CH 71

Seeing Ozer’s pathetic appearance, the Duke sneered in contempt.

He held no affection for his blood nephew. From the bottom of his heart, he despised this disabled child who had crawled back from the abandoned mine star. If it wasn’t for his sister’s noble blood inside the child, he would never have recognised that lowly bastard. 53U7 H

From the very beginning he had opposed the Empress’s use of the child to seize the throne, and he had always disapproved of the effort she’d put into raising him. Now it seemed his intuition had been correct. Despite Ozer’s noble bloodline, he was no different from the criminals he’d grown up around. His legs were crippled, his spiritual powers were warped from mental issues, and he’d fallen so foolishly in love with a man that he tried to kill his own mother.

“Are you resentful? What right do you have to be resentful? You can only blame yourself for being unable to hide your own secret. All of this happened because of you.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The Duke stared condescendingly down at Ozer, who knelt on the ground in front of him. Although Ozer’s sharp and chaotic spiritual energy surrounded them, the boy was still immature and wasn’t strong enough to challenge the battle hardened Duke.

He kicked Ozer again and stepped on his head, the soles of his military boots grinding into the boy’s blond hair. D9Ed8p

As well as humiliating him, the Duke’s powerful spiritual energy tore into Ozer’s spiritual shield. Warm blood soon dripped from Ozer’s eyes and ears, dying his lake green eyes crimson.

“This is just a small punishment for you.”

There was no warmth in the Duke’s eyes.

“This matter can’t be publicised. You’ve been lucky this time, but as you’ve hurt the Empress, your punishment won’t end like this. I’ll put you in confinement for a month.”

aV9OkY

“Be smarter in the future and listen to your mother. Otherwise, you’ll have the same fate as Ji Ning.”

“Perhaps you are unaware of how royal executions are carried out. Rather than an easy death, we maintain the ancient traditions of decapitation.”

“Your dead lover won’t even be buried in the royal cemetery because he has tarnished the reputation of the royal family. Don’t tell me want-”

The Duke felt a sudden chill surround him as pain slashed across his throat. Touching his fingers to his neck, he was shocked to find his fingers coated in blood. His throat had been sliced. 60MEx3

Crack…

Deep marks scored into the palace walls, twisting their way up to the ceiling beams as spider web shaped cracks appeared across the once smooth stone floor. Inside the raging storm of spiritual energy, the palace shook violently as stones began to rain down from the rooftop.

The Duke clutched his bleeding throat and tried to use his spiritual power to create a protective shield, but found that his spiritual energy was damaged. After trying to crush Ozer’s spiritual energy, he found the flow of his own energy was riddled with holes, making it impossible to build a solid barrier.

“Ozer, are you doing this? Stop it, are you trying to destroy the palace?” ej1gGs

The Duke yelled at Ozer, but it was like Ozer couldn’t hear him. The boy slowly raised his head from where he lay on the ground, crimson dripping at his jaw as he glared at the Duke with blood filled eyes, still muttering over and over again.

“…Give him back to me.”

“Give Ji Ning back to me.”

The Duke had seen countless horrors on the battlefield, yet Ozer’s maddened eyes struck a fear into his heart that he thought he’d long forgotten. He stepped back from the boy and cursed him, “Insane…you’re a lunatic!” fwiBPd

He kicked Ozer away from him and ran from the hall, but it was too late. The damaged walls could no longer support the ceiling of the palace and in an instant, the entire dome collapsed, burying the both of them.

Boom.

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This was the closest Ozer had ever come to death.

When they dug Ozer out of the ruins, he was severely injured, but the most worrying thing was not the trauma to his body but the damage to his spiritual energy. After he lost control, he overexerted his spiritual powers and almost lost them completely. hYEAnU

The Empress stood by his bed night and day, but she did not care about his life or death. She was only worried that if Ozer became completely incapacitated, there would be no possibility of him becoming the next Emperor.

The Duke had also suffered heavy injuries, which made her feel extremely resentful. Every day she glared at Ozer with gloomy eyes. She swore that if he really had become useless to her, she would make the prince’s life worse than death in the future.

But perhaps it was Ozer’s fate to live on. When he woke from his short coma and had his power checked, the test results showed that his spiritual energy was gradually recovering and was even more refined and powerful than before.

The Empress was overjoyed, enough to make her forgive Ozer for the sins he had committed. Her attitude towards the teenager was even more kind and gentle than before. It was as if Ozer had never tried to kill her or her brother and was still the child she was so proud of. Qp9 Oc

The collapse of the palace was a shock to the Emperor. When he asked the Empress what had occurred, she pushed the blame onto several guards. They were held accountable for losing control of their spiritual energy and were all executed shortly after the incident.

