rules, before you reach the Imperial Capital Star you cannot leave this interstellar warship, and His Highness the Third Prince cannot come to see you either. And so it will be we who see to your care during this time. Whatever you may have need of, you have only to bid us," a matron said, respectful and deferential.
Su Lan looked coldly at this party of people, and silently made a sound of reply.
She knew these people had come merely to keep watch over her.
"That is… we may need to gather a record of your physical condition, to make ready for the wedding to come," the matron said again.
"Go about your business," Su Lan said in silence.
"Pardon the discourtesy." Having said this, the matron brought forward the several attendant-maids at her side, and took out apparatus of every kind.
First they scanned Su Lan's retina and face, and then drew a little of Su Lan's blood.
Su Lan mocked herself within: the Su Lan of now was, for all the world, like a piece of cargo.
Awaiting appraisal.
They were charged with appraising her identity, and whether her body carried any disease or the like.
As Su Lan thought on and on, for some reason a certain scene surfaced in her mind.
It was from the time of her deepest despair — when the two-academies fleet had come under assault by a hive-race fleet, and the interstellar warship she'd been aboard had crashed down onto a planet.
The two academies' teachers and students had been set upon and surrounded by the swarm; and just as it seemed they were about to lose their lives to the maws of the bugs—
that man had appeared, for all the world like a god descending from the heavens, and pulled her out to safety.
She remembered still, and deeply, the way that man had looked as he stood shielding her then; she would not forget it her whole life long.
That sense of safety…
If… if he knew the plight I'm in now, would he come to save me? A stray thought suddenly rose up in Su Lan's heart.
But very soon Su Lan dismissed the notion.
Su Lan, what wild fancies are you spinning?
How could he possibly appear?
For one must bear in mind — this was not like the situation before.
What had been faced that time was an enemy from without, the hive-race.
But this time, were Zhao Chen truly to appear, what he'd have to face would be the single most powerful force in the Starlight Empire right now — the Prince Faction!
And, moreover, that was the man who would, in future, become the Great Emperor of Starlight.
At the mere thought of this, Su Lan shook her head in self-mockery.
Su Lan, oh Su Lan — this is no fairy-tale storybook; you just stop spinning wild fancies here.
"Eh? How is it a whole mass of interstellar warships has come over there — come to offer congratulations? This is coming far too late, surely." At this moment, an attendant-maid beside her suddenly looked toward a direction in the deep cosmos beyond the dome.
These words drew no small number of eyes to look over.
Su Lan, too, could not help gazing across — and she saw, within that pitch-black cosmos, glowing point after glowing point appearing, for all the world like so many little suns.
But any who knew interstellar warships knew that those were the glows of interstellar-warship engines.
Glimpsed all at once, it was for all the world as though several thousand stars were shining over there.
And one shouldn't take these several thousand stars for several thousand interstellar warships — for, as a rule, a single interstellar warship possessed more than one engine.
Those points of light drew nearer and nearer, and little by little one could make out, too, the silhouettes and forms of those interstellar warships.
And, strange to say, this interstellar fleet had, of all things, spread out into a combat formation!
For one must bear in mind — a fleet's passage was, as a general thing, divided into three sorts of array.
One was the combat formation, for the purpose of joining battle head-on.
Another was the cruising formation, for the purpose of swift passage and covering ground, which would also possess a degree of combat capability according to the differing regions of travel.
And the last was the showy, all-flourish-and-no-substance fleet array, generally used when taking part in some festive occasion.
As, for instance, those interstellar warships gathered outside the Su family starport at present — all of them in this sort of array.
To come to another's celebration and spread out into a combat formation was, indeed, a most discourteous act.
At this point, the various forces present, too, took notice of this fleet that had appeared so suddenly, and fell to discussing it privately.
What country bumpkins were these — late, to say nothing of being so ignorant of the rules?
But as these interstellar warships drew nearer, everyone gradually began to find that the situation was amiss.
For they'd discovered a great mass of suspected T3-grade interstellar warships!
"That front row there, with the three ramming horns… don't tell me those are T3 interstellar frigates?" Within the interstellar corridor, one of the Su family's people couldn't help but say.
"This… if they all are, then by the look of the number, there'd be 100-and-more of them at the very least! 100-and-more T3 interstellar frigates for escort — who is this? To put out so grand a show of force," someone muttered in curiosity.
Qin Hu, too, was at this moment looking toward this "rule-less" interstellar fleet — but why did he have the feeling these interstellar warships' silhouettes were so familiar to the eye?
As these interstellar warships came nearer and nearer, Qin Hu woke with a violent start.
He knew now why these interstellar warships were so familiar.
For he'd once fought a battle against these interstellar warships — back when he was pursuing the little Princess's fleet in the Grey Moon Star Region!
Though there'd been some changes to the hulls, Qin Hu could stake his word on it: this was, beyond all doubt, that very interstellar fleet that had assaulted him back then.
And at this point, the starship crest at the fore of these interstellar warships' hulls, too, showed itself before the eyes of all.
This crest was not often seen in the Purple Perilla Star Region — but the commotion it had lately raised in the Starlight Empire was no small thing, and some people did, still, recognize it.
"The Owl Dragon…"
…
Over on the other side, within the domed crystal palace.
Su Lan sprang up with a jolt, her two eyes filled through and through with a look of disbelief.
How could she fail to recognize that crest!
Back then, on that planet, it had likewise been an interstellar warship bearing this crest that had appeared before her.
That man, for all the world like a god descending from the heavens, who had rescued her!
The Owl Dragon crest!
He'd come!
He truly had come!
Su Lan's pupils, which had originally been like dead ashes, now showed a complex light.
Joy… agitation… worry… fear… every manner of feeling came swarming in upon her at once.
"Zhao… Chen…" Su Lan murmured out this man's name in the softest, gentlest of voices; she clapped a hand over her own mouth, for she was very near to losing hold of her own emotions.
Within her eye-rims, a trace of something crystalline slid down.
Su Lan choked with feeling.
He truly had come!
Once again!
In the hour of her helplessness and despair—
her peerless hero had come again!