Tytania:Volume 1 Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Star of Rebellion

I

In his own inner world, there was an inevitability to Fan Hyulick’s resolve to take revenge against Count Arses. But what about those who were accompanying him?

For Miranda, the princess of the Principality of Casabianca, Lira was a former vassal of her. While these circumstances weren’t of any importance to Miranda, Lira was a younger friend and, to use a common expression, like a little sister. She had also worked diligently as an external crew member of the Honest Old Man. Various factors naturally drove Miranda to seek revenge for Lira.

The situation of her husband, Captain Casimir, was almost identical. From the beginning, he was a victim of Tytania and a rebel. He maintained that stance once more, and, as the mild-mannered man he was, didn’t flinch. When Miranda had asked Fan Hyulick to accompany her, she spoke in a firm tone:

“This is also our problem. I keep regretting that I didn’t bring aboard Lira and the others.”

Miranda let out a deep sigh, creating a draught in the air inside the cabin that was different from the air conditioning. She wasn’t omniscient. She couldn’t have foreseen that Count Arses would pursue her in a manner that was unusually relentless and seemed to stem from his excessive rivalry with his elder brother, Zarlisch. In any case, Miranda couldn’t help but feel responsible for Lira’s death.

“What I regret is acting cool and not sleeping with Lira,” muttered Fan Hyulick with a bitter and sour expression that made Miranda hesitate to reply.

The young carrot-top wasn’t enjoying his feigned malice at the moment. If he had slept with her, he would have felt a sense of responsibility for Lira’s life and would have forcefully taken her out of Ementhal. As a result, he would have undoubtedly saved his life. While the feeling of “She’s my woman; I’ll protect her” is, in some sense, an expression of possessiveness from pre-modern times, it could also be a clear confirmation of one’s responsibility.

“That would have been a nuisance for Lira.”

The fact that he understood this showed that Fan Hyulick was mature enough to understand other people’s feelings and perspectives.

If he were ten years younger, he would charge headlong, driven by the passion of youthful exuberance. If he were ten years older, he would be able to act with a wisdom honed from experience and consideration. But at 28 years old, his experience and youthful exuberance were in an ambiguous state. His vision was weakened and clouded with various colours of regret that mingled together.

While Fan Hyulick’s gloominess wasn’t contagious, the Honest Old Man was undertaking its most lugubrious voyage in the stars in the last ten years.

Aside from Fan Hyulick, there were other passengers on this seasoned ship, one of whom had been until recently clad in Tytania’s grey military uniform. Now, the mere sight of grey clothing was making him tense up. He had been forced into this situation and had only been able to drown his sorrows in alcohol, but he had felt the limits of even that.

“To sum up, as long as Tytania maintains its power, I won’t be able to cash in my savings. Alright, I get it now.”

Lieutenant Mahdi’s voice sounded calm, but deep within his vocal cords a tempest of anger was raging against his unfair fate. In spite of diligently engaging in both legitimate and illegitimate work and accumulating a modest fortune, he had lost it all in a single day. His hard work had not been properly rewarded.

“Humm, that’s fine by me. I’ll just nick 100 million dakars in gold and silver from Tytania’s coffers. Even Tytania should face consequences for robbing honest citizens of their rightful purpose in life.”

“It’s scary how human beings can turn on each other.”

As Miranda sighed, crossing her thick arms, her husband nodded in agreement. Lieutenant Mahdi was the kind of person who would remain unfazed if another person lost 10 million dakars but couldn’t tolerate even half a dakar of loss on his side, making him lose all reason. Indeed, his modest retirement savings had been frozen in an instant by Tytania moving its little finger by a micron. Unless Tytania’s cold wind were blown away, spring would never return to Mahdi’s wallet.

Therefore, Mahdi, with winter in his wallet and midsummer in his heart, had switched to the other side. His cries of “Give me back my money!” were truly a cry for revolution at this moment. For him at least. But whether it would garner universal sympathy was a matter of opinion.