Everything returned to normal and the people inside the palace lived as before. Concubine Chong was convicted for the attempted murder of the Empress and secretly executed. The bedroom where she and Ji Ning once lived was left vacant. Later it was redecorated and a new concubine arrived, completely erasing the traces of the past.

Once Ozer recovered from his injuries, he returned to the academy. His classmates were very concerned about his physical condition, but not one of them mentioned Ji Ning, who hadn’t shown up for a long time.

The students were all from aristocratic families. After such a long time, they had all heard the rumours that came from the palace and so kept silent, pretending that the fifth prince had never existed. hqr62W

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He masked his emotions so perfectly that sometimes he even deceived himself.

Only on certain late nights would he take his personal car out to a graveyard in the outskirts of the Empire. SQfBw9

A thick fog lingered across the graveyard. Ozer slowly turned his wheelchair around, the dim yellow lantern attached to one of the handles swinging gently. His face was pale as a ghost as he moved through the graveyard until he arrived in front of a small gravestone.

The grave was very inconspicuous. There wasn’t even a name engraved on it, the front of the tombstone left blank.

It was Ji Ning’s grave. He was executed for his sins and was not qualified to be buried in the royal cemetery, so was left in an unmarked grave in a random graveyard. Apart from Ozer, there was no one who would come to see him.

Ozer picked up the bouquet that rested on his knees and leaned over to place it in front of the grave. He rubbed his fingers across the rough surface of the gravestone, tears falling slowly down his face. 8J0KuU

Supporting himself on the armrests of his wheelchair, he eased himself out of it to kneel in front of the grave. Cradling the cold lump of cement in his arms, he lowered his head to give it a gentle kiss.

After countless dark and bloody struggles, Ozer finally sat on the Emperor’s throne.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The Empress, who had become the Empress Dowager, was both ecstatic and ambitious for the future. She believed that Ozer only became Emperor due to her support and would act as her puppet for her to control the throne. With the assistance of her brother, who controlled the Empire’s military and political power, the future glory of the Empire would belong to her and her family.

However, things did not go in the direction she expected. Within a year, the Duke died on an interstellar battlefield and despite her best efforts her family was gradually declining, their authority retreating in all areas as new nobles were brought in. d8CsGa

Angered by these misfortunes, she demanded Ozer reinstate her family’s power but, with a twisted smile, he rejected her.

To her horror, the Empress Dowager could only watch as the power her family lost fell into Ozer’s hands. The emerging dignitaries were all Ozer’s supporters and slowly drove the previous generation of nobles, particularly the Empress’s family, to the very edge of destruction.

Finally, her family completely collapsed under charges of treason, and most of her family members were executed. Despite her title of Empress Dowager, she was imprisoned within the dungeon and forced to take a medley of unknown medications.

Under the influence of the drugs, the Empress Dowager soon lost her mind and only a few years passed before she had a fit so violent she slammed her head repeatedly into the wall and died. Her family had long since disappeared and news of her death did not even cause a stir in the general population. Kp1TQm

After removing his biggest obstacle, Ozer quickly took control of the Empire. He cleaned up the few dissenting voices who politically opposed him and took the title of Emperor.

He held the power of life and death in his hands, the world crawling beneath his feet. But in the dead of night, Ozer was so lonely that only the phantoms of Ji Ning he saw during the worst moments of his spiritual attacks could bring him solace.

In the depths of his consciousness it was as if he had regressed. He was not the Emperor of Mo Ling, but the weak child who was abandoned on the mining planet because of his disabled legs, likely to die any moment.

It seemed that nothing had changed. 4XbmQW

No one would like him and no one could love him.

He would always be on that dead and barren planet. Even if a meteor streaked across the night sky to bring him hope and light, it would simply vanish in an instant, taking with it all the warmth left inside his heart.

The young Emperor slowly opened his eyes. With blurred vision, he looked up at the bedroom’s ceiling and after a long time, his eyes focused on his line of sight.

He sat up from the bed. The gunshot wound in his shoulder had been treated and wrapped in several layers of bandages. The mirror positioned on his right hand side showed a reflection of his drained face. URQwWc

Checking the view outside a nearby window, he saw that he was inside the bedroom of the aircraft carrier. Beneath them was a planet belonging to the Interstellar Paradise. Without his orders, the aircraft carrier couldn’t be moved and therefore had to remain in place.

He pressed the alarm button beside his bed and the head maid and his adjutant, who had been standing outside the door, entered the room. They bowed to him and asked if he needed anything.

“Tell the pilot it’s time to go back.” Ozer closed his eyes and whispered, “Go back to the capital.”

“But Your Majesty,” The adjutant hesitated, “The Empress’s whereabouts…” slzdPd

Ozer shook his head and said nothing. The adjutant could only bow once again and follow his command. The aircraft carriers took off into the air and returned to Mo Ling.

