[Nous: Your conversations with [Elation] are truly entertaining. Inevitably... I cannot resist listening in now and then.] [Ye Yan: You really are a voyeur!]
Damn Erudition and Remembrance. One day, I'll give you both a Cloud-Piercing Arrow.
[Nous: Correction: eavesdrop.] [Ye Yan: I feel like I have no privacy whatsoever around you and our colleague Fuli.] [Nous: I respect all privacy. I do not know about [Remembrance]. The Genius Society and the Garden of Recollection have not collaborated often. Only individual members have made deals with the Garden of Recollection.] [Ye Yan: What if I asked the Garden of Recollection to make a Light Cone of Fuli watching you watch them?] [Nous: No nesting dolls.]
Light Cones were marvelous things-precious curios invented by the Garden of Recollection, made by distilling fragments of memory so that memories could endure.
To Ye Yan, Light Cones were nothing more than ProMax versions of photographs. If they could preserve fragments of memory, they could preserve experience and abilities too.
These things were actually second-tier controlled trade goods at the Interastral Peace Corporation. The price of a single original Light Cone could be speculated up to astronomical figures.
Alas, the Interastral Peace Corporation had suffered one disaster after another lately. Ye Yan had heard from Silver Wolf that some people wanted to resign. With meager bonuses and the constant need to guard against surprise attacks, who wouldn't quit?
Even if they didn't resign, the corporation was laying people off.
[Ye Yan: If you have time, go see that magical girl a few more times. You have no idea how much she hopes to see you again.] [Nous: Refused: #83's questions are always too simple. She would be better off asking you than me.]
Every member of the Genius Society had received a glance from Nous. Of course... it had only been a glance.
More importantly, there were some questions Nous simply would not answer.
Questions and doubt were the essence of thought, without taboos, boundaries, or end.
Ordinary people could not understand what Nous said, either. Only Ye Yan, a fellow Aeon, could understand.
[Nous: Do something useful, Aeon of Permanence.] [Ye Yan: ?]
After Ye Yan ended his conversation with Nous, March 7th and Stelle knocked on his door.
"Hello, hello~ Is Teacher Ye Yan in? Time to get up."
"Let's just kick the door down."
"Hey, hey, hey, wouldn't that be a little too rude...?"
Ye Yan walked over and opened the door. "Did you two need something?"
"To wake you up, of course! Look at the time. We're about to warp, and you haven't even said goodbye to Station Manager Asta and the others."
"We'll see each other again. As the saying goes, parting is for a better reunion next time."
Ye Yan could come to the space station whenever he wanted. Stelle picked up the conversation.
"Yesterday, besides teaching that hacker girl a lesson, I also took a commission from a researcher."
"What was it? What was it? Tell me!" March 7th swung her legs. She loved listening to stories.
"Rocky Martinez."
Ye Yan blurted the name out, and Stelle, who had just opened her mouth to tell the story, closed it again.
"How did you know?! Did you plant a surveillance device on me?"
"Who on the space station doesn't know that Rocky from the Department of Galactic Geography is a hopeless romantic? He likes Lesley, the star researcher from the Department of Implement Arts."
"Oh, oh... Who's Lesley?"
March 7th had never heard of her, so Ye Yan explained patiently.
"A genius scholar who shines brighter than a celebrity, the only visiting scholar to travel to the Abundance star zone in this Amber Era. Compared to her, Rocky is just an ordinary researcher."
Stelle shook her head. "Who would've thought? Two people worlds apart like that are actually boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Hey, romance stories between couples are my absolute favorite! Keep going!"
"There wasn't much to it, really. Rocky asked me to help figure out how to write a confession letter. Usually, all that guy writes in his letters is how many kinds of rocks and mud the Department of Geography has!"
The more Stelle spoke, the more worked up she became, looking regretful that he had failed to live up to expectations.
"Exactly! Who talks to girls about mud?"
"What, have you experienced that?" Ye Yan asked.
"No."
Stelle sounded perfectly justified. She might not have been born long ago, but after scrolling through her phone these past few days, she had picked up a few cheesy pickup lines.
"They talked about all sorts of things. From which of the Department of Arts' 101 secret Aeon rituals required Gunn's beard, to how a planet-surveying probe should 'examine soil and stone' to judge the rise and fall of a planet's divine favor by assessing the quality of its soil."