Whatever Mahdi’s decision was, it was of no concern to Fan Hyulick. He was suddenly reflecting on his past. Was there any other choice he could have taken? Probably. It could have lost to Tytania’s fleet like the city’s government had intended. He could have quietly accepted Tytania’s offer and joined their ranks. He could have let himself be captured at Ementhal. But for Fan Hyulick, none of these options were acceptable.

Lira had told him that she loved him. It was undoubtedly a mere pretext. Even if it weren’t, at best she liked him as a human being but didn’t love him as a man. He knew that. Having lived 28 years as a man, he knew that.

But she had risked her life to save him. She had given him a needle gun without any regard for her own life. Fan Hyulick owed his current freedom to her. In that case, his freedom of will and action should be freely given to Lira.

“Hum, I’m still only half a human being. I’m still trying to find meaning in what I’m doing.”

Fan Hyulick’s mind raced as he muttered to himself, trying to device a way to kill Arses before he could escape to Uraniborg.

Walenkov and Pagès were assisting him in his headwork. While they were baffled by Fan Hyulick’s decision to assassinate a Tytanian noble, they didn’t intend to part ways with their former commanding officer. Otherwise, they would have fled to Euria City instead of following Fan Hyulick. They were conformist and relying on powerful personalities, so it was inevitable they wouldn’t see eye to eye with Fan Hyulick.

While they were grumbling stuff like “What a mess, when will we ever find peace and stability?” they were actually keenly gathering and analysing information and getting involved in the planning of operations.

“I love fighting, but I hate dying in battle,” remarked Pagès. “A person who dies can’t participate in the next battle. Since I don’t want to die, I need to read the enemy’s cards as much as I can.”

Through his information analysis, he could decipher some of Count Arses Tytania’s actions. The fact that Count Arses had fled Ementhal and was heading towards Uraniborg and that the four spaceships that departed had taken a separate route had caught Fan Hyulick’s attention. Furthermore, while Tytania had publicly announced that they would dispatch a fleet to protect the count, they made no attempt to rendez-vous with him.

There was no need for further discussion. Everybody understood that it was a trap designed to lure the “avengers”. Fan Hyulick and his companions, as insignificant as they were, were unacceptable to Tytania. Even a single thorn could drive a giant to his death.

Tytania had consistently eliminated rebels, and the same went for potential rebels. As Clanner Ajman had stated to Jouslain, this thoroughness stemmed from cowardice. But there were two kinds of cowards. Those who could face reality and those who couldn’t. Tytania’s cowardice was the latter. That was why it endured. Like an elderly person that paid no heed to their health.

Four spaceships were travelling from planet Ementhal to Uraniborg, shifting their courses along the way. Aboard which one of these was Count Arses? It was a worthy question in itself, but the fact that they managed to obtain that information was enough to trigger Fan Hyulick’s alarms.

Did Tytania deliberately leak this information? Not simply to trap Fan Hyulick and his companions, but also to use them to eliminate the deviant Count Arses?

After hearing Fan Hyulick’s explanation, Miranda asked the other wise man aboard:

“Doctor Lee, what are your thoughts? Do you agree with Fan Hyulick?”

“That’s a difficult question.”

A truly humble statement. At least for someone like Doctor Lee. Still, it was a frank answer nevertheless. Doctor Lee’s intellectual gaze extended to the Celestial City, a place he had never seen, and tried to discern how the Tytanian leaders perceived the situation and how they were trying to take control of the situation.

The Tytanian mainstream probably wanted Count Arses dead. Tytania didn’t fear internal selection and didn’t tolerate the existence of those unworthy of its name. They might have overlooked his eccentric behaviour in Ementhal, but they apparently were no longer willing to tolerate it.

“It is crucial to understand the power dynamic between Count Arses Tytania and the Tytanian leaders. This will allow us to determine which ship he is on.”

“Correct, Admiral Hyulick.”

Nodded Doctor Lee, a subtle smile forming on his lips. He looked like a teacher gaining confidence in his methods after a struggling pupil achieved a passing mark. The fact that he gave that impression without even intending to was, in its way, a “lack of virtue” that he himself acknowledged.