After returning to the capital star, Ozer visited Ji Ning’s gravestone alone.

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The location of the grave hadn’t moved, but the head of the tombstone had been replaced. The new stone was engraved with Ji Ning’s name as well as a few other small characters, which Ozer had engraved himself.

My lover. 3gBGoT

The tombstone was clean from any dirt. His fingers slowly caressed its surface, a bitter smile appearing on his lips.

As soon as Ji Ning came back to life, he sent someone to inspect his grave. It had always stood empty, but he had been coming here for a long time. For some reason, he’d always felt that if he kept coming to visit him, one day he would be able to see Ji Ning again.

Perhaps God heard his wish because Ji Ning really came back to him, but what followed was Ji Ning running away from him again and again. He tried his best to chase after him, but Ji Ning still escaped, and this time he had completely disappeared.

Was he destined to lose him? 5sQXKr

Ozer sat silently in front of the grave for a long time, before he moved his wheelchair to leave. Unexpectedly, he heard a voice filled with surprise.

“…Your Majesty Ozer?”

Ozer turned his head to see a kind looking, grey haired older lady, with a pleased expression on her face. She immediately bowed to Ozer and said, “It’s really Your Majesty!”

“…Madame Su?” Ozer was slightly startled to recognise the other party. j1Xgkt

“Yes Your Majesty, I’m happy you still remember me.” The lady responded with joy.

“Of course I remember you.”

Ozer revealed a practised smile, nodding towards her. Of course he couldn’t forget who she was. He had been adopted by a rich man when he was young and this lady was the nanny of that family. She had taken care of him for a few years and was very kind to him. She had later resigned, so this was the first time he’d seen her for many years.

Madame Su had a cheerful personality and didn’t act restrained even in front of Ozer, because in her head, the young Ozer was gentle and wouldn’t care about her small faux pas. j30pMH

This wasn’t a formal occasion and there was only the two of them there, so Ozer really didn’t care about any insignificant etiquette. He spoke to the woman casually, allowing her to chatter on.

“I’m here today to visit my husband. What about Your Majesty? You’re…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Ozer smiled gently.

“People’s lives are really very short. Although the Empire is so advanced in technology, the average lifespan is only a hundred years. In comparison to the life of the universe, a hundred years is only the blink of an eye…” ZNkz5a

Madame Su looked into the distance and sighed with heavy emotion, “In such a short period of time, you shouldn’t leave any wishes unfulfilled…Your Majesty, have you achieved all your desires?”

Ozer lowered his eyelashes and didn’t answer her.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Wishes? He didn’t have any wishes or desires, only regrets.

He had imagined hundreds of times that Miss Feo didn’t find out about his relationship with Ji Ning, or that the Empress didn’t inform the Emperor. He’d even wished that the Empire had no laws against homosexual love, that he and Ji Ning were not members of the royal family, that his body had no flaws…but in the end they were only his empty desires and the past had already happened. KTl1Sa

The young monarch felt a sudden fatigue spread over him. Before he knew it, the woman’s words had faded from his ears. In the silence, he leant his head back and fell into a deep sleep.

“…”

“Ozer? Ozer? Wake up! The game is about to start!”

Ozer was woken abruptly. His eyes snapped open and a familiar face filled his vision. U0ICOc

His thoughts were sluggish for a few seconds, before he recognised him as his adjutant. But it was strange, his adjutant looked like he did when he was a teenager, when they first met at the military academy.

And he had called him Ozer?

After Ozer regained his status as a prince, his adjutant had never called him by his name again. They had naturally changed to a superior and subordinate relationship and his adjutant had never acted arrogantly towards the prince.

But now the young man unceremoniously slapped him on the shoulder and urged him, “How could you fall asleep in the classroom, don’t you want to watch the seniors’ mecha competition?” 2lvdtr

“…”

Ozer frowned. His first thought was that he’d been attacked and someone had trapped him inside an illusion. He tried to use his spiritual energy to crack the illusion, but was shocked to discover that his spiritual power had returned to the level of his youth, around the time when he was still inside the academy.

He looked around to find he was inside a classroom. The teenager in front of him was wearing the uniform of the academy and when he glanced down, he was wearing the same uniform, and…

Ozer was stunned for a moment. He wasn’t sitting in his wheelchair but on an ordinary chair. A moment later, he realised that he could feel all kinds of sensations in his legs. j5skUZ

This wasn’t something a spiritual illusion could do.

“Are you still half asleep?” The teen muttered irritably. He pulled Ozer up and tried to drag him out of the classroom, only to find that Ozer didn’t even attempt to move his legs. Immediately annoyed, he poked Ozer’s arm, “Can’t you walk any more? Move by yourself!”

