Of Blues and Violets

"His Highness, Crown Prince Zaamon is on the bridge. All rise," the captain announces. "We offer our respects to the Crown Prince." After finally boarding the royal ship of the Fauxham Empire, the little Crown Prince Zaamon lets out a sigh of relief. He ignores the bowing people around him, heading straight for that one tall figure in the crowd who isn't bowing his head. He swallows a ball of air, feeling nervous as he enters his designated cabin. This time's trip to the Milky Way Galaxy is still a huge letdown. They have encountered intergalactic storms on their way which delayed them on their planned itinerary, and what's worse, they still can't detect the returning vitality of the ancient planet called Earth. They almost got hit twice by big flying debris of broken cosmic objects and almost bumped into a blackhole while traversing the galaxy during their warp. No matter how much these people tell him that it's not his problem yet, the little Crown Prince can't help but feel frustrated. Where can the green little plants on that planet be hiding? Why is that planet still so grey? Didn't they say that this planet was once the legendary self-sustaining planet that didn't need the alliance of other intergalactic races? Why did it look so dead? "Your Highness, please take a seat and the doctor will check your spiritual force and physical condition," the head steward says, motioning for him to take the seat next to his royal father—Emperor Zarion. Little Crown Prince Zaamon steals a glance at his royal father while taking small steps towards him, then quickly takes his eyes back to look up at the old steward. "Uncle Jani, is the royal father angry at me?" he asks in a small voice, sucking the tips of his index and middle fingers with a guilty conscience. The Emperor clears his throat as he keeps the stern look on his face. "Stop bothering Uncle Jani and let the doctors check you," he says with a grave tone. He turns in his seat to carefully remove the child's fingers from his mouth and pull him in front of the cabin chair. "You'll be severely reprimanded once we get back to the empire and you'll be receiving your royal punishment regardless of how much you act coy towards the people in this ship." The little crown prince can only take his temporarily installed seat next to the Emperor, hanging his head with an aggrieved look on his face. The head steward presses on the activator on the handrest of his seat to activate the protective bands, placing him firmly on his seat and leaving no room for more reckless actions. When the old man turns around to leave space for the royal doctor, the head steward can only shake his head subtly and sigh in his heart. The Crown Prince can really cause a huge chaos in the entire Fauxham Empire without even trying. And he's not even an adult yet! "The slight disturbance in the spiritual field had a minimal effect on His Highness the Crown Prince's spiritual force," the lead doctor says with a relieved tone after turning off his medical device. "There could be slight dizziness and nausea, but nothing to be worried too much about. The Crown Prince shall get his full vitality restored after a few days of rest, Your Highness." The Emperor nods in response and gestures for everyone else to leave the royal cabin. Since everyone has to be seated and banded to their chairs during the few seconds of take off, no one dares to linger around the gloomy Emperor. Now, it's up to the little prince to lift the mood of his own father, since it is also his fault that the Emperor is in this mood. "The Fauxham Royal Ship is taking off in T-minus ten seconds... nine seconds... eight. . ." Not minding the captain's announcement overhead, the little prince builds up his courage to harvest sympathy once again and turns to look at the Emperor. "Daddy, did you know that the beautiful firelight comet group we encountered earlier has actually been travelling for more than ten Ester years?" the little prince speaks up with a sticky voice, twinkling his eyes at his father. The Emperor presses the child lock function on the little prince's seat, making the both of them covered and separated with protective glasses. This way, no other noise can penetrate the shields nor exit them. It only means one thing. Father Emperor is really, really angry this time. He doesn't even want to indulge his little son in his quirky trivias! After a few seconds more, during the critical time of taking off, the little prince feels his eyelids getting heavier and he carelessly nods off in his seat. He tilts his head sidewards closer to his father's seat and gives in to his sleepiness. In a matter of a few breaths after closing his eyes, he's already unconscious. As the announcement for successful warp blinks on their virtual screens, the Emperor presses the deactivator on his handrest to unstrap the bands around him and also removes the protective glasses separating him from his son. He lets out a deep breath while staring at his sleeping son's face. The child's cherry red lips are slightly parted with suspicious liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth. His hair is jet black and shiny while his eyes are soft brown that would turn golden whenever his spiritual force is being stimulated. Just like what happened earlier, which the whole crew of the royal ship witnessed with their own eyes. In fact, he's not angry. However, the worry and fright filling his heart can be said to be much more immense and terrifying than any anger. If the matter hadn't been handled carefully earlier, the peak of this child's spiritual force would have been affected. Not only would the Emperor live in pain for the rest of his life while looking at his son's damaged potential, but he would also have to bear the entire empire's scolding. Aside from this, his loving wife and guide would be blaming him for everything that had gone wrong. It's simply a chain reaction of disaster. And all of this is just because his naughty son decided that it would be exciting to sneak into the ship unannounced before they departed to explore the dangerous Milky Way Galaxy. "Your Royal Highness, this Captain seeks audience in your cabin. May I come in?" a voice from outside the royal cabin speaks. "Lower down your voice," the Emperor replies, carefully lifting his son into his arms, ready to put him into bed so that he'd be more comfortable in his sleep. "You may come in." "Thrusters have been stabilized," the Captain reports with articulate words, both hands behind his back with eyes staring below the Emperor's chin—the standard decorum in the presence of any royal family member. "We're already at warp. The engineers have conducted the tests and everything's in good shape. If there are no other delays, we'll be back in Fauxham Empire within fifteen Ester days, Your Highness." Looking at the young and capable royal captain, the Emperor can only sigh once more, embracing the little child in his arms a bit tighter. "Do you think my wife would be mad at me once we get back?" he helplessly asks in a low voice. The captain sneakily