II

Idris Tytania was leading a fleet of 300 ships in the vicinity of planet Ementhal.

Though Idris himself would probably hate to admit it, his ambition was fundamentally the same as Arses’. For Idris, Fan Hyulick and his companions were but mere tools to achieve merit. Fan Hyulick was the one who defeated Ariabert with new tactics. Furthermore, if he could eliminate this unruly outlaw who refused to submit to Tytania, his achievements would be undeniable.

At first, Idris couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the meaningless mission assigned to him. His opinion was that the elder brother, Zarlisch, should simply clean up Arses’ mess, but now, he changed his mind. He couldn’t let this opportunity to rack up merit pass by.

Assembling a fleet of 300 ships mainly comprised of high-speed cruisers and frigates while maintaining a high level of operability was a demonstration of Idris’ extraordinary talent. Prioritising mobility over firepower was perfectly suited to this mission’s objectives.

What made Idris perplexed was the fact that the four ships, including Arses’, showed no sign of being attacked. By alternating between faster-than-light and inertial travel, the four ships had reached a distance from Uraniborg that was between 50.3 and 50.8 light-years. Under normal circumstances, they should arrive at their destination in about a week.

This meant that Arses would safely reach the Celestial City. This unexpected turn of events puzzled Idris. He slightly frowned, furrowing his perfectly shaped eyebrows while pondering upon the situation.

Could it be that Fan Hyulick and his men had no intentions of attacking Count Arses? No, that couldn’t be. In that case, through what cunning means are they planning to exact their revenge? Are they lying in wait for Count Arses to arrive in Uraniborg?

That suspicion made Idris even more serious, but he was quick to dismiss the idea. Infiltrating the Celestial City would be far more difficult than an attack in outer space. Even if considering a suicide attack with no consideration for escape.

Idris didn’t underestimate the hardware and software of the defences of the Celestial City. Nor did he underestimate Clanner Ajman, who ruled over the place. But considering the fact that the attackers might not share Idris’ views, he abandoned the hypothesis of an attack inside Uraniborg.

In the first place, Idris’ mission was limited to the area outside Uraniborg. If Arses were to be attacked and killed inside the Celestial City, it would be the Clanner’s responsibility, not Idris’. Idris came to the conclusion that the Avengers had guessed Tytania’s intentions to some extent and were trying to make him anxious to provoke him into acting rashly.

“They’ll try to pull some petty trick. Well, it wouldn’t be any fun if they didn’t, right?”

Idris Tytania’s neat lips twisted into a sneer. He still had his composure. He wasn’t satisfied with merely accomplishing his objectives; he also wanted to enjoy the process and maximise the results and effects. That was the way of thinking that motivated him and his subordinates.

Around the time he reached this conclusion, a few pieces of information reached him. Multiple intelligence sources reported that the Avengers had dispersed their ships and had started to act independently. Idris responded with a single sentence.

“No worries, it’s a childish diversion. Let them run wild. Keep a close eye on Count Arses.”

Later, Idris would come to loathe himself for giving this order.

Idris’ pride would be wounded, but his existence was of no concern to Fan Hyulick. The same was true for Ariabert, Jouslain, and Zarlisch. In his mind, all of Tytania, with the exception of Count Arses, was an abstract enemy, and even a giant like Idris he could only see as part of the Tytanian collective.

To put it in simple terms, his interest was nothing more than “crushing anyone in our path”. In fact, he wasn’t even aware that the person setting a trap for him was named Idris. He was only chasing after Count Arses.

Meanwhile, Doctor Lee was acting on his own judgement and will. After a brief conversation with Fan Hyulick, he took his forces and changed course. This course of action was detected by Tytania’s intelligence network and reported to Duke Idris.

Doctor Lee was 27 years old, a year younger than Fan Hyulick. He was the same age as Ariabert and Jouslain, two of Tytania’s Four Dukes. Fan Hyulick was unaware of this fact, but if he were, he would probably have felt a bit displeased at being treated like a student by someone younger than him. Doctor Lee, on the other hand, would probably say, “Don’t worry about it; I don’t mind at all.”