"You remembered all that?!" March 7th was stunned.
"You can never have too many skills. I have a good memory." Stelle scratched her head and gave a sheepish chuckle.
"Fuli's putting in work."
Ye Yan looked out into the stars, sensing that cold gaze that had been lingering around the Express.
Did they draw out a sliver of their Path's power and give it to Stelle to better witness and record things...? Hakifuli, you really are generous.
Clearly, they were very interested in Stelle.
"The last time they communicated, Lesley described an incredibly magnificent starquake to Rocky."
"A starquake. As the name suggests, a star dies and the celestial body explodes! Other people couldn't get away fast enough, but Lesley not only obtained firsthand observational data, she even saved a girl along the way."
Stelle took out her phone. "Rocky records every conversation he has with Lesley. He shared this with me."
She pressed play, and a clear, excited female voice came from the phone.
[Rocky! Do you know what I'm experiencing right now?!] [The primary star of the Abundance star zone underwent gravitational collapse under an unknown force, triggering a starquake!] [Everywhere I can see is filled with dazzling cosmic flashes and gamma-ray afterglows. This is the kind of sight you might never see in your entire life, yet the team member who said they'd come with me got scared and ran off ages ago... Ah, if only you were here.] [Don't be angry anymore, okay?] [Oh, right! I also saved a girl who nearly got caught in the starquake disaster. She was elegant and beautiful, and her compliments nearly had me spellbound. You really should meet her! But how did she end up here? How strange.]
The first recording ended, and Stelle played the second. This time, the woman's voice held joy and relief.
[Rocky! This starquake was terrifying... You were right. A starquake's beauty comes from its danger.] [The gravitational collapse caused by the starquake would have drastically changed the curvature of spacetime in the Abundance star zone where I am.] [But fortunately, I was lucky. This place wasn't compressed into a gigantic canyon by gravity. Time is still flowing at the same rate for both of us!] [Okay, okay, enough of these spine-chilling reports that only make you worry. Remember the girl I told you about? Heavens, she was actually an Intellitron in disguise! It turned my whole worldview upside down. How could inorganic life disguise itself so convincingly as a human?!] [How strange. To repay me for saving its life... it even gave me a few bars of soap. By the time I came back to my senses, it was already gone.]
The second recording ended as well.
"Soap! Quick, summon the all-powerful Teacher Dan Heng!"
"Miss March 7th, you've already started associating soap with Dan Heng?!" Ye Yan quipped.
"Let me finish first. Rocky kept agonizing over how to confess to Lesley-whether to tell her outright or find a lead-in first."
"Oh, come on... He should take the initiative, of course!"
That was March 7th's opinion. Ye Yan said either method was fine for Rocky; it had nothing to do with him anyway.
"His mentor and I discussed it for ages and finally narrowed it down to two plans, red and blue. His mentor proposed the blue plan, and I proposed the red one."
"The blue plan was to read Lesley the love poems Rocky wrote first, hinting at his feelings."
"What about the red plan you wrote?"
"Ahem! Boldly saying those three magic words, 'I love you,' of course!"
Stelle suddenly grew fired up. Love was something you had to pursue bravely!
"But he was the one making the confession, after all, so we told Rocky the plans and let him decide."
"Rocky was pretty sharp when it counted. He sent Lesley a message right away, first stumbling through three Herta love poems he'd written, then confessing outright."
"He combined both methods. Looks like he isn't that dumb after all!" March 7th had thought the guy only knew how to talk to girls about rocks and mud.
"After two system hours, Lesley sent a reply."
"She accepted Rocky's confession."
March 7th covered her mouth. This was the classic happy ending!
"Rocky was so excited that he packed his bags on the spot and set off to find his wife."
Stelle took a piece of candy from her pocket. Rocky had pressed it into her hand before leaving.
"Look, he even wants me to be their bridesmaid."
She walked over to the window and looked out at the vast starry sky.
When the stars no longer dimmed, true love would surely last forever, and the night sky would shine as brightly as dawn.
Two stars shone, as if speaking of that eternal hope.
"Time is beyond our reach. But Eternity can be time's opposite... or its infinite extension."
The corners of Ye Yan's mouth lifted. "Rocky and Lesley's love can also be an instant of eternity."
"Ah... Can I be a bridesmaid too? It's been so long since I heard such a wonderful love story."