Chapter 024: Crystal Card Permission
At this time, the museum conference room was in chaos. Suzaku's sudden escape made curator Brutus profusely sweat in anxiousness, he immediately dispatched all the security in the museum, and even sent an emergency help signal to the military base. A mighty manhunt army rushed out from the museum, but after hunting for nearly half an hour, they still found nothing!
What was Suzaku? It was an S-Class mech!
An S-Class mech's speed was much faster than the average mech and warships by several degrees. Coupled with Suzaku's sudden escape being at lunch time, the time the museum defense's was the most relaxed since most people were on break, Suzaku would've already fled without a trace by the time they dropped their lunch and pursued him!
Tens of thousands of meters of high altitude, close to the speed of light, the red dot almost instantly disappeared before the eyes of the crowd!
“The tracking forces say that the target is fleeing in the direction of the Barila Grand Canyon! Full pursuit!"
“The target's trail has vanished!”
“The monitoring data is gone!”
“…”
Brutus sat in his office listening to the various reports on the army’s public channel, his wrinkled brow pulling down tighter.
At this time, shocking news suddenly passed through the communication channel: "We've discovered a smart mech ahead! It's moving in the direction of the museum at full speed! It's….. it's white? An S-Class!! The other side has issued a peace signal!"
Everyone was stunned.
What’s going on?
Is there a festival for S-Class mech today?
The red Suzaku fled, and a white one flew back, many people have never gotten a chance to see one powerful S-Class mech in their life, and today, they actually got to see two consecutively, it was too strange!
White Feather circled over the stunned crowd of people, proudly puffing his chest and spreading his wings as he flew around the museum, then he stopped at a high altitude, and followed Caesar's order to directly connect to the video channel in the director's room.
Seeing Caesar appear on the screen, Knox and Irene looked at each other in astonishment.
Irene hurried to the curator and whispered in his ear: “Curator, this is the Fourth Prince, His Royal Highness Caesar."
Brutus heard this and immediately turned to put his right hand on his chest, giving Caesar the respectful royal greeting ceremony.
“Your Highness.”
“There's no need to be so polite, curator.” Caesar smiled and said, “I came back to tell you about Suzaku's situation."
The words made the high level officers in the room immediately looked at each other in surprise.
Caesar's expression was calm as he said: “Today, at noon, I was on the 80 floor for the tour when I inadvertently heard crashing sounds on the roof. I doubtfully opened the door and walked up a stair case leading to another door, just in time to see Suzaku break the electromagnetic chains that imprisoned him and escape the museum.”
“I immediately summoned White Feather and perused him, but unfortunately, Suzaku’s speed was too fast, I and White Feather were a step behind him and even our fastest speed couldn't catch up with it. Suzaku flew over the Barila Grand Canyon, but its energy exhausted and he crashed."
Caesar said with regret: “I’m really sorry, I didn't save it in time. I could only watch it fall to pieces, and be buried among the countless stones at the bottom of the Grand Canyon."
White Feather: “………………”
His Majesty Prince was really talented at lying through his teeth and passionately calling it the truth. If he hadn't just frantically saved Ancestor Suzaku with his Master, he would almost believe Caesar's fabricated regretful story!
White Feather couldn't help but give his Master a thumbs up in his heart.
Brutus was somewhat doubtful of Caesar's explanation, but the other side was the prince, he couldn't be easily questioned. But Lieutenant Colonel Knox looked at Caesar and seriously asked: “What about Lin Yuan?"
The monitoring center in the museum was destroyed by Suzaku, obviously, Suzaku’s escape was premeditated. No one knew what happened at the time, but when they assembled at noon, Caesar was missing, and so was Lin Yuan. Knox believed that this matter was certainly related to Lin Yuan.
Caesar frankly said: “Lin Yuan heard the movement on the roof with me, we chased him together. Lin Yuan was in White Feather's cockpit, but because it was his first ride in an S-Class mech, his body was not accustomed to the pressure, so he got a severe headache. He's resting."
Caesar transferred the transmission to the bedroom's camera, everyone saw the quietly sleeping Lin Yuan.
The crowd looked at each other, but stayed silent.
Seeing that no one was casting doubt, Caesar smiled and said: “This is the case. I don't know why Suzaku escaped, but unfortunately I couldn't stop him. I'm sorry, curator."
“…..” Brutus' old face suddenly flushed, he didn't expect His Royal Highness Prince to not only be humble and courteous, he even apologized to him. Brutus hurriedly said, “Your Highness, you're too polite. This is not your fault, Suzaku obviously planned this out for a long time. It wanted to escape and we were the ones that couldn't stop it. We didn't think it would actually have a secret energy source in its body, we were too negligent!"
