Chapter 94
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Virtual Mental Bolt Training Field
At that moment, the emperor's gaze was extremely sharp. Even the slightest anomaly on Celia's face would have nowhere to hide under such a gaze.
Yet Celia's face truly showed no expression at all. He said, "What's it to you?"
Heinrich: "…"
The emperor's suspicious gaze darted back and forth between Celia and the syringe. A few seconds later, he made a decision—he extended his arm, rolled up his sleeve, and injected the remaining few milliliters of medicine from the syringe into his own vein.
Now it was Celia's turn to wear a full face of "…" expression. The Alliance war god was practically thunderstruck speechless. After a long moment, he finally asked, "You… you… what are you doing touching my medicine?"
Heinrich said coldly, "We're factual spouses. According to imperial law, everything of yours is mine. What's wrong with me using a bit of your medicine?"
Celia shot back, "Factual spouses are entitled to half of each other's assets under Alliance law. Half the Empire is mine! Transfer all the inhibitor manufacturers within imperial borders to my name tomorrow!"
The highest leaders of the Alliance and the Empire glared at each other like fighting cocks. After a long while, the emperor grumbled reluctantly, "You think I'm falling for your trick… If I said the Empire is mine, you'd chop me up and flush me down the toilet right now. The Empire belongs to the people."
Celia couldn't help but burst out laughing. He settled back into the sofa and flipped to the next page of his book.
The emperor stared extremely suspiciously at the small red dot left on his arm by the syringe. After a long moment, a sudden flash of insight struck him: "Gryphon!"
Gryphon came rolling out butt-wagging from the bedroom: "Your Majesty! A day apart feels like three autumns! Our little phoenix and our General Aaron…"
A fierce glare from the emperor instantly silenced Gryphon: "Test my blood for me."
Gryphon was shocked: "What, are you testing if you're pregnant too?"
Celia had just taken a sip of tea and spat it all out with a "pfft." He hurriedly stood to grab a tissue to wipe it up.
The emperor gave him a glance loaded with extremely complex and profoundly meaningful implications, then extended his hand for Gryphon to prick with the needle. A few seconds later, the dumb gryphon asked tremulously, "Y-Your Majesty, what are you testing for?"
The emperor said impatiently, "What was in that medicine just now? What effects does it have on the human body? Hurry up!"
Gryphon immediately transformed in midair into a small spherical light brain. It beeped and whirred for a few seconds, then projected a series of complex three-dimensional chemical formulas into the air.
The emperor's gaze shifted to Celia, who was watching Gryphon with a faint smile, neither speaking nor moving.
A moment later, the dumb gryphon said quietly, "It's inhibitor… an ultra-high dose of inhibitor, the kind that won't expose your pheromones even if you bleed from an injury."
"Because I knew the great and extraordinarily valiant imperial military would do everything in their power to beat up the Alliance delegation— the more blood, the better. They might even want to kill a few," the emperor turned back to see Celia leisurely turning a page in his book and saying, "So to avoid causing unrest in the Empire, I made some preparations in advance."
"…" The emperor pounced, pinning him down, and asked coldly, "You just don't want anyone to know about our relationship, do you?"
Under the lamplight, Celia narrowed his eyes slightly. His face was noticeably pale, with red veins in the whites of his eyes. Viewed from this close, his cheeks even seemed a bit more gaunt.
He must have had an incredibly tough time lately—stripped of his overt marshal position on the surface, scheming parliament ready to pounce, restless political enemies, and those inscrutable traitors in the military… Every step had been fraught with peril.
Especially since so many people now knew he was an Omega. Those who could guess their relationship had guessed it. The layers of dangers and conspiracies Celia faced would be even more numerous and treacherous than during the Alliance's endgame crisis of internal and external threats.
Heinrich stared into his bright black eyes from close range, and for some reason, a secret, dark thrill of satisfaction swept through his heart.
Celia was troublesome, difficult—that much he knew. And this difficulty was one he'd inflicted on him.