Right before parting ways with Fan Hyulick, Doctor Lee during his conversation with him, remarked:

“Intelligence and knowledge aren’t the same thing. Did the Buddha know about computers? Did Socrates know about the theory of relativity?”

Intelligence has many facets, and one of them is the control of knowledge. Therefore, as knowledge increases, intelligence must also increase less knowledge run amok. In fact, since the practical application of nuclear fission energy, which disregarded safety, human civilisation had been on the brink of spiralling out of control and had almost done so on more than a few occasions.

The reason that Doctor Lee had cited these examples was because he wanted to use this to make Tytania aware that their power was already beginning to slip beyond the control of their central authority.

Though he didn’t say it to anyone, the subject of Doctor Lee’s research was staggering. Namely, “How did Tytania rise to power, and did it fall?” and “How will it fall?” For him, everything from the innards of an atom nucleus to the entire universe was a subject of human thought and research. After all, Tytania was merely a group of humans, and compared to an atom nucleus, it was merely a life-size entity.

Therefore, if he wanted to study the fall of Tytania, he needed to witness its demise. If he simply stood idle, Tytania’s fall wouldn’t happen during Doctor Lee’s lifespan. Therefore, he believed that it was acceptable to accelerate the process through human intervention. There were probably a few others in human society who harboured such a grandiose plan.

Doctor Lee’s desire was the fall of Tytania for the sake of his research. According to him, the universe was filled with incompetence and apathy, and no one seemed likely to defeat Tytania, so he had to take matters into his own hands, a task he found honestly troubling. However, he had never truly believed that his project would become a reality.

But with the appearance of this strange person, Fan Hyulick, the possibility arose that his plan might actually come to fruition. “This is becoming rather interesting,” he thought.

“These curs…!”

Count Arses Tytania cursed the “avengers” with deep hatred. He had legitimate reasons to despise them. His current predicament, such as having his face disfigured and being forced to abandon his beloved mansion and flee to Uraniborg, was entirely the fault of these knaves who dared to defy Tytania.

While stroking the organic ceramic mask that was covering his face, Arses groaned in physical and mental agony. Since that terrible disaster, he hadn’t looked at his face in a mirror. He lacked the courage to face it directly. He needed plastic surgery in Uraniborg.

Arses saw through Idris’ true intentions. Or at least, he thought he did. Idris intended to hand over Arses to these ruthless outlaws and allow them to wield the blade of revenge as they pleased.

It wasn’t only his elder brother Zarlisch who saw him as an enemy and intended to stand by and watch his downfall, but the entirety of the Tytania clan. No, worse yet, they were trying to accelerate his demise. How absurd was that? Had he ever harmed the interests of Tytania? His elder brother’s debauchery was forgiven, so why not his? Unable to accept this, Arses gnashed his teeth.

Arses’ discontent made sense to him, but it was something the Four Dukes could only laugh at. Arses was seen as someone who had failed to fulfil his duties and responsibilities as a Tytania, merely enjoying his privileges. It wasn’t only Zarlisch but also Idris who made no attempt to hide his resentment and contempt for Arses.

Now, the reason Idris had been so defiant towards the other three dukes wasn’t only due to his ambition. He needed to motivate himself and strive for greater heights for the sake of his family. His deliberate disregard for the other three leaders was a way of acknowledging the difficulty of standing by their side. As the youngest, he couldn’t afford to fall behind in the ranks of the Four Dukes.

Including the Clanner, they were known as the “Five Families of Tytania”. It was an unwritten rule, but the fact that the Five Family system was upheld so far didn’t mean it would last. Becoming the Clanner meant wielding absolute power over the other four families.