Suzaku naturally deliberated for a long time, every day it used its few minutes of light to collect light energy, secretly storing it. If Lin Yuan and Caesar hadn't accidently gotten involved today, it would've really fled.
Caesar said: “Since it's already happened, then you can only do a good job with the aftermath. No one can predict such an accident.”
Brutus immediately nodded: “Yes, Your Highness!”
Caesar turned to Irene, "Instructor, Lin Yuan feels very uncomfortable, I want to take him back to school, can I?"
Irene thought for a moment and said, “All right, take him back. We'll come visit him later when we have a chance.”
Caesar smiled and said, “Thank you instructor.”
After cutting off the video call, Caesar instructed White Feather to turn towards the direction of the San Romia Military Academy.
In the cockpit, White Feather projected his intelligence center as a pure white feather, and floated in a circle around Caesar, then it stopped on Caesar's shoulder and fawningly rubbed Caesar’s face.
Unfortunately, since it was a virtual feather, when it touched Caesar's face, it directly phased through his face, it made a strange picture.
Caesar ignored it and went into the bedroom to look on Lin Yuan.
White Feather couldn't be reconciled. It turned into a virtual Lin Yuan, jumped in front of Caesar and fawningly hugged him, he also rubbed his face against Caesar's face.
Caesar: “…”
Although it was only a phantom, a lifelike Lin Yuan was embracing him, Caesar suddenly stiffened and glared at White Feather as he snapped: “Are you tired of living?! You think I won't send you in for scrap metal?!"
“…..” White Feather, who failed to please his Master two times, frustratedly turned into a small White Feather and said in a wronged voice, “I just wanted to know how you intend to deal with Ancestor Suzaku …..”
Listening to the mech's wronged voice, Caesar’s expression slightly eased.
He'd gotten too agitated when White Feather had turned into Lin Yuan and pounced on him, it went beyond Caesar's bottom line. Usually, no matter how noisy White Feather was, he wouldn't be angry, but when it turned into Lin Yuan, Caesar suddenly felt angry.
Lin Yuan was special, he couldn't be replaced by illusions. He couldn't allow White Feather to become Lin Yuan and do such excessive actions! He respected Lin Yuan, so he hoped White Feather could also respect Lin Yuan…..
This was probably the reason right?
Caesar took a deep breath and suppressed his inexplicable rise of anger, then he stretched out his hand and gently touched White Feather. This was only a symbolic soothing action, he couldn't really touch an illusion, but it made White Feather's mood instantly improve.
– Is Master showing favor to me?
– Great, Master really likes me!
White Feather immediately flew up and arrogantly stopped on top of Caesar's head.
Caesar: “…”
Looking at the guy jumping non-stop on his head, Caesar helplessly said: “Okay, I'll tell you how I'll handle Suzaku."
Caesar took out a necklace from his pocket, a diamond-shaped red crystal on a silver chain. The crystal shined under the light, it looked particularly delicate and beautiful…..
This was a gift Queen Anna had given him when he was little, a crystal necklace that could be used as a space button.
Caesar smiled and said: “I put Suzaku in this space button, I'll present it to Lin Yuan as a gift."
A gift?
In other words, Suzaku will later be Lin Yuan’s mech?
He was the Prince's mech, Suzaku was the Prince Consort's mech, if the two mechs flew together, they would look very harmonious. One white, one red, flying side by side, it would look very beautiful, a very good fit!
White Feather was immersed in a beautiful and romantic fantasy, unable to come out.
“I told those people Suzaku crashed, I naturally can't give Suzaku directly to Lin Yuan. When I go back, I'll ask Brian for help to downgrade Suzaku’s hardware, so he can be temporarily transformed into a C- Class look-alike.”
Caesar paused, "Next month is the annual mech competition, as long as you qualify for the national finals, you can directly earn a C-Class mech driver certificate. And this year’s competition has C-Class mechs as the first three prizes. Lin Yuan just has to get into the top three, and I can switch his mech reward with Suzaku, this way, it won't arouse suspicion."
White Feather excitedly said: “This approach is good! But Master, are you sure he'll be able to get into the top three? Don't underestimate the mech competition, experts are as common as the clouds in the nationals!"
Caesar gave White Feather a 'stop being foolish' look and said, “I think he can do it, his spiritual threshold match with Suzaku reached 100%. Obviously, he has an innate talent for mech operation."
Caesar paused and looked back at the boy quietly sleeping on the bed, his expression gradually turned gentle.