Sometimes people were just like that: the more you love someone, the more you can't help adding troubles to their life that no one else could.
Moreover, Celia—seemingly the embodiment of every virtue and wisdom, capable of anything and everything—actually had a day where he was stumped by him. That in itself was profoundly satisfying and pleasurable.
Especially when no one else could help with these troubles, and he had no choice but to turn to the culprit behind it all, Heinrich…
For the first time, Heinrich felt, "So this is what it feels like to be emperor—it's pretty great."
A moment later, he slowly smiled and fixed his stare on Celia: "Do you still think those words about constitutional monarchy I said on the way to Voidstar were lies?"
Celia apparently hadn't divined the emperor's labyrinthine thoughts. Still pinned down, he held up his hand and flipped a page in his book on his own: "I never thought you were lying in the first place."
"Didn't you say I'd regret it someday?"
"That's a matter for the future."
Heinrich waited a long time. Seeing Celia had no intention of arguing further, he grew a bit irritable and snatched the book from his hand: "What are you reading? Are those Alliance trivialities that important? Can't you just have Karyan handle all that staring at documents? That good-for-nothing can't—"
As he flipped through the book casually, he suddenly froze. It was just an ordinary light novel!
"You read this stuff too?!" the emperor asked incredulously.
Celia snatched the book back. "Can't I?"
The emperor: "…"
The emperor was a bit dazed. Celia lightly kicked him away and sat up, leaning back into the sofa to read.
Before coming, he'd imagined every possible thing Celia might be doing: handling official documents, berating subordinates, reviewing negotiation proposals, even secretly meeting Karyan in the dead of night…
But the one thing he hadn't imagined was Celia simply sitting under the lamp, reading an ordinary popular novel.
This utterly shattered Heinrich's entire perception of Celia as a person.
"Do you know how embarrassing the Alliance was today?" Heinrich probed.
Celia replied absentmindedly, "I know."
"…Don't you have anything to say about it?"
"Didn't someone already say it all?"
The emperor recalled that absurd commendation letter and his expression turned subtly peculiar for a moment.
Celia ignored him and read for a bit before getting up to pour more tea. But as soon as he moved, Heinrich snatched the cup first and hid it behind his back, staring at him with a hint of threat.
Celia: "…What exactly do you want?"
"The Alliance lost miserably today."
"…So?"
Heinrich said nothing, merely raising one eyebrow. His gaze was sharp and profoundly meaningful.
After a long moment, Celia finally gave in with exasperation, sighing and rubbing his forehead: "Imperial officers are mostly battlefield veterans with exceptional personal valor. The Alliance is indeed a bit inferior in that regard. And since I wasn't there today, this outcome isn't surprising. What more do you want me to say?"
"If you were there, you could've turned the tide?" The emperor was slightly smug but couldn't resist teasing, "The Empire being stronger than the Alliance is just a fact. How much could one person change?"
Truth be told, hearing that imperial officers were generally exceptionally valiant had already satisfied the emperor immensely. But Alpha nature compelled him to boast a bit more, to show off in front of his Omega and gain a little verbal advantage.
However, he'd spoken too arrogantly, and Celia's advantages were never easy to claim.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the Alliance legion commander arched a brow and asked, "You really think I couldn't win even if I was there?"
"…What could you do?"
—The emperor truly believed Celia couldn't do anything.
He might have been formidable before. Even as a Beta, he could suppress the entire military's Alphas until they couldn't breathe.
But now he was an Omega!
After entering maturity as an Omega, the physique naturally changed: muscle density and strength declined, while the body became softer and more slender. This was an uncontrollable natural phenomenon.
Of course, he was still among the top experts, but compared to the Empire's universe-class warlords, he might beat Isaac but probably not Aaron. Even if he toppled Aaron with experience and instincts, he absolutely couldn't match the emperor!