Idris’ father, originally healthy, suffered serious injuries in a spaceship accident and spent the last half of his life confined to his sickbed. Seventeen ceramic fragments had penetrated various parts of his body and were impossible to remove surgically. Since Idris was too young to inherit his title of head of the family, he was unable to retire. While enduring excruciating pain, he continued to perform his duties as a Tytanian official. The surname Tytania expects much from those who bear it. Enduring while suffering was one of these expectations.

By the time Idris received permission from Ajman to inherit the title of head of his family, his father’s body and mind had been worn out from overwork. Upon seeing his father’s exhausted and yet relaxed face after opium numbed his pain, Idris made a promise to himself:

“Tytania, and therefore the universe, shall sit in the palm of my hand.”

He was driven by ambition. An ambition as dangerous as a nuclear reactor during a meltdown. It became a part of his identity, illuminating the abyss of the universe and subtly twisting the future of all of Tytania.

III

Though Arses held resentment towards Idris, he was the only person he could turn to for help. He dispatched a communication to Idris. At first he had some reserves about doing so, but he could no longer afford to keep up appearances.

In the span of an hour, Arses sent three communications, requesting protection for his ship. This negated Arses’ own precautions of deploying four ships to distract the enemy.

“Arses, if you claim to be a member of the Tytania clan, then protect your own life. Do you think you are entitled to bear the name Tytania simply because of your bloodline?”

Idris’s thoughts were fierce. Both his pride as a member of the Four Dukes of Tytania, as well as his own personal ambitions, made him feel this way. His reply that he would promise to do his was devoid of any sincerity whatsoever.

However, in order to make his trap work, Idris needed to resort to some tricks of his own. He went against Arses’ request and moved his fleet further away and broadcast it subtly on public radio frequencies. It went without saying that he was hoping for the Avengers to intercept it.

However, Idris wasn’t omnipotent. He wasn’t the only one who used decoys.

A small fleet of 13 ships led by Doctor Lee attacked and hijacked a lone Tytanian frigate. He did so by employing a stratagem that was original with a straightforward approach. It could be described as a mixture of strategies. First, ship A, disguised as an innocent civilian vessel, would be pursued by ship B, and would seek out help from the Tytanian ship. Since Tytania’s income mainly came from collecting tolls by guaranteeing the security of civilian ships, the Tytanian ship naturally rushed to the rescue. It then ended up surrounded 13 to 1, with no chance of a fair fight; they had no choice but to surrender.

Thus, a Tytanian frigate was now in Doctor Lee’s hands, but if he was simply going to board this ship to attack Count Arses while disguised as an ally, he would be at most a cunning tactician. He was far more sinister than that. Employing multiple means, Doctor Lee leaked out the information. He informed Idris Tytania that the frigate had been seized by the “avengers”. There was no greater kindness on his part than telling the truth.

Upon receiving this report, Idris thought about the matter. It didn’t take a long time for him to reach a conclusion. The Avengers were likely planning to hijack the frigate, pretend they came as an escort, approach Count Arses’ ship, and attack it. That would mean that the Honest Old Man was a decoy, and the Avengers were actually on the hijacked frigate. That was Idris’ conclusion. But there might be another twist. Idris did not act rashly.

Idris was no fool. Outmanoeuvering him required multiple layers of psychological traps. Doctor Lee spared no effort in doing so. On the 1st of August, Idris finally mobilised his entire 300-ship fleet and rushed towards the sector where the stolen frigate was located. That was the moment the Honest Old Man had been waiting for.

On the 2nd of August, at 0:50 a.m., in a region of space 28.4 light-years away from the Celestial City, Count Arses’ ship, the Aurora came into range of the Honest Old Man’s main guns. Fan Hyulick, to put it in the most extreme way, would have been of mind to blow up all four ships. But the hurried transmissions had given him certainty: this was the ship Count Arses was hiding on.

“Fire port main guns!”

Upon the command echoing, arrows of scorching energy exploded against the hull of the i. That was the first hit. While the Aurora was certainly armed, it was a spaceship for VIPs to begin with and was supposed to be accompanied by multiple dozens of escort ships. The reason it was alone was to deceive the “enemy”.