scratches his chin, lowering his eyes to the ground. When he resumes the standard posture once more, he's already garnered enough courage to speak the truth. "I think the Empress won't be merciful this time, Your Highness." The Emperor can only cry without tears. The whole empire is aware of how the Emperor loves his Empress more than his life. It is also no surprise that the Emperor never accepted a single concubine, or a different guide with a higher rank, since holding the most important royal position in the whole Saiban Galaxy. From his teenage years, the love of his life and his only guide is only ever the same person—Empress Jia. Despite being known as the most powerful sentinel in his generation, he persisted and never accepted other guides who claimed to be able to make his life more comfortable in his later years. This being the case, his love for the Empress grew all the more when they had children. Three little girls in the first three years, born one after another every year after their marriage, and the youngest one—a son; born fifteen years apart after the youngest daughter. It can be said that the Emperor is spoiling the Crown Prince rotten the most amongst his children, not because he's the only potential heir to the throne, but because he looks the most like his mother. The black and wavy hair, the gentle eyes, and the pinkish white skin. Surprisingly enough, amongst the children, the three daughters actually took after the valiant and cold temperament of their father while the only son inherited the mother's wit and inherent curiosity to intriguing things while seeking dangerous thrilling experiences. Which lead to this outcome—a stowaway child unknowingly sneaking into a ship without prior body reformation and training, and almost running into a spiritual field stimulant chaotic enough to ruin one's spiritual force. Fortunately, the Captain's adjutant was making his usual rounds and noticed the concentration of this spiritual force in one corner, disturbing the protective fields of the ship that almost made them vulnerable to outside factors. It's also partly his fault that his little son took interest in this backwards galaxy. Ever since the little prince has been born, the Emperor keeps telling him wonderful stories about this little green planet from a faraway place. These stories have been passed on from generation to generation until they all sounded like legends with not an ounce of truth to it. The green planet, despite its backward development in technology, was actually the home of some of their ancestors. And only a few cross-racial species are existing to this day with the blood of the extinct race called human. The Royal Family are of the varman race—half-varbos and half-human. As varmans, most of the sentinels in this race are born with the potential to be at SSS-level. An SSS-level sentinel can tear apart a battleship or a few mechas with their bare hands and last a few minutes without protective gears in space. However, most of the sentinels in the royal family are rather stronger and can develop to the terrifying rare existence of sentinels that are even stronger than SSS-level ones. The Emperor is at SSS-peak, and the strongest of his kind in this level, which he developed and trained early from his teenage years. But his son, the naughty little Crown Prince that is now sleeping carelessly with his mouth opened slightly and snores like a tired old man, has a potential to become a dark sentinel. Dark sentinels are generally a rare existence in any galaxies. In this generation, counting all the royal families and military families, there are not more than ten in existence. They can stay in space for days without wearing any protective gears and the spiritual beasts representing their spiritual force can actively attack the physical bodies of any threats to their owners. Not to mention a battleship or a few measly mechas, dark sentinels can destroy an entire galaxy with their bare hands should they wish it. And in Fauxham Empire, this is the first potential dark sentinel after five thousand years. It's easy to see why the entire galaxy puts great importance to this little prince. However, with this great power is the offset of any other sentinels' weakness— Mania. Without a proper guidance, a dark sentinel may become the world's destruction. The stronger they become, the more irritable they get. At the peak of their power, they might also self-destruct which can potentially harm the spiritual forces of anyone within a hundred miles, triggering a bloody chain of self-destructions of ones' spiritual fields. They not only harm other people, the more powerful ones can even blast an entire planet along with them. Because of this, another classification of species has become the most crucial for anyone with a high potential. The existence of the physically weaker but mentally more stable guides. Sentinels are rare but guides are even rarer. Like sentinels, they also get classified at birth but their training is more tedious and requires greater patience. They can only grow their mental strength by laborious spiritual training, repeating one thing over and over to perfection—until they reach the point of being able to control a sentinel's spiritual force, preventing them from suffering a mania. This is why for every powerful sentinel, there should also be an equally powerful guide to prevent them from suffering mania. Otherwise, if the guide is just a little bit inferior to the sentinel, they would not only lose their spiritual force but they would also suffer a mental backlash. Sentinels are dangerous like this. But when nourished well, and partnered with a capable guide, not only would they be able to keep peace for the entire empire, they would also undoubtedly get the upper hand during war while fighting for their empire. As long as a sentinel trains well and keeps his spiritual force in check, then he wouldn't play a role in the world's destruction. Rather, he'd be the hero saving it from foreign harm. And at this time, the world's greatest potential hero that can also be the world's greatest potential villain, is sleeping without a care in the world. "Get the Prime Minister on the screen for me," the Emperor says decisively, as if making up his mind after staring enough at his son. He looks at the young Captain as he wears his white gloves. "Prepare for an emergency conference on the bridge. We're making one more stop before returning to the empire." "Your Highness?" the Captain replies, sounding a little confused. "Prepare the entire crew," the Emperor replies with a firm tone. After what happened today, he fears that the matter of finding a suitable guide for his little prince can no longer be delayed. "We're going to the Icemoon Kingdom." Hearing this, the Captain feels his knees go weak. Icemoon Kingdom. From a galaxy living in solitude. With planets that never go through a bit of warmth and races that are living in seclusion. What is the Emperor thinking? Isn't he afraid of the rumors that Icemoon Kingdom races kill everyone who dare to explore their planets?!