Prologue: Princess Arreya & General Kaoshin Stardust (1)

"General Kaoshin Stardust! I miss you so much!" The girl's voice was filled with longing and forlorn. But as usual, there was no response. The empty vacuum of space was the only one to hear her.

She flung herself down from the top of the tower and landed gracefully on the cold gray rock. She turned to the horizon filled with stars, planets, and nebulae, emitting soft lights from far away.

The girl ran with light feet, but dust still rose from her every step. Finally, she climbed the towering rock that stood tall since time immemorial. All of a sudden, she became rooted in her spot, charmed by the blue planet, covered by white clouds, it looked like a beautiful marble that stood solemnly among the stars.

The girl sat on her heels and covered her face. She sobbed softly. "General Stardust, why haven't you come back yet?"

She continued sobbing atop the rock for a long time. The girl's long platinum hair, with a shade of light blue, flowed beautifully to her ankles. If any human from Earth saw her, they would describe her as a fairy based on her look.

Her petite face had a small nose, but the pair of big round light blue eyes only added to her beauty. Her soft, simple long white dress covered her ankle as she sat on the ground, unblemished by the Moon's dust.

After a long pensive sigh, she stood up and resolved to pursue her decision. She ran back to the tower and commanded its AI to open the red dome.

A robotic voice sounded, "I am unable to proceed with your order, Princess Arreya. In order to comply with General Stardust's order, you need to stay here."

Ignoring the computer's protest, Arreya typed on a keyboard and entered a command. "Hurry and do as I say, AWA! I've overridden your previous order."

"I understand, Princess. Opening the red dome."

The tower began to shake as if the building was about to collapse. Dust blew as the ground split and lifted a giant red dome from underground. The red dome then opened, showing a small ship parked on the hangar inside.

"I'll go to Earth and look for General Stardust. If I don't return in two years, commence self-destructing command."

"Princess Arreya."

"What now?" She turned to the screen.

"Please be careful."

Arreya's eyes widened for a moment and smiled afterward. She walked toward the ship and jumped inside. Ten minutes later, a dazzling light enveloped the ship as it flew toward the dark empty space.

For a moment, the ship looked like one of the stars brightly adorning the horizon. Arreya plopped down on the pilot's chair and pressed the red button on the ship's control board. "Switch to automatic control. Destination, Planet Earth."

Arreya had long wanted to make this decision. She wanted to come down to Earth and look for Kaoshin Stardust, but she had always hesitated before. As far as she knew, Earth was a large planet with quite an advanced civilization. She was scared of venturing alone to look for Kaoshin.

A long time ago, when their capsule was nearing Earth, the satellites around the planet issued fierce attacks. Their capsule was damaged, and they were forced to make an emergency landing on the Moon, this lonely little planet.

She couldn't remember how long they had been on the Moon. But what was clear to her was that the tower and underground facilities she lived in was built by the robots General Kaoshin had brought within the capsule. The robots had constructed the structures with life support systems so the process must have taken a long time, right?

Their vessel was a large cargo capsule that had everything they needed to start a new life on a new planet. Arreya couldn't remember why she was in a cargo capsule with Kaoshin, but the last thing she remembered they were at a party, the night before her wedding, and people were congratulating her for marrying the crown prince.

She closed her eyes as her mind flew to the distant past, recalling the details she could still retrieve from the back of her mind. She only remembered attending the party the night before her wedding. The next thing she knew afterward was being held in the arms of the panicking General Kaoshin Stardust while the capsule was violently shaking, alarms blaring, and AWA was announcing damage reports without stopping.

"Shut up, AWA! You mustn't scare the Princess! Land on the nearest planet!" Kaoshin commanded as he kept on hugging Arreya. The damage reports stopped. He turned to the confused Arreya and patted her head. He whispered, "Sshh... everything's okay, Princess. I need you to stay here. Grab tightly on your seat belt, and I'll control the capsule to the nearest planet. The planet in front is hostile to us."

Arreya, who was still confused, allowed Kaoshin to place her on a chair and put her seat belt on. The young man then disappeared and entered the control bridge.

Arreya almost forgot that Kaoshin Stardust was the youngest general of Planet Akkadia who started his military career as a pilot. He could basically drive all flying objects. He must be able to save us, Arreya thought hopefully.

After several nerve-wracking hours, the giant capsule finally landed on the Moon. Following that, for half an hour, no one made any sound.

Arreya was still in shock. She didn't know why she was suddenly in a space capsule, flying in outer space with General Kaoshin Stardust as her only companion. Where were the others? What exactly happened?

Kaoshin stayed still in the pilot's seat, mentally exhausted from driving their capsule to avoid the attacks from Earth's satellites. He had to do complicated maneuvers to outwit their attackers by hiding in the nearest asteroid belt. On top of that, he had to look for ways to land the damaged capsule on the Moon.

"General Kaoshin Stardust," Arreya muttered as she finally recollected herself. She took off her seat belt, rose to her feet, and looked for Kaoshin. She walked down the long corridor and went up the stairs leading to the control bridge.

There, she found the man she was looking for, sitting exhausted with his eyes closed. Kaoshin Stardust was a handsome and formidable man. Ever since the first time he had stepped into the academy, he had always been the heartthrob that countless ladies desired for themselves. However, although so many women wanted to throw themselves at him, he remained faithful to Arreya.

No one in this world and beyond knew how much Kaoshin loved Arreya and how much she loved him back. Arreya and Kaoshin did a great job hiding their feelings well. One of the things they did to avoid suspicions was to never call each other by their first names. And that became a habit for Arreya that got stuck with her almost her whole life.

"Where's everybody?" Arreya asked softly, almost in a whisper. She approached Kaoshin and rubbed his hair lovingly. "What happened?"

Kaoshin slowly opened his eyes and revealed his bright blue-green irises that shone like a pair of diamonds. He looked at Arreya tiredly.

"There are only two of us here," he answered in a soft but firm voice.

Kaoshin always spoke in a clear and firm tone. This was a result of his years of experience in the military. Arreya loved Kaoshin's dark and deep voice when he was speaking. Unfortunately, the man was stingy with his words.

"I don't know what happened yet, I'm still investigating," Kaoshin said.

He squinted his eyes and stretched his hand to touch Arreya's long hair. The girl lowered her eyes. She was astonished to see her hair that was in Kaoshin's palm stretched to the ground.

"When did my hair grow this much?" Arreya covered her lips in disbelief. She usually only let her hair grow past her shoulders or waist. So how did it suddenly become like this? Right now, her hair could even be fashioned into a floor mop!

"We've slept for a very long time..." Kaoshin said. Although Arreya's hair had grown long, his silver hair remained short. It was due to the special treatment that the army had injected in him that could permanently control hair growth. He looked up at Arreya apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, Princess... you've been trapped here because of me."