Arses’ strategy wasn’t wrong. It’s just that he didn’t have enough resolve to sustain it. If it were not for the excessive amount of communications he sent to Idris, Fan Hyulick would have had a hard time detecting his presence. Safe routes in space were limited to begin with, and the probability of two spaceships encountering each other should have been close to zero. Arses fell from his overly ornate bed with a scream and ordered him to mount a defence and counter-attack.

Spears of light rained down, turning space into a boiling soup of energy. Compared to a head-on confrontation between massive fleets, it was a fairly small soup bowl. But the sheer concentration was entirely different. Energy beams failed to penetrate the hulls and instead scattered and shimmered with iridescent light.

The Honest Old Man dodged the Aurora’s gunfire, charged forward and closed in, firing energy beams at point-blank range. It relentlessly fired on a single spot. That had been Fan Hyulick’s meticulous command, who was a former artillery officer. The cannons of the Honest Old Man were few in number and low in power. There was no other method to destroy the enemy ship.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been an interesting battle for Fan Hyulick. A one-on-one duel was child’s play. For a military strategist, the challenge lay in how to deploy and move a fleet, and one-on-one duels were not something a general should involve himself in. However, this time, Fan Hyulick wasn’t fighting as a military strategist. He needed to kill Count Arses before Idris Tytania realised he had been duped and rapidly reversed course with his 300-ship fleet to attack him.

He concentrated his gunfire on a single point. Fan Hyulick gave his orders to the gunners, and Captain Casimir and Miranda, with expert skill, splendidly manoeuvred their ship in spite of the age of the Honest Old Man.

Arses’ desire was to live and die beautifully. He longed for eternal youth and beauty but knew it was impossible. Therefore, he wished for a beautiful death that would leave no ugly corpse behind. But it was only because he had never witnessed death up close that he could have such an abstract fantasy aesthetic.

When asked, noticing on his monitor a soldier whose body had been blown in half by gunfire, his internal organs spilling out of his bloody wound, he vomited. Because Arses was still wearing his mask, the vomit accumulated inside, and, unable to bear the unpleasant smell and gross feeling, he tore it off with his own hands. He ordered a servant to wipe the vomit off his face.

But when the servant saw his master’s face, who once had prided himself on his good looks, he cried out in terror and disgust. Right as Arses, wounded and enraged, was about to shout, the world came ablaze with a white heat. An enemy bullet had struck the engine of the Aurora.

Arses Tytania’s wish was fulfilled. He would have no hideous corpse to expose to the eyes of others. His body was torn apart, burnt, and incinerated by a wave of explosive energy. His young flesh was turned to ash and dust and became a part of the white sphere of energy that enveloped the Aurora.

IV

For the living, nothing was over yet.

Duke Idris Tytania rushed to Doctor Lee’s small fleet, briefly bringing them in range of his main cannons. But Doctor Lee, with astonishing speed, slipped through the Tytania’s semi-encirclement manoeuvre and fled. In case he survived, he was supposed to meet with the Honest Old Man on planet Bargash, so there was no need to rendez-vous with them, he simply fled. In the midst of this earnest but somewhat ridiculous chase, news of Count Arses’ death reached Idris’ flagship.

Humiliation sent shivers down Idris’ spine. He was not as tolerant of defeat as Ariabert. For him it was something to ridicule or overcome, not something he could live with.

He ordered the end of this ridiculous chase and a return to the Celestial City, but as he gave the order, his blood was boiling within his heart.

“I shall not forget this, Fan Hyulick. I’ll concede you this victory. But in the next act, you shall be the loser.”

Fan Hyulick wasn’t a particularly forgetful young man, but he wasn’t in a position to understand the extent of Idris’ ire. After transforming Count Arses Tytania and his ship to interstellar matter, the Honest Old Man set course for planet Bargash.

Miranda slapped Fan Hyulick on the shoulder and shoved a can of beer in his hand. She didn’t say a word. But it was clear that she was offering the drink for remembrance rather than for celebration.

