“Sophia, go find Uncle Vans and the old butler. There is something important to discuss here.”

“Oh~”

The little girl with black hair nodded, then ran to a table not far away and threw herself into the arms of the old man in white. Only Pace and Ashlia were left at the table.

Seeing this, Pace clapped his hands, and the Thebit maids began to serve the dishes. They placed dishes on silver plates one after another on the table, and when they were opened, the aroma filled the air – they were all kinds of dishes made from venison.

“Venison banquet, the Monark family’s most sincere way of hospitality.” Pace smiled at Ashilia.

“This is a kingdom. I am the guest and you are the guest?” Ashlia responded with a smile.

“Okay, half and half,” Pace waved his hand, and suddenly seemed to remember something, “By the way, do you still have the strawberry yogurt made in Wangguo?”

“Of course there is more,” Ashlia was stunned for a moment, “In fact, I’m already prepared.”

The waiters began to serve wine to the guests at the banquet. At the same time, two large cups of strawberry yogurt with ice cubes were brought to the table and placed in front of the two people.

Looking at the venison feast and strawberry yogurt on the table, Pace and Ashlia fell silent at the same time. They did not move their knives, but just looked at the dishes in front of them silently.

Originally, I had made an appointment with that girl to return to this auditorium and have another meal together after everything was over.

How can I break my promise? Venison feast is the Monarch family’s most sumptuous way of entertaining guests…

Pace thought of the small inn on Wanren Mountain, where he promised to give the girl a venison feast. At that time, he was a poor and down-and-out young man, but now he was the king of Wanren Mountain and could have as many feasts as he wanted.

But when he came to his senses, the quiet sister who always cared about everyone silently was nowhere to be seen.

She went far away, perhaps to the very end of the world, or perhaps even further—far above the stars.

Didn’t you even say hello before you left? Don’t you love Wang Guo’s strawberry yogurt? It’s all here… It’s all here… The hot venison feast and the cold strawberry yogurt…

The atmosphere in the banquet hall became lively as the alcohol spread. Not far away, Grace was drunkenly boasting to the professors from the Kingdom National University about his findings in the college database, and claimed that “the senior sister will definitely be proud of me”; the old butler was holding Sophia and putting the cut venison into her mouth with a fork; Vance had already fallen drunk to the side, dressed neatly but as sloppy as a drunk in a bar.

Everyone was immersed in the joy of victory for a long time. Laplace von Valantia would be executed soon. A brand new day was ahead. How could they not celebrate and cheer?

There were only two people in the entire banquet hall who remained silent. Pace and Ashlia silently cut the meat with knives and forks, and took a sip of strawberry yogurt with straws from time to time, which made them look a little out of place and even a little funny.

But no one dared to step forward to toast. Just looking at the expressions of the two kings made people feel as if the air around them had solidified into a solid.

The banquet continued, and after a few hours, the atmosphere in the banquet hall remained lively. Those drunk guests seemed to have listened to Ashlia’s words and really lost their restraint. The fire seemed to burn more and more fiercely.

They gathered around the fireplace and sang a ballad adapted from Wilkin’s Fairy Poems:

“I have been intoxicated for a long time, but you are always waiting for me under the starlight.”

“I listen to your voice and it redeems me.”

“When the sirens sing on the horizon, they lure me to drown.”

“I only want to follow your melody, forever.”

“I ran, shouting, roaring, and reaching out in the rain.”

“But I found that you are just my echo.” (Note 1)

The light of the Broken Moon Missala refracted in through the stained glass windows, deep and colorful, making the grand scene in the hall a little distorted.

The two people at the table finally finished their main course, and the only thing left was the little strawberry yogurt.

“Let’s toast to her,” Pace raised his glass silently, “to Perlis Havrgard and Carly Philos.”

“Ah.”

As the guests sang, Pace and Ashlia raised their glasses and clinked them together.

Pace raised his glass, drank the cold liquid in one gulp, and exhaled deeply.

The firelight from the fireplace, the lights on the ceiling of the hall, and the moonlight outside the window were all intertwined. He looked at the outlines of the guests singing with a blurred vision.

