Chapter 17 - The Mermaids Of Ganymede

The staff member raised their voice and called out to them, "Follow me."

Wen suddenly slipped his hand out of Astra's grip with a single tug, emanating the same shyness of a good girl caught on a date with a punk. Astra looked at him weirdly, as if he couldn't understand why Wen's reaction was so drastic. "Wen?"

His eyes glimmered under the dim light like the night sky lit up by fireworks. Whether it was those striking eyes, or the expression on his face, everything about Astra displayed blatant confusion.

Wen had only planned to shake his hand loose from Astra's hold, but upon seeing the other's slightly hurt expression, Wen suddenly felt guilty, as if he had just committed a grievous offense. He tried his best to recover from the inexplicable onslaught of guilt and replied to Astra's questioning gaze with a flustered reaction. "It was a bit hot."

Astra not only looked like a mini sun with the way his bright smile shone, the warmth of his body was also like a little sun. He was warm everywhere, especially the palm of his hands. How can the temperature of his palms be so scalding?

Astra replied good-naturedly, "Alright then, I'll keep my distance."

He actually walked a little farther away. The center aisle they were walking on was a perfect fit for two people to walk side by side, but for one person it was very wide. Wen let out a sigh of relief, but was immediately confused as to why he felt like this. 

Bai Tong was famous throughout the galaxies. From the beginning of the show to the end, the screams and love confessions from her fans never ceased. If it hadn't been for the high tech sound equipment, Bai Tong's voice would've been drowned out by the enthusiastic noise from the crowd. 

As the show was drawing to an end, Astra looked at the sweaty crossdressing singer on the stage and asked Wen, "Did her singing help calm your spiritual energy down?"

Jiyu and the other two hopefully looked towards their teammates.

"Yeah," Wen replied. "But the effect isn't that great."

This was to be expected. If Bai Tong truly was that useful, then she would've been locked up like a canary. 

In reality, the NK-03 in Wen's body had a calming effect on spiritual energy as well. That was, however, a secret that Wen couldn't tell anyone.

He turned to Astra and asked, "What about you?"

"I think I'm okay." Astra called forth his spiritual energy and lit up his hand. Thin threads of lightning-like spiritual energy appeared over his palm. "I think it works better on me, I've recovered quite a bit compared to before."

In the original book, Bai Tong was powerful enough to be Wen's backup. The one standing on the stage was probably not the real female lead, so that's why the effect wasn't as much as they'd anticipated. 

The strands of spiritual energy crackled and sparked. Even though there was only a little bit of it, the sight was still formidable to behold as it leapt playfully on its owner's hand. 

Jiyu's smile made his eyes crinkle into twin crescents. "Even though it's only a little bit, this trip to Weiss was still worth it."

As if on cue, the amount of spiritual energy increased again. 

Wen stared at the ball of spiritual energy, mesmerized. After a moment, he absentmindedly raised his hand and reached towards it. 

"No!" Simon lunged towards Wen, and tried to grab him before his hand could come into contact with Astra's spiritual energy. "Don't touch it!"

But Simon was too late. Under everyone's watchful gaze, Wen's hand touched Astra's palm.

The silver white lightning trembled visibly, like a wolf with its muscles thrumming in excitement at the sight of prey. It lashed forwards and wrapped around Wen's finger before crawling upwards along the back of his hand greedily, extending into Wen's sleeve, moving upwards as if to claim Wen's entire person as its own. 

Astra's fingers trembled slightly, but he didn't dissipate the spiritual energy. Instead, he stood there with a confused expression, as if he himself didn't understand what was happening to his own spiritual energy. 

(T/N: yeah right. Astra's just sneaking in yet another groping session.)

Jiyu, Linus, Simon: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

!!!

Why were all these inexplicable things always happening to their teammates?

OMG OMG he touched it, he touched it!

Everything they'd been taught about spiritual energy must be fake!

Linus began to film the interaction while he narrated, "Location: Planet Weiss; Solaris Academy students Gu Wen Cheng and Astra Li successfully demonstrated physical contact with another person's spiritual energy."

After he finished recording, he put down his computer device and approached the pair with sparkling eyes, squeezing into the spot beside them with the excitement of a scientist on the verge of a research breakthrough. He reached out tentatively and tried to prod at the spiritual energy on Astra's hand. 

