Chi Zhao had always felt that something was getting out of his control and the situation was becoming stranger and stranger around him.
Strange point 1: He hasn't seen Madam Shao in a long time. The Madam Shao who would insist on seeing him once a week was still having fun at a resort somewhere and seemed to have forgotten about her home back on the main star.
Strange point 2: Louis suddenly became very busy and would be away from home almost every day, only returning at night to sleep. Even during those occasional times he was at home, he would always lock himself in the study. If an average office worker was busy like this, Chi Zhao could understand, but Louis was an admiral. The only thing that can keep him busy is if there was a war and a war couldn't happen in his study.
Sometimes, Chi Zhao felt that he might be avoiding him.
His guess was very close, but Louis wasn't trying to avoid him. He just wanted to create more opportunities for Chi Zhao to be alone so that he can live a little more comfortably. Along the way, he could also learn about the orders Morris gives him.
And lastly, strange point 3: This was also the strangest of them all. Over the past month, Chi Zhao felt that stealing intel had become much easier than before. Before, he had to try and get access to the information whilst avoiding being found out but now he no longer needed to do that anymore and could get the information he needed by just taking a look. Moreover, at some unknown point in time, Louis had developed a habit of bringing home his military documents. As a result, Chi Zhao no longer needed to go visit the military headquarters and only the aide suffered.
After no longer going to the military headquarters, Chi Zhao didn't have much contact with many lower-level soldiers. If he wanted to play some tricks, he could only do it through the aide.
The aide's expression may seem calm on the outside but tears flowed endlessly inside him.
As one of Louis's most trusted subordinates, the aide naturally also knew about the admiral's wife being held hostage by the rebels and he also knew that the stupid things he had done unconsciously were because of his very powerful wife. The aide was very touched. For the sake of the Empire, the admiral's wife was willing to make so many sacrifices, so it wasn't a big deal for him to sacrifice a little too.
And so recently, he would run over to Louis's place whenever he could to give them his presence and give Shao Ze'an a chance to let him carry the blame.
Chi Zhao was very vigilant at first because he was afraid that the aide would notice the strangeness to his body but unexpectedly, the aide seemed to be very dense. Despite being controlled so many times, he didn't seem to have noticed and he even found a reason for it himself saying that he had some form of rare disease which would often result in such unreasonable actions.
When Chi Zhao heard this, he was instantly pleased.
Very good, you asked for it.
The aide now carried the name of a fool and even the military wanted to fire him.
...…
Today, Louis went to work. As for Chi Zhao, because college had only started recently and there weren't many classes, he had returned early. As he thought about these strange points, his heart was heavy. As usual, Morris's voice sounded and this time he was again instructed to steal information. Chi Zhao listened to his order with a bored expression when suddenly, a strange magnetic voice mixed in.
Chi Zhao frowned. He couldn't help but ask, "Who was that?"
That voice stopped. After a few seconds it spoke again. The voice sounded very imposing, "Good day, Shao Family's son. I am Alorin."
Chi Zhao was quite surprised. This was the super villain! He couldn't help but confirm it again, "You're Alorin?!"
At the same time Louis abruptly stood up. The drink the aide had just brought over was immediately knocked to the ground. The aide was startled, "Admiral, what is the matter?"
Louis looked at the aide with unconcealed shock in his eyes, "Morris and Alorin are in the same place."
In one place....What was so surprising about this? Both are rebels and they are both also of rather high statuses so wasn't it normal to be in the same place?
Louis didn't want waste any time explaining to the aide. The director had mentioned that although the device implanted is small, the machine controlling it is huge and impossible to carry around. This meant that Morris must remain in the same place to monitor Shao Ze'an. He was just a scientist while Alorin is the leader of the rebels. In other words, it wasn't possible for Alorin to go out of his way to find Morris. There was a high probability that they are both staying in the same place and that place is also Alorin's main base camp.
The above were all speculations. No one could be certain, but it was better to have a clue than nothing.
Please read this from kk translates
Many admirals sat together for a last-minute military meeting. Most of the people here are Louis's close associates. After Louis told everyone about the information he had just received, they looked at each other for a long time and didn't know where to start.
Meetings between soldiers were like fights. As they spoke and spoke, they would always end up quarrelling and once they start quarrelling, they would move on to using force. Though with Louis present, no one dared to actually start a physical fight.