In this brief moment of light and shadow, Pace saw a spot of pure white at the entrance of the banquet hall.

“…!”

Pace suddenly focused his vision and saw that at the end of the banquet hall, a girl with white hair and red eyes was raising the cup in her hand towards him – there was half a cup of strawberry yogurt left in it.

Across the hall, blood eyes and black eyes reflected each other.

“…”

The moment she looked at Pace, Perlis smiled faintly, raised her glass, and drank the liquid in it in one gulp.

Then she waved, turned around, pushed the door and left.

“Small…!”

Pace subconsciously wanted to stand up, but found that everything in front of him had returned to its previous state – the door of the hall had never been opened, and there was no pure white at the end of the banquet hall.

The guests continued to sing, and apparently they did not hear the door opening, which would have attracted their attention.

“…”

Pace turned to look at Ashlia and found that she was also staring at him blankly. Obviously, they had just witnessed exactly the same thing.

They suddenly laughed, and as they laughed, their eyes became moist again.

So, she finally came to say goodbye.

……

(Note 1: Adapted from the single “ECHO” by the band STARSET)

“His path is a solitary journey to the stars.”

“…”

Tower of Babel – Lavis

The old man in a straitjacket walked into the escape pod, and behind him, the hatch closed, isolating him from the jungle and drizzle of Lavis.

This was the last time he breathed the air of the dust planet.

For no reason, he recalled the time a hundred years ago when the Ark landed on this strange land. It was drizzling in the sky as well, and the damp scent of green grass seemed to have lingered in his nose for a hundred years, and it still lingered today.

This time, he won’t land.

“System search in progress… Welcome back… Grand Commander Laplace von Valantia.”

A cold female voice recited the title that had been stripped from him. He smiled self-deprecatingly, then turned around and looked out the window.

At this moment, Laplace was in the cabin at the top of [Stairway Three], a silver-white rocket that used factor energy and fluid-free propulsion to steadily send a satellite into low-Earth orbit.

The satellite is right under Laplace’s feet at this moment. When [Stairway Three] enters orbit, it will be launched a second time and fly alone into the unknown deep space.

This is a one-way ticket.

A few months ago, Laplace proposed the ending he wanted in the court. After that, the Alliance studied it repeatedly for a long time and changed the plan many times before finally agreeing with this ending.

Laplace’s bargaining chip is simple: there is a low-Earth orbit navigation satellite on [Stairway Three], which can become the eyes of the people of Ursa to look at the starry sky – not the distorted starry sky after being refracted by the [Tomb], but the real starry sky.

There was only one person who knew how to maneuver the satellite into low-Earth orbit: Laplace himself.

This was a satellite he designed himself. He had originally planned to launch it after dealing with the World Alliance and Qi Lang, and to use it as a base to begin exploring the starry sky. Laplace longed for a sense of control and would not place all his hopes on [Inmotarus].

Now it seems that this has become his last bargaining chip, because the alliance needs an eye in low-Earth orbit.

This would not only allow them to observe the stars, but also help them monitor their allies in the East – until trust is established, people always crave more security.

Laplace’s fate was simple. He would fly out of the atmosphere on the Stairway 3 and deploy the satellite in low-Earth orbit. Then, his escape module would be launched, passing through the hole in the Tomb at the third cosmic speed and flying into the starry sky.

The escaping capsule does not have the function of turning, nor can it resist real starlight, so it does not matter how far the escaping capsule can fly, there is only one ending.

For the first time, Laplace saw his destined fate.

But for some reason, at this moment, he felt at ease and calm.

“…10…9…8…7…6…”

When Laplace lost consciousness, the launch countdown had already begun, and the restraint suit on his body was automatically untied.

The old man stretched out a hand and touched the rain forest of Lavis through the glass, touching the land that he always overlooked but rarely set foot on.

“Goodbye,” the old man murmured in a low voice, “Listar…kas…mizalar…”

He will rise like the crescent moon until he reaches the stars – his only destination.