“…”

Ozer’s face revealed a rare expression of confusion. Under the urging of the teenager, he carefully put his weight on one of his legs and tried to take a few steps forward. xGg6HK

His movements were jerky and the young man looked at him with suspicion. But after a while, Ozer was walking normally and the teen’s dubious expression disappeared as he waved at him, “Come on, let’s go and watch the game.”

Was this world simulated by the Federation’s holographic projection technology?

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Following behind the teenager, Ozer remained alert, checking the area around him. A holographic projection could potentially simulate this degree of realism, but wouldn’t be able to suppress or reduce his spiritual power.

So what was going on? YbIt1A

He couldn’t find a single flaw in the world around him, yet Ozer still couldn’t understand what had happened. He walked with the teenage version of his adjutant into the courtyard, seeing other academy students pass them, laughing and chatting together. It was no different from the academy he remembered, yet they didn’t bow when they saw Ozer. It seemed as if he had returned to the time before Ozer regained his status as a prince.

Two beautiful girls walked towards them, holding hands and leaning against each other intimately.

His adjutant took a double take. When they finally passed by, he sighed in regret and said to Ozer in a low voice, “It’s such a pity…why are the two of them a couple?”

“What’s wrong if we are?” The two girls stopped abruptly when they heard his words. The taller girl looked between the boy and Ozer with a smile, “If you’re lonely, why don’t you date Ozer?” Zjbm8

“No, please forgive me, I like girls. I just want to fall in love with a girl!”

The boy shook his head vigorously and waved his arms around dramatically. The girls giggled at him and stopped their teasing. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Ozer but found that Ozer was looking at him with indescribable eyes. He froze and said, “What are you looking at?

Ozer frowned. After a few seconds, he said, “Those two…”

“You didn’t know? They’re dating now.” The boy spread his hands in mock disappointment and replied. iwWPGg

“…”

Ozer was stunned silent again, before a storm suddenly surged in his heart. He recalled how in the cemetery, Madame Su asked him what he wished for. At the time, he had thought-

If his legs weren’t disabled…

If the Empire didn’t persecute homosexual love… zuwFYM

If he and Ji Ning weren’t from the royal family…

“Ha, this annoying guy is here again.”

A clear voice rang out, accompanied by the sound of footsteps as a group of teenagers approached Ozer and his young adjutant. The dark haired boy that led the group was beautiful, but his expression dripped with arrogance and disdain.

“It’s that bastard Ji Ning again.” VgsOpJ

The teenager beside Ozer muttered, gritting his teeth.

“He’s just jealous of how good you are. He’s a child of a great nobleman so he can’t save face when you’re better than him, that’s why he provokes you. Sooner or later, I’m going to put a sack over that guy’s head and beat him up. I really can’t stand him…”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

He glared at Ji Ning, as if he was already imagining where he would start, but Ozer stepped forward, walking straight towards the teenager. The adjutant was taken aback and hissed, “Hey, what are you doing? Are you really going to beat him?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Mp8OU7

Seeing Ozer coming towards him, Ji Ning was also startled, a look of fear crossing his face. After all, although he provoked Ozer, he wasn’t anywhere near Ozer’s level. If Ozer wanted to hit him, he had absolutely no way to fight back.

“Ozer, don’t forget, we’re in the middle of the academy. Student fights are a serious violation of academy rules.” Ji Ning seemed to want to run away but that would be too embarrassing in front of everyone, so he could only say, “I advise you to calm down and not to-u-u-uh”!

Ozer had lifted Ji Ning up, holding him tight around the waist. Everyone watching was shocked, thinking that Ozer was really going to beat Ji Ning, but the next second, almost identical disbelieving expressions appeared on their faces.

Frightened by the situation, Ji Ning opened his eyes wide and desperately tried to break free from Ozer’s embrace, but the boy’s grip kept him firmly in his arms. Ozer’s other hand clasped the back of his head, tilting it forward as warm lips pulled him into a passionate kiss. V24S e

I’m a little upset that Ozer’s legs were ‘fixed’. There is nothing wrong with any kind of disability and it never means you are worth less or deserve to be treated badly compared to others. In Ozer’s case, his disability left a scar on his heart because it stopped him from being worthy of the throne (which is ridiculous, but that’s the former Emperor’s argument) and was linked to the spiritual attacks which tormented him all his life. I can understand why my author gave him the use of his legs as part of his wish but it’s important to say that disability is not something that ever needs ‘fixing’.

Asides from that, I really like Ji Ning’s character of an arrogant master in this world!! It’s my bad taste, but I love watching proud characters be taught a lesson ԅ(≖⌣≖ԅ)