“Even if he doesn’t get into the top three, I'm here."
“—I’ll win the prize for him.”
***
Caesar made White Feather fly directly over the military school, precisely position itself over a large open space by the dormitory, then shrunk. After he passed the military defense network password verification, he directly landed.
One or two of the students, who were training in the training ground, unintentionally looked up and thought they saw a momentary illusion of….. a white feather suddenly dropping to the rear of the dormitories?
Caesar didn't want to attract attention, so he chose this time and place to quietly land. White Feather fell to the ground, and Caesar immediately jumped out from the cockpit holding Lin Yuan. He put away the mech, walked into the dormitory, and gently rested the boy on the bed in his bedroom.
When Lin Yuan woke up, he found himself in his bedroom.
The familiar environment collided with his still messy memory fragments, so he laid in a daze for a moment. His eyes gradually focused and he noticed the other person in the room, Caesar was sitting at his bedside, gently looking at him.
“Up?” Seeing Lin Yuan's confused look, Caesar couldn't help but smile. He got up, poured a cup of warm water and handed it over, "Drink a little bit of water, you sweated too much."
“….. Oh.” Lin Yuan took the cup and silently drank. After draining half the cup, he remembered reality and looked up at Caesar in surprise, "How am I in the dormitory? Yeah, what the heck went on today? What's with that red mech…."
Lin Yuan said this and couldn't help but frown.
His head was hurting him, and messy memories continuously slipped into his mind, like a sharp knife cutting the nerves of his brain.
The waves of pain assaulting his head made Lin Yuan clutch his head, his expression twisted.
Caesar hurried forward, gently grasped Lin Yuan’s arm and softly said: “Don't think, calm down first…..Don’t think about it…..”
Lin Yuan listened to Caesar's words and calmed down some, but he still felt initiated by his messy memories.
Night Corps? General? Master? Omega? Inhibitor?
What is this mess?!
And daddy? Where did these memories come from….
Lin Yuan looked vacantly at Caesar.
Caesar’s saw the plea for help in his eyes and immediately patiently explained: "Don't worry, today you met an S-Class mech called Suzaku. It has a few decades worth of memory, so when you drove it and engaged in a spirit match, you exchanged memories. The strange memories in your mind came from its experiences over the past few decades."
Lin Yuan felt a little peace of mind after hearing Caesar's explanation,
– Was it really memories from the mech?
But those memories were too realistic, he could even feel Suzaku's joy, anger, loneliness and pain….. Those things obviously never happened to him, but he still felt empathy, as if he'd also experienced them. Owning another person’s memory made Lin Yuan feel very strange, like he'd sneaked into someone else’s mind and peeped on their past.
But….. it doesn't matter. It was just a really long dream, although it would've been better if it was a dream of a wonderful experience.
Anyway, it already happened, and he couldn't get surgery to wash the memories out, right?
Lin Yuan scratched his head, smiled and said: “S-Class mech are really powerful huh?"
He quickly accepted the fact that he was forcibly injected with memories and no longer dwelled on it, he said with an easy going tone: "It’s hard to drive an S-Class mech, I didn't know what to do."
Caesar looked at his pretending to be relaxed smile, and couldn't help but feel some heartache.
Fortunately, Lin Yuan's nature was cheerful optimism, if someone else was in his situation, and strange memories were inexplicably poured into their mind, even if they didn't have a mental breakdown, they would feel uncomfortable for a long time. They might even need a psychiatrist to treat them and help them adjust their psyche.
But Caesar was still relieved that Lin Yuan had quickly accepted reality, and no longer seemed confused.
Caesar hesitated for a moment, then he finally asked the question he really wanted to ask –
“Lin Yuan, how did you open the door in the corridor today?”
Lin Yuan froze for a moment, in fact, he'd also found it very strange. The exit of the corridor was locked up, and he'd just curiously brushed his card on the door. His school id card didn't budge it, but somehow, the card his mother had given him easily opened it up?
Lin Yuan thought, then decided to tell Caesar, "The door had a sensor to unlock it. I brushed my crystal card and went in."
Caesar was silent for a moment, "Can you show me your crystal card?”
Lin nodded, took the crystal card out from his pocket, and handed it to Caesar.
It was a platinum crystal card printed with the Cepheus galaxy pentagonal insignia in pale silver. Except for that, there was no other symbols.
“…..” Caesar immediately froze in place.
This was the dedicated card for the royal family, the highest authorized gold card granted by His Majesty Trent.
It could even open the gates of the Lacey Imperial Palace.