“…5…4…3…2…1…”

“Buzzing—”

The moment the countdown ended, a scarlet light burst out from the tail of [Stairway Three], and the huge thrust sent the silver rocket into the sky. In just a few seconds, the jungle turned into a thin shadow below and disappeared into the clouds.

The crimson light turned into azure blue after the launch phase. The stable factor carried the silver rocket up into the sky, breaking through the clouds and soon surpassing the height of the Tower of Babel.

Laplace calmly watched the rapidly changing scenery, his silver eyes as flat as a mirror.

He recalled the days when he wandered on the sea of ​​clouds. At that time, he was the prince of the Odin people. No matter how suffocating the reality was, his queen was always waiting for him in that bed.

Elizabeth, will you forgive me?

“Buzzing…”

The case of [Stairway No. 3] rubbed against the atmosphere, making a buzzing sound.

After breaking through the stratosphere, the color of the sky changed from light blue to dark blue, and then gradually transitioned to ink-like black.

The moment it entered low-Earth orbit, everything became quiet. Except for the vibration sound of the energy engine transmitted along the body of the arrow, everything was silent.

Laplace saw the sky-blue planet Ursa for the first time. The azure halo flickered faintly around the planet. It was like a pearl or a gem that made people want to grab it in their hands and play with it carefully.

The old man placed his palm on the quartz glass that was more than ten centimeters thick and stroked the blue planet through the porthole.

“You’re so beautiful.” He murmured softly.

“…Orbital satellite ready…”

After staring at Erza reluctantly for a long time, Laplace turned around and began to skillfully control the deployment of the orbital satellite.

Half a minute later, the middle section of [Stairway Three] detached, and the satellite’s energy wings unfolded, steadily rotating around the planet.

At the same time, the escape capsule where Laplace was located ignited again, and the tail flame flashing red light fought against the gravity and sent him into the endless deep space.

Laplace looked out the window and saw a red light gradually emerging from the distant darkness—that was the Grave, the barrier surrounding the planet Ursa.

Behind the barrier, a faint white light flickered, and it seemed that it would surge in like a tide at any time.

But Laplace did not collapse. Perhaps some external force blocked the starlight, or perhaps the remaining blood of the gods in his body enhanced his resistance. He just felt a slight pain on his forehead and did not end up like Cecilia Philos.

“…”

As the escape pod got closer and closer to the barrier, Laplace finally saw the hole – it was like a gap in broken glass, its edge was constantly expanding, and increasingly strong white light was pouring in from the border.

That barrier has blocked the real starlight for this planet for hundreds of years, and now it is about to disappear.

Let’s leave something for them.

Laplace turned on the telex machine and continuously sent the collected data and images to the rear so that the people on the planet Ursa could receive them.

At the same time, as they got closer to the gap, stronger white light poured into the escape pod, and Laplace’s vision was gradually stained with white.

The moment the pod passed through the hollow of the [Grave], white light completely flooded the interior of the pod, turning Laplace’s figure into a silhouette in pure incandescence.

A few seconds later, the ground control center in Weiser received the last words left by Laplace:

“What a beautiful…starry sky…”

……

“May every horizon be free of towers.”

“…”

Filos Glacier – Arctic

Fifteen years have passed since the Second Academy War.

“Anchor!”

The heavy iron anchor smashed into the waves and was deeply embedded in the seabed of the Arctic Ocean. The huge shadow of the icebreaker broke through the snowstorm and slowly anchored in the sea a few kilometers away from the coast.

On the outer hull beside the bridge, a girl with long black hair was gazing at the white polar continent, waves surging in her lake blue eyes.

“Sister Mei! We…really did it!”

Sofia Monaco looked at the snow scene in front of her excitedly. After sailing in the snowstorm on the ice sea for several months, the Blue Reef finally arrived in the Arctic.

This mysterious continent has been shrouded in extreme weather for the past fifteen years. Even the [Stairway-3] satellite cannot detect the state of its surface through the snowstorm. A mysterious force surrounds it, making the pole a forbidden zone for humans.

It wasn’t until a few months ago, when the storm began to abate, that the Alliance sent out an expedition into this uncharted territory.