Galactic Star Calendar, year 3033 · mid-July.
A week's time had now passed since the Third Prince fleet's defeat in the Owl Dragon Star System campaign.
But over this stretch of time, the Prince Faction had, for all the world as though it had received no word of any kind, gone all along without the least movement.
The various forces within the Starlight Empire had, at this moment, quieted down too; they were all waiting for the Prince Faction's next move.
Would it be to treat it as though nothing whatever had happened, to go on consolidating its own Prince-Faction power, and to seek some way of revenge after the Second Prince succeeded to the throne?
Or to muster now a vast interstellar legion fleet and campaign against the Owl Dragon Star System once more — even at the cost of tearing wide open its face with the Chu River Star Region and the North Wind Star Region?
Whichever way it was, behind it there would be a whole chain of reactions.
And what no one had imagined was that, in what came next, the Second Prince Qin Ming would choose the single most extreme way of all.
The Imperial Capital Star.
The residence Chu Changhe had furnished for himself here.
Every day, rain or shine, Chu Changhe would come to a certain side-court within the residence, to look in upon the Empress.
The Empress was, as before, somewhat muddled in her wits — but now, more than anything, she was silent and unspeaking; she no longer talked to herself as she had at the outset.
It was for all the world like a puppet that had lost its soul.
"Report — the Second Prince has sent people to give notice. His Majesty's mind has recovered somewhat; he now wishes to see you and the Empress." The steward reported at Chu Changhe's side.
"I understand. I'll go fetch the Empress. You ready the vehicle," Chu Changhe said.
"Yes."
The steward left.
Chu Changhe looked at the various dazzling, exquisite, advanced structures in the near-orbit of the Imperial Capital Star overhead.
His gaze was deep and far-off.
Having stood still for a few minutes—
Chu Changhe came to the side-court where the Empress lodged for the time, and informed her of the matter of the Emperor's asking to see them.
The Empress merely gave Chu Changhe a silent glance, and said nothing.
Not until Chu Changhe bade a maidservant support the Empress did the Empress, under the maidservant's support, at last move to leave the side-court.
A car stopped outside the great gate of Chu Changhe's residence.
Chu Changhe opened the rear door for the Empress himself; and after closing the car door, he cast a glance at this old manor of the Chu family's — the residence that had been bestowed upon them back in the day, after a forebear of the Chu family earned merit and was awarded honors.
The manor was of an antique style; above the great gate hung a plaque, and upon the plaque was but a single golden character.
"Chu."
This was, moreover, a character the royal house's late emperor had written with his own hand back in that day.
From that time on, this golden character "Chu" had become, too, the fleet-crest of the Chu family legion fleet, generation upon generation.
Most ostentatious.
But no one dared raise so much as half a word of doubt about it.
For the Chu family's devotion to the royal house, to the Starlight Empire, generation upon generation, was worthy of this character.
To call the Chu family a whole household of loyal martyrs would be not the least overstatement.
Chu Changhe cast a last glance at this golden "Chu"-character sign, rounded the car, and sat in the front-right seat.
The car started up; the hovering system switched on, and the car, for all the world like an aircraft, hovered in the air and raced off toward its destination.
A dozen-odd minutes later, the car set down atop the summit of a mountain peak, where there stood a palace-castle of gleaming gold and jade splendor.
That was the dwelling where the Starlight Emperor ordinarily lived, and, at the same time, the place where he'd been recuperating this while past.
Around this palace-castle there was an exceedingly stern and strict guard: upon the ground were a great many interstellar mecha; in the air hovered several T2-grade interstellar warships; and higher still, in the near-orbit, there were T3-grade interstellar warships — T4-grade interstellar warships, even — standing garrison.
Ready at any moment to meet any sudden contingency!
The car having finished parking, Chu Changhe opened the car door for the Empress himself; the Empress walked out.
She no longer needed a maidservant's support now, but her eyes still seemed very hollow.
"Empress, if you please," Chu Changhe said.
The Empress said nothing; silently, she set foot into this palace together with Chu Changhe.