A few more beer cans flew through the air, and Mahdi, Walenkov, and Pagès busily caught them. As he caught glimpses of their voices, Fan Hyulick felt a sense of complete detachment from his victory.

“I don’t mind coexisting with Tytania, but they don’t seem to be of that opinion anymore. This time, maybe it is our turn to be hated.”

Fan Hyulick knew that Arses’ end was only the beginning for him.

“I’ll fight with my life on the line to save those suffering under Tytania’s yoke.”

Had he said that aloud, Fan Hyulick would have likely earned a spot in the “Complete Collection of Biographies of Great Figures for Boys and Girls”. But he didn’t. He didn’t even think it in his heart. He felt exhausted and, at times like this, wanted to sleep beside a girl who would tell him, “I love you”. He could probably fall asleep like that. Even if he had the whole bed for himself. And when he would wake up, the endless battle with Tytania would have begun.

Well, that was fine. If he were going to fight, he might as well fight against the strongest. It wasn’t as much his aesthetic as his character that made Fan Hyulick think that way. Those who knew him as an ordinary man of 25 would never have imagined this.

Even if Fan Hyulick possessed the qualities of a good conformist citizen, these qualities had been completely consumed upon returning from the Tytanian prison camp and his enlistment in Euria’s City Fleet. Just as one’s true nature is revealed when the surface is gone, Fan Hyulick didn’t transform but returned to his real self. But regardless of whether Fan Hyulick awoke or not, Tytania would undoubtedly regard him as an enemy who could not be spared and would seek to eliminate him.

“Tytania’s enemy, Fan Hyulick!”

Well, what a rise for a mediocre merchant ship clerk.

Roughly running a hand through his carrot-coloured hair, Fan Hyulick tilted his beer can in his other hand. He felt like he ended up on a beltway that was moving too fast, and it looked like he could no longer turn back.

The news of Count Arses’ death reached the Celestial City around the same time it reached Duke Idris. Two dukes were conversing in the Four Dukes’ observation room.

“It looks like the Fan Hyulick has managed to break through Lord Idris’ trap,” said Ariabert Tytania, turning a thoughtful gaze towards his cousin. “Lord Jouslain, you must have predicted this, didn’t you? You haven’t shown a single sign of surprise.”

“No, I haven’t at all.”

Jouslain’s reply was brief. Talking about predictions and expectations would only remind him of his fruitless conversations with Clanner Ajman. Of course, Ajman wasn’t Ajman. That was precisely all the more why he wanted to avoid such conversations. He deliberately changed the subject.

“Lord Idris must be quite frustrated.”

“He obviously is. He’s not the type who would laugh after a defeat.”

Ariabert’s voice was devoid of sarcasm as he made a calm and factual observation.

“He will likely try to crush Fan Hyulick at least partly out of his personal feelings. Lord Idris isn’t incompetent by any means. Fan Hyulick may have survived, but the universe will become smaller for him.”

Nodding at Ariabert, Jouslain pondered. It would be a shame to let Idris kill Fan Hyulick. That thought briefly crossed his mind. A man who can defeat Ariabert and outmanoeuvre Idris might very well, as the Clanner had said, become a formidable adversary for Tytania.

Did he wish for Tytania’s destruction? This question came with an immediate negative answer. That’s not right. He didn’t wish for Tytania’s destruction. He knew. He knew Tytania would be destroyed.

“In my ears, the lament of the vanquished.” Would these words not come back to ultimately haunt Tytania herself? Tytania’s current prosperity was due to its continuous victories. Defeat only meant destruction. If survival of the fittest were the only law in human society, then in that sense did Tytania represent humanity, and it was then inevitable and justified that Tytania be defeated by a stronger foe.

But for Jouslain, fighting an enemy for the survival of Tytania was also inevitable and justified. As he contemplated the enemy he had yet to face, Jouslain felt as if he were catching a glimpse of the abyss of space and time.

… In the year 446 SY, the “Age of Tytania” continued, and many couldn’t even begin to imagine it coming to an end.