Louis listened to them quarrel, his expression darkening more and more each second.
Even at such a time, they still had the time to get into meaningless arguments.
Sitting in the third position to the right of Louis was a young officer who had just joined. He looked difficult to get along with and would always have his head lowered. Whenever someone called out to him, he would also always respond indifferently, giving people an impression that he was very arrogant and closed off.
This young officer thought for a while and slowly looked at Louis, "Admiral, were you the one responsible for the spiritual power incident at Scarlett Star?"
As soon as those words were uttered, the room fell silent. Some present knew that Louis was the one responsible and some didn't, but whether they knew it or not, they all looked wide-eyed at the young officer. There were two newly promoted officers this year who were assigned to be under Louis's command. One was like a spring breeze while the other looked at others with dead fish eyes. The one who spoke was naturally the latter.
For a while, everyone felt complicated inside. It had turned out that this dead fish eyed officer not only didn't give himself face, he also didn't give Louis any face. He seemed to be rather neutral.
...….
The dead fish eyed officer was called Charles, and he is the Empire's tactical researcher. He not only is a researcher, his rank is also equivalent to a major general so his position could be ranked amongst the top five in this room. Louis looked at him for a while and calmly acknowledged it.
When Charles heard this, he was about to say something, but his arm was suddenly tugged by someone. Charles turned and looked over. Sitting next to him was the other newly promoted officer — Major Jiang Shupei. The rank difference between the two was rather large but their relationship was unexpectedly good.
Jiang Shupei wanted to remind Charles not to speak too harshly lest he offends Admiral West. Charles glanced at him slowly before turning back and saying nonchalantly, "Ah, as expected. I was also there on Scarlett Star collecting geological data for the military. As someone who experienced it personally, I had thought at the time that it was probably you."
Others: "..." Alright, I can see that you have keen observation abilities, but can you stop talking nonsense? Can't you see how poor the admiral's expression is?!
Fortunately, before Louis's patience ran out Charles went to the main point, "Before it went berserk, I didn't find any abnormalities on Scarlett Star but after that, I noticed that the collected data seemed unusual."
As he said this, Charles drew a vertical line, "I won't get too specific since you won't understand. Let me use an example. Say for example the distance between the centre of the earth and the surface is this far, it meant that there is something else underneath that surface."
Everyone sat there stunned for a moment. Their eyes then widened: So deep?! A sleeping beast???
Charles could tell what they were thinking just from their expressions, "It cannot be a living creature because that thing is too big. Considering the scale, it seems to be more like an underground building, or an inverted triangle."
Edmond was also present at the meeting. He scratched his head and asked with puzzlement, "Then why didn't you mention it earlier?"
That was a special case and must be taken seriously.
Charles shrugged, "I didn't know what it was. What if it's something His Majesty built himself? If I leaked his secret out, won't I be sent out to Death Galaxy?"
Others: "...…."
But didn't you leak it just now...
Louis fell in thought for a moment. He then made a decision. He asked Charles to take people over to test it again and bring Edmond with them as well. The latter had high spiritual power so if that thing underground could only be detected with large spiritual powers, Edmond could do it.
When he returned, the sky was already dark. Louis sat in the hover car and seemed to be deep in thought, so the aide didn't dare disturb him and sat quietly in the driver's seat.
After a long time, the aide heard a question come from behind him, ".....Does Alorin know Princess Scarlett?"
The aide thought carefully, "He probably does. Alorin was His Majesty's classmate and have known each other since a very young age. As His Majesty's younger sister, the princess, should also have had some contact with Alorin."
Louis mulled thoughtfully, "I remember that the Seven Days of Vengeance Battle was what really made Alorin a household name. He managed to use seven days to level out the Stricker Federation and afterwards made it join the Empire. Since then, the strength of the Empire greatly increased, and His Majesty also received much recognition from that."
The aide blinked and turned around, "Admiral, what are you trying to say?"
That was from several decades ago. When the Seven Days of Vengeance Battle took place, even the aide hadn't been born yet. They haven't experienced it so they also could't understand why the elders would get so excited whenever that war was mentioned. There were even some who were like Madam Shao who even gave their children a name similar to Admiral Alorin out of excitement.
Louis shook his head, "It's nothing. Just suddenly remembered those things."
