Who are you making a gift for?

"A merchant Dad introduced?"

On the holographic screen, Pei Ji frowned.

"The apprentice at the Artisan Workshop did say the lord had introduced him."

Shen Que sat at his desk with his legs crossed.

A stack of documents from the General Affairs Office lay to his left, and the parcel he had just signed for sat to his right.

The new tracker was plugged into his Terminal.

Pei Ji touched the brim of his military cap as a memory flashed through his mind.

"I think there was someone like that. Was he an Omega? Bronze skin, a little shorter than you?"

Shen Que nodded. "He used a suppressing spray, so I couldn't smell his scent. Everything else matches."

"Oh... Duke Owen introduced that merchant. I did meet him once at the banquet," Pei Ji said casually.

Duke Owen?

Shen Que lowered his brows in thought.

To think a shareholder of the Star Network knew someone in the ore trade, and had even taken the initiative to introduce him to Pei Li.

"You're that curious about him?" Pei Ji sounded a little jealous.

This was the first time Shen Que had asked him about someone.

"Not particularly," Shen Que said.

"Interstellar merchants are all crafty. You'd better watch out, or someone will swindle you," the Alpha added, laying it on thick.

Shen Que chuckled. "Do I look easy to fool?"

Pei Ji said, "You look hard to fool."

Then he changed tack.

"But you're actually very easy."

Shen Que clicked his tongue.

He rubbed his aching brow.

Before receiving Pei Ji's parcel, he had just finished a call with the Mecha Research Center on Messiah.

The person in charge there knew him, but it had still taken a long negotiation to settle the arrangements for that batch of larkstone.

Blue Crane was very satisfied with the ore sent afterward and had naturally shown Shen Que every consideration.

"Are you tired?" Pei Ji was keenly attuned to Shen Que's condition. "Then let's hang up. Get some rest."

"No, wait."

Shen Que's body reacted before his mind, and he spoke up to stop him.

He had to wait half a month for each call from Pei Ji.

I'm not that tired.

There's no rush.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "Do you like symbiotic stone?"

"I'm not interested in ore," Pei Ji said bluntly. "If there's something you like, buy it. You don't need to tell me."

Shen Que lowered his eyes. "I see..."

Pei Ji looked at him, then suddenly asked, "What about you? Do you like it?"

"I wouldn't say I like it..." Shen Que said. "But I did recently see a very rare piece of symbiotic stone."

"Oh?" There was a hint of disdain in Pei Ji's voice. "How rare?"

Hearing that disdain, Shen Que frowned slightly. "Never mind. If you're not interested, I won't tell you."

Pei Ji said, "Hey, what's with you, Omega? You can't retract a message halfway through sending it."

Shen Que gave him a cool glance. "Do you have a problem with this Omega?"

"Who would dare have a problem with you?" Pei Ji muttered.

His voice distorted for an instant.

Their time was almost up.

Shen Que paused. "I'm planning to buy the offcuts left from working it."

Pei Ji frowned. "Why would you want someone else's leftovers? They're not good enough for you."

"Because I can't get the raw stone," Shen Que said coolly. "There probably isn't another piece like it in the entire galaxy."

Watching the call timer, he spoke at precisely the last minute. "But I... really do like it. I want to use it to make someone a gift..."

The call cut off with Pei Ji staring at him in horror.

Shen Que's lips curved upward.

Meanwhile, on some unknown asteroid far away, the General glared viciously at the pitch-black screen.

Who was he making a gift for?!

Eight o'clock sharp.

The moonlight arrived right on time.

Shen Que finished the last vial of medicine.

Anya took the vial, cast a seemingly casual glance at the stone around his neck, and left with a self-reproachful sigh.

Shen Que sat on the edge of his bed, facing the moonlight beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding the Recorder Pei Ji had sent back that day.

Once the little maid's movements outside had faded completely, he waited.

He plugged the Recorder into his Terminal again.

The screen flickered a few times, its display pitch-black.

He brought up another screen and entered a simple command.

"Activate highest-level Brain Computer access."

The Terminal displayed a prompt: [Please confirm your identity.]

Shen Que spoke calmly. "Shen Que, Supreme Commander of the Seven Fleets."

An iris recognition prompt appeared on the screen.

Once the scan succeeded, the black display vanished.

Then a holographic image of the entire Icarus Galaxy appeared before Shen Que.

The vast, glittering galaxy filled almost the entire room.

Seven trajectory lines in different colors ran through the hologram.

With a tap of his fingertip, Shen Que brought up the one belonging to the Fourth Fleet.

The Recorder in his Terminal flashed again, marking a small circular dot somewhere outside the trajectory line.

That was Pei Ji's location today.

Shen Que folded his arms, tapping an index finger against the crook of his elbow, his expression as still as stagnant water.

The Fourth Fleet's patrol route this time was in the Rose Nebula, but Pei Ji's location appeared near Asteroid Belt 2317.

Too far.

Far too distant from the patrol route.

Fleet regulations forbade generals from leaving their fleets for more than two solar days during a patrol.

Pei Ji could not possibly be unaware of that.

He knew perfectly well, yet he had still gone off on his own behind the Empress's back.

Shen Que's brows drew together slightly. He touched the dot, and a prompt appeared in the hologram: [Report anomaly?]

He hesitated for a full minute.

In the end, he tapped it.

Letting out a soft breath, Shen Que withdrew his fingertip and stroked the Memory Stone against his chest.

The scent of sand enveloped him gently.

Those pheromones, brimming with love, had no idea that the person they protected had just betrayed their owner.

There was an explosion.

A bullet pierced Cold Glow, and heart-rending pain traveled through the neural synapses to Shen Que, undiminished.

He bit his lip until it bled.

His icy eyes remained fixed on the screen.

[Warning! Brain Computer malfunction.]

[Warning! Neural synapses severed.]

[Warning!...]

With trembling fingers, he brought up the manual control console.

Every movement tugged at his fragile nerves.

It hurts.

So hot...

Shen Que's eyes snapped open.

The lingering pain seeped through his skin, bit by bit, as though a knife were gouging out his flesh.

He took a soft, gasping breath.

There was also that electric tingling and the maddening heat...

He had lost count of how many times this had happened.

Biting hard on his lower lip, Shen Que deftly took a Suppressant from beneath his pillow and opened it.

Then he curled into a ball and waited for the heat to pass.

The scene before Cold Glow fell still lingered in his mind. He remembered entering one final line of instructions.

Then there had been nothing but an endless fall.

The heat slowly receded, and he gradually calmed down.

It was not even midnight yet.

All the lights in the Fallen Star Palace had been turned off so he could rest.

Even the air was still.

A light flashed beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, drawing closer from the distance, as though someone were returning with a lamp.

Before long, the floor lamp in the corridor came on, and dim yellow light spilled through the gap beneath his door.

Demi's anxious voice rang out. "Something's wrong!"

But she quickly lowered her voice and spoke quietly with Anya, who was still keeping watch outside.

Shen Que could not make out what they were saying, only the panic in their voices.

A moment later, Phil's voice sounded. "It really is gone!"

Shen Que slowly pushed himself upright and drank a little of the warm water Anya had left on the table.

I can't sleep anyway.

He opened the door and asked hoarsely, "What happened?"

The three little maids outside jumped.

Anya asked cautiously, "Did we wake you?"

Shen Que shook his head. "What's happened?"

He looked at Demi, who rarely showed such alarm.

Demi looked at him, hesitating several times before finally speaking. "Something terrible has happened, my lady."

"The stone... the stone the General gave you is gone!"