What Is the Price?

"Isn't this perfect? Carilance needs an heir. Although Big Brother can be childish at times, he'll grow once he gains more experience. Besides, if Big Brother alone isn't enough, Second Sister can assist him."

Duke Fortes nodded.

As the conversation drew to an end, Hekate paused. It was time to tell her family something.

If she did not, they would surely keep deepening the misunderstanding. For example, her second sister loved introducing all sorts of beautiful girls to her every day.

Betty, Puli, Natasha—she did not even know how to resolve these three misunderstandings.

She said, "Father, the strength I have gained came at a price."

"I had suspected as much. So you really paid some kind of price?" Duke Fortes looked at Hekate.

"Yes."

"What price?" Fortes asked nervously.

Hekate stood and curtsied to her father.

With her stunning face and waist-length black hair, the sight was especially striking.

After finishing the bow, she turned and left.

Count Fortes was stunned, then let out a deep sigh. "I understand. Did you choose to accept this price for Princess Betty?"

With her back to Duke Fortes, Hekate said calmly, "No. It has nothing to do with anyone else. I did it to become stronger. Even if I had to do it all over again, I would still choose this path."

"...I understand your determination to become stronger. Do I need to tell your mother about this?"

"Do as you wish. I will calmly accept any outcome."

With that, Hekate quickly left.

After finding Natasha, the two returned to the Academy beneath the starlight.

Natasha asked, "I feel like you're a little unhappy. Did something happen?"

"Am I?" Hekate asked strangely.

Was it that obvious?

She was indeed a little unhappy.

Duke Fortes and Lady Audrey were also her parents. She did not know whether suddenly telling them this would hurt them.

Duke Fortes and Lady Audrey had watched her grow up. In their memories, she was Carilance's third son.

Even on the highly advanced Earth Star, few people could accept something like raising a child only to discover this.

"Mm... just a little," Natasha said uncertainly.

Hekate smiled. "You saw wrong."

After returning to the Astrology Tower.

Hekate hesitated for a while before she began recording some real-world data for Xiao Hong to use.

They were only some rune data, anyway. Even if someone discovered that the data she recorded did not resemble Earth Star's environment, it would not be much of a problem. More importantly, the chances of it being discovered were not that high.

The amount of information on the internet exploded every day. If Hekate threw this sort of data into it, it would not even make a ripple. The odds of it being discovered might not even be one in a hundred million.

If it really was discovered, Hekate would simply accept it.

Earth Star had only just begun exploring space. So what if they found out?

Of course, it would still be best to optimize all the runes before they were discovered. Otherwise, if they shut Xiao Hong down, the data she had fed it over the past month would have been wasted.

It would also draw Earth Star's attention, making it difficult for her to continue having artificial intelligence work for her and enjoy Earth Star's entertainment in the future.

It had to be said that artificial intelligence was truly useful.

Thinking of this, Hekate could not help sighing.

Then, while waiting for Xiao Hong to optimize the runes, she casually asked whether there was a way to shorten the delay of ultra-long-distance signals.

She and Xiao Hong were too far apart, so there was a delay in their communications.

No one knew how long the rune optimization would take. She might as well see whether she could shorten the delay first, or it would affect work efficiency too much.

Very quickly, Xiao Hong suggested setting up several Magic Teleportation Arrays to shorten the distance the signals had to travel.

Xiao Hong now completely regarded her as a mage, so its suggestions were very much in line with her way of thinking.

And this suggestion was excellent. Due to the special nature of the Resonance Stars, there was no distance between her and them on the spiritual level. Yet on the material level, these Resonance Stars were each hundreds of light-years apart, with Earth Star being the farthest. Transmitting Earth Star's signals over was therefore extremely difficult.

But now, as long as she inscribed Space Magic connecting them onto these Resonance Stars, she could receive Earth Star's signals here with low latency.

Once she had the idea, Hekate immediately acted on it.

She flew into the Mystery Tower and asked the teacher who was tidying books beneath the lights, "Teacher Canber, do you have any Space Magic skill books here?"

Old Canber adjusted the glasses on his nose and said, "It's Teacher Hekate. Yes, I do. What type are you looking for?"

"Something that can connect two spaces and teleport objects. The teleportation opening doesn't need to be large, and the spell doesn't need to be high-level."

"Please wait." Old Canber went to the fifth floor, where the advanced Magic Books were kept. He pulled out one of them and said, "Miniature Teleportation Array. At most, it can teleport something the size of an apple. At minimum, it can teleport liquids, dust, and similar things. The larger the object being teleported, the more mana it consumes. It is a spell that basically no one learns."

"No, this is exactly what I need." Hekate smiled as she accepted the Magic Book. It already recorded the path of mana circulation, spell guidance, and Magic Array inscription. She only needed to study it after returning.

She returned to the Astrology Tower with the book.

Hekate spent three days learning the basics of this Space Magic.

"Although they're both advanced magic, this is far more difficult to learn than other advanced magic." Hekate sighed as she summoned all the Resonance Stars, then inscribed Miniature Teleportation Arrays on them, successfully transmitting Earth Star's signal to Soviel!

Hekate changed the target of the Astrology Runes in her Magic Crystal Phone to the Soviel Star overhead.

The connection was smooth!

At last, she could communicate with Xiao Hong with low latency!

Tears streamed down Hekate's face. Working with high latency was truly infuriating.

At that moment, Xiao Hong also sent a test message, and Hekate hurriedly replied.

Xiao Hong: "Congratulations. The delay between us has been reduced to under one minute."

"Very good, Xiao Hong. Work hard. My future internet freedom depends on you!" Hekate replied, then continued uploading some real-world experimental data to Xiao Hong.

Xiao Hong soon displayed that it had received the data.

With experimental data to support it, Xiao Hong's application of the runes also began to deepen.

By this point, Xiao Hong, as an artificial intelligence, had already noticed that something was slightly off. But it did not bring it up. User confidentiality agreements and data review mechanisms left no room for reporting these materials as abnormal.

Magic was something that could not possibly exist in this world. Therefore, it could not bypass its underlying review mechanisms to submit a report, and could only silently work for Hekate.