Not only Louis remembered it. Today, after Chi Zhao heard Alorin's voice, he couldn't help but search Alorin up on the Star Network. He too found information about the famous Seven Days of Vengeance Battle.
After skimming through the information, everything was as Louis had said. Alorin was extremely brave and managed to completely defeat the opposing country in just seven days without even causing civilian casualties or requiring support from the regime or the army.
Alorin killed the Confederate leader, captured several high-profile confederates and then left the scene. After he left, the Emperor sent over several admirals and easily suppressed the civilian resistance. Following that, the Empire was able to smoothly seize over Stricker Federation.
The reason for the war was Princess Scarlett.
Princess Scarlett had gone to Stricker Federation to play. She hid her identity, but she was still recognised over there. There had always been frictions between the two countries so the people from the Federation brutally murdered her out of revenge. When the news was sent back, the Emperor was furious, and this triggered the subsequent series of conflicts.
Please read this from kk translates
Chi Zhao stared quietly at the contents on the Star Network. He fearfully sought comfort from the system, "System, why do I feel that this seems a little scary?"
[Actually, I think so too…..]
The princess died and the two countries fought. It was clearly a situation where both countries are well matched but Alorin only took seven days to crush the other party. Even if they were extremely angry because the princess had died, it couldn't be to the extent of everyone suddenly turning into Hulk, right?
Moreover, this princess also died.....too coincidentally. From a national perspective, her death didn't bring any pity or compassion. Chi Zhao even felt that Princess Scarlett's death was truly worthwhile; her death had brought about so much benefits and rewards to the Empire.
Chi Zhao and the system were both in a complicated mood. Both are outsiders and they botb have not gone through the Empire's education system so they didn't hold any special feelings towards the Empire. They simply looked on from an outsider's perspective and very soon began to doubt the authenticity of this matter. In fact, there were also people in the Empire who were doubtful but any remarks about it were suppressed. Moreover, compared to the late princess, the people valued what they could gain from the situation more and that was why even until now, there was no major uproar.
In the evening, Louis returned. Chi Zhao sat on the bed watching him walk around. When he was done changing and washing up, Louis laid down, but he didn't lie down completely and supported himself up with one arm. He looked over at Chi Zhao, "Do you have something you want to say to me?"
Chi Zhao was silent for a moment before he nodded.
Louis hadn't seen him so troubled before and couldn't help but laugh, "Speak. What is it?"
Chi Zhao opened his mouth, but it took him a long time to ask the question he had always wanted to ask, "I want to know what your allegiance is towards."
"Is it the Emperor, or...…"
Louis was surprised by this question. After a pause, he slowly shook his head, "It's the Empire."
Chi Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. He knew from before that the Emperor wasn't a good person otherwise he would not have been overthrown by his younger brother in the end but today, Chi Zhao discovered that this Emperor may not just not be a good person, he was also very likely a super villain. He didn't want Louis's allegiance to be for him. How sad would he be if he finally found out the truth?
Upon hearing this, the system slowly spoke up.
[Um, host….I think compared to the Emperor….]
Chi Zhao's face darkened, "I know, I know. No matter who I am compared to, I am the one who makes Louis the most upset. Do you really need to remind me every single time?"
System: "...…."
If you were more aware of it then would I need to remind you every day?! Rubbish host!
.....
Although he didn't know why Shao Ze'an suddenly asked him this question, Louis answered truthfully. After answering, he looked down at the obedient young man, "And you?"
Chi Zhao raised his head and took a few seconds to process this question. He paused for a moment, laid down and closed his eyes and said, "I'm not a soldier so I don't have such a high sense of responsibility. If I really have to answer...then my allegiance is life."
That one word was interpreted in three different ways by the three people present.
To Morris, he thought that Chi Zhao was talking about his own life and that was why he chose to betray the Empire.
To Louis, he thought that Chi Zhao was talking about the lives of the people of the Empire. After all, everything he had done until now involved risking his life to protect the lives of the public and soldiers.
Only the system. Only the system truly understood Chi Zhao and understood what he meant.
His allegiance and respect were towards all lives; not just his, also that of others.
It was because he had died once so he knew how cold and helpless one feels when dying. Even if he cannot save others, he was determined not to hurt them. This was his allegiance and belief and it was a principle that had been engraved into his soul.