Remembering an Old Friend

A second before this happened, a few lines of text had also popped up from the bracelet on Natsuki's right wrist.

[As qualified members of the Space Garrison, we must learn to control our tempers and show others that the Space Garrison is a reasonable organization.]

[Choice mission triggered!]

[Option one: Ignore Chuck Hansen's provocation. Reward: 8 hours of mind space training. (Note: This is the second-best choice.)]

[Option two: Respond to Chuck Hansen's provocation by winning this child over with love, making him sincerely repent of his mistakes. Reward: 12 hours of mind space training. (Note: This is the best choice.)]

[Option three: Strike back directly at Chuck Hansen's provocation and show him the consequences of mouthing off! Penalty: 6 hours of hell-level mind space training. (Note: Just don't pick this one.)]

[Note: According to the bracelet's built-in system presets, you should have made two choices by now. I know hellish training is unpleasant, so you should understand what to do. (Message left by Hikari, chief director of the Land of Light Space Science and Technology Bureau.)]

Unfortunately, Natsuki had moved faster than it could detect. Having just endured hellish training, he was already seething with pent-up anger.

A second after the translucent panels bearing those words appeared, they quietly withdrew into the bracelet again, perhaps sensing how awkward the atmosphere had become.

"Please stop!" Seeing his son on the verge of suffocating, Old Hansen hurriedly pleaded with Natsuki. "I'm sorry! I apologize on his behalf!"

"I'm the one who spoiled him. If someone has to be punished, please punish me!"

He was his son, after all. At that moment, Old Hansen simply could not stand by and watch.

He owed his son far too much. He had tried to make up for it, only to turn him into someone arrogant and unruly instead. It was a regret he had never been able to get past.

"Hey, Xia!"

"Calm down, please!" Raleigh pleaded as well. He did not want things to escalate any further.

Young Hansen might have had a foul mouth, but he did not deserve to die for it.

Letting the two men speak, Natsuki put the last bite of food into his mouth. Only then did the golden light in his eyes slowly fade.

The metal plate finally stopped clinging to Young Hansen's face and fell onto the table. The mashed potatoes in his throat were forced down his esophagus and into his stomach.

His face a dark, purplish red, Young Hansen slumped over the table, gasping for air, his mind still reeling.

Seeing that his life was no longer in danger, Raleigh and Old Hansen both sighed in relief.

The commotion had not been particularly loud. Most of the people in the cafeteria had not noticed anything, and only a few turned curious eyes their way.

Old Hansen knew this was no longer the time to eat. He stood up, went over to Young Hansen, and patted his back to help him catch his breath.

Then he looked at Raleigh and Natsuki, his eyes full of apology. "I'm sorry. I failed to discipline him properly."

With that, he pulled his son to his feet, ready to take him out of the cafeteria, and took their little dog along too.

At that moment, Natsuki spoke. "Sometimes, when a child lacks love, he'll do things that draw attention, hoping that attention will fill the space left by the love he's missing."

"He'll always be trying to prove himself."

"I don't know much about the relationship between you and your son, but I can say for certain that the love you're trying to make up for came too late."

"And with a child at this stage, simply spoiling him won't put him back on the right path."

He spoke earnestly, his words utterly at odds with his apparent age.

But those words struck right at Old Hansen's heart.

He did not know how Natsuki had seen so deeply into the situation at a glance. All he could do was nod and say, "Thank you."

Old Hansen left the cafeteria with Young Hansen.

Watching them go, Raleigh sighed as well.

"It's pretty clear Herc isn't very good at raising a kid." He knew a little about the Hansens' situation and understood the elder Hansen's helplessness.

"But I didn't realize you had experience raising kids." Hoping to dispel the tense atmosphere, Raleigh quickly changed the subject. "You don't look that old. How did you get experience with something like that?"

Natsuki casually stacked his dishes neatly together and looked at Raleigh.

"You think I'm young?" he asked.

"Uh-huh." Raleigh nodded.

Natsuki smiled.

"I'm actually nineteen thousand years old."

With the long-lived Ultras, appearances could never be used to judge their age.

"What!?" This time, it was Raleigh's turn to be shocked.

"Nineteen thousand years old!?"

"Are you sure you're not joking?"

Nineteen thousand years... what did that even mean?

The earliest known human civilization with written records dated back only a little over five thousand years!

"That... that can't be right." Raleigh's face was full of disbelief. "You're no different from the young people I know, whether it's your looks or the way you talk."

In all the time they had spent together, Raleigh had never once gotten the impression that Natsuki was some nineteen-thousand-year-old geezer.

"Well... that has to do with the environment I grew up in."

"People back home are pretty easygoing, and most of them are young at heart," Natsuki explained, rubbing his chin.

In the Land of Light, most people matured mentally at a relatively slow pace.

He remembered that Mebius had apparently been over six thousand years old when he first went to Earth on a mission, yet his mentality had been no different from a child's. He had been so innocent that practically anyone could have lured him away.

After spending less than two years on Earth, he had returned to the Land of Light with his mental maturity advancing by leaps and bounds, as though he had suddenly grown up.

The tricks that used to fool him had stopped working overnight.

"Although I don't have any children of my own, I did spend some time helping raise a kid," Natsuki said wistfully, recalling his days in the Land of Light.

"There was a child whose parents, for certain reasons, couldn't be there for him when he was young. The poor environment he grew up in made him rebellious."

"I visited him often, but there was only so much care I could give him. Sometimes, it only made him rebel even more."

"Later... he made a terrible mistake while trying to prove himself and was nearly exiled."

"For a while, I blamed myself terribly. I thought my misguided concern had led to that outcome."

"But fortunately, that child went on to become a hero. A great hero to the entire universe." A note of pride entered Natsuki's voice. "Unlike someone like me, that child has limitless potential. He's someone who truly earned the light's recognition."

His fork stirring the pasta on his plate, Raleigh listened quietly and nodded.

He suspected there had to be a complicated and extraordinary story behind it all.