BATTLE FOR STARS

“Sade, you should head back too. It’s getting late,” Belina said, effectively throwing him out as well. This was the room she and Ding Yufei were staying in, and she didn’t want Sade lingering around all the time.

“Understood, Princess. Then I’ll return to my room.”

Since the order had already been given, Sade left without another word.

“You really don’t want to say anything to your slave?” Belina turned and teased Ding Yufei.

He immediately shook his head.

He genuinely had no idea what he was supposed to say.

“Then get me a glass of juice,” Belina ordered Dong Jiaqi when she saw Ding Yufei had nothing to add.

Back in her own home, there were plenty of humanoid service robots taking care of things for her. But after returning from Earth, she had gone straight to the Fleet, so none of her personal service robots were with her.

Now that they had just bought a servant slave here, she naturally intended to use her.

“Yes, Master.”

Dong Jiaqi hurried off to prepare the juice.

Before Belina and Ding Yufei had returned, she had already familiarized herself with all the facilities and functions of the suite. It didn’t take long before she returned carrying a glass of juice.

“What about you? Want something to drink?” Belina looked at Ding Yufei.

“Uh...”

He looked a little embarrassed.

He wasn’t used to ordering servants around. Growing up, the only similar experience he’d ever had was when his family hired a nanny while he was still very young.

After thinking for a moment, he finally said:

“I’ll have a glass of juice too.”

“Pfft!”

Belina burst out laughing and nearly spat out the juice she had just sipped.

After thinking so hard, he had ended up ordering exactly the same thing as her.

“Why didn’t you just say so earlier?”

Even though Ding Yufei’s request forced Dong Jiaqi to repeat the same task again, she didn’t complain in the slightest. She quickly brought over another glass of juice.

Carrying their drinks, Ding Yufei and Belina walked out onto the suite’s balcony and settled into a pair of reclining chairs, finally preparing to relax properly.

“It’s fine now. You can go,” Ding Yufei said.

He still wasn’t used to having a “babysitter” standing nearby while he and Belina were talking.

“Master... your first meeting instruction session hasn’t been completed yet.”

Dong Jiaqi didn’t dare leave. She stood at the side and spoke softly.

“There’s actually such a thing as a first meeting lecture?” Ding Yufei turned toward Belina.

What he didn’t know was that the first meeting between a master and a slave was usually a painful experience.

It was a lot like a blind date or the first day at work. First impressions mattered enormously. So for masters, the initial meeting was also the perfect opportunity to establish authority.

Not only would masters announce their rules and demands during this meeting, they would also viciously punish the slave several times with psychic waves so the slave would never forget the feeling.

That way, they wouldn’t dare develop rebellious thoughts later.

Dong Jiaqi had been informed about all of this during her training at the slave company, which was why she had been trembling so nervously earlier.

The problem was that Ding Yufei knew nothing about this custom.

As for Belina, although she had encountered slaves before, she had never personally participated in this sort of authority-establishing ritual either.

“No idea.”

But Belina quickly checked through her personal AI assistant, Little Ai, figured out the reason, and explained it to Ding Yufei.

“No need for any instruction session. You can leave,” Belina said to Dong Jiaqi.

But Dong Jiaqi still didn’t dare move. She simply looked toward Ding Yufei nervously.

“What Belina says is the same as what I say. You can go now,” Ding Yufei added.

“Y-Yes, Master.”

Only then did Dong Jiaqi finally move and quietly leave the room.

“About what happened today... I should thank you,” Ding Yufei sighed after she left, leaning back into the chair.

“Thank me for what?” Belina asked.

“If it weren’t for me, you probably wouldn’t have provoked Balk,” Ding Yufei said. “I could tell. If I hadn’t been there, you probably would’ve ignored the whole thing. Then you wouldn’t have clashed with Balk, and that would’ve been better for the purpose of your trip.”

“You mean Balk could affect our kingdom’s negotiations to reclaim the starship?”

“Yeah. Possibly.”

Ding Yufei understood very well that sometimes even the smallest change could completely alter the outcome of something.

“To be honest, the old me probably really wouldn’t have interfered. Especially in an empire where slaves all have clearly marked prices,” Belina admitted after thinking for a moment.

“But I know that during the sword fighter tournament, just watching those two fighters bleed while being unable to save them already made you feel terrible.”

She turned slightly toward him.

“So if two female intimate partner slaves drowned right in front of you this time, you probably wouldn’t have been able to forgive yourself either.”

Then she smiled lightly.

“I don’t want you mentally collapsing over something like that.”

“It wouldn’t go that far,” Ding Yufei said with a bitter smile. “But honestly... I still don’t know whether my way of thinking is right or wrong anymore.”

“Since I was little, I was taught that everyone is equal. That everyone has the right to live. But ever since I entered the universe with you, I’ve seen so many things I never imagined before.”

He fell silent for a while before continuing.

“People can literally be bought and sold with fixed prices. A person’s value is decided from the moment they’re born. Their fate is basically determined from the fertilized egg stage.”

“Yes,” Belina said quietly. “Redemption fees, life capsules, and offerings demanded by masters — those are the three major expenses that bind slaves for their entire lives.”

“If they somehow still manage to save enough money to leave behind a child of their own, then they’re already considered incredibly fortunate.”

“But even then, the child’s fate is usually easy to predict. It won’t be much better.”

She continued calmly:

“Most slaves never really get to choose anything. The only thing they can choose is when to die.”

“So most of them spend their money on entertainment... or maybe it’s more accurate to call it self-numbing.”

Ding Yufei let out a long sigh.

“I was always taught that the strong should protect the weak. But now it feels like the weak only exist because the strong created them to serve their interests.”

“They don’t even have the slightest chance to change their destiny.”

He stared into the distant night sky.

“What I see now is nothing but naked exploitation by the strong against the weak.”

“Sometimes it honestly scares me.”

“Do you think this is Earth’s future too?”

“I don’t know whether this is Earth’s future,” Belina answered softly. “But I don’t think these things exist only in the Resk Empire.”

“During our graduation field study on Earth, didn’t we already see plenty of darkness there too?”

“Organ trafficking. Human smuggling. Aren’t those the same kind of thing?”

“As long as humans exist, exploitation will always exist. So will good and evil.”

She paused briefly.

“And the Resk Empire isn’t the only political system in the universe. You haven’t seen all the nations out there yet, so don’t rush to conclusions.”

“Then why did the Resk Empire become like this?”

“Human greed. Advanced technology. And maybe an extreme obsession with efficiency.”

“You mean the evil in human nature finally defeated the good?” Ding Yufei asked.

“You could say that,” Belina replied. “Or maybe not.”

“What does that mean?”

“With the help of technology, the evil in human nature can be amplified infinitely,” Belina explained.

“To keep a society functioning normally, you basically need the goodness of everyone involved.”

“But because of technological advancement, the evil of a single person might be enough to destroy all of it.”

“The Resk Empire is like that. Earth is no different.”

“Aren’t there already all kinds of crises happening on Earth too?”

“Maybe one day, because of one person or one event, everything there could completely change as well.”