But just as his finger drew near, the silvery-white spiritual energy ducked away haughtily.

Linus, "…Haha."

Wen couldn't hold it in and laughed. His lips curved upwards into an attractive grin as his fingers teased and played with Astra's spiritual energy. "Linus, it seems that you're not as charming as I am."

Linus laughed coldly and tried to touch the spiritual energy again. The ball of spiritual energy reacted even more dramatically this time and slipped itself completely into Wen's sleeve. 

The spiritual energy quickly wriggled its way beneath Wen's clothes, slithering over his skin and spreading over the surface of his entire body. The initial ball of spiritual energy split into several strands, one of which peeked out from Wen's pant leg and began to roll up the cuff of his pants to reveal several inches of smooth skin at Wen's ankle. 

Wen looked towards Astra, shocked.

Astra laughed awkwardly, and rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "I thought, y'know, since you said you were too hot…"

But he doesn't really know how to precisely control his spiritual energy, so something like this happened. Wen filled in the rest himself. Even though Astra's attempt at helping him cool down was clumsy, Wen was still moved by the gesture. A hint of gentleness and doting rose from the depths of Wen's eyes; he couldn't help himself as he reached out and rubbed the top of Astra's head. "I get it, thanks."

Simon was surprised and dying of curiosity. He jumped in front of Astra and extended his long leg. "I wanna try, I wanna try too!"

I also want to see what it feels like to have my clothes taken off by spiritual energy!

"Next time." The spiritual energy dissipated as Astra shrugged innocently. "I've only managed to recover a little bit, there's not enough spiritual energy left."

Simon couldn't suppress his disappointment. "Why are you so bad at this."

Astra's expression turned surly, and the rest of the team snickered at his dismay.

The concert was about to end. Bai Tong was so tired that his speech had become a bit slurred from fatigue. His voice was originally feminine, and when he pitched it higher, there was a certain maiden-like sweetness to it. Now, his tiredness seeping into his voice made it sound as if he was acting coquettish, and the sweetness of his speech made his words seem as soft as cotton candy.

Wen squinted at the woman on the stage and suddenly spoke up, "Miss Bai seems to be very tired, Astra. Why don't you send her a message to tell her that we'll be leaving soon? This way, we don't have to worry about being an inconvenience to Miss Bai after her performance."

"Okay." Astra was glad to minimize any interaction between the male lead and the female lead. "I'll be sure to thank her as well."

Although it was a bit impolite to leave the concert before it was officially over, there was no helping it. They really didn't want to bother Miss Bai and force her to delay her rest in order to see them after the show. 

The five of them slipped out of the audience from a side door and entered a hover car after they departed from the concert.

They quickly arrived at Planet Weiss's entrance. The small aircraft they had parked there was already charged and ready to go, so they hopped in and continued their journey towards Ganymede. 

They weren't going to use the spacetime jump feature again until it was absolutely necessary. On the long journey to Ganymede, they received Professor Marten's incoming message. 

"Good to see that everyone's well." Professor Marten's brows were scrunched together into an austere frown. "Listen up, this sort of thing, it will not happen again, are we clear on that?"

They all nodded obediently. "Yes!"

"Also, Astra." Professor Marten looked as if he just remembered something. "You will receive a message from Officer Edmund a little bit later. If there is anything that he needs you to do, you must cooperate to your best ability."

Astra nodded. "I will, don't worry, Professor Marten."

After Professor Marten closed the hologram, Officer Edmund's message immediately followed, and the cold but handsome face of the officer appeared on the hologram in front of the students. 

Edmund's gaze scanned each of them in turn before he turned to fix Astra with his penetrating stare. Edmund wasted no time with formalities and got straight to the point. "Roux isn't on Topia."

"?" Astra's brows furrowed. "Are you sure?"

"I'm certain." Edmund straightened his military cap. The teardrop mole under his eye made him seem even more aloof and attractive. "After you left Planet Topia, I did a complete search of the whole planet."

Linus interrupted, his face as impassive as ever. "So you're saying that his departure has something to do with us going on a mission?"

Besides Edmund, everybody else could sense the brimming excitement Linus was holding back under that expressionless face of his. 