Though there were a great many personal guards outside the palace-castle, within the castle one saw very few people; the number of attendants, too, was exceedingly small.
After they had walked a dozen-odd minutes, an attendant barred Chu Changhe and the others' way before the last great door.
"Governor Chu and the Empress, please wait here a moment." the attendant-maid said.
Chu Changhe stopped in his tracks and cast a look around the whole circuit of his surroundings; all round about was exceedingly quiet.
And so they waited a long while, and no one all the while came to summon them.
"Is there a personal attendant present? Chu Changhe and the Empress come to pay their respects to His Majesty." Chu Changhe called out.
There was no response of any kind.
Chu Changhe called out a few more times, and still there was no response of any kind.
Chu Changhe knit his brows faintly.
And it was just at this moment that he heard, from within the room ahead, the sound of something crashing.
Chu Changhe had the Empress keep close behind him, and walked briskly toward within the room, calling out from his mouth at the same time, "Chu Changhe comes by command to pay his respects to His Majesty; for any breach of etiquette, I beg pardon."
Stepping across the great door and walking into the room, he saw before him an enormous screen; behind the screen was the Starlight Emperor's bedchamber.
Chu Changhe rounded the screen, and there met his eye a great floating bed of gold silk, drapes hung about the great bed, through which one could faintly see someone seated upright upon it.
And by the bedside, everywhere, were the fragments of some porcelain vase.
The sound Chu Changhe had heard from outside just now had, in all likelihood, been the stir of this thing smashing upon the floor.
"Chu Changhe, come by command to pay his respects to His Majesty." Chu Changhe laid a hand at his chest, and made his bow.
The figure behind the drapes gave no answer.
Chu Changhe knit his brows faintly; he stepped slowly forward.
"Chu Changhe makes bold." He slowly drew aside the drape — and perhaps on account of his motion, the whole bed's drapes retracted of themselves.
And now the figure upon the bed was, at last, fully revealed.
It was an old man gaunt to the very bone, a full head of white hair, with none whatever of that kingly air of the Starlight Emperor of rumor.
Upon the skin of his body and his cheeks one could see some purple-black spots.
Chu Changhe knew this — it was an exceedingly rare disease-germ, one the Starlight Emperor had contracted by an accident back when he was out on campaign.
And it was, too, on account of this that, as the Starlight Emperor's years grew on, his bodily condition had worsened and worsened.
After the matter of the First Prince's passing broke out, the Starlight Emperor's old affliction had relapsed, and, all the more, he'd taken directly to his bed.
Chu Changhe had never imagined it had, of all things, already spread so gravely.
Though medical technology was advanced now, there were, still, inevitably some special ailments beyond curing — and the Starlight Emperor's was one of them.
"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?" Chu Changhe called a few times.
But the old man upon the bed still gave no movement of any kind.
Chu Changhe, keen-witted, sensed that something was amiss; he pressed his fingers to the old man's neck.
Chu Changhe's face changed abruptly; he at once threw back the quilt covering the old man's body — and he saw a dagger stabbed straight into the old man's chest, the blood already having stained red the gold-silk sleeping robe over his breast.
And upon that dagger was a golden character "Chu."
Chu Changhe recognized this thing — it was one of the several daggers he was rather fond of keeping upon his own person; and this fondness of his was, too, widely known throughout the Starlight Empire.
Chu Changhe instantly sensed the hidden design in all this — and at the same time, he heard a stir outside the room.
The door was pushed open, and the Second Prince Qin Ming came rushing in with a squad of gun-bearing soldiers.
Qin Ming saw his father upon the bed, a dagger stabbed into his chest; his face changed abruptly, and he pointed at Chu Changhe in fury.
"Chu Changhe, what monstrous audacity is this. My imperial father summoned you and the Empress — and you two dared, of all things, to assassinate my imperial father! Men — seize Chu Changhe and this woman for me. I now suspect that this woman not only has an illicit affair with that fellow of the Grey Moon Star Region, but is even carrying on with Chu Changhe. The two of them sought to assassinate the Emperor — they mean to rise in revolt!"