"I'm not talking about one-on-one combat." Probably seeing the faint smugness in Heinrich's eyes, Celia shook his head with a smile: "My physical strength has declined now. What I rely on is just experience, techniques, and skills—but that's not enough on its own."
Heinrich frowned slightly, only to hear him continue slowly: "—I'm talking about mental power."
Heinrich: "……………"
Comparing mental power with Marshal Celia…
Celia watched the emperor's expression with keen interest and teased, "Not daring anymore? Actually, your mental threshold is pretty close to mine now. Didn't you reverse-control Gryphon on the way to Voidstar? —Speaking of which, these days, mental thresholds are what matter for soldiers. After all, even the most outstanding individual combat is just one person's prowess. Mecha pilots are the foundation of space warfare… Oh, right—rumor has it the Empire's 3S mecha directly copied Phoenix's virtual mental bolt tech? Your imperial generals are valiant, but I haven't heard of any with exceptionally strong mental power. Looks like you're really lacking in that department."
…Lacking!
To say to an Alpha's face that he was lacking!!
"Who says I'm lacking!" The emperor shot to his feet, forgetting even the hand he'd sneakily placed on Celia's thigh: "Imperial mecha represent the pinnacle of the galaxy. The pilots are one in a million! Even in mental threshold, we absolutely won't lose to the Alliance!"
Celia made to turn back to his book but was grabbed by the wrist by Heinrich, who asked coldly, "You think this lets you beat me and avenge your Karyan?"
*My Karyan?*
Celia's temple twitched faintly. Just as he opened his mouth to retort, the emperor cut him off icily: "It's nothing to compare anyway. The Winter Palace has a dedicated mental threshold training arena, controlled by the galaxy's one-of-a-kind giant virtual mental bolt—tech the Alliance has never even seen! —Karyan's right downstairs. Want to bring him along to see? Let him witness just how many times my mental threshold dwarfs his pathetic one?!"
In that moment, Celia's face held no expression, because he truly didn't know what expression to make.
—How obsessed with Karyan are you exactly?!
But when the emperor got angry, he never let it go easily. He immediately tried to drag Celia off to find Karyan, impossible to dissuade.
Seeing the murderous intent surging in his eyes, Celia had no doubt he'd grab Bian at first sight of Karyan and skewer him through without a second thought.
Thus, he sternly yanked him back, grabbed a coat at random, and in the struggle, neither notified anyone. Without attendants or guards, they shoved and tussled their way downstairs.
The mental power training ground was within the New Kremlin Palace, not far away. In Bian's compact shuttle form, they arrived in minutes.
It was a building with an unremarkable exterior, vaguely like an officers' club at first glance. Heinrich parked the shuttle on the vast lawn at the entrance and pulled Celia out.
Behind them, the shuttle instantly disintegrated into countless fragments, reassembling in midair into a bracelet that "dinged" onto the emperor's sturdy wrist.
"I've posted a 390% mental threshold record here," Heinrich said flatly, no trace of bragging or anything else in his tone: "Too bad it was only once, after returning from Voidstar."
Celia's hand was clasped in his palm as they entered one after the other. The lobby instantly hummed to life with artificial daylight, illuminating the entire space as bright as noon.
Heinrich turned around and, sure enough, saw Celia's surprised expression. He couldn't help the corner of his mouth hooking up, a touch smug.
"Surprised? The Empire's technological prowess has surpassed the Alliance's current state by over a century—even at the Alliance's historical peak, it wasn't this advanced—Celia, welcome to the core of imperial mecha technology: the Virtual Mental Bolt Training Field."
Behind him stretched an unbelievably vast space, the lobby so expansive it seemed endless at a glance.
Massive electromagnetic tracks crisscrossed like skybridges overhead. Not far off stood two sleek, pitch-black and pure-white needle-nosed hover racers gleaming brilliantly under the lights.
With one look, Celia realized they were two top-tier mecha whose grades couldn't be discerned.
—This was actually a royal indoor racetrack!