"That's one of the possibilities." Edmund showed a rare hint of expression as he wrinkled his immaculate brows. "You guys have to be careful out there."

The hologram disappeared when Edmund cut off the message link, and left just as abruptly as he came. 

Astra thought to himself. Why should we be careful? Because of Roux?

That was an overstatement. Against someone that powerful, being careful wouldn't do anything to stop the pirate.

Wen gazed into the darkness of the universe from the vantage point at the window of their aircraft. The multi-colored galaxies seemed too beautiful, too dream-like to be true. There was a hint of mirth in his voice as he spoke, despite his efforts at suppressing it. "Roux probably won't come. Didn't he already get what he wanted?"

The glass of the window reflected Linus excited gaze and Astra's extremely unhappy expression. 

He was really unhappy to an extreme. 

"I was thinking that as well." Astra laughed darkly. "That guy is vile to the extreme, why would he have the time to bother us?"

Wen's brow flicked upward in an expression of interest. "Vile?"

Not only vile, he's also gay.

Any gossip about the most powerful pirate in the Empire was enough to rouse people's interest. During the entire trip to Ganymede, the team found themselves unable to stop chatting about Roux. 

Planet Ganymede was a planet in the fourth galaxy of the Empire known for its tourist attractions. Ninety-five percent of the planet's surface was covered by oceans and seas, while the remaining five percent of the landmass was made up of beaches with sand the color of milk-white pearls. The entire planet seemed like a magical place straight from the pages of a fairytale. 

By the time they managed to reach Ganymede, it was already sunset. The sky was dyed into various shades of lilac and blush-red by the setting sun. The planet was awash with the heavy, golden rays of dusk as the clouds overhead bloomed in their richly colored splendor. The entire scene was romantic and beautiful, as perfect as a painting. 

The five of them exited the airship and turned to face the ocean with bright eyes, awestruck as they sucked in a breath of a real ocean breeze.

Their suite back at the Academy had a pretty good ocean-side simulation, but it was only when they arrived at Ganymede that they understood that the real ocean was still way better. 

"Wow!" Simon took off his shoes and stepped on the soft sand. "The sand is so slippery!"

Upon hearing Simon's exclamation, Astra knelt down and scooped up a handful of white sand. The grains slipped through his hands like water, soft and thin like fine silk. It was very comfortable to the touch.

He wanted to feel it more, but he was interrupted by an unbearably beautiful singing voice ringing from the surface of the water. Astra and his teammates gazed far into the distance. The dreamy voice drew closer and closer, carried to their ears by the calming wind. 

Behind a strangely shaped rock outcropping, several giant fish tails glimmered under the light of the setting sun as their owners ducked behind the rock in a clumsy attempt at hiding from the humans. 

Linus then used his computer device to project what he wanted to say in front of everyone. 

"Mermaids."

Astra, who was one hundred percent human, was very curious. But compared to the fabled, vicious beasts of mermaids that he had heard of, the mermaids of Ganymede were very shy and easily frightened. They were also obviously scared of people. 

Astra's lips curved into a smile. He raised his voice on purpose. "Have you guys heard the story of the mermaid princess?"

Wen thought about it for a moment. He had read a lot of things in his time, but he found no recollection of such a story in his memory. "No, I haven't."

"I'll tell you guys the story then." Astra signalled for them to sit down. The five of them settled in a little circle. To an unsuspecting eye, it may seem as if the boys were carrying out a very important conference. 

"Once upon a time, in the kingdom under the sea, there were six beautiful mermaid princesses…"

The wind carried the human male's voice towards the open water, and the story being told drifted into the distance. 

The youth telling the story had a gentle and clear voice. Coupled with the calming scenery at dusk that stretched for miles and miles, there wasn't anything around that made the mermaids feel threatened. 

The mermaids under the rock outcropping followed along the story. They smiled at the little mermaid princess's joy, and cried great big sparkling drops of tears when the story turned into a tragedy. 

What a poor mermaid princess, what a cruel sea-witch, and what a heartless prince. 

The sensitive mermaids rubbed at the tears dropping from their eyes as they leaned to listen closer to the story. 

But the human boy's voice became fainter and fainter, until they couldn